Shane didn’t need to invoke his special connection with Sean to know that he’d found blood.
“How bad is it?” he asked.
“Not bad,” Sean answered evenly. “We have to call this in, Shane.”
Shane heard the words he didn’t say aloud.
This might be a crime scene.
“I know.”
Lacie is fine. She has to be.
“Kieran’s calling in the others.”
We’ll find her, Shane.
Fuck yes we will.
“Maybe there’s something helpful on her cell,” Nicki said, standing. “Sean said you found it inside?”
Shane cursed. He’d been so intent on finding Lacie he’d forgotten about the mobile. He pulled it up and glanced at the display. Twelve missed calls. He pressed a couple of buttons and started scrolling through the list. Four were from him. Six from Corinne. He skipped over those for now. One was from someone named Cindy Sheridan, a brief message concerning a booth they were working on together for the upcoming carnival. And one from Craig Davidson.
That’s the one he listened to first.
Hey, Lacie, it’s Craig. Are you screening or something? Listen, I’m sorry, baby. I know you’re angry with me, but believe me when I tell you I’m only trying to look out for you. You might be all grown up, but in my eyes you’ll always be that skinny little thing with big blue eyes that used to follow me and Bri around all the time.
There was a small chuckle, a brief pause.
I have to head out of town for a bit, gotta help an old friend. But I’m only a phone call away if you need me, hear? And if that bastard so much as causes you a single tear, I’ll take care of him just like I did that bully in first grade that pushed you on the playground and tried to steal your lunch money. Love ya, babe.
Shane exhaled heavily. It was going to be a long night.
* * *
L
acie moaned as the pain started to return with a vengeance.
“Lacie, baby, ssshhh, it’s okay. I’m right here.”
Her mouth felt as though someone had stuffed it full of dry cotton. Every part of her ached, and there was a God-awful pounding in her head that made her stomach roil. With substantial effort she forced her eyelids open. Thank God it was relatively dark; even the soft muted light from the single lamp felt like a blade driving into her eyes. Everything was fuzzy and out-of-focus, but she knew that voice.
“Craig?” she rasped.
Strong hands pushed her back when she tried to sit up. Yes, she knew those hands, too. Hands that didn’t know their own strength.
“Take it easy, babe. Here, sip this.” Craig held a straw to her lips and she did as he commanded. Cool, delicious water eased down her parched throat, and she was sure she had never tasted any better.
“What happened? Where are we?” Was that her voice? They were the words she had formed in her mind with the intention of speaking, but that didn’t sound like her voice at all, and it was so very far away.
The side of the bed lifted slightly as Craig rose to ease another pillow beneath her head so she could swallow easier. Even that small movement made her wince in pain.
“What do you remember?”
Lacie closed her eyes and tried to think. It was like trying to swim through mud. Visions of lightning and thunder burned the insides of her lids, her body shivered, remembering the icy cold rain. “There was a storm...”
“Yes, there was a bad storm,” he confirmed, his tone low and soothing.
Disjointed images appeared briefly in her mind, fading almost as quickly as they appeared. It took a while to piece enough together to make sense of it. Why couldn’t she think?
She remembered a parking lot, sitting in her Passat. A feeling of relief – the teacher’s meeting was finally over – but she was very tired. She was just going to close her eyes for a moment... “I fell asleep, I think,” she mumbled. “In my car. And then it wouldn’t start.”
“Why didn’t you call for help?”
Yes, why hadn’t she? The images jumbled together again; Lacie tried to take a deep breath, but a sharp pain kept her from inhaling too much, effectively disrupting her train of thought and she had to start all over again from the beginning. “I... I couldn’t find it. It wasn’t in my purse.”
Craig lifted the straw to her lips again, encouraging her to take another sip when her voice cracked. “I.... I went to the school, but Charlie didn’t see me. I fell... and then...” Her brows furrowed together as she struggled to recall what happened next. She looked into his face and blinked. “Then you came.” She frowned. “Why were you there?”
Craig placed his hand gently on her arm. “Thank God I found you when I did, Lacie. How do you feel?”
Well, that one was easy enough to answer. “Awful,” she groaned truthfully. If only the terrible pain in her head would let up a little she might be able to think...
“Tell me where it hurts, Lacie.”
“Everywhere...” She tried to do an inventory, she really did. She’d heard once that the body couldn’t process more than one pain at a time, but that was total bull. So many different parts of her were screaming out in agony, all of it jumbling together, her mind incapable of sorting it out. Craig’s outline was blurring again.
“Corinne... I need to call Corinne...”
“Sshhhh, relax,” Craig said quietly. “It’s okay, baby. I’m here and I’m going to take good care of you.”
She mumbled something. It was getting harder to form words again; she could feel the darkness creeping up around her, surrounding her.
“Here. Drink this. It’ll help with the pain.” Craig exchanged the water for the small glass of juice. She didn’t have the strength to fight him. She was tired, and she just wanted the pain to stop. Craig was here, and he would watch over her until she could think straight again, just like when they were kids and that bully had pushed her into the slide and she’d hit her head...
“Can’t ... stay... awake...” she murmured.
“I know. Sleep now, baby. Everything’s going to be alright.”
Craig sat next to her, holding her hand. She could feel it, but she lacked the ability to move. A glorious numbness was beginning to spread through her again, suffocating the horrible pain. She still had so many questions, but it was hard to think past the pain and the fog and the lovely numbness, and her mouth didn’t seem to be working properly.
“Sleep, Lacie. Let the medicine help you.” Whatever he had given her, it was some powerful stuff. No matter how hard she fought it, it was dragging her under. Pretty soon her eyes grew heavy and the pain faded until she was simply floating on the most wonderful cloud. It felt good to relax into it, to let her body settle into the warmth and comfort of the bed and the pillows.
“That’s my girl,” she heard him whisper as she felt his lips touch her forehead. “Pleasant dreams, baby.”
* * *
O
nce he was sure she was asleep, Craig put the rest of the potent meds back in his locked cabinet. It would not do to have her get her hands on these by accident. They’d been dosed for his height and weight – which was substantially more than hers, designed to help him with the terrible pain he still suffered at times. Tonight they would help Lacie. She’d gone out a lot quicker than he’d expected; perhaps even half a dose was still too much for her much smaller frame. Or maybe he should have waited until the other stuff wore off.
“Sweet Lacie,” he murmured, pulling back the blankets he had so hastily wrapped around her in an attempt to stem her shivering. His first priority had been getting her warm. Now that she no longer felt like a bag of ice, he could look toward other things.
Her clothes clung to her, still damp and splattered with mud and blood. He checked again, lifting her eyelids, talking to her, squeezing her hand, ensuring that she was completely out. Lacie would not be pleased with what he was about to do next, but there was nothing for it. She needed care, and he would be the one to provide it.
As he should be.
Craig removed her clothing, piece by piece. He’d known Lacie all her life, yet now his hands were actually trembling. How many times had he touched her, held her over the years? But never like this. Never with so much intimacy, so much reverence.
He sucked in a breath when she finally lay in nothing but her pretty underclothes before him, her normally sun-kissed skin looking pale. It was so soft, so beautiful, except for a couple a bruises, not all of which were caused by her recent fall. Craig scowled at the discolorations around her hips, echoes of fingers that gripped her too roughly in the throes of passion. He gritted his teeth at the telltale red marks in the tender flesh between her neck and her shoulders where that animal had sunk his teeth into her like the rabid beast he was.
He couldn’t dwell on that now, though; Lacie needed him. He forced himself to put all that aside and evaluate her injuries. Her ankle was swollen and already turning an ugly shade of purple, most likely sprained. He’d have to tape that up. The pale pink cast about her hand had been reduced to a soft, pulpy mass that he cut away, section by section. Underneath, her hand was a mottled mess of purple and black, extending down through a wrist that was now swelling quickly as well. Turning her ever so carefully, he saw the blossoming bruise and an ugly gash along her back and winced. Running his hands over her carefully, he concluded that nothing was broken, but she sure was going to hurt like hell for a while and probably need a few stitches. Overall, he was pleased to see that it wasn’t as bad as he had feared.
Now that he had assessed her needs, he felt better. There was nothing here he couldn’t deal with. He had the supplies he needed and enough basic first aid training to care for her, though he would have to monitor her closely. For now, there was no reason to seek help elsewhere, and for that he was glad. It was just another among a series of signs and events, all of which he now believed were nothing less than destiny leading them to this moment.
Lacie was meant to be his. He had always known that, but
she
hadn’t, and life had certainly thrown a few curveballs in the way. Her brother Brian, for one. Brian shouldn’t have warned him off Lacie. They’d been like brothers from the moment Brian stood up for him on the first day of school, when all the other kids were making fun of him because his clothes were old and dirty and not the right size. They could have been real brothers if Brian had just been able to accept the truth.
He hadn’t wanted to leak their location overseas. He still felt bad about that. But he couldn’t take the chance that Brian would continue to try to keep them apart. And he’d paid his debt, hadn’t he? The explosions he’d rigged as a distraction had backfired and nearly taken him out, too.
It was Fate’s way of intervening. And now it was giving him the opportunity to show Lacie the truth, to finally get her to see what had been right there in front of her the whole time. She had made a grave mistake in trusting Shane Callaghan, and in giving herself to him, but Craig would forgive her. He would show her the error of her ways, and she would know who truly loved her.
He ran a warm bath as he pondered the events of the last twenty-four hours. Fate was a funny thing. He had been so out of his mind with jealous rage when he’d viewed that video recording of her and...
him
. Thank God she’d been at work when he saw it, or who knows what he would have done.
God, she made him crazy in a hundred different ways! But he loved her. Loved her so much. And after he’d had a chance to calm down and think through things, he knew that if he was to have her, he would have to be smart about it. The brute force method was accomplishing nothing more than pushing her further into Callaghan’s arms.
He shouldn’t have yelled at her in front of Callaghan. That had been a mistake. But he’d been so angry! If only he’d waited until he’d calmed down and then talked to Lacie, surely she would have seen reason. She never would have done what she did.
It was defiance, he saw that now. A need to prove that she was her own person. He of all people should understand that about her. As sweet as she was, she needed to feel that she had some control over her life. For as long as he could remember, someone was always telling her what to do – her parents, her overprotective brother, her interfering little sister. And, if he was honest, even him sometimes. But only because he loved her.
Unlike other teenagers and young adults, though, Lacie had never rebelled. As the oldest and only boy, Brian had been wild; Corinne got away with everything because she was the baby. But Lacie? She was the good girl, the responsible one. These last few weeks were nothing more than Lacie finally asserting her independence, of flipping everyone the proverbial bird. It was a bit delayed, perhaps, but inherently overdue.
Once he realized that, everything fell into place. He knew then what he had to do. Oh, he wanted to spend a week making Shane Callaghan suffer for what he did, the fucking dog, but he couldn’t blame Lacie. Callaghan was a pro, after all, and Lacie... well, she was not exactly schooled in seduction. It was a well-known fact that good girls were attracted to bad boys, and there was no one better than his sweet, naïve Lacie.
How could she not be taken in by Callaghan’s smooth lines, slick car, and extravagant dates?
He blamed himself, really. He should have been more aware of what was going on, found a way to show Lacie the truth before things got too far. Well, he sighed, what was done was done. And now he was going to make everything right.
Craig tested the water, making sure it wasn’t too hot, mentally chastising himself for not thinking of something bubbly and sweet-smelling to add in. Lacie always smelled so good – her hair, her skin, her clothes. Maybe next time he drove into town for supplies he’d pick up something nice for her to use. Something soft and feminine, just like her. Yeah. She’d like that.
He shut off the water, and set towels within reach of the tub and returned to thoughts of his good fortune. He couldn’t have planned it better, really. Everything had come together so nicely. Lacie’s meeting had run late. Her sister probably thought she was with Callaghan. No doubt Callaghan thought she was with Corinne. Lacie had lost her phone, so neither of them could confirm or deny their theories before it was too late.