Killing Me Softly: A Thriller Romance Novel

Chapter 4

My phone rang again while I waited in the hospital parking lot. I answered with one ring when I saw it was Janice again.

"Hey," I answered softly as if I were afraid to speak too loudly or someone would hear me from inside the hospital.

"Hey, he's been discharged. He only needed three stitches. Nothing too crazy," she said.

"Dismissed? You mean, he's gone?" I asked, darting my eyes around the parking lot. Had I missed him?

"Not yet. They just finished wrapping his hand. Dr. Gibson is in there with him now, probably prescribing him pain meds or something. Then, he's out of here."

"Did you hear him say anything else?"

"About the case or Mary Jo? No."

"No, about why he punched a mirror?" I said, checking my gas gauge, wondering if I would run out of gas if I didn't stop at a gas station soon.

I had a few more notches before it hit the E, and my gas light had not come on. I should have gotten more gas when I arrived in Yoakum, but I had been too busy thinking about Theo that it escaped my mind.

"Oh. Let me call you back. His door just opened. I think he's leaving," she said, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. "Call you back," she said and hung up.

There I was, parked about four cars from the doors of the ER. Luckily, I had found a dark space between two parking lot lamps, and my windows were dark enough to block me from sight during the night. He wouldn't have a clue it was me.

I sat and waited for the moment I had been waiting for, to see Theo Jameson's face since his wife's murder. It would have been better to be in the room with him rather than sitting inside my vehicle and watching him walk by, but I figured I might be able to pick up on something seeing him walk out.

Not even two minutes later, the moment finally came.

The automatic doors slid open on the inside, and there he was, a tall, gorgeous man dressed in all black with a white gauze wrapped around his right hand. I wanted to faint at the sight of him, just like I used to. It was unbelievable how, even after all these years later, he still had that effect on me.

There he was, walking out with his signature gait, with his long legs swinging smoothly with each stride. I still adored Theo's swagger.

He cradled his right hand in his left and held his eyes down as he entered the parking lot. I couldn't take my eyes off him as I sat and watched for which vehicle he would get into. But then, at the corner of my eyes, I saw a police cruiser pull up at the entrance of the ER without its lights on.

At first, I didn't think it was anything and did my best not to let it distract me from Theo. But then the driver-side door opened, and out stepped an officer. It was someone I immediately recognized. Someone I lost touch with and once held dearly to my heart, my old friend Jamie Wilson. He once dated Theo's sister but no other girls after that.

"Holy shit," I said, the words slipping out of my mouth at the sight of him.

Jamie looked good and fit! The last I had seen of Jamie was he had let himself go, gaining lots of weight and avoiding everyone at all costs. And, now, he was a police officer for DeWitt County?

Jamie walked into the ER as if he were on a mission. If he was looking for Theo, he had just missed him.

The headlights of a black 4-door Jeep Wrangler came to life from where Theo had disappeared to when I had noticed Jamie. It backed out and slowly headed toward the exit, passing behind me.

I hadn't seen any other vehicle leaving the parking lot. It had to be Theo. I knew it did.

Though I wanted to run and find Jamie, I followed my instinct and backed out to follow Theo wherever he was going.