said. “I’m going to get her another blanket. I’ll be right back.”
Trey moved to one side of the bed while Lee went to the other. Trey reached toward Trina and rubbed the back of his finger against her cheek.
“Hey, Trina. It’s me, Trey. Just want you to know that you’re safe. You’re in ICU. Sam is on his way home. We love you. Just rest and get well.”
Lee was struggling for words and fighting back tears as he slid his hand beneath hers so that he could hold it.
“Hi, baby. It’s Lee. I just want you to know I love you. Like Trey said, just sleep and heal.”
The stillness of her body was frightening. Even though they both knew she was in a drug-induced coma, she looked as close to dead as a person could and still be breathing.
Trey and Lee kept talking to her, but when Annie Dixon came back with the blanket, she ran them out.
“Sorry, guys. Visiting time is over.”
“Bye for now, sis. I’ll be back,” Trey said as he patted Trina’s shoulder, and then walked away.
Lee leaned over the bed rail and kissed her forehead.
“Love you, baby,” he said softly, and then caught up with Trey, who was writing down the names of the people who were allowed to visit for Clarice.
“Under no circumstance is anyone else to see her. Not even a preacher, okay?”
The nurse’s eyes widened. “Surely you don’t suspect—”
“Right now I suspect everyone,” Trey muttered and pushed the doors wide as he exited.
Lee caught them and slipped out before they shut. “There’s no one on guard yet,” he said.
Trey stopped short, his shoulders slumping. He should have noticed that, but he was so tired and so stressed he was losing focus. “You’re right.”
“I can do it,” Lee said.
“A security team is on the way. They’ll be here within a couple of hours.”
“Then, let me do it until they show. Please, Trey. I need to do this for her.”
Trey went back into ICU with Lee beside him.
“Clarice, I have a security team on the way, but until they get here, I’m assigning Lee Daniels to the job. He’ll sit in a chair just outside her room without bothering her or any of your medical staff in any way. His job will be to follow anyone who goes into her room and observe everything they do until they leave, understand?”
“Yes. Come with me, Mr. Daniels.”
Lee glanced back at Trey. “Thank you,” he said and hurried to catch up.
Trey left ICU again, but in a different state than when he’d entered. His horror at what had happened was slowly being replaced with rage. Three people had been killed on his watch. Now Trina was in as much danger as the others had been. Even as he was thinking about the guards who would be with her, he realized there was a weak link in his plan to keep her safe. If the killer worked in the hospital, he had just unwittingly dumped her back in the bastard’s lap.
The first thing he had to do was get the names of everyone who’d graduated with his mother, and then find out where they were and what they did for a living so he could eliminate them as suspects. And he knew exactly where to start.
It was raining like hell when he walked out of the hospital, and even though he ran to the cruiser, he was soaked by the time he got in.
He glanced at the time.
Almost twenty minutes after twelve. It was tomorrow. Sam would be here soon, and knowing Sam, the shit was likely to hit the fan.
* * *
Lainey couldn’t sleep, but it had nothing to do with the storm, even though wind was blowing rain against the windows. Intermittent lightning and thunder rattled the panes. Although it was after midnight she was pacing the floor from room to room, unable to settle down. All the lights were on, and so was the television, because she wanted the noise.
The fact that Sam Jakes was coming back to Mystic had thrown her life out of rhythm. It had taken her years to get over him and get on with her life. At least she’d thought she was over him until Dallas’s phone call. All she’d done since the call was relive the past. Earlier she had tried to convince herself that hating him would keep her safe. He’d already broken her heart. But hate was an emotion that didn’t go with Sam Jakes.
When he’d first flown back to the States, she had understood the level of pain he was in and why he was unable to take phone calls. But she hadn’t understood why he refused to see her. Still, she coped with disappointment by sending notes and cards via his family, even though he never sent a single message back.
She’d waited and waited and tried not to feel excluded from the healing journey he was on, until, finally, she broke. He obviously didn’t want to see her, and she wanted to know why, so she left Mystic in secret and drove all the way to the VA hospital without telling anyone she was going.
It was five days before Christmas, and the day was bitter cold. She had wrapped her mother’s blue wool scarf around her to block the air from blowing down the neck of her coat and tied a matching blue ribbon into her hair. Her hands were shaking as she entered the hospital, and her voice broke when she asked for the number of his room.
It wasn’t until she was approaching his door that it dawned on her she might run into some of his family. Nervous all over again, she hesitated for a few moments outside the door, listening until she was certain he was alone, and then carefully slipped into his room, only to find him sleeping.
She didn’t know what she’d expected, but it wasn’t what she saw. In that moment she began to understand why he had shut her out. She saw the man lying in that bed and was unable to find any part of the Sam Jakes she knew beneath the bandages. When he began to stir, she’d bolted in a panic and left without anyone knowing she was there.
After she got home she kept telling herself that when he got better she would go again, but she didn’t, and then one day she called Betsy for an update and found out that he’d been out of the hospital almost a month and no one knew where he was.
That was when she realized she’d been abandoned. He hadn’t given her a chance to prove she could love him no matter how he looked. He’d just made the decision for her. It had taken her years to get over the heartbreak and to realize she hadn’t fought for herself when he was rejecting her. Now when she thought of Sam it was with disappointment in the man she’d thought she knew. Her dilemma now was how to feel about seeing him again.
* * *
Trey Jakes’ first job this morning had taken him straight back to Mystic High. He hadn’t been inside the school since the day he graduated, and he was mildly surprised by the updates, even if it did still smell like school.
He headed straight for the superintendent’s office and took off his hat as he approached the secretary.
“Ma’am, I need to speak to Mr. Porter, please.”
The
