"Nash … " her voice was weak, but loud enough that it made me look down, a wild rush of relief running through me as I touched her face, her shoulders, as I kissed her over and over until the small sound of my name came again. "Please … just let me breathe."
"Are you hurt? You fell." I held her back, fingers everywhere, running over her arms, holding her hands, moving them out of the way to get a clearer look at her. Her sweater was torn and she'd lost a tennis shoe in the tumble to the tar-slick ground, but she wasn't hurt. Thank the powers that be, she wasn't hurt.
"I'm fine." She pushed on my shoulder and I helped her up. "Can we … let's go inside, okay?"
"But you need a hospital or … there could be internal injuries or, hell … "
"Will you stop?" She waved off the construction foreman when he got closer. "Really, he's overreacting. I'm fine. Just tripped on my own damn feet and nearly bought it under that truck."
"Ma'am … " the guy protested, coming closer.
"Seriously, the track was a good five feet from where I fell. It's fine, honestly. No worries at all."
Willow moved to her car, grabbing the door, before I stopped her. "Where are you going?" I couldn't believe she was still thinking of leaving, now. She opened her mouth and I thought there was something biting she was going to say, something that would have me doling out more apologies, so I didn't give her a chance.
"I'm sorry. I'll say it a thousand times, I swear. I'm sorry I was an asshole to you. I'm sorry I let you walk away." I stood so close to her now Will had to rest against the car door to look at me. For once, she was uncharacteristically quiet. "You asked me why it mattered, you leaving? It matters, Willow. It matters because I love you. It matters because I don't want to go to bed at night wondering where you are, wondering if you're safe or sad or tired or happy or a billion other things." I took her face, lowering my voice so only she could hear me. "It matters because God or fate or the universe or whoever clearly wants us together. Because Sookie and Dempsey didn't get a happy ending, and Isaac and Riley's got theirs taken from them. I don't know who they are, Will. I don't know if it's you or me or people who share our blood. I don't care about any of that, about the why, about the how. I only know that I want you, that you twist me up, that I'm sprung, so stupid sprung over you. It matters, you leaving. It matters because I don't want you leave without me."
I didn't wait for her to answer. I didn't need to hear she loved me. I knew it. It was in every look she'd ever given me. It was in the sweet swirl of her mouth on mine. It was in each touch, each laugh. The words didn't matter to me at all.
"Nash," she said when I leaned down to kiss her.
"Yeah?"
"I need to get something out of my car. Then, let's go upstairs. I … " she looked around, grinning at two movers when they passed us by. "There's something I need to show you."
Nash
The building was quiet. No lights lit up the hallways and no answer came when we knocked on the door. "We should check the roof."
Will nodded, holding my hand when I offered it to her as we headed toward the stairs. "You said his cell was disconnected?"
"Yeah." I held open the door, letting her in front of me as we climbed the stairs. "Been at least a week since I've heard from him. But then sometimes he goes AWOL. He always shows up again." She moved through the door, holding it open for me when I came behind her and we walked toward the cages where Roan kept his pigeons.
"Think he'll show up again?"
But I didn't answer Willow. There was a little too much worry crowding my head, coupled with all the other confusing things that had happened that day. The cages were empty.
"There were pigeons. Hundreds of them." I waved at the empty cages, two sets of six rows, all vacant, even the water from the dispensers and the feed in the bowls were gone. In fact, the only thing that remained of the birds were some random feathers and a single spattering of droppings. Everything else had been cleaned away.
She moved around the cages, closing the open doors, her head shaking as she looked first at me, then around the roof. "I don't understand why … "
"What is that?" I asked, pointing at a red envelope stuck between two of the cages. Will was closer and grabbed it, but once she looked at it, she smiled. "I'm guessing this is for you."
Will handed it over and I copied her smile, spotting Roan's messy scrawl "My man … "
When I opened the envelope there were numerous sheets of neatly folded paper and a silver key which fell from between them. Read this inside was jotted on the outside of the pages. "What does he … "