Finding Scarlet Read online

  “Scarlet,” I said as I leaned over and took hold of her arms, trying to stop her from hurting herself.

  “NOOOOOOO!” She screamed again.

  “Oliver, what’s wrong?” My dad said suddenly from the doorway of the room. I turned and looked at him just as he was joined by Mom and Caitlin,

  “She’s having a nightmare,” I said quickly as I turned my attention back to Scarlet. “Scarlet, it’s me, you’re safe. I have you.”

  I pulled her to me and held her as tight as I could until she stopped fighting me. Finally, she lifted her head and looked up into my eyes.

  “Oliver,” she said as her entire body trembled.

  “You’re okay, Scarlet,” I replied softly as I glanced over my shoulder to my dad. He nodded, knowing I had everything under control and so he stepped back out of the room and closed the door.

  “I’m sorry,” she sobbed quietly. “Please don’t be mad at me.”

  “I could never be mad at you,” I assured her as I kissed her head and drew her closer to me.

  “He is coming for me,” she whispered. “Isn’t he?”

  “If he comes,” I replied. “I will be waiting for him.”

  She didn’t respond. Instead, she just held me tightly and quietly cried. Eventually her tears stopped, and her breathing became slower and deeper. I thought she was asleep. I gently lay her back down on the pillow and covered her with the blankets.

  “Don’t leave me alone tonight,” she asked without opening her eyes, as I stood to leave the room. I didn’t respond for a moment, wondering if I could share a bed with her without wanting to make love to her again. Her eyes blinked open and searched for mine in the darkness of the room. “Please.”

  I didn’t hesitate. I pulled back the bed covers and climbed in next to Scarlet. She immediately snuggled into me as I wrapped her in my arms.

  “I love you,” she breathed out as she drifted off back to sleep.

  “I love you too,” I replied, but I knew my words were lost in the night. I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep vowing I would end this nightmare soon.

  Chapter 17

  Scarlet

  I woke to the sound of Oliver softly breathing in my ear. I lay there quietly, enjoying the warmth of his body against mine. I felt safe when he was next to me, fearless even.

  My mind went back to the dream I had the night before. I remembered pieces, flashes mostly, of what I had dreamt. I remember feeling wet and cold, and of course there was the blackness. However, it was all muddled up in my foggy brain.

  Suddenly the words, it’s almost over now, crashed into my head. I don’t know why they were familiar, or why they filled me with pure and utter terror, but they did.

  “Are you okay?” Oliver asked suddenly from behind me. I rolled backward so I could see his face.

  “Good morning,” I smiled at him. “I’m fine, thanks.”

  “Are you sure?” he asked, leaning up on his elbow so he was looking down at me. “I could feel your whole body tense just now. Is something wrong?”

  “No,” I lied and forced a smile. I didn’t want to tell him about my dream because I didn’t know if it meant something or if it was my own fears filling my head with nonsense. He needed to remain focused on things that actually happened, not the silly thoughts from my broken brain. “Everything is perfect.”

  “Okay,” he said giving me an unconvinced look. He moved suddenly so that he was kneeling over me. He looked down at me, his eyes locked with mine. “What am I going to do with you?”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” I replied and nervously bit my lip. “Why do you want to do anything with me?”

  “I know there is something you’re not telling me,” he said as his eyes dropped to my mouth.

  “Oh, I think that makes two of us,” I said confused, but completely aroused by his behaviour. He leaned closer so his lips were almost touching mine.

  “Do you now?” he replied as he moved slightly and I could feel his erection graze my thigh, making my breath catch in my throat. He softly pressed his lips to mine, and I could feel him smile against my mouth. Slowly he moved down and kissed along my jawline. “You are simply beautiful.”

  He moved further down, kissing along the curve of my breast, sending a thrill through every inch of my body.

  “Oliver,” I gasped in a whispered voice as he moved down even further. “We are in your sister’s bed. We can’t do this.”

  “Stop worrying,” he breathed against my stomach, as he slowly pushed my pyjama top up my body, exposing my breast. Slowly, he traced up the centre of my body with the tip of his tongue, until he reached my breast. He then claimed one of my erect nipples into his mouth, teasing and gently biting it. I closed my eyes and bit down on my lips harder, to stop myself from crying out in pleasure.

  “Oh God, Scarlet,” he moaned as he breathlessly released my swollen nipple from his mouth and moved back up the bed until he was completely over me again. “Do you know how crazy you make me? You are all I can think about. I have never felt for anyone, the way I feel about you.”

  Before I could answer, he claimed my mouth, kissing me deep and hard. I moaned into his mouth as his hands slowly slid down my body to the waistband of my pyjamas.

  Just as he began to ease them down, there was a sudden knock on the door.

  “Olly,” Caitlin called through the door. “There is a call for you. It’s the station.”

  “Arrghh,” Oliver groaned into my neck, before he lifted his head to reply. “Why didn’t they just call my cell?”

  “They said there was no reply,” Caitlin replied.

  “Okay, I will be right there,” he said, and he reluctantly climbed up from the bed.

  “Okay,” she replied before I could hear her footsteps hurry back along the hall to the stairs.

  “I’m sorry,” Oliver said as he looked down at me as I lay there in the bed. “I really need to go take this call.”

  “It’s okay,” I replied with a smile. I wanted to laugh at the look on his face. He looked like a little boy who wasn’t getting his own way. He leaned down on the bed and kissed me once again.

  “This is not over,” he said with a smile, looking deep into my eyes. “Tonight, we have our date, and we will finish what was started here.”

  I nodded as he kissed me again, then turned and walked to the door.

  “Oliver,” I called as he reached the door. “Would it be okay for me to have a shower?”

  “Sure,” he said as he turned back to look at me. “There should be towels and anything you need in there, but if you need anything else, just let me know.”

  “Okay,” I replied before he turned and walked out the door. I flopped back on the pillow and smiled. He really was the sweetest man ever. Granted, I had no frame of reference, but he made my heart smile. Through everything I have been through in the last few weeks, he has been the one constant, shining light.

  It would have been so much easier to give up, stop fighting to survive, but he was the one thing I held onto that kept the fight inside me alive.

  I pushed back the bed clothes as I lifted my legs to the floor. I wondered how much longer it would take me to get my full strength back. I was tired of it being such an effort to simply move. I reached for the walking sticks next to the nightstand and pushed myself up off the bed then slowly made my way to the bathroom.

  Once I was inside, I reached in and switched on the shower before I set my walking sticks down and stripped off my pyjamas.

  I slowly climbed beneath the shower, using the wall to support myself as my legs still felt a little shaky. As I stood beneath the water I thought of Oliver and smiled. I wondered what he had in mind for us with the date he was planning.

  I was almost finished in the shower, just rinsing off the last of the shampoo, when I moved wrong, and my legs slipped out from beneath me. I landed on my bum with a thump against the white porcelain of the shower tray.

  “OUCH!” I cried out. I tried to stand
up, but I didn’t have the strength. “SHIT! FUCK!”

  I sat there for a moment trying to decide what was the best way to get myself up, with the least amount of pain and the smallest audience? If I called out, I had no idea if anyone would hear me from where I was. I could have reached out and banged on the floor, but that may have sent everyone running up and I didn’t really fancy being found by Oliver’s family, butt naked.

  “Crap,” I sighed feeling a little bit hopeless.

  “Scarlet!” Oliver suddenly called from outside the door. “Is everything okay, Dad said he thought he heard a loud bang up here. Are you okay?”

  “I’m okay,” I replied, never happier to hear his voice, than I was right at that moment. “But I had a little accident. Can you…”

  Before I could even finish the sentence, he was in the bathroom and pulling back the shower door.

  “Jesus, Scarlet!” He exclaimed when he saw me on the floor of the shower. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

  “Just my pride,” I said feeling completely mortified. Oliver bent down and scooped me up into his arms and carried me back to the bedroom. He sat me on the end of the bed, before he hurried back into the bathroom. He came back into the bedroom moments later, carrying an armful of towels. He wrapped one, then another around me. Then he used a third to dry my hair, before he wrapped it around my head.

  “Are you sure you’re okay? He asked kneeling down in front of me. “You didn’t bang your head, did you?”

  “No, I’m fine,” I assured him with a giggle. “I just hurt my bum, nothing that won’t heal.”

  “You need to be more careful,” he said as he rubbed up and down my arms, making sure I was warm and dry. “It’s okay to ask for help.”

  “I just slipped,” I sighed, feeling a little bit annoyed with myself now. The last thing I wanted was for Oliver to look at me like I was this fragile bird. I didn’t need or want any more pity. “I’m okay.”

  He looked at me for a moment, then slowly a smile spread across his face.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I just think you are pretty damn awesome,” he said as his smile widened. “You never fail to surprise me.”

  Suddenly, his smile faded, and I could see sadness in his eyes.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked taking his hand.

  “I have to go,” he said, as he suddenly dropped his eyes to our hands, and I knew why. He didn’t need to tell me; it was written all over his face.

  “It’s happened again,” I said, knowing the answer. “Hasn’t it?”

  “They think so,” he replied glancing up at me briefly before he looked away again. “There was a girl found about an hour ago.”

  I nodded, but I couldn’t speak. I could feel my whole body go numb. I closed my eyes and focused solely on my breathing.

  “Scarlet,” Oliver said, and the concern in his voice broke my heart. I didn’t want things to be this way. I wanted this over.

  “It’s okay,” I whispered as I slowly opened my eyes. “I know you need to go, and I know you don’t want to. It’s okay. I’m okay.”

  “I hate leaving you when you are upset like this,” Oliver said as he finally let his eyes meet mine.

  “But you need to,” I said trying to appear less upset than I actually was. “You need to go and stop him, Oliver, and you won’t if you stay here babysitting me.”

  “I know,” he sighed. “It’s just…”

  “I know,” I said and smiled a genuine smile. I reached out and touched his face, suddenly feeling calmer. “I wish you could stay too, but I will be here when you get back. It’s okay.”

  He leaned in and kissed me.

  “I will call when I can,” he said as he stood up. “My folks are downstairs. I need to go get dressed and…well you know what.”

  “I am going to get dressed too,” I said as I stood up and wobbled a little. Oliver instantly caught me.

  “I should stay and help…”

  “I’m fine!” I insisted. “I can do this; you need to go.”

  He looked at me for a moment without saying a word. Then reluctantly he released me and turned back towards the bathroom. When he came back out, he was carrying my walking sticks.

  “You will need these,” he said as he set them down next to me. “And no more showers alone.”

  “Yes sir,” I said and giggled at his tone of voice.

  He rolled his eyes and with one last kiss he was gone.

  I took my time getting ready, not that I had a whole lot of clothes to choose from, but I was feeling a little tender from my fall.

  I sat down in front of the dressing table and ran my brush through my hair carefully, trying not to hit the almost healed entry wound at the back of my head. It was a hole, a couple of centimetres wide, and though my head was shaved directly around the wound, it was small enough to be covered with the rest of my hair. My eyes then fell to the dressing on my forehead. I had new dressings I was given at the hospital and I was shown by Jaime, before I left the hospital, how to change it, but I was still nervous about doing it.

  It was where the bullet exited my head, fracturing my skull and left a gaping hole in my forehead. The surgeons had done a good job, putting me back together, but there was still a scar about three inches long on my forehead. It wasn’t the biggest scar in the world, but to me, it may as well have been a foot long, because it was there. A permanent reminder of what happened every time I looked in the mirror.

  I slowly peeled the dressing back, and my heart sank. Although the doctor said it was healing well. To me it was just awful.

  As I reached for the new dressing, there was a soft tap on the door. I froze, not knowing who was going to walk into the room. It was a fear I always got, but now I was no longer in the security of the hospital. I needed to learn to deal with the fear better than simply freezing.

  “Come in,” I said, holding my breath and pulling my hair down over the wound to hide it.

  “Hi,” Tom said as he opened the door and stepped inside. “Oliver asked me to make sure you were okay and see if you needed some assistance to get down the stairs.”

  “Oh, okay,” I said not sure what to do next. I needed to put the dressing on my forehead, but I didn’t want to bring attention to it either. “I will be just a minute.”

  “You need a hand?” he asked as his eyes dropped to the fresh dressing in my hand. “I had to do a first aid course while I was on the force. Also, when I was shot, I learned pretty quickly how to dress a bullet wound.”

  “You were shot?” I asked, completely thrown by this news.

  “Yeah,” he said as he leaned down in front of me and carefully brushed back my hair from my face. He then reached for the dressing in my hand and opened it carefully. “I was shot in the knee two years ago, which is why I am now retired.”

  “I had no idea,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s in the past,” he said as he carefully placed the dressing over the wound on my forehead. “I am alive, so nothing else matters.”

  “I guess you’re right,” I said with a smile, wishing I could feel as positive as he did.

  “Scarlet,” Tom said, taking my hand. “You have every right to be angry over what happened to you. Anger is good, anger makes you fight and refuse to give up. That said, you can’t let that be all there is. The scars you have, they are proof you survived, but they are the past. Don’t let them be your future.”

  He smiled and kissed me on the forehead, like a father kissing his child.

  “Now,” he said as he stood up. “Let’s get you downstairs. The girls are waiting to take you shopping. Olly’s instructions. Apparently, you two have a date tonight and he wanted you to have something nice to wear.”

  I smiled as I followed him to the door. I loved that Olly wanted to do this, but I wasn’t sure how shopping would go with me on two walking sticks.

  STOP! I screamed in my head. I needed to stop thinking about everything that can go wrong and trying to learn to enjoy
myself for once.

  Chapter 18

  Oliver

  I pulled up once again behind a line of police cars. This was nothing new for any officer on the job but knowing why I was here and what was waiting for me, I felt sick to the pit of my stomach.

  I climbed out of my car and pulled up the zipper on my rain jacket. It was dry, but chilly today, then again it was November, so it was to be expected.

  I spotted the Lieutenant up ahead and he looked tired. He saw me approach and nodded at me. The officer he was talking to, turned to face me, and a sickly feeling took hold of me. It was Seth.

  I thought back to our brief conversation the night before in the station. I knew he was upset, and he wanted to talk. I knew it but I did nothing. Now, the feeling of guilt was overwhelming. Had he left me and killed some innocent girl? Was this my fault for not giving him the time?

  “Oliver,” Lieutenant Parker said as I reached him and Seth. “Looks like the same scumbag. Only this time, it was complete over-kill. Something has changed. He is escalating. The girl is completely unrecognisable. The M.E. is down there with her now.”

  “Do we have a time of death?” I asked, trying to focus on the task at hand. I glanced sideways at Seth and there were fresh scratch marks on his neck, barely visible above his collar. My stomach heaved.

  “M.E. said around midnight,” he sighed and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “We need a break soon; this has gone on long enough. How many more girls need to die before we stop him?”

  “Who found her?” I asked, keeping my voice as steady and even as I could. If it was Seth, I didn’t want him to know I suspected him.

  “Some guy out walking his dog,” he sighed. “The damn dog ran all over the scene before the owner pulled him away.”

  “Well, hopefully the scumbag will have made a mistake this time,” I sighed as I turned and walked in the direction of the body, and to my surprise, Seth followed me.