One Tiny Secret

Chapter Thirty Two

Phoebe and I watch as they load Parker into the back of the ambulance. She wraps her arm around me and gives me a light squeeze. I rest the side of my head on her shoulder and savor this brief moment of safety.

“They’ll allow one of you to ride with him if you want,” my father says, walking over to us.

I’m kind of surprised he’s even entertaining the idea of me riding in the ambulance with Parker, especially after he punched him. I turn to look at Phoebe. Before I can tell her that she should go, she pipes up.

“You should go. I’m just his stepsister. I think he’ll want you there more, anyway.”

“That’s not true. You should be with him,” I reply with a wan smile.

She releases a hollow laugh. “Don’t argue with me, okay? Just go.”

I give her a full-on hug and she completely embraces it. Pulling back, I see the strained smile on her face.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this, Dad?”

“Well, he did just help save my daughter, so I think he’s redeemed himself,” he replies, ushering me toward the ambulance.

I grab the handle at the side of the door leading into the back of the vehicle and climb aboard. “Looks like I’m coming with you,” I say as I take a seat next to Parker’s stretcher. He just smiles at me through the oxygen mask hugging his face.

Looking back out the doors, I see my dad still standing there with a worried look.

“I’ll see you at the hospital, Dani,” he says just before the paramedic closes up the back.

I feel Parker reach for my hand. He interlocks his smooth fingers with mine and I see him smile again through the mask. A tear rolls down my cheek, but I don’t say a word. I just keep gazing down at him, so thankful that we get to have this moment together.

When we reach the hospital, I don’t even have a chance to say a proper goodbye to Parker. They immediately unload and rush him through the emergency room doors. One of the paramedics stays behind to take me into the waiting room, which is cold and sterile-looking.

As I sit down in the chair closest to the entrance, my eyes scan the few people seated in the area. I’m quickly reminded of why I hate hospitals. They’re always filled with heartbreak and worry over loved ones.

I find myself counting down the minutes until someone I know shows up to keep me company—either that, or the call to go up and see Parker. I fidget in my seat, unable to sit still. The uncomfortable waiting room chairs probably aren’t helping much in that department. My nerves are shot, and I try to clear my head and not think about anything. This is the worst thing for me right now, being alone with my thoughts. Any one of us could have died tonight, and I wonder if Unknown’s pissed off because he didn’t succeed.

The picture of Kevin’s head seeps into my mind, and I try to shake it, not wanting to relive how I felt when I saw it in the dark room. I’m not sure I can endure this for much longer. So many people are dying around me—people I care about.

Giving into my thoughts, I rest my head in my hands to take advantage of a quiet moment to myself. My hands move to cover my face as I cry.

“There you are, Dani.” I hear my father’s voice come from near the entrance.

I raise my teary eyes to his and see his concern. He moves to sit next to me, taking me in his arms. “I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you. I’ve completely failed as a father—and a sheriff. I’ve been so stuck on your mom leaving that I ignored the one thing I shouldn’t have,” he says, pushing me back to look at my face. “You.”

I pull him in for a tighter hug and squeeze as if this is our last chance to do so. “I’ve been waiting for you to say that. You have no idea how much I’ve wanted you to believe me this whole time,” I reply, ugly crying into his sheriff’s jacket.

He shushes me while brushing my hair with his fingertips. “I know, Dani. I know you have. And I can’t even begin to tell you how sorry I am. I could’ve lost you tonight—and it would’ve been my fault,” he says, emotion filling his voice.

I feel a drop of liquid on my forehead and turn to look into his eyes. They’re watery with tears. He releases me and digs into his pocket.

“Before I forget,” he says, “I brought you this. You got a message from an unknown number while I was at the station. We tried to track it back to the sender, but couldn’t. The person must be using an untraceable phone.” He hands it over to me. “We did find some encrypted data and a few of the texts you swore to me that you received. You were right, Dani. They’ve been using a phone app to erase the messages. I felt like complete shit when I found out. If I hadn’t had my head up my ass, I might’ve been able to stop all of this sooner.”

The simple fact my dad just uttered the words “shit” and “ass” is proof that he’s feeling quite low right now. “I forgive you,” I choke out.

He takes in a deep breath and exhales just as heavily. “Thank you.”

I turn on the screen to look at my texts. Sure enough, there’s one from Unknown staring back at me when I press the messages icon. It reads:

Things are far from over, bitch…

“Do you have any idea of who this guy could be?” he asks when he sees my reaction to the text.

“No. I have absolutely no idea.”

“We’ll catch him, Dani. I promise.”

I nod, hoping against hope that he’s right.

“Hey, how’s Phoebe doing?”

“She’s adjusting. I took her to the station since her parents are gone for the next few days. She didn’t want to be home alone right now, which is understandable. Samson should be bringing her around in a little while,” he says with a tired smile.

I go quiet for a moment and glance down at the phone in my hand. “Did you find anything at the school that can help you get this guy?”

“We found that folder you mentioned, but the pictures were gone,” he explains. “But other than that, no.”

“Figures. I’ll give Unknown one thing: he’s pretty damn good at covering his tracks.”

“Yeah, that he is,” my dad agrees with a nod of his head. “But criminals tend to slip up. That’s one of our saving graces in law enforcement.”

I want to believe him, but find myself tipping over onto the side of doubt. “Do you think they have coffee? I could use a little caffeine kick right about now.”

“You and me both,” he says. “I’ll see if I can scrounge up some for us.”

I lean back in the chair and rest my head on the wall behind me while watching him walk over to the nurse’s desk. After chatting with the nurse for a moment, he turns to me and gives a thumbs up, clearly scoring us some coffee.

The emergency room doors slide open, drawing my gaze to them. I see Samson stroll in with Phoebe close behind. She looks like I feel…frazzled and completely out of it. When she sees me, I send her a little wave. She returns it and heads over to sit next to me.

“Any news on how he’s doing?” she asks. She fiddles with the latch on her purse, showing her distress.

“Not yet. I’d imagine he’s still in surgery.”

Phoebe exhales slowly before she speaks. “This is insane, Dani. Things like this aren’t supposed to happen in towns like ours.”

I reach over and take her hand. Squeezing gently, I say, “Hey, listen to me. We’re going to make it out of this, okay?”

“I hope so,” she replies, but her voice wavers.

“Got some good news,” my dad announces, approaching us with two cups of coffee in hand.

“Is it about Parker?” I ask with a hopeful smile.

“Indeed it is. While I was getting our coffee, I bumped into Dr. Davis, the surgeon working on Parker. After his long spout of medical jargon, he finally got to his point. Parker’s going to be fine. Surgery went well, and he’ll be ready for visitors in a few hours,” he explains, and smiles when he sees both of our faces light up.

The hours tick by as we wait for any news on when we can visit with Parker. I’ve grown tired of playing Angry Birds on my phone, and have moved on to other forms of distraction, trying hard not to allow any bad thoughts to enter my mind. I’ve probably walked around the emergency room a million times already.

“Mr. Reed can have visitors now,” a nurse finally tells us. We hurry over to the double doors leading to the rest of the hospital. “He’s in recovery on the second floor. Take the elevator down the hall and to the left.”

When we step off the elevator, Phoebe and I follow the signs to the recovery room. Our footsteps echo throughout the hall as we quickly move toward the door at the end of the corridor with the placard above it that reads: Recovery.

The door initially blocks our view of Parker when we push it open. Moving into the room, I see him off to my right, propped up in his bed. Monitors beep throughout the small space. I stammer while whispering his name as I see all the tubes running from the IV’s in his arm.

His eyes blink open and his trademark grin shows across his face. It’s a little strained, but still as effective as ever. “Aren’t you two sights for sore eyes?” He chuckles, but then winces in pain.

Phoebe lets out a worried laugh at his comment, moving over to the bed and placing her hand on his arm. “How’re you holding up?”

“I’ve been better.” He grins again, rubbing her hand. “I f*cking hate hospitals, though,” he adds as he pans over to me. He bows his head in a sexy manner. “Dani?”

“Parker,” I reply, a smirk forming.

Phoebe bends down and plants a kiss on his forehead before saying, “Well, it looks like you two have some things to discuss. I’ll wait outside. I think I saw a vending machine out there with my name on it.” She giggles, but I can tell she’s exhausted.

“You don’t have to go—” I start to say, but Phoebe grabs my hand and leads me over to the door.

“Parker told me about you two. It’s fine, really. It’s like that old saying: ‘If you love something, let it go, and if it comes back to you, it was meant to be’…or something like that.”

I smile at her and she returns it. “Are you sure you’re okay with this?” I ask, pointing at Parker and then to myself.

“Do I really have a choice?” she jokes. “Go on, you better not keep him waiting. You know how much of an ass he can be if you do.”

As she leaves the room, I peek back around the open door at Parker. He’s grinning at me. Raising his hand in front of him, he points at me and curls his index finger, telling me to come closer.

I slowly move around the door and stroll over to the side of the bed. Parker extends his hand for mine with his palm facing upward and just waits for me to take it. I lightly touch the base of his hand and trail my fingers across his palm, ending at his fingertips. His skin is so warm and soft.

“You know, I never did thank you for saving me earlier,” I say, moving my fingers down from the tips of his digits to his palm again.

“I think you’re doing a great job of that right now,” he replies. His baby blue eyes pierce through mine as he looks up at me. Then he does something I’ve never seen him do before—he smolders at me. I instantly decide that it takes the place of his grin as being his most gorgeous weapon. “Dani, I have something I need to tell you.”

“Oh? You do, do you?”

He lets out a soft chuckle. “Yeah, but you have to promise not to freak out, okay? I’ve got a lot riding on what I’m about to say to you. Seriously, my ego has taken an incredible kick in the balls already tonight, and you freaking out would most certainly finish me off.”

I find Parker’s ability to bring humor into any situation a breath of fresh air—even though at times it’s completely uncalled for. Here he is, laid up in a hospital bed after being stabbed, and he’s talking about balls.

“I won’t freak out, promise,” I laugh, keeping eye contact with him.

He takes a moment and stares at me, a smirk on his face. The next thing I know, he’s taking my hand and drawing in a deep breath.

“I just wanted to say...damn, this is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.”

I’ve never seen Parker this flustered before. He’s usually so suave and good with words.

He takes in another deep breath. “Danielle Marks, I love you.” The words flow from his lips like a melody. “I’m sorry it took me this long to say it, but truthfully, I knew I did even before I left for California. These past couple years have been torture for me. I lost count of how many times I got to the point of just packing up and coming back to you, but then I got in my own way with thoughts of me ruining your future.”

I smile widely while bending so my face is close to his. Gently bracing his chin with my other hand, I reply, “I love you too. And for the record, you can only improve my future…not ruin it.”

I press my lips to his. He reaches over with his other hand and places it on the back of my neck, putting more into the kiss. Then he groans in pain and I pull away to apologize.

He shakes his head. “I didn’t tell you to stop,” he whispers, and brings my face back close to his. Our mouths touch with intensity, his tongue sweeping against mine. I hear another groan of pain from him, but he doesn’t stop. His grip hardens on my hand and I can tell he’s in a lot of discomfort.

I push him away to lie against the bed. “This is hurting you, literally,” I say, and push him back down when he tries to resist.

“I don’t care. I’ve been waiting to tell you—no—show that I love you. I’m not wasting this opportunity just because I have a damn flesh wound.”

God, I love this man.

“There will be many more moments where you can show me how much you love me. I assure you of that,” I reply, combing back his hair and trailing my hand down his cheek. “Once you’re better, of course.”

“I almost died tonight. The only thing that got me through was the thought of you in danger. Plain and simple. I didn’t save you tonight, Dani. You saved me,” he states, his breath catching, as another surge of pain hits him.

“What about Phoebe?” I ask.

“You know what I meant.”

I smirk off to the side and pan back over to him. “So, which side is your injury on again?” I ask, pointing back and forth to his left and right sides.

He takes my hand and places it on the wounded area on his right. “Why do you want know?”

I climb up on the bed, careful not to touch his sensitive spot or unhook any of his IV’s. “Because I want to do this,” I reply, and attack his mouth with mine. His hands clutch my back and pull me forward. I feel every one of his muscles tense up from the ache he’s enduring to kiss me.

“This hurts so good,” he speaks around my mouth as our lips continue to entwine with one another. It’s becoming difficult to gauge where his end and mine begin.

“Please tell me if it gets to be too much, okay?” I say breathily.

He pauses and backs his lips away from mine. “Dani, that’d be impossible.”

He grabs my ass and thrusts my hips into his. His grip is firm, yet tender at the same time. I smile, imagining us back in his twin bed with nothing on. I’m finding myself longing to be that close to him again, but groan internally when I realize that’s not a possibility right now.

“Whoa, you cannot be doing that in here,” someone says behind us. I turn to see a nurse standing there, her eyes wide with surprise. “I do believe visiting hours are over. Besides, I think you’ve given Mr. Reed here enough to dream about tonight that you can be on your way,” she adds with a hearty laugh.

“Oh my God—I’m so sorry you saw that,” I say, trying to move off the bed without disturbing anything.

Parker grabs me when my feet touch down on the ground. He pulls me toward him for one last kiss before I go.

“Get better, okay?” I whisper once our lips separate.

He grins. “I already am.”

The nurse clears her throat behind me and I stiffen. Moving toward the door, I turn around once more to glance at Parker. I wave to him just before the nurse ushers me out.