“What if I hadn’t figured out the first card?”
I smiled down at her. “I knew without a doubt that you would figure it out, Rabbit. You read my books, you know me. You know how my mind works.” I kissed her cheek softly, and my voice became serious. “But if you hadn’t, I would have gotten to you anyway. Somehow, I would have found a way, even if I had to kidnap you to get you away from him.” I paused. “I found your purse, Rabbit. I saw the journal. I saw what he did to you and I was getting you out of there no matter what.”
“You found my purse?”
I nodded. “Bear dug it out of the snow. It must have fallen out when the door opened after you hit the tree.” My arms tightened around her. “The pictures were the worst thing I’ve ever seen, Rabbit. It made me physically ill to see what he did to you. What I sent you back to.”
“You didn’t know,” she whispered.
I looked at her and shook my head. “No, I didn’t know, but I stopped asking the right questions, Rabbit. I acted rashly and reacted instead of thinking.” I shook my head. “I put you in so much danger. Seeing those pictures drove that fact home.”
She looked away. “You’ve seen the pictures. So you know it all then.”
I lifted her face. “I know what the pictures showed me. I don’t know the story. You can tell me when you’re ready. You can tell me anything.”
She nodded. “I will. But not tonight. Please.”
“When you’re ready. I’m here,” I assured her.
She smiled softly. “I liked the rabbit. How did you get it into my mug?”
I grinned. “Cecilia found the rabbits. She thought it would let you know, without a doubt, that it was me leaving you the messages. That it would give you something to hold onto for the last day. We had someone watching you. Before you got there, they dropped it in your mug. And made sure you saw it.”
She looked at me, frowning. “What if I hadn’t?”
“Then some nice, older lady would have approached you before you left that day, thanking you for all you had done helping her son to read and would have handed you another one, and another card,” I explained. “Today, if anything had gone wrong, you would have been handed another card with a different way to get to me. If all else failed I would have come to you and taken you up those stairs myself. No matter what happened today, you were coming home.”
“You must have bought a lot of rabbits.”
I smiled and reached into my pocket and pulled out a handful. “I think Cecilia bought out the store. She said she saw them and had a feeling we were going to need them.”
Rabbit smiled as she touched the little bundles resting in my palm.
“You thought of everything,” she breathed.
I cupped her cheek, stroking her skin gently. “We did. Frank, Trevor and Cecilia were all part of this. In some way, they are all responsible for helping me get you home to me.”
She covered my hand with hers, her fingers pressing tightly. “You were so brave today, Joshua. You overcame so much to come and get me. I know it must have been so difficult for you. But you did it.”
“For you,” I whispered insistently. “I’d do anything for you, Rabbit.”
She sighed and turned her face, nuzzling it into my palm. “I can’t tell you how much I love hearing you call me that.” She looked up at me. “I’ve always disliked the name Elizabeth. It seemed too formal, but … Brian insisted on calling me that.”
“You preferred Lizzy?” I asked encouragingly.
She nodded. “It always sounded more … warm and friendly.”
I smiled. “I can do that … Lizzy.” The name sounded strange on my tongue.
She shook her head. “No. Rabbit. I’m your Rabbit.”
Leaning forward, I kissed her. “Always my Rabbit. Always.”
We were quiet for a while, just sitting close. Reveling in the comfort of being in each other’s arms again. Rabbit suddenly spoke up. “Why didn’t you pick up the phone when you knew it was me?”
“I didn’t have that kind of line installed. It only accepted messages. I did it so fast, Rabbit. All I could think of was a way you could get hold of me. And, in my zealousness to make sure you were safe, I had an untraceable, unanswerable line installed, and I followed it up by encrypting the number on the card. I knew only you would figure out the book references. But if, somehow, the card was discovered and someone else called the line … there was no voice on it so no one could accuse you of knowing who the number belonged to.” I paused. “Unfortunately, there was also no way of letting you know it was me and that I was hearing you.”