Page 63 of Natalie's Nighthawk

David and Deputy Ian found him trying to pace out the worst of his anger. “Did you find her?” he asked.

David shook his head. “But there’s something you should know. Have you ever been to her place?”

It was Graham’s turn to shake his head. “Tell me.”

The deputy reported it all to him. “She had pictures of you everywhere. A lot in frames like family portraits. In some, she’d added herself. Photoshopped. Glued in. Whatever. There were more of those than of the real pictures of the two of you. Looks to me like she was obsessed with you.”

Graham froze. Obsessed was not a word he would have considered about Lauren. How had he missed it? “Fuck. I never realized. How could I have never seen?”

“None of us saw it. She was good at hiding it,” David answered. “But that’s not all. There was a journal, the last few entries were full of hate … toward Natalie.”

Graham huffed out a breath running his hand through his hair in frustration. He’d known something was wrong with her, but he’d never gotten the chance to ask her about it. Would she have even told him the truth if he had asked?

“She had convinced herself that you were hers,” David continued.

“Mine,” Graham whispered, remembering what Lucy had told him. Natalie had something Lauren thought was hers. Who would have guessed that it washim?

“She believed the only way she could keep you to herself was to get rid of Natalie.”Son of a bitch.It was his fault. This happened to Natalie because of him. And he’d done nothing to protect her from it. The level of his failure stunned him. He dropped into a chair in the hall.

He’d promised,vowedto himself to keep her safe. He’d botched it horribly, in the worst possible way. She could have died.

Knowing that his last words to her had been so horrible made everything exponentially worse. He stared at the ugly tile floor. She could have died thinking he truly meant the callous things he’d said to her. He closed his eyes.

The deputy’s cell rang, and he stepped away to answer. David sat beside him. “I know what you’re thinking,” he said, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. “But it’s not true. You saved her, man! That’s everything.”

“She was so close to dying. If … it would have been my fault. I’d failed her,” he cried, dropping his head into his hands. Unexpected tears burned in his eyes; he squeezed them shut tightly to prevent them from escaping. “When she told me what that bastard ex of hers had done to her, I vowed I would always keep her safe. I wasn’t here. I’d left her alone. I’d left her with those cruel words I’d screamed at her. She could have died with the memory of those harsh words as the last ones she’d ever hear from me.

“She deserves so much better. She deserves tender words. Loving words. She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. She’s my guiding light. My true North. And I destroyed it all with my drunken pity party. It’s all my fault.” A single tear slipped out, sliding down the side of his face. He did nothing to wipe it away.

“No. The fault is Lauren’s.”

“Lauren did this because of me,” he insisted. “This wouldn’t have happened to her if she hadn’t been with me. If I hadn’t fallen in love with her.”

“Graham,” David commanded. “Stop! She’s safe.Yousaved her. That’s what matters. She’ll heal and be fine. And you can spend the rest of your life making it up to her. Giving her those tender, loving words.”

“If she’ll even want to have anything to do with me,” Graham said glumly.

“She loves you. Of course, she’ll have you.”

The deputy returned a glum expression on his face. “Deputies found Natalie’s car. No sign of Lauren. There was a small bag and skis in the trunk. Luggage tag had Natalie’s name on it.”

“She must have written the note Maddie found. Wanted us to believe Natalie had gone away for the weekend,” Graham muttered.

“It worked too. For a while,” David mused. “If Lucy hadn’t followed them that day, we probably would have been searching for her at the cabin.” Lauren had planned it all out. David was right. If it hadn’t been for the intrepid little girl, Lauren’s plan would have worked. Natalie would have died of exposure. And they would have never known what happened to her. That thought froze his blood deep in his veins.

“We’ll analyze the handwriting on the note. See if it matches Lauren’s.” McClintock informed them.

Maddie found them there in the hallway. “She’s back. And asking for you.”

“I need to talk to her,” the deputy said.

David put up a hand to stop him. “Give Graham a moment alone with her first.”

Graham shot to his feet and raced down the hall. He peeked behind the ER curtain, and there she was. His little Chickadee. She was awake and sitting up, and she was the most precious and beautiful thing he’d ever laid his eyes on.

He drank her in. She was pale, the scattering of freckles across her nose more pronounced. Dark circles under her beautiful green eyes spoke of her exhaustion. A white bandage peeked out from under her hairline on her nape where she’d been hit. Its stark whiteness a glaring contrast to her dark hair which lay limply across the pillow, the natural waviness absent. Someone had obviously tried their best to scrub most of the blood out of her hair. One hand was wrapped in bandages, the other in a splint. The evidence of her wounds made his heart thump hard in his chest, wishing he could take her pain onto himself.

She spotted him and smiled. That smile lit the darkest places inside of him. Pushing aside the apprehension, he went to her side and dropped into the chair beside her bed. Gently he lifted her splinted hand, placing it in his own hand, his fingers lacing through hers as best he could over the edges of the splint.

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