Love Against the Law

by Justine Klavon

  “Do you actually miss him?” Mack growled as Sammi finally looked at him. Her eyes were drawn directly to his fists and fear flickered in her starry blue eyes.

  Sammi reached for a towel hanging on the wall by the tub and wrapped it around herself as she stood up. She backed into the furthest corner of the tub from Mack as she shakily asked him to leave.

  “No, Sammi, we have to talk about this,” Mack stated. “We’re getting married tomorrow.”

  Mack was standing his ground and Sammi was feeling cornered. Sammi didn’t want to fight, she just wanted to go to bed and not wake up until this day was over. Tears began to flow from her eyes again, harder this time, and her head was spinning with emotions until she was dizzy.

  “You told me that I could ask for space without the fear of an argument,” Sammi said quietly, straining to get the words out. “Please don’t take that from me.”

  Taking a step forward, Mack wasn’t ready to back down, but he looked into the emotions of Sammi’s eyes and every bad feeling he had was gone. He abruptly stopped his advance and slowly raised his open hands chest-height in surrender. He could see as Sammi’s entire body visibly relaxed.

  “I’m sorry, Sam. I love you,” Mack said innocently, and left his fiancée in peace.

  *

  Sammi ended up not getting any sleep that night. She lay in bed alone, not even sure where Mack had gone, and wondered how they were possibly going to make a marriage work. No matter how much they loved each other, they were still too different and couldn’t seem to figure out how to understand each other’s thoughts and feelings. There was no way to change Sammi’s past and she didn’t think she could handle a lifetime of being made to feel guilty about it.

  In the morning, after Sammi was sure Mack had to have left for the city, she strayed out into the kitchen and grabbed an energy drink out of the refrigerator. She sat at the small kitchen table and let the cold, bitter beverage attempt to do its job while she tried to figure out if she was supposed to get ready for a wedding that day or not. As she took out her cellphone to give Mack a call, someone touched her shoulder and she nearly jumped out of her seat. Mack swung around her chair and knelt in front of her.

  “Mack! What are you doing here…other than scaring the crap out of me?” Sammi asked, covering her heart with her hand.

  “Why wouldn’t I be here?” Mack replied sincerely with a look of confusion on his face.

  “You were going to look at case files before the wedding today,” Sammi reminded him.

  “So, there is still a wedding today?” Mack asked, looking at Sammi with hope in his eyes.

  “Of course there is, Mack,” Sammi said softly and leaned forward in the chair so she could kiss him on the lips. “But why aren’t you in the city?”

  “Two reasons,” Mack told her, putting his hands on her bare knees. “One, I couldn’t leave this morning not knowing where we stood as a couple. And two, you didn’t want me to go and that should’ve simply been enough.”

  “Mack, I do not miss Eli, but I would be happier if we stayed out of his business like he’s staying out of ours.”

  “I think that’s fair. He did help me save you from Nardino and his crazy sister.”

  Mack scooped Sammi into his arms and off the chair. He sat on the floor and held his bride, so relieved that she still wanted to marry him. Sammi tucked her head under Mack’s chin and took his hand in one of hers, lacing her fingers through his.

  “I love you,” Sammi whispered, “and you are the only man I ever want to call my husband.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Carry You

  As the Buick sped through a four-way intersection where Eli was waiting to make a right turn, Eli cursed out the reckless driver and checked his phone again. Two minutes later, he was creeping along the quiet suburban street and looking for the unassuming split-level house. There were no cars in the driveway when he found it and he was going to keep driving, but the body on the front porch made him slam on the brakes. He shut off the car on the side of the road and darted up the front lawn to the porch.

  “Sammi! No!” Eli screamed as he realized what he was seeing. He ran to Sammi’s almost-lifeless body and dropped to his knees beside her.

  Sammi was unresponsive but Eli could feel her pulse. She had lost a lot of blood and it was everywhere, even her golden hair was drenched in it. Eli had forgotten his cellphone in the car, so he picked Sammi’s body up in his arms and cradled her as he ran back down the yard to the driver side of his car.

  Eli laid Sammi’s unmoving body across the backseat of the car, not caring about the inevitability of fabric-ruining bloodstains. Then he jumped behind the wheel and sped off toward the closest hospital. He spoke aloud to Sammi the entire time, begging her not to die.

  *

  As Eli arrived at the hospital, Mack was finally getting home from work. He had tried to return Sammi’s call twice but with no answer. His workday had been long and stressful and made him realize how much he truly appreciated having his wife working in the same building with him every day. As much as he wanted to keep having that in his life, he also knew that he couldn’t control Sammi’s life and he was going to have to be understanding if he couldn’t convince her to stay on the force.

  Pulling into the driveway, Mack was hit with an ominous feeling. The house seemed too dark for anybody to be home and Mack wondered if Sammi had actually come home at all that day or not. Stepping out of his car and turning up the front walk, Mack saw the bloody horror scene on his front porch and his heart dropped into the pit of his stomach.

  Pulling his cellphone out of his jacket pocket, Mack tried calling Sammi once again as he hurried up to the front door. He stopped with his hand on the doorknob to take a quick, nausea-inducing look around the porch. All the way at the other end of the cement porch was a black pistol and Mack knew it was Sammi’s off-duty weapon as soon as he picked it up.

  There was still no answer on Sammi’s phone, so Mack dialed the local precinct as he finally let himself into the eerily quiet house. He found Sammi’s cellphone in their bedroom, but there didn’t seem to be any signs of blood anywhere inside the home. The local police hadn’t received any calls or complaints for any address on their street. But while Mack was still on the line with them, a call came in from the hospital about a gunshot victim fitting Sammi’s description with suspicious circumstances. Mack gave them every bit of information that he could as he ran back outside to his car and broke every speed limit on his way over to the hospital.

  *

  “Mister, I need to know what happened in order to help her,” a nurse argued with Eli outside of the emergency room in the waiting area. They had rushed Sammi into surgery and Eli could tell that they thought he was responsible for her condition.

  “I don’t know what happened!” Eli yelled at the impatient woman. “I found her like that!”

  “But you know who she is?” the nurse asked, challenging him.

  “Yes, but like I said, I haven’t seen her in three years. What is so hard to understand about that?”

  “Sir, we’ve already alerted the authorities. If you would just tell me what happened to your friend, it could help us save her life.”

  Eli wasn’t surprised that the hospital had reported Sammi’s case to law enforcement; she had two unexplained gunshot wounds after all. He wanted to be as helpful as he possibly could and stick around to wait on an update of Sammi’s condition, but while he continued to argue with the nurse, he caught sight of Mack Johnson running through the waiting room. That was his cue to excuse himself, at least for a little while.

  *

  Mack ran up to the reception desk and hurriedly explained who he was looking for. The nurse who had just been talking to Eli overheard him and jumped in to offer the information she had. She explained that Sammi was going to be in surgery for a while yet and guided him to the more secluded waiting room near the operating rooms. After she described Sammi’s injuries based on the initial assessmen
t, she described the man who had brought Sammi to the hospital and there wasn’t a doubt in Mack’s mind that the man she was talking about was Eli Krik.

  Not being able to comprehend what had happened, Mack had so many more questions, but cops finally arrived to ask their own questions. They were respectful of Mack and appreciative of Sammi for both also being in law enforcement and took it seriously when Mack told them to investigate Eli Krik as a suspect. Once the detectives had asked all their questions, Mack was left to wait alone for any news about Sammi.

  Alone with his thoughts, Mack eventually remembered Kodi and figured he owed her a phone call. He was doubtful that she had any additional information because if she knew anything, she would be there with him in the waiting room. But one could always hope.

  “Mack? What’s wrong? You never call me,” Kodi said, panicking as soon as she answered her phone.

  “Sammi was shot. She’s in surgery now. It doesn’t look good, Kodi,” Mack stated simply, only choking up at the end.

  “What? No! I was just with her! There has to be a mistake!”

  “I came home to a bloodbath on my front porch; there is no mistake. And I think Eli is responsible.”

  “Seriously? I’m on my way. I’ll be right there.”

  A part of Mack wished Kodi had stayed on the line just so he wouldn’t be alone, but the other part of him was glad he didn’t have to talk about what happened anymore. It made him feel inadequate to not know what had happened and the fewer questions he could answer, the worse he felt. So, he finally settled into a wide, plastic chair to wait, hoping that every time a door opened, or a person entered the waiting room, that someone would tell him Sammi was alive.

  *

  After Kodi finally found an open spot in the huge hospital parking lot, she leapt out of her car and hurried towards the building. As she dashed past a second row of cars, she slowed down at the sound of someone calling her name.

  “Kodi,” the male voice hissed again as Eli came around from the driver side of a parked Honda.

  “Eli! What did you do?” Kodi asked angrily, trying to keep quiet so as not to draw attention as she stopped in the middle of the parking lot to face her old comrade.

  “Me? I found the girl I love dying on her front porch and rushed her to the hospital,” Eli told her. “I’m not responsible for this!”

  “Well, Mack thinks you are, so you need to get out of here,” Kodi urged him, waving her arms in the direction away from the hospital.

  “I will leave when I know Sammi’s okay,” Eli replied, desperate but standing his ground.

  Kodi didn’t really care if he stuck around or not. If he did shoot Sammi, he was going to get caught and finally get what was coming to him. And if he wasn’t involved, he still really cared about Sammi and Kodi didn’t have the heart to take that away from him. After everything, she wanted to believe that deep down he was one of the good guys.

  “Fine!” Kodi gave in to him. “Get back in your car and wait there. I will come back out as soon as I get an update on Sammi.”

  Eli nodded and clasped his hands together out in front of him to motion his thanks. Then he hopped back into the driver seat of his car while Kodi continued on her way into the hospital.

  When Kodi found Mack, he was sitting in the waiting room with his head in his hands. Kodi sat down next to him and put a hand on his back to comfort him, which caused him to pick his head up and look over at her. His eyes were red, and his face was strained with stress. Kodi didn’t even need to ask to know that he hadn’t received any update on Sammi yet. So, they sat there without speaking, neither of them having any idea what to say. They sat in total silence for at least an hour before a doctor finally came to talk to them.

  “Lieutenant Johnson, your wife was brought in with two gunshot injuries,” the doctor spoke directly to Mack. “The shot to her leg was a through-and-through—a clean hit through the muscle that isn’t causing any concerns. However, the shot to her side was fired at an incredibly close range, creating a more massive area of concern.”

  “When can I see her?” Mack asked, cutting the doctor off as if he wasn’t hearing a word he was saying.

  “Lieutenant, she has lost a lot of blood and we have to worry about the likeliness of infection due to the proximity of major internal organs,” the doctor explained. “She’s not going to wake up for a while yet, if at all.”

  “So, I can see her now?” Mack repeated himself as the doctor’s eyes widened and he silently questioned Mack’s mental state.

  “What my friend is trying to say,” Kodi jumped in to save Mack, “is thank you, doctor. But may we see Sammi anytime soon?”

  “I’ll send a nurse as soon as her room is ready,” the doctor replied, concerned about their lack of understanding regarding Sammi’s condition. This wasn’t his first time dealing with this level of denial and he knew he’d be having a similar conversation with them again soon.

  After the doctor excused himself, Kodi followed suit and hurried out to the parking lot. She easily found Eli’s Honda again and Eli was out of the car before Kodi even caught her breath after sprinting the length of the parking lot. Kodi told Eli everything the doctor had said, word for word, and he was the first person to react appropriately to the update.

  *

  Eli’s head was spinning as Kodi told him what the doctor had said about Sammi. He got so dizzy that he had to sit down and backed up to the curb beside his car and sat on the edge. Feeling like he was going to be sick, he put his head between his knees and focused on his breathing.

  “I don’t want her to die,” Eli said quietly, mostly to himself.

  “Says the guy who tried killing her three years ago,” Kodi scoffed, feeling angry that he could say such a thing. It was also bothering her that he was acting more upset than she and Mack were combined.

  Eli looked up at Kodi with a hurt expression on his face. He couldn’t deny the words that just came out of her mouth, but he couldn’t believe she would bring it up in that moment. If she hated him that much, it was only a matter of time before she told the police where to find him and then he’d be going to jail for quite some time.

  “I’m sorry,” Eli whispered, looking down again. “I’ll get out of here. Can you just…can you let her know I was here for her?”

  “Eli, I’m sorry,” Kodi said, taking a seat next to him on the curb. “I’m just a little sensitive right now. But do you mind if I ask you why you were at her house?”

  “I was just hoping to catch a glimpse of her, to make sure she’s happy,” Eli told her.

  “Eli…she is happy…with Mack.”

  Kodi put her arm around Eli’s shoulders as he looked at her with tears in his eyes. Eli kept his face composed and let the tears fall silently while Kodi comforted him. But after a few minutes, Kodi told Eli that she had to get back inside before Mack got suspicious and then hurried back into the hospital.

  As Eli got back into his car, he realized that he and Kodi hadn’t made any plans to follow up or even exchange phone numbers. Frustrated, he drove to the closest motel and got a room for the night. He had already made up his mind that he was going to see Sammi the next day, no matter what.

  *

  Kodi made it back inside the waiting room just in time as the nurse arrived, who led her and Mack to Sammi’s room. Sammi looked unusually small, lying unconscious in the hospital bed, and more pale than she had ever looked in her entire life. Her long, blonde hair, still sticky with blood, was clumped together at the tips and draped over her right shoulder. Appalled at the nurses for allowing her beautiful best friend to look anything but runway-ready, Kodi went into the bathroom and wet a bunch of towels in the sink to scrub the blood out of Sammi’s hair.

  “Thank you,” Mack muttered as Kodi went to work on the already-stained strands of yellow hair. He hadn’t gotten within five feet of Sammi and he just stood quietly staring at her.

  Kodi just nodded, too upset to talk. She kept herself busy with Sammi’s hair
for an hour while Mack stayed in the same spot without moving or talking. Eventually the nurse came back to tell them that it was getting late and it would help them feel better to go home and get some sleep. Mack was out of the room before she even finished telling them what time they could return in the morning, so Kodi whispered a quick goodbye to her best friend before hurrying after Mack to make sure he was okay.

  “You want to stay at the house?” Mack asked, ignoring Kodi’s question of concern for him when she caught up to him in the hallway.

  “Your house is a crime scene,” Kodi reminded him. “Come on, I’ll treat us to a hotel.”

  Mack followed Kodi to her car and got into the passenger seat. While Kodi drove them in silence to the nearest hotel, Mack felt something on the floor against his foot and leaned forward to pick up whatever it was. It was dark in the car, but Mack didn’t even need the streetlights passing by to know what he was holding.

  “She really doesn’t want to be a cop anymore, does she?” Mack asked Kodi, holding out Sammi’s left-behind detective badge. There was the sound of a smile in his voice even though there were tears in his eyes.

  “No. No, she doesn’t,” Kodi told him quietly and as gently as possible.

  “I’m so stupid,” Mack said, chuckling as more tears rolled down his squared cheeks. “I just wanted to protect her.”

  “She knows, Mack. She knows,” Kodi reassured him and took her right hand off the steering wheel to hold his left hand in a comforting manner.

  Mack took Sammi’s detective badge into the hotel with him and wept himself to sleep with it still in his hands that night. Kodi laid awake in the second bed all night, worrying about Sammi and wondering who was to blame for putting her in the hospital. The moment Shay crossed her mind, Kodi couldn’t shake the bad feeling that Shay had something to do with it.

  In the morning, Mack was awakened by his cellphone ringing. It was Captain Hobbs, who had heard about Sammi and was calling to check in. Hobbs was understanding of the situation and told Mack to take off work for as long as he needed to be by Sammi’s side. Normally, Mack couldn’t wait to get back to work and threw himself into the job during times of stress, but he was numb and emotionless as he thought about work in that moment.