AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“She’ll be with me then,” he laughed in return, and I felt hysteria well up inside me.
I kicked downward and he merely laughed louder.
Suddenly, we were being pulled back up over the edge. Hands grabbing hold of Harrison’s arms as I was fully back on the bridge. I turned towards him as someone else shouted watching in slow motion it felt like as Harrison threw the hands off him as they attempted to haul him over the side of the wall.Rafe pulled my face into his chest as Harrison pushed backwards and I waited to hear the splash.
“Get people down there now!” someone shouted as something warm came around me.
“Amelia!” I heard someone else shout and glanced over my shoulder to find my parents there with some police.
I glanced back up at Rafe shaking my head, “How?”
“I called them, the police, and everyone else I could think of,” he said taking his phone out of his pocket as the sheriff asked him something. I was pulled away from him as my mom and an EMT hurried down the bridge towards me.
“Oh my god, oh honey,” mom says as we were ushered to the ambulance.
“Where’s Maggie?” I ask, needing to know she was safe too.
“Right here baby,” Rafe says, and I saw him holding her as my dad and grandma stepped back. He came over to me and tears hit as Maggie wrapped her arms around my neck. I held her tightly to me, burying my face in her hair as the tears slipped down my cheeks. I refused to let her go as the EMTs tried to check on me, and Rafe finally convinced them to let them ride with me.
Letting her go when the doctor insisted on running x-rays was nearly impossible. Until I saw Harrison’s body, I couldn’t believe we were safe, no matter how many people told me there was no way he could survive, there was a piece of me saying that he was still out there. I needed him gone for good, to know without a doubt that Rafe and Maggie were safe, and until I had it, I would worry.
The sheriff came into the room after the doctor left, prescribing rest and some pain medicine for the bruised ribs. Telling him what’d happened, I no longer cared if my parents discovered I’d been working at the club. If that were all that theyhad to be angry about, we’d be fine. Their relief that I was alive would override it for at least right now.
Rafe came in with a sleeping Maggie and when he laid her down beside me, sliding onto the bed behind me I finally felt safe. He wrapped his arms around us both allowing me to slip off to sleep and it kept my dreams from turning into nightmares.
When I woke, he was still in the room, but Maggie was gone, and I tried to sit up too fast sending pain back through my body.
“Take it easy baby,” Rafe says, sliding a hand into my hair caressing my cheek as he leaned over to kiss me.
“Where’s Maggie?”
“Your parents took her down to the cafeteria for some breakfast. She’s fine baby,” he adds with a light smile.
“What’s so funny?” I ask seeing it and the look in his eyes.
“Just thinking that you are without a doubt her mom, aren’t you?” he states, and I nod. “Last night I thought I’d lost you completely, that I was going to have to let you go to keep you safe, to keep her safe…”
“If it comes between us you have to choose her Rafe. It doesn’t mean you don’t love me.”
“I was never going to let go fully last night,” he replies surprising me as he stares down into my eyes cupping my face gently. “I had my foot on a small ledge. There was a walk area underneath the bridge, like scaffolding for repairs. You could have let me go.”
“No, I couldn’t Rafe. I haven’t been able to since we met and I can’t now, especially not now,” I sigh as he gathers me up against him as he slid onto the bed with me. I rest my head against his chest listening to the sound of his heart beating strongly.
“Ame…baby,” he states, sliding a hand down my cheek to cup my face and lift my chin slightly to meet his gaze. “I love you more than my own life, but I would never leave you unless it wasthe only choice I had. Last night wasn’t that and I will never let you hurt yourself to protect me. I know that this is killing you, I know that it hurts to know the truth after so long of wondering.”
“How could he have done it? How could Harrison have…” I trail off knowing I couldn’t say it aloud yet.
“I don’t know baby. I do know what Chad must have been thinking at that time. He knew Harrison better than I did so maybe he really believed he’d kill you. What?” he says when I shudder.
“It wasn’t just Chad he did it to,” I admit. “You remember the guy I told you about from college? The one who’d gone off the deep end with drugs?”
“Warren, right?” he asks me, and I nod. “What about him?”
“Harrison killed him too.”
“Oh my lord,” I hear from the doorway finding Harrison and Chad’s parents standing there. I tense and Rafe held me safely in his arms not knowing who they were. “I don’t believe it…it’s not possible,” his mom says as they head towards us. “Harrison couldn’t have done this. He wouldn’t have hurt Chad.”
“Mary…”
