Safe (9 page)

“Carly?” he called. “CARLY?”

He crawled over to the cave opening and shined his light inside. There he saw the sole of Carly’s shoe sticking out.

“Oh, my God! Carly,” he yelled as he military-crawled into the cave. It was a small space, only big enough for the two of them. She was lying on her back lifeless. He began to shake her and rub her face. “Carly, wake up,” he begged with a tear rolling down his cheek. He felt for a pulse on her wrist and was relieved to feel a faint one.

Her hand moved suddenly as she let out a loud cough. “Ouch,” she groaned as she reached up for the back of her head. “Oww.”

“It’s okay, Carly. I’m here,” Aidan reassured her as he shined the light onto her head. He could see a mass of dried blood on the back of her head when he turned it. He was thankful that the blood was drying because that meant she probably hadn’t lost too much for it to be dangerous.

“Does anything else hurt other than your head?”

“I’m all scraped up on my hands, but the ugly sweatshirt and jeans I threw on protected my slide down here,” she said with a half hearted smile.

“Now that I know you are okay… What the hell were you thinking running away like that, Carly?” Aidan snapped. He pulled out the first aid kit and set up the spotlight so that he could work on her wounds. “You could have been killed by Cantrell or this long fall you took.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I just heard what sounded like gunshots, and it reminded me of seeing Ethan shoot… I just freaked out,” she said, jumping over and over as he poured peroxide over her cuts.

“If I slide you out of here, can you sit up?” he asked.

“I think so.”

Carefully, he crawled out of the cave and pulled Carly by the feet. Carly slowly sat up with his assistance. Her hands were raw and bloody like hamburger meat. Her head had a gash from hitting a rock on the way down.

“You might need some stitches for this. We’ll have to take you to a hospital,” Aidan said. “You scared me to death.”

“I really am sorry. After I ran, I thought about how you would be worried, but I figured you would want me to do anything I could to get to safety.”

“Carly, don’t you understand that safety isn’t being alone? Safety is with me. I would have done anything to protect you. I tackled Cantrell. He’s in custody. And you were at the bottom of a mountain unconscious in a cave. You can’t keep running away. You have to let someone in,” he said putting his hand on her cheek.

Carly’s stomach churned as she felt the depth of his worry, his emotion. Her heart sank as she thought about how she had hurt him all those years ago as a teenager, and she had done it again tonight. Without thinking, she had ripped his heart apart yet again. She didn’t deserve him. He didn’t deserve the way she was treating him.

“Stemmons?” he called on the radio as he stood up and walked a few feet away from her. “I found her. We are at the bottom of this huge ravine. Can you check the maps and see the quickest way out of here?”

Carly slowly got to her feet. Her head was pounding, and her hands felt like they were on fire.  Rips were scattered across her jeans, and her sweatshirt was covered in dirt and leaves.

“Aidan,” she called out. He was off the radio and standing just about ten feet away. The clouds had passed, and the moonlight was streaming through the trees. She could see his silhouette as he stared out at the forest in front of him.

“You probably shouldn’t be standing, Carly. You hit your head pretty hard,” he said softly as she walked up beside him.

“You can’t trust me, can you?” she asked looking up at him.

Aidan looked down at her for a moment before smiling at her. “You know, you always were dramatic and spontaneous, but tonight really takes the cake,” he said. “I just don’t know what to do with you.”

“You knew what to do with me earlier,” she said with a wink.

“You are such a strong-willed woman. Are you ever going to be able to let me into your heart, Carly?”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“You ran from the feelings between us in high school. Then you married a man that I think, deep down, you knew was trouble waiting to happen. Now, at the first sign of danger, you don’t even trust me as an FBI agent to protect you. How can I take care of you as a man if you won’t let me?” His words were full of pain and angst, as if he was trying to make sense out of nonsense.

Carly had never thought of it that way. Ever since her Dad had left the family, and probably even before that, she had focused on being independent. She didn’t want to count on anyone because she had found that she couldn’t for so long. Now, that independence could cost her.

Before Carly could answer Aidan, Agent Stemmons radioed him to give him instructions for getting out of the mountain. Ironically, a main road that led down from the mountain was only a quarter of a mile away. Carly insisted, of course, that she could walk it.

“Tell me if anything starts to hurt, and I will carry you,” Aidan said as they started out.

“I can walk,” Carly responded.

“Yes, I know, Queen Independent. You could probably skip out of here or hop on one foot.” Aidan was half joking and half serious.

They walked in silence the rest of the way. Carly wasn’t sure where her actions left them. Did they have a relationship? Or was it just a one night stand with an old friend? Was he just trying to relive old fantasies of the two of them being together? She was still married, and that came with a lot of baggage, including an upcoming criminal trial.

When they came to the road, there were two FBI vans waiting for them.

“Mrs. Caine, I am glad you are okay,” Agent Stemmons said without cracking a smile.

“Call me Carly, please.”

“We are ready to take you to the hospital,” he said ushering her into the van. “Aidan, we need you to ride with Agent Evans to give your account of the shooting.”

Aidan looked at Carly before climbing into his van. He stared at her for a moment before turning his head and shutting the door. He wasn’t even coming to the hospital with her? When would she see him again?

***

“Carly? Did you hear me?” Detective Cloud asked.

“What? No, sorry,” she said. Here she was, head stitched and bandaged, sitting in that damn interrogation room yet again.

“I asked why you ran away like you did.”

“Because I heard gunshots and, as you might imagine, I don’t like gunshots. What I want to know is how the hell did Marcus Cantrell know where I was? You guys said this was a safe house, and I wasn’t safe there after a couple of days!”

“We are looking into that, Carly. It appears he had an insider within the force. I am really sorry.”

“Sorry? Gee, thanks.” Carly was angry, but not really at Detective Cloud. She was angry at herself for alienating Aidan yet again. Since he found her in the cave, his personality seemed to change. He appeared distant, as if he was preparing to walk away from her this time.

“It actually turned out to be a good thing. He was lured there at the prospect of finding you, but he wasn’t prepared for the deluge of FBI agents.” Detective Cloud appeared to be pretty happy with himself.

“Yeah, great…”

“Carly, you are safe now. You can go home and wait for trial. Of course, that could be months,” he said looking down at his paperwork.

“Safe… I don’t feel so safe,” she mumbled.

***

Three weeks passed as Carly got back to her normal life. She realized after leaving the precinct that she did not have Aidan’s email address or phone number. She had no way of contacting him even if she wanted to, and maybe that was a good thing.

Her cell phone was mailed back to her by the FBI. After coming home to her empty house, full of memories of her murdering husband, Carly decided to move. She was able to get an apartment in Atlanta near her work, which is what she immersed herself in as she tried to regain a sense of normalcy.

But, things weren’t normal. One night with Aidan had brought up a lifetime of feelings. She knew what she was missing now, and it felt like her heart was carved up into a million little pieces. She wondered if he ached for her like she ached for him.

The promise of a real love, a true soul mate, was almost too much to bear. Where had she gone wrong? Somewhere between having his warm body pressed against hers and rolling down a mountainside, she had managed to screw up the one good thing she’d ever had.

“Hello?” Carly said as she answered her phone.

“Carly! Oh, my God. Are you okay?” Zinnia’s screeching voice made her brain hurt.

“I’m fine. Really,” she said, trying to convince herself more than anything else.

“I heard all about this on Facebook, and I couldn’t reach you on your cell.”

“The FBI had it,” Carly said.

“Actually, Aidan had it. I talked to him a few days ago,” she said with a smile that Carly could hear through the phone.

“You talked to Aidan?” Carly was shocked to hear that her two best friends from high school had talked on the phone.

“Yep. He is still such a sweetie. I don’t know why you never hooked up with him,” she said flippantly.

“Well?”

“Well what?” Zinnia asked.

Carly proceeded to tell her the details, clean and dirty, of what happened at the cabin and afterward. Zinnia was shocked.

“So, when are you going out with him?” Zinnia asked.

“Going out with him? I haven’t even talked to him. I think he’s done with me.”

“Are you done with him, though?” Zinnia asked.

“I don’t want to be,” Carly said after thinking for a moment. “But I also don’t want to hurt him.”

“Why would you hurt him?” Zinnia asked.

“I don’t mean to, Zinnia, but I seem to do it every time. He’s such a good person, and maybe I don’t deserve him.”

“Well, if you want to know my unbiased opinion - and you know you do - it’s your turn to show him that you care. Don’t expect him to come running back to you. He’s a man with pride, Carly. Go to him. Let him keep his dignity.”

Carly knew that Zinnia was right about what she was saying, but she also worried that she wasn’t the right person for Aidan. What if she made his life miserable?

***

The next few weeks were filled with legal proceedings, depositions and divorce paperwork. Carly wanted to be done with Ethan, but she knew that their lives would be forever intermingled in the press and in the court room.

Marcus Cantrell pleaded guilty to attempted murder, and Carly faced him down in the court room. The look in his eyes was one of avoidance and sorrow over what he’d done. Unlike Ethan, he didn’t have money and power. He had agreed to kill Carly for one reason:  his home was in foreclosure and his wife was threatening to leave him. Ethan had offer ten thousand dollars to kill Carly, and Marcus was so distraught that he saw no way out.

Carly kept expecting to see Aidan in court, but he never showed up. The other agents on the scene spoke for the FBI when Marcus pleaded guilty. Was he avoiding her? Had he moved on? Carly wasn’t convinced that Aidan shouldn’t move on. In her mind, she was nothing but trouble to him anyway.

Aidan had spent the last few weeks trying to shake Carly from his mind. He had let himself get too close yet again, even ending up in her bed. Now, he was paying the price for his inability to leave her alone. So, that was just what he was going to do - leave her alone.