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To Shandi, it no longer mattered whether Jake gave her any indication of his feelings. The threat of losing him made it clear she needed him. She could not wait for him to make moves, or wonder about his motivations. She could only expose her heart to him and hope that he reciprocated. As she held his hand in the hospital bed, though, she felt certain their feelings were mutual.
She needed to catch Jake up. He needed to know about Bernard. And Cornelius. He needed to know about William P. Hargrove, even though she herself didn’t know much about him yet. She needed to tell him that Cam had teamed up with Skylar to lead a manhunt against the beast. She relied on him as a partner in this and needed his guidance again. But all of that could wait.
She leaned towards him. He understood her goal, hopefully because he wanted the same, and immediately leaned towards her as well. Their lips met, and Shandi instantaneously warmed. He let go of her hand and cupped her face in his hands. They held the kiss. It felt real and raw. It felt right, like she had always imagined.
Shandi didn’t want it to end, but she needed to breathe. And they needed to talk. She backed away, and took his hand again. He smiled. She smiled back.
“How did you know I was awake?” Jake broke the silence.
Shandi twisted her mouth up. “I didn’t. Not really. I just knew I needed to get back. I’ve spent a lot of time here over the last couple of days.”
“I suppose that’s a lame way to start the conversation after all of this,” he said. “Let me start over.”
She giggled lightly. “It was a good question. But okay. You can start over.”
“I love you.”
Shandi’s heart stopped. Or skipped. She tried to control the quickening of her breath, as her head felt suddenly light and airy. If not for his hand holding her down, she worried that she might float away.
She suppressed the millions of nuances and intricacies that they would have to navigate from this point forward. They would have to deal with Macy. And Cam. The town, in general. Both had failed at marriage once before. She forced herself to slow down. Marriage took it too far. Jake just stated a feeling. All the ramifications of that could be saved for another day. Another time.
She wrapped both of her hands around his. She wanted him to feel the honesty and rawness in her response. She stared directly into his dark brown eyes. She didn’t want him to doubt it. “I love you, too, Jake.”
Silence overtook them again, but their eyes stayed locked on one another. Their hands remained intertwined. Her mind raced. She wanted her head clear so that she could focus on this moment.
Jake broke the silence again, this time with a huge smile. “Okay. Good. With that out of the way, we can get to work.”
Shandi laughed. “Just like that, huh?”
He pulled her down and kissed her gently. “Yep. Just like that.”
There would be time to explore this later, Shandi told herself. When Jake escaped from this hospital bed, and when the town conquered the beast. When Deirdre had been charged and convicted. When Rose Valley returned to normalcy, then they could define what they felt. They could make plans together. They could tell Macy.
Shandi suddenly remembered Bernard. It would destroy the moment they shared, but she knew she couldn’t keep it from him any longer.
“Um. There’s something terrible I need to tell you, Jake.”
He frowned. “Okay. That sounds ominous.”
“Bernard is dead. He had a heart attack when the beast showed up at his ranch.”
Shandi watched as Jake’s face dropped. Perhaps his eyes contained no more tears, because no new ones came. He just looked quietly stunned. She squeezed his hand.
“It was my fault,” he said, staring off blankly.
Shandi didn’t understand. “What do you mean?”
“Deirdre. She said that I... couldn’t control him. That I could try, but I would fail. I think maybe the beast acts based on me? I was worried about Bernard. I missed a game with him. The beast went there because I was dwelling on it, I think.”
Shandi struggled to process the new information, feeling as if it had literally hit her in the chest. It made sense that Deirdre’s actions were somehow related to the beast, but Shandi couldn’t have predicted this. She didn’t know what to say, or how to react.
Jake continued, despite Shandi’s shock. “She said that the only way to stop it was to kill me. That’s why she tried to murder me.”
“I don’t understand, Jake. How did she do that?”
He shook his head, still staring off into the distance. “I don’t know. The drugs she gave me after the accident caused it somehow.”
“So, you and the beast have a telepathic link? You can see what he sees?”
He finally looked at her again. His eyes no longer held the loving warmth from before, but rather pure fear and confusion. “No. Maybe. I’m not sure. I don’t think so. Maybe it’s the other way around. That he sees what I see? Or maybe he sees what I think?”
Shandi started putting the pieces together, trying to recall all the times the beast had shown up in Rose Valley. Firstly, the mutilations. She couldn’t account for the goat, but the sheep had been killed at Watermelon Ranch where Jake had lived. He surely would have thought about those sheep on occasion.
Then the cheetahs. She had mentioned they might be the culprit the day that the sheep had been killed. She had planted the idea in Jake’s head. The beast had then showed up at the cheetah pens, killed a cub, and accidentally released the others. Shandi refused to keep following that path of thought, but Jake did it for her.
“I fell asleep thinking about the football game, and then he attacked.” Jake’s face went pale as fear crept into his eyes. “And then your house. I was thinking about you. The texts. And I...”
As Jake trailed off, Shandi saw the pain in his eyes. Jake had sent that thing to attack her house? No. He couldn’t have done that. Not on purpose.
“I-I’m sorry, Shandi,” Jake stammered. “I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know.”
She stroked his hair, trying to comfort him while also wrestling with the concept that Jake might be dangerous—intentionally or not.
“But surely you weren’t thinking negative things about those people?” she asked.
Jake shook his head. “No. I just thought about them. In general. Deirdre said something about my goodness stopping it from killing. That I wouldn’t be able to do it forever.”
Certainly, the science of it all eluded her, but she also didn’t understand the link between Jake and the beast. Why would such a link be created? What purpose would it serve?
War, she thought. It could be used in war.
Shandi rubbed her hand along her pocket, feeling the outline of the dog tags that Miriam had given her.
The beast wasn’t a monster. He was a soldier.
Shandi fished the plastic bag out of her front pocket and held it up in front of Jake. She watched his eyes study it, trying to focus on the corroded indentations that made up the words on the dog tags.
“Miriam found these in a cave. Right before the beast killed her brother.”
Jake had never met the hive mind. He did not react with sadness, but with concern about what it meant. “It’s started, then. The beast is killing people.”
Shandi continued, “I haven’t had time to run it down. I’ll save your eyes the trouble, though. It says William P. Hargrove. There’s a social security number, and an address in Mississippi.”
“Any relation to Karen?”
Karen. Of course. Shandi hadn’t made the connection yet with all the chaos in her life. Karen Phillips, formerly Hargrove, lived in Rose Valley. She had graduated a few years before them. Could she possibly be a relative of the beast?
“I hadn’t thought of that. Maybe there’s a connection if her family came from Mississippi originally. She may not have any idea, though. It would have to be at least two generations back.”
Jake nodded. “Worth a shot. Maybe she has old documents or family stories that could shed light on things.”
Shandi liked his line of thinking. As the evidence mounted for the beast being a man instead of Bigfoot, Shandi found herself more and more inclined to try to help him. She could only presume that Arrowhead Research had created him somehow. If they could turn him into this monster, then maybe they could turn him back.
Shandi remembered the last important thing she needed to tell Jake. “Skylar and Cam teamed up.”
“For serious?”
“Yep. Seriously. They’re organizing a manhunt. They’re going to try to hunt him down. There’s a town meeting tomorrow afternoon,” Shandi said.
“What’s today? Friday? I should be out of here by then, right? We should go.”
“You haven’t seen what the beast can do, Jake, but I have. I don’t want to be anywhere near that thing. Hunting it is crazy. People are going to die.”
“I know. But... I might be able to control it.”
Shandi rolled her eyes without meaning to. “But how, Jake? You didn’t even know you could until now.”
Jake shrugged and peered off into the distance again. “I don’t know, Shandi. Maybe it won’t help. But the more information I have about what they’re trying to do, the better. He came to the ranch after the football game. Maybe he stays near me. Maybe I have to be near him to control him. I don’t know how any of this works.
“Deirdre wanted to kill me. She thought it was the only way to stop him. But what if I can control him? Direct him? What if I can lead him into a trap.”
Shandi doubted it would work. He made reasonable points, but it terrified her to think of putting Jake in danger. Still, in a sea of bad choices, this seemed the best so far.
She nodded, reached up to his chin, and guided his face back towards hers. Their eyes locked again. It still felt amazing, like she could see directly into his soul. She marveled at the exhilaration and the comfort that filled her body. She leaned over to kiss him. He kissed her back. The spark ignited easily again. Focusing on more immediate concerns would not take the relationship away from them as she feared.
“Okay. We can go. But we need to focus on you first. We need to get you out of here.”
“Don’t worry about me. I feel fine. I feel better than fine. This is almost over. I know it. We can stop this. I can stop this.”
Shandi laughed. “You’re remarkably confident for someone who died two days ago.”
“Wait, what? I died?”
Shandi’s cheeks flushed. Of course, Jake would have no idea that his heart had actually stopped for a brief moment. It seemed like fairly important information that he might take as frightening. But she refused to let him dwell on it. He lived now. Awake. Energetic. She had him and would never let him go.
No more frightening information for today.
She leaned over and kissed him. He did not protest.
