The Drowning Man (22 page)

Lora sighed and stood. “Probably.” She paced the room.

“Lora.”

She stopped and turned towards him. “What?” she asked, fighting down emotions that were much too raw and close to the surface for comfort.

His jaw muscle ticked. “I'll admit to taking reckless chances in the past but today wasn't reckless. Today was me doing what I knew I could do. And we saved a lot of people. Not all of them. But a lot. When I first went back to work I was glad to be alive, don't get me wrong, and it wasn't exactly a death wish, but I guess I wanted to see how far I could push that edge. But those days are over. I have you to come back to now.”

She blinked back tears. “Don't you forget that.”

“You either,” he said, motioning her towards him. “You already saved me once, but you saved me again today.”

She stopped in front of him. “I don't understand.”

“It was bad in there today. I didn't know if I would make it out alive. Then I pictured your face and it gave me the strength to keep going. To make it back to you.”

“I haven't been that scared since I saw you in that tank and thought you were dead,” Lora confessed.

He looked down at the floor. “If I could remember that day when you found me, I'd probably be embarrassed.”

“I wish
I
could forget it,” Lora said.

He looked back up at her. “I remember seeing your face, but that's it. At the end, those last few days, everything was pretty hazy.” He paused and his eyes searched her face. “Except for your face.” That he remembered in vivid detail. The delicate arch of her eyebrows, her soft skin, the toughness in her eyes.

Lora didn't like thinking about that day, about the horror of what she'd seen, of what he'd been through. It hurt deep in her soul to think about how he'd suffered. She started to turn away from him.

Trent gently put a hand on the side of her face. “What's wrong?” he asked.

She turned her face into his palm. “That was one of the worst days of my life.”

“I thought it was the worst day of mine. I thought that for a long time because I didn't want to be alive.”

Lora closed her eyes against the pain and the tears, against the overwhelming flood of emotion she tried so hard to avoid.

“But I was wrong,” he said softly. “It turned out to be one of the best days of my life. Because of you.”

She opened her eyes and studied his face. “Oh, Trent,” she said. She couldn't put into words what it was like for her to have him here with her, alive and whole. And hers. She wrapped her arms tight around him, pressing the side of her face against his heart. Was what she felt love? She hadn't known she was capable of feeling anything this powerful anymore. It felt good. It felt right. And she'd enjoy it as long as it lasted.

She let her body collapse into his arms. Maybe they both took too many risks. But for him, she'd risk it all. She'd risk her heart. And maybe that was the biggest risk of all. It sure as hell seemed scarier than risking her life in the line of duty.

She pulled back to see his face.

The intense look in his eyes matched her own. Without a word, their bodies came together and sank down to the couch.

Trent was asleep minutes later, exhaustion finally overtaking him. When she'd found him that day in the tank she hadn't realized that she'd also found something else. Something she never expected to find. She'd found love. There was no hiding from that anymore. And that thrilled her as much as it scared her. She didn't want to go through another day like she had today, wondering if he'd come out of a burning building alive.

But he was right, they both had dangerous jobs. They were also both people that would continue to push the envelopes of those jobs. Could she live the rest of her life in constant worry that he wouldn't come home at night? Could he? Then Trent sighed and reached for her in his sleep and she knew she was willing to give it a try.

Lora cringed as she read the headline in the paper the next day at her desk. Underneath the headline was a picture of her embracing Trent at the back of the ambulance as the buildings burned in the background. Evidence of her weakness, and her inability to stay away from him. She fought the urge to crumple up the paper and throw it across the room.

“You know the reporters are already calling here looking for you,” Woods said.

“Tell me why in the hell this is news?” She studied the black and white image in front of her. “I mean, for God's sake I look pathetic.” And weak and desperate, she thought but didn't add.

“You look like a woman in love,” Woods said.

She started to argue, but a commotion at the front of the station had them both on the alert and turning towards the sound. She cursed under her breath. Trent was slowly making his way towards them, receiving numerous claps on the back and handshakes along the way, looking none the worse for the wear, despite his most recent brush with death. Lora tried to ignore the thrill that passed through her body at the sight of him. The last damn thing she needed was her coworkers to see her drooling over a man.

“The man of the hour,” Woods said, shaking his hand.

Trent waved him off and turned to Lora. “Lunch?” he asked.

“Give me a minute.” She slammed the paper into the trashcan next to her desk.

“I'll wait outside.”

“You okay?” Trent asked after they were seated at a corner table with glasses of water in front of them.

She stabbed at the lemon wedge with her straw then looked up. “I'm fine. I guess I just wasn't expecting to see myself in today's paper.”

“I'm sorry. I fucking hate that whole 'Drowning Man' shit.”

“It's not your fault. I've just managed to avoid making the paper until now.” She paused and smiled. “Well, except for the whole thing about saving your ass.”

“Well, thank you for that.”

She cocked her head to the side. “It is a nice ass.”

He gave her a half-smile then glanced down at the table. “I signed up to take swimming lessons at the Y.”

“That's good.”

“It scares the hell out of me.” He took a breath, looked into her eyes. She was the only one in the world other than Nate he could admit that to.

She took his hand under the table. “I think it's a very brave thing to do.”

He cleared his throat and concentrated on his food. He stood and tossed a few bills on the table as soon as they finished eating. “Let’s walk.”

Trent took her hand and they slowly wandered down the familiar blocks, oblivious to the city noises around them. The comfort of having her next to him blocked out all other sights and sounds. He knew she wasn't sharing everything about the investigation with him. Or her partner, for that matter. He also knew firsthand what Simon was capable of and he didn't like the risks. She wouldn't listen. She wouldn't be the woman he cared so much about if she did, yet he had to say the words anyway.

“I think you should stop investigating Simon. Let someone else handle it.”

She stopped walking and pivoted towards him. “Would you, if it was the other way around?”

Trent didn't answer. He didn't have to. They both knew the answer.

“Do you ever think about what you'll say if someone asks you how we met?” Lora asked, moving forward again.

Trent wasn't about to argue with her change of subject. “Thanks to the K.C. Daily everyone around here already knows the story.”

“But what about someone else, some random person not from around here. I don't know, like the person sitting next to you on an airplane.”

“I'll tell them it's none of their goddamn business.”

Lora laughed. “You would, wouldn’t you?”

“Besides,” Trent continued, “No one would believe the real story anyway. Hell, I wouldn’t.”

“I’m sure plenty of people meet in stranger ways.”

He raised his eyebrows.

“Woods’ cousin married her skydiving instructor.”

“No shit,” Trent said.

“I’m serious. He was her jumpmaster.”

Trent laughed and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her up next to him. All her hard edges softened as she relaxed into his body and for that brief moment, they were no different than any other couple and everything was right in the world.

Trent parked his truck, turned off the engine, and sat for twenty minutes before he was able to open the door and walk up the sidewalk. He hadn’t told anyone he was coming. Not his brother. Not Lora. He'd faced the trail. He could face this too. He signed in at the front desk, then waited at an outside table, his face turned upwards towards the weak winter sun until he heard soft footsteps approaching.

Caroline had aged in the months since Trent had seen her, and not well. Her body had gone soft and her face was pale and bare. She moved slowly. It took a moment for her to recognize him. When she did, her eyes widened and she sank down into the chair across from him. She pulled a crumpled pack of cigarettes out of the pocket of her jacket, shook one out, lit it with a shaky hand, and studied him for a full minute. She took a deep drag, and blew out the smoke in a long thin stream. “I guess I'm supposed to say I'm sorry,” she said, not quite looking at him.

“You don't have to say a goddamned thing.”

Her drug-hazed eyes squinted at him across the table.

Trent took a breath, looked her in the eyes. “I'm here to tell
you
something. I'm here to tell you that I’m really fucking sorry that Eddie died. But his death was an accident and I will not suffer for it any longer.” He stood, put his palms flat down on the table, and leaned towards her. “I'm not afraid of you,” he said. “I feel sorry for you.”

Caroline's chest hitched and her eyes welled. The sobs started. Deep hollow cries that shook her entire body. “He was my life … all I had … I … Trent.” She reached out a hand for him.

He shook it off and her head dropped into her hands. He turned and walked away, her cries echoing in the still air behind him.

Caroline was not evil. She was nothing more than a broken old woman who deserved his pity. She had no hold on him, no control over him. Her actions had been those of a sad, mentally ill woman.

He didn't look back. Instead, he focused on Lora, waiting at home for him and smiled, knowing he'd go through the same hell again to find her. What Caroline had done to him had only strengthened him. It had made him who he was now. It had made him a person worthy of love. Or at least realize that he was.

Simon Hewett couldn't quite suppress a laugh at how easy this was going to be. A little money in the right hands could go a long way. He adjusted the ID hanging around his neck and pushed the cleaning cart further into the dark shadow of the building as he watched Trent walk away. He hadn't been close enough to hear their words but it didn't matter.

He’d dreamed about Caroline the night before. She’d been calling out to him, letting him know that she was still his, that they needed each other to finish what they’d started.

It hadn't been a coincidence that he'd managed to get inside the institution on this day, at the exact same time Trent had made his little visit. It was further confirmation that he and Caroline were following a plan greater than their own.

“Trent, open up, it's Lora.”

Her voice was loud enough to be heard over her knocking. Not a social call, Trent thought as he turned off the TV and rose from the couch. Her tight face when he opened the door confirmed it.

“Can we at least have mad passionate sex on my living room floor before you spring the bad news on me?”

Her mouth lifted in a half-smile before turning serious again. “She's gone,” Lora said, shutting his front door behind her.

From the look in her eyes and her demeanor,
she
could only be one person. His stomach tightened and it became harder to breathe “Caroline,” he said.

Lora nodded. “We just got the call from the institute. I came straight here, I didn't want you to hear it from somewhere else.”

Trent ran a hand down his face. “I was just there. I don't … Simon. He was watching.”

Her eyes were serious. “Probably.”

“I guess it's wishful thinking that he'll take her and run away so they can live happily ever fucking after.”

She reached for his hand. “I think you should go to a safe house.”

He jerked his hand back. “Oh, that's brilliant Lora. I sit around on my ass while you're out there alone. Christ, you're the one who shot Simon and got Caroline locked up.”

“But you were the original target. They're going to want to finish what they started.”

He frowned and put his hands on his hips. “It doesn't make sense. Why would he wait so long to bust her out?”

Lora sighed. “I don't know. But it doesn't matter. She's out and now we have to deal with it.” She couldn't keep the frustration out of her voice. So far the security tapes from the institute had shown nothing out of the ordinary. Just Caroline shuffling down the hall to her room after dinner. Woods was there now, interviewing the staff and patients. “We should have had someone on her –”

“Lora,” Trent cut her off.

She gave him a tight smile. “I have to go.”

This time he grabbed her hand. “Be careful.”

She touched his cheek, feeling the rough stubble under her fingertips. “You too. I'm going to get a unit on you, so don't even try to argue.”

“I won't, on two conditions. You call me with updates. And, you spend the night here.”

“Deal,” she said, giving him a quick kiss before rushing back out the door.

Simon Hewett looked at Caroline's pale face as she sat motionless in the passenger seat next to him. She hadn't spoken one word since he'd rescued her. He'd tried to forget about her and do what needed to be done on his own. But he needed her dammit, needed her
now
before he lost his way.

And the dream, then seeing her with Trent earlier, he'd seen that she was still inside that shell of what she'd once been. Once the drugs wore off, she'd be back. He'd taken a huge risk coming for her. But it would be worth it. He reached over, taking her cool hand in his, feeling the power that still connected them. They would finish this. Together.