Hidden Fates (Hidden Heroes #4)

Chapter 13

Reese hadn’t meant to break down like that in front of Garrett, but he’d been so understanding and sweet. He even offered to stay with her until she fell asleep, but when she’d woken up again sometime later from another nightmare, she was still lying firmly in his arms, and he sleepily whispered, “It’s okay. I’m here. Go back to sleep.”

Having him close and hearing his voice soothed her, and she actually fell right back asleep until a ray of bright sunlight hit her eyes and woke her with a start. She sat up, pulling the sheet up to cover herself before realizing the bed beside her was empty and cold. Had Garrett really spent the night with her or was that part of some incredible dream?

Either way, today was Saturday, which meant tonight was the barbeque with all his friends. He was probably already outside, setting everything up, and Reese wasn’t about to stay in bed or lounge on the couch all day while he did all the work.

Whether it was the painkillers, the antibiotic ointment, or just her body healing, Reese felt more like herself, and she was done being waited on hand and foot. She took a quick shower, changed out the bandages on her hands, and dressed in a clean t-shirt and faded, cut off jean shorts. She could change into something nice later.

When she came out into the kitchen, she glanced out the large sliding glass doors and spotted Garrett hanging a string of lights between the back porch and the guest house. He was shirtless, his rippled and toned muscles on display with beads of sweat dotting his shoulders and shimmering in the sunlight.

She licked her lips, wanting to feel all of that heat and strength surrounding her again. Whether he was kissing her senseless or holding her while she slept, Garrett Cooper felt incredible.

Eyeing the half full coffee pot, Reese fixed herself a cup, then joined him outside, eager to help in any way she could. After all, he was doing all this for her.

“Good morning,” Garrett said with a smile. “I thought I’d get some things done while you slept. We can head over to the police station as soon as you’re ready to go.”

“You can wake me up,” she said, wishing he had. “I’m feeling much better and I’m definitely not helpless.”

Garrett shook his head with a grin. “Reese Graham, you have proven yourself to be anything but helpless. But you needed your rest, and I needed to get some things done without you around to distract me.”

Reese couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her lips. “You’re a pretty good distraction yourself,” she said, making sure he noticed her checking him out.

Garrett jumped off the step ladder and closed the distance between them. “Even all sweaty like this?”

Reese licked her lips, wishing she could lick the man right where he stood. “Especially all sweaty like this.”

“Damn, woman. You need to hurry up and heal already.”

Reese laughed, and Garrett placed a claiming kiss on her mouth that instantly had her breathless and wet between the legs. “Another kiss like that and I might forget I was ever hurt.”

Garrett thumbed her chin and let his knuckles drift down the column of her neck. “If only I had that kind of power. Give me five minutes to shower and change, and we’ll head out. There are fresh donuts in the box on the table. Help yourself. I got a dozen, not sure which ones you liked.”

This man. Buying a dozen donuts because he didn’t know what kind she liked. “Thank you,” she said, making sure he heard her as he disappeared into his bedroom.

The trip to the police station was uneventful, but just thinking about the man who’d yanked her off Garrett’s dock and chased her through a dark forest made Reese uneasy. The idea that he could come back, because no bad guy had ever been deterred by a piece of paper before, terrified her. But all she had to do was look over at Garrett, and remember everything he was doing to make sure that didn’t happen again, and she felt better.

On the drive back to Garrett’s house, Reese finally felt brave enough to broach the topic that had been burning a hole in her mind ever since she’d woken up in her bed alone. “Thank you for last night,” she said.

Garrett glanced at her before returning his attention to the road. “It was nothing. I’m glad I could be there for you. I told you, anything you need, just ask.”

“Garrett?”

“Yeah?”

“Did I dream it or were you… I mean did you…”

Garrett chuckled. “You were upset and scared. So yeah, I stayed with you all night. I wanted to make sure I’d be there if you woke up again with another nightmare, and you did, and I was. I hope that’s okay.”

Reese nodded, not sure how to respond.

“Reese?”

“Yeah?”

“If I overstepped, tell me, and I won’t do it again.”

She swallowed, hard. That was the last thing on her mind. “No.”

“No, you don’t want me to do it again?”

“No - I - I mean, you didn’t - I don’t want you to not do it again.” She laughed then, realizing the absurdity of her wording. “I don’t think that made any sense.” She couldn’t believe how this man could make her feel so nervous while at the same time making her feel safer and more protected than she’d felt in a long time.

Garrett took her hand in his and rested both their hands on his knee. “I understood.”

***

“Aren’t these s’mores the best?” Orly asked, coming up beside Reese with a fresh marshmallow impaled on a stick.

Reese stood in front of the fire, watching the flames singe the marshmallow at the end of her stick. Meeting all of Garrett’s friends had gone better than she thought. They were all nice, and welcomed her with smiles and kind words. A few asked about her kidnapping ordeal, but Garrett warned them to leave it be, for which she was grateful. She just wasn’t ready to rehash everything yet.

“Yes, and I have the worst sweet tooth,” Reese admitted, remembering how Garrett had brought her an entire plate of them and she’d polished them off in less than a day. “I think it’s also gotten worse with age.”

Orly smiled and spun her stick around ensuring her entire marshmallow was engulfed. “Me too. It’s terrible. I’ve also developed this really weird craving for anything with caramel lately. I’m a nurse, so I work late shifts sometimes, and I swear, I have to stop at the vending machine for my favorite candy bar, or I won’t survive the night.” Reese smiled, enjoying this easy conversation as she watched the flames engulf her marshmallow. “You know, we’ve met before, right?” Orly asked.

“No, I don’t think so.” Reese would’ve remembered meeting her. Orly was beautiful with long curly blonde hair and a warmth about her that not many people had these days.

Orly pulled her marshmallow out of the fire and blew out the remaining flames on it. “We did. Back at Desert Cove Psychiatric Hospital.”

Reese took an involuntary step back. The last place she expected to run into someone from there was here in Dallas. “Unless you were one of the nurses or staff there, it’s doubtful. They kept me in isolation for the most part.”

“I was the voice in your head,” Orly said plainly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“What?” Reese couldn’t have heard her right. She’d never told anyone about that voice. Not her doctors. Not even Garrett. There were days Reese convinced herself she’d actually lost her mind in that place and had simply imagined it.

“You told me that your brother put you in that awful place. That they were being horrible to you, making you take medicine you didn’t need.”

Reese gasped and put a hand up to cover her mouth. She had said that to the voice. “That - that was you?”

Orly nodded, offering her a kind smile. “Yep. That was me. I was being held in the basement by some of Russell’s men, but I had no idea where I was. It wasn’t until I heard your screams through the vent, and then in my head, that I was finally able to tell Luke how to find me. Us.”

Reese couldn’t believe she was actually meeting the woman who’d saved her from a lifetime of misery, not to mention being drugged against her will. The fact that Orly even existed, that she was real, was unbelievable. She owed Orly everything. “Wait, you know Russell? How were you able to get a message to Luke if you were being held by his men?”

“I can talk to my husband the same way I talked to you that day. Only, with him, I’ve kept the channel open so we can talk like that whenever we want to. With most people, once I get them help, I usually let the connection break off.”

Reese couldn’t believe her ears. “Most people? You’ve helped others like that?”

Orly sighed. “All the time.”

“That’s amazing. I don’t think I’d be here today if it wasn’t for you. I mean, you literally saved my life. I can’t thank you enough for what you did for me that day.”

Orly shrugged. “You have nothing to thank me for. I’m the one who should be thanking you. If you hadn’t given me the name of that place, I wouldn’t have been able to tell Luke where I was, and who knows when or if he would’ve ever found me.”

Reese swallowed back the tears clogging her throat. “We saved each other.”

Orly nodded. “We did. Just one more reason why I’m so happy Garrett found you and brought you here. I was in such a bad place back then, it never even occurred to me that you still needed my help after I disconnected from you. I’m so sorry for leaving you abruptly like that.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You had Russell to deal with. He might be my step brother, but I’ll be the first to admit, he’s not a good guy. Why was he going after you?” Reese asked.

“When I first met Russell, I was living in Los Angeles. I picked up a shift in the Emergency Room of the hospital I worked at, and he came in with a colleague who’d needed some stitches. Russell was charming and charismatic, and we hit it off. I felt like I’d struck gold with him. After we got engaged, I was home alone one night and I heard the pleas of a woman who had a gun pointed at her head. In her last moments of her life, right before the trigger was pulled, I got to see through her eyes, and the man who killed her was Russell.”

Reese gasped in horror. “Oh my God. You didn’t tell him what you saw, right?”

“That was my biggest mistake. He punished me for it relentlessly. For my gift. For accusing him. For everything.”

“I’m so sorry, Orly. You didn’t deserve that. Were you able to get any charges filed against him?”

“No. It was his word against mine, and he turned out to be way more convincing and powerful. He claimed he was chasing after a wanted fugitive, even though we both knew he wanted to kill me.”

Reese didn’t know what to say. Russell had always been a bit rough around the edges, but before last year, she would’ve never thought he was capable of half the things he’d done.

“Come on, let’s go find Hallie and Skyla,” Orly said. Reese followed her across the yard to where the other two women were sitting on the porch. They were laughing and the sound traveled, making Reese smile. The air was warm tonight, and the barely there soft lighting made it easy for her to relax and not worry about accidentally making eye contact with anyone.

“Can we join you?” Orly asked.

“Of course.” Hallie pulled Orly to sit on the swing bench next to her. Skyla was curled up in one of the oversized chairs, leaving the other chair for Reese. She sat, but wasn’t quite sure what to say. She was still processing everything Orly had told her.

“So, I didn’t say anything before, but this is the woman who I talked to when I was being held at Desert Cove,” Orly announced to the women without preamble.

Both Hallie and Skyla gave little gasps and all eyes went to Reese, making her quickly cast her own gaze down, more out of habit than fear of activating her ability.

“Don’t be shy about it,” Orly said. ‘You saved us both that day. You have nothing to feel bad about.”

“It’s not that,” Reese started to say, wishing she didn’t always have to be so awkward around people. She’d decided to start looking people in the eye, but she still just couldn’t bring herself to do it. Maybe she wasn’t the bad ass Garrett thought she was after all.

“Thank you,” Hallie said. “For saving my best friend’s life. I didn’t even know Orly back then, but I’ve heard the story many times, and she would’ve never gotten out without your help.”

Reese felt her cheeks burning. She hadn’t done anything to help Orly that night. She was only trying to help herself. “We helped each other,” she conceded. “I’m just so grateful for Orly's incredible gift.”

“It has its moments,” Orly said. “Though most days it’s a pain. If I didn’t know I was actually helping people, I think I would straight up hate it.”

“Oh, I totally hate mine,” Hallie said.

Reese looked up at Hallie, seeing the dark shadows where the woman’s eyes would be if they weren’t sitting in the dark. Reese had suspected Hallie had a paranormal ability, but she wasn’t about to say anything unless the other woman mentioned it first.

Hallie shrugged. “I figured since you know about Orly, you might as well know about the rest of us. I can see glimpses of the future, but they hardly ever help anyone. Most of the time, they just scare me and give me nightmares. Caden is such an angel for putting up with all my drama.”

Skyla laughed. “Yours is practically a walk in the park. Try being used as a healing pawn by your own father and a crazed motorcycle club president.”

“A what?” Reese asked, not quite understanding her reference. “What do you mean a healing pawn ?”

“It means she can heal people with just a touch,” Orly explained.

Reese’s jaw dropped. Literally dropped. “Seriously?”

“Well, it’s more complicated than that. I have to touch their blood, and it can take a while, and it usually leaves me feeling drained and somewhat helpless afterwards. But, yeah…”

“Wow.” That was the only word that came close to describing what Reese was thinking at the moment. “And I thought I had it bad.”

“What do you mean?” Hallie asked.

“Oh no,” Skyla breathed. “That’s why Vivian had you, isn’t it?”

Reese took a deep breath, feeling all their eyes on her again. These women had shared their gifts with her, so it was only fair that she explain to them why they were sitting in near total darkness. “I’ve only told a few people. My family, including Russell, obviously, and I recently told Garrett.”

“You don’t have to tell us,” Orly said.

“Only if you want to,” Hallie insisted.

Reese took a deep breath. Did she want to tell them about what she could do? No. But somehow, she felt that she needed to. “When I look into someone’s eyes, I can see the moment of their death. Basically, when their soul leaves their body.”

A hush came over the space and once again she felt all eyes on her. “Is that why Garrett insisted there not be any bright lights?” Orly asked.

Reese nodded. “It’s the only way I can not worry about accidentally looking into someone’s eyes.”

“I think it’s our turn to say wow,” Skyla said. “But, wait, what happens if you do look into someone’s eyes? Does it hurt you?”

Reese tucked her legs up under herself, mostly to just get more comfortable. “No, it doesn’t hurt, but it can affect me. Sometimes I see peaceful deaths, but other times, I’ll see someone get shot or killed in a car accident or a plane crash, or worse.”

“That’s awful,” Orly said softly.

“I don’t even know what to say,” Hallie said. “That is so sad and scary.”

“What do you do when it happens?” Skyla asked.

Reese shrugged. “There’s not much I can do. It’s not like I can prevent someone from dying. I can’t stop a car accident or a bullet, or old age. It’s just fate. Besides, I don’t know the date or time. Just the how. And all that can change based on future choices someone makes, so it’s not even set in stone.”

Hallie sighed. “That’s how it is with my glimpses into the future. I want to help whoever is on the other side of them, but I hardly ever get enough information to do anything about them. I hate it. I don’t know why we have gifts like this if we’re not meant to do something important with them.”

Reese shrugged. She’d thought about it many times, and never came up with a good reason. It was just something that was part of her.

“Wait,” Hallie said, turning to Orly. “Do you think maybe that’s why Russell railroaded you so much after you told him what you could do? Because he had a step sister with a paranormal ability and he clearly wasn’t a fan, so when he found out about you -”

“He lost his shit and decided to make me pay for everything he deemed wrong in his life? Sure, I guess that’s possible. But I think it had more to do with Molly Edgar. If only we could figure out what he did to -”

“Wait, did you say Molly Edgar?” Reese asked, goosebumps covering her entire body at the mention of that name.

“Did you know her?” Orly asked.

“I sold her one of my art pieces a few months before Russell showed up and wrecked my life. She was really nice, and I remember she loved it so much, she planned on hanging it in her living room.”

Orly suddenly shot up out of her seat and rushed inside. Everyone stopped talking and stared at the door until she returned a few seconds later with a newspaper clipping in her hand. She held it out to Reese. “Is that the art piece she bought from you?”

Reese couldn’t believe her eyes. “Yes. Wow! I can’t believe it was featured in a newspaper. That’s so cool. What was the story?” It was too dark to read the text.

“It’s about Molly Edgar going missing, and her family offering a reward for anyone who helped find her.”

“Oh.” Reese stared at the photo with a rising sense of dread as realization set in.

“That was the woman I was telling you about that I saw Russell kill. It was awful,” Orly explained.

Reese’s heart sank because she knew there was so much more to that story. “There’s something you guys should know.”

“What?” Hallie asked.

“When Molly stopped by my studio to pick up that art piece, I accidentally looked into her eyes. I didn’t mean to, but it kind of just happened.”

“You saw Russell shoot and kill her, too?” Orly asked in horror.

Reese shook her head. “No. That’s not when she died. I mean, I’m sure you’re right and he did shoot her just like you saw, but she took her last breath while being buried alive in a shallow grave, somewhere near a river.” That image still haunted Reese, and was one of the reasons she went out of her way to avoid looking in anyone’s eyes. She had known the moment their gazes met that there was absolutely nothing she could do for the nice woman buying her artwork.

Molly Edgar was beautiful, rich, and the CEO of a successful pharmaceutical company, but no amount of money was going to save her.

“Did you see Russell burying her?” Skyla asked.

“No, I didn’t see who did it. But if Russell saw my artwork on her wall, it would explain everything that’s happened to me since.” Her stepbrother knew what she could do, and he’d seen enough of her art pieces to recognize one.

Everything was finally starting to make sense.