Unprotected Hearts

by Rachel Kane

  One kick shoved the door in.

  Things began to slow down, as his focus tightened even further. He saw the man who must be Grumman, sitting on the cot; saw his eyes go wide in surprise, then narrow in anger. Jace’s shotgun was still up on the wall, but out of reach. Two guards here, familiar faces, the two men who had bothered them days ago. They were going for their guns, swinging them towards Jace. Trent, a look of relief and sorrow washing across his face. The lanterns were at their feet, casting sinister shadows up the wall and ceiling.

  Jace’s hands, steady and calm, bringing the guard’s gun up and aiming for Grumman’s head.

  “For a bodyguard, you are doing a fantastically bad job,” said Grumman. “How could you let your client get so far away, and into so much danger? Tsk.”

  “Don’t worry, I’m making up for it now. Once you and your guards are dead, I think Trent will be safe.”

  “Tough talk,” said Grumman. “It’ll be interesting to see how many shots you get before my boys cut you down. What do you say, Trent? I bet he makes…two shots. That seem reasonable?”

  “You shouldn’t have come,” said Trent to Jace. “There’s no reason for you to be in danger too.”

  “I’m not in any danger,” said Jace. “I’m here to rescue you.”

  “I’m serious. You didn’t have to.”

  The guards, their guns still trained on Jace, gave Trent confused looks.

  “Yeah, I had to,” said Jace.

  Grumman started to speak, but Trent raised his hand. “It’s bad enough that I have to die, Jace. But I just want you to know, I wish you had stayed away, so you could have lived and been happy. Instead, I guess you’re right. I need you. And now you’re going to get hurt for it. And I’m really sorry.”

  As he watched tears form in Trent’s eyes, Jace felt his own anger rise at the men who threatened him.

  “I can’t be happy without you,” said Jace.

  “Oh, for Christ’s sake,” muttered the shorter hitman.

  Trent looked up, the faintest spark of hope in his eyes. “Do you mean it? Even though I totally fucked up?”

  “You didn’t fuck anything up. It was wrong of me to try to talk you into hiding from this. You wanted to be honest. You wanted justice. I should have listened.”

  “And I should’ve listened to you,” said Trent. “I didn’t realize how important this relationship was to me—how important you were to me—until you walked out. Even though it’s too late now, well, I wish we hadn’t had that fight. I wish we had more time.”

  “You have got to be kidding me,” muttered the taller guard. “Can’t I just shoot them?”

  “No, you can’t,” said Jace, “because we’re walking out of here.”

  Grumman cleared his throat. “I’m afraid there may be a misunderstanding here. You did notice the guns, right?”

  “Doesn’t matter. You’re not going to use them.”

  Grumman’s right eyebrow rose. “You’re acting clever, Mr. Marlowe.”

  “I had some time to think on the ride up here. Up here. Trent, isn’t it weird that they would bring you all the way to this cabin? Like, why not literally any other secluded spot on the map?”

  Trent blinked. “I…I have no idea.”

  “I don’t think his plan was to kill you at all. I think you were bait.”

  “For what?”

  “For me.”

  Grumman laughed. “You? A failed bodyguard turned lumberjack, or hermit, or whatever you are? How droll, Mr. Marlowe, how droll.”

  “He killed my ex,” Jace said to Trent. “Because my ex was investigating him. He thinks I have information from that investigation.”

  Now Grumman waved a hand. “Nothing to do with me. Besides, that’s all in the past. You proved pretty well that you don’t have any information.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Trent. “You destroyed my home, you slandered me, you got me fired…to get at Jace?”

  “After your bodyguard’s meddling reporter friend unexpectedly passed away, I thought my tribulations were over,” said Grumman. “Then comes this lawsuit, from a familiar name. Marlowe. We already knew about you, Jace, from our very thorough investigations of David Mathis. Now suddenly your brother and sister were suing me. Clearly you had to be behind it, supplying them with evidence. And yet, there didn’t seem to be any evidence. There was just one witness, the sniveling punk who eavesdropped on me in the bathroom. We began to take a look at Trent. Who was this kid? We followed him. He got nervous, which was good.

  “Then we dropped an anonymous tip with your brother, that Trent was in serious danger. So predictable, that he sent him to stay with you. But that was perfect for us. If you were concerned about Trent, then we could squeeze you, by squeezing him.”

  “You were an idiot,” said Jace. “I knew nothing about you then.”

  “Trent’s deposition left me more frightened than I care to admit,” said Grumman. “Not because it was damning, but because there was no way you brother could have believed Trent’s testimony would win him the case. There had to be something else, some secret evidence that hadn’t yet been brought to light. But then Harlan seemed to want to accept our low-ball offer. I thought, maybe there was no evidence after all. Maybe this would just go away. I like it when things go away.”

  Jace felt his arm growing tired. It made him afraid. He worried that Grumman was trying to distract him with all this talk. He kept the gun leveled at the billionaire. He had to end this. He had to get Trent out of here.

  “Nobody cares about your explanation,” said Jace. “All you're doing is proving how insane you are. Look, I'll even finish your story for you: you needed to find out for sure what I know. And because it never occurs to you to just wait and see, you decided to put pressure on me by kidnapping Trent. Come on, Grumman, what do you want, a trophy for being a great villain? You're just another shitty businessman making your money by hurting innocent people. It's not exactly innovative.”

  “Don’t make him mad, Jace!” said Trent.

  “I don't care about his feelings,” said Jace. “He’s not going to hurt us.”

  Grumman chuckled. “A brave and compelling speech, my boy. But factually incorrect in one respect: I am indeed going to hurt you.”

  He raised a hand, and the guards stiffened in readiness.

  Jace knew it was time to reveal the secret. “You're done, Grumman. We've got it all. Evidence of your crimes stretching back years.”

  Grumman shrugged. “You'll never get the chance to use it. After I'm done with you two, I'll have the boys pick up Harlan and Dodi. Then this will all be over. No trial. No trouble.”

  Jace laughed. “We’re not taking you to court, you bloated toad. We're releasing the evidence online, right now, with copies to every paper and news station in the state. You're finished.”

  A troubled look crossed Grumman’s face, as though he weren't sure whether to believe Jace.

  Jace glanced at Trent to see how he was holding up, and was happy to see Trent’s hopeful look, like he finally believed they were going to make it out of here after all.

  But when Grumman spoke, it was with a cold glee that froze the blood in Jace’s veins.

  “Is that why you came in here so bravely?” Grumman asked. “Because you thought this shocking revelation would keep you safe? If you think that you've utterly destroyed me, then what do you think I have to lose, killing you both?”

  “It’s okay,” said Trent.

  Jace looked over at him. He could not read the dark look Trent was giving him. “Stop trying to be my protector, Jace. I understand everything. I understand now why you wanted to protect me so much. But right now, I don’t need your protection. I just need you to be fast!”

  Before Jace could fully process those words, he saw a flash: Trent kicked out his foot, hitting the oil lantern next to him. The lantern flew towards one guard’s legs, spilling the oil which promptly caught fire.

  The guard shouted in surprise, and Jace w
as not going to waste this opportunity. He shoved past the other guard, knocking him to the floor, and slammed the butt of his gun against the guard’s temple. Grumman was still sitting there looking shocked, while Jace grabbed Trent and pulled him from the cabin. Smoke was already starting to coil through the air.

  His fury, his thirst for revenge, told him to go back in. Put a bullet in every evil head. He rushed back toward the cabin.

  But Trent held on to his arm, and pulled him towards the woods. Red and blue lights were flashing from the road leading up to the cabin, sirens sounding. From the trees, they saw Grumman and the guards stumbling out from the door, smoke streaming off one guard’s clothing; he fell into the snow and rolled. Inside, flames leapt higher.

  Trent’s arms were around Jace. Jace leaned against him for strength. How had he become so exhausted? Why was he trembling? Why did it feel like he was the one who needed protecting right now?

  Trent held him tight, as they watched the police descend on Grumman and his men.

  34

  “Objection, your honor,” said the prosecutor. He stood from his table and walked forward. Trent watched him nervously from his perch in the witness stand, then looked out into the crowd. Jace smiled at him. It’s going to be okay, his eyes seemed to say.

  “Let’s hear it,” said the judge.

  “Defense just asked a question about medication usage. I don’t see how medication changes the witness’s testimony about the defendant trying to kill him. Nor do I see how medication could change the fact that this entire court just heard a threatening conversation, recorded on Trent Sinclair’s cell phone that fateful night. Is defense implying that psychiatry can explain away the very words we heard Wallace Grumman saying, on the recording?”

  The judge glared at Springer, then at Grumman. “Objection sustained. Counsel, this has been damning testimony for the defendant. If you’ve got a real counterargument for the evidence we have heard, give it, but you are not going to drag this witness through the mud.”

  Springer, looking hopeless, shrugged. “No further questions, your honor.”

  Trent breathed a sigh of relief.

  There was a party at Harlan and Dodi’s office. With the criminal case against Grumman reopened, Springer had quickly given them a fat settlement in the civil case to make it go away. The attorney fees were enough to keep Harlan and Dodi in business for a good while.

  Trent, still nervous from the trial, didn’t feel like eating, but he did take a glass of wine.

  “I can’t accept yet that it’s over,” he told Jace. “I keep feeling like they’ll call me back to the stand for some reason. That we’ll have to go through all this again.”

  Jace nodded. “It was traumatic. You’re going to feel that way for a while, sure. But it’s over. You won.”

  “I didn’t have a chance to tell you earlier, but the school called. Very apologetic. Very worried about a lawsuit. They want me back.”

  “See? Everything works out in the end.”

  “But…I don’t know. The place might not be right for me. Too many memories of the bad stuff that happened. Too many hard feelings. And, I mean, another problem is the salary. I can’t get an apartment of my own in this city, on what they’re able to pay me.”

  “Yes, that is a quandary.” Jace wouldn’t make eye contact with him.

  “I talked to Billy, but he’s really enjoying living in that studio that Harlan found him. Apparently he was made for solitude. And all my other friends either have places already, or they’re too flaky to move in with.”

  “I see,” said Jace.

  “Oh, come on. You know what I’m asking you.”

  A puzzled look on the bodyguard’s face. “I’m afraid you’ll have to be more clear.”

  “Move in with me, you big lug. Let’s find a place together.”

  “I don’t know, Trent. I’m an old-fashioned kind of guy. Living in sin?”

  “Fine, let’s make it official and legal. Marry me.”

  Jace laughed. “What a proposal! No bended knee? No ring?”

  Trent punched him in the arm, then leaned against him. “I’m serious. Let’s just do it. We’ll go to city hall and do it quick.”

  “Nope,” said Jace.

  Trent felt his heart skip a beat. “What?”

  “I said no. Look, I risked my life for you. I rescued you multiple times. We have been through so much together, and I think we deserve a little better than some quickie marriage in front of a clerk.”

  Now color flooded Trent’s face, and warmth suffused him. He laughed, as Jace left him and climbed atop a desk. “Everyone?” called Jace. “Everyone, if I could have your attention please?”

  The whole room turned its attention on Jace. “Is your brother drunk?” someone asked Harlan.

  “I have the reputation as a man of few words,” said Jace, looking down on the crowd. “I don’t want to lose that reputation, so I’m going to choose what I say next very carefully.”

  Everyone began to laugh as Jace stared pensively off into the distance.

  “When I first met Trent Sinclair, I hated him. Who was this guy invading my life, my privacy, my silent retreat? Danger pushed us together, but my heart was closed off. Yes, yes, I’m going to talk about my heart, so you can all just suck it up. Here’s the thing. I’ve watched guys get their lives destroyed, and had no sympathy for them, because it was their own damn fault. Their crimes, their infidelities, had come back to haunt them.

  “But Trent was different. Trent was innocent. And as I watched his life get dismantled by someone who was truly evil, I knew I had to protect him, but at the same time, I felt these cracks inside me, my walls breaking down. I wanted to be around him, all the time. I wanted to be with him. And every bad thing that happened just made us closer. You know how rare that is? You know how many people get pulled apart, at the first sign of trouble?

  “But now we’re at the end of it. The trouble is over. And we have our whole lives stretching out before us. And I want to spend my life with him. I want to protect him, and be protected by him. I want to nurture him, and be nurtured by him. Dodi, quit laughing.”

  “Preach it, brother!” she shouted.

  “So here we go: Trent Sinclair, you beautiful creature who came crashing into my life, will you marry me? Will you live with me forever, be my partner, my lover, my friend?”

  By this time Trent was in tears. He wiped his eyes on his sleeve. “Of course I will.”

  Jace pulled him up onto the desk, and hugged him, while around them the crowd burst into applause, hooting and whistling and clapping. “See?” he said. “That’s how you propose.”

  Trent nuzzled his head against Jace’s chest. “Point taken. I love you, my big bodyguard.”

  Epilogue

  “Hold it straight,” said Trent.

  “I am holding it straight,” said Jace, scowling up at him.

  “No, move it a little to the right. No, my right.”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  “A teensy bit—wait! There!”

  Trent stepped back. The Christmas tree was perfect. Lush and thick and green, it filled the room with the scent of fresh sap. It almost didn’t need any ornaments or lights at all, it was so beautiful.

  Jace stood up and brushed his knees off. “Are you sure it’s not crooked?”

  “We don’t have any more time for it right this sec,” said Trent. “Not if we want to get lunch ready for your family.”

  The new cabin was much, much nicer than the old one. It was a house, with plenty of room to move. Thick, well-insulated walls to keep them warm. Solar panels leading to a battery system so they had power year round (although Old Al still thought their lights would cut out at any moment). Plumbing! Actual plumbing! It had taken so much work to get it done, but now it was perfect, and just in time for having people over for Christmas Eve.

  Trent knew that Jace missed his old cabin sometimes. He’d get this wistful look in his eye, picturing the tiny little room h
e had made his own, the solitude and simplicity. Trent respected that. He had made room in their lives for Jace’s need for solitude, as much as Jace had made room for Trent’s need to get a job, to be out of the house, out in public, dealing with his anxieties head-on.

  The school simply hadn’t worked out. Too much bad blood there. So when the little library here in the mountains had needed someone, Trent had jumped on it. The pay was even worse! But the location was beautiful, and between his little salary and Jace’s work guiding tourists and hikers through the mountain trails (as well as the occasional side-work for Harlan, that Trent tried not to think too much about), they had really made it work.

  He thought at first that he would miss the city, but the truth was, the city was much more fun to visit than it was to live in. When they’d come through, there was a chance to catch up with his friends, and do some shopping. (”We call it shopping because we’re going into shops,” he’d told Jace. “If you insist on calling them stores, then what we’re doing is storing.” And Jace never bothered him about the word shops ever again.)

  There was a massive project to clean up the area around the school, and every time they came into the city, they’d stop for a while to watch the huge shovels pulling up great mounds of earth, loading them into trucks. It was going to take years to finish purifying the area, but there was a strange beauty to the machines and the work that Trent found himself captivated by.

  But it was here, in the mountains, that he was happiest. He rushed to the stove to take out the turkey, while Jace worked on the vegetables and dessert. Jace had shown a flair for cooking that Trent hadn’t expected.

  “I don’t suppose there’s time for a little break before they get here,” said Jace.

  Trent laughed. “Quit that. You’re insatiable. You already had me twice this morning.”

  Jace put a pot back on the stovetop. “Yeah, but just real quick. I mean, five minutes.”