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The clean chemical smell.
It made my stomach churn, and I was using every ounce of energy and determination inside me to keep my ass in the fucking bed, even though I desperately wanted to get the hell out of there. “Where’s the doctor? I need to ask him again about leaving.”
“God, you’re such a baby.” I looked up as Jade walked through the door. Detective Carter, who’d been handling what happened, was following closely behind her.
“I got shot,” I countered.
She rolled her eyes. “But did you die? No.”
“That’s enough, you two,” Valen scolded, though she was quick to get up and give Jade a hug. The two of them really have held on tight to each other the past couple of days through hard conversations and hurt feelings. But they’d be stronger for it, that was for sure. I just wasn’t sure I was going to handle having Jade around the house more, especially now they were once again two peas in a pod.
“I just wanted to keep you both updated on the case,” Detective Carter interrupted, opening the folder in his hands. “We’ve done some extensive probing into Chad’s computer over the past day, and there’s been a lot of interesting things come up. Seems he was part of a group online that our Cyber Crime Department has been keeping an eye on with relation to sexual assaults around the city.”
Valen pushed her hand to her stomach, shaking her head. “He said he spent a lot of time with women, meeting them on apps a couple of times a week.”
It was hard for her to hear, knowing that someone you were in a relationship with for over a year and had intended to marry seemed like he had an entirely different persona than the one she’d been shown.
She still felt at fault for everything that had happened, but I kept trying to make her see just how lucky she was that it happened this way and not when she was in far too deep.
“We also got a court order to unseal his files because of some messages we found were rather incriminating toward that case.”
“Can you tell us what the case was?” I questioned, and the detective quickly glanced over his shoulder before he stepped in closer.
“There’s not much I can say, but it was to do with a young woman who was forced off the road in her car and killed.” My stomach twisted, and he shook his head. “At the time, Chad was her ex-boyfriend, and she’d put out a restraining order because he was stalking her. The defense attorney tried to charge him, but there was little evidence, so it was dismissed and his file sealed.”
“Thanks, detective,” Valen said, forcing a smile.
He nodded. “I’ll probably be in touch, but for now, I hope you get some peace.”
He backed away, and Jade slowly moved with him. “I’ll walk him out,” she said with a smile before ducking out the door. I wasn’t sure what’d happened there, but you could practically see the hearts dancing in her eyes when she looked at the man.
“Did I miss something?”
Valen chuckled softly, taking my hand. “Jade yelled at him, and he helped us out.” I waited for more, but she just rolled her eyes. “Don’t ask me how her mind works when it comes to men.”
“Okay, about the doctor then…”
She got to her feet. “Okay, okay… I will go and see if the doctor has decided on a time for letting you out of this prison. But I can’t promise anything. You were shot, Reed.”
I knew.
It hurt.
But I didn’t need surgery, and there’d been no complications.
It had just been a flesh wound.
I hated the hospital, but the path that had landed me here, I’d never regret for a second because it was on this path that I’d found Valen.
Everything I’d been through, every choice I’d made, every stomach-churning, heart-aching, fucking thing that had happened to me in my life.
All the shit I could never comprehend, never understand why I was the one chosen to live through it.
All of that had to happen to lead me here.
To her.
To Valen.
