Wild Abandon

by Ronica Black

  “Does he know? Did he find out?”

  “I don’t see how. I make sure I’m not followed. Anyway, he keeps calling and threatening and then…and then this evening, I get home and there’s this box by the front door.”

  Chan swallowed hard, afraid.

  “I opened it and there was this collar.” She looked up, eyes pooled with tears. “It was a collar I had never seen before, it looked new. It had Buster’s name on it and there was blood. Blood on it.”

  Chan felt the heat of dizziness try to sway her. She reached out and grabbed Kim’s shoulder.

  “Oh God.” Chan stood. “Oh God.” Suddenly, her brain began working at lightning speed. She scanned the room for Mitote and found him at his food bowl. She bent down and unlatched the collar.

  Kim turned toward the kitchen, watching her.

  Chan hurried back to her side, panicked. She held up the collar. “I found this on my cat just now when I got home.”

  Kim took it slowly and Chan saw the recognition wash over her face.

  Chan turned, fear consuming her. She rushed to the back door and turned the knob. It was unlocked. She looked back to Kim as she scurried for her keys.

  “We’re not safe here.”

  “What? Why?”

  Chan thought of all the times she had found her door unlocked. And how Mitote had mysteriously gotten in.

  “He’s been here.”

  Kim stood and Chan grabbed her arm to lead her to the front door. She was afraid to go to her garage, afraid that he would be lurking in the dark hallway. She unlocked the door and pulled it open. A gun came at her face and she heard Kim shriek.

  “Get inside!” Michael demanded, shoving his way in.

  Chan stared up at him from the floor, where she had landed after tripping over her own feet. Kim shrieked again and began sobbing. Michael kicked the door closed and once again aimed the gun at Chandler. “You fucked up my marriage! Corrupted my wife! You fucking dyke!”

  Chan stopped trying to stand and sat very still. Michael’s eyes were wild and crazed, and she didn’t want to make any sudden movements.

  “No!” Kim shouted, crying. “It’s not her, you stupid son of a bitch!”

  Michael turned and eyed her with hate. Kim took a step toward him, rage overcoming her fear.

  “It’s a man. A good man!”

  “What!” He lowered the gun a fraction.

  Chan stood very carefully, her blood singing loudly throughout her body.

  “I don’t believe you,” he seethed.

  “It’s true!”

  “Then tell me his name.”

  “No. Not until you give me Buster.” She began to cry again. “Please, tell me you didn’t hurt him.”

  Michael grinned and walked up to her. He grabbed her arm and yanked her to him. “I’ll tell you about your dog. He’s okay now, but unless you tell me where to find this prick you’ve been seeing, I’m going to cut him up. One piece at a time. Starting with his ears. And I’ll deliver every piece to you. Every last one.”

  “No!” Kim grabbed his shoulders frantically. “Don’t hurt him!”

  “Who? The dog or the prick?” He grinned suddenly. “Maybe I should make you choose. How’s that sound?”

  Chan eased closer to him. She didn’t know what she planned on doing, she only knew that she had to do something. Kim sobbed loudly and Michael laughed at her. She saw Chandler approaching and suddenly a look of fearlessness overtook her face.

  “His name is William, and I won’t let you hurt him!”

  Chan was a step away when he caught sight of her. In an instant he turned and Kim screamed while reaching for the gun. It fired.

  Chan heard the short crack and felt a burning in her belly. Kim screamed and screamed as Chan felt something warm on her hand. The gun fired again. Twice.

  Chan pulled her hand away and saw the dark red stain. She was bleeding. She fell back to the floor and heard Kim crying. The room around her hazed. She could smell the gunpowder but couldn’t seem to focus. Her ears rang.

  Kim ran to her and tossed the gun aside in disgust. She had blood on her hands, but it wasn’t hers. Chan couldn’t hear what she was saying. She looked past her to where Michael lay on the floor. His chest wasn’t moving.

  They were safe now. Kim was trembling, dialing on her cell phone. Chan felt dizzy and lay all the way back to stare up at the ceiling.

  In the distance she heard sirens. She blinked her heavy eyelids. Sarah. Sarah was coming. With that thought in mind she let her eyes drift closed.

  *

  Sarah walked down the steps form her apartment. She had already tried to call Chandler again, with no luck. But this time she had left a message. Hopefully Chandler would call her back. Hopefully Chandler would give her another chance.

  Lowering her head to dig out her car keys, she had just reached the bottom of the stairs when someone grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her, jarring her so badly she dropped her keys, frozen with alarm at the brash contact.

  “Dave?”

  His face was red his eyes terrified. He was in uniform and apparently on duty.

  “What are—”

  “There’s no time, come on!” He tried to tug her along but she stopped to pick up her keys. “Come on!” he cried out as she jogged after him.

  “What’s going on?” She caught up to him as he opened the door to his cruiser.

  “I’ve been trying to call you for the past half hour,” he told her as he climbed inside.

  Sarah thought quickly as she eased into the passenger seat. “I’ve been in the shower.” I was getting ready with the hopes of meeting up with Chandler. She closed the door and looked to her phone, suddenly worried that she might have missed a call from her.

  To her relief, there was only the call from Dave. Nerves awakened, suddenly alarmed, she focused on him as he sped out of the apartment parking lot. “What’s going on?”

  Her heart fell to her stomach when she saw him clench his jaw. “I’m afraid I have some bad news.”

  “What? What is it? Is it Nicky?”

  Dave shook his head and tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “It’s Chandler.”

  Sarah went weak and her head swam with heat.

  Dave reached out and steadied her by bracing her arm. “It’s okay, I got ya.”

  She leaned into him, her breathing suddenly stifled.

  “What happened?” Please, God, don’t let it be true. Not now. Not ever. Not Chandler. She did her best to breathe as images flooded her mind. “That goddamned bike,” she whispered.

  “No. It’s something else.”

  Sarah felt the strength return to her body. It wasn’t the bike. Chandler wasn’t lying on some road torn and broken. Thank God.

  “She was shot,” Dave said, causing her calming heart to jump out of her chest.

  “Oh God.” The words hit home and she felt sick. Shot? How the hell?

  Dave continued, reporting the information he had. “I was at the hospital following up on an accident. I saw them wheel her in as I was leaving. Apparently a patient of hers forced his way inside her house with a gun. His ex-wife works with Chandler and she was there too. Sounds like he had been stalking the both of them. The ex is okay. She was able to get the gun from him and shoot him.” He paused and looked her way. “But not before he got a shot off that hit Chandler.”

  “How bad?” she asked, after a long moment of silence.

  “It’s bad.”

  Again the sickness, waves upon heavy waves. “No.” Sarah wasn’t sure if she’d spoken out loud or if her mind was simply screaming the denial.

  “She’s lost a lot of blood,” Dave said. “Last I heard they were taking her into surgery.”

  Sarah stared out at the road, at the cars zooming by them. Why had she waited? Why had she waited so long to tell her? She would never forgive herself if Chandler died.

  “Take me to her,” she said simply.

  Dave reached out and switched on the lights
and siren.

  Please don’t die, Chandler. Don’t you dare go and die.

  *

  Soft globes of light stung her sensitive eyes. Chan blinked several times, forcing her heavy lids open. The haze around her slowly came into focus, although she could make no sense of it. Her ears strained to define the steady beeping next to her. She looked down to see her body covered with a light blue blanket. She tried to move but found it difficult. Sharp pain shot through her from her midsection. Groaning, she relaxed against the bed and licked her parched lips.

  “Hey, stranger.” A familiar voice came out of the darkness that edged the dimly lit room.

  She blinked again and focused on her brother’s face. “Ha…nk.” Her throat felt raw and scratchy.

  “Shh. Don’t try and talk too much.” He reached for her hand, surrounding it with his soft, warm ones. “Do you know where you are?”

  Chan stared at him a moment longer, trying to comprehend his words. Meg stepped out of the darkness to come stand by her other side. She bent down and kissed Chan on the forehead. Chan could see that she had been crying.

  “You’re in the hospital,” she said softly.

  “I am?” Chan searched the strange room, then trained her eyes on her left arm and the tube running into the vein in her hand.

  “Don’t worry about that right now. Just concentrate on me,” she heard Hank say.

  “Am I…?” She licked her lips again. She couldn’t make sense of anything. She heard her heart rate kick up on the machine as fear filled her confused mind. What happened to me? Where am I?

  Hank squeezed her hand. “You were shot.” He waited until she found his eyes before he continued. “You were attacked by your friend’s ex-husband. He shot you here.” His voice quaked with emotion as he rested his hand gently on her belly. “You’re lucky to be alive.”

  Meg began to sob and stepped away, obviously not wanting to do so in front of her.

  Chan studied Hank’s face and noticed the rough growth of his beard and the shadows under his eyes. She couldn’t remember the shooting. At least not at the moment. Her mind still seemed fuzzy. But what she could focus on alarmed her. Her brother and grandmother looked tortured.

  “Are you okay?” she asked Hank.

  “It’s been hard seeing you like this.” He swallowed back some rising emotion. “It reminded me of losing Mom and Dad and how lost I felt.”

  Chan felt the tears slip down her cheeks as she watched her brother cry. Suddenly she was back to that awful time in their life when they only had each other to lean on. Meg had stepped in to care for them, but it wasn’t the same. No one could take the place of their loving, affectionate parents.

  She knew now that she and Hank had never grieved properly. They had hidden away from the world, clinging to one another. She remembered not wanting to go to the services, and Hank had followed her lead. They had never really said good-bye.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, hating that she’d made her brother feel that way all over again.

  Hank shook his head and Meg came back up to stand beside him. She placed a hand on his shoulder and one on Chan’s arm as they all three quietly sobbed.

  “We need to do this,” Meg said, her knowing eyes comforting Chan. “We’ve been needing to do this for a long, long time. It’s okay to miss them.”

  “Yes,” Chan whispered as Hank continued to cry.

  “We have each other and we have a baby on the way.” Meg smiled up at Hank. “We’ve lost a lot but we’ve gained a lot as well.”

  She took Hank in her arms and they held each other for a long while. When they drew apart, they both leaned in to hold Chan.

  Meg kissed her cheek and wiped away the cooling tears. “Now if we can only get Chandler to stop riding like a maniac, we’ll be okay.” She cracked a smile and Hank laughed.

  Chan grinned. “I’ll think about it.” She didn’t ever want to put her family through the kind of pain they had already been through. She was sorry that it took her nearly dying to see it.

  The tears were wiped away and Meg settled back into the chair next to the bed. Chan’s eyes had adjusted to the room and she could make out the walls and the chairs even though they were dim. She swallowed and realized how dry her throat was. She looked to Hank, suddenly overcome with thirst.

  “Could I have some water?”

  Hank moved to the bedside table where he spooned out small pellets of ice. He fed her the ice carefully and she nearly groaned with pleasure as the small pebbles warmed on her tongue. After allowing them to melt, she swallowed them and formed a question.

  “How long have I been here?” She waited as her exhausted-looking brother spooned out some more ice for her.

  “For a few days,” he replied.

  Mixed emotions ran through her. Images came, short and fast but dangerously moving. Michael Gold. She gasped as she saw his face. Michael was pointing the gun at her. He was yelling at Kim. Kim was yelling back. Then a sound. A loud bang. And then Chan saw the blood.

  She blinked, remembering nothing more. “Am I?” She voiced her fear again, needing to know. “Going to be okay?”

  “I think so.” He kissed her hand. “You’re too damn stubborn to let the bastard win.” He laughed softly through his tears.

  Suddenly, with the mention of Michael, she thought of Kim. “Is Kim okay?”

  Hank nodded. “She’s fine. She wasn’t hurt.”

  “What about Michael?” she whispered.

  “He was killed. Kim shot him.”

  Chan felt a sadness and a strange peace wash over her. Kim was okay; she was going to be okay. Her eyes grew heavy as the peace warmed her.

  Meg approached again to whisper to her as she struggled to keep her eyes open. “Get some rest now.”

  A soft, warm kiss landed on Chan’s cheek, and she heard a name in the calm distance. Sarah. It floated to her as she drifted off into the soothing darkness.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Sarah stepped to the side as Chandler’s brother walked from the room. He paused in the hallway and pulled his wrists away from his watery eyes. Sarah thought about approaching him but decided against it. She didn’t want to intrude and sometimes, she had recently learned, it was just better to let it out. He caught sight of her and, sniffling, he took several steps toward her.

  “I didn’t know you were here.”

  Sarah suddenly felt intrusive, having witnessed his private pain. “I’m sorry, I should’ve gone.”

  “No, it’s okay.” He breathed deep. “You’re Chan’s friend, right?” He studied her and she could see his mind working to place her.

  She had been at Chandler’s bedside every day, leaving only when her family returned from their brief breaks. Dave too had been there some of the time.

  “Yes,” she replied.

  “I’m Hank.” He offered his hand.

  “Sarah.” They shook and she could feel him assessing her.

  “I’ve met you before, haven’t I?”

  Sarah sighed inwardly. He was starting to remember. How was she going to tell him that yes, she was the cop who pulled them over? That yes, she had been seeing Chandler intimately. That yes, she was the one who should’ve told Chandler long ago how she felt. How could she say all that?

  “Yes.” She offered him no more, the guilt eating away at her.

  He was silent for a few moments and then suddenly came to life, snapping his fingers. “You’re that cop.” He pointed at her. “The one who threatened to arrest her!” He smiled, proud that he had finally placed her. “Have you two been seeing one another?” His voice was light and curious, seemingly surprised by the notion.

  She nodded. “Some.” Maybe a lot more if I would’ve allowed it.

  “She’s been awake for a couple of days now. Go on in and see her.”

  Sarah didn’t move. Seeing Chandler asleep and seriously injured had been hard enough; she didn’t know what she would say to her now that she was awake. Hi, remember me? I’m the one who
kept running from you. The courage she had mustered before the shooting vanished. It was nowhere to be found.

  “I don’t think I can,” she confessed softly.

  Hank seemed to understand. “I know. It’s been tough for me too. For all of us.” He started pacing again. “It’s so hard to see her like that.”

  Sarah fought back tears and steadied her weakened body. The past couple of weeks had been devastatingly difficult. She had faced her abuser, buried her father, and lived the waking nightmare of Chandler’s fight to live. At one point she thought she would have to bury her too. There were now two people she had neglected because of her pride, because of her fears.

  Hank seemed to sense something of her turmoil and startled her by wrapping his arms around her. As he held her, she realized he was a lot like Chandler. Fiery and passionate, a daredevil who was easy with his affection. She had liked him the first day she met him. She had sensed he was a good guy and now she knew it for certain.

  He eased away, making sure to hold her eyes. “It’s not easy loving a Brogan.” His green eyes were similar to Chandler’s, and they seemed to read her. “Chan’s stubborn. And driven to do what she wants. This won’t be the last time she scares you. As my wife says, ‘If you love a Brogan, you’re in for one hell of a ride.’” He smiled. “You’ve seen her ride. You know what I’m talking about.”

  Sarah nodded.

  “We may be wild, but we’re passionate. And when we love, we love deeply.” He paused, then said, as if the words spilled out, “She’s worth it, Sarah.”

  Sarah swallowed. “I know.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Sarah strode to the door and pushed it open with a new sense of purpose. She had almost lost Chandler, and she wasn’t about to let it happen again. The courage she had lost would have to catch up fast, because this time she wasn’t stopping.

  Chandler was resting quietly, her eyes closed and peaceful. Sarah rounded the bed and smiled politely at Chandler’s grandmother.

  “I don’t think she’s sleeping yet,” Meg said. She patted her granddaughter’s hand. “Chandler, you have a visitor.” She got to her feet and told Sarah, “I’ll leave you two alone.”