Sachi took another deep, shuddering breath. In barely a whisper, she asked, “Can you please call my father for me?” Tears welled up in her eyes.
Unable to hold back her own tears, she nodded, fumbling the phone from her purse. She had to keep blinking back tears as she punched in the number Sachi gave her, then Mandaline held it up to her ear for her.
Sachi’s eyes met hers. From where Mandaline sat, she could hear a man answer the line.
“Daddy?” Sachi sounded like a lost little girl. She closed her eyes and began sobbing. “Daddy, it’s Miki. I need you. Please. He found me… He…he found me…”
When Sachi couldn’t talk anymore, Mandaline took the phone out to the hallway and talked to Michael Bloomfeld.
“Is she really okay?” he asked, sounding shaken to his core. “She’s not bullshitting me, is she? Trying to downplay it?”
“She’s really okay, sir. They might discharge her tomorrow.”
“I…I’m on the computer now. I can get a direct flight from Spokane to Tampa.”
She dug a pen and notepad out of her purse. “Give me the info. I’ll either meet you myself or have someone meet you.”
They got it arranged. She got his cell phone number, and she gave him not only her cell number in case he couldn’t retrieve it from his phone, but Ellis and Brad’s, too. When she got off the phone, she returned to Sachi’s bedside.
She was asleep.
Exhausted, she collapsed into the recliner chair next to her bedside, put her feet up, and turned on the TV.
It was almost four in the morning when Brad and Ellis appeared in the doorway, where the deputy on guard as a precaution stepped aside to let them in when Mandaline nodded at him that it was okay to let them in. Cried out, Mandaline let out a relieved sigh at the sight of them.
They moved across the room as one. She sat up, and they both dropped to their knees in front of her, their arms around her as she cradled their heads against her. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you.”
“Are you okay?” Ellis asked.
“I’m fine. Are you both okay?”
“He’s a little banged up from the stairs,” Ellis said, “but other than that he’s fine.”
Something felt off with Brad. She stroked the back of his head. Stupid! she chastised herself. His PTSD.
When Brad did speak, he sounded like the “other” Brad, the “less there” one. “Is Sachi mad I took her car?” he asked.
She somehow managed to suppress her laugh. “No, sweetie. She’s not mad at all. I’m sure when our Queen of Snark wakes up, she’s going to want to give you a hug and a kiss.”
He let out a deep breath. “Okay.”
Ellis looked up at her, locking gazes. He pointedly looked at Brad, then back to her, and gave a subtle shake of his head.
She understood. He’s not doing well.
She released Ellis and wrapped both arms around Brad, drawing his head into her lap. He curled his body around her legs as Ellis draped an arm around his shoulders.
She kept her face buried in Brad’s hair. “You did good,” she told him. “You did really good, sweetie.”
He shivered. “Julie told me,” he mumbled. “She came to me at the store. Told me. Oh. Ellis?”
He cocked his head. “Yeah, buddy?”
“I dropped my phone and broke it. I need a new one. I’m sorry.”
Mandaline pressed her lips together to force the laugh not to break through. She could tell Ellis struggled to win the same war.
“It’s all right, buddy,” he finally told him. “When you’re feeling better, we’ll go get you a new one.”
“By the way,” Mandaline said. “Sachi’s father is flying in to Tampa tomorrow. I told him someone would meet him.”
Ellis nodded. “I’ll go.”
“I’ll go,” Brad mumbled.
“You can’t drive,” Mandaline and Ellis admonished together before laughing.
Brad lifted his head up. “I’m not supposed to drive. I can drive.” He lowered his head again.
She stroked his hair. “Yes, sweetie, we know you can drive. I think I need you to stay behind with Sachi. She’ll want to be downstairs working and I need someone who can keep her planted on the couch.”
He was quiet for a moment. “Oh. Okay.”
She kissed the top of his head again. “You all right?”
He slowly shook his head.
Ellis looked conflicted. “Do you want me to call Dr. Solomon at the VA and see if I can get you an emergency appointment?” He looked up at Mandaline. Psychiatrist, he silently mouthed.
She nodded.
“No,” Brad softly said. “I can get through it.” He took a ragged breath before lifting his head again. His voice changed. Mandaline felt the shift back to “more there” Brad. “I’ll be okay.” His brown eyes met Mandaline’s. “I won’t shut either of you out. I promise.” He laced his fingers through hers and kissed her hand. “Julie had faith in me. She knew I could do it. If she could have faith in me, I can have faith in myself.”
She sensed Ellis wanted to say something. “This is the moment of truth,” she told him. “Say what’s on your mind.”
He pursed his lips before finally speaking. “Julie came to me twice the past few days. In dreams. She told me to keep my .38 close and showed me a shotgun. I didn’t know what it was about. When Sachi took me out to shoot skeet, I realized it was her gun in my dreams.” He shook his head. “Want to know how I came to be there at the right time?”
“How?”
He glanced over at the bed where Sachi was sleeping as he related how he’d put the information together and realized Sachi was in danger.
A nurse knocked on the doorway. “I need to get her vitals.”
From the bed, Sachi mumbled, “Tell her to fuck off. I’m sleeping.”
The three of them burst into laughter. “She’s baaack,” they said.
The deputy assured them he or another deputy would stand guard until they returned in a few hours.
Ellis drove them back to the shop. “Now explain to me, exactly, why you and Sachi were butt naked, please?”
She felt her face heat. “I wanted to dance skyclad in the rain,” she mumbled. “Hey, you told me if I wasn’t hurting anyone, you didn’t care what I did.”
He looked like he was trying to hold back a laugh. “That’s right. I did. And I meant it. But…why?”
She sighed. “It’s fun. And it’s not like I can exactly do it behind the shop.”
“Well, you could,” Brad spoke up from the backseat, “but I suspect you’d get arrested eventually.”
“Exactly.” She looked at Ellis again. “Any more questions?”
He smiled. “So, you always dance outside naked in the rain?”
“Not always. Just when opportunity presents itself. Needless to say, Sachi and I didn’t think we had an audience.”
He glanced at her, a tired smile lighting his face. “Babe, feel free to run around naked at the house anytime you like. You don’t need to wait for it to start raining.”
Back at the shop, Mandaline needed to climb into the shower. When she fell into bed with the men, she thought she’d fall asleep, but instead she rolled on top of Brad and kissed him, hard and deep.
Next to them, Ellis moved close, draping an arm over her back and kissing her shoulder. She lifted her head to kiss him, too.
She wanted them both, right then, to end the evening on a good note.
To prove to her heart they were all alive and well and had made it through.
She reached over to the bedside table drawer and grabbed condoms and lube. She handed one and the lube to Ellis and ripped the other one open to roll down Brad’s now-hard shaft.
As she settled down on him, his cock easily sliding deep inside her pussy, a peace washed through her.