The Shooting

by Chris Taylor

  No! His heart rebelled against the thought. Not lifeless. He refused to think that way for even an instant. The steady rise and fall of her chest reassured him, even if it was being regulated by a machine. She was alive and she’d get better. She’d come home and laugh and dance and sing again. They’d make love all night long. It would happen. He refused to contemplate any alternative.

  The ICU ward was busy that morning, with all but one bed occupied. The lack of curtains in the open plan room meant that privacy was non-existent. Seeing as all of the patients were either unconscious or too sick to care, Tom guessed it wasn’t an issue. Besides, it meant that the staff could monitor every patient at a glance from the centrally located nurses’ station. He could see how such a thing would be an advantage.

  The phone on his belt clip vibrated and he glanced down and frowned at the unfamiliar number. The last thing he wanted to do was speak to someone who didn’t know what had happened. He couldn’t bear to pretend all was well in his life when the truth was, his world was falling apart.

  The fact was he didn’t want to talk to anyone. The only voice he wanted to hear was that of his wife’s but for the moment, all that confronted him was the repetitive humming and beeping of the machines.

  The phone fell silent and he breathed a sigh of relief. A moment later, it began vibrating again. The Caller ID displayed the same number. Tom cursed under his breath. Why couldn’t they just leave a message and leave him the hell alone?

  Again, the phone fell silent and once again, it began vibrating not a minute after Tom sighed in relief. Momentarily forgetting his surroundings, he exploded.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake! You’ve got to be kidding!”

  A nurse appeared a few seconds later and frowned at him. “I’m sorry, Mr Munro, but you’ll have to switch that off. We don’t allow cell phones in here.”

  Tom nodded and mumbled an apology. Stowing the phone in his pocket, he leaned over Lily’s bed and pressed a soft kiss against her lips.

  “I’ll be back in a minute, sweetheart. Don’t go anywhere.” He tried to summon a smile at his lame joke, but failed miserably. With a sigh, he turned and headed out of the ward.

  Once outside the ICU, Tom pulled out his phone and stared at the screen. Three missed calls from an unfamiliar number. He supposed there was nothing to do but to return the call. With a deep breath, he dialed the number and waited for it to connect.

  “Doctor Slee’s rooms, may I help you?”

  It took Tom a moment to register the name and another to remember who she was. Doctor Mary Slee was an oncology specialist his local doctor had referred him to. He’d been trying to see her for more than a year. It was no wonder she was growing impatient with him. He’d made three different appointments and had canceled two. His third was due in two days. With Lily fighting for her life in hospital, it would be yet another appointment he couldn’t keep.

  “Oh, hi. It’s Tom Munro. Someone from your office called me. I assume it’s about my upcoming appointment.” He opened his mouth to advise the receptionist that he was going to have to reschedule again and then he closed it.

  What if Lily died, or stayed in a coma forever? He’d be the only parent his kids had left. He absently fingered the lump in his breast and came to a decision. He had to keep this appointment and deal with whatever it threw up at him. For the sake of Cassie and Joe, he owed it to them to investigate.

  “Oh, yes, Mr Munro. It’s Judith, here. I’m Doctor Slee’s receptionist. I was calling to confirm your appointment the day after tomorrow. Doctor Slee’s concerned you have already canceled twice. Are you seeking care from another specialist?”

  Tom’s face heated. “Um…no. I-I’ve been busy. I haven’t had time to have it checked out.”

  “I understand, Mr Munro, but these things are better treated sooner rather than later. Who knows, you might not have anything to worry about?”

  Tom grimaced and rubbed at the lump again. “Yes, you’re right, of course. I-I’ll see you in a couple of days.”

  “Do you know where we are?”

  “Yes, in the medical center next door to Royal North Shore Hospital, right?”

  “That’s right. Suite twenty-nine, level three.”

  “Thanks.”

  “We’ll see you then.”

  “I guess so.”

  Tom ended the call and clipped the phone back onto his belt. The truth was, he’d forgotten all about the appointment. With everything that had happened, his lump was the last thing on his mind, but with Lily gravely ill and his children still very much dependent upon him, he had to face the situation head on and deal with it, once and for all.

  With a bit of luck, it would turn out to be nothing and he could forget about it. In the meantime, he’d pray for his wife’s speedy recovery.

  * * *

  Brady Sutton stared at the plastic case that held his GTA V game. The picture on the cover depicted a lifetime of fun and adventure. A mad ride from one crazy mission to another, where nothing was taken seriously and nothing ever went wrong. The worst that could happen was that you were killed in a shootout or blown up by a stray grenade. You’d hit “reset” and then press “play” and start all over again.

  But things hadn’t worked out that way for him. Reality was far harsher than he’d anticipated. He’d been charged with attempted murder and was now out on bail. His mom had put up their house as collateral. Collateral. He hadn’t even known what the word meant until his mom had explained it to him.

  His father called and had been horrified, unable to believe what his son had done. Brady shook his head slowly and his lip curled up in a sneer. He didn’t care what his father thought. It was his father who had given him the gun. It wasn’t all Brady’s fault that he’d used it.

  Okay, so his dad hadn’t shown him how to load it and probably didn’t expect him to know how, but anyone who thought giving a kid a gun and a box of ammunition was a good idea was just plain dumb. The cops thought so, too. He’d heard his mom talking to someone on the phone. His dad had been charged, too. Something about an unsecured firearm and leaving a gun in the possession of a minor.

  It wasn’t as if his dad even cared that much about him anymore. The last he’d heard, his dad had moved on with another woman and she was going to have his kid. Apparently, it was a girl. What use was a rough-and-tumble son amongst all that softness and pink? It would be only a matter of time before his dad forgot all about him and now that he was headed for jail, he’d become nothing more than a distant memory, a topic of conversation avoided around the dinner table, a constant reminder of how his mom and dad had failed as parents.

  The shooting had happened more than twenty-four hours ago, but he hadn’t returned to school. How could he? The last time he’d shown up, he’d been brandishing a gun intending to shoot Ian Little. Despite his mom’s position in the school, it didn’t take a genius to work out he wouldn’t be allowed back at Chatswood Elementary.

  There was a brief knock on the door and then his mom appeared in the opening. Her face was drawn and pale and she looked like she’d been doing more crying. Brady closed his eyes and turned on his side, away from her.

  “Can I come in? We need to talk.”

  Brady shrugged and remained silent. It was the first time she’d mentioned the “talk” word since it happened. Dread stirred in his gut. This wasn’t going to be good.

  “Please, Brady. I’m trying to understand. What happened? How did it come to this? Is this about me and your dad? The fact that we’ve split up?” She sighed quietly before continuing.

  “Unfortunately, it takes time to sort things out when a marriage falls apart. It can’t have been easy on you, having to front up to the court time and time again to talk about our life. It hasn’t been easy on any of us. I wish—”

  He rolled over to face her and lashed out angrily. “It’s got nothing to do with you and Dad Why do you always think it has something to do with you? The world doesn’t revolve around you.” He ignore
d the hurt on his mother’s face and his anger ratcheted up another gear. He clenched his fists and shot her an accusing stare.

  “I told you about those bullies. I told you how they were giving me a hard time. I begged you to switch my classes, so I didn’t have to face Ian Little every day. Every second of my life was a living hell and you didn’t want to know. You told me to ignore them, not to give them the time of day. To walk away, to avoid them.

  “Well, guess what, Mom? It didn’t work. It didn’t matter what I did, they found me anyway. They’d spill my soda and force me to drink it up from the floor. They’d call me gay boy and insinuated that Dad had left because he couldn’t stand the sight of me. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they’d corner me in the bathroom and piss all over me. I couldn’t take it anymore, Mom: the stares, the laughter, the name calling. ‘Brady Sutton has a weenie like a button, does he like girls, does he like boys, he cries like a baby when you take his toys.’ Ian Little was the ringleader, but the others were almost as bad.”

  He drew in a ragged breath, gasping from the strength of his anger and pain. “I tried to talk to you about it, Mom, I did, but you didn’t want to know.”

  “No!” His mom shook her head. Tears streamed down her face.

  “Yes!” he shouted. “In the end, I had no choice. Not even my mother would help me. My own mother couldn’t make them stop and she was the deputy principal.” He dragged in another breath and all at once, felt calmer. “The only one who could make them stop was me.”

  His mother gasped on a sob. “But you didn’t, Brady! You didn’t make them stop! Cory James wasn’t even there that day and Ian Little was thankfully left unharmed. Mrs Munro threw herself in front of him and now she’s lying in the ICU. An innocent woman, Brady. A teacher, a mother and a friend. How could you do it?”

  Grief and despair rushed through him and he blinked back a flood of hopeless tears. He pleaded with his eyes for his mom to understand. When he found the strength to reply, his voice was cracked and broken.

  “How could I not, Mom? How could I not?”

  * * *

  Lily struggled to breathe through the fire in her stomach. The pain was almost unbearable. Surely she was in a hospital? Where were the doctors and nurses? Anybody? Why wasn’t her pain being managed? Her belly felt like it had been attacked with a thousand heated knives. There wasn’t a part of her that didn’t hurt.

  She blinked and tried to open her eyes. She could tell from the feel of the mattress beneath her that she was lying on a bed and the sharp smell of antiseptic filled the air. She must be in hospital. There was nowhere else she could be. She just wished they’d increase her pain medication. Right now, it felt like she was existing on nothing.

  She tried once again to open her eyes and this time, managed to lift her lids enough so that she could make out the shape of a man beside her.

  Tom. It was Tom. He was stretched out in a chair and his eyes were closed. His head had tilted forward until his chin nearly rested on his chest. It looked like he hadn’t shaved for a couple of days and his clothes and hair were rumpled. She’d never seen him looking so unkempt.

  Tom. Her husband, the love of her life. He was here, watching over her, protecting her. Like he always did. Her heart swelled with love and her eyes flooded with tears. She was alive and the man that she loved was beside her. With a soft sigh, she drifted back to sleep.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Seventeen years earlier

  Lily rolled over and draped her arms around Tom’s neck. She tilted her head and pressed a kiss against his hair. He continued to nuzzle her neck and her shoulders and she shivered from the heat of it. They’d been together for six weeks, spending every available minute together and yet, her body still craved his touch. It was probably like an ice hit was to a drug addict. She’d been on a high since their first night together. Every minute of every day would have been perfect, if her period wasn’t late.

  She was only three weeks overdue, which wasn’t that long, but it felt like a lifetime. She’d been late before, but usually only a day or two. Never more than a week. She didn’t want to admit it, but she was beginning to worry.

  She told herself she was being silly. They’d used protection every time. There was no way she could be pregnant. But in the dark hours before dawn when she woke and couldn’t get back to sleep, she wondered if she was wrong. Her breasts were more tender than usual and she was feeling way past tired.

  She put the fatigue down to the last month or two, when she’d been up late studying for her exams and then partying down the end of the year. Her grades wouldn’t be as good as she hoped, but she didn’t regret a single moment she’d spent with the most beautiful man in the world. A man that was even now driving her crazy with his mouth.

  Finding his lips, Lily kissed him with all the love and passion she held deep inside. She was the luckiest girl in the universe to have found him. Okay, he’d been falling-down drunk when they’d first met, but he’d more than made up for the aberration in his behavior. In all the time they’d spent together since, he hadn’t once taken an alcoholic drink. While they hadn’t spoken about it, the thought that he’d given it up for her made her feel special beyond any words.

  Relishing the feel of his hands on her body, she pressed herself hard against him. She swiped her tongue across his lips and then licked her way inside his mouth. Her hand caressed his muscled chest and then teased his nipples into hard nubs. He caught his breath and she smiled in pure female pleasure. She was still such a novice in the game of lovemaking that the fact she could bring him to such a point of desire still surprised her.

  “You’re a wicked woman,” he muttered against her lips. “You’re driving me crazy.”

  His words filled her once again with pleasure and she vowed to increase her efforts. Pushing him down until he lay on his back, she straddled his hips. With single-minded purpose, she kissed her way across his chest and then all the way down to his stomach. It was washboard flat and tense with anticipation. Like he’d done with her in the past, she paused to dip her tongue into his bellybutton and was rewarded with a moan of appreciation.

  “Like I said, you’re a wicked woman.”

  “I’m only just getting started,” she teased. “You haven’t seen anything yet.” He groaned again and she chuckled in delight, more than pleased with his reaction.

  His erection lay thick and hard against the nest of hair below his abdomen and she reached for it with eagerness mixed with nerves. It was the first time she’d found the courage to go down on him and she was a little worried her inexperience would show. Still, she wanted to experience all that there was with the man she was in love with and with that thought in mind, she reached for him and closed her hand around his hardness.

  His gasp of pleasure gave her the confidence she needed to open her mouth around his cock. His skin was warm and silky and yet so very firm to the touch. It was an interesting combination and liquid heat stole down to her core. She raised and lowered her mouth over him and with her free hand, cupped his balls.

  Tom groaned again and stared at her with desire-filled eyes. “You’re killing me, Lily. I’ve died and been catapulted off to heaven.”

  Smiling, she renewed her efforts and added her other hand to the mix. She sucked and squeezed his thick cock and fondled his heavy balls.

  All at once, he pulled away from her and reached down to drag her up his body. The feel of his erection against the softness of her belly elicited a gasp of her own.

  “Two can play at this game,” he murmured and she shivered with anticipation at the roguish glint in his eyes.

  He kissed her thoroughly on the mouth, taking what he wanted without pause. Her heart pounded from need. Releasing her mouth, his lips skimmed over her breasts and then moved lower over her stomach. One hand fondled a breast and the other delved lower into the warmth and liquid softness between her legs.

  His finger slid over her silky folds and probed between the slick flesh. A moment l
ater, he pressed inside her. One finger and then two stroked her in a rhythm that drove her wild. She squirmed then bucked under his attention. She voiced her need.

  “Tom, please…”

  “Please, what?” he murmured, his fingers continuing their sensual attack.

  “I-I can’t take anymore.”

  Tom’s smile was full of male pride and confidence. “Oh, but you will, babe. Much, much more.”

  With that, he moved lower and his mouth and tongue replaced his fingers. Lily’s hips came off the bed in shock and delight. She clutched at the sheets and rolled her head from side to side, almost unable to stand the sheer pleasure he aroused inside her. When he raised his head at last, she was taut with need.

  “Please,” she gasped.

  “Please, what?”

  “I-I want you. I want to feel you inside me.”

  As if he needed no further encouragement, Tom rose from his position between her legs and moved up her body. His thick cock pressed against her entrance and her knees fell open in eagerness.

  He reached across her to the nightstand where she now kept a supply of condoms and quickly sheathed himself. A moment later, he entered her and she gasped from the impact. His strokes were smooth and sure and powerful and she clung to him, riding the wave of excruciating pleasure until at last, she toppled over the other side and found her release. She gasped in relief.

  Tom cried out and shuddered inside her and then collapsed upon her, spent. Lily slowed her breathing and enjoyed the feel of Tom, heavy and lethargic, on top of her. As if becoming aware of his weight on her, he rolled away and dragged her with him until she was snuggled up against his side. He pressed a tender kiss against her hair.

  “I love you, Lily.”

  Warmth and happiness flooded through her. She twisted a little and reached up to leave a soft kiss on his lips. “I love you, too.”

  “Everything’s so perfect, I feel like it’s only a matter of time before something’s going to go wrong. It’s not right to feel so content.”