The First Wife (15 page)

She glanced up at Logan. “Nothing.”

He held her gaze a moment; she saw doubt in his. Concern.

He turned his attention to the doctor. “What now?”

“I want her to stay one more night. For observation. And rest. No stress.” The doctor
smiled reassuringly at her. “You’re going to be fine, Mrs. Abbott. Don’t try to force
the memories. Let your brain heal, there’s no rush.”

But there was, Bailey thought as she watched him leave the room. She felt the urgency
to the very core of her being.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Saturday, April 19

4:25
P.M.

Bailey spent the day drifting in and out of sleep. She had insisted Logan check in
at the farm and his office; other than the nurses and activity outside her room, it
had been quiet. Each time she’d awakened, she had gone over and over the days leading
up to her accident, hoping something would jog her memory. All she had to show for
it was a splitting headache.

“Bailey, baby, are you awake?”

Logan. In the doorway. Looking freshly showered and changed. An arrangement of delicate
yellow roses in his hands. Tears stung her eyes. A part of her wished she could pull
the covers up over her head and shut him and everything else out. Hide until her memory
returned.

But then what?

“I’m awake.” She forced a wan smile. “The flowers are beautiful.”

“You’re beautiful.”

He crossed to the bed, set the vase on the table beside it, bent over and kissed her.
“Did you get some rest?”

“A little.”

He seemed so tall, standing there beside the bed looking down at her. And she felt
so small. So vulnerable. He tilted his head, eyebrows coming together with concern.
“What’s wrong?”

“I have a headache.”

“I’ll call the nurse.”

“Don’t. She’ll just give me something that’ll make me feel cotton-headed. I don’t
want to feel that way anymore.”

He pulled the chair over and sat. “There’s something I have to tell you.”

“About True.”

He frowned. “No, Bailey, why would you— About us. You and me.” He took her hand. “Our
dreams.”

Their dreams.
She couldn’t remember them, she realized. If she and Logan had them, they were now
residing beside her nightmares.

He leaned closer; there were tears in his eyes. “It’s something wonderful.”

“Wonderful?” she repeated, heart in her throat.

“We’re having a baby.”

She stared at him. “What did you—”

“A baby.” He covered her hand with one of his, lacing their fingers. “We’re pregnant.
It’s a miracle you didn’t lose it. That fall—” His throat seemed to close over the
words; he cleared it. “We could have lost it.” He bent and gently rested his cheek
against her belly.

She gazed down at his head, thoughts spinning.
A baby? She was having a baby?

“But how … I mean, I didn’t know before the accident. Did I?”

He lifted his head, met her eyes. “Neither of us did.”

“Then how—”

“The hospital did a pregnancy test, protocol when women of childbearing age are admitted.”

She struggled with that. “And it was … positive?”

“You’re five weeks along, Bailey.”

Worries over what she remembered and what she didn’t lost their power. Her confusion
melted away, replaced by a wonder, a sense of purpose like she had never known.

She met his eyes. “This is really happening?”

“It is.”

“We’re having a baby,” she said. She brought her hands to her abdomen. She imagined
the life there, a part of her and this man. Logan. Her husband.

A family. What she’d always wanted.

What she’d never had.

Until now.

A wave of protectiveness rose up in her, fierce, primal. This was
everything
. Bailey reached up, cupped his cheek, liking the just-shaved feel against her palm.

She smiled. As it broke across her face, she realized it was the first time she’d
smiled since awaking. “I’m going to be a mother. We’re going to be parents.”

“We are.” He bent and kissed her. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

The words passed her lips, bringing emotional clarity. With it, a full, all-senses,
to-her-core memory of loving him. As if she had only now emerged from her coma.

Everything else she had been feeling was inconsequential. Logan was her husband. They
were going to be parents, raise a child together. If she should trust anyone, it was
him.

A nurse came in with her cart. “Time to check your vitals, Mrs. Abbott.” She busied
herself, making small talk as she checked Bailey’s temperature, blood pressure and
pulse, not seeming to notice she and Logan only had eyes for each other.

When she’d finished and reached the door, she stopped. “By the way, there’s a policeman
here to speak with you, Mrs. Abbott. A Chief Williams, from the Wholesome Police Department.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Saturday, April 19

4:30
P.M.

Billy Ray waited outside room 410. Inside, Bailey Abbott was awake and communicating.
Finally. The moment he’d gotten word, he’d hightailed it over here.

He flat out didn’t like hospitals. He was a lawman, admittedly small town, but he
still dealt with some seriously unpleasant shit. Accident victims. Fights. Drunks
lying in a pool of their own vomit.

But hospitals made his skin crawl. Go figure.

He’d arrived just as the nurse had been going in. She’d snapped the door closed in
his face, unimpressed with both his credentials and sense of urgency. What he’d done
to piss her off, he hadn’t a clue.

Abbott, he thought. Probably directed the woman to stall him.

A smile touched Billy Ray’s mouth. He could stall all he wanted, but this was it.
His chance to nail Abbott, after three long years.

It’s going to happen, my love. I’m going to make him pay.

True.

He didn’t allow himself to think of her often, or to linger on what might have been.
But when she popped into his mind, she came with a wisp of something both tender and
bitter.

Tender. And bitter. He mostly focused on the bitter. Or tried to. That he could hold
on to. It didn’t tease or torment.

Billy Ray thought again of this moment. Henry Rodriquez shot to death. Logan’s pretty
new wife, red with blood. Too much to be from her head wound.

His gaze drifted back to the clock. And to True. In his mind’s eye, the clock turned
back. Back to that first meeting. And to that moment when he’d realized how desperately
she needed him.

He’d been on patrol that morning. Cruising with the windows down, enjoying the breeze
through the windows. It reminded him of being a kid, riding along with his uncle Nate,
feeling free and happy. He hadn’t had a whole lot of happiness in his childhood, but
those ride-alongs with Uncle Nate stood out in bright contrast to his otherwise grim
memories.

They’d cruise the winding country roads talking about the world, life or sometimes
nothing at all. He’d felt safe with Uncle Nate. No wonder he’d followed in his footsteps
and become a cop.

Up ahead he saw a woman sitting slumped by the side of the road, her head in her hands.
He tapped the siren, slowed and pulled up alongside her. Her long blond hair was pulled
back into a high ponytail; she wore hot pink and black exercise gear.

“Ma’am, you okay?”

She lifted her head and he realized who she was. Logan Abbott’s young bride.

Lordy, she was beautiful. Take-your-breath-away gorgeous. At the moment, however,
she was as pale as a ghost.

“Miz Abbott? It’s Officer Williams, remember me? Billy Ray. We met down at the Stop
and Shop.”

She nodded. “I remember.”

Her voice was like a breath of spring. Light and sweet. The sound of it just made
him feel good. “Can I help you?”

“Yes, please. I don’t feel so good.”

Billy Ray grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler on the floor of the cruiser and
brought it to her. “Here you go, ma’am.” He twisted off the top and handed her the
bottle. He noticed her hand shook as she took it.

She tipped her head back and drank. Billy Ray found himself staring at the smooth
arch of her neck and jerked his gaze away, embarrassed.

“Thank you, Billy Ray,” she said softly, cradling the now-empty bottle in her hands.

“You’re very welcome, Miz Abbott. I’ll take that, if you’re finished?”

“I am.” She handed it over. “And please, call me True.”

Blue eyes. Clear and guileless as a summer sky. “I’d be happy to, True.” Her name
felt like poetry on his lips and he longed to say it again. He resisted and carefully
deposited the empty bottle in the cooler, then held out a hand. “You feel strong enough
to stand?”

She nodded and laid her small hand in his. He curled his protectively around it and
helped her up.

“Good as new,” she said lightly, “thanks to you, my knight in shining armor.”

He smiled. “You look a little wobbly to me. Climb in, I’ll give you a ride home.”

She hesitated, something apprehensive moving across her expression. “I’m fine now.
Really.”

“Abbott Farm is more than a mile up the road.”

“Logan won’t like it.”

“Pardon?”

“You bringing me home. He’s a little jealous.”

“Well, look here, True. I’m the law and I’m just gonna insist.”

He helped her into the cruiser, then went around and climbed in. “Buckle up.”

She did as he asked and he pulled onto the road. “What happened, True?”

“I went for a run. I didn’t intend to go so far and suddenly I was just overcome.
I thought I was going to faint.”

“You didn’t bring water?”

“No.”

“Or a cell phone?”

She shook her head. “I just wanted some time to myself. To clear my head. You know
what I mean?” She looked at him, the expression in those wide blue eyes hopeful.

A lump formed in his throat. “I do.”

“Pretty dumb, huh.”

“Not at all. Overconfident.”

She laughed. “That sounds a whole lot better, but it’s not true. I just wanted to …
go. Dumb,” she said again.

He reached the Abbott Farm gates, with its ornate logo. They stood open and Billy
Ray turned in. He followed the drive to where it split: to the right lay the stable
and training facilities, to the left the main house.

“House or barn?” he asked.

“Barn.”

Moments later, he rolled to a stop; Logan stepped out of the stable, a commanding
figure in riding breeches and boots.

True flew out of the car and ran to him; Billy Ray followed more slowly. Something
about the way Abbott pulled her against his side had Billy Ray seeing red.

“True, baby, are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” Her voice shook slightly. “Officer Williams here rescued me from the side
of the road.”

“Is that so?” He turned his gaze to him. “Then I’m indebted to you, Billy Ray.”

He held out a hand; Billy Ray took it. It seemed to him Logan held it a bit too tightly
and for a moment too long before letting go. “Just doing my job, Logan.”

“What happened, baby?”

“I went for a run and felt sick. I thought I might faint and sat down. That’s when
Officer Williams came along.”

“Why didn’t you call me?”

“I forgot to bring my phone.”

Billy Ray noted the untruth. She had told him she’d deliberately left it. Why lie?

Logan frowned. “That’s not safe, True. We talked about that.” He shifted his gaze
to Billy Ray. “She leaves her phone behind all the time.”

“I do.” Her smile looked stiff. “I’m sorry, Logan.”

Billy Ray stepped in. “What’s not safe, Miz Abbott, is exercising in this heat without
water. Remember the H
2
O and you’ll be fine.”

“Maybe I just won’t let her go without me.” Logan drew her closer to his side. “That
way I’ll know she’s safe.”

Billy thought he saw her shudder and he frowned.
What was going on here?

“If you folks don’t need anything else from me, I’ll get back to it.”

“Wait!” True called.

Billy Ray stopped and looked back at her. Logan frowned.

“Let me get you a bottle of water. To replace the one you gave me.”

He smiled, thinking her one of the sweetest things he’d ever met. “That’s not necessary,
Miz Abbott. I keep a cooler in the cruiser, just in case.”

“Thanks for your help, Billy Ray,” Logan said, smiling. “Tell your uncle Nate I said
hello.”

As he drove off, Billy Ray glanced in the rearview. The pair stood as they had been,
Logan holding his wife tightly to his side, her smile stiff.

Something fierce stirred up in him. With it the urge to turn back, swoop True Abbott
up and take her away. Save her.

But he hadn’t been able to. Money, power and influence had won the day. The way it
always did.

“You can go in now, Officer.”

He blinked. The nurse stood at the door, scowling at him.

He forced himself to smile pleasantly at her. She didn’t know, didn’t understand about
Abbott. Like the rest of the world, she only saw what he wanted her to.

For True, he silently promised and turned toward the door. No matter what he had to
do, if it took his very last breath, he would make Logan Abbott pay.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Saturday, April 19

5:10
P.M.

Bailey looked up as Billy Ray entered the room. Her stomach clenched and she shrank
back against the pillows. She wasn’t ready for this. It was too soon.

Logan curled his hand around hers. He leaned down. Murmured so just she would hear,
“It’s okay, baby. You’ll be fine.”

Billy Ray stopped at the end of the bed. The intensity in his eyes made her uncomfortable.
He shifted that gaze from her to Logan and back.

“It’s good to see you awake, Mrs. Abbott.”