James (Gates of Heaven Book 3)

by M. Tasia

  Ross heard the rumble and saw the headlights of another vehicle pulling up outside the tent where he was being held. A single door opened and shut before footsteps started heading his way.

  “What the fuck’re you doing here?” Avante snarled.

  “Someone has to make sure this is done right this time around. No more screw-ups.”

  Ross recognized that voice, but was having a hard time wrapping his head around the implications. Two sets of footsteps headed his way, and it wasn’t until the tent flaps were pulled aside that he had his confirmation.

  “Hello, Ross.”

  “Mr. Mayor.”

  “John, please.” The bastard had the guts to smile down on him as if they were passing in the rotunda of City Hall. “Why couldn’t you have left this alone?” The mayor asked. “Your brother-in-law was a scumbag who got what he deserved.”

  “When Avante brought my sister and niece into this, the game changed. They’re my first priority,” Ross growled.

  The mayor turned to look at Avante with disgust. “I told you to leave that bitch and her kid alone. Taking her was going to cause problems. Now we’re here, and on a damn election year.”

  “Sorry to screw up your re-election plans.” Ross laughed at the audacity of the dirty mayor worrying about an election when he was more than likely here to kill him.

  The first strike from Avante he had expected. The second and third, not so much. The metallic taste in his mouth confirmed his lip had split and a few molars were loose. Ross spit blood out, aiming it onto the mayor’s designer shoe. The man jumped back as if he’d been stuck with a cattle prod.

  “Shit, these cost more than you’re worth, asshole,” he hissed, as he pulled out a white handkerchief and began rubbing the blood away.

  The whole thing was so absurd that Ross wondered if he was hallucinating. Maybe he’d been hit on the head harder than he thought.

  “So, you’re dirty as hell, John. How long have you been sucking up to the mob?” Ross asked with distain. “You know, when they get tired of paying you, or you aren’t of any use to them anymore, you’ll be the next one they find in the gutter.”

  “Oh, I’ll get what’s coming to me. The Governor’s Mansion sounds about right, and who knows how far I can go from there. Senator. President, even.”

  When Ross laughed, the mayor took a shot at him.

  Ross spit out another mouthful of blood and said, “You’re disgusting. Does Bev know she’s sleeping with the enemy? And do you know you bet on the wrong horse with Avante?”

  The look of confusion on the mayor’s face was comical.

  “He didn’t tell you? He’s been cut off from his mob boss. Banished, cast out, broke, on the short list for disposal.” Ross knew he was pushing it, but he needed the two assholes to shift their attention away from him. “Wonder how you’re going to line your pockets now.”

  He got exactly for what he had been hoping. John turned on Avante. “What the hell is he talking about? Are you broke?”

  Avante didn’t look so sure of himself, and seeing the change come over his ugly mug was satisfying. “It’s only a temporary situation.”

  “Things get permanent fast when it comes to the mob.” Ross couldn’t help but stoke the flames.

  “Shut the fuck up,” Avante bellowed as spit flew from his mouth.

  “What about our deal?” John asked. “You said you could get me a meeting with Bishop.”

  Bishop? That was a new player Ross hoped he lived long enough to pass along. Likely, it stood for the B. Gen who had cleared out Avante’s account.

  “Isn’t he the one that cleaned out your accounts and took every possession?” Ross asked to ascertain it was indeed the same guy.

  Avante pointed his gun at him. “If you don’t shut up, I will put a bullet in your skull.”

  “Fuck him, be more worried about me, asshole.” The mayor wasn’t playing anymore.

  “You won’t need a meeting with Bishop when I’m running the show,” Avante blustered. “I have plans for LA, and if you ever talk to me in that tone again I will end you.”

  It seemed that the mayor wasn’t the only one with delusions of grandeur.

  “A takeover?” Ross laughed. “You, the boss? Holy shit, have you been snorting your own supply?”

  Avante raised his fist to deliver another blow when the sound of a gunshot broke the silence outside of the tent. The panic in John’s eyes would’ve been fulfilling if it weren’t for the gun he had pulled out from under his suit jacket.

  “What the hell is that?” John asked.

  “James.” Ross smiled wide even with his busted lip.

  Now that the two rocket scientists were occupied, Ross returned to cutting through the ropes around his wrists. He had already nicked himself countless times but refused to stop, even if there was blood dripping down on his hands.

  More gunfire erupted around them. Avante stormed to Ross and jammed the barrel of his gun against the side of his head.

  “No one is saving your ass. Not if you’re a corpse when they get here.”

  A shot rang out and it took a second for Ross to realize Avante was falling to the ground. He looked up to find James standing in the open flap of the tent, but his relief didn’t last long.

  “Drop your gun or I will shoot him.” John stood only a foot away, with his gun pointed at Ross’s head.

  He was getting fuckin’ tired of people trying to kill him.

  “Shoot him,” Ross ordered. This had to end here and now. “Shoot him.”

  Instead, James lowered his gun and threw it onto the ground.

  Shit.

  James looked at Ross and something flipped inside of him. Love.

  John turned his gun on James. “You should’ve shot me when you had the chance. Thought you Army guys were smarter than that.”

  Everything from that moment on seemed to happen in slow motion. As John aimed his gun at James, the ropes tying Ross to the pole finally gave way. Clutching the razor blade in his hand, Ross dove in front of John’s gun while using the blade to cut across the mayor’s throat. The gun went off and a searing pain shot through Ross’s abdomen. He and John hit the ground at the same time.

  The next thing Ross knew, he was being held in James’s arms, and he was pressing down on Ross’s stomach with his shirt.

  “Die,” a voice gurgled and Ross turned his head in time to see John clutching at his bleeding throat, picking up the gun. He took aim once again as James covered Ross’s body with his own in an attempt to protect him.

  Another shot exploded, but Ross didn’t feel an impact to James’s body. “Are you hit?”

  “No.” James raised his head slightly to look around, before uncovering Ross’s body.

  Ross looked over to find the mayor on the ground, a bullet hole through the center of his chest. Ross turned his head in the opposite direction to find Bev standing in open flap of the tent, a gun in her hand.

  “Bev. You’re here.”

  “Yeah, I didn’t get a chance to tell you,” James said. “Bev, we need first aid and a chopper to airlift Ross to the nearest trauma center. He has a gunshot to his abdomen and multiple head traumas.”

  “Becca?” Ross had to make sure she was safe. “You got her out?”

  “Long gone before the first shot was fired,” James assured.

  Ross was so relieved that he didn’t notice how weak he was becoming, until he found himself fighting to keep his eyes open.

  “Hey, stay awake for me,” James demanded. “You’re not going anywhere now that you made me fall in love with you.”

  Ross tried to speak, to tell James that he loved him too, but he couldn’t form the words. The next moment James was shaking and yelling at him to stay awake, but no matter how hard he tried, he was losing the battle.

  With his last bit of strength, Ross cupped the side of James’s face before everything went dark.

  CHAPTER 14

  James sat staring at the plain beige wall for so long th
at he had starting thinking the worse. Bells and phones were going off constantly up and down the halls as nurses and doctors discussed various patients. Finn and Miguel had brought him a change of clothes, and when he changed in a hospital bathroom, he nearly cried at the amount of Ross’s blood that covered his discarded clothing.

  The rest of the Gates crew plus Jac, Becca, Jack, Bev, and a contingent of LAPD officers and detectives, had been in and out all night as they waited for word on Ross’s condition. Many of them brought food, but that sat untouched on the side table in the waiting room.

  As it turned out, Bev had grown suspicious of the mayor and had been on a team that tailed him out to the mountains. Sparks’s body had washed up hundreds of miles to the north on Pismo Beach a couple days after they’d had ran from the safe house. Apparently, the mayor had started acting irrationally, disappearing at all hours, never explaining where he had been. When Bev sounded the alarm to her higher ups, she outted their relationship in the process.

  James knew the guilt of being responsible for someone’s death, but he still couldn’t imagine having to kill your lover to save your partner.

  Time passed, and they waited. And they waited some more. A nurse from the surgery team had come out and told them Ross had extensive internal injuries and had lost a lot of blood. That had been hours ago. James looked down at his hands and though he had already scrubbed them twice, all he could see was them covered in Ross’s blood. His mind couldn’t erase the sight of Ross jumping in front of the bullet meant for James.

  Ross had trusted James to get him out of there safe and he had failed.

  “Don’t get that look in your eyes,” Jack said as he came to stand beside James.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” He was not in the mood to play twenty questions.

  “Guilt. It’s written all over your face. This is not your fault. None of this,” Jack assured.

  “If I hadn’t dropped my gun and shot the asshole, this wouldn’t’ve happened.”

  “From what I hear you didn’t have a choice. He was pointing a gun at Ross’s head.”

  “I should have been able to do something,” James responded while crossing his arms over his chest.

  “Don’t give me that closed arms wall shit. You can’t control everything. Bad things happen to good people no matter how hard you try to stop it.”

  James knew Jack wasn’t only talking about today’s events. “You know, when I told Ross how my team had died he didn’t even condemn me.”

  “See, how many times–”

  “But did he clear me of any guilt either. Ross had asked me questions and showed me that perhaps it was not as clear-cut as I’d believed. Everyone before had either fallen into one of two camps: those that blamed me, and those who were quick to say I’m innocent. No one ever bothered to ask me questions and talked me through it.”

  “He’s a good man,” Jack said with a look of respect in his eyes.

  “Yeah, he is.”

  Before either could continue their conversation, a doctor wearing blue scrubs walked into the waiting room. “Family of Detective Ross.”

  Practically the entire room stood. “How is he?” Jac asked as Becca slept in Marian’s arms. “Is he alive?”

  “He’s made it through surgery. The next few days are crucial, but we believe he’s out of danger.” James respected the compassion the doc was showing Jac.

  “Thank you for everything you’ve done for my brother.” Jac began crying in what had to be relief. Hell, James was ready to do the same thing. “When can we see him?”

  “He’s out of recovery, and is in the Intensive Care Unit. Sorry folks, but only two visitors are allowed in at a time. I’ll be happy to lead you back.”

  Jac wrapped her arm around James and said, “We’re ready.”

  James hadn’t said a word. He was replaying the words “out of danger” in his head. The two of them followed the doctor through the swinging doors, down a long hallway, and up to a glassed room. There were several glassed rooms in the unit. A nurse sat directly outside the window to Ross’s room in front of a monitor.

  “He’ll be out of it for a while, but you’re welcome to sit in his room and wait,” the doctor told them as he reviewed his tablet, which James assumed held Ross’s chart.

  James finally found his voice, which sounded scratchy when he spoke. “Thank you again.” However, he refused to take his eyes off the still figure in the bed.

  “You’re welcome. He’s a fighter,” the doctor stated before walking away.

  James could not help but smile at that. If only the doctor knew the half of it. Ross was an exceptional person and would never give up.

  Jac was trembling. “He’s going to be okay, honey,” James tried to assure her. Unabashedly, he had insinuated himself into the family. On the other hand, Jac had come right to him to go to the ICU.

  “But look at all the tubes and machines. Something can still happen to him.” Tears rolled down Jac’s face.

  “We have to be strong for him. Ross needs us to do the heavy lifting now.”

  Jac straightened her back and wiped her eyes. “You’re right, we need to take care of him this time. He’s always been the strong one, now we have to be stronger.” She released James and walked over to Ross’s bedside and took her brother’s hand.

  James brought over one of the two chairs for Jac to sit in before stepping back up against the sterile white wall to give her some private time with her brother.

  He counted the multiple IV bags of different sizes that hung from two poles attached at the head of Ross’s bed. Machines ticked and beeped, and the nurse came and went every ten minutes. Ross looked pale and weak, nothing like the vibrant man James had come to know so intimately. If it were the last thing James ever did, he would make sure Ross returned to that man.

  “Will you sit with him while I go check on Becca?” Jac asked as she stood.

  “Of course.” James didn’t plan on going anywhere other than Ross’s side for a long, long time.

  James settled into the chair and took hold of Ross’s lacerated hand. He’d used the razor they’d hidden to cut his way free, but came away with some serious contusions. “You know, you scared the hell out of me? You’re the first person other than Finn who has had that kind of power over me.” He glanced around to make sure no one was listening to him. “I don’t like it. Now wake the hell up so we can get on with your recovery.” He needed to see those crystal blue eyes again, or to hear Ross lecture him about some asinine shit he had done.

  “I love you, damn it,” James admitted again in case Ross hadn’t heard it when they were in the tent.

  “I love you…too,” Ross’ scratchy voice almost sent James falling over backward in his chair.

  “You’re awake. Doc said you would recover so do not worry about a thing. I will take care of everything. You get better. That’s all you have to do right now.” James was rambling, but he couldn’t stop himself.

  “That’s exceptionally responsible of you.” Ross’s lip turned up in a small smile.

  “Bite me, Detective.” James smiled back. “You made me like this, now you’re going to have to live with it.”

  “You have such an amazing bedside manner,” Ross rasped out, surprising James that he had the strength to keep up the banter.

  James stood and placed both of his hands on either side of Ross’s head. “Oh, I think you’re going to like my bedside manner just fine, Detective.” He leaned down and gently kissed Ross’s split lips.

  “Yeah, I could get used to that,” Ross mumbled.

  “So could I.” James realized as he said it that, that it was the absolute truth.

  No, he had not dealt with all his demons, but with Ross at his side, James thought he might have a fighting chance of making it to the other side of happy.

  EPILOGUE

  Ross rested against the pile of cushions James had placed behind his back. After being released from the hospital four days ago, Ross had ye
t to see his handsome soldier sit down or rest. When he woke in the morning James was already up and in the kitchen preparing breakfast. Even thought he fought it, Ross couldn’t help the exhaustion that hit him in the afternoons, and, inevitably, he fell off, napping for a couple of hours. James seemed to know the minute Ross stirred, and appeared with water, soup, or a sandwich.

  His sister laughed when he’d tried to get her to intervene. She took great joy in reminding him that he’d bitched and moaned that he’d wanted James to be more responsible. Yeah, that was coming back to bite him in the ass. Ross didn’t mind James helping him, but the man took his duty to a whole new level. He’d been waiting on Ross hand and foot even when he’d been in the hospital, clearly not pleased with the care the nursing staff was providing.

  At the moment, James was out grocery shopping…grocery shopping for Christ sakes. The man hadn’t even known where the closest grocery store was located let alone finding everything on the list Jac had handed him. He’d been gone for hours and Ross was ready to send out a search and rescue team.

  “Thank me,” Jac said as she walked into the living room.

  “What should I thank you for?” Ross asked knowing something was up. “What’d you do?”

  Jac plopped down on the couch beside him, causing the springs to jar his healing wounds. Ross couldn’t contain his hiss of pain.

  “Oh shit, I’m sorry. I wasn’t even thinking. Do you need anything?” Jac’s earlier smile was replaced by worry. Ross didn’t want that. They’d all done enough worrying to last a lifetime.

  “No, I’m fine. It didn’t hurt that much,” Ross told her. “Now out with it. What’d you do?”

  Her smile was back in place as she moved closer. “I know James has been driving you nuts, so I made the grocery list super long and added some specialty items to give you some alone time.”

  “You sneaky little bugger.” Ross laughed and held his side to keep the pull on his stitches to a minimum.