The Divine Whisper (19 page)

On the third ring, the deep voice of Malachi came through.
“Hey.”

“Trinity,” was all Gemariah was able to croak out.

“What’s going on?”

“Trinity, now!”

There was a small shuffling noise along with mumbling before Trinity was on the line. “Gemariah, what’s going on?”

“Nicole won’t answer her phone.”
His voice had turned to a whisper as his airway started to close up.

A loud sigh came through the line.
“Gemariah, you have to give her time.”

“Dammit, listen!”
The raising of his voice made him cough. “Ricin in… prenatal vitamins. Nic won’t answer.”

“Oh shit!
I’m on it.”

Before he could say anything more, Trinity disconnected.
What was she going to do… go find her or call her? What if she just called her and nothing was done? Nicole was headstrong, and might not listen.

“Get your ass out of here, Gemariah.”

Gideon’s voice made him turn around with a questioning look.

“You’re not thinking straight, and could potentially fuck everything up with your lack of concentration. Get out of here.”

Gemariah wanted to argue. He could do his job, and he’s done it well for many years. Then again, nothing had terrified him as much as he was right then, so he knew Gideon was right.

Without another word, Gemariah started to walk out, but stopped and looked backwards over his shoulder when Gideon spoke up.

“Word of advice though… You’re covered in this shit.” He nodded his head to indicate the basement. “I’d wash up and change clothes before I went to go see her.”

With a single nod, Gemariah walked out.
So… Gideon had known why Gemariah was all but having a meltdown. More than that, he sent him out so he could go to her. Maybe he wasn’t as big of a prick that everyone thought him to be.

Taking Gideon’s advice, he walked to the front of the house, and turned on the hose.
Stripping off his pants and shirt, he turned the hose on himself, successfully ridding himself of the powder and blood that was left on him.

Once he figured himself cleaned off, he did one more rinse of his eyes then mouth, swishing around the water before spitting it out.
Then he turned the hose on the clothes on the ground. He figured he would eventually have to burn them, but wanted to clean them off before putting them in his truck.

Determining that everything was done enough, he walked over to turn the water off.
Straightening, he gave a small shiver. Early February was not the time to drench yourself from head to toe, outside.

Standing back up after grabbing his clothes, he stopped in his tracks when he noticed that a woman walking her dog had stopped to stare.
Observing his surroundings, he also noticed a woman across the street, was watching him through her front window. Then when he looked to his right, and saw an elderly man helping his wife inside the house a couple doors down. Both of them had stopped to stare, as well. Finally, the man scowled and kept walking. Gemariah made out the sound of him mumbling to the woman about not understanding young kids anymore, but she was too busy smiling to pay any attention.

Realization finally hit, and he looked down.
Dripping with water, the only thing he had on was his boxer briefs and even those were soaked through, successfully not hiding a thing. At closer inspection, he didn’t think the show was that bad considering how cold he was. Shrugging, he looked back up, and started to walk back to his truck. Passing the woman with the dog, he looked her way, and smirked. “Beautiful day, isn’t it?” His voice had taken on a raspy quality that sounded more sultry than intended. Without waiting for an answer, he continued to his truck.

Once there, he opened the back door, and pulled out an old shirt.
Putting it to his nose, and smelling it, he declared it clean enough to dry off with. After doing so, he found his extra clothes he always kept in his truck, and put them on. Once his pants were on, he reached in and ripped his underwear, so he could take them off without giving the people more of a show then he already had.

He could have sworn he heard a gasp from the woman that was still watching him, but he didn’t care.
Maybe on any other day, he would have done something about it, but he had more important things on his mind right then.

Tossing his wet clothes in the bag that his new ones had come out of, he threw it into the bed, and hopped in the driver’s seat.

As he started up the car, he got an eerie feeling and the hairs on the back of his neck started to stand.
Swiveling his gaze around, he looked at a house just in time to see long platinum hair sway inside, before the front door closed.

Figuring that his mind was playing tricks on him, he gave his head a slight shake, and put his truck in gear.
The only thing on his mind as he drove off was to get to Nicole’s house and make sure she was okay.

CHAPTER 7

What a day Nicole was having.
Everything about her life just seemed to be dragging her down. Between her job, the pregnancy, and Gemariah, she was worn out.

It had gotten to the point where she would always tire quickly.
Sure, she would have spurts of energy that were wonderful, but after they were done, she felt dead to the world. That’s what the little one was doing to her, but she knew it came with the territory of being pregnant.

The day had started like any other day.
She woke up, got ready for work, and was in a good mood until she saw Gemariah’s truck in her driveway. What happened to keeping his distance? At least her call to Trinity had helped, because he left not five minutes later. Sometimes it was nice to have a friend on the inside.

The last week had been so hard to not give into his charm, but she had decided to keep her distance until she was ready to let go of everything from their past.
It wasn’t fair to him if she couldn’t.

It wasn’t easy, though.
Every time he came around, her stomach started doing somersaults, and she had to tamp down the excitement she felt. He could easily make her forget all her reservations, and throw caution to the wind. The only bad part was that she knew what could happen to someone when they let their guard down. Therefore, every time he came around, she fought not to open the door.

When Gemariah left her house, she let out a deep breath to calm her nerves, but it didn’t work.
Traffic was heavy, the heater broke at her office, and she had a stack full of paperwork that she had to go through that morning. Therefore, by lunch her muscles were aching, and her head was pounding.

That’s when she got the call from Trinity.
She didn’t understand it all, but it had to do with poisoned prenatal vitamins. If that wasn’t enough to freak out an expecting mother, she didn’t know what was.

She left to go home and grab her vitamins so she could take them to Trinity.
She was only home a few minutes but it was when she was getting ready to leave that she heard it… the sound of screeching tires, right in front of her house.

Running to the window, she peered out, but all she could see was the tail end of a black truck.
The same black truck, she had seen out that very window every evening... Gemariah. The thought no sooner crossed her mind before a loud pounding on the door caused her to squeak in surprise.

“Nicole.
Open the door.”

Why did his voice sound so weird?
As quietly as she could, she slowly walked to the door and strained her ears to listen.

“I know you’re there, Nicole.
I really need you to open up.”

Pressing both hands on the door, she rested her forehead against the surface, and waited.
She wanted to open the door in the worst way, but couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“Okay, listen.
There may be some pills circulating that are posing as vitamins when they are actually pure ricin.”

She stayed silent, hoping he would leave.

There was a hard slap against the door, and she jumped back.
“Dammit, Nicole! This is not the fucking time to be stubborn. Ricin! Do you know what that means? It means you and our baby
die
! Open up, I need to make sure your vitamins are safe.”

She felt her heart race faster and her body grew warmer from his concern over her.
The least she could do was calm his fears. “Trinity already called me. I have the pills, and I was going to drop them off with her. I appreciate you wanting to make sure we were okay, but as you can hear, we are, so you can go.”

It was so quiet that she thought he might have already left.
Her hand had just reached the knob when he started to quietly talk. “Nicole, please open the door. So much has happened, and I just need—” He stopped, and she found herself wanting to know exactly what he needed, but she stayed silent.

“I’m sorry… for that boy outside the coffee shop, I’m sorry.
Don’t get me wrong, I probably still would have had words with him about his behavior, but I should have handled it differently. I see that now.”

She was not expecting any of that, but she still felt as if she needed time to process everything.
If he walked away, she could do just that.

“Today brought so much into perspective.
I had an assignment, and after it was over, I couldn’t help but think… what if something happened to me, and I couldn’t be there for you. The thought made my chest constrict. I want to be there for you. I want to be there for our baby… and I will be. You just need to… open the door.”

He paused, and she found herself holding her breath, waiting for him to continue.
When he finally did, she strained to hear him, worried that she would miss just one word.

“I’ve never begged for anything in my life, even in situations any normal person would have, but I am now.
Please, give me a chance. Please, just open—”

Before he could finish, she quickly undid the deadbolt and swung open the door.

He was standing with each arm braced on separate sides of the frame, and his head was bowed.
Slowly, he brought it up to look at her, and what she saw had her jaw dropping in shock. There were scratches down his neck, not too deep, but painful looking none the less. His eyes were a nasty looking red, and his breathing was labored. What the hell had happened to him?

Without giving another thought, she stepped in close, and brought her hand up to lightly touch near the ugly scratches.
The moment she felt skin, he let out a shaky breath and wrapped his arms around her.

The action was so unfamiliar from him, that she didn’t know how to react.
When he didn’t let go right away, she stated to relax. Resting the side of her head on his chest, the only thing she wanted at the moment was for him to be okay.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m much better now,” he mumbled into her hair.

“No really.”
She placed a hand on his chest, wishing that he would start breathing normally. With her being as close as she was, there was no way he could hide his wince from her. Before he could stop her, she reached up, and pulled down the neck of his shirt. “Oh my goodness! You need to go to a hospital.” The sight was enough to make her light headed. How was he still walking around with a hole that size in his chest?

“I’m fine.
It’s not as bad as it looks.”

She pushed away from him to dig in her purse for her phone.
“Are you kidding me? You have to have that looked at.”

“I’ll be okay.”
He stumbled backward. “I just need to sit down.” Without going inside, he sat on the floor of the porch, and leaned against the house.

“What are you doing?
Come inside, so you can sit on my couch.” She tried to tug up on his arm, but he wouldn’t budge.

Shaking his head slightly, he grabbed her arm, and gently pulled her down so she was facing him and straddling one of his legs.
“Nah. Me and this spot have become accustomed to one another. It’s… a lot nicer… with you out here, though.”

Talking was obviously getting harder for him.
It was as if he couldn’t get enough air into his lungs. Panic flared inside of her, and she fumbled with her phone to dial 911. Just when she was about to have it dialed, a big hand clamped over the phone.

“No doctors… I’m fine.”
When she opened her mouth to argue, he moved his hand so three of his fingers went over her mouth. “Malachi… you can call him.”

“Malachi?”
The word was muffled from his fingers still over her mouth, so she moved her head to the side to dislodge them. “No. You need to see a doctor.”

“You need to… trust me on this.” His determined expression got her to cave, and with an aggravated sigh, she started to dial Malachi’s number.
Maybe his friend could talk some sense into him, and get him to go to the hospital.

She dialed and tried to get up, but he quickly snaked his arm around her.
“Stay,” was all he said as he pulled her against him.

Accepting that that was what he needed at the moment, she relaxed against him, being careful not to touch any injury that she knew of.
Holding the phone up to her ear, she listened as the phone rang a few times. Just when she thought he wasn’t going to answer, Malachi’s voice was at the other end of the line. She had already started talking before he could finish saying, “Hello.”

“You have to come get Gemariah.
He’s hurt and at my house, and he’s refusing to let me call an ambulance.” She knew she sounded hysterical, but she didn’t care.

“Easy, Tink.
Calm down,” Gemariah said as he ran his hand through her hair. He was trying to calm her, but the gasping breaths that were a result of him trying to speak terrified her even more.

Ignoring him, she focused her attention of the phone call. “Malachi? Are you there?” she said when Malachi still hadn’t spoken.

“He’s right, Nicci.
You don’t need to get worked up. It’s not good for you or the baby,” Malachi finally said.

Nicole didn’t understand what the problem was with those men.
Getting more irritated by the second, she ran her fingers through her hair and growled into the phone. “No! You don’t understand. I don’t know why the two of you aren’t doing something about this. Your friend has a hole in his chest the size of small fruit and he can barely talk since he CAN”T BREATHE. Why the hell are you not more concerned about him?” Her voice had risen considerably during her rant.

“Is it just me…, or are you… actually… worried about me?”
It sounded as if he was getting worse.

“Shut up!
Don’t talk more than you have to.”

His answer was to close his eyes and lean his head back against the wall.
Of course it wasn’t without an irritatingly slight smirk.

“Don’t mistake my patience for not caring.”
It took her a moment to realize that Malachi was talking again. She forced herself to look away from Gemariah so she could pay attention to what he was saying. “I’m already in my truck and on the way there.”

“Truck?
I thought you only had motorcycles. When did you get a truck?”

“I’ve had it for a while.
I have it for when the weather is bad or I have an incapacitated passenger.” His attempt at humor was not lost on her. She didn’t laugh, but she did feel herself start to calm somewhat because of his placid voice.

“Okay.
That makes sense.”

“Now.
I’ll be there soon. Keep him comfortable until I get there.”

She looked around at her front porch and then down to the concrete that he was sitting on.
She didn’t know how comfortable she could keep him out there, but she agreed anyway. Disconnecting the call, she laid the phone down next to her leg. For a moment, all she did was stare down at her hands on his leg.

“You… okay?”
Gemariah’s question brought her gaze back up to him. His head was up, and he was staring right at her.

“I thought I told you not to talk unless needed.”

Without saying a word, he cocked his head slightly to the side and lifted a single corner of his mouth in a small grin.
Lifting his arm, he slowly brought his hand up to caress the side of her face.

Feeling uncomfortable with his show of affection, she reached up and removed his hand, but didn’t let go when she brought their hands down to her lap.

“You’re too stubborn for your own good, you know that right?”

In response to her question, his slight grin turned into a full on smile.

“And pigheaded… and arrogant.”
When his smile grew bigger, she shook her head in exasperation. “And too charming for your own good.”

With slow movements, he brought his arm back up, but wrapped his hand around the back of her head instead to pull her back down to his chest.
For a moment, she stayed still, not wanting to hurt him, but after a short minute, she felt her body slowly start to mold against his. Once her body was as loose as it could be, they both let out a slow breath.

“I’ve been… a jackass.”

“Shh. Don’t speak.”

“I need to get… this out.”
When she moved to sit up and look at him, he locked his arm around her to keep her where she was. “We started this… all wrong, you… and me. Sometimes I say stupid things… or do things ass backwards. What happened… between you and me after the party… should never have happened like that.”

She stiffened at his words.
Without that night, she wouldn’t be carrying her baby; a baby that she had become severely attached to. Was he saying that he didn’t want the baby?

His fingers started to massage her scalp.
“Relax. Stop thinking so much.” He took a strangled breath in and placed his free hand on her extended belly before continuing. “I don’t regret… the end result, I just wish… that it would have occurred differently. I want to be there. Please don’t… please don’t shut me out… anymore.