Love Revolution

by Mankin, Michelle

  He drew a pistol from his waistband, leveling it at her head. Her heart palpitated. She knew the end was upon her.

  “I’ll tell you, you stupid whore. You sold me out. That’s why I’m going to take great pleasure in sending you to meet your Momma right now.”

  Suddenly, his head snapped around at the sound of rapidly approaching vehicles. Turning, Sara saw three RCMP cars blazing up the road toward them. They screeched to a halt in a spray of gravel.

  A voice shouted over the loudspeaker. “Daniels! Drop the weapon and put your hands behind your head!”

  “Ahhh,” Sara exclaimed with pain as Pace grabbed a handful of her hair. He pulled her against him, wrapping his arm around her neck. He brought the gun up to her temple. Helplessly pinned against his chest, his arm squeezed tighter, restricting both blood and breath. She fought down panic as her face began to turn purple. She clawed at his arm in futility as officers poured from the vehicles, weapons drawn.

  “Back off or I’ll kill her!” he shouted.

  “Now hold on, Daniels,” one of the officers warned. “Stay out here and we’ll talk this out. Just lay down the weapon. There’s no need for anyone to get hurt.”

  “You are dead, bitch.” Pace’s voice was harsh in her ear as he pulled her back toward the cabin. “One way or another. They shoot you or I do. No way are you walking out of here alive.” He cocked the gun.

  Sara didn’t doubt him for a second. She knew she was as good as dead already. There was nothing to lose. In one last desperate act of defiance, she kicked backward, her boot connecting with his shin. He howled in agony and his grip loosened. Mustering every last bit of her strength, she shoved his arm off and stumbled forward.

  She heard the report of the weapon. Oddly, there was no pain, but she felt a warm spray of blood and wondered where she’d been hit. She turned, still unsure what had happened until she saw the ruin of Pace Daniels’ face, his body lying lifeless on the ground before her.

  “Sam!” Sara immediately scrambled over to her sister’s side.

  Sam’s eyes were huge in her swollen and bruised face. Sara untied the gag and pulled it out of her mouth.

  “Sara,” she croaked in a dry voice.

  “It’s over, Sam. It’s all over.” Sara carefully smoothed the curls away from her sister’s face and whispered a prayer of gratitude as hot tears spilled from her eyes. Clutching her sister to her chest, Sara began rocking back and forth.

  Showered and wearing borrowed hospital scrubs, Sara sat stiffly in a plastic chair amidst the hustle and bustle in the emergency room lounge giving her statement to the RCMP officer when she heard a familiar voice.

  “Sara!”

  Standing, she turned towards the sound of his voice, tension bleeding out of her shoulders when she saw Chris striding urgently toward her. His features were etched with concern. He sidestepped around the RCMP officer and pulled her into his arms. Sara heard him struggle to contain a sob. He held her for a long time before he finally spoke. “Thank God,” he rasped against her neck. Her hands tightened on his arms and he clutched her to his chest. “Don’t ever leave me like that again. I was scared to death.”

  After a moment, he leaned back to look at her. “Are you ok? They wouldn’t tell us much.”

  “Sam has a minor concussion and is pretty dehydrated. They’re giving her IV fluids and want to keep her at least overnight for observation.”

  His fingertips gently brushed across her cheeks, wiping away the tears that had fallen. He frowned, noting her bruised cheek. “He hit you.” His jaw visibly tightened. “If he wasn’t already dead, I’d kill the bastard myself.”

  “Ahem,” the officer spoke up, raising a brow as he glanced at Chris. “I think we have everything we need, Miss Daniels.”

  “Thank you, David,” she told him, placing a hand on his arm. “We’d both be dead if you guys hadn’t come when you did.”

  “Just doing our job.” The officer nodded, tucked his clipboard under his arm, and departed.

  “How’d you get out here so fast?”

  “We procured a helicopter.”

  “We?” Sara asked, grabbing for Chris’ arm as JR shuffled into view.

  “I need to see Samantha,” JR said, shoving his hands deep into his jeans pockets.

  “No way,” Sara told him flatly.

  “Please Sara. I just want to see her for myself. And I need to tell her how sorry I am,” JR pleaded.

  “You sure are,” Sara said callously.

  Chris stepped between them. “Sara, don’t you think that’s Sam’s decision to make?”

  Sara frowned, taking her time before she answered. “I think I already know what she’ll say, but I’ll go ask her.” She squeezed Chris’ hand. “I’ll be right back.” She gave JR a cold glance as she passed him.

  “I don’t know why,” Sara said through clenched teeth when she returned, “but she’s agreed to see you. Come on.”

  Exhaling with relief, JR fell into step beside her. Sara didn’t say another word to him as they walked through the long sterile corridor under the glaring fluorescent lights. When she stopped outside one of the rooms, she glared up at him. “You upset her and I’ll twist your balls off.”

  He winced. “I swear, Sara, I would never…”

  “Don’t,” she scowled. “You broke your promise to me once. As far as I’m concerned, you’re a complete loser. But I’ll promise you something. You hurt her again and I’ll make it my life’s purpose to destroy you.”

  JR nodded. She had every right to be angry with him. He had enough regret where Sam was concerned to fill a concert stadium. “I love her, Sara.” Moisture welled in his eyes. “The past few days I’ve had to live with the fear of losing her forever…” He trailed off as emotion thickened his throat. “Nothing you could do to me would hurt worse than that,” he said quietly before turning and entering Sam’s room.

  JR stilled at the sight of her, inhaling sharply. She had a long cut over her right eye that disappeared into her hairline. It was almost swollen shut and the surrounding skin was a camouflage pattern of black, green, and yellow. Her eyes were filled with unmistakable pain and sadness.

  She looked away, her hands fluttering up as if to cover her face from view.

  Imagining the violence that had produced that kind of damage sickened him. Moving closer, he hesitantly reached out his hand.

  She flinched away from him, clutching the hospital sheet to her chest like it was a shield.

  Her response stopped him in his tracks. He couldn’t say that he was surprised, though. “I’m so sorry.” He gestured at her. “This is all my fault. If only…” he trailed off, looking down at the linoleum floor. When she didn’t say anything, he lifted his gaze to find her watching him with wary grey eyes. His own brightened with unshed tears. “I was so stupid. I would do anything to be able to take it all back.”

  She continued to stare at him, her expression unreadable.

  JR shifted uncomfortably. Before he’d entered the room, he’d have bet his drum kit that they’d be able to work things out, but now, he wasn’t so sure.

  Sam reached with an IV taped hand for the glass of water on the stand. After taking a sip, her gaze returned to his. Her eyes were twin pools of stormy grey. “What we had together, I thought it was special. I told you I loved you. Those words may not mean much to you, but I’ve never said them to a man before.” Her voice cracked. “Ever.”

  She blinked back tears before continuing. “Let me be clear. I didn’t agree to see you so that you could try to defend your actions. I just wanted there to be no further misunderstanding. We,” she gestured back and forth between the two of them, “are through.”

  “Sam, no.” JR’s heart sank to his feet. “Please. You’re tired… hurt. Don’t be rash…”

  “Really, John?” she interrupted, her voice and expression deadly serious. “Really? You’re telling me not to be rash?” Her eyes filled with angry tears. “You were the one who jumped to conclusions. You d
idn’t love me enough to trust me. And you certainly didn’t care enough to ask for my side of the story. There’s nowhere else for us to go after that.”

  Her words were a bitter wind that chilled his soul. “No,” he protested. “No. That’s not it at all. I do love you. I do care. I was just so fucking insecure about our relationship. I have never felt about anyone the way I feel about you, either. I…”

  “Enough, JR.” She shook her head, tears falling unhindered down her cheeks. Scooting back in the bed, she folded her hands tightly together in her lap. Her gaze was steady and sharp as it sliced across his. “I’m tired. I don’t want to hear anymore. It doesn’t change anything.” She took a deep breath. “I want you to promise me something.”

  “Anything, Sam.” Hope filled his heart. “I would do anything for you.”

  “We still have to work together. But from now on, it has to be strictly business between us. Promise me,” she shook her head solemnly, “that you’ll never approach me in anything but a professional capacity. I want you to stay away from me, JR. I can’t risk the consequences the next time you get the wrong idea.”

  With her words sadness and loss seeped into his bones like a disease for which there was no cure. He rubbed a hand across his jaw. He couldn’t look her in the eyes. How could she ask him to say those words? It cut him up to even think them.

  “I can’t, Sam,” he said with resignation. “I won’t promise that.”

  “Then there’s nothing left to say,” she said impassively, looking away.

  “If that’s the way you want it,” he replied stiffly, turning and ripping back the privacy curtain to the room.

  Sara was waiting outside in the hall.

  His gaze met hers briefly before sliding away. “Sara,” he acknowledged, jaw tightening.

  “JR,” she replied, softly.

  “Take care of her.”

  “I always have, JR.”

  He nodded once and ducking his head strode down the hallway.

  There really was nothing left to say.

  Sara watched him go for a moment before entering Sam’s hospital room.

  “Is he gone?” Sam whispered.

  Sara stuck her head outside the door and then came back. “Yes, he’s gone.”

  “Oh, Sara,” Sam sobbed, covering her mouth with her hand. “Tell me it won’t always hurt this bad.”

  Sara scurried to her side. “Let me call a nurse.” She reached for the call button.

  “No.” Sam stopped her by putting a hand over hers. “Don’t. It’s not that.” She shook her head and stared past Sara toward the doorway, tears sliding down her cheeks.

  “I understand. You don’t have to say anymore. Scoot over. I’m coming in,” she commanded, climbing into the narrow hospital bed and pulling her sister into her arms. She began stroking her back while murmuring soothing words. “It’ll get easier. Time heals all wounds,” she reassured her.

  Deep down, though, Sara wondered if she really believed that it did.

  It was dark the next day by the time they released Sam. In the dimly lit underground parking garage, Sara thanked the aide helping her sister out of the wheel chair, standard protocol for anyone leaving the hospital. She draping an arm around Sam’s shoulders and assisted her into the waiting car. The heavy exhaust fumes in the enclosed space made her eager to get going.

  Sara went around to the other side, scooted to the middle of the back seat next to Sam, nodding once in acknowledgement to the driver. Chris climbed in next to her. She patted Sam on the hand, eliciting a wan smile. Physically she seemed fine but emotionally Sara wasn’t so sure. Sam had been unusually quiet and reserved since she’d sent JR away.

  As the car pulled out of the garage and Sara took in their surroundings, she silently thanked Beth for her foresight in arranging an unmarked vehicle with tinted windows. The story had obviously hit the news. The place was swarming with reporters and photographers, reminding her of how a fire ant bed looked when you accidently stepped on it. A wide and colorful assortment of news vans packed the curbs around the hospital. Sara didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until they were well on their way back to Vancouver.

  Chris sat back in his seat admiring the two women beside him. He was awed by them both, each so tough and brave in their own way. What they had been through in the past couple of days was unspeakable, but it could have been so much worse. He was just so grateful they were both alive.

  A car passed, the headlamps briefly illuminating their faces. His lips curved up as he watched them. They seemed lost in their own world, communicating silently without words as siblings sometimes do.

  Sam stared out the window with her head pressed against the glass for a long time. Gradually the tension in her shoulders seemed to loosen. She turned and finally looked at Sara with drooping eyelids. Sara patted her own shoulder, offering it as a pillow. “Rest, Sam. We still have an hour to go.” One hand stroking her sister’s hair, she reached out to Chris with the other. He took it, bringing it to his lips before settling their intertwined hands to rest on the seat between them.

  “Chris,” she whispered when Sam had dozed off.

  “Yeah, babe.”

  “There was one thing that I didn’t tell the police. About Pace.”

  “What was that?”

  “I’m not his.” She blew out a breath. “He wasn’t my father.”

  Chris looked at her incredulously.

  “He was away when my Momma got pregnant. He told me right before the cops showed up. I don’t know who my real father is.” She gave him a gentle smile and kissed his scruffy cheek. “You know,” she told him, “for so long I carried around all this guilt and shame. I was so sure that his tainted DNA was something that I could never overcome. That it was the explanation for why my life was such a fiasco. I figured that I just came by it naturally.”

  Chris squeezed her hand sympathetically.

  “I was wrong, though. Genetics don’t define us. Take Sam for instance. She’s his own flesh and blood, but she’s one of the sweetest, kindest souls I’ve ever known.”

  “I know you probably won’t believe it, Sara, but you and Sam aren’t as unlike as you think.”

  “You’re right.” She smiled. “I don’t believe you.”

  “Didn’t you help raise her, looking after her and helping to shape her into the person she is today?” he asked.

  She delicately shrugged.

  “She just wears on the surface what you’ve tried so hard to keep hidden away.”

  Tears brimmed in Sara’s eyes. She turned her head sideways, leaning back against the headrest while she worked up the nerve to speak the words she’d longed to say for quite some time now. “I need to tell you something else.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I love you, Chris.” Even in the dim lighting in the car, she caught the big ass grin that immediately spread across his face.

  “I know,” he replied.

  “Hey, show a few teeth, why don’t you, arrogant man?” she groused, trying to tug her hand loose from his. “How about a nice ‘I love you too?’”

  “Ah, Sara,” Chris said, grinning. “I do love you. This you know. Unreservedly, enthusiastically, without limit.”

  Sara’s lips pulled into a wide smile. He brought her hand to his lips again, kissing the back several times before she felt the tip of his tongue trace the knuckles.

  “Alex,” she warned, eyebrows shooting up and pulse quickening.

  “I know, babe. In the back seat and everything,” he teased. “Except for your sister, it kinda reminds me of prom night.”

  Sara giggled.

  “What was that sound I just heard? Now I know for sure we’re back in high school.”

  “Stop.” She laughed. “You’ll make me wake Sam.” Glancing at her sister to make sure she was still asleep, she turned back to Chris. “Do you think she made the right decision? With JR, I mean. He’s not my favorite, but they both seem so miserable.”

  “I know. I sa
w JR when he left.” He was silent for a moment. “I’m not sure, Sara, but I do know it’s a decision only the two of them can make.”

  Back in the hotel suite at Sutton Place, Sara quietly closed the door to Sam’s room. She walked down the hall into the living room. Chris glanced up at her. Neither spoke, but something hot instantly flared to life between them. He immediately reached for the remote and flicked off the TV. Rising from the couch, he moved across the room until he was even with her. His brown eyes were molten, his intent crystal clear.

  “I look terrible,” she said, putting a hand up to cover her bruised face.

  “No. You’re beautiful,” Chris said, gently cradling her face in his hands. He kissed her forehead, her eyebrows, and her uninjured cheek before leaning back to look into her eyes.

  She blushed under his smoldering stare.

  “I love you,” he said in a serious tone. “Nothing in the world is more precious to me than you.”

  “You know just the right things to say to a girl.” Her lips curved up into a flirtatious smile. “Where have you been all my life?”

  His gaze locked on her mouth. “Never mind that. I’m here now, babe.” His lips touched hers softly, a light brushing of the lips back and forth one time. Then he started nibbling his way across her bottom lip, stopping only to briefly taste each corner with a flick of his tongue.

  Breathless, Sara pulled back and raised a brow. “That feels real good, but I’m not made of glass. Kiss me like you mean it. Like you did in Whistler before I screwed everything up.”

  “Bossy little thing, aren’t you?” Chris muttered with a grin before leaning down to fulfill her request. He grabbed her by the hips and pulled her body flush with his. She let out a sharp breath that quickly turned into a moan as their tongues touched and tangled together. She reached up and threaded her fingers into his hair, pulling him closer, deepening the kiss. She heard the unmistakable needy sound of his deep masculine groan.

  His hands slid beneath her shirt. The feel of his heated fingertips caressing her skin was an incredible turn on. She bowed her body toward his, pressing impossibly close. Lips molded to his, she reveled in the frantic devouring way his tongue explored her. It sent a fire blazing through her veins. Somehow, she got her fingers to the buttons of his shirt and began unfastening them from the top down. Reaching the last one, she placed her palms directly onto the bared skin that was revealed. Chris tightened his grip on her hips. A hot tremor went down her spine. Greedy for more, she spread slender fingers through the silky hair covering his taut abdomen, taking measure of the defined ridges underneath. Skimming her hands up and across his rock hard pecs, she peeled the shirt off of his shoulders and without stopping to look knew that it fluttered unhindered to the floor.