Find Me in Manhattan (Finding #3) (18 page)

“You’re just going to sit there and wait for this psycho to find you? Sarah, really?”

“The police will find him, Seth. I’m staying at Michael’s tonight, and tomorrow Jameson will be locked away.”

“Yeah. Right.” Even I wasn’t sure I believed it. And even if it were true, what would I do about Dr. Wright? He was known for his work with post-war soldiers, but what about boys whose parents were murdered. The only thing I was certain of at this point was that Dr. Wright helped Jameson earn a place at Colombia. But at what cost?

Seth and I went round and round for a few more minutes before I finally hung up with him. I was tired and the day had been stressful. I rested my head for a moment as I tried to process everything that was happening. I wasn’t much of a thinker; that was Maggie’s territory. I was a doer. I saw a problem; I took care it. I followed my instincts most of the time. My insecurities had started interfering with my gut only recently and now look what happened. Nothing frustrated me more than that.

I woke up when my I felt my body lifted from the bed. I was sure it was Jameson coming to get me, so I quickly started to fight my attacker. “Whoa. Ow! Sarah, it’s me. Shhh…calm down. It’s me.” I opened my eyes when I recognized Michael’s voice. “You fell asleep. I was moving you to my bed. Even if you’re mad at me, I want you next to me.”
And swoon
. In my delirious state, his words made me even more defenseless against him and against my growing affection for him. My heart fluttered. My stomach flipped. I was safe in the arms of the man I could quite possibly be falling for.

Falling for…hmm.
Heard that one before, huh?

Yeah, me too.

Michael

I had apologized. I held her all night, and I woke her up when her nightmare started. I quietly reminded her that she was safe until she calmed down enough to fall into a restful sleep. I kissed her every time she moved or whimpered. It was a night of sweet torture. While I loved being the man who held her through the night, knowing that motherfucker was out there was making me homicidal. I wanted to pack up the guys and hunt Jameson fucking Carmichael down.

I wouldn’t have been able to sleep even if Sarah weren’t in need of my attention. Familiar feelings from past missions were keeping me awake. Part of me wanted to get the show on the road. I wanted to handle Jameson as if he were a target. My team was probably better suited to handle a guy like him than the cops anyway. Even thinking about an assignment had the anxiety and fear rising in my throat, and it was the fear that truly kept me awake. Only one of us could have nightmares at a time.

Sarah stirred early the next morning. The sun was barely awake, and I felt exhausted from running scenarios in my head all night. She rolled over to face me and pressed her forehead to my chest. “I’m sorry about last night,” she said.

I wasn’t sure what she felt she needed to apologize for so I took it as a cue that perhaps I needed to apologize. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I should be the one apologizing. I’m sorry for upsetting you and saying stupid shit.”

She let out some kind of adorable noise then added, “Heads up. I’m a female navigating a stressful situation. Everything is going to upset me.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said gently as I tucked the hair that had fallen in her face behind her ear. I didn’t want anything blocking my view of her big blue eyes.

My effort was futile when she climbed on top of me, perfectly aligning our bodies. I was trying to be respectful, but this position made me think of one thing, and one thing only.

“Can we focus on you for a day?” she asked sounding light. How could I say no to that when she sounds like herself again?

“I guess.”

“Why won’t you ride in cars?” I didn’t realize that was what she meant by focusing on me. I flopped back against the pillows and let out a ragged breath.

“I don’t know. Flashbacks is the clinical term, but I feel like I’m back in the Humvee watching a friend bleed out, listening to Phil shout that he couldn’t move, waiting to hear Alaska’s voice from beside me, listening to Moretti yell into the radio that we’d been hit, and waiting for Crow, our medic, to help us somehow. I smell the burning flesh; hear the high pitch ringing in my ears. It’s stifling.”

“Hmm…”

“Let it be, Sarah,” I warned.

She looked surprised by my tone. “I’m not trying to fix you or counsel you, Michael. I’m trying to figure you out. I’ve been wondering what you do when it rains? I know you can ride a train. Can you fly in a plane?” That was what she wanted to know?

“I don’t know, Dr. Seuss. I haven’t tried since they flew us home from Germany. I guess so because they look so different, feel different. All of my flashbacks, all of my nightmares, occur inside the Humvee.” My honesty surprised even me.

“Sorry,” she said as if she regretted asking questions. “I don’t mean to pry. The women in my family are the meddlesome kind. I always hated that they expect me to share everything with them, but here I am, doing the same darn thing.”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll answer your questions.” Hadn’t I agreed to do just that when I first met her? I trusted this girl. I trusted that she truly cared about me, that she wouldn’t use the information against me. Most importantly, I trusted that she would understand. “If I’m in Jersey when it’s storming, I stay at Phil’s. I like the city, so I keep an apartment here, but I like the track, too. I can work on the inside of cars as long as all the doors are open, but it wasn’t like that at first. I really had to talk myself into even leaning into the driver’s seat the first few times. Joe and Randy do most of the interior work. I’m an engine and body guy.”

“Yeah, you are,” she teasingly leaned, so she could leer at my body.

“You only want me for my body, huh?”

“No. I like your face, too.”

“Do you now?”

“Mmhmm…”

“You know what I like?” I asked as my hands skimmed down her back.

“Hmm?”

“This,” I said as my hands palmed her ass. “And these,” I whispered as I gripped her thighs and pulled them apart so they would wrap around me. “And this.” I trailed my fingers up her spine. “Don’t forget this.” I twisted my fingers into her blonde hair and tugged it back gently so I could kiss her sweet lips. “And these,” I said just before our lips touched.

“That list is pretty non-specific. It sounds like you just like me for my body as well, Sergeant.”

“And I’m just getting started.”

Sarah

Some kind of ringing noise was playing in the distance. It kept going and going and going, and all I wanted to do was make it stop. I was sure that noise would have given me nightmares if my life hadn’t already. I climbed out of my sleepy state enough to recognize it was a phone ringing. Remembering mine was with the police, I realized it was Michael’s phone that I heard. When it stopped, it started right back up. It was making me want to scream.

“Michael!” I yelled more forcefully than necessary, but that noise had to go.

“What? What?” he came running in the room, alarmed by my scream. It was only then that I realized he wasn’t in bed with me, and I briefly wondered if the man ever slept before the abominable noise started again.

“Answer your phone before I drop it from the roof of your building.”

He took two long strides and grabbed his phone. “Yeah?” he answered without looking at the screen. I always checked to see who was calling. You never knew what crazies would get your number.
Ha. That’s rich coming from me.

Michael listened for a second before he hung up and threw his phone back on the bed, rushing to get dressed. “Amy’s in labor. I have to go to the hospital.”

“Okay. I’ll come with you.”

“It could be hours. Why don’t you stay here, and I’ll come get you when the baby is here?”

“And do what? I’m not sitting in your apartment all day. I can come with you and meet this baby, or I can head to the VA to work.” I was not sitting around. If Jameson tried to get me in a public place like the VA, he was in for a rude awakening. I’d made friends with all the security guards there. Not only was I naturally friendly, but I also knew the first two people you make friends with in a building were the custodians and the security. There was no way Jameson would get to me there, but I highly doubted Michael felt the same way considering he had watched Jameson grab me from right outside that building. I didn’t know he was coming after me then. The son of a gun didn’t have the luxury of surprise anymore.

We faced off for a moment before Michael gave in to me. He knew I wouldn’t sit around all day, and he didn’t want me out there (meaning anywhere outside of his apartment) by myself, no matter how brave I was feeling. Michael would get along great with Daddy and Seth. They all thought a woman needed a man to take care of them. There was nothing a .38 special, a little pepper spray, or high heels couldn’t take care of in my mind. Jameson would be stupid to lay a hand on me again, but after my freak-out yesterday, I knew Michael wouldn’t see things my way.

“Fine. Get dressed. You’re coming to the hospital, but you’re staying where I can see you at all times.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll do whatever you say, boss man,” I joked.

Michael didn’t appreciate my humor at a time like this. “Sarah, don’t. I think it’s a terrible idea for you to be anywhere where he could get to you. Hospitals aren’t exactly safe.”

I wondered why he thought that considering there were hundreds, no, thousands of people in a hospital at any given time, not to mention the security personnel. I figured it wasn’t in my best interest to argue with the macho man who currently thought he was in charge of me. We would have to rectify that soon, but not today. I was getting to meet a new member of the human race, a tiny baby. Nothing was sweeter than a baby.

You know what wasn’t sweet? The waiting room. It was overcrowded and uncomfortable. We were there until she delivered the baby just after nine that night. We took turns going to back to see Amy, but there came a point where she was in so much pain that we confined ourselves to the waiting room. Note to self: Get a planned c-section. Better yet—adopt.

Joseph Phillip Fowler was a ten-pound baby who was just about the cutest thing I had ever seen. He was so squishy and adorable with his tiny toes and fingers. We were all in love with the little fellow who they were planning to call JP. The shortened name suited the little dark-haired newborn perfectly.

I always knew a man holding a baby could make a woman’s ovaries scream. Watching Phil cradle his son from his position in his wheelchair about broke me, but Michael holding a baby was something else entirely. As much as I had wanted to cuddle JP all night, seeing Michael with him for five seconds was enough to make me want to start making babies right there in Amy’s hospital room. I contained myself, but I couldn’t say I didn’t consider it, though.

Spending the day at the hospital made me forget about everything. It was the perfect distraction. I didn’t think about transcribing the interviews I had left. I forgot all about the data entry and analysis I had to do for my research project. The insanity with Jameson never once crossed my mind, and Dr. Wright was a distant memory as we awaited JP’s arrival. It was a nice mental break, although I didn’t know if Amy felt the same way most of the day.

By the time Michael and I were back at his apartment, I still had a little residual swooning from the whole man holding a baby business, so I made sure to seduce him as soon as we walked in the door…to the building. I was sure he didn’t mind, though. It didn’t seem like it when he was shouting my name anyway.

Michael’s annoying ringtone woke us again early the next morning. I didn’t know what it was with people calling at all hours of the morning when I was getting such little sleep, but I was making it my mission in life to change his flipping ringtone.

Michael wasn’t much happier with the racket than I was. He groaned as he peeled his body from mine to grab the obnoxious little noisemaker. “Yeah,” he answered gruffly as a warning to whoever was on the other end. After a second, his body went rigid then shot straight up leaving me undeniably curious. “What? Where?” He listened for a moment more then agreed to meet someone later before hanging up the phone.

He didn’t even bother to tell me what was going on before he was out of the bed and heading for the shower. I heard the water running, and I was still sitting in the tangled sheets thinking
WTF?

“Uhm, Michael?” I called out.

He came back in the room, so I had the chance to ask what was going on as he approached me with a devilish grin on his face.

“Oh, right,” he said like he had forgotten I was there. It was not the best feeling in the world, I could honestly admit. “They picked him up near the school. Jameson,” Michael said as if I didn’t know who
he
was. “That was Captain Thompson. He said they have Jameson in custody and are taking a statement from him now.”

“What?”

“They arrested the son of a bitch.”

“The police have Jameson?”
Please note – I’m not a moron
. I was in shock.

“They have him, Sarah.”

“Are they going to keep him?”

“I’m sure he has to go to court, but he’s locked up for now. Captain Thompson said something about a psych eval, but I don’t know how long that takes.”

“But he’s locked up?” I asked one more time.

“He’s with the men in blue.”

“So, where are you going?”

“
We
are going to the station to get your phone and to sign off on our statements. Then
we
are going to speak with Dr. Wright, your professor, not the sister.”

He wrapped his strong arms around me and lifted me over his shoulder like I weighed nothing. I squealed when my stomach dropped from the surprise change in position then again when he guided my body under the hot spray of the shower. I liked this side of Michael. The very serious military man had a fun side that only came out when the timing was right.

Once I slid down his now wet body, and my feet were on the tiled floor of the shower, he held my face in his hands and said, “You’re safe now, but I hope that doesn’t mean I have to wake up without you from now on.”

We were going to have a moment. I could feel it coming, so of course, I made a joke. “Did you think I was only here for your heroics?”

“I didn’t really give you a choice.” Michael remained serious.

“Oh, I always had a choice, but even with my awful history with men, I always wanted to be here with you. I’m the kind of girl who can easily find a man who will do, but you’re something special, Sergeant.” In light of the good news and relief I was feeling, I decided to go for it, to lay my cards out on the table. “I feel things with you that I have never felt before. I feel things for you that I don’t even recognize. It makes me realize how silly I have been to think I felt something significant before now because nothing has compared to how I feel when I’m with you.” It might be too early to say these kinds of things out loud, but it was better to know before the L-word. I had already learned that lesson once or twice before. If he can’t take it, he might not be the man for me, either.