The late afternoon air was hot and humid as she walked down to the gardening shed, and grabbed a wicker basket and cutting shears. She schooled her mind to blankness as she went about the pleasure of picking out the most colorful blooms that would make the prettiest bouquets.
Daniella had loved to keep the house filled with fresh flowers, and John kept the flower beds blooming throughout the heat of the summer.
By the time she had her basket full, it was almost three o"clock. She put the shears back in the shed and then hurried into the house, hoping to get the bouquets made before it was time to start supper preparations.
As she worked on arrangements, not only for the center of the dining room table but also smaller ones for the bedrooms where the men slept, she found her thoughts drifting to Gabriel.
He"d given her just enough of a peek into his childhood to understand how he felt about love and about loving. She got it, and yet she had responded to her own mother"s abandonment by wanting love more than ever. She and Gabriel were flip sides of the same coin.
She would guess that they both suffered abandonment issues, but they had responded in diametrically opposite ways. She could only hope that someday in the future he would discover the desire to love and be loved. Maybe someday a very special woman would be able to break through the shield he"d erected to keep himself from any more pain when it came to love.
It hurt her more than she expected to know that she wasn"t that woman. It surprised her to realize how badly she wished she could be that woman for him.
Carrying the two smaller arrangements of flowers up the stairs, she decided to place the one with sweet peas in Gabriel"s room. The heady scent of the blooms might please him. He wouldn"t know that she"d specifically chosen the prettiest of the arrangements for his room.
Once she"d delivered the flowers, she started down the stairs, but paused on the first step as she heard a noise from someplace behind her.
Before she could turn, before she could consciously a.s.sess what kind of sound it had been, hands shoved her back. Just like the night at the pond, she had a moment of weightlessness, only this time there wasn"t a dark pond to fall into-there were thirteen steps that in the span of an instant she knew she was going to hit.
GABRIEL, ANDREW AND Jackson stood in Sheriff Thompson"s small office as he filled them in on the details of the debacle in the storage unit with the dead gators.
Thompson sat back in his leather chair behind his desk and scratched his protruding belly, then leaned forward with a deep frown cutting across his broad forehead.
"Carl Gifford is a stinking slimy swamp rat whom I"ve suspected of illegally poaching for years. That storage unit and the banking records finally confirmed it." Thompson shook his head and uttered a small laugh. "Only an idiot would put his illegal goods in a storage unit paid for every month out of his own bank account."
"I"m sure he never expected anyone else to open up the door to that unit. Where is he now?" Gabriel asked, his stomach knotting as he thought of those first moments staring at the b.l.o.o.d.y canvases.
"He"s been in my custody for the past two nights. Got himself drunk and stupid and a.s.saulted one of my deputies, so I locked him up. Apparently the gators were supposed to be sold to another party the night that I threw him behind bars. He"ll be in my jail for a while since I"ve got all I need now to add the additional charge of poaching."
"So the mystery of the alligators has been solved," Jackson said.
"But it moves us no further in our own investigation," Gabriel added in frustration.
"I wish I could be more help to you all, but I just don"t have anything else to give you," Thompson said.
"We appreciate you calling us in to let us know about the gators. It was the d.a.m.nedest thing I"ve ever seen," Jackson said, and shook his head in disbelief.
"Let"s get out of here," Gabriel said. "I think it"s time we call it a day." He thanked the sheriff, and then the three of them headed for their car.
It had been another fruitless day of interviews and walking the streets, and Gabriel was ready to get back to the bed-and-breakfast, out of the heat and humidity.
He was tired. It was the bone weariness of failure, a weight he wasn"t accustomed to carrying. He was supposed to be leading this team investigation, and he"d never felt more helpless.
He was out of ideas and out of energy. At the moment the only place he could lead his team was back to the B and B where they would talk over the facts they didn"t have, eat without appet.i.tes-except for maybe Andrew-and dream about the family they couldn"t find.
They rode home in silence, the kind of silence that filled the interior of the car like a pool of stagnant water. Gabriel breathed a deep sigh as he pulled in front of the house. It was early, just before four in the afternoon, but as far as he was concerned, their day was done.
Gabriel was the first one through the door, and he froze at the sight of Marlena sprawled face down on the floor at the foot of the stairs.
Although his heart remained stopped, he raced to her side, relieved to see that she was conscious, but scared to death as he crouched down next to her.
"I fell," she said, and tears began to course from her eyes.
"From where?" he asked as Jackson and Andrew joined him by her side.
"From the top stair."
"Call for an ambulance," Gabriel said urgently. His heart banged painfully against his ribs. Who knew how many bones she might have broken? What kind of internal damage she must be suffering?
"No, I think I"m okay. I"ve just been afraid to move without anyone here in case I"m not all right." Despite her words, her voice was filled with a pain that rattled through his bones.
"Make the call," Gabriel said.
"Really, I don"t think anything is broken." Her green eyes held a wealth of emotion as she gazed at Gabriel. "Just help me sit up and I"ll be fine." With a deep moan, she rolled over from her stomach to her back.
Gabriel held up a hand to halt the call Jackson had been about to make, and then he took Marlena"s hands in his and pulled her to a sitting position.
"Anything feel broken? Can you move your legs?" Her face was bleached of color, and she winced with the movement. Gabriel didn"t release her hands as his heart pounded a million beats a minute. The tightness in his chest eased a little as she managed to move both of her legs.
"I don"t think anything is broken. Just help me up off the floor," she said, her gaze never leaving his. It was as if she were tapping into his strength. She didn"t realize how little he had. She couldn"t know that the sight of her unmoving on the floor had sapped all his energy and had weakened his knees.
He stood and pulled her up. She got to her feet and instantly leaned against his chest, deep sobs escaping her as he ran his hands down the length of her back to a.s.sure himself he felt nothing broken.
"I"m taking you to the emergency room," he said as he stared up the staircase that suddenly appeared horrifyingly steep and endless. If she"d fallen from the top, she was lucky she wasn"t dead. "You need to be thoroughly checked out by a doctor."
With his decision made, he gently lifted her up in his arms, terrified that he might hurt her more than she already was, yet needing to get her to the hospital as quickly as possible. Andrew opened the front door and then hurried ahead of them to open the pa.s.senger side of the car, too.
Gabriel eased her down onto the seat as gently as possible, then went to get behind the wheel. "We"ll be back after she"s been examined from head to toe." Andrew nodded and stepped away from the car.
Gabriel shot out of the bed-and-breakfast entrance and headed to the small hospital he"d seen in Bachelor Moon. "How long had you been lying there?" he asked, his heart tied in a painful knot as he thought of her on the floor, all alone and hurting.
"Not too long. I never lost consciousness or anything. I tucked and rolled. When I knew I was falling, all I could think about was, if my head hit a stair, I would probably die." She raised her hand to her face and began to quietly weep again.
Gabriel didn"t know if it was emotional wounds or physical ones that kept her crying. All he knew was that he needed to get her to the hospital as quickly as possible.
They didn"t speak again, and when he pulled in front of the emergency room door, he got out of the car and yelled for a.s.sistance. Shock might have allowed her to move, allowed him to pick her up in his arms without her even knowing that she had broken bones or internal injuries. He wasn"t about to let her walk in on her own without knowing more about her current condition.
It took only minutes for her to be loaded onto a gurney and whisked away. Gabriel was led to a waiting room where he sank down and worried a shaky hand through his hair.
For just an instant when he"d seen her on the floor, he"d thought she was dead, and his heart had plummeted with a sharp grief he"d never known before in his life.
And in that instant, he"d recognized that he did care about her. He didn"t want to-he had no intention of allowing her any deeper into his heart-but he had to acknowledge that she"d made a little headway where n.o.body else ever had before.
He jumped as his cell phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket to see Jackson"s number. "Hey," he answered.
"We just wanted to let you know that she appeared to be alone in the house when she fell, and we didn"t find anything on the stairs that might have made her fall."
"Thanks. I didn"t notice what kind of shoes she was wearing. Maybe she just got tripped up in her own feet," Gabriel replied. "We"ll know within a couple of hours. She"s in with the doctor now, and I imagine they"ll want to x-ray every part of her body."
"I hope she"s okay. We"ll just see you when we see you," Jackson replied.
"One more thing," Gabriel said. "If you see Cory around, you might want to tell him what happened."
"Will do."
Gabriel disconnected and placed his phone in his pocket, then leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. She could have died. The mere thought increased the beat of his heart.
Thank G.o.d she"d been smart. She"d tucked and rolled when most people made the mistake of trying to break their fall and in the process broke bones in their arms or legs, or their necks.
She"d been smart, and she"d been lucky. He just hoped the doctor didn"t find something that contradicted that belief. He didn"t want her hurt. He didn"t want her in pain.
He remembered how she"d ma.s.saged his head when he"d had a simple headache, her fingers firm and yet so caring as she"d attempted to work his misery away.
He hadn"t been sitting in the waiting room long when Cory came flying in the door, his eyes wild with fear.
"Is she okay?" He started for the door to the examining rooms, but Gabriel stopped him.
"Cory, sit here." He patted the place next to him. "She should be fine. We just need to wait for the doctor to let us know for sure."
Cory sank down, bringing with him the scent of the outdoors, a faint hint of sweat and the unmistakable odor of marijuana.
"Jackson said she fell down the stairs. She could have died." His blue-green eyes looked at Gabriel and filled with a mist of tears. "She"s all I"ve got. If anything happened to her, I don"t know what I"d do."
Gabriel clapped the young man on the shoulder. "She"s going to be just fine, Cory. She managed to get up, and nothing appeared to be broken."
"But if she hit her head, she could have brain bleeding or something. John told me that"s what happened to his mother. She fell down some stairs, and everyone thought she was fine until they found out her brain was bleeding."
"I"m sure the doctor will check Marlena all over," Gabriel a.s.sured the young man.
Cory released a deep sigh and dropped his head to his hands, as if silently praying. Gabriel gave him a few minutes of silence.
"Does your sister know you"re smoking pot?" Gabriel finally asked softly.
Cory"s head shot up and his eyes widened. "What are you talking about?" he replied.
"Come on, Cory. I"ve been around a long time, and I can smell it on you. Don"t try to fool me."
"I just smoke it sometimes," Cory replied defensively. "I got freaked out when I heard about my sister, so I took a few puffs on the way here. Are you going to turn me in to the sheriff?" he asked fearfully.
"No."
"Are you going to narc me out to my sister?"
"I think she has enough on her mind right now, but I"m sure Marlena isn"t stupid, either. Smoking dope isn"t going to get you anywhere, Cory."
"I know. John has told me the same thing."
"Then you should listen." Gabriel sat back in his seat, deciding enough had been said on the topic. As far as he could tell, Cory was a good kid and hopefully he"d make good choices in his life, but he wasn"t Gabriel"s problem.
It felt as if they had waited for hours. The two men took turns pacing up and down the length of the waiting room. The longer it took, the more worried Gabriel became. Should he have called for an ambulance? Had he hurt her by moving her? By lifting her up and carrying her?
The memory of the sound of her weeping resonated through him, bringing with it an ache that refused to vanish. He couldn"t remember the last time any woman"s tears had moved him. Yet hers had.
He didn"t want to think about the reason for this anomaly. He didn"t want to pull out whatever emotions he felt for Marlena and examine them. He told himself he"d be as worried, as frightened for any person who"d been a caretaker for him and his team for almost two weeks.
Both Cory and Gabriel jumped out of their chairs as a white-coated doctor approached them. "I"m Dr. Frank Sheldon, and Marlena is one lucky woman. I found no broken bones, no head injury and no reason to keep her here. She"s free to go as soon as she gets dressed."
Gabriel wasn"t sure who released the biggest sigh of relief, him or Marlena"s brother.
"I need to warn you that she"s badly bruised, and I expect by tomorrow she"s going to feel pain in places she didn"t know she had body parts. What she needs most is bed rest for a couple of days. I"ve written her a prescription for pain medication, and it can be filled here at the hospital pharmacy. She should go home, take a couple of pills and go directly to bed," Dr. Sheldon said.
"We"ll take good care of her," Gabriel replied.
The object of their conversation came through the swinging doors that led to the emergency units, shuffling like an old woman even as a forced smile curved her lips.
"Cory, why don"t you sit here with her while I get her prescription filled?" Gabriel suggested. There was no way he wanted her walking any farther than she needed to.
"Works for me," Marlena said as she eased down on the waiting room sofa with an agony-filled sigh. Cory immediately sat next to her, and as Gabriel took the prescription from her and left to hunt down the pharmacy, Marlena was a.s.suring Cory that she"d be fine.
Gabriel followed the signs that led him to the pharmacy, and within minutes he had the pill bottle in hand and was hurrying back to where he was surprised to find Marlena sitting alone.
"What happened to Cory?"
"I sent him home." She stood, the simple action obviously painful as she winced. "There was no point in him hanging around here. There"s nothing he can do to help me."
"Should I get a wheelchair to take you out?" he asked with concern.
"No, I"ll be fine. Let"s just get out of here." She took baby steps toward the exit, and Gabriel walked at her side, a hand under her elbow, afraid that she might fall at any moment.
He didn"t breathe a sigh of relief until she was back in the pa.s.senger seat, her seat belt around her waist. "You"re going straight to bed," he said once he was behind the wheel.
"But I had steaks laid out to cook for dinner," she protested weakly.
"Andrew will know what to do with the steaks. You are to go home, take a couple of these pills and not worry about anything else. The doctor said you need a couple of days of bed rest, and that"s what"s going to happen."
She nodded as if too sore, too weak to argue. "I sent Cory on home so that I could talk to you in private before we get back to the bed-and-breakfast."
He tensed, wondering if she was going to bring up the night they"d shared, a night that had haunted him ever since-but a night he refused to dwell on.
"Talk in private about what?" he asked. He glanced over and met her gaze. In the depths of her wide green eyes, he saw something more than pain.
He saw fear.
"I didn"t accidentally fall down those stairs. I was on the top step when I thought I heard something behind me, and that"s when I was pushed."