Bound (27 page)

“Sounds good, man.” I stood and faced the nurse. “Is Kate here yet? My assistant?”

“Not that I know of,” she said.

“I need to go check at the front desk. I called her more than an hour ago to bring my checkbook so I can pay for the video game stuff, and she should’ve been here by now.”

It was maybe a 20 minute drive from the apartment to the hospital, 30 in heavy traffic. I glanced at my watch and saw that an hour and a half had passed since I’d called Kate.
Where the hell was she?

“I’ll be right with you, Deac,” I said, heading for the big desk full of nurses.

“Has Kate Camden been here with my checkbook?” She’d never drop if off with someone else and just leave, but I needed to ask before I panicked.

The nurses looked around at each other, all shaking their heads. I grabbed my cell phone and dialed Kate. No answer. I didn’t have the patience to leave a message, so I hung up and dialed Mimi.

“Hello?”

“Where’s Kate?”

“Uh . . . isn’t she with you? She left a while ago with your checkbook.”

I went straight to a hallway, where I could walk. I needed to move right now. “No, she never got here.”

“Do you want me to call her?”

“I tried. What did she say when she left the apartment?”

“That you needed the checkbook and she’d be back when she was done.”

I closed my eyes, my heart pounding like I’d just run a marathon. “Maybe she went somewhere else first.”

“That’s not like Kate,” Mimi said. “She left here a little after ten.”

The worry in her tone made me want to jump out of my skin. “Okay,” I said. “I guess I’ll wait a little longer.”

We hung up, but I couldn’t wait after all. I found an empty waiting room and sat down in a padded chair to look up the number for the police department. A woman answered and passed me to another woman who put me on hold. I bounded back up from the chair and walked a path around the furniture in the room. I’d been around the loop twice when a woman’s voice finally came on the line.

“Can I help you?”

“I’m looking for my . . .” Assistant? “. . . girlfriend. She was supposed to meet me an hour ago and she never arrived.”

“Sir, we don’t file missing person reports after just an hour.” Her sympathetic tone
had a hint of
what the hell is wrong with you
, and I blew out a disgusted breath.

“Look, it’s not like her,” I said. “I’m worried. Can you just look and see if anything’s come in about her?”

She hesitated, and I shook my head, not feeling the least bit guilty about the card I was about to play to get something for the first time ever. “Listen, do you like hockey?”

“Sir, I have other calls coming in. I can transfer you to a sergeant on duty if you’d like.”

“Sure, yeah,” I said, sinking into a chair again.

Several rings followed by the beep of voicemail made me want to punch something. Anything. Instead I
hung up and pressed the name of the only person I knew could help me.

“Ryke,”
my team owner Jean Naughton said, her tone crisp. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I need your help. Kate was supposed to meet me at the children’s hospital more than an hour ago and she never showed. I can’t get the police to help me over the phone. Find out if she was in an accident or something, okay? Kate Camden.”

“Sure.” With a click, she was gone.

I took a deep breath and headed for the doorway. For now, I’d have to ignore the worry that had a chokehold on me. I had to
go enjoy a hospital lunch with Deacon. Or at least do a damn good job at pretending.

***

We hadn’t even made it to the tapioca pudding when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I said a silent prayer that it was Kate.

But it was Jean’s name on my screen.

“I’ll be right back, okay?” I said to Deacon. He’d overcome his shyness and was telling me about his favorite alien TV show.

“Yeah?”
I said into the phone.

“Where are you?” Jean asked.

“Where am I? At St. Mary’s Hospital, why? What did you find out about Kate?”

“She was in a car accident, Ryke. She was taken to the same hospital you’re at. Go down to the emergency room.”

The sick, lightheaded sensation I had was horribly familiar. “Is she okay?”

“I don’t know. Get down there.”

I hung up and stumbled toward the desk, muttering an apology to a nurse there for Deacon. This couldn’t be happening to me again. It should’ve been statistically impossible. Not again.

The elevator wasn’t even an option. I had to move. Standing still would allow the weight pressing against my chest to crush me. I shoved the stairwell door open and ran down the five flights of stairs, searching frantically for a sign that would lead me to the emergency room.

I had to get to her. Every second felt like an hour as I rushed past people, stretchers and anything else that got in my way. Nothing was keeping me away from Kate. If she was hurt, I needed to be with her. And if it was worse . . . I couldn’t even allow the thought to form in my mind. I prayed silently again, hoping God still listened to people who rarely came to Him. I couldn’t lose Kate. Not now. Not like this.

***

Kate

I looked down at my foot, wondering when I’d started tapping it to the rhythmic
beep beep beep
of a machine in the room.

“Okay!” a perky nurse exclaimed as she flew into the room and
glanced at the machines, grinning. “Everything’s looking real good, Kate.”

“Look, I need to go upstairs,” I said. “I was supposed to meet someone here, and I haven’t been able to call him and he’
s probably worried sick.”

“You can’t leave quite yet, dear.”
Her eyes were wrinkled at the corners, probably from the nonstop smiling.

“At least send up a message. I asked someone when I got here and they blew me off.”

“I’ll see what I can—”

“Shh,” I said, straining to see if I was hearing what I thought I was.

“Kate!” It sounded like . . . “Kate!” The booming voice was Ryke’s, and I slid out of the bed and rushed to the curtain that stood for a door here.

“Ryke!” I yelled. “I’m here!”

The happy nurse grabbed my shoulders. “Oh, no you don’t. Back into bed.”

“Let go! Ryke!”

“Kate, is that you?” He’d heard me, and he was close.

I gave the nurse my best threatening glare. “You need to let go. I’m going out there.”

“I’ll get him for you. Lay down.”

I wrestled out of her hold, her fingers still grasping at my hospital gown when I pushed through the curtain into the hallway.

“Kate!” Ryke’s voice was a deep wail, and I’d only caught a glimpse of him when he collapsed to his knees at my feet, pressing his face against my chest and wrapping his arms around my back.

“I’m okay,” I said, running my fingers over his dark, tousled hair. “I’m fine. It’s okay.”

His heavy breathing against me started to slow, and he tipped his face up to look at me. “I found out you were in an accident and I thought . . .” His voice cracked and I realized in that moment that he owned me. No other man would have a chance at my heart now that this dark, beautiful man had found a way in.

I reached for his cheeks, cupping them in my hands. “I’m okay,” I said softly. “I’m so sorry I didn’t call. After the lady hit me, I was knocked out for just a bit, and I was out of my car when I woke up and I didn’t think to get my purse
when the ambulance came. I don’t know anyone’s phone number, they’re all in my phone.”

“It’s okay. You’re okay.” His gaze wandered up to the large knot on my forehead.

My fingers fluttered up to touch it. “It’s nothing.”

“I love you. I don’t know why I haven’t told you yet. But I do, Kate.
” His husky tone was as full of emotion as the words.

I leaned down, pausing just as our lips were about to meet. “I love you, too.” His arms tightened around me, pressing every inch of us together. He was warm and strong and so impossibly easy to love. And he was mine.

I’d just felt the brush of his lips when a woman’s voice made me turn.

“Girl, you know your ass is showin’, right?”

Ryke’s eyes widened as I frantically reached behind myself and realized for the first time that my back was completely exposed. It had come untied when the nurse pulled on it, but I hadn’t even noticed the air on my bare back. Ryke had a way of making me unaware of anything but him.

“Shit!” I said, flailing for the gown’s ties as bystanders snickered. Ryke stood and pulled the gown closed for me with a slight smirk.

He hustled me back through the curtain, where I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Next time try to have my back,” I said.

“There better not be a next time you get into an accident.” He sighed and rubbed a hand down his face.

“Are we officially a couple now? Like, do I need to stop sleeping with other people?”

“Fuck that shit,” he said, his eyes darkening ominously. “Are you kidding me?”

“Of course I am.” I rolled my eyes. “That was just my sarcastic effort at finding out whether I need to change my Facebook status.”

“You’d better,” he said, reaching around my waist and leaning his face toward mine. “And even though I’m not ready to get engaged or anything—”

“I wasn’t even thinking that!” I cried. “We’ve only known each other a few months! I just want to know if you’re my boyfriend.”

“Yeah.” His grin faded as we stared at each other. “But you should know, I want that.”

I knew I was gaping at him, but damned if I could help it. “To get married someday?” 

“To marry
you
someday. And hopefully have a family.”

Apprehension hit me like a slap in the face. Getting pregnant? I wasn’t sure I could.
Like, literally.“But I don’t─”

He pressed a finger to my lips. “Whatever that means,” he said. “It might mean we try to get pregnant, or maybe a surrogate or adoption. It’ll be up to you. I just want to know if you want kids like I do.
”

I recalled holding Lexi’s son, so light and soft and perfect in my arms. I hadn’t been sure if I wanted kids until that moment. “I do. Someday.”

Ryke’s grin was jubilant. He gave me a soft, quick kiss that made me want more of him.

“I need to find a real job,” I said when we parted.

“What for?” he asked, his brows furrowed.

“Won’t it be weird if we’re together and you’re my boss?”

He shook his head, disbelief etched on his face. “You’ve been the boss for quite a while, Kate. And I’d like to take care of you. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to be? We take care of each other?”

“Well, it’s not just that,” I said. “I’ve actuall
y been wanting to look into doing grief counseling.”

I’d wondered if he’d think it was silly, but his eyes shone with approval. “That’s a great idea. You’d be amazing at it.”

The nurse I’d tousled with walked in, not looking as happy as she had earlier.

“You’re ready for discharge,” she said, pulling papers off a clipboard.

“That’s great,” I said. “I can’t wait to get home.”

When Ryke met my eyes, there was
a flicker of something new there. I already lived with him, but now that I knew we were together, his apartment felt like my home for the first time. It made me wonder if home really was a place, or if it was more about who was there waiting for you at the end of the day. Either way, I’d found it, and I wasn’t letting go.

***

Christmas Eve
             

Kate

An icy winter wind slapped me in the face when I stepped out of the car. I tied my thick scarf around my neck and plunged my gloved hands into my coat pockets.

It was so quiet here, the only sound coming from the light whistle of the breeze flowing through the bare branches of towering oak trees. Ryke’s feet crunched against the frost-covered grass when he stepped on it, and I followed.

We didn’t have to walk far before Ryke paused in front of a large, dark granite headstone. Though I knew it was coming, seeing the words etched on the monument made my breath catch in my throat.

Margaret Pulliam Ryker

Beloved wife, daughter and sister

I imagined Ryke standing here on the day of her funeral, knowing his young, beautiful wife was about to be lowered into the ground forever.
I couldn’t help getting choked up.

“Hey,” he said, rubbing a hand across my back,
“It’s okay.”

Here we were at Maggie’s grave, and he was the one comforting me. I made myself take a cleansing breath and square my shoulders. I wanted to do this; to show Ryke I could honor his late wife without breaking down. Most people wouldn’t understand how intimate a part of himself he was sharing with me right now. But I knew.