Witness Protection (The Witness Series) (24 page)

“Aw, stop it.”

“I love you, truly.”

“Me too.”

“And I forg
ive you, but I do want to know
why?”

“Janelle?”

“
Hmmmm
.”

“I don’t know.
Ryder mostly.
It was a few years back and I was young, and so mad about him. It was my way of getting near him, when he suggested it, I thought what the heck? Janelle was beautiful and I didn’t dislike women.”

I stiffen and he strokes my hair. “Don’t stiffen.”

“You thought she was beautiful?”

“Look, I am not going to sugar coat this for you sweetheart, I know you want me to but I won’t. Janelle is a beautiful woman, she and Ryder had certain tastes and they trusted me. I did it, it went on for a while and then Ryder stopped it.”

“Did you care for her Nate?”

“I cared about him more.”

“Is she the only woman you have been with?”

“No, I was with women when I was younger before I knew what I felt about men.”

“And…did you and Ryder
?”

“No
, we
didn’t touch each other during.”

“Then how?”

“Can we not do details?”

“Please?”

“Janelle would suck, Ryder would fuck. That is as much as I am giving. Sometimes it was the other way around.”

“Oh.”

“See now you have tensed up again.”

“It’s ok. I just can’t imagine the two people I love most in the world, being with…her.”

“You know what though? We are with you
now,
I love you to death and so does Ryder. Maybe we don ‘t
do
the things they did but we have something better, we have a connection, a bond and it runs deep.”

“I guess you’re
right.” I whisper.

“I know I’m right. I never loved Janelle, I love you.”

“You wouldn’t sleep with me though.”

“No, I wouldn’t because I respect you. I never had anything outside the bedroom with Janelle, with you I do. You are my best friend and a huge part of my life now, I would never risk that.”

I nod and snuggle
closer,
Ryder comes back with coffee and sets it down.

“You are going to have to pass over cuddle duty one day Nate, she is mine.”

Nate laughs and slides out of the bed, kissing my head. “Yeah, she is. I have a little part of her though.”

I smile at him.
“More than a little.”

“I am going to see how the other two are going, ok?”

“Ok.”

The doctor comes in an hour later and goes over my injuries with me. Three broken ribs, three stitches in my face, a broken foot and a
gunshot
wound
oh and
apparently
I nearly slit my own wrists getting the
rope
off
. I didn’t care about my own injuries
though,
I only cared about Sandy and Amy. He told me how they are going and that they are both stable. It was more than a great relief.

“We got something special for you, doc can I take her now?” Ryder asks.

“Sure, go easy though.”

Ryder puts me in a wheel chair and pushes me down the hall. I guess right away we are g
oing to see Sandy, makes sense. When we enter a large hospital room, my tears begin flowing rapidly down my cheeks. We aren’t in Sandy’s room, we are in Amy’s. Her family is gathered around and she is propped up in her bed. She has colour in her cheeks, and her eyes are brighter. I sob stupidly as Ryder pushes me over to the bed.

“Hi.” She croaks, tears forming in her own eyes.

“Amy.” I take her hand and press it to my cheek.

“I wanted to see you, to thank you. Without you Maya, I would be dead.”

I tremble and Ryder strokes my back.

“Thank you.” She whispers, taking my face and pressing her cheek to mine.

I pull back and swipe my
tears,
I see a woman and man walking over. By their stunning good looks, I guess they are Amy’s parents. The woman is sobbing, and kneels before me, gripping my hands.

“Thank
you,
I can’t express how grateful I am. You saved my
daughter’s
life, thank you.”

I start crying again. Dammit.

“I…”

“You are an
angel,
we are forever in your debt.” The man says.

“I…”

“She is grateful.” Ryder says for me, stroking my hair.

I turn back to Amy, giving her a weak smile. “How…how are you?”

“The doctors say I should make a full recovery.
Thanks to you.”

“I did nothing.”

“You stopped the bleeding by tying your shirt to me. You carried me six miles and saved my life.”

“I…”

She hugs me again. When she pulls back, she is smiling.

“So, who’s the hotty?”

I snort a ragged laugh and look at Ryder.

“This is Ryder.”

“Ryder…hi Ryder.”

He grins.
“Nice to meet you Amy.”

“Is he taken?”

He laughs and so do I.

“I am afraid he is,” I say meeting Ryder’s eyes. “He is mine.”

He grins and strokes my cheek. “Damn right.”

“Well damn, all the good ones are taken.”

Nate walks in then, smiling at us all and he is pushing Sandy in a wheel chair.

“OH!” I cry, as Ryder pushes me quickly forward.

I pull Sandy into my arms and begin sobbing once more. She cries just as much to me and clings to my body with desperation.

“I love you, I love you.” She wails.

“Oh my baby sister, let me look at you.”

I pull back and touch her, making sure she is ok.

“I am ok.” She whispers.

“Oh,
God
.”

“We should let Amy get some rest, come on.” Ryder says.

“Bye Amy, I am going to come back later.” I say, waving to her.

“Bye.”

We leave and I spend a few hours with Sandy in her room, by the time I get back to mine I am exhausted. Ryder lifts me and puts me into bed, then sits next to me.

“Ryder?”

“Yeah baby.”

“Your…daughter, how old is she?”

“Nearly two.”

“When did you see Janelle last?”

“I kept in contact with Janelle in and out but didn’t hear from her for a year.”

“Oh, so you didn’t know.”

“No, the dates add up though.”

“Do you have a picture?”

He eyes mine
.

“Ryder
please
?”

“Alright.”

He hands me the phone and I glance down at the screen, I want to gasp but I keep it under wraps. What the fuck? That child, that beautiful little girl is the dead ringer…oh no…oh no. I hand the phone back and force a smile.

“She is beautiful.”

“Yeah.”

“W-w-where does she get her beautiful eyes?”

“My mother had brown eyes, must have travelled down a generation.”

“You have your
father’s
eyes.”

“Yeah.”

I nod and swallow, how do I tell him? How do I break this? I need a minute.

“I am going to rest now, go home Ryder, get changed and have a rest.”

“Nah, I am ok.”

“Ryder, please? You look horrible.”

“Thanks baby.”

I smile. “I will be ok.”

“Alright but I won’t be long.”

“Ok.”

He kisses me long and soft before walking out. When he is gone, I get into my wheel chair with great difficulty and wheel down to Sandy’s room. When I get in she is glancing down at her phone, she looks over and beams.

“You are back already.”

“I have a problem.”

“Oh?”

I wheel over to her and hand her my phone, I had quickly forwarded the picture to my phone from Ryder’s before he left.

“Oh, who is that?”

“That is Ryder’s daughter.”

“That child looks…”

“Like Nate.”

She stares up at me.
“Oh my
God
.”

“I know, and he can’t see it. Clearly Nate hasn’t seen the child or he would know
,
anyone should see that child is a spitting image of Nate. That’s why Janelle was sneaking Ryder away to see her, because she knew if anyone else saw they would know.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. I can’t be the one to tell him, it will break his heart.”

“He needs to know Maya, he deserves that.”

“I know, but he will be mad and I am afraid he will be mad at me.”

“Maybe, but it isn’t fair for him to fall in love with a child that isn’t his and it isn’t fair for Nate to not know.”

“I…”

“This might be Nate’s only chance of ever being a father you know, you have to tell him.”

“Ok, ok, I will.”

I go over more details with Sandy then wheel back to my room, trembling. I pull out my phone and text Ryder.

Can we
talk.
X

Yeah, I am on my way back. Is everything ok?

I don’t know.

Ryder gets in ten minutes later looking a lot better, good he might need it.
He looks worried and comes rushing over.

“What is wrong, your message worried me.”

“Sit.”

“What is it, if you are breaking up with me…
”

“Ryder,
it’s
about Jasmine.”

His face pales. “Is she ok, did you see Janelle in here?”

“She is fine, as far as I know. Look, I don’t want to be the one that has to do this, because likely you will hate me for it but I can’t sit back and let you…feel something when it may break your heart down the track.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You really can’t see it? You have looked at Jasmine many times and it never clicked?”

“What?” He snaps.

“She is a dead ringer for Nate.”

His face pales even more and he shakes his head. He yanks out his phone and stares down at a picture, for long, long moments. Then he stands, and begins walking out.

“Ryder!”

He turns. “Did you do this on purpose?”

“What?”

“Tell me, because you couldn’t stand that Janelle and I had something in common. Did you want to hurt me?”

“I know you are going to blame me, and you can go right ahead. I did it because as soon as I saw that picture, I saw Nate and you had a right to know, so does he.”

“She could be mine!”

“Maybe, but she could be his too and you know it.”

“Well, I hope you are fucking happy!” He snarls and then storms out.

“RYDER!”

He doesn’t come back in. I feel a fresh burst of tears stream down my cheeks. I know he is angry and lashing out at me, but he had to know. Nate comes in an hour or so later, to find me curled up and staring out the window.

“Hey.” He whispers.

I turn and look at him, his eyes are glassy.

“Oh Nate.”

He walks in and sits on the bed, taking my hand.

“I never…I don’t know what to think.”

“What happened?”

“Ryder called me, telling me to meet him at
Janelle’s
. I went in and he confronted her, just like that. She stumbled but
admit
that the child was mine. One
look
at her and I knew, so did Ryder. I don’t know why he didn’t see it before.”

“Oh.”

“He stormed off after breaking half the house, I can’t find him.”

I feel panic wash through me. “He is mad at
me,
I was the one who noticed it.”

“You did the right thing, not just for him but for me. I will likely never have a chance to have a child and she is beautiful, oh Maya she is beautiful.”

I
swallow,
my throat is dry and scratchy. “She is. I am happy for you Nate.”

“Janelle agreed to let me see her often, I think she was trapping Ryder because she still wants him and it was working, but when it all crashed I think she knew Jasmine needed a father and so she accepted my offer to help her out.”