Little White Lies (27 page)

“Ma’am,” one EMT said, “I need you to step aside.”

Charley didn’t move. Fresh bruises appeared across his temples, along his naked shoulders and down his chest. Bland left him with only his boxers. She wanted to rub the black and blue away, but her hands shook with terror of the unknown.

She leaned her face to Wyatt’s and rubbed his hair and his cheeks. “Oh god, Wyatt! I’m so sorry.” Charley kissed his forehead.

“Ma’am? We’ve got to get him to the hospital.” The EMT signaled to lift, and the two of them did, flanked by two of the three agents.

Charley stood, stunned, fixed to her spot as they exited through the open door.

A third agent turned to her. “Charley Randall?” He tucked a pad of paper into his pocket.

She nodded, though tears fell with free abandon.

“I’m Agent Timms.” He held out a hand, but Charley couldn’t pull hers up to shake it. “Your team did a fantastic job tonight. They’ve secured your abductors and—”

He rambled on while Wyatt disappeared, head first inside the ambulance. The EMTs moved in slow motion. The lights swirled around, hypnotizing Charley.

“We’ll take the four into custody, and they’ll be charged—”

Charley did not register his recitation of their intentions.

“He’ll be fine, ma’am,” Agent Timms finished, and Charley turned toward him.

“You don’t know that.” Her tears burned as they ran down her cheeks. “And someone is going to have to answer to me.”

She stalked back into the house. Two officers held both of Julie’s sisters in handcuffs as they pushed them forward and out the door. Detective Bland stood in the hallway, one officer and James on either side of him, his hands cuffed behind his back.

Bland grinned.

“Keep those cuffs extremely tight. It won’t hurt,” she said to one officer. James may have already told him, but Charley wanted to be sure. “It’s the only way to prevent him from getting out of them. Apply pressure here.” She pointed to her own wrists. The officer’s eyes grew wide, but he moved to tighten the cuffs further.

Charley stepped right into Bland’s face. “Got anything to say for yourself, given you are a law enforcement professional?”

His cocky stance added to her fury. “Nope. I know my Miranda rights.”

“Good answer.” Charley swung with all her energy from the right.

Her fist connected with his nose just as she’d intended. Blood spurted as he fell to his knees, and the officer behind him let go. Bland’s face smacked into the floor with a thud.

“Whoops,” James said with a grin. “Guess he slipped.”

As they picked him up, Charley let a devil of a smile loose. “You’re a sorry excuse for a police officer and one of our kind.”

He spit blood at the floor. “Me?” Blood oozed from his nose as he shook his head and stood again. “It’s you guys that are the freaks, living together up there on that hill.”

Charley turned away from him.
Next up … Julie.

She marched back through the house, made as much noise as she could as her feet pounded on the floor. At the door, she met another officer, but he stepped aside as Charley arrived.

Maggie nodded her head, dressed again in her jeans and T-shirt. “Princess there doesn’t want to get down. She’s afraid of wee little mice.” Maggie snickered as she stood inside the office, thumbs tucked in her pockets. “Someone’s got to get her. Shall I turn into a bird?” Maggie laughed.

“Not necessary.” Charley stepped into one of the unused guest chairs. That gave her a foot to Julie’s three on the desk. “You can either come down, or I will bring you down myself. And I’ll be just as nice to you as Bland was to Lily and me.”

“I had Barney Fife out there wait for you.” Maggie nodded toward Charley.

Julie turned her chin over her shoulder. “I’ll go with an officer of my choice.”

“Okay,” Charley said. “Officer? Would you please come and arrest this woman?”

He stepped into the room. “C’mon down ma’am, I’ll see to it that you’re taken care of.” He waved her down.

Julie stepped across the desk, to its edge, and hopped down.

Charley did the same off the chair. When Julie moved, Charley moved. As Julie got closer to the officer, Charley blocked her path.

“Did you really think it would be that easy?” Charley asked.

“Yes, because my husband is a Detective, and he’ll have it all taken care of.”

“Not this time.” Charley shook her head. “I hope you like orange because that’s about all you’ll be wearing. You know? It won’t be pretty enough attire for my and Wyatt’s wedding. Shame, but I’ll be sure to send you an announcement. Might even send a piece of cake, though the guards will probably eat it themselves to make sure I didn’t slip a shiv in it. You know what the best part of this is? In a few hours, I’ll have Wyatt and I’ll remember everything you’ve done.”

“What?” Julie’s bug-eyed response meant Bland hadn’t quite explained the entire process—the ‘what if Julie failed’ part.

“Yup, and I’ll be sure to attend every one of your parole hearings.” Charley turned away from Julie. “Let’s go, Maggie. I need to be with Wyatt.”

• • •

On the ride in, Charley barraged Maggie with questions on how they’d found them and filled Maggie in on what she’d learned. Everyone owed Wyatt more than the money they’d bet against him.

It’d taken four years, but Julie snagged Detective Bland in Florida. She’d planned to kidnap Charley, but her sisters botched the job and took Sophie instead. It had taken them the entire week to come up with an answer on using Chase. When he got away, they had to come up with yet another. Charley and Wyatt’s reunion had turned into the perfect solution.

Julie’s sisters had copped to the entire plan, right down to the small details, errors, even Julie and Bland. Maggie had guessed right with her second theory that no one wanted to listen to: Bland had mimicked Wyatt.

It had been Detective Bland’s decision to drug and beat Wyatt senseless—Julie’s ultimate plan had been to force Charley to shift on her birthday and thus forget Wyatt before they had a chance to reconnect.

After more than thirty minutes, Maggie pulled up to the Emergency Room entrance. The doors slid open as Charley ran into their line of sight. She slammed her arm into one as she rushed through faster than it responded. The sting didn’t come close to the pain in her heart.

She slid on the slick surface of the ER floor as she ran from the doors to the reception desk. “I’m looking for Wyatt Moreland and Lily Crane.” Charley’s chest heaved as she breathed too fast, her mind whirling with everything that had happened.

A mature receptionist, ‘Terri’ by her name tag, had probably gotten used to the crazy family members who rushed to the side of their loved ones. “Take a breather there, honey.” She peered at the computer over her reading glasses. “Now, have they been admitted?”

“I don’t know.” With a little more force than necessary, Charley’s hands clenched the edge of the counter.

“Moreland,” Terri said. “Moreland.”

Before Terri could locate Wyatt’s status, James peeked through doors marked ‘Authorized Personnel Only’. Charley whipped out a quick “thank you” to Terri and jogged to him.

“Where is he? Where is Wyatt?” She hung on James’s shirt.

James took her wrist. “He’s back here with Lily.” He pulled Charley through the double-door entrance.

Curtains and closed doors lined the hallway as doctors in white coats and nurses in colorful uniforms walked in and out, between and around the rooms. Lab technicians pushed carts and walked with brisk purpose. James pulled her to the fourth room. As he reached it, he turned to look at her but didn’t say anything and opened the door to let her pass before him.

The occupants lay concealed behind curtains. “We got them in the same room.” James smiled at Charley as she turned toward his voice.

Charley pulled back the first curtain by a few inches. Lily lay in the bed, curled up under starched white sheets and cotton blankets. A monitor followed her vital signs as Cael sat in the chair next to her.

He twisted toward the interruption when Charley peeked in. “She’s fine,” he whispered, “just sleeping.”

Charley nodded to him in acknowledgement and stepped forward to the second curtain. With one finger, she pushed it apart just enough to peer in. Wyatt sat on the edge of the bed, pulling wires off his chest. Monitors began to bleep and blare, echo and bounce off the walls of the tiny space.

“I don’t think you’re supposed to be doing that,” Charley said over the noise.

She snuck through the rest of the way.

He stopped, his expressions so full of love it rained on Charley like spring droplets in the sunshine. A new beginning lay before them, its path free of obstructions. Before she could move, the door to the room banged open, and a nurse and a technician rushed in. They yanked the curtain around the bed and stopped.

The nurse shook her head as she rushed to the spot where Charley had stood. “Sir, we need to keep the monitors on you for a little while.” She pushed him back to the bed as the technician pressed the alarm buttons and quieted the blare.

“Told ya.” Charley’s voice hitched.

Wyatt held out his arms, and she rushed forward, ignoring the tech and the nurse, and wound her arms around his neck, leaning her body against his. Tears of pain mixed with joy fell like a deluge from her eyes; she cried a year’s worth in a minute. When her hitches faded, she pulled herself from Wyatt, but only by an inch.

“Ma’am?” the nurse said.

Charley turned to her.

“We really need to get these back on him,” she said.

“Oh, yeah, okay.” Charley stood to Wyatt’s side, his hand in hers. The nurse reapplied the pads to his battered chest and reconnected the wires to the monitor.

“I was coming to find you.” He let his head rest against the pillow again.

“I could see that.” She wiped a hand under her nose with a laugh.

“Ma’am?” the nurse asked.

Charley looked to her again.

“Are you his wife?” she asked.

Charley looked to Wyatt.

“As good as,” he said.

The nurse hesitated a moment as if in consideration. “He’s been a downright disaster since he regained consciousness. I know it’s late, or early, depending on your perspective, but can you make sure he remains on this bed until all our testing is done and his doctor clears him to move about?”

Charley hiked one leg and slid it onto Wyatt’s bed. He shifted to the side as she brought the other one up and snuggled into his side, reclined her head on his shoulder.

“You can count on me.” She closed her eyes.

Epilogue

As day turned to night and black replaced blue, the ocean turned a satiny azure. The sun sank behind them as the ocean surf beat against the sand. Charley stood at the rail of the beach house, the wind whipping through her curls and the silk robe she wore but hadn’t tied. Behind her, Wyatt rained kisses along her neck.

“The sunset’s effect on the ocean is beautiful. Why don’t you watch it?” Charley giggled as Wyatt continued to lay his lips along her skin, following a path from her ear, down her shoulder.

With his hand, he stretched out her arm and continued to the tip of her finger.

“Naked with an ocean view. Can’t get more beautiful.” Wyatt returned to her neck.

She lifted a hand behind her and rested it against Wyatt’s head. His lips remained in place, but his hands ran the length of her body. She smiled at his moan and the pressure he added from behind.

“Are you sure you can handle me?” she asked.

His hands caressed her like one would a cat—fingers tickled and massaged, rubbed and pulled. “I can if you can handle me.”

“There’s one last thing,” she said.

Wyatt groaned but continued his sensual exploration of her skin.

“I told you before that this is it for me—the last time. My body will hold this shape after midnight, and that’ll be it. But—”

“There’s a but? I kinda liked the eighteen thing you had going on this morning. It suited you.”

Charley nudged him. “I’m going to be thirty-three, Wyatt. Remember? We agreed. One year younger. It’s pretty much permanent now. Will be in another few hours.”

“And you’ll remember everything, right?”

“Yes, but only if you stay with me. You’re the key to that. You know how a smell can bring about a memory from years ago? One you’d even forgotten? You’ll be like that for me.”

Charley turned in his arms and leaned against the rail. She ran her hands down his face, across his battered chest, and trailed her fingertips down his abs until she brought them back up and wound them around his neck again. She cocked her head to one side as Wyatt mirrored her in the opposite.

He leaned toward her and kissed her with the undying passion of three lifetimes about to merge into one.

“So we stay together and you remember everything. We don’t and you’re a flower in a vase with no water?”

“Yup.” Charley giggled at his metaphor. “I’m well prepared for it if you think I’m too much for you.”

“Ah. James and Cael. I get it now. That’s why you guys live together.”

Charley nodded. They worked and lived as a team so they could take care of each other. Charley found herself at a final point in a journey that most never reached. The choice she desired most looked into her eyes as if he were as much in love with her as she him.

“So what do you want?” He nibbled at her throat.

“I never want a single wrinkle or gray hair, though those will come.” She laughed at herself. “As for the final look, I don’t know. I liked Mira.”

“I like you,” he said, “just the way you are. I think I said that before. But I’m okay with thirty-three. Don’t want people thinking I’m cheating on my wife.”

Charley laughed and pulled away from him. “Are you sure? Because this is your last chance, too. Once midnight passes, there’s no turning back. Not just on my looks. You try and jilt me, James and Cael will hunt you down, dispose of your body and call it an accident.”

Wyatt didn’t even flinch. “I love you, Charley Randall. I have since the first day I met you.”

Charley smiled against his lips. “I love you, Wyatt Moreland. And I’ve loved you longer.” She tapped him on the nose.

Wyatt kissed her again. “And if you decide I’m not worth keeping around?” He smiled against her.

“You’ve always been worth that. I tried to push you away three times before, but I never forgot you or stopped loving you. The type of love changed each time as you grew and matured, but it never died. I wanted you to have everything in life and didn’t think I could be a part of it. I fought it every step of the way. Of course, you wouldn’t remember all that, just my time as Mira.”

“No?” Wyatt cocked one eyebrow. “What about the lullaby?”

Charley’s surprise came in the form of a smile and a quick shake of her head. “How—”

“I hear it in my dreams. Took me a while to figure out what it was, but you hummed it at the hospital.”

Charley laid her head on his chest and sighed. “So, sometime, early summer, we make it official and formal? Lily thinks she can plan the whole thing right down to the last detail and bake the cake, dress the tables, design the flowers—all of it.” Charley rolled her eyes at the thought, but tornado Lily would do it justice.

“I think I can handle that.” Wyatt rubbed his nose against hers.

Charley laughed, a deep, happy, love-infused sound that reflected her true desires. “It’s a deal, then. Happy Birthday, Wyatt.”

“Happy Birthday, Charley.”