Keeping watch behind and to the sides, Rachel let Kyle request admittance to the sealed-off ward via the intercom. Automatic doors swished open and her senses were assailed by pungent medicinal smells, beeping machines and an atmosphere so hushed, so heavy, it seemed tangible. If she had not yearned so strongly to be reunited with Angela, she would have turned and fled.
Up ahead, a woman wearing a mask, gloves and a long-sleeved disposable smock gestured to them and pointed. “Ms. Fielding is in the last bed in this row. Behind that curtain. We don’t usually allow more than one visitor at a time and a neighbor brought her daughter to see her, but under these circumstances you can go ahead, too.”
The extra strength Rachel needed came from the man beside her. She took a deep breath, steeled herself for what she might see and started forward. Off on her left and right, other patients were clearly struggling to survive. Most were elderly, but not all. Angela was barely thirty. This was so unfair.
As they drew closer, Rachel could hear a woman speaking to a child behind the partially drawn curtain next to Angela’s bed. When Rachel reached out and pulled it aside with a trembling hand, the sight of her sister’s swollen, bruised face and emaciated arms made her gasp. Tears immediately blurred her vision. She rushed forward as an older woman carrying a little girl backed away to make room.
“You came,” Angela whispered.
“Of course I did.”
“I was afraid you might not.”
Previously unshed tears began to slide silently down Rachel’s cheeks and she noted that her sister was also weeping. What could she do or say to help? Fond memories made her revert to a long-unused quip. “I had to see my favorite sister.”
To Rachel’s delight, the comment brought a slight smile to the badly beaten face. “I’m your only sister.”
“Picky, picky.” Rachel’s hands were clasping Angela’s on the side of the bed opposite the IV, and she could feel bones inside the painfully thin fingers. Beeping from a nearby machine increased in frequency, and she realized she was hearing her sister’s racing pulse.
Slowly, tenderly, Rachel reached to smooth Angela’s damp hair off her forehead. “Take it easy, sis. You need to rest so you can get better and take care of your daughter. This pretty little girl must be Natalie.”
“Yes. Natalie, this is your aunt Rachel. Maria Alvarez is my neighbor. She’s the one who called the police when I couldn’t.”
Not only did Angela’s weeping continue, she looked past Rachel and the others to focus on Kyle. “You’re her friend?”
“Kyle Roark. We work together,” he said.
“But you are friends, too?” She kept struggling to control her emotions enough to speak.
Rachel answered for him. “Yes. Kyle and I are friends. He drove me here.”
“He’ll stay?”
That question made Rachel stiffen and peer behind her. “I thought I saw Peter downstairs. Is he...?”
Attempting to shake her head, Angela winced in pain. “He’s in jail. The police arrested him for doing this to me.”
“Thank God for answered prayers,” Rachel confessed. “He’s the last person I want to run into. Ever.”
“That makes two of us,” her older sister admitted, sniffling and struggling to go on. “I’m so sorry, sis. I should have listened to you and left him years ago.”
“That’s all in the past.” Rachel stroked Angela’s forehead again. “Right now, you need to worry about getting better.”
Again, Angela focused on Kyle, then looked to Mrs. Alvarez. “Maria, can you and this gentleman take Natalie for ice cream or something? Please? I want to talk to my sister. Alone.”
“Sí.” The full-bodied woman lowered the child to the ground and clasped one of Angela’s hands. “Hold on to Senor Kyle, too, Natalie. We don’t want him to get lost.”
The child complied, slipping her small hand into Kyle’s and holding tight, then looking up at him in awe. “He’s real big.”
Rachel smiled and almost chuckled until her niece added, “I think he could beat up my daddy if he had to.”
Rachel’s heart clenched. Of course. Angela wouldn’t be the only victim of her live-in’s temper. Peter would have lashed out at anyone who displeased him. The way he had at Angela. And the way he had at her when he’d driven her out of her sister’s life that last time.
Returning her full attention to her weeping sibling, Rachel tried to apologize. “I’m so sorry. I should have found the courage to stay with you.”
“Nonsense.” Sniffle. “You begged me to go away with you and I was too stubborn and stupid to listen. That’s not your fault.”
“I wrote. You never answered.”
“I couldn’t. I just couldn’t admit what a horrible mistake I’d made. By the time I thought I was ready to leave Peter I’d lost touch with you.”
“You knew I was close by.”
“Not for sure. I’d had your unlisted cell number in my phone but Peter took it away. When your letters stopped coming I figured you had washed your hands of me.”
“No way. I didn’t stop trying to keep in touch,” Rachel vowed. “He must have intercepted my letters. I was only writing once a month or so after the first year. It would have gotten easier for him to destroy your personal mail before you saw it.”
Falling silent, Angela seemed to struggle to breathe.
“Do you want me to call a nurse?”
“No. No. Just give me a second.” She inhaled a little more deeply, wincing and groaning as her chest expanded. “I want you to promise me something.”
Rachel leaned closer. “Of course. Anything.”
“I want you to take Natalie, look after her and tell her about me so she remembers and knows I loved her.”
“I’ll be glad to babysit. You can tell her you love her, yourself.”
“Promise.”
“All right. I promise.”
Shuddering, Angela tightened her grip on Rachel’s hand. “Don’t let Peter get his hands on her, whatever you do.”
“How can I prevent it? He’s her father.”
“Not legally. I never put a father’s name on her birth certificate, and we never married. Besides, I have high hopes he’ll rot in jail after doing this to me.”
“From your lips to God’s ears,” Rachel quoted, meaning every word. “Is it all right if I take her to the base with me while you’re recuperating? I can’t be away from my duties too long, and there’s a good preschool there for when I’m working.”
“Did you take that veterinary aide course you kept dreaming about?”
“Yes. Kyle’s the head vet in the military K-9 training program at Canyon Air Force Base and I’m one of his techs. That’s what he meant when he said we worked together, although actually I work for him.”
Angela managed a lopsided smile. “Wonderful. You’ll be with all those protective dogs they train. Couldn’t be better.”
“And when you get well we’ll find you an apartment close to Canyon so we can see each other all the time.”
The dreamy, weary expression on her sister’s face comforted Rachel. When Angela closed her eyes and sighed, she did the same. Hands still clasped together, Rachel began to pray with her and for her. “Thank you, Father, for healing old wounds in our hearts and for the healing You are about to do in Angela’s body. Amen.”
Rachel watched Angela’s eyelids flutter. Her breathing had been noisy all along but now it began to sound labored even though the beeping machines kept up their even cadence. Rachel wanted to tell Angela how much she loved her but was hesitant to disturb her further. Time ticked past so slowly that every second felt as if it lasted minutes.
Praying silently, Rachel listened to the mechanical manifestations of her sister’s life until suddenly Angela was squeezing her hand. Rachel met her gaze, mirrored Angela’s smile and felt her heart breaking. An amazing peace and release settled over the bruised face. Angie’s pain and suffering were over. Her sister was finally free. Peter couldn’t hurt her anymore.
But what about Natalie? The little girl had never met her aunt Rachel before today and now she was going to have to take her away from the only home she’d ever known. How could she possibly make a child understand and accept the situation when she hardly could herself?
Three ICU nurses and a doctor had finished confirming Rachel’s fears and had left by the time she heard the sound of boots on the bare floor. Kyle was back. And Natalie was undoubtedly with him. Angela was positioned as if asleep, but Maria Alvarez guessed what had happened in their absence and gasped, beginning to mutter a prayer as she stepped ahead to block Natalie’s view.
Kyle, too, quickly closed the distance. He stopped behind Rachel and laid a hand of comfort on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”
Without hesitation she accepted his condolences by placing one of her hands atop his and saying, “Thank you.”
“I wanna see my mama,” the little girl whined. She was trying to wiggle past the adults.
“Let her come closer,” Rachel said, surprised at how calm and in control she felt despite everything. She held out her hands and Natalie let her pick her up. The urge to kiss the child’s hair and stroke her back as a mother would surged through Rachel and squeezed her heart. “I’ll take care of you now, honey. You can come and live with me.”
The big blue eyes, lashes wet with tears, looked up at Rachel as if she had just promised the world. “I—I don’t have to go back to Peter?”
Rachel pulled her close again and dried her cheeks. “No, baby, no. We’re not going to have anything more to do with Peter. I promise.”
As she comforted her niece and glanced at the others, she saw concern in Maria’s expression and disbelief in Kyle’s.
“What else can I do?” she asked him aside. “If I send Natalie with Maria, Peter will know how to find her and try to take her back. I have as much legal right to her as he does.”
“How do you figure?”
“Angela said they never married and his name is not on the birth certificate. He’d have to go to court to prove he actually is her father, and I’m sure a background check will show him as an unsuitable parent.”
“Then we should call the authorities and do this the right way, the legal way,” Kyle warned. “You can get in a lot of trouble if you just walk off with her.”
“I know, but...” Rachel looked to Maria for moral support and found the older woman staring out the window at the parking lot below. Nobody could blame her for turning away. She’d been sucked into this mess by being a Good Samaritan and probably feared and hated Peter VanHoven almost as much as Angela had.
“Ai-yi-yi.” Hands clamped over her mouth, Maria whirled.
Rachel tensed. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“It’s him! Look. He’s coming!”
“Who? Peter? Where?” Rachel asked, joining her. “Angie said he was in jail. Are you sure?”
Kyle crowded closer, too. “Which one is he?”
Maria pointed. “There. Getting out of the old red truck. See?”
“Maybe he’s out on bail. If he’s the guy I think you mean, he’s good and mad. Look at his body language.”
“Yeah.” Putting Natalie down, Rachel began to gather up the few personal items Maria had brought for the child.
Kyle frowned. “What are you doing?”
She paused only long enough to glance his way and say, “Running. Far and fast.”
“That’s wrong.” Arms folded across his broad chest, Kyle stood like a sentinel, apparently ready to enforce his opinion.
“I don’t care if you go with us or not. Natalie and I are leaving.”
“Get a grip and think,” Kyle urged. “Where will you go?”
“Back to the base if we’re welcome to ride with you,” Rachel shot back. “Out the door and into hiding if you don’t help us. I’m not staying here where VanHoven can get his filthy hands on me or anybody else.” She glanced at the still figure on the bed. “He’s done enough damage for a lifetime.”
Rachel was ready to abandon Kyle and carry out her threat, and she would have, if Natalie had not grabbed a bedraggled baby doll in one hand and Kyle’s index finger in the other. The man’s expression froze for an instant, then melted in a way Rachel had not seen in the two years she’d worked for him.
He was going to help them escape. She could tell that as surely as if he had spoken.
One final peek out the window was all she allowed herself. No sign of Peter! He must already be passing beneath the entrance canopy, on his way to berate Angie for his arrest when she was the true victim. Rachel had seen it before, plenty of times. It was his excuse for normal.
And since Angie was not going to be available to listen to his tirade, he was sure to turn his wrath on whoever happened to be close by, such as his daughter. Or Rachel. As much as she would like to see someone give him a taste of his own medicine, she knew better than to place Kyle in such a tenuous situation when a confrontation could be avoided.
What she must do is grab her niece and run. Now.