The Ninth Floor (14 page)

“Damn it,” I
whispered. I reached down to pick it up when the door at the bottom of the
stairs banged open. I screamed.

Aiden bolted
through the just opened door and took the stairs in leaps and bounds. “Are you
okay?” I rested my head in my hands. “No, I’m not okay. You scared the bejeezus
out of me.”

He stopped a
couple stairs away. “You got another box?”

“Yeah, just
now. Did you see anyone?”

“I thought so.
I came over to check.”

I nodded. “You
want to come in?”

He picked up
the box and motioned me to go back inside.

Even though
receiving another psycho gift made me want to throw my hands up and scream, I
was calm with Aiden here. “You want to hear something strange?”

He raised an
eyebrow.

“Out of all of
the men in my life right now, you are the only one who doesn’t stress me out,
but you’re only here because I’m being stalked. You should be the most
stressful one.”

He gave a
one-shouldered shrug. “I’m the only one you aren’t dating or related to.”

It was a fair
point. I sat on the couch. “Have a seat.” He took a chair between me and the
door. “I assume you know more about the men in my life than most.”

A slight smile
cracked his stern shell. “Reasonable assumption.”

“Any advice?”

“I’m not paid
to give advice.”

“What good are
you then?”

“I keep you
alive. That’s my only function.”

I didn’t have
anything snarky to say to that. We stared at each other for a minute. I broke
eye contact first. “I was looking for you earlier. Where do you normally set
up?”

“I’m in the
lift across the street.” He handed me a card with a phone number on it. “If you
get scared—or if you receive another package—call me. I’m only seconds away.”

I looked at
the box. “I guess we should open it.”

He pulled out
a pocket knife, extracted the obligatory note, which he read without
expression, and handed it to me.

Learn from
the past or suffer its fate.

When I looked
up, Aiden held out my “present.” What looked like a hospital badge lay in his
palm.

“What is it?”

“Leigh
Feilding’s employee badge.”

My latest visit with Bee wasn’t
going smoothly. She was cranky and tired, her typical smile nowhere to be
found. “Did you have trouble sleeping?”

She shook her
head and pushed her tray away—it was barely touched.

“Do you want
to do a lap around the floor to see if that helps?”

“No, my legs
ache.”

“I’m sorry.” I
patted her hand and motioned toward the bag of photo albums and the scrapbook
by my chair. “Do you want to look at more pictures? Or I could read to you? We
could work on a crossword—”

“Reading is fine.”

I pulled out
The
Thirteenth Tale
by Diane Setterfield and opened it to where we left off.
Bee rested back against her pillows, eyes closed as she listened. I made it
through a couple of chapters before Jack made his rounds.

“How are you
this morning, Bee?” he asked, squeezing my shoulder as he walked past.

She made a
noncommittal noise, and Jack glanced at me. I shook my head the tiniest bit to
let him know it wasn’t a good day.

“What seems to
be the trouble?”

“I’m just tired.”

“She mentioned
her legs ache.”

Jack nodded. “May
I have a look?” He pulled back the covers. Her legs were puffy, as they had
been for the last couple weeks, but the bottom of her bed and the soles of her
feet were black with dirt and soot.

“What the
hell?” I stood up to take a closer look. Jack seemed as flabbergasted as I
felt. “Did you go somewhere last night?”

She frowned at
me. “Of course not.”

I knew it was
a ridiculous question. Bee couldn’t get up on her own to use the restroom; I
couldn’t imagine her traipsing all over the hospital grounds. Jack cleared his
throat and ran his fingers through his hair. He took a cotton swab from a wall
dispenser and ran it along the bottom of Bee’s foot. “I’ll speak with the nurse
who was on the night shift and have someone come in and help you get cleaned
up. I’ll be right back.”

He walked out
of the room and I looked at Bee. “Do you remember anything from last night?”

A smile
bordering on cruel spread across Bee’s face. “I know you were with him last
night.” She leaned forward and beckoned me with her finger. “And I know you saw
the light.” Her voice was low and dark, and I shivered.

“What light?”
She was freaking me out, and I wanted to back away from her, but I struggled
against my fear. This was
Bee
. She could’ve guessed I was with Jack last
night, but how could she know about the light on the ninth floor?

She blinked
and her sneer disappeared. She shook her head a little before looking at me
with a normal smile. “Ryan, when did you get here?”

I stood, gaping
at her—and then Jack returned with a nurse and an orderly. “They’ll help get
you cleaned up and change the sheets, Bee. Ryan and I will wait in the hall.”

Bee looked
confused and her eyes drifted to the foot of her bed. “Oh dear, what happened
there?”

Before I could
say anything, Jack told her there was nothing to worry about and ushered me out
of the room.

“She didn’t
even remember me being here. Right before you came back she got really weird.
She said she knew we were together last night—and knew that I ‘saw the light.’”

“We’ll run a
blood test to check her ammonia levels. I told you yesterday, this isn’t
entirely abnormal.”

“Well, it’s
not
normal
. Nothing about this is normal. And what about what she said
about the light? How did she know?”

“Know what?
What light?”

I sighed
impatiently. “The light on the ninth floor—the one we saw turn on last night.”

Jack’s
laughter filled the hallway. “You said she said she knew we were together last
night and that you’d seen the light.”

“Yes …” I
stared down at the floor. Nothing about this was funny. How could he be so
blasé?

“Ryan, Bee’s
been my biggest supporter in asking you out, hasn’t she?” I nodded, not sure
where he was headed. . “Maybe all she meant was she knows we were together and
that you finally saw the light—as in she’s glad you’re finally admitting you
like me as more than just a friend.”

Now I felt
sort of dumb. Could it be so simple—so innocent? Her hissing whisper replayed
in my memory and I shook my head. No, the comment wasn’t remotely light or happy.
It hadn’t even sounded like Bee at all. “Did you talk to the night nurse?”

“I left a
message for her.”

“What do you
think was on the bottom of her feet?”

Before Jack
could answer, my dad’s voice carried down the hall toward me. “There she is
now.” I turned to see Dad, Blair, and Briggs walking our way. The sight of
Briggs still managed to take my breath away. “Shit,” I muttered under my breath
and turned back to Jack. His face wore a questioning look, but I didn’t have
any answers—and even if I did, there wasn’t enough time to explain. I moved
closer to him and crossed my arms over my chest. Just as they reached us, Jack’s
name was called over the intercom.

He smiled
apologetically at everyone. “I’ll be back.” His hand brushed over my back as he
walked away.

“What are you
doing here?” I asked, looking directly at Briggs. “I told you not to come here,
but then you did. I told you to go home and leave me alone, yet here you are.
If I ask you to stay, will you leave?”

“Ryan—” my dad
started, but I cut him, off holding up a finger. This was between me and
Briggs.

“You haven’t
cared enough about me or my life to even call me more than once a year so you
don’t get to be involved now. Stay out of it.” I knew I was being completely
unfair if what Ashley said was true and they were just trying to protect me,
but that didn’t wash away years of resentment. Blair wisely looked everywhere
but at me. I turned back to Briggs, still fuming. His confident, you-can’t-resist-me
smile toyed at the corners of his mouth. “I’m not leaving until you talk to me.”

I threw my
hands up in the air. “I tried and tried and tried to talk to you for a month,
but you wouldn’t have anything to do with me. Now, all of a sudden, you want to
chat. I don’t care why you left anymore. Just stay gone.”

“Ryan, I know
you too well. If you really didn’t care, you wouldn’t be this angry. You and I
both know this isn’t over. Just hear me out.”

“You have a
lot of nerve.” I started toward him, my hands balled into fists at my side.
Blair’s arm shot out and pulled me away as Jack walked back to us.

“See, you’re
only proving my point.” He flashed a grin that used to make my knees go weak,
but now only made me want to sock him in the eye.

I took a
couple deep breaths and looked away, vowing to ignore Briggs for the rest of
the day. The nurse and the orderly came out of Bee’s room and nodded to Jack.
He cleared his throat, drawing everyone’s attention. “Bee isn’t feeling her
best today. I’m going to limit visitors to two at a time so she can get some
rest.” He looked at each of us. “It’s important you’re calm and collected while
visiting Bee. She doesn’t need the extra stress. Neil, Blair, why don’t the two
of you go in first?”

I started to
object, but Jack quelled me with a look and I stood down. He was right. I wasn’t
calm or collected at the moment, but that didn’t mean I wanted to be stuck out
here with Briggs. When Dad and Blair left, Jack stuck out a hand toward Briggs.
“I don’t believe we’ve met officially. I’m Jack Sadler.”

“Briggs Burke.”
They shook.

“Well,
Briggs
,
there’s a waiting room just down the hall.” Jack pointed behind Briggs.

Briggs looked
at me. “Shall we?”

I snorted. “Knock
yourself out.”

Jack smiled
cordially. “Yes, if you don’t mind …Ryan and I have a couple things to discuss.”

Briggs looked
back and forth between us before focusing on Jack’s hand that had moved to my
lower back. I had a brief moment of triumph. “You’re the one who answered her
phone.”

“As I said, we
were never officially introduced. The waiting room is just three doors down on
the right.” Jack and I turned in the opposite direction and headed for our
favorite meeting place—the stairwell.

I was a mixed
ball of emotions. I was worried about Bee, angry with Briggs and my family, and
confused about Jack. I appreciated him getting me away from Briggs so adeptly,
but Briggs had a point. It wasn’t over between us—or not conclusively. I was
angry, so angry, with him, but I knew at some point we would have to talk. Once
everything was out in the open, could I forgive him? Did he want to be
forgiven? He was my first and only love. Walking away from him was never going
to be easy.

Jack hadn’t
broken my heart, but I barely knew him. Nothing was certain, and I wasn’t sure
if or how I should express that to Jack. I looked up at him.

Jack seemed to
have his own inner conflicts going on behind his glasses and narrowed eyes
which made him all the more endearing. What I was doing wasn’t fair to him. But
what about my life had been fair recently? At the moment I didn’t care where I’d
be in a month. I wanted to kiss Jack and forget about Briggs. I slowly removed
his glasses before pressing my lips against his in a languid, sultry kiss that
reminded me Briggs wasn’t the only guy in the world. Jack broke away from me,
but he rested his forehead against mine for a few moments before he led me down
to the ninth floor landing. He backed me against the wall and nipped softly at
my bottom lip before slipping his tongue against mine in a sensuous caress. I
wrapped my arms around his neck, wanting him closer. He wound his fingers
through my hair cradled my head. I ran my hands down his chest and gripped his
waist, wanting him closer yet, as our tongues teased and explored each other.
Jack groaned against my mouth as I ground my hips into his. The texture of our
kisses changed. Jack gripped my butt, lifting me. My legs wrapped around his
narrow hips as he pressed me harder against the wall. Our kisses became faster
and more urgent with each passing second.

A loud click
made us stop, chests heaving. Jack let me slide back down to my feet, my heart
thudding in my chest. He glanced upstairs and down but didn’t say anything. I
stayed leaned against the wall, still getting my wits about me. He shrugged and
headed back my way. Smiling down at me, he tucked a strand of hair behind my
ear. “I like you like this.”

“Like what?”

“Messy hair,
flushed, swollen lips.” He framed my face in his soft, steady hands and kissed
me gently.

“Why do we
always come here?” The question slipped from my mouth.

Jack’s eyes
twinkled. “Because everyone is afraid to even walk past this floor since Leigh’s
fall, so no one uses the stairs anymore.”

Remembering I
had her name badge at my house put a damper on things, but I didn’t want to
tell Jack about any of my extra baggage at the moment. I forced a light tone. “Ah,
gruesome, but very wise, Dr. Sadler. So does that mean we have a reasonable
expectation of privacy?” I ignored the voice in my mind, questioning if my
sudden attraction to Jack was more about Briggs than it was about him. I
trailed soft kisses along his jaw, not ready to end our interlude just yet.

“I want
nothing more than to stay here and do this with you all day, but I have
patients.” He kissed me once more, but the combating thoughts in my mind had
already killed the mood.

Another loud
thump sounded right next to me and the wall shook. . Jack’s head snapped up,
though he didn’t move. We stared around the empty stairwell, the sound still
echoing in my ears. Then I saw it.