I hadn’t picked up.

I’d been angry at her for leaving.

“Oh my fucking God,” I said once more.

“What is it, Jonah?”

How could I tell her? She was lying here in a hospital bed because of me. She could be dead right now. Only her own resourcefulness had saved her. I hadn’t saved her. She had cried out for me, and I hadn’t been there for her.

And then, when I’d gone to her loft and seen the police tape… Why hadn’t I investigated further?

More guilt.

Guilt had been a way of life for me for the last twenty-five years. Why had I ever thought that could change? I had wondered why Melanie hadn’t returned any of my later calls, after I changed my mind and wanted to speak with her. It was because she hadn’t been able to. She hadn’t had her phone. She had been locked up and then forced into a garage to die.

My God, I wasn’t worthy of her.

I wasn’t worthy of anyone.

“Jonah? Will you stay with me tonight? I know that chair won’t be the most comfortable in the world, but I… I need you here.”

She didn’t need me. She wouldn’t want me there once she learned the truth. I would never be able to make this up to her. She would never forgive me.

“Yes.” I nodded. “I’ll stay.”

She smiled, and her beautiful green eyes closed.

I still held her bandaged hand, and I sat next to her. I didn’t sleep when the nurse came in to check her vitals.

I didn’t sleep at all.

 

She was still sleeping soundly when a nice-looking young man with dark hair came in early in the morning. “Good morning,” he said. “I’m Dr. Hernandez.”

I stood, wiping my eyes. “Jonah Steel.” I held out my hand.

“Are you a friend of Dr. Carmichael’s?”

A friend? I hoped I was more than a friend. I’d dreamed of being way more than friends, but that seemed impossible now, given my oversight. I simply nodded. “How’s she doing?”

He scanned the chart. “Everything looks good. She can probably go home today. I’d like to send in a lab tech to take some blood, just to make sure the CO is out of her system. After we get a clean check there, she can go.”

I nodded again.

“No need to wake her up just yet. She’ll wake up when the tech comes in to take her blood.”

For the third time, I nodded, and then I sat back down in my chair, my body weak with fatigue. Melanie looked like an angel sleeping. Her hair was a mess, and she wore no makeup, but she didn’t need it. She was so naturally beautiful.

I rubbed my forehead. What had I done? I rose and left the room, took the elevator down to the main floor, and got myself a strong cup of coffee. When I returned to Melanie’s room, she was awake, and the lab tech was drawing her blood.

She attempted a smile when she saw me. “Oh good, you didn’t leave.”

“I would never leave without telling you I was going. I just needed some coffee.”

“Of course. Isn’t he wonderful?” she said to the lab tech. “He stayed here with me all night in that uncomfortable chair.”

The lab tech smiled. “He’s not the first one I’ve seen do that. It’s what people do for those they care about.”

Care about… Her words sank into my head. I had grown to more than just “care about” Melanie Carmichael. Was I in love with her?

And it hit me like a weight crashing down on me.

I was.

I was in love with her.

And it was a love that would never be returned. I had failed her.

I had failed her, just as I had failed Talon on that fateful day.

I was so fucking tired of failing the people I cared about. The people I loved most in the world. Was I doomed to a lifetime of failing the people I loved?

It would appear so.

“All set,” the tech said. “Just please read the label on this vial, and make sure that I have your name and date of birth correct.”

Melanie took a look and nodded.

“All right. We should have your results in soon.” She picked up her supplies and left the room.

“Thank you for staying,” Melanie said to me, smiling tiredly.

“It was the least I could do.” The very least. God, if she only knew.

“So tell me, what have you been up to for the past couple of days? I need to hear about something normal.”

I had to stop myself from laughing. Normal? My life hadn’t been normal for decades. It certainly wasn’t normal now. I had a brother who was hell-bent on finding the truth about his abductors, a housekeeper whose fingerprints were found at a crime scene in the main ranch house, a best friend whose father was probably a psycho child molester and murderer… Normal? Hell, I could use a little normal too.

But Melanie didn’t need to hear all my baggage right now. “Talon and I took a trip to Denver, the night after…”

God, why had I started out that way?

“It’s okay,” she said. “You mean the night after I left your house. The night they took me.”

I inhaled, bracing myself. “Yes. That night. We went to Denver to talk to that news correspondent we told you about, Wendy Madigan.”

“Did you find out anything new?”

We’d found out some new information that I wasn’t sure was accurate, but I didn’t want to burden Melanie with any of that. “Sweetheart, that can wait. Right now, you need to get some rest if you’re going to get out of here today.”

“I need to go to the police station when I leave. They have my purse and my cell phone. They recovered them from my loft.”

“You’re not going anywhere without me by your side today,” I said. “I’m going to take care of you.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I know I don’t have to. I want to.”

For as long as she’d let me, before she found out the truth.

 

Melanie got a clean bill of health two hours later, and her release papers were signed. I wanted to take her straight home, but she insisted we go to the police station to retrieve her personals first. When we finally got to her loft—accompanied by a police officer since it was still considered a crime scene—we found her living room, kitchen, and bedroom in shambles—from the intruder or from the cops, neither of us knew.