Being the overzealous mother that she was, she shook her head and pouted. “It’s not healthy to keep that sort of thing all bottled up inside, Remington. You need to talk about what happened, and so do we. We’ve been out of our minds with worry these past few weeks, and we still have no idea why.”
My parents were older, both in their mid-sixties, and since I was their only child, they were very protective.
“Fine. I’ll tell you what I can remember, but you can’t breathe a word of what I’m going to say.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Promise me, Mom.”
“Okay, fine. I promise. We both do.”
“You’re going to need to close the door.”
Once my father had done so, I spent the next half hour telling them both about my blind date with Thomas and how we were attacked on our way home. I didn’t go through all the gory details of being stabbed or almost dying, but I did tell them about Noah and how he and his brothers had saved me. When I was done explaining everything, my father asked, “You’re saying a detective was behind all this?”
“Honestly, I don’t know who all was involved. I just know he was the one who tried to have me killed.”
“Oh, Remington,” my mother cried. “This is far worse than I could’ve ever imagined. I can’t believe my precious daughter had to go through all this. It just breaks my heart.”
“It’s okay, Mom. Really. I’m fine.”
“You are for now, but what happens when that officer comes back and starts asking questions? These people, especially that detective’s lawyer, are going to hammer you, Remi. They’ll do whatever they can to rip apart your story.”
I hadn’t realized that Noah had stepped into the room until I heard him respond, “No one’s going to rip apart anything. I’m not going to give them that chance.”
“Noah!” He walked past my parents and over to the edge of the bed. The look he gave me, so fierce and full of love, had me consumed with emotion. Unable to resist, I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. “I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you.”
“Good to see you too, baby.” He leaned down and kissed me on the forehead. “How you doing?”
“I’m okay.” As I looked over to my parents, I smiled and said, “This is Noah, the man I was just telling you about.”
“I figured as much,” my father answered as he extended his hand. “I can’t tell you how much we appreciate you looking after our daughter. She means the world to us, and I don’t know what we would’ve done if you hadn’t been there to help her.”
“Just glad I was able to help.” Noah reached down and took my hand in his, holding it tightly. “It’s nice to meet you both. Remington has told me a lot about you.”
“It’s really nice to meet you too,” my mother answered. “It’s pretty evident that Remington thinks a lot about you.”
“And I her.” Concern flashed through his eyes as he looked down at me and asked, “What did the doctors have to say?”
Before I could answer, my dad replied, “They said her vitals were good, but they want to keep her overnight to do some more testing. They’ve already drawn blood and did an exam. That’s all we really know right now.”
“Okay, good.”
Mom looked over at Dad as she said, “We should give them a little privacy, dear. We could go downstairs and grab a cup of coffee.”
“Okay,” I could hear the hesitation in my father’s voice, “if you think so.”
“I’ll be okay, Dad. I’m in good hands.”
My father’s eyes skirted over Noah with uncertainty. He gave me a quick nod, then walked out of the room. As Mom followed him out into the hall, she announced, “We’ll be back soon.”
As soon as the door closed behind them, I gave Noah’s hand a quick tug, pulling him towards me as I pressed my lips against his. I kissed him deeply, then looked up at him and asked, “Did they get Mathews?”
“They did. He’ll be going away for a long time.”
“The police were here earlier. They asked my parents lots of questions. I’m sure they’ll be back any minute.”
“I’m sure they will, but I’ll be here. I won’t let them take things too far.” His eyes locked on mine as he sat down on the edge of the bed. “This will all be over soon, and then we can get on with our lives.”
“I can’t tell you how I’m looking forward to that.” I gave him a little nudge as I teased. “Maybe when I get out of here, you can take me out on a real date.”
“I’ll take you wherever you wanna go. As long as you’re with me, I don’t care what we do or where we go.”
“You’re so good to me. I don’t know how I got so lucky.”
It seemed so strange to me. If I hadn’t gone out with Thomas that night and hadn’t been attacked by those men and left for dead, I would’ve never met Noah. I would’ve never felt the love I have for him nor the love he feels for me. I would’ve never felt so utterly complete. Without that night, my entire fate would’ve been written in different ink, and that was something I simply couldn’t fathom. I loved Noah. He completed me in ways I never dreamed possible, and I would spend the rest of my life trying to make him as happy as he’d made me. I slipped my hand down to the nape of his neck and inched him closer, pulling him in for another kiss. His lips had barely touched mine when I heard someone clear their throat and say, “Excuse me, Ms. Taylor. I was hoping to ask you a few questions.”
Noah quickly turned to look at the man. “You got a name?”
“Yes, sir.” The officer held up his badge as he replied, “I’m Officer Wade. I know you’ve been through quite an ordeal, so I won’t take up much of your time.”
“Oh, okay.”
Wade reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small notepad. With a click of his pen, he asked, “You and Detective Long had met for dinner on the night you were attacked, is that right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“He was walking you out to your car when several men appeared and threatened you.”
“Yes.”
“Can you describe these men who attacked you and Detective Long?”
“Not all that well. It was pretty dark, but I do remember that they had a lot of tattoos. One of them being a skull on their throats.”
“Very good. It was at that time when you both were kidnapped and taken to Detective Mathews’ home?”
“I’m not really sure where we were,” I lied. “To be honest, I’m not sure about much after that.”
“Yeah, Long mentioned that he thought you’d been drugged.”
“You’ve spoken with Thomas?”
Wade nodded as he answered, “Yeah, I was able to talk to him for a few minutes before they took him up to surgery.”
After seeing how bad he looked, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Hell, Mathews had beaten him something awful, but I’d hoped his wounds weren’t anything serious. “Why is he having surgery?”