Roxanne's Redemption (26 page)

Sebastian woke when a nurse came in the room to check on Roxanne. He didn't want to leave but he was hungry
and
in dire need
of a bathroom
,
plus
he could tell
he was getting in the nurse’s way
.
H
e kissed
Roxanne’s
forehead then left to find a
bathroom and a vending machine
.

Chapter Twenty-F
ive

Ashley dodged around the corner as she spotted Sebastian heading toward her direction
.
He was exhausted
.
S
he could see the love and the hope
shining so
clearly that she almost screamed. She
curse
d
about the unfairness of life and
,
even though it didn't have the desire
d
effect
,
at least she had better control of her anger.

Why
didn't
Roxanne
die?

Ashley made sure she followed them wherever they went before making plans. She’d even jot
ted
down the pros and the cons of the situation and still
,
all the trouble Ashley had
taken
to ensure
she couldn’t be linked with her death was for naught
.
S
he was still alive.

N
ot for long
,
Ashley
promised herself as
s
he entered the room
.
She
took the gun from her jacket pocket
and
point
ed
it at
her
head. The accident didn't kill her but a bullet to the head would.

*
*
*
*

Detective Shaun Williams jumped in his
car
going faster than he should as he
headed for the
hospital
. He'd heard about the car accident involving Ms. Reynolds
.
H
e’d wanted to be on the scene
but
he couldn’t
;
an urgent case had needed his undivided attention, so
someone
else took it
instead of him
. When his captain and fellow officers
began
saying it was the driver's fault for
not abiding by the speed limit
he
’d
told
them—
well tried to
—
that
it
had nothing to do with speeding
.

They
ha
dn't
believed
him so
,
after turning in his case
,
he continued
his search. Imagine
his surprise when he found
out
Ashley Woodland
,
also known as Terri Thomas, Katie Plume,
Boston Wright and few others
,
was
Gracie Harris
by birth
and she
was on
e of
the FBI’s most wanted.
She would work for the man she chose as her next victim
,
then start dating
him
and afterward she would kill
him
.

Of all her victims
,
Sebastian
and Roxanne were
the luckiest
.
The others had all been
killed after three months
.
Most
of her victims had companions
,
but they too
were
killed. Now he was her
e
to stop her
from finishing what she started.
It
took a long time to
find
the
information
,
but as long as he save
d
two
lives
it was worth it
. He pulled into the parking lot
,
exiting
the car as quickly
as possible
.

“Roxanne Reynolds?” he asked
,
flashing
his badge
at
the nurse sitting at the desk as he entered the
h
ospital.

“Go straight down, make a right
then
you'll find her
in
room 217.”

“Thank you.”

He didn't wait for a reply
,
hurrying like the hounds of hell were
at his heels and in a way they were. Though he wanted to be wrong
,
a part of him
knew
Gracie w
ou
l
d
show up and
when she did
she might get away with hurting Roxanne
.
She
was good at hurting people without drawing attention to herself
, so
h
e
wasn't taking
any chances
in not
warn
ing
Sebastian before it
was
too late
.

Shaun was almost
there
when he saw someone enter
the room. The person was too short to be Sebastian and not dressed
like a
n
urse
.

“Ah
shit,” he muttered
,
when the hair at his nape stood
up
.

He
silently
ran the rest of the way
.
A
s he got closer
,
he
slowed
.
H
e
stood in front of the door
and
heard mutterings
from within
.
He entered the room
silently,
fr
eezing
when he saw a gun pointed at Roxanne's head.

“Gracie
.
”
S
he jumped but didn’t turn so he continued. “You don't
want to do that.
”

She snorted. “Yes I do
.
If
I don't
,
Sebastian will never be mine
as
he
was meant to be.”

“
Killing
her w
on’t get
you
what you want
.
”

“No
,
but
killing her will
make
him
love me
like
he
was meant to
.”

“How can
killing the woman he loves make
him love you?”

“He has to,” she muttered. “I've been waiting for him to
want
me like he should’ve
when
we
first
met
, but no he went and f
e
ll for
a
woman that wasn’t
even his color
.”

“Gracie
.”

“Don't call
me that
.
M
y name is Ashley,
”
she snapped
.

Shaun opened his mouth to say something, but
shut it when
she
began
talking
. “She wasn’t
supposed
to survive that crash
,
you know
.”

Shit! He
’d
been
right all along.

“I planned her accident perfectly. I followed them for almost
three
month
s
and when I saw my chance
to
finally get rid of her
,
I acted. I
ran her off
the
road
,
and then
waited
for about two minutes
to see if she would escape. When she didn't
,
I
went home to watch the news
and
imagine my surprise when the reporter
said she
was rushed to the hospital in
a
critical condition. She
was
supposed
to die
, damn
it
.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Even if you kill me, I’ll have the pleasure of ending her life like I
’d
wanted
when she stole Sebastian from me
.”

She
raised her gun
higher
.
W
ith a speed he didn't know he had he pulled his gun from
its
holster
and fired. She fell to the ground
.
H
e watched with shaking hands as
blood
spread on her blouse and
on the
tiles
.
In a few seconds, h
ospital security
guards
slammed into
the room
,
guns out
.

*
*
*
*

“Come on honey
;
you have to wake up for me
, please
.”

Roxanne wanted to open her eyes, but they felt like they were
glued
shut. What was wrong with her? Why couldn’t she open her eyes? S
omeone squeezed her hand gently;
she tried to
squeeze back, but her fingers
wouldn’t
work
either
. There was
some muttering then someone shouted.

“Roxanne Allayna Reyno
lds, open your eyes this instant.
You’ve
been asleep for almost four weeks
and
it’s time for you to get up
,
so Sebastian can stop driving the rest of us insane with his pacing.”

She would recognize that voice anywhere.

“Stop shouting, Ava,” she managed to croak
and
as her eyes
began to open she
saw Sebastian pacing
.
Kira and
Lexi were
leaning on the wall
.
B
oth
were
staring at her,
but she doubt
ed
they
really
saw her
.

Four pair
s of eyes turned to look at her.
Ava, Kira and Lexi
began
crying
silently
and
Sebastian’s eyes filled with tears though they didn't fall.

“Water,” she croaked.

Sebastian was at her side with a glass of water as s
oon as the word left her mouth.
She
sipped
it while he held the glass. When she had her fill he
placed the
glass back on a table
.
S
he
winced as she
tried
to sit up
. God! She felt like she’d
been
run over by
a
tr
uck
.

“How are you feeling?” Roxanne turned to the voice
,
re
aliz
ing
that
Lexi had
gone for a doctor
.

Like shit
probably wouldn’t be the right thing to say, so in
stead
she said,
“Like I got run over by
a truck
then
beaten to near death with metal baseball bats.”