Secrets and Sins:Raphael(51)

She stood, whirled around, and strode to the gun. Panic clawed at Greer.

"Aubrey, please, you don't have to do this."

The other woman snatched the weapon up, stared down at it. "Yes, I do.  You're the last loose end. Noah worked nicely. Not my first option, but  he worked."

Greer blinked, momentarily stunned. "Noah? What are you talking about? What did you do?"

Aubrey's head jerked up, and she looked at her as if she'd forgotten  Greer still sat there. "My ram in the bush." She smiled, the gesture  obscene as she talked so casually about murder. "Originally, I sent the  letters out of fun. Just to know you were scared and looking over your  shoulder made me feel good. Made me laugh. But then Karen told me about  you going to the hospital and your memories possibly coming back. That's  when I called my brother in a panic. I couldn't let you remember and  tell what happened that night. So Aaron helped me." She snorted. "Not  out of brotherly affection, but because I promised him ten thousand  dollars. He trashed your car, left the doll, hired that junkie to drop  off the dud one of his low-life friends built. But he botched the  kidnapping and the shooting of your boyfriend. He was becoming a  liability I couldn't risk. And after I saw Noah again in the restaurant,  I realized I had the perfect solution right there. I told Aaron we were  going to take care of Noah. We strung him up, and then I shot Aaron."

Greer whimpered, and a corner of Aubrey's mouth kicked up.

"Yeah, Noah flopped like a fish, gasping your name right up to the end."

"Stop it." The image she described taunted her, tormented her. Hate  streamed through her, and she was ablaze with it. The liquid fire burned  away the pain in her shoulders, the fear in her heart. For the first  time, she understood the desire to kill a person.

Aubrey chuckled. "You're not in the position to give orders. In the next  few minutes you're not going to be able to give or say anything,  because you are going to kill yourself. Shoot yourself in the head. And  when they find your body, a note will be next to you explaining how you  couldn't live with the guilt of Noah's and Gavin's deaths, since your  friend killed on your behalf. You came back here to die, yada yada yada.  It's all pretty melodramatic, but hey." She shrugged. "It's what I can  come up with on short notice."

"No one's going to believe it," Greer stammered. "No one will believe I  killed myself and my child. They'll come looking for me."

"Maybe. But it'll be too late by then. And it doesn't matter what your boyfriend accepts. As long as the police do."

Aubrey started for her, and Greer scooted backward until her arms hit  the wall. Think. Think, damn it! Raphael, the baby … she had to fight for  them, not lie here like a dog about to be put out of its misery. There  was a future for her. With a man she adored. Fight. She had to fight.  Nodding, she drew her knees to her chest.

"Where exactly do you plan to hide? There's nowhere-"

Greer shot her legs out with all her strength, her feet connecting with  Aubrey's knee. The other woman screamed as her joint bowed backward with  a sickening crunch. She buckled, hitting the floor, and the gun in her  hand tumbled to the ground. Desperate, Greer scrambled to her feet and  scooted up the wall. The agony in her wrists, arms, and shoulders  disappeared under the deluge of adrenaline and desperation crashing over  her, through her. She darted for the door. One step. Two. Three.

She screamed as she plummeted, twisting at the last instant so she  landed on her shoulder and hip instead of her stomach. Hoarse whimpers  tore at her throat, the wind punched from her.                       
       
           



       

"Bitch," Aubrey snarled, releasing the ankle she'd grasped. She crawled  to the gun, her knee jutting at an odd angle. Wheezing, Greer pushed to  her knees, fire blazing in every part of her body. But she had to make  it. A loud, ominous click popped behind her, and she squeezed her eyes  shut, not stopping. She had to get to …

The door of her apartment crashed against the wall.

"Greer!" Raphael filled the doorway, and she rasped his name.

A shot blasted. She screamed.

Then nothing.





Chapter Twenty-Six

Disinfectant. Floor wax. Ammonia. The scents hit her right before the  pain. The god-awful pain. As though her joints were being pulled in four  different directions and she had rug burn over her whole body.

What the-?

Oh, right. She'd been kidnapped, cuffed, held at gunpoint, and almost killed by Aubrey. Oh, no …

"Shh." A gentle hand smoothed over her forehead. "You're safe, baby. You're safe."

Raphael.

She lifted her lashes, met the most beautiful navy-blue eyes she'd ever seen.

"Raphael."

"Hey, baby." He smiled, leaned down, and pressed a kiss to the top of  her head. "About time you woke up." His grin widened but she caught the  worry in his gaze, the strain around his lips. "Don't try to move too  much. They could only give you so much medicine for the pain, so moving?  Bad idea."

"What happened? Aubrey?"

"Aubrey is currently cuffed to a hospital bed. Thank God she's a bad  shot. I had to wrestle the gun away from her, but she'll be fine. Locked  up for the foreseeable future for attempted murder, but fine."

"She killed Gavin. And Adam Morgan. He was her brother. They killed  Noah …  He didn't kill himself, Raphael," she babbled, suddenly in a rush  to get it out, almost as if she feared Aubrey would get away with her  heinous crimes if she didn't speak now.

"She'll pay, baby. She will. And she's not going anywhere. We have to concentrate on you."

She nodded. He was right; it was okay. Wait. Could only give her so much  medicine? Did that mean … ? Please …  "The baby? Is the baby … ?"

"Is fine," Rafe said, enfolding her hand in his and lifting it to his  mouth. He touched each knuckle with his lips, then pressed another kiss  to her palm. "The baby is fine. They did an ultrasound, and the doctor  said the cramping you experienced earlier was most likely ligament pain.  And the spotting isn't unusual. You're going to be fine, and our little  girl is perfect."

"Our little girl …  Oh my God," she breathed. A girl. The smile started in  her belly, swelled up her chest, and bloomed across her face. She'd  known. Somehow she'd known the baby was a girl. Greer laughed, and then  groaned as her shoulders and back flamed. Raphael's loud laughter joined  hers.

"Yeah, a girl. Chay, Mal, and Gabe are already cracking jokes and pointing out the hell she's going to put me through."

Her joy lessened the pain, making it negligible. Then his words  penetrated. Our little girl. The hell she's going to put me through.

"You believe me?" she asked softly, hesitantly … fearfully. If he said no, it just might break her heart. Just tear it in two.

Raphael sank onto the bed, his hip notched next to hers. Gently, as if  afraid he might hurt her, he cupped her face between his big palms.  Touched his forehead to hers. "Yes, princess, yes. I believed you almost  from the first. I was just too much of an asshole to accept that you  wouldn't leave me. That's on me, my fucked hang-ups, my fears. And I'm  sorry I hurt you with them." He swept his lips over hers, once, twice.  "But I know with a certainty that baby is my little girl. Our little  girl."

She closed her eyes, covered his hands with hers. Hope, the capricious bastard, rose inside her. Teased her with its presence.

"I love you, princess. I. Love. You," he whispered. "You make what I  believed was love a joke. Because it was nothing like this feeling of  flying and falling at the same time. You fill me so much I don't have  room left for myself. Look at me, baby. Look at me." He waited until her  lashes lifted, and he kissed her forehead, her nose, her eyelids, her  mouth. "I told you once, looking at your paintings was like dreaming  with my eyes open. I was wrong. Finding you again, waking up to  you … loving you … is like dreaming with my eyes wide-open. And I don't ever  want to close them."

The tears spilled over, as did hope, and joy, and peace, and the sense of belonging. She belonged to him. And he was hers.
                       
       
           



       
"I love you, too." She crushed her mouth to his. "I don't have the pretty words you have, but God, I love you."

"Good." Raphael grinned. "I was going to bribe you with a ready-made  family in Gabe, Mal, Chay, my mother, aunts, and sisters. Then I thought  that might be a little scary. But since you already love me, it's too  late to back out."