I gave him a nod and reached for the doorknob, turning it, opening the door, and taking in my surroundings before stepping inside.
I looked down the hall and saw a pool of blood on the floor. All thoughts of my own safety left me, and I took off at a run. Maybe it had been worse than I thought, and she was in really rough shape. At the sight of that much blood, my throat got tight and it got hard to breathe.
I ran down the hall and turned the corner into the living room, but came to a sliding stop.
There was Bobby.
Laying behind the couch in a pool of his own blood. Jesus, we had some fucking body count going today.
It may make me an asshole, but I said a silent prayer of thanks that it wasn’t Talie. I knew that much blood could not have meant good things.
Jace came into the living room and went to Bobby’s body to check for a pulse as I went to Talie.
I heard him murmur, “He’s dead,” as I smoothed my thumb along my beautiful woman’s bruised and bulging cheek.
“Talie, Baby. Wake up for me, please.”
Jace went on to question, “What in the fuck is goin’ on here? Two dead bodies, no explanation.”
Ready to tell him his guess was as good as mine, I looked up to see a set of female legs behind him.
I opened my mouth to let Kayla and Ruthie have it yet a-fucking-gain, when I realized it wasn’t what I had thought at all.
I started to shake my head to clear it, as I was obviously losing my mind, but when Jace saw my expression he turned, took in what I was looking at, and barked a staccato, “What. In. The.
Fuck
.”
Sweet Jesus, he saw her too?
All of a sudden, like the last puzzle piece had just snapped into place, all of my thoughts came clear.
The missing information in the safety deposit box.
The eyes I’d felt on me.
My paranoia.
My funky mood that I just couldn’t seem to shake.
All of the dreams I’d been having.
And the text didn’t come from an unknown number. It came from a very specific number. One that I’d called just a couple of weeks ago.
Jenny
.
Chapter 13
My voice was barely a whisper as it came out. “Winnie?”
My sister was standing in front of me. Fucking alive.
Even knowing that seeing her here like this couldn’t mean good things, I was still surprised when her voice came out cold and harsh as she angrily answered, “Hello Tucker.”
Before this loving reunion could go too far, I heard a whisper come from the couch below me as Talie started to come around. “Tuck?”
I shot down to my knees and got close to her face, “I’m here, Babe.”
She was a little disoriented, but happy to see me.
“Oh, thank God, Tuck. I didn’t know if I would see you again.”
She started to cry, and I pulled her into my arms. She didn’t seem upset with me, which I had probably been
irrationally
worried about in the first place. Nonetheless, it was still good news.
Basking in the fact that she was alive if not particularly well, I held her tight in my arms for several seconds, stroking her hair and kissing her head.
Beyond reason or explanation, I knew my long lost sister was still standing in front of me, but I was still more worried about the woman in my arms.
Talie’s voice was scratchy, but strong as she told me, “I want to stand.”
I didn’t really want her to stand, but I was so happy to have her back in my arms, I’d probably let her do just about anything right now. “Ok. Just be careful. Lean into me, Babe.”
I helped her up to her feet and started to turn her around, but as she took in the sight of Jenny, she gasped and wobbled. I’m sure she thought she was hallucinating too.
“She’s really there, Babe. Not your imagination.”
“But...how?”
“I don’t know yet. I’ve been paying attention to you.”
I turned my focus back to Jenny, and if anything, I found that the anger was coming off of her in even bigger waves. “What’s goin’ on Jen?”
I paused briefly, but in the end I couldn’t hold back the barrage of questions circulating in my head.
“How are you alive? What happened here? Did
you
shoot Bobby?”
God, I didn’t like the idea of his blood on my sister’s hands, but the situation at least may have warranted it if she had gotten into a confrontation with him. I could at least hope that was the case.
She stepped forward, her hair wild and eyes bulging, and, for the first time, I noticed the gun still in her hand. I stepped forward to try to take it from her, but she jerked backward and started talking frantically.
“Bobby had to die. He
killed
my beautiful Andrew. All because he wanted his own revenge on this
bitch
. I saw him do it. SawhimdoitSawhimdoitSawhimdoit.”
God, something was really wrong with her, and I guess, not at all in line with my hopes, she
had
planned on killing Bobby.
Not only did she look crazy, but now she sounded it too. Not to mention, she had just referred to her best friend as a bitch. This was not going to be good. And shit if that wasn’t the understatement of the year.
I saw Kayla and Ruthie coming down the hall behind Jenny, and a knot formed in my throat.
Sweet Jesus, the two of them never listened. I really hoped that they at least read the situation correctly and didn’t get themselves fucking killed. Or put any more blood on Jenny’s hands.
I knew she wasn’t in her right mind, but if we got her help, this would haunt her later. I knew the more people she hurt, the harder it would be for her to get over.
All of these years, all of this time, and this was the version of Winnie that came back to me. I just couldn’t make sense of it. It sounded terrible, but I would much rather have never seen her like this.
I felt helpless. She was acting crazy, fucking tortured really, and there was nothing I could do.
In the long run I could do something. I would get her help, but I had to find a way out of the current situation first.
After weighing my options, I started to try to talk her down, but she only had eyes for one person right now. And it definitely wasn’t me.
In the blink of an eye, I saw her raise the gun and point it at Talie. With a shaky hand and a voice to match Jenny whispered, “You. You fucking ruined
everything
and then you stole him. You stole him. StolehimStolehimStolehim.” She was angry, vindictive, and obviously losing it, and the object of her “affections” was my fiance. It was like a knife blade in my fucking chest to watch it play out.
“I tried to get rid of you, but you saw me. Ran out of the building before it could explode. ExplodeExplode.” She shook her head like she was trying to clear it and get her thoughts back on track. “You have no idea what I went through after you made him get rid of me. The deals I made to keep myself alive. NoideaNoideaNoidea.”
Talie was hysterically crying now. She knew something was wrong with Jenny, that she wasn’t speaking from a mentally stable place, but I could tell the words she was using were like a hot dagger slowly slicing through every inch of Talie’s body. She loved Jenny. Maybe even more than I did. And that was really saying something. So to have her friend, the woman she spent most of her time mourning and championing, tell her that she was her most hated enemy, broke her heart.
Jenny kept rambling, her whole body convulsing, and she had wild eyes. “Then. Then! Then, I find out where you went and it’s here. And my brother. Another person I couldn’t have that you could.”
No wonder I couldn’t figure out the feelings that I had felt associated with the eyes on me the whole time. They seemed like they weren’t malicious, but they did seem conflicted, and now it made sense.
I know it sounds crazy to be able to feel eyes on yourself, and more than that, know the feelings associated with those eyes, but if it could happen ever, it could definitely happen as a twin thing.
“You got away, so I left clues for Andrew. Told him where to find you. FindyouFindyouFindyou. I knew he would make sure you paid, but then
Bobby
had to ruin everything.”
I actually saw the red rage coat my sister’s eyes just as her finger started to squeeze the trigger.
Everything flashed before me within a fraction of a second, and I acted on the basic knowledge that I could no longer live if Talie wasn’t around to live with me.
I shoved Talie at same time that I stepped forward to block her with my body.
I heard the sound of the gun firing as I simultaneously felt the bullet tear through the middle of my back.
As the blackness started to close in I could hear the screams of everyone in the room, but Talie’s were distinct while everyone else’s just sounded like white noise.
“Tuck!
Tuck
! Oh my God, NO!”
I felt her kneel down and cradle my body. I noticed her tears splashing down onto my face, and I could taste the salt as some of them ran into my mouth. “Stay with me Tuck. God,
please
. Stay with me. I love you! I can’t do this without you!”
She was pleading with me, but as much as I fought to do more, the only thing I could do was whisper, “I love you too, Babe. Always.”
And then, everything went black.
Chapter 14
I opened my eyes to bright lights and the feeling of being alone.
Maybe I was dead.
Maybe this was heaven.
As I took in my surroundings, I knew that couldn’t be right.
Medical equipment filled every corner, and I was pretty sure heaven didn’t look like a hospital room. Besides, I wasn’t entirely sure that I was headed there when I kicked it anyway.
Being in the hospital made way more sense, but the feeling of being alone did not.
I didn’t like that Talie wasn’t here with me, and I really didn’t like that I had no idea what happened in that house after I passed out.
I had no way of knowing what happened to Talie, my friends, or what came of my sister. And there was no one here to ask.
Searching the side of my bed for the little remote that’s usually attached to these stupid beds so that I could call for a nurse or someone, I found that turning and twisting my body was extremely painful.
After almost a minute of subjecting myself to self-inflicted pain, my fingers finally found the cord that was attached to the remote (hopefully) and gave it a yank.
Luckily, it was the remote, but what I didn’t find particularly fortuitous was that it came flying at a rapid speed and smacked me in the face in order to confirm its existence.
After turning it the right direction, searching for the button I wanted, and grumbling for a few seconds about “stupid remotes”, I pushed the button to call for the nurse.
Several minutes passed and my impatience grew to an almost unreasonable level before the nurse sauntered her way into my room.
“My oh my. Look who’s awake. How are you feeling, sweetie?”
Ugh. She was using the seductive tone that women often used, and I really had no patience or time for it. “Where is my fiance?”
She looked confused so I put it in terms she would understand quickly. “Petite, auburn hair, pretty blue eyes, bruises on her beautiful face, love of my life. Where is she?”
She looked a little disappointed, her face twisting and contorting slightly, but she answered my question. Fucking Finally.
“Oh. The other man that was here made her go get checked out. She’s been glued to your side for hours, but he got pretty disgruntled and wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
Jace. Good man. “Alright. I wanna go see her.” I started to get up, and her face registered panic.
“No! You can’t get up. Lay back down, sir.”
“I want to see my fiance, and if she can’t come to me, I’m goin’ to her.”
I saw her reach for a needle and shove the point of it into my IV before I could protest. Everything got foggy, and before I knew it, everything was black again.
Son of a bitch.
********
This time I cracked my eye open to find that I wasn’t alone.
Unfortunately, it was the wrong sister sitting on my bed.
“Aw, sleepy Hotman. Welcome back, Bro.”
Jesus. “Where’s Talie? Is she alright?”
I was also wondering about Jenny, but I, quite frankly, was just more worried about Talie. I figured it was fair at this particular moment because, after all, Jenny had shot me while trying to shoot Talie.
Kayla nodded as she said, “Righto, Hotman. She just had a couple of cracked ribs, so she’s getting them wrapped up. I’m sure we won’t be able to keep her away after that.”
Cracked ribs? I had the irrational urge to bring Bobby back to life, just so I could kill him myself. And while I was at it, I might as well bring Drew back, so I could kill him too.
“I can see the rage building, but apparently, Andrew had a different plan and it probably would have been worse.”
I gave her a look, and she knew it meant that she better start explaining. Right. Fucking. Now.
I could hear the heart monitor beeping faster as my anger built and my heart rate sped up.
Jace and Ruthie, I belatedly noticed, were sitting in the corner, and Ruthie got up and walked over to the bed beside me.
She spoke softly, and her voice was a lot less exuberant than normal. “Calm down, Tuck. The bullet did a lot of damage, and the stress isn’t good. Nattie won’t forgive us if we get you all worked up.”
I got her point, but more prominently I wanted to hear the rest of this, so I worked to calm myself and slow the beating in my chest.
As the beeps slowed, Kayla started to talk again. “Okay. So according to Talie, Bobby rambled a lot. He was apparently in on it with Andrew, but when he saw Ruthie and Jace together again last night, celebrating with you guys, he snapped. He decided to get his own revenge instead of Andrew’s. So this morning he killed Drew, and then grabbed Natalie off the street when she went to the pharmacy.”
“I don’t fuckin’ get it. How is it possible that no one noticed he took her?”
They all looked contrite, and I knew something was up. “Somebody better fuckin’ tell me.”
This time Ruthie spoke, so I turned my head in her direction. “Okay, look, you’re not gonna like it. Apparently, Bobby told her he had me, so she went with him.”
Jesus. Talie. Always looking out for everyone else. “What is she crazy? She knew Jace was lookin’ out for you. Why would she think you weren’t safe?”
Guilt clouded Ruth’s face as she whispered her next words. “Well, last night I kinda told her that I’d been feeling bad about rubbin’ me and Jace in his face. I told her I wasn’t gonna do anything about it, you know talk to him or anything. But I guess she thought I lied.”
Of course. God.
“Did she see Jenny shoot Bobby?”
Jace took the reins on this one and shook his head. “Nah, man. She was unconscious. Apparently, most of her injuries were from early on when he got her. He knocked her out and she spent most’a her time sleepin’ on the couch.”
“She wasn’t fuckin’ sleepin’ Jace. She was unconscious.”
He tipped his head in acceptance of my point, and I asked my next question. “That much time out of it? Everything in her head’s okay?”
All three of them nodded, but Jace spoke again. “Yeah, man. Made sure they checked her out thoroughly. Knew you’d want it that way.”
Jace really was a good friend. “Thanks man. ‘Preciate it.”
He gave me a chin lift, and then murmured, “I’ll go check on her. See if I can’t get her up here quicker.”
I met his eyes, and he moved around the bed and out the door.
Okay, one person down, now onto the next. “What happened to Jenny?”
Their heads turned to one another, clearing trying to decide who was going to be the one who did the explaining.
Kayla answered, but for once it was like she was trying to be sensitive as she did. “Well, after everything turned to shit, Jace subdued her.”
God,
Winnie
.
Ruth touched my shoulder and added softly, “Don’t worry, Tuck. He was careful not to hurt her.”
I nodded and turned my eyes back to Kayla so that she would continue.
“When the sheriff and the ambulance got there, the paramedics started working on you because you were losing a lot of blood and it was a long way to a good hospital. They actually ended up airlifting you here.”
I guess I had been pretty bad off.
“The sheriff took Jenny into custody, but we explained that we thought she was having some kind of psychotic break, so they took her to the psychiatric hospital up in Nashville.”
Tears filled my eyes and I could feel the sting in my nose from trying to keep them from falling.
“We don’t know anything other than that yet.”
I needed a minute alone, so I choked out a hoarse request. “You think y’all could go call and see if you can find out anything?”
They both answered at once with a “Sure, Tuck.” and “You got it, Hotman.”
I closed my eyes as they left the room, just to try to compose myself, and fell asleep. A-fucking-gain. Apparently, getting shot makes you tired.
********
I hadn’t even opened my eyes this time, and everything already felt right with the world.
I could feel Talie’s warm body curled into me, her thigh thrown over mine just like she did when we slept in our own bed at night.
I could smell the light flowery scent of her body spray mixed with the great smell that was naturally her, and I could feel the silky softness of her hair against my jaw, throat, and chest.
The skin of her thigh was warm and soft below the hem of her shorts, and I moved my fingers to run back and forth along it, enjoying and savoring the feel of my skin gliding directly over any part of her.
Stirring confusedly out of her sleep and lifting her head, Talie reacted to the motion of my fingers and shivered.
“Hey Babe.”
Her head fell heavily back to my chest, she took a deep breath, and a sob escaped her throat as she whispered a very breathy, very meaningful, “
Tuck
.”
As she continued to cry into my chest, I stroked her hair, placed a kiss to the top of her head, and semi-repeated, “Babe.”
I could tell she needed to cry it out, to release all of the pent up emotion that had been eating at her, just like I had done in the barn that day. So I let her.
We stayed like that for several minutes before her tears subsided and her breathing returned to a normal soft whoosh.
Her next words came out in barely a whisper, but I managed to hear every one of them.
“Do you think we were
meant
to be together? All of the coincidences...it just seems like something put us together on purpose.”
My answering tone was much louder and much more confident. “I gotta tell you, Babe. Meant to be according to some higher power or not, it’s meant to be to me. You were the girl I had been waiting for. You were The One. And you still fuckin’ are.”
She lifted her head, looked me in the eye, and bit her lip as a tear escaped the bottom lid of her eye. “But look at all of the hurt I’ve brought you and Jenny. Maybe she was supposed to kill me. Then you would be together, but I wouldn’t be in the middle. Maybe...I’ve already played my role for you.”
“First of all, you think if she shot you, me and her wouldn’t have problems?”
She took that in as I kept making my point. “And second, your role with me won’t be played out until we’re old and dead with a whole bunch’a kids and grandkids left behind.”
“But you were almost
not
old but still very
dead
because of me.”
“Did you shoot me?”
She looked surprised by my question even though it seemed like the obvious one to me.
Meekly, she murmured, “Well, no. But-”
“Would you have pushed me outta the way and taken the bullet if you could’a?”
I didn’t even give her a chance to answer because I knew the answer and so did she. She wouldn’t have fucking hesitated to take that bullet for me if she’d known it was coming.
“Listen, Babe. I’ll make this simple for you so that there’s no confusion. If you try to take off, I’ll just chase you down. If you try to push me away, I’ll pull you back. I’ll do whatever the fuck I gotta do to keep you close to me for as long as I fuckin’ can. Not ever lettin’ you go.”
As I saw my statement soak into her mind I added one more declaration for good measure. “Not ever.”
She rolled her eyes and breathed a deep sigh before talking. “Alright. I get it. I actually got it after the first ‘Not ever’.”
Christ. Laying in a hospital bed, pouring out my feelings because she was genuinely upset five seconds ago, and she busts my balls in return.
I decided to ignore it and try to get a pulse on her condition instead. “How are you feelin’?”
She breathed a heavy sigh, and it was all too clear that I had ruined any glimmer of a good mood. “I’m fine, Tuck. I’m worried about you. And Jenny.”
Yeah, I was worried about Jenny too. God, thinking about my beautiful sister not only going through such awful things but actually
doing
awful things to so many people made my heart twist and my stomach churn.
I could only hope that she would get help where she was now and that they would find out where things had gone so wrong for her.
“Listen, Babe. At least she’s better than we thought she was yesterday. She’s not dead, and she’s getting help. We’ll deal with the rest as it comes, and we’ll be there for her as much as she’ll let us.”
She tucked her face to my chest and nodded, a small sniffle making it to my ears.
“I asked Kayla and Ruthie to try to find out some more information about how she’s doin’, but as soon as I’m outta here, get the all clear, and you feel up to it, we’ll go see her.”
“I don’t want to upset her.”
“Talie. She didn’t mean any of that shit that came out of her mouth. She’s sufferin’ and she took it out on you. Once they get everything figured out with her, she’ll be happy to see you.”
God, I hoped that was true. I hoped that there actually was something to figure out, and she wasn’t just crazy forever. And I really hoped that she would grant Talie the acceptance that she so desperately wanted.
Either way, it wouldn’t do any good to let Talie know that I was worried about it, so I kept up my confident facade.
“Now snuggle with me, Babe. Relax and just let me hold you for now. After that whole ordeal, I kind of need it.”
She snuggled into me deeper, kissed my chest, and murmured, “Me too.”