Two Months Later.
Jamie followed the two men single file through the woods. The air was warm, but she could smell fall creeping into the air. A few more weeks and a definite chill would permeate the forest. She concentrated on placing her feet as she walked. If this was a trail, it didn’t get much use. Chris had been the only one to track it a few times. Maybe some deer.
Chris and Michael moved silently ahead of her, glancing back occasionally to see if she was keeping up. Or to make certain she didn’t vanish. The three of them had a hard time being out of each other’s sight for very long. There were daily phone calls or texts, simple check-ins for no reason, other than the mental well-being that their loved ones were still safe.
The Ghostman was dead.
The police had linked several cold cases to Gary Hinkes, aka Gerald Prentice, with the governor’s help. The crimes ranged from murder to rape. Katy Darby and the others in the pit from the forest had been just a few of the bodies he’d left in his invisible wake. The local and national media had gone on about the Ghostman for weeks, hounding Chris and Jamie. They’d refused all comments and tried to live normal lives. Michael and the senator had made statements to the media requesting privacy for a family who’d been to hell and back.
The governor sat in the county jail. He’d confessed to the death of the woman in his office twenty years before, and his lawyers were arguing over what to do next. His confession had solved a cold case involving a woman’s body who’d been dumped near the capitol building. The senator had spent a week in the hospital after surgery to repair his femoral artery. Luckily, the artery was only nicked, and the governor’s fast action with his belt as a tourniquet on his brother’s thigh had probably saved his life.
Michael’s family struggled to comprehend that a beloved relative had their son murdered and then had callously let them wallow in depression and grief for two decades. Helping to save his brother hadn’t redeemed Phillip in his family’s eyes, especially since he’d nearly killed him first. Armchair psychiatrists claimed Phillip suffered from a God complex, believing he was privileged and his actions unquestionably correct. His family abandoned all contact with the governor.
Jamie glanced ahead at her brother, leading the way. If Chris was suffering emotionally, he never showed it. He’d stayed at her house for the first two weeks and then moved into a rental close by. She’d loved having Brian in her home. He’d brought a light into the house that had never existed before. He loved to talk to his aunt. They talked for hours at her kitchen table, and Jamie had learned he was smart as a whip. School started in a week, and he was both excited and nervous to attend public school for the first time. Chris hated the idea but hadn’t fought her; deep down he knew school was the right place for his son. Brian would be at Jamie’s school, and she’d sworn to check in on him several times a day.
The nights had been silent, not like the nights she recalled as a kid with her brother waking up the household with his screams. She’d immediately put Brian in counseling with the best child therapist she knew. Brian had blossomed and seemed to put his incident with the Ghostman behind him. He’d talked freely to Jamie about “the bad man” and accepted his father’s need to have him in sight most of the time. Jamie knew he’d do well in school. Chris was the one who would struggle with his son out from under his wing. She urged Chris to see a therapist too.
“We’ll see,” he’d answered with a half smile. She’d brought it up two more times and then given up. She had a hunch he was seeing a therapist on his own, not wanting to discuss it with family. He never said a word about the Ghostman, but Jamie would catch him studying his surroundings and faces of strangers when they were out in public, searching for something. He maintained a high level of constant alertness that had to be exhausting.
At the hospital, Michael had told his parents who Chris really was. Both Cecilia and her husband had stared from Michael to Chris and back again. Cecilia burst into tears and nearly collapsed onto her husband’s hospital bed. The senator had reached out a hand to Chris.
“Is it true?” he’d asked.
Jamie heard his voice shake and watched him scan Chris’s face, gripping his hand, searching for a hint of the boy he’d known. He must have found it, because recognition suddenly shone in his eyes.
“Daniel,” he whispered.
Cecilia rushed him, wrapping her arms around him and wiping tears on Chris’s shirt.
“I…I think I need to go by Chris,” Chris mumbled. He slowly wrapped his arms around his mother and closed his eyes.
His arms trembled slightly, and Jamie felt the pain of how hard that intimate contact was for her reclusive brother.
“I don’t care what you want to be called,” Cecilia stated. “You’re back. I always knew you’d come back. I never gave up hope. Never!”
The frail woman got more than her son back; she got her life back. Chris had been a match for her kidney transplant. The only male in her family with two strong kidneys had immediately undergone surgery for his mother. Six weeks had passed, and Chris moved like he’d never been under the knife.
Brian had been delighted to find he had an extended family and took to his grandparents right away. He’d confided in Jamie that he’d always wanted grandparents, but his dad had said they’d died in a car wreck. “Just like my mom,” he’d said with solemn eyes.
Jamie did her best to step into that mothering role that Brian had needed so desperately. Chris had tried hard to create a young man, but every young man also needs some coddling. Every boy needed a dog, too. Sheriff Spencer had found Juan’s missing dog and turned him over to Brian. The pair was inseparable. Brian was a happy boy who laughed and loved to share his imagination. He drew, like his father had, and dreamed up stories, which he shared with Jamie day after day. Most of the stories were of a young boy, his dog, and his exciting adventures, but occasionally the boy faced evil demons.
In his stories, the boy always conquered the demons.
Jamie loved him. She’d given Chris a piece of her mind about keeping the boy’s existence from her and then promptly forgiven him. Chris had provided her with an incredible gift in her nephew. It was odd. Her real brother was long dead. But when she looked at Chris, she couldn’t feel the loss. She’d searched for the emotions, combed through old pictures, trying to remember the real Chris, but this man had been her brother for the last eighteen years. The real Chris she’d known for eight short years.
Her left leg gave a small spasm, and she glanced down at the scars from the governor’s knife. They’d fade in time. A few stitches had put her back together. Therapy sessions had done away with most of the nightmares of being kidnapped by a vicious killer and locked in a car trunk. The sudden claustrophobia at weird times was new but nothing she couldn’t deal with. She simply avoided small, enclosed spaces.
Michael had installed a top-of-the-line alarm system in her home. They’d discussed moving in together, and agreed it was too soon, but he spent every night and day at her house. When Chris moved out, they’d approached the moving-in idea again. They agreed it was still too soon, and things were going great, so why mess up a good thing?
Then Michael put his house on the market.
Jamie’s eyes had nearly popped out of her head as she’d pulled up to his home and seen the sign. “What? When did you do that? Why did you do that?”
He’d shrugged. “I’m never home.”
“But…but…”
“Why am I paying someone to clean a house and a service to take care of the yard if I’m never there?”
“Well…but, I mean…”
“Don’t worry, princess. I’ve got a nice apartment picked out not too far from you. I feel like renting for a bit.” Then he’d given her a look. A look that plainly told her he had no intention of renting. Ever.
His house hadn’t sold yet. But he’d moved half his belongings into her little home. For a man, he had an incredible amount of stuff. Maybe they should considered living in his…
“Doing okay?” Michael asked over his shoulder as he held a branch out of her way.
Jamie looked up, smiled, and nodded. And felt her heart beat a little faster. Michael made her feel good. For a man with a wild streak, he was all seriousness when it came to the two of them. He put her first, he made her try new things, he made her leave the dishes on the kitchen counter overnight, proving that life goes on even if everything isn’t in its place.
For her, he was steadfast.
She’d fallen head over heels for the man. And had no idea when it’d happened. It’d crept up on her and snuck under her heart when she wasn’t paying attention. When she’d been locked in that trunk, he’d been all she could think about and all she’d worried about. Obviously, her love for him had started before that. Maybe it’d been that steamy night at the bed-and-breakfast, or when he’d arrived to take charge after her attack. It didn’t matter.
She was in love with Michael Brody.
It was the biggest leap she’d ever taken.
He waited for her to pass him on the deer trail and took her hand, walking side-by-side as their space had widened.
“Hey, gorgeous.” His green gaze held hers.
“Hey,” she whispered back. The forest was silent except for the crush of the dirt under their feet. Jamie embraced the peace of the woods and simply smiled at her man, moving in unison with him as they hiked. She’d never felt a connection like this one.