Release (20 page)

When she spoke, I could tell she was still crying. “This is safe, right? For you? Because now I’m worried sick about you
and
Drew.”

“I’m very healthy. I get intense physicals every year. Don’t worry.”

“Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath and letting it out. “When?”

“I’ll be home tomorrow. The doctors are fast-tracking it because if Drew gets much worse he won’t be able to handle the surgery.”

“Okay,” she said again. After a beat, she laughed softly.

“What’s funny?” I asked.

“I was planning to tell you I wanted to move in with you.”

A grin spread across my face. “Really? I’m holding you to that.”

“Well, this may be good timing because I want to take a leave from work for the surgeries, and that’ll mean I can’t pay my rent.”

“Take a permanent leave. I don’t know where I’ll end up or what I’ll be doing when I recover from the surgery, but I want you with me.”

I held my breath for a few seconds of silence. I’d never wanted such a tight relationship with anyone, and
want
didn’t really describe my current state of mine. I
needed
to know Samara was all in when it came to us. I sure as hell was.

“I will,” she said. “I want to take care of you when you get out of the hospital. Wherever you are, that’s where I want to be too.”

My body relaxed with relief. Dad had always said everything happened for a reason. I knew I was meant to save Drew. But now I also knew Samara was willing to put aside her greatest fears for our relationship. I was at my lowest, with nothing to offer her but myself, and she was opening her arms to me. At that moment I realized I hadn’t just found the first woman I’d ever wanted to live with – I’d found my forever.

I pressed a button to increase the speed of the treadmill I was running on at the Henley Rec Center. I was full of nervous energy that I couldn’t get rid of. I ran, lifted weights, did errands for Mom and had even cleaned her basement earlier today.

I’d passed the tests to donate a kidney to Drew, but now he couldn’t get cleared for surgery because he was so weak. We were all just waiting and hoping.

Olivia was like the walking dead. She’d hardly slept or eaten in days. She just sat by Drew’s bedside, her hand wrapped around his tiny one. I wanted to be there for her, but I couldn’t stand to see him hanging on the edge of life and death. It ripped me apart inside. When I tried to go to the hospital, I was like a caged animal. I needed to be moving. It was the only way I could function right now.

Samara and my mom were trading off being with Drew and Olivia at the hospital. I helped with Chloe when they needed me to, but mostly I was keeping busy every second, my phone glued to my hand, waiting for the call.

This had to work out. I couldn’t watch my nephew slip away from this world when the thing that would save him was in my chest. I’d never wanted anything as badly as I wanted this surgery to go forward.

If I ever saw Olivia’s piece of shit husband Joe again, I planned to beat him within an inch of his life. The thought of him living his life somewhere else right now while his son was clinging to life filled me with rage.

My legs burned from the exertion of the hard run. I glanced down and saw that I’d done eight miles. I’d push on. The discomfort in my legs at least gave me something to focus on besides my worry and anger.

When I reached out to increase the incline on the treadmill, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I jumped to the sides of the treadmill and pulled it out.

“Hello?” I said breathlessly.

“Mr. Caldwell?”

“Yes.”

I closed my eyes, my heart pounding in my chest from the workout and my anxiety. This had to be it. It just had to be.

“Hi, this is Greg Maxson, the PI from Phoenix.”

My brow furrowed with confusion. I’d been expecting Drew’s doctor.

“Uh, hi,” I said. “What’s up?”

“Just letting you know that when we tried to locate Matthew Carlson this evening, we were unable to find him.”

I rubbed a hand down my face, exhaling deeply. “What the fuck does that mean? I thought you had tabs on him all the time.”

“Yes, sir. We have a GPS on the car he borrows from an acquaintance, but he’s not in it. We checked all the spots we know he hangs out at and he’s not at any of them.”

“Shit,” I muttered.

“Is there anything else you’d like us to do? We can check the train and bus stations and the airport.”

“Yeah.” I stepped off the treadmill. “Just keep looking for him and let me know if you find him.”

“Yes, sir.”

I pressed a button to end the call and sighed deeply as I typed out a message to Samara.

Me: Detective can’t find Matt. Where are u? I’m leaving the gym right now.

This was a nightmare. If Matt showed up when I was in surgery or hospitalized, there would be no way for me to protect Samara. Options started running through my head. I’d hire a bodyguard to be with her. Maybe an off-duty cop would want to make some good cash.

Casey’s brother was a cop. I texted him to call me on my way out to the parking lot. Samara hadn’t texted back, so I wrote my mom asking where she was. I needed to know she was safe right now.

I’d thought my cage couldn’t get any smaller, but it just had. I was like a lion in a tiny box, and I was about to blow. Having the life of one person I loved in danger was bad enough. Now there were two. At least I could do something to protect Samara.

I tapped my foot on the ground as numbers rolled by on the gas pump. All the coffee I’d been drinking at the hospital made me have to pee constantly. I wanted to wait until I got back to Diane’s house, but I wasn’t sure I could make it.

My body was tired, but sleep was impossible. Even when Diane was with Olivia and it was my turn to sleep, I couldn’t. I tossed and turned and stared up at the ceiling. When Orion and I slept together in his bed at Diane’s, we just curled our bodies together and breathed in sync, both awake but silent. Chloe slept there with us, and I’d stroke a hand over her soft curls even when she was snoring softly. It had a calming effect on me.

The stress was catching up with me, and I hoped that tonight, I’d sleep whether I wanted to or not. I was feeling foggy and slow from fatigue.

The gas pump clicked to a stop and I put it back, tightening the gas cap on my car. My bladder was uncomfortably full. I was going to have to pee here.

I was about to head into the gas station when I remembered this one had a bathroom around back with a door that led right into it. It was disgusting, too. But I had to go so bad that I couldn’t be picky.

The handle turned when I twisted it, and I sighed with relief. I’d have been bouncing from foot to foot on the sidewalk to hold it in if someone had been in there.

I stepped in and closed the door, putting my fingers on the lock on the handle to twist it. The handle spun and the door hit me when someone pushed it open.

Matt walked in the grimy bathroom and my stomach plunged to the floor. His nose was slightly crooked, with small purple streaks next to it. The dark, murderous glare I knew all too well bored into me. The sense of terror in my gut was also familiar.

“Samara,” he said calmly. He pushed the door closed and twisted the lock.

I wanted to scream, but my lungs were empty. I couldn’t even get a breath in them. The pee I’d been trying to hold in started to escape from sheer fear. I was going to die in this bathroom.

“Thought you were pretty smart, sending your boyfriend to see me, didn’t you?”

I ran to the far wall of the bathroom, pulling out my phone. Ignoring the text from Orion, I dialed 911. Matt was on me a second later. My purse and phone dropped to the floor as his hand encircled my throat. He held me against the wall and a sick sense of dread crept up my throat.

“You miss me?” he said, smiling. “Your boyfriend broke my fuckin’ nose, you know. You’re gonna need to make that up to me.”

I sucked air in, trying to fill my lungs. My hands clawed frantically at his wrists, desperate to break his hold on my airway.

His other hand snaked up the bottom of my shirt and I tasted vomit. He squeezed one of my breasts so hard tears formed in my eyes.

I could see Orion in that moment. I heard the quiet words of love he whispered in my ear. I felt his hands touching me gently. And something inside me snapped.

I shoved a knee into Matt’s groin and forced my thumbs into his eye sockets, pressing with every ounce of strength I had. My throat was burning. I needed air.

Matt roared with anger, and his hand fell away from my throat. I drank in air deeply.

“You cunt!” He punched me in the face and my head slammed against the tile wall. A dull pain erupted into a sharp ache in my head and I saw two of Matt.

“No,” I said softly.

Both of the Matts gave me an evil grin before they merged back into one person again.

“You’ve gotten feisty,” he said, slapping me across the face. I cried out with pain and his smile widened.

“I might enjoy that a little more,” he said, unbuttoning his pants and lowering his fly. “Fight me, Samara.”

I slid away from the wall, hoping to run. His hand closed around my hair and he dragged me to the ground.

“On your back,” he said through gritted teeth. I slammed the heel of my hand into his eye.

“Fuck,” he muttered. “Okay, then. We’ll do this the hard way.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife. My insides liquefied as I saw him reach for the button to flip out the blade.

I flew at him – kicking, clawing and screaming. He might kill me in this bathroom, but I wasn’t going down without a fight. The knife fell to the floor and I kicked it away from his reach.

He was so strong. Every hit left me dazed. We rolled on the floor, him fighting me with one hand while he worked his pants down with the other.

Never again. I’d told myself that when I moved to Henley. I’d always thought running would be my protection, but I couldn’t outrun this. I’d have to fight him off or die trying.

I shoved my thumbs into his eye sockets and pressed hard. He cried out and reached for my wrists and I pushed harder, channeling all my strength into it. When his hands flew to cover his eyes, I scrambled out from under him and worked both my hands into his short hair. I held on for dear life and pulled his head up from the tile floor, slamming it down with everything in me.

The bathroom went quiet and I ran to the door, turning the lock and throwing it open. I screamed and ran toward the police lights in the parking lot. I was bleeding and hurting, but I was alive. I’d just faced my greatest fear and fought for myself. And against all odds, I’d won.

I pushed past the uniformed cop trying to hold me back.

“Samara!” I yelled.

She’d texted me the name of the gas station and I’d driven ninety miles an hour to get here. There were sirens everywhere, and terror took hold when I’d pulled in, afraid I was too late. Terrified that Matt had gotten to her before I could.

A paramedic approached and took my arm.

“Orion Caldwell?” she said. “She’s asking for you.”

“Is she okay?”

“We’re taking her in, but I think she’ll be alright, yeah.”

I ran to the ambulance and stepped in the back. Samara sat on a stretcher, and the sight of her made me see red. One of her eyes was blackened and swollen. Her cheek was red and puffy. And her shirt was ripped and stained with blood.

I dropped to my knees next to the stretcher, tears hitting my cheeks before I could get any words out.

“Baby, I’m so sorry,” I said. I wanted to cradle her face in my hands, but I was afraid of hurting her.

“I’m okay,” she said, smiling. Tears glistened in her eyes and she reached for my hands, lacing our fingers together. “I’m okay.”

I shook my head, my chest tight with anger. “I convinced you to stay in Henley and I didn’t protect you.”

She reached toward my cheek and brushed a tear away.

“I couldn’t be anywhere but here right now. And it’s over. Matt was arrested and he’s going back to prison for parole violation and for attacking me. The whole thing was recorded on a 911 call.”

I closed my eyes, trying to force the rage away. “But look at you. He hurt you, and that’s my fault.”

“I hurt him, too.”

I opened my eyes and she was smiling. I furrowed my brow in confusion.

“I did it,” she said. “I decided I was going to fight him off or die trying, and I did it.”

I remembered Matt’s sinewy arms and calculating eyes. He’d punched me hard enough to ring my bell when I went to Arizona. How the hell had Samara fought him off? I was in awe of her inner strength.

Cold fear settled in my chest as I considered that it could’ve gone the other way. Samara could’ve died tonight. I choked back a fresh wave of tears as I thought about losing her.

“I’m okay,” she said, wrapping her arms around my shoulders. I pressed the side of my face to her chest and felt the steady beat of her heart.

We must’ve been a sight. She was the one injured, but I was on my knees next to the stretcher being comforted by her.

“Did you want to come with her to the hospital?” the paramedic asked me, her hand resting on the ambulance door to close it.

I nodded and she shut the door.

“Just sit down and buckle up,” a male paramedic in the back of the ambulance said. I stood and felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. I pulled it out to answer the call.

“Hello?”

“Mr. Caldwell?”

“Yes?”

“It’s Dr. Altman. I have good news. The transplant surgery is a go first thing tomorrow morning.”

I sat down in a seat on a wall of the ambulance, my shoulders sagging forward with exhaustion and relief.

“Thank you,” I said, my throat tightening with emotion.

“Can you check in to the hospital at six AM?”

“I’ll be there.”

When I hung up, Samara was giving me a hopeful look, her brows raised.

“Tomorrow,” I said.

She reached for my hand and I took hers in mine. Seeing her battered face made the horror of this night wash over me again.