Hurt (18 page)

Nicole swallowed and tried to ignore the sinking feeling beginning to build in the pit of her stomach. The call she’d gotten from Golden Meadows had been vague, just that there was an incident involving her grandmother and she needed to come to the retirement home as soon as possible.

“Damn it, Nana. What have you done?” Nicole said as she pulled into a vacant spot at the front of the building. She took a deep breath and climbed out of the Honda, trying not to make eye contact with the two uniformed police officers standing at the sidewalk. Nicole could hear Julie speaking as she bent over to punch in the entrance code at the front door, but the words weren’t registering.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Nicole asked as they stepped out of the cold and into the lobby.

“I said, you need to settle down. I know this is the last thing you need tonight after getting that package from Jamie, but you don’t…” Julie put a hand on Nicole’s shoulder and turned her so that they were face to face. “Hey,” she said in a surprisingly calm voice. “I know what you’re thinking. Nana is fine, you gotta believe that.”

“Julie, there’s only one reason they would have called me to come here and not tell me why over the phone. If she were just sick, then we’d be at the hospital right now,” Nicole said, her voice breaking.

“We’re not thinking that way,” Julie said, tightening her grasp on Nicole’s shoulder. “Nana is fine. And…if she’s not, then I’m here with you.”

Nicole smiled and gave Julie a quick hug.

“Thank you,” she said.

Julie nodded and fell into step beside Nicole as they moved from the lobby back toward Nana’s room. Nicole couldn’t help but notice how quiet it was. It was barely seven o’clock and there was no one in sight. At that time of night, there should be residents milling around, staff making the rounds and cleaning up from dinner. She was about to say as much to Julie when she saw Brenda standing in the aisle by the nurse’s station, looking anxiously back and forth down the hallway.

“Nicole,” the nurse said as she saw her approaching. “This way honey.” She gestured for Nicole to follow and turned away from the nurse’s station and down one of the side hallways. Nicole began to feel clammy as she realized that they were heading away from Nana’s room and toward a part of the retirement home that she was unfamiliar with. She glanced back at Julie, who took a step forward and wrapped an arm around Nicole while they followed Brenda into a small office at the end of the hall.

Nicole didn’t know what to expect when she entered the office, but it sure as hell wasn’t a bruised and bloodied Greg Samuels leaning against a desk texting on an iPhone.

“Detective Samuels?” she said questioningly. He raised his head as she spoke and she was shocked to see him stare back at her with two black eyes. He had a small, jagged cut across the bridge of his nose that was slowly seeping blood and what looked to be a cotton ball shoved into one nostril.

Samuels glanced at Brenda, who shook her head.

“I haven’t told her anything yet,” the nurse advised him.

“Tell me what?” Nicole asked, looking back and forth between them. “What the hell’s going on?”

Samuels stood from the desk and stretched his neck as if it were sore.

“Nicole, your grandmother is missing.”

“What? What do you mean she’s missing?” Nicole turned to Julie and then back to the detective.

“There was a…situation,” Samuels began, sounding to Nicole very police-like in his tone. “We think your grandmother picked up a set of staff keys and used them to unlock a rear exit…”

He continued to speak, but all Nicole could hear was a buzz. Her thoughts raced as she tried to absorb what Samuels had said. Nicole’s mind fixated on the snow that was falling outside, the near freezing temperature. What had Nana been wearing when she—

“What did you say about Jamie?” Nicole asked sharply, Samuels’ words suddenly registering.

“I said Jamie is out with patrol looking for her. Also, we’ve issued a Silver Alert, so her description has gone out to all the media outlets.”

Nicole gazed up at Samuels’s battered face and frowned.

“There’s something that’s not making sense here. What did you mean by ‘situation’? What the hell happened to your face?”

“My partner and I came here to—”

“Your partner? You mean Jamie, right?”

“Yes,” Samuels said and then cleared his throat. “We, uh, came here to question a potential witness in a case we’ve been working, the brother of a suspect. I was in the process of identifying who we were when the witness, for lack of a better word, attacked us and then tried to flee. There was a small struggle—”

“Stop,” Nicole interrupted. “I don’t want to hear any more. I can fill in the blanks.” She closed her eyes as she felt a stir of anger. Nicole took a deep breath and then glared at Samuels. “So basically, you fucked up and now my grandmother is out there somewhere,” she snarled, pointing to the office window.

“Nicole…”

“Don’t, Samuels. Good God, what were you two thinking?” She began to pace around the room, rubbing at her eyes. Nicole stopped and held a hand out to Samuels. “Give me your phone.”

“What?”

“Your phone. Give it to me. I tried to call Jamie earlier and she didn’t answer. Now I know why. Give me your phone. She’ll pick up for you.”

Samuels looked for a moment as if he was going to say no, but then nodded and handed Nicole the iPhone. She quickly punched in Jamie’s number and then put the call on speaker. After two rings the line picked up.

“Jamie,” Nicole said, launching into the tirade she felt coming on. “I don’t know what the hell—”

“Nicole?”

Nicole stopped in mid-sentence as she heard her grandmother’s voice on the other end of the line. She looked to Julie and then to Samuels.

“Nana? Is that you?” she asked in a strangled voice, her anger suddenly forgotten.

“Nicole, that is you, isn’t it, honey?”

“Thank God,” Nicole said under her breath. “Nana, everyone’s been worried sick about you. Where have you been?”

“Oh, here and there,” Nana answered, as if she had just been out for a leisurely stroll.

Samuels touched Nicole on the arm.

“Where’s Jamie?” he asked, frowning.

“Nana, where’s Jamie?” Nicole repeated into the phone.

“I don’t think I know anyone named Jamie, honey.”

Jesus.

“Nana, you know Jamie. You’re talking on her phone right now. Jamie—she’s brought you flowers before. Tall…”

“Brown jacket,” Samuels supplied.

“She’s wearing a brown jacket.”

“Oh,” Nana drawled. “The Amazon.”

Nicole sighed and glanced over at a grinning Julie.

“Yes, Nana, the Amazon. Where is she?”

“Oh, she’s right here next to me.”

“Is every conversation with her like this?” Samuels asked, shaking his head.

“Pretty much,” Brenda answered from the doorway. Nicole cut her eyes to the nurse and realized that she’d almost forgotten the woman was there.

“Nana, can you put Jamie on the phone so I can talk to her?” Nicole said, speaking louder than she really needed to, hoping if nothing else that Jamie would hear and take the phone away from Nana.

“No, honey, I can’t do that. I’m pretty sure she’s dead.”

The world tilted dangerously for a second and Nicole felt her stomach lurch. “W-What?”

“I said, I’m pretty sure she’s dead,” Nana shouted back into the phone.

Nicole stared down at the phone in her hands and suddenly realized she could hear the pounding of her own heartbeat. She swallowed and looked up at Samuels, who had gone deathly pale.

“Nana, what are you talking about? What do you mean, s-she’s dead?”

“Well, she hasn’t moved since the car went off into the woods and hit that tree, so I’d say she’s dead.”

Nicole opened her mouth, but found herself unable to speak. She looked helplessly to Samuels. He took the phone from her suddenly boneless hand and held it up close to his face.

“Miss—”

“Nana,” Nicole whispered. “Call her Nana.” She felt a hand on her arm and turned to see a worried Julie standing beside her.

“Nana,” Samuels continued, “can you tell me where you are?”

“Is that you, Steven?”

Nicole motioned to Samuels.

“Just say yes.”

“Yes, Nana, this is Steven. Can you tell me where you are?”

“I’m in a car,” Nana said sweetly.

This isn’t happening
, Nicole thought
. I’m in the middle of some crazy nightmare
. She shook her head, trying to push away the buzzing sound that again threatened to drown out everything else.

“Oh, wait,” Nana said suddenly.

“What is it Nana?” Samuels asked, his eyes darting between Nicole and the phone.

“I don’t think…whatever her name is here…I don’t think she’s dead after all.”

“Oh, sweet Jesus,” Samuels muttered and then spoke loudly back at the phone. “Are you sure Nana?”

“I said so, didn’t I?” she snapped back. “Nope, she’s not dead. At least not yet, anyway. She’s making some kind of a gurgling sound. Here, let me poke her and she if she’ll stop.”

The buzzing in Nicole’s ears became a roar and she rather unexpectedly forgot how to stand. Julie tightened the grip on Nicole’s arm and caught her as she began to fall, pushing her toward a floral-patterned chair.

“Christ,” Samuels said and ran a hand over his head. “Nana, I need you to help me out now. I need you to take a real good look around you, okay? Let me know when you’ve done that.”

“Okay,” Nana replied. There was a moment of silence. “Okay, I’m ready.”

“Great. Now, real slowly, I need you to tell me exactly where you are.”

“I…am…in…a…car.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Jamie bent over on the small wooden bench by the front door and finished lacing up her boots. One of her pants legs was bunched uncomfortably up around the top of the brown leather boot, so she quickly straightened it out. Jamie inhaled the heady scent of cinnamon and oak that permeated the cabin, and then stood from the bench.

She shivered slightly as she opened the back door and felt the cold mountain air creeping in. The sun had only just come up and the temperature was well below freezing. It had snowed again overnight and the tree-lined driveway of the rental house was completely covered in white. Had to be two or three inches, Jamie thought as she stepped out onto the front porch, if the snow on the hood of her Explorer was any indication. She briefly glanced around, but saw no one. Not that she expected to. The house—made to resemble a log cabin from the exterior—sat quietly surrounded by tall pines on either side.

Jamie rubbed her hands over her bare arms and made her way down the porch stairs. She thought about going back in for her coat, but she’d left it in the bedroom where Nicole was still sleeping and she didn’t want to disturb her. Jamie knew how hard Nicole had worked to ‘clear her plate’, as she called it, so that they could have a full week alone together. Cabin rentals in the Smoky Mountains were hard to come by this time of the year. Knowing how hard Nicole had worked to arrange this one so that they could spend some much needed time together, Jamie was determined to do everything she could to see that Nicole thoroughly enjoyed her week off from work.

The snow crunched beneath her boots as she quickly covered the distance between the cabin and the small lean-to that acted as a woodshed. They should have brought more wood in last night, Jamie supposed, but after a couple of glasses of that blackberry wine that Nicole had insisted they’d pickup in Sevierville, firewood had been the last thing on Jamie’s mind. She smiled softly as she thought about snuggling up in front of the large stone fireplace last night, the glow of the fire bringing out the subtle highlights in Nicole’s hair.

A cold thud hit her in the back, shocking Jamie out of her reverie.

“What the hell?” she got out a moment before the second volley hit, this one striking her left shoulder. Jamie spun around just in time to see the next snowball coming. That one hit her square on in the chest and the surprise knocked her off-balance so that she fell flat on her ass.

Jamie looked up to see a laughing Nicole advancing toward her.

“You think that’s funny, don’t you?” Jamie asked, having a hard time keeping the anger out of her voice.

“Nope,” Nicole answered with a grin. “I know that’s funny.”

Jamie saw Nicole already had her next shot ready to go and realized she was—quite literally—a sitting duck.

“Nicole, don’t you dare thr—oh! Oh that hurts,” Jamie said and fell back into the snow, clutching her side.

“Oh no,” Nicole said. “I’m not going to fall for that one.”

“Oh, ouch. I’m not kidding Nicole. I think I hit something when I fell,” Jamie said in a strained voice and closed her eyes.

There was a moment of silence and then Jamie heard the sound of Nicole’s boots rapidly moving through the snow.

“Jamie, are you okay?” Nicole asked in a worried voice as she fell to her knees beside her. Raising one eyelid, Jamie grasped Nicole by the arm.

“Nicole,” she croaked.

“Jamie?”

“Gotcha!” Jamie shouted and then pulled Nicole down into the cold, wet snow, laughing as she heard Nicole shriek.

“Jamie!”

“Hey,” Jamie grinned, propping up in the snow beside Nicole. “You’re the one that started it.”

“Well then,” Nicole said grinning, “maybe I should be the one who finishes it.” Jamie gave a soft moan as Nicole rolled and covered Jamie’s body with her own. She
dipped her head
and took Jamie’s mouth in a slow, soft, unending kiss. Jamie’s breath caught as Nicole began to run a warm hand under her now soaking wet shirt, gently moving along her ribs, traveling to caress the curve of one breast. She flicked a soft finger over one of Jamie’s nipples and Jamie whimpered as she felt the passion building up within her
.

Jamie broke away from the kiss and ran a hand through Nicole’s hair, pushing it away from her face. Jamie shivered as a sudden breeze kicked up a dust of snow around them.

“What do you say we take this inside?” she said in a low voice. “I think I might need to warm up in front of the fireplace.”