Page 9 of Tracing Her Stolen Identity (Secure Watch #2)

Reece stepped out onto the house’s porch to give Skylar privacy while she spoke with her parents.

At this point, there wasn’t much she could tell them that would harm the case, so he didn’t feel the need to be a voyeur, especially when he still had to talk to her about Silas.

Her brother was always a sore subject in the family, and as much as it was a can of worms Reece did not want to open, there was little choice.

All he could do was hope she’d forgive him for it.

A hand on his hip, he gazed out over the yard and sucked in a deep breath of the country air.

Spring had arrived, but piles of snow still dotted the yard.

Before long, they’d be gone, replaced by flowers and grass to mow.

Cal had a company that came in to mow and keep the property looking like it had been lived in, even when it rarely saw occupants.

He was grateful for it, because moving Skylar somewhere that wasn’t accessible meant him being more hands-on with her, and that was something he didn’t think he could do.

Not if he wanted to walk away from her again once they’d restored her life.

His would never be restored. He’d always remember the feel of her skin against his. The warmth she offered when he didn’t deserve comfort. She could believe there was nothing he could have done to help her that night, and maybe that was the truth of it, but that didn’t change how he felt .

Pandemonium. Panic. Were they the same thing? As Reece untangled himself from his teammates, he decided they were. Screams penetrated the night air. Lights flashed. The sound of the crowd as it pressed in on them roared back to his ears, but what he didn’t hear was his best friend.

“Sky!” he screamed, trying to push himself to his feet only to realize his left arm wasn’t working properly. He glanced down at it and noticed it hung at an odd angle. “Sky!”

Why were there so many bodies on the ground? He looked left and then right until he heard a strangled cry. “Land!”

He spun, and behind him, on the fifty-three-yard line, was the girl he was supposed to catch.

“Sky!” Reece screamed as he ran toward her, splinting his arm against his belly to stem the pain from each step.

“Don’t move!” Those were his first words as he slid beside her and grabbed her hand. “You’re going to be okay.”

“I can’t move my legs,” she whispered, tears sliding down her cheeks.

After a quick glance at her legs, he shook his head. “They don’t look broken, but don’t try to move them.”

“No, Land, I can’t—can’t feel them.”

Before she could say another word, he turned his head and bellowed for help, catching the attention of an EMT.

“You’re going to be okay,” he promised the girl he’d been in love with since he was old enough to know what that meant. “You’re going to be okay. Just stay still. I love you, Sky. You’re going to be okay.”

Reece gasped and sucked in another lungful of the night air.

He’d told her he loved her? He tried to focus his mind on that part of the night, but he couldn’t grab the memory again.

He’d lied to her earlier when he said he remembered those moments after the accident every night in his sleep.

He never got that far. He always woke up screaming her name at the moment of impact.

Did he have diagnosed PTSD after the incident?

Yes. Had he told Sky that? No. He made sure no one but him and his therapist knew about that diagnosis.

Was it shame that kept him from talking about it?

No. It was fear, and his therapist agreed.

He said Reece’s brain woke him at that exact moment each time to protect him from the fear.

No matter how hard they’d tried, they couldn’t unlock the memory.

And they’d tried for years. Then, he spent a few hours with Sky and her touch drew it out of him.

Even a solid shake of his head couldn’t dislodge the rest of the memories flooding him.

The surgery on his arm that they’d forced him to have even though he didn’t want to leave Sky’s side.

Waking up to find out she was paralyzed for life and would never walk again.

Learning that a golf cart had gone haywire and driven right into them as they did their routine on the field.

Lying in a hospital bed, being told how half of the team had broken bones and were at hospitals all over the Northland.

Ultimately, none of those injuries were as life-changing as Sky’s.

The settlement from the event had bankrupted the venue but set Sky up with enough money to provide for her immediate needs after the injury and for years to come.

Since his family was tight with hers, he knew that her parents had invested the money so that she got a monthly salary from the fund, and they’d set up another fund to help take care of the duplex with the rent her neighbor paid.

He was glad they had done that, because that money was in a trust with a lawyer and not in her name.

If they couldn’t recover her accounts, at least she wasn’t out all her trust money, too.

Reece closed his eyes and took stock of himself.

Was he ready to put the past behind him and focus on the present now?

Did he have a choice? No. If someone had told him when he woke up this morning that he would be taking care of Skylar Sullivan by day’s end, he would have told them they’d lost their minds.

His watch said she’d probably had enough time to finish the call, so he forced his feet forward and walked back into the ranch home, expecting to see her on the couch where he’d left her. Instead, she was nowhere to be found.

His heart pounding, he ran through the house, calling her name until he came to a halt in the hallway. His shouting had drowned out the sound that had always ripped him in two. Sky sobbing.

Gently, he rapped on the bathroom door. “Sky? Do you need help?”

“No,” she said, but it was strangled. Reece could picture her sitting in her chair, head in her hands as the tears leaked between them.

He’d seen it so many times after the accident, and his impotence in the situation flooded him every time.

This time, he wasn’t going to let it paralyze him.

He was the only one here for her and had to step up.

“I’m coming in. Tell me if you aren’t presentable.”

When she said nothing, he pushed the door open. He’d thought he was prepared for the scene, but he wasn’t. She was limp, with her upper body draped across the lowered sink as though she’d been trying to wash her face and had run out of strength.

“Oh, Sky,” he whispered, walking to her and unbuckling her seat belt. “Everything’s going to be okay. I promise. Is it okay if I carry you to the couch?”

Rather than answer, she gazed at him, dazed, until he put her arms around his neck and lifted her from the chair, supporting her back and knees.

He’d done it so many times when she was first injured.

She’d worn a plastic back brace that bit into his freshly repaired arm every time, but he’d never cared.

All he wanted to do was comfort her. He hadn’t been given that chance, so he would take this one and make sure she felt safe, if only for a few minutes of this wild, unexpected day.

Once they were settled on the couch, he held her, forcing himself to keep his lips closed and remind himself that this wasn’t about him.

This hadn’t happened to him. Sky was the one whose entire life had been destroyed today, and there was no way for him to make that better for her other than to do his job.

Right now, though, his job was to comfort her.

She would need it for the conversation that was still to come.

The clock ticked off another fifteen minutes of her resting against his chest with her eyes closed as her breathing evened out.

Reece wasn’t sure if she’d fallen asleep, not that he could blame her.

He hated having to wake her, but their work wasn’t done for the day, so he had no choice.

Holding her again reminded him of when they were kids and she would get mad or sad.

She’d cry herself out, rest for a few minutes and then pop up, ready to go again as though nothing had happened.

When she sat up and swiped her hands under her eyes, Reece bit back a smile to know she hadn’t changed. “Sorry about that meltdown. After I hung up with my parents, it hit me how hard my world had fallen apart today.”

“Nothing to apologize for,” he assured her. “After the day you’ve had, I don’t blame you one bit for feeling like your world has fallen apart. How are Mary and Joe?”

“Scared for me,” she said with a shrug. “Roman and Mina put a scare in them.”

“They aren’t a pair to mince words,” he said with a shrug. “Frankly, I wouldn’t want them to. We can’t be too safe until we know who this is.”

“Mom and Dad agreed. They’ve locked their accounts so no one can access them, which is about all they can do, and they’re going out to an island with a friend for a few days. Dad got a burner like Roman instructed him to do, and we have that number so we can update them as necessary.”

“Good. I’m sure your mom was frantic to think she couldn’t race up here and protect you.”

“You do know my mom,” she said with a chuckle. “The only reason they aren’t already in the car is because you’re with me, she said. She knows you’ll figure this out. Mom always called you her bonus son.”

“Probably because I lived at your house half my life.”

“Might have something to do with that,” she agreed with a wink. “I need better support.”

Selfishly, Reece didn’t want to stop holding her, but he twisted to the side and propped her into the corner of the couch anyway with a pillow behind her back.

Sky’s core back and abdominal muscles were affected by the paraly sis, so if she wasn’t in her chair, she had to be adequately supported or she’d end up with a back spasm.

“Better?”

Her nod had him climbing up off the couch. “I’ll get your chair and then I’ll make some tea so we can talk.”

“Oh boy. Tea and talking are not my favorite things. Wine and Netflix would be better.”

Reece laughed. He couldn’t help it. Sky was always witty and ready with a comeback to make him laugh. He was glad at least that much hadn’t changed. “I would love to oblige, but life on the line and all that.”

She bit her bottom lip as she nodded. “Fair enough. Okay, how about coffee? You know I can’t drink that swill you like so much.”

“Coffee it is. We’ll probably need the jolt of energy anyway. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

He didn’t miss her exhaled breath and muttered words as he headed to the bathroom to grab her chair. “I was afraid of that.”