Page 29 of Blossoming Dahlia

Chapter nineteen

Asher

It felt weird to wake up in an actual bed for once, butthank godI did, because every muscle in my body protested as soon as I tried to move. It was like someone had replaced my bones with lead while I’d been asleep, and my throat felt like I’d swallowed cotton balls. I blinked a few times, trying to reorientate myself to the world around me. Movement caught my eye, and I looked over to see Hunter sitting up in his bed, reading something on his tablet. He looked up as if sensing me and grinned, which made the gash on his face strain wickedly with the stitches. “Well shit. You’d better pretend to be asleep, and fast, or your little flower is going to have my hide. They’re on their way over now, and I assured her that you were still unconscious.”

I laughed and regretted it immediately when my chest began to ache. I felt like I’d been stomped on by an elephant. “How long was I out?” I asked, catching my breath slowly.

“The rest of yesterday and all night. Not a full twenty-four hours though,” Hunter told me, and that made me feel remotely better.

“Has Parsons been around?” I asked, not liking the idea of my unit supervisor hanging around while I was unconscious. He wasn’t a bad guy or anything, but I felt like no one wanted their boss to see them shirtless in a hospital bed.

“He called. They finished clearing up the scene and they’re combing through the rest of Curing’s stuff now,” Hunter replied.

“Curing said there were others, ones we hadn’t found.” I sighed. They probably wouldn’t be found either, not with him dead, which meant who knew how many families would have to live without closure.

“We’ll go through all of his footage, maybe we can identify a couple more,” Hunter offered, but it was a slim hope.

“Hunter Graves, you are a dirty liar.” We both looked up to find Dahlia and Amanda standing in the doorway. She had her arms crossed over her chest, glaring at us both, but her grin gave her away in the end. Even after all she’d been through, she looked radiant, unbreakable.

Crossing the room in a flash, she caught me off guard when she threw her hands around my neck, pulling me into a fierce hug. My arms were around her without a second thought, holding her tight against me, even when my chest protested against the pressure of it. I leaned my head against the crook of her neck, her hair tickling my skin as my face brushed against her jaw. “Don’t scare me like that again, you jackass,” she grumbled, and I sputtered out a laugh.

When she finally let me go and stood back up, I noticed Hunter watching us with raised eyebrows. I shot him a look that told him to fuck off, and he just smirked at me and rolled his eyes. “When can you get out of here?” Dahlia asked, oblivious to our silent conversation.

“I’m not sure, but soon, hopefully. I have a lot of paperwork waiting for me when I get back.” I smiled.

“Tons, Parsons said you can do all mine because I have to get another knee surgery tomorrow.” Hunter smirked, and I gave an exaggerated groan. In truth, I didn’t mind the paperwork that much. I did mind that Hunter would probably be forced into early retirement once he was released from this place, so Parsons giving me his paperwork was just a premature softening of the inevitable blow.

“What are you going to do, now that you don’t need a babysitter anymore?” I asked Dahlia. My tone was meant to be light, but her smile dimmed a little.

“Amanda is taking me to look at a few apartments later,” she explained. “So I can stop living off of borrowed clothes and nurse uniforms.” She tugged at the sweater she was wearing currently, which was a vibrant red and clearly not her style, but she looked gorgeous in it all the same. I was glad she was starting to get back into the swing of things again, it was healthy.

She stayed and talked with us for most of the morning, Amanda running out to grab us all a fancy coffee, which Hunter really appreciated. The doctor stopped by around lunch to take me up for a head CT, so we were forced to part ways. It felt awkwardly like goodbye, even though neither of us said it out loud. But really, why would we need to see each other again? She was safe now, the case was closed, and there was nothing left for us to follow up on. Dahlia was free to move on with her life, and I would be moving on to the next case soon, once I got medical clearance. She gave me another hug before they left, and I felt a pang of loss in my chest. I’d done my job, I’d saved her, so why did I feel so horrible?

As it turned out, the CT scan was clear, so I was discharged from the hospital later that day. Instead of going home, I went straight to the office, ignoring the baffled looks from my colleagues as I walked through the office in my ripped up and bloodied jeans and a hoodie I’d stolen from the lost and found at the hospital. Luckily, I kept a set of clothes in my office, so I was able to change and dump the old clothes straight in the trash.

Someone obviously tipped off Parsons, because he coincidentally stopped by my office soon after, leaning against the doorframe with his hands shoved in his pockets.

“You know, around here we have a rule that, if you get shot and run over by a car, you get a couple days off,” he mused as I sorted through the files on my desk.

“I’ll go home soon, I just wanted to see if there was something in the notes that might indicate who his other victims were,” I replied, glancing up at him briefly.

Parsons sighed heavily, crossing his arms over his chest. “Look Cross, I’ll get a couple rookies to pull overtime shifts and comb through the rest of the footage, alright? But there’s nothing you can do right now, except to go home and get some rest.”

“Look, there’s a chance I had something, and I just didn’t think anything of it at the time. But if I can find it -”

“They’re dead, Cross. They’re already dead, and you killing yourself trying to find their names isn’t going to change that fact.You can’t help everyone, you understand? Now get out and go home before I suspend you,” he snapped, and I exploded to my feet, throwing the file in my hands down on my desk. I stormed past him without a word, and people dodged out of my way as I stalked outside and hailed a cab to take me home.

He was right, and that made me fucking furious. They were dead, and there was nothing I could do about it, and it made me seethe with rage. I wanted to find Curing and bring him back to life just to kill him all over again as punishment for what he did. I barely noticed when I’d reached my building, and handed the cab driver a couple bills before slamming the door behind me.

My apartment felt unfamiliar when I walked in. The bed was a mess—I’d never made it after Dahlia had stayed here. Her bag was still on the floor beside it, full of clothes. The fridge actually had food in it for once, and I grabbed some of the leftovers at random and ate them cold in the kitchen. I stared at the counter space where Dahlia had been sitting when I’d kissed her, and it hurt to think about it. I tossed the containers in the trash and stalked around my apartment like a tiger in its cage, restless and angry, unsure of what to do with myself. I checked the time, and it was too late to go visit Hunter at the hospital. I wasn’t hungry, and I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep right now. I turned on the TV, clicking aimlessly through the channels. I looked over my books, stopping at the sight of the handbook Dahlia had been looking at, flipping through it restlessly before tossing it back on the pile.

I walked over to my bed and flopped down on top of it, not bothering to fix the covers. My pillow smelled like her still. Even though she was gone, it was like the ghost of her was still around, haunting me in my sad little apartment. I let my eyes grow heavy as all the frustration, and sadness, and exhaustion overwhelmed me, threatening to drown me in my loneliness.

Chapter twenty

Dahlia

Amanda wasn’t kidding when she said she’d been looking at apartments for me. In reality, she’d found one that somehow fit all of my needs—close to the university, affordable for just me, and near enough to her apartment that I could stumble home drunk if I needed to. I put a deposit down immediately, and Amanda bullied a few of her cousins to help me get my furniture moved in. By the end of the week, I was surrounded by my own things again, and it was an amazing feeling. I went grocery shopping and decided to get a haircut, since every glance into a mirror made me think about that line up of poor women who look just like me. Amanda was thrilled when I showed up for our shopping date with a cute little bob, and she announced that we needed a whole new outfit to christen my new look.

---