Lord Have Mercy

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  Hell, there wasn’t an officer in the entire department that got to work seven thirty to four, five days a week like I did and even got off for the majority of every holiday that the students did. Hell, when I picked up extra shifts, it wasn’t even a requirement for me.

  So hell yes, I loved my job.

  I also loved the hell out of my woman.

  It’d been a very short time since we’d become ‘official.’ And in that short time, I’d tried to keep my distance. But every time I’d add a brick to my wall, she’d knock down three or four. And just like that, I was no longer able to hold any defense against her.

  The light in front of me turned green, and I started to accelerate.

  I also laughed because as I did, I could practically hear Camryn squealing behind me as I went through the gears as fast as I could.

  What I should’ve been doing instead of laughing at my imaginary girlfriend was paying attention to the road.

  Because if I had, I wouldn’t have made the fatal mistake that I did.

  Headlights filled my vision, and then everything went black.

  Chapter 15

  I’ve just spent the last hour trying to figure out how a Stegosaurus has sex. The longer I think about it, the more difficult it is.

  -Text from Camryn to Flint

  Camryn

  “Hey, Camryn?” Carmichael squeaked into the phone. “Is Flint there?”

  I looked at my watch to ascertain the time. He’d left my house a little over an hour and thirty-five minutes ago.

  “No,” I said, scowling at my severely lacking clothing selection. “He’s at the gym covering the class for Croft, remember?”

  There was silence on the line for a few short seconds as she digested this bit of news.

  “Actually, that’s why I’m calling,” she explained. “I’ve had four members call me bitching that the gym wasn’t open, and nobody is there and there’s not a sign on the door saying why it’s not open. Did he say he was going to his house?”

  I shook my head, frowning fiercely as I did.

  “No,” I began to explain. “He stayed the night. We went on the way home from our date yesterday and got a change of clothes as well as his uniform for today. I was to meet him at the school in about twenty minutes from now with Dooley.”

  She inhaled deeply. “Something’s wrong.”

  I frowned and said, “Let me call him and call you back.”

  She made a sound that sounded like a scoff. “If he didn’t answer for me…”

  I pursed my lips. “You’re right, but I would like to try.”

  “Okay,” she said. “Call me back when you’re done.”

  We hung up, and I immediately dialed Flint’s number, the first number that I had memorized in about ten years.

  The phone rang six times before it went to his voicemail.

  I tried again.

  Six times and then the voicemail again.

  I went to hit Carmichael’s name in my recent calls list as I was also grabbing my keys, Dooley’s leash, and my purse.

  “Dooley, come,” I ordered.

  I was only halfway dressed for school, but something in my gut was telling me that something very bad was wrong.

  “Hello?” Carmichael answered immediately.

  “He didn’t answer for me, either,” I said, voice shaky. “I’m going out to look for him.”

  “Me, too,” she said. “I called Croft, and he’s looking as well. Even though he has to leave for the airport in about an hour. Not to mention I’m covering the theater class again. Shit, I’m going to be late.”

  “Me, too,” I said. “Call me if you find him.”

  With her assurances that she would, we hung up and I rushed out to my car.

  Dooley followed at my heels.

  ***

  It was as I was approaching the street that led to the main highway—the cut through that I’d shown Flint—that I saw all the blinking red and blue lights.

  My stomach started to roil as I drove forward, not stopping at the long line of cars until I literally had nowhere else I could go.

  Pulling off to the side of the road, I clipped Dooley’s leash onto his collar and made kissy sounds for him to follow.

  He did, very obediently, and stopped at my side, not tugging on the leash at all as he moved.

  I searched around the area, but the firetruck was blocking most of the road, and I couldn’t see over the top of it.

  An ambulance was off to the side of the road much like my car was, and beyond that, I could see a stretcher laying in wait.

  The feeling in my belly grew more intense.

  Starting forward, I was glad that there were no cops there to thwart my progress. There were a few men and women directing traffic, but since it was the volunteer department there really wasn’t anybody that looked like they should be there, much like me.

  Meaning I was able to walk right up to the middle of the accident and nobody said a word.

  My heels clicked harshly on the asphalt, and the dog at my side stayed so close to me that he kept brushing against my leg.

  I placed my hand on his head and stopped just past the large fire engine, eyes on the scene in front of me.

  One fire engine was blocking the majority of the road, and there was another one about a hundred yards away blocking the other side.

  In between both firetrucks were other emergency vehicles, one of those being a Gun Barrel Police Department cruiser very similar to Flint’s, only that one didn’t say ‘K-9 unit’ on it.

  Just past the police cruiser, I could make out the top of a black SUV tipped up on its side and scattered around that were bits and pieces of debris.

  I started forward a little more, stopping next to an older gentleman that was holding a fire extinguisher in his hand.

  “What happened?” I asked casually as if I was supposed to be there.

  “SUV clobbered a motorcycle. Guy on the motorcycle is pinned underneath the SUV. We’re waiting on some airbags. The ones we had in our truck malfunctioned,” he murmured. “You with the other department?”

  His question went unanswered as part of his explanation started to click into place.

  Motorcycle.

  Flint rode a motorcycle.

  I walked forward woodenly, Dooley was scary close to my side now, sensing my mood, and rounded the cruiser.

  The first thing I saw was the pink helmet that was laying haphazardly in the middle of the road.

  It was shield down, right next to one of the reflective markers that usually ran through the middle of the road. Only, that marker had been knocked free after the accident, putting it closer to the middle of the left lane than the middle of the road.

  The next thing I saw was a pair of sunglasses.

  They were Ray-Bans, and they were similar to the ones that I’d seen Flint hook into the front of his T-shirt he’d been wearing as he’d left my bedroom.

  I felt bile start to rise in my throat as I made my way around the SUV.

  What I saw made my stomach clench, and the contents in my belly threaten to come up.

  ***

  Flint

  “Keep talking to me, motherfucker.” Schultz shifted on his belly to get closer to me. “Keep talking, or I call your girl.”

  “You call my girl, I’m going to crawl out from under this goddamn SUV and make sure you never reproduce,” I said weakly.

  It was all a show.

  I had nothing, absolutely nothing, left in me.

  It was taking everything I had to keep my eyes open.

  I’d been pinned underneath this SUV for over an hour now, and I could feel shit going offline, one at a time.

  It’d started with my foot. Then my shin. Followed by my leg.

  Now it was my lower torso.

  “I’m never going to have kids,” Schultz said. “That doesn’t really scare me.”

  “Why not?” I coughed wet
ly.

  I tasted blood.

  The ambulance crew that arrived on scene minutes after Schultz had started an IV and gave me some pain meds. However, without the fucking SUV lifted off of my body, there was nothing else they could do.

  “Because my nieces are enough,” he said. “Having to fight Nivea is even worse. Can you imagine what it would be like having to deal with a woman you had a kid with?”

  I thought about having a baby with Camryn and smiled.

  “Don’t smile, fucker. You look creepy as fuck with all that blood in your mouth,” Schultz ordered.

  I snorted and swallowed hard, tasting the blood as it traveled down my throat. “I was thinking about how much I’d like it if I found out Camryn was having my baby.”

  “I’m fairly sure that you’d be excited, and I’d be freakin’ the fuck out,” came a very soft reply.

  At first, I wasn’t sure that I hadn’t imagined it, but then Schultz cursed.

  “How’d you get in here?” Schultz barked.

  I felt a cold, wet nose touch my forehead, and all of a sudden Dooley’s head was next to mine, and he was whimpering in my ear, licking at the side of my face.

  I felt cool, delicate hands touch the other side of my face, and I opened my eyes to find myself staring up at Camryn’s horrified face.

  I knew what I looked like.

  The SUV that was on top of me covered me from just below my pecs down. I had bruising and swelling on my face from where my face had connected with the asphalt. Despite having a helmet on, I still had contusions.

  My head and neck were immobilized with a bright yellow C-Spine, and I had an IV in my scalp.

  My eyes were all bloodshot due to the capillaries bursting, and from what I was told by Schultz, I resembled the devil.

  Needless to say, I wasn’t going to win any beauty pageants any time soon.

  “Baby, what did you do to yourself?” she whispered. “And do you know how many mad CrossFitters are at your gym pissed the hell off that they didn’t get their early morning workout?”

  How did she do this? How did she always know the exact right thing to say?

  I chuckled. “I got hit by an SUV…and I’ll give them a free week. That’ll shut them up.”

  I hadn’t realized I’d closed my eyes until I felt a tear hit my cheek.

  Opening them again, I could see that Camryn was hovering over me, her face a mask of sadness and pain as she stared at me with tears dripping steadily down her cheeks.

  “How did you manage to get hit by a truck?” she whispered.

  “SUV,” I corrected her automatically. “And I don’t know. I’m just special like that, I guess. One second, I was riding, and the next I was being hit. They fucked up my new glasses.”

  She looked over her shoulder at the glasses that I’d just bought last week that were still laying on the ground and nodded solemnly. “I’ll see about getting you a new pair.”

  I doubted that it would happen.

  From what I understood, my favorite sunglasses store that I purchased all of my glasses from stopped doing the special-order frames, meaning I’d have to go with plain black instead of the electric blue.

  Boring.

  “I’ll find you the frames,” she promised. “Don’t underestimate the power of a woman.”

  I laughed half-heartedly. “Don’t worry, honey. I’d never underestimate you. I know exactly what you’re capable of.”

  She smoothed her hand over my cheek. “What’s that?”

  “The impossible,” I rasped, my eyes once again closing. “Making me happy.”

  Chapter 16

  I’m going to start leaving you a note in your lunchbox that says ‘sorry the Wheat thins are stale. That’s what happens when you don’t close the goddamn box.’

  -Text from Camryn to Flint

  Camryn

  “I’m sorry,” I apologized to the principal. “I won’t be in today.”

  Mrs. Sherpa made a disapproving sound. “Camryn, honey. You were out last week with the stomach flu. I have three teachers out with it this week. I don’t have…”

  “My boyfriend was hit by a car—SUV—today while he was driving to work out,” I said softly. “I have to be here.”

  I’d already called Carmichael, and she was meeting me at the hospital. I wasn’t too sure yet if she’d called in or not.

  “Carmichael won’t be there, either,” I said almost on auto-pilot, not allowing myself to feel the emotions that were rocking my body. “He was…he was air-lifted to the hospital. I’m on my way there now.”

  Mrs. Sherpa was quiet. “Was it Officer Stone?”

  I swallowed hard, feeling the cry bubbling up my throat.

  “Yes,” I croaked.

  She breathed out hard. “God. Is he…is he okay?”

  No. No, he wasn’t.

  “I’m…I’m not too sure yet,” I admitted. “He’s not out of the woods, but he was alive when they put him in the helicopter.”

  His legs had been crushed. So had one of his hands.

  I was fairly sure that he’d sustained far more broken bones, but the extent to which I didn’t know just yet. It was bad, though.

  I knew it. He knew it.

  Everybody knew it.

  Even Dooley knew it.

  Speaking of the little devil, he’d never left my side and was following me around like he was lost without Flint.

  I dropped my hand down to his head, which was resting on my thigh as we drove hours to follow where the helicopter had taken Flint and said a prayer.

  One that was based solely on Flint doing all right. Coming out of this just as good if not better than he was before.

  But I had a feeling that it wasn’t going to be easy.

  Not even a little bit.

  “Let me know how he is, dear,” Mrs. Sherpa said. “And take as long as you need. I’ll get you and Carmichael covered.”

  With that, I hung up and spent the next two hours trying not to cry.

  ***

  I shook my head no.

  “You’re not taking him,” I refused. “He’s mine until Flint says otherwise.”

  Chief Donaldson frowned. “He’s a troublemaker, I’ve heard, without Flint to take care of him. He needs constant supervision, and you’re just a little bit of a thing…”

  I shook my head.

  “No,” I repeated. “And that’s final.”

  “I’m not sure you should be taking care of a police dog that is owned by the department,” Nivea said, sounding all forlorn and concerned and shit.

  I looked at her with a glare. “I’m sorry, but what are you doing here again?”

  Nivea feigned hurt. “I’m just so worried about Flint.”

  I really, really didn’t want her there.

  Luckily, she’d only shown up after school had let out, otherwise I would’ve had to deal with her a whole lot longer than I had.

  Croft patted my shoulder awkwardly, his eyes taking in Carmichael and me with a slow sweep of his concerned gaze.

  “I’m going to go open up the gym,” he said. “If you can think of anything else that I can help with, don’t hesitate to let me know. You have my number?”

  That was directed at Carmichael, who was staring not at Croft, but at the hospital doors that were still closed, even all these hours later.

  “That’s fine,” she said softly. “And yes, I think I have it.”

  Lies.

  She had his number, and she knew it.

  “Let me have your phone and I’ll make sure.”

  She handed him her phone and looked down at her hands.

  “It probably shouldn’t have been this long,” she whispered so that only Croft and I could hear. “There’s something seriously wrong.”

  Chief Donaldson, who I hadn’t realized was close enough to hear, put his hand on Carmichael’s head. “Don’t worry too much, honey. If there was something more going wrong,
they’d tell you.”

  I hoped.

  My stomach had been in a constant state of denial since I’d arrived, and it wasn’t getting any better.

  “Maybe you should just take Dooley,” Nivea suggested, unaware that we’d already moved on from the topic.

  Everyone ignored her in favor of not killing her—well, at least that was my reason for not addressing her asinine suggestion.

  “I hope you’re right,” I admitted. “If you’re wrong, I’m going to be lost.”

  “I’m right,” he said. “But I’m going to go up there and use my big bad police badge and get some information.”

  The moment he left, Nivea followed him.

  “If someone doesn’t get her out of here,” I said to Raleigh, who’d shown up an hour ago with her fiancé, Ezra, in tow. “I’m going to shove my fist down her throat.”

  Ezra stood up and walked over to where Nivea was speaking adamantly with the Chief.

  “She posted about her ‘ex-boyfriend’ being in a really bad accident. She asked for prayers for his healing, and posted about how she was going up to the hospital to offer his new girlfriend a ‘helping hand,’” Raleigh said. “And she tagged you, the gym, and Carmichael.”

  “Fuck that bitch,” Carmichael muttered. “Can I block her? Will that make it to where she can’t tag the page anymore?”

  “No,” I paused. “At least I don’t think that will work. I should block her, too.”

  “If you block her, you won’t be able to read any of her posts,” Raleigh said. “Then how will you know what she’s up to?”

  I looked over at my friend. “Did you, or did you not, just tell me about what she posted on social media?”

  Raleigh grinned. “I did. But it’s more fun to commiserate with you.”

  “It’d be more fun if I could block her from my life altogether,” I admitted. “I’m—”

  “You two,” Chief Donaldson barked. “Come with me.”

  I stood up so fast my head spun.

  “Did you find anything out?” I rushed out the moment I was standing next to him at the nurses’ station.

  “Yes and no.” He pointed at the nurse who was watching us with concern. “She’ll explain.”