Locked Out of Love (12 page)

Soul mates.

Did she dare believe in some all-powerful being that decided who she should love?

What happened to free will? If she ended up with Joel, she wanted it to be because it was something
she
wanted, not because it was something destined for her.

If destiny really existed, that meant there was nothing she could do about anything in her life; she would live through every event knowing she had no power to change or alter it.

It's not true. It can't be.

There was that Dream she'd had when she'd taken Nathan's powers. That woman. Melanie had the power to change those events. Free will was all around her, shaping what the future could and couldn't be.

So, maybe she had to accept that certain things were fixed. Like whom she would love. Perhaps it was easier this way, to not have to worry about settling down with the wrong guy. There were worse things in the world than being stuck with someone like Joel. And if she really did believe what Joel was telling her, that would mean she would be guaranteed this one thing in life.

But did she dare believe it?

Around and around her thoughts went. She felt overwhelmed and rolled down her window an inch to let in some of the cool air, hoping it'd help clear her thoughts.

They started up the bridge that led over the bay. She wanted to remove her seat belt. It felt too tight, too constricting. She tugged at it, hoping to give herself more breathing room. It wouldn't budge. She frowned and tugged harder. When nothing happened she pushed the release so that she could re-buckle.

It didn't release.

Unease trickled down her neck. She turned in her seat and felt where the fabric dispenser connected near the passenger side door. Her fingers brushed over a small, metallic lump.

Frowning, she pulled at the object until it came loose. In the dim light of Joel's truck, she brought it up to her face to examine it more closely.

Her blood turned to ice as she stared at the small tracking chip. Or at least that's what she thought it was. Maybe it was a listening bug? She hadn't gotten a good look at the person who'd fled Joel's truck, and both she and Joel had checked the exterior for anything suspicious, but only Joel checked his side when he'd gotten inside.

Melanie's mouth went dry. She'd screwed up. Big time.

“What's wrong?” Joel turned to glance at her momentarily. His eyes snagged on the chip in her hand. “What the hell is that?”

Melanie's response was cut off as a tremendous force hit them from the left.

Melanie screamed as Joel's truck spun into the side of the bridge, hit the concrete wall, and tipped over.

She heard Joel grunt in pain as his truck hit the water. She could hear tires squealing and people yelling from the bridge, and then she heard something worse.

Rushing water.

Her eyes snapped open. They locked on Joel's and for the first time she realized that they were upside down and water was flooding in through the window she'd opened.

“It's okay,” Joel said to her. He reached out and grasped her hand. “I'm going to get us out of this.”

She wanted to ask how, but her heart was beating too frantically, her breath coming in too short gasps to speak. She nodded.

His truck groaned. Melanie whimpered.

Her traitorous mind decided at that moment to flash an image of her drowning. Panic seized her.

“Breathe, Melanie,” Joel's soothing voice broke through her panic. She tried to focus on him and not the foot of water that was getting her hair wet or the fact that it was getting darker in the car as they sank further into the bay.

“Oh god.” She squeezed her eyes shut.

“Breathe,” Joel repeated. “I'm going to release my seat belt and then I'm going to get you out of yours, okay?”

She heard a
click
followed by a curse and a splash as Joel fell into the water and probably banged his head on the way down.

“Joel?” she squeaked, afraid he might have knocked himself unconscious. “Joel!”

Her eyes popped open to see Joel surface and shake his head. She was sprinkled with water, but the sight of him made her breathe easier.

“I'm right here.” He shuffled over to her and pushed the release on her seat belt.

She braced for the fall that didn't happen. Her seat belt didn't open.

Joel's brows drew together as he pushed again.

Melanie shivered in her seat. “It won't open. I already tried earlier; that's how I found that bug. I'm trapped.”

“No you're not,” Joel said vehemently. He grasped her head in his hands and made her stare him in the eye. “I'm going to get you out of this.”

The water was touching the top of her head now and she was trying really hard not to panic. Blood was rushing to her head too from being trapped upside down, the seatbelt holding her in place as the water filled the top of the vehicle.

Joel started looking through the cabin of his truck, talking aloud, no doubt to try and keep her calm. “There were lots of people out, someone had to have seen us. It's not that late. A rescue team will be on their way. I'm not leaving you, Melanie, even if I have to stay here and breathe for you with a straw until help arrives.” He held an old straw in his hand that had fallen from his middle console when he'd opened it. A whole bunch of little tools had fallen out, too, and he quickly went diving for them.

He came up with needle-nosed pliers and tried to jimmy the seat belt. “If I can just get the damn thing open, I can take it apart and free you.”

His hair was slicked back from his face as he worked. His shirt clung to his lean frame like a second skin, and Melanie focused her attention on following all the hard planes and ridges. It was a welcome distraction to the fact that water was now flirting with her eyebrows. Soon she wouldn't be able to keep her eyes open at all.

There was another groan from the truck and Joel's door was wrenched open. “What the—?”

Water flooded the cabin. Melanie slammed her eyes shut and suddenly she felt Joel's hands, the ones that had been grasping the belt and touching her hip, being torn away from her.

“No!” she screamed. Water flooded her mouth and she coughed, choked.

“Melanie!” She heard Joel's voice right before water took her hearing.

She reached out blindly to find him, but all she encountered was cold water. Her heart rate tripled. She was going to die. Joel was being rescued and she was going to be left behind. There was so much she hadn't said to him. So much she hadn't done with him. Tears clogged her throat. Her lungs started to burn and she felt herself losing consciousness.

Her heart cried out for him.

Joel!

In her oxygen-deprived mind she could have sworn she heard Joel's voice.

Melanie!

Everything went white.

Melanie floated back to consciousness in intervals. She heard doctors and nurses and nothing.  At one point, she woke to her throat and eyes burning … and then nothing. She had been cold and then hot.

When she woke for what she assumed was the fourth time, she felt like something the tide had dragged in. It was an accurate description, as she could feel her damp hair around her face and she felt raw all over, as if she'd been dragged through the sand a couple times. She surveyed her arms and found no abrasions, so that meant the pain was on the inside.

“I think she's coming to.” A voice spoke from the corner.

Melanie's gaze darted to the far left side of her room where she was shocked to find her family.

“Ma, Pa, Aunt Bernie?” Her voice sounded like sandpaper. She winced and grasped the paper cup filled with water next to her bed. She took a hesitant sip.

“Oh, Melanie!” Her mother rushed to her side and knelt. Her graying hair was thrown haphazardly into a ponytail. Her father's face was drawn with concern as he stood behind her mother. Aunt Bernie stayed at the foot of her bed, a relieved smile on her face.

There was no sign of Joel. Yet somehow Melanie could tell that he was near.

She rested her hand over her heart where a deep, comforting warmth radiated. “Where's Joel?” she asked.

“Joel?” her mother echoed.

Her father placed his hand on her mother's shoulder. “The man in the accident with her. He was the one driving, I believe.”

“Pa,” Melanie warned. “The accident wasn't Joel's fault. Someone hit us.”

Her father didn't look convinced. His face hardened into stone where it had been creased with worry only moments ago. “Who is this man? How long have you known him? What were you doing in a car with him? I thought you were taking time off from men after what happened with Alexander. This one clearly isn't any better; he nearly got you killed.”

Melanie wanted to throw her hands in the air. Actually, what she really wanted to do was throw these blankets off and go look for Joel. Her father wouldn't listen to a word she had to say. She could praise Joel till the cows came home and her father would still think he was the scum of the universe.

“Who's watching Nathan?” she asked instead, wanting to take some of the attention off her and Joel.

“Paul is looking after him,” Aunt Bernie answered.

Paul was Aunt Bernie's boyfriend, and while Melanie didn't always see eye to eye with him, she did trust him with Nathan. She breathed a little easier.

She started to get up, only to have her mother and aunt race to push her shoulders back down.

“You need your rest, Melanie,” her mother said gently.

“Ma, I'm fine,” she said through gritted teeth. She didn't like hospitals; she'd spent enough time with Nathan in them and they hadn't worked out so well for him.

Another thought hit her and she checked her arms again, this time looking for any puncture marks that would signal a blood draw. What if the hospital took a sample of her blood and it came back different than a normal human being's? She tried to recall all the times she'd come to the hospital with Nathan after he'd started having his headaches, all the times they'd gone to the ER after he'd had a vision, thinking at the time he'd swallowed some kind of toxin that was acting like a hallucinogenic. They'd drawn his blood then, hadn't they? And nothing had come up strange.

“Melanie, are you alright?” Aunt Bernie asked.

 “Did they take any blood from me?”

Her mother took a step back at her aggressive tone. “Well, I'm not sure, Melanie, but why does it matter? Are you sure you're okay? Did you hit your head?”

Her father stared down at her, disapproving. “Were you taking illegal substances?”

Melanie barely refrained from rolling her eyes. Of course, her father's train of thought would lead there.

Her mother stifled a gasp. “Oh, Melanie.”

“That's not it at all.” Rage simmered under the surface. “I just want to get out of here.” Who knew how long she'd been here. If it'd been for any length of time and the hospital took her blood, they'd know by now if anything was abnormal. Clearly no one had alerted her parents, and that had to count for something.

“Your release papers haven't come yet,” her father's voice rumbled.

She pushed the blankets off and noticed for the first time that she was in a hospital gown. “Where are my clothes?”

She spotted her personal items in a bag, the clothes inside sopping wet. She groaned. Maybe the gift shop would have some sweats she could buy.

Aunt Bernie went over to one of the chairs and pulled out some fresh clothes from a duffle. “I thought you might need these.” She held up a pair of hideous peach sweats. It wasn't the most attractive clothing, looking to have come from the back of Aunt Bernie's closet, but they were dry and warm.

Melanie smiled gratefully and took them. She quickly pulled the curtain around her bed, effectively forcing her family to take a few steps back and give her some space.

“Honestly, Melanie,” her mother huffed. “I don't see what the big rush is. You were in a major accident; you need to remain here. Nathan is being taken care of, so I don't understand what the hurry is all about.”

Her mother might not understand, but her father certainly did. “You aren't going to find that Joel character,” he said in a stern voice.

Melanie heard her mother's sharp inhalation. “You're going to seek him out? Why? Who is this young man?”

There was no point lying now. “I want to make sure he's okay.” She was getting antsy sitting here. She had to see him. She wanted to touch him, make sure he didn't have any scrapes or bruises. She wanted to breathe him in and feel his arms around her. She wanted it with a burning passion. Maybe she
had
hit her head on something, what else could be the cause of wanting to see him so badly?

She recalled the accident … thinking she was going to die, calling out to him, hearing him respond—but that wasn't right. It couldn't be. He'd been pulled from the car, so how could she have heard him as clearly as she'd thought?

“He nearly got you killed,” her father's voice boomed, interrupting her thoughts. “And you want to make sure he's all right? You need to find him to get his insurance and lawyer information. You need to press charges for reckless driving. I want a restraining order on this man.”

Once she was dressed in her aunt's peach-colored sweat suit, she shoved the curtain aside and shot her father a dark look. “For fuck's sake, Pa, would you listen to me when I tell you it wasn't his fault?”

Her parents stared at her as if she'd sprouted another head.

“What did you just say to your father?” Ma asked in a small voice.

Heat rushed to Melanie's cheeks, but she vowed not to let them cow her. She was done being coddled. They were so worried something bad would happen to her after Nathan's addiction, they'd done everything they could to keep her safe and protected. Then Alexander had happened and her parents had tightened that vise of protection. She hadn't realized until that moment how suffocating it was.