Vigilantes - Volume 1 Chapter 23 What Happened?

When I finally woke for real there were tears on my face. They weren’t mine. “Nick,” I croaked. “What happened?”

He straightened from where he was leaning over my bedside and gave me a watery grin. “Lori, you’re awake! The doctors weren’t sureyou’ve been out for two days. You scared me.”

“Well, I am naturally terrifying.”

“Sarcasm after a near-death experience. How could I have expected anything else?” He threw his hands in the air, exasperated, but I could tell he was relieved I was acting like myself.

I sat up, and with a hiss of pain, had to sink back into the pillows. “What’d I miss?”

“You got hit by a kidnapper’s vanthe police already arrested himand broke two ribs, ruptured your spleen, and got a concussion. Faye and Jonathan have been here almost as much as I haveyou really shouldn’t have the person investigating you as your emergency contactbut I work here, oh yeah, and I’m your stepbrother.”

“What?”

He crossed his arms defensively. “Well, I had to tell Jonathan something, he was getting suspicious that I was here more than he was! I told him your dad married my mom when I was in college andI’m sorry, to lend credibility to my story I mentioned Cindy and he wanted to know about how she died. I told him drunk driver, like your mom, and that you were afraid of driving for a while as a result.”

“How did you know about my mom?” I had never told him what happened to her. Or the details of what happened with Cindy. He knew the barest of bare bones but still knew more than anyone aside from the officers who worked her case.

“I just figured, since you said it was a car crash and you mentioned you don’t drink alcohol. I knew it wasn’t for religious reasons since, you know, murder.”

“Clever,” I said wryly. I was actually impressed he put that together. Nick knew me best but that didn’t mean I gave much away during our little talks. It was always positive memories of my family before everything fell apart, or memories of Cindy independent of our fight to survive.

“Anyway, I called Jace and explained what happened. We’re pushing our brainstorming meeting back until they spring you. He’ll be glad to hear you’re awake. Apparently he’s been babysitting your boyfriend’s kids whenever he comes to see you.”

A crash sounded in the hallway and Nick sighed and hung his head in resignation. “I better go see what’s going on. I’m still technically on duty, I just had to check on you.”

And cry on me because I was unconscious for two days. I felt an upsurge of affection for my partner in crime. “I’m glad you were here when I woke up. You’re my best friend.”

He pressed his lips to my forehead. “You’re all I have left. Please be more careful.”

I gripped his hand, intending to comfort but possibly dislocating his fingers. “I will, I promise. You be careful too.”

He jumped up and ran after whatever crashed and I let out a small yelp. The smallest movement was murder on my ribs.

My roommate’s voice sounded from down the hall. She was arguing with someone. “Excuse me, but I’m her emergency contact, Faye Martinez? You better let me in to see her! I know she’s still unconscious, but I’ve heard that talking to coma patients actually helps.”

I let out a small laugh and sucked in a breath. Laughing hurt too. “Faye,” I called with as much volume as I could muster.

Thankfully, she heard me. “Lori! Oh, you’re awake, you’re awake!” She danced into the room and I had to force myself not to laugh.

“Barely,” I muttered. “I feel like I was hit by a truck.”

“Well, you sort of were,” she teased before sobering. “I was really worried about you. Jonathan was inconsolable. And the cats have been freaking out the whole time you’ve been gone. That other dudeNick?has been here pretty much every time I’ve come to see you. Why didn’t you tell me you had a hot stepbrother? You could’ve set me up!”

I laughed again. Ouch. “It’d be weird if I said he was hot.”

“Still, I didn’t even know you had family around here. Are you guys estranged or something?”

“Or something,” I replied. “He was out of the house already when our parents got married so I didn’t really know him until recently when we realized we were living kind of close to each other. We’ve done lunch a few times.”

“Well he was upset enough to make me think you two were super close.”

“We kind of are,” I hedged. Curse him for coming up with a lie that was difficult to talk your way out of. “He lost his wife and son a few years ago so I guess I filled a familial void for him.”

“He’s a widower? Never would have guessed,” Faye mused.

I cursed myself for mentioning his family. What if Faye looked into what happened to them out of curiosity? I decided to dig myself into a deeper hole rather than deal with that and lied, “Yeah, they died in a car crash. Their car skidded off a mountain road in the rain.”

“Yikes, no wonder he was so upset when you got into a wreck!”

“Yeah. I hope you didn’t give him too hard of a time. He’s a good guy.”

She blushed. “I may have interrogated him a little. I mean come on, a stepbrother out of nowhere? How did I know he wasn’t a creepy stalker?”

“Let me guess, he mentioned random embarrassing details about me that no one else could have known,” I said, annoyed. Nick, why did you do this to me? First Jonathan, now Faye. For someone literally getting away with murder he really wasn’t very good at lying. What if he gave something away?

“Yup,” she said, popping the ‘p.’ “He mentioned your penchant for eating cheesy foods in the dead of night and how you always sing along to the radio in the car when Kelly Clarkson comes on even though you can’t hit half the notes.”

I cringed. Cindy and I had been really into American Idol for a while and Kelly Clarkson had always been one of our favorites. Listening to her music on repeat helped drown out the rest of my thoughts when Cindy’s murder was the most raw. One of her songs came on the radio when I was driving Nick back to work after getting dinner a while back. He cracked up at first but ended up singing along with me. Unfairly, he was a much better singer. “He swore he’d never bring that up.”

Faye smirked. “It was how I knew he was legit. Hardly anyone drives with you and it’s not like you’d just tell someone that particular fun fact.”

I stuck my tongue out at her. “You just missed him. Maybe next time you’ll show up a little earlier and itemize all my shortcomings together.”

“Oh, whatever. How are you feeling? Do you know how much longer you’ll be in here? How long have you been awake?”