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“I told you … we have to ‘begin at the beginning’.”
“Alice in Wonderland,” Wolf said. “‘Sometimes the best we can do is start over.’”
The plane sped up. Hattie was leaving Steffan and Augustine and all hope behind. A pit formed in her stomach even as she tried to be positive and grateful.
“Captain America, Winter Soldier,” Sadie countered. “‘Beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad, but it is the middle that counts the most.’”
“Hope Floats. Sandra Bullock,” Wolf said.
Hattie shook her head, but she laughed. She’d almost forgotten about the movie line trivia with these two. “Try this one as I tell you about ‘the brilliant idea to fake my own death.’”
“Megamind,” said Sadie, wide-eyed. “Start talking.”
The plane lifted off the ground and swooped up, quickly gaining altitude. If Hattie was going to have to leave the man she’d fallen for far too quickly, her prince, at least she’d be with the two people she adored second and third most in this world. But maybe Aliya was tied with Wolf for third place. Steffan had taken over Sadie’s spot in first. She probably wouldn’t tell her cousin that. Sadie wouldn’t be upset, but she also wouldn’t rest until Steffan and Hattie were reunited.
Hattie didn’t know if that would ever come to pass.
Chapter Fourteen
Steffan made it back to Augustine without incident and since he had no idea what to do, he went to work.
He worked for the next eight days straight. He went to the Sunday service at the hospital’s chapel—him and four patients and the vicar. He ate his meals in the hospital and only went home to sleep, shower, and put on fresh scrubs. He didn’t even go to morning workouts with Jensen.
Hattie. He missed her and prayed for her constantly. Ray and Macey shared some updates from Sutton Smith. She was in Belize with Wolf and Sadie. She was doing well. That was all they had. He wanted Macey to say Hattie missed him. Maybe she even ached for him like he did her.
It concerned him that she’d been so darling telling him her full name, returning his passionate borderline desperate kiss, and then she’d yanked herself from his arms and walked away. She hadn’t asked him to go with her. It concerned him that she hadn’t asked him to go with her. Would he have gone? She’d walked away from him without looking back. It stressed him that she hadn’t looked back.
Hattie was strong and independent. He could imagine her deciding she couldn’t be with Steffan and cutting him from her heart and her life. Could she do that?
Jensen’s updates were awful. The only prints on the knife were Franz Wengreen’s and Hattie Ballard’s—not so much as a smudge from William Rindlesbacher, yet the man hadn’t had plastic gloves on him.
They’d scoured that small cabin with the light bars that early morning and later on in the daylight. Not a hint of where the recording device had disappeared to. Jensen promised he had checked William thoroughly for the device and for gloves, no matter how disgusting that task had been. Steffan was a doctor and dealt with all manner of disgusting tasks, but that did sound foul. Had the man swallowed the recording device and hidden the gloves in a spot nobody would search?
There was no money trail from William to Franz. None. Franz and Treven had been roommates in college in Milan, and Franz had called William the night before he was stabbed and in William’s words asked him to meet at the cabin. The fabricated story checked out.
The media got ahold of the farce, disparaging Hattie from Rome to Budapest. Jensen, Ray, and Steffan all blamed William for the media hailstorm. It looked like they were going to have to release Treven Rindlesbacher from prison to avoid a very large scandal for their chief of police and the entire country of Augustine. That was horrible. What was worse was Hattie might never be free to live her life. She might never come back to Augustine and Steffan.
Hattie had been declared dead. Nobody wanted to try to retrieve that burned-out razor from a two-hundred-meter-deep ravine to find dental records. He guessed that was good news. At least William wouldn’t go after her.
She might as well be dead as far as he was concerned. He missed his mum desperately. That ache wasn’t even close to how frantically he missed Hattie.
Steffan was in his office late one night when a rap came on the door. Stretching, he went to open it. Curt and Aliya stood there. Aliya grinned, while Curt looked out of place.
“You left your mountain?” Steffan managed.
“My gorgeous wife is helping me live a little. We went out for Vietnamese food. Delicious.”
“Ah, you sweet hunky prince. You’re delicious.” Aliya kissed him, but thankfully had a little compassion for Steffan and didn’t extend the kiss for too long. She pushed her way into the office. “Love, shut the door.” He complied. She looked Steffan over. “Well, you look like crap warmed over.”
“I’m not actually sure what that means.”
“Well, it ain’t good. I can tell you that right now. What are you doing here?” She folded her arms across her chest and gave him a challenging glare.
“Here? As in at my hospital?” Steffan gestured around. “I work here. I run the place, actually.”
“Oh.” She waved her hands in the air. “I’m so hoity-toity and I ‘run the place, actually,’ he says in his smooth accent. Look how important I am.” Aliya got in his face. “And look how miserable and lonely and missing our beloved Hattie like somebody cut off your right arm you are.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. That was exactly how it felt.
