of the baby’s curls beneath her palm.
“He’s cranky. Nothing seems to make him—” And then she realized he wasn’t crying anymore. She looked down as he settled his little cheek against her shoulder and began sucking his thumb. “Well, my goodness! I guess—”
Wyrick reluctantly let go of the curls and walked back to her seat.
This was the second time Charlie had seen her affinity with children. It wasn’t anything he would ever have expected from her, and he knew better than to comment, but it touched him in a way he could not explain.
Millie was still fascinated with Wyrick, and seeing the baby go peacefully to sleep with hardly more than a touch from Wyrick’s hand was amazing. It made her wonder what magic she might render to Rachel. Could she wake her as easily as she’d put the baby to sleep?
She’d soon find out.
Seventeen
It was 4 p.m. when people began getting up and leaving the waiting room.
“Is it time?” Wyrick asked.
Millie nodded. “Follow me,” she said.
Wyrick stood then walked out of the room, towering over Millie’s height by almost a foot.
They entered the ward in silence, moving past the other patients. There was a nurse at Rachel’s bedside as they approached.
“Is there any change?” Millie whispered.
“She’s stable. That’s a good sign,” the nurse said softly, then glanced up at Wyrick. She recognized the woman behind the mask of makeup, then eyed the fierce tattoo before walking away.
Wyrick moved to Rachel’s bedside, quickly identifying all of the machines they had hooked to her body, then gently laid a hand on Rachel’s shoulder.
“Do you talk to her?” Wyrick asked.
Millie nodded.
“Then let her know you’re here. Tell her she’s in a hospital, and that she’s safe. Keep telling her she’s safe. Tell her the man who hurt her is behind bars.”
Millie gasped. “They caught him?”
Wyrick nodded, then she put one hand on Rachel’s forehead, the other on her arm and closed her eyes.
She could hear Millie’s soft voice, but the words were fading as she moved into Rachel’s body...seeing the physical damage already in the stages of healing, and feeling the drain of the energy it was taking from her. It was the fever that was sapping her strength.
She sent all of the energy she had into Rachel, knowing when the wounds healed, the fever would abate. She put her hand over the bandage on her neck and then moved it over her heart, sending energy pulsing throughout her body, watching it seal off wounds and healing the frayed ends of tiny nerves.
And then she put a hand on Rachel’s forehead and moved deeper, slipping into Rachel’s psyche, feeling the horror trapped within her, and the pain and the terror of what she had experienced.
It was just as Wyrick had thought.
Rachel didn’t know she was safe.
Wyrick remembered she’d sent Charlie a text with her thoughts. What if she could get her thoughts beneath the dark in which Rachel was hiding? What if Rachel heard them?
There was only one way to find out.
Rachel... Rachel Dean. Come out of the shadows. You’ve been rescued. You are safe. There’s no one left to hurt you. He’s the one locked up now. You’re free, but he’ll never see freedom again. Come out, come out into the light. Don’t let him win. Millie’s here. She’s waiting to take you home. Listen for her voice. She’s here. She saved you. It’s safe to come home.
She stood for a few seconds, waiting to see if she felt any kind of response, and then slowly turned loose and stepped away.
Millie was on the other side of Rachel’s bed, whispering near her ear, patting her arm, saying things only a sister would know to say.
Wyrick was waiting. The visitation time was almost up. She didn’t want to leave without knowing if it had made a difference.
Unaware of Wyrick’s expectations, Millie paused to wipe tears from her eyes, and as she did, Wyrick saw Rachel’s chest rise as if she’d taken a deep breath, and when she exhaled the cannula in her nose shifted slightly.
It was at that moment that Millie looked back down and then gasped.
“Her eyelids are fluttering. Oh, my God, oh, my God!” She took off to get a nurse. They were back within seconds, and Millie pointed to Rachel’s eyes, seeing movement beneath the lids.
“Look,” Millie said. “I think she is trying to wake up.”
The nurse immediately began checking Rachel’s vitals and then called the RN.
Millie was beside herself. It was hard to keep her voice down, but