Total pages in book: 185
Estimated words: 180510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 903(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 602(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 180510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 903(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 602(@300wpm)
Colten’s nose scrunches, eyes squinted. “Josie, you’ve been unconscious for two days. They’re going to run some more tests before you’re discharged, but I think you’re a little confused right now. Maybe you’re recalling autopsies you’ve performed.”
“The church was in Nashville.”
“We’re going to grab something from the cafeteria,” Mom says.
Colten glances back at her and nods once before offering me a sympathetic smile. “I’ll look into those bodies and get back to you.”
I start to protest. This is urgent. But I can see from the look on his face that my pleas will not be expedited. “Thanks.”
When my parents exit the room, he brings my hand to his mouth and presses his lips to it while closing his eyes. “Fuck, Josie … I thought you died. You weren’t breathing.” He opens his eyes, and that one look is filled with so much anguish it makes my heart ache.
“I heard you saved me. Thank you.”
His Adam’s apple bobs, and he nods. There’s a storm of emotion in his eyes. I don’t know what to say. I never get to say something was “a little touch and go,” but a family’s loved one will be okay. They’ll pull through. Nope. Never. That’s not part of my job.
Josephine Watts died of hypovolemia due to major vessel injuries from an abdominal GSW.
Or maybe I’m not out of the woods yet. Maybe my ending could change.
Josephine Watts died of septicemia following an abdominal GSW.
“Now can you see if they found the girls’ bodies?” I ask.
Colten offers me a tiny headshake. “Josie, you’re confused right now. I don’t know what girls you’re talking about.”
“Then why did you say you’d check on it?” It’s so vivid in my head. Is it a dream? Who dreams of something so morbid? My fascination with death has never led me down the road of imagining such horrid homicides.
“Because you need a chance to physically and mentally heal. And I didn’t want to upset you. Can you give it a few days, and then we’ll revisit what’s bothering you if it’s still bothering you?”
“I suppose,” I whisper. “What happened to me?”
“I was called to investigate a double homicide at the pier, and we were ambushed because the bodies were mules and they wanted their drugs. You were on the pier, fell into the water after you were shot. And I pulled you out.” His voice shakes with those last five words. “I’m … so fucking sorry. You shouldn’t have been there.”
He thought I was dead.
I’d say this is karma for what he did to me right before graduation because there were many days I wondered if he was alive. But I don’t believe in karma, so this is nothing more than a tragedy. A close call that no human deserves to experience.
I wake up in the middle of the night, and I can’t breathe. My mom calls for a nurse.
“There’s m-more.”
“Shh …” Mom tries to soothe me by stroking my hair. “It’s just a dream.”
My abdomen screams with pain, and the nurse gives me something for it … something that knocks me out until morning.
The next day, I see a neurologist. The exam and all the scans come back normal. Then I see a psychiatrist. They think I’m mentally unwell. If I don’t shut up, they’ll have me on the kinds of medications that will leave me with very little pain and barely coherent. So I shut up about the girls. For now …
“What’s going on between you and Colten?” Mom asks while I take tiny bites of mashed potatoes.
I’m hoping to go home today.
Dad doesn’t move from the chair by the window. He’s on his second nap of the day. I’d nap, but when I close my eyes, I see things. Things that make me mentally unstable according to everyone else. So I don’t sleep without heavy drugs that shut off my mind.
“We’re … something.” Just as I say those words, I have a flashback of us in a car doing something that’s frowned upon in public. It makes me smile, the kind that warms my cheeks.
“What’s that look about?” Mom asks. “Is it something romantic?”
It’s something sexual. I think. At this point, I don’t trust my thoughts. Reality is blurred. Maybe I dreamed it. Lord knows I’ve had a plethora of inappropriate dreams in my lifetime about Colten Mosley.
“Maybe. It’s new.”
Mom nods slowly, rubbing her lips together. “I see. I always wondered if you two would end up together.”
Speaking of …
Colten pops his head in the room, doing his usual late day check-in.
“Hey, beautiful.” His smile makes me feel beautiful, but only for a few seconds. I’ve caught a glimpse of my knotted hair in the bathroom mirror. It’s not beautiful.
Dad stirs, peeling open his eyes and stretching his arms over his head on a big yawn. “Looks like our shift is up for now.”