Damaged Love

by Sarah J. Brooks

  “Who is here?” I said as I went to the other window to try and look out.

  I continued to keep the curtains closed to prevent the people at Marcus’s house from seeing that I was watching them. He was right; there were people in his house. I could see the curtains moving, just like the other day when I thought I saw someone in there, but this time there was absolutely no doubt about it.

  “While you were gone, I thought I saw someone in your house. I came into my house and waited to see if I saw the movement again, but I did not.”

  “What day?”

  “I think it was the night you left town.”

  “Alright.”

  Marcus went back to talking to the people on his phone. I couldn’t make out everything he was saying, but it sounded like he was trying to get them to come to his house. He was calm and controlled like he knew exactly what was going on and had even expected it. I couldn’t understand how he could remain so calm with people inside his home.

  “If their team could help out today, that would be great. Send them down as soon as possible.”

  I stood at the window and continued to look between Marcus and his house. I didn’t know what was going on, but I could see the tension and change in Marcus, and I felt that there was something pretty dangerous about to go down.

  “I need you to trust me. Do you trust me, Isabella?” Marcus said intently.

  “Yes,” I replied without hesitation.

  It was a little odd to me that I did trust Marcus considering everything I’d seen from him. But I couldn’t help how I felt, and my gut told me that I indeed could trust him.

  “I need you to get into the closet and not to come out, even if you hear something horrible. Even if it’s been thirty minutes, and you haven’t heard from me. I need you to stay in the closet until I come back for you. Can you do that?”

  I looked at him and tried to take in everything he was saying. I hadn’t hid in a closet since I was in elementary school. What could possibly be going on that it would be necessary for me to hide in my closet? I didn’t see why I couldn’t just stay in my room. Certainly, the people robbing his house weren’t going to come over to my house. Or at least that’s what I thought.

  “The closet? Why?” I asked as I looked off toward the window and tried to figure out who those people were in his house and what this something horrible might be that he was talking about.

  “Isabella, this is serious. Pay attention. Can you get in the closet, please?”

  Marcus guided me to the closet and moved some things out of the way. He had me climb in to the back, and then he put the items in front of me.

  “How long do I need to stay here?”

  “Until I come for you.”

  “Alright.”

  I could hear Marcus moving something around, and then he left my room. It was hot and stuffy in the closet, but I tried to stay put for as long as possible. Unfortunately, that only lasted about sixty seconds, and I was up and pacing in the closet. There was a small window that I could look out, but I couldn’t see what was going on so I opened the closet door and went to the other window and looked at Marcus’s house again.

  I had never been very good at listening as a child and was horrible at hide and seek. I just had to see what was going on with Marcus; there was no physical way possible that I could sit at home and watch the coverage of the event from my bedroom. I could hardly see anything from there.

  Slowly I made my way down the stairs and toward the front room of my house so I could see better. It was the only option I could think of, and I knew it wasn’t going to make Marcus happy when he found out I hadn’t listened to him at all.

  I watched Marcus make his way toward the front door of his own house. He really did look like some sort of professional police officer or military man. His eyes were focused, and there wasn’t anything that could distract him.

  He had a gun drawn and pointed at his house in a defensive position. I had never seen him look so serious since we met. It was scary and invigorating all at the same time. I also had no idea where he had gotten that gun from since he certainly didn’t have it while we were in bed together. Maybe he had it in his coat or something like that, but I had not seen him with a gun while he was in my company.

  I thought that I should go back to the closet, but then I figured it would probably be just as safe to look out my window. Really if someone wanted to kidnap me, they would eventually find me in the closet anyways.

  I watched intently as Marcus made his way around the outside of his house. He would look in the windows when he thought he could see something, and then he would move around to the next window.

  Most of the fight movies and other crime dramas that I watched would have already had the hero blowing the doors up and just going inside to see what was going on. I was waiting for something exciting to happen, but Marcus just kept looking around the exterior of the house. He was being extraordinarily patient with these people that were in his house.

  Finally, he saw something when he looked through his front window, though, because he kicked down the front door very quickly. I opened my window to see if I could hear what was going on, and all I could hear was a faint commotion. I couldn’t hear what was being said, and before I knew what had happened, I heard gunshots ringing out throughout his house, and I ran down to the front door. I didn’t know what I could do, and I certainly wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into, but I couldn’t let something bad happen to Marcus.

  As I ran out of my house and toward Marcus’s house, a black SUV pulled up. A man that I had seen at the airport with Marcus a few days before came over to me. He was forceful like Marcus, and I listened to him.

  “Get back in the house. Lock the doors, and don’t come back out.”

  I didn’t question him as he was carrying what looked like a very large semi-automatic gun. I turned around and went straight back into the house. I did feel a sense of relief that someone else was there, and that they would help Marcus.

  The thought came to me that the people in his house must really want something bad if they kept coming back to his house to look for it. I wondered what it was that they were looking for. Certainly, it would have to be worth a lot of money or important in some other way. Perhaps they just wanted Marcus, and that was why they kept coming back.

  I locked my door behind me and pushed a few things in front of the door. Then I went around the house and made sure all the other easy entrances were locked and had a few things pushed in front of the doors.

  I went back to the front window to see if I could figure out what was going on, and just then I heard a rain of shots being fired. Those men that had arrived in the SUV were clearly shooting at whoever was in the house. It was like a scene from a movie, although I was only able to hear the action and not actually see what was going on.

  It sounded like one shot went on by itself and then several shots went off right after that. I estimated that it was probably more than one gun going off during the event because the sounds were closer together.

  My heart sank as I watched the house for a clue as to what was going on. But I just couldn’t take it. I finally opened my door and walked slowly over to Marcus’s house. I could feel the eyes on me, but I wasn’t sure if they were good guy eyes or bad guy eyes. The man who had ordered me into my house definitely seemed like a good guy, though.

  I took a deep breath and moved closer and closer. I was barefooted as I walked through the gate toward his house. The calmness was sickening, actually. Those gunshots had clearly silenced someone.

  There was no more gunfire going on, and one of the people that Marcus had called came bursting out of the house and running toward their SUV. I could hear him on his cell phone, and that was what scared me to death.

  “Charlie tango nine, we have an officer down. Unmarked only, but send assistance now.”

  I stood still by the rock garden in front of Marcus’s house and tried to look in the window to see if I could figure
out what was going on.

  The man went back into the house with a first aid kit, and I could hear a man grunting. I tried to just look through the window, but I couldn’t see anything. Instead, I ended up going to the front door.

  I didn’t know what was going on, but I did know the man I was starting to have feelings for was in that house. I had to find out what was going on, and I had to help if they needed anything.

  “What’s going on?” Stanley said as he made his way from my yard over to Marcus’s house.

  I really didn’t know what was going on, but I didn’t think Stanley needed to be around there. I quickly grabbed him by the hand and walked with him back toward the garage area of my house without saying a word until we were out of sight of Marcus’s house.

  “Marcus had an emergency. I’m not sure what’s going on, but you should get out of here.”

  “Not without you,” Stanley said and grabbed me like he’d never grabbed me before. “If it’s dangerous, then you shouldn’t be here either. Come back to my house with me. We will call the police.”

  “I think Marcus is with the police,” I said softly. “I don’t think we should get involved. His guys are there, and I’ll let you know when I know more, okay. Go back to your house,” I said as I pushed him away. “Marcus will keep me safe. You know he will.”

  “Yeah,” Stanley said reluctantly as he walked away.

  I knew he was going to call the police. There was no way Stanley was walking away that easily and not getting involved, but I didn’t have time to deal with that at the moment. I still hadn’t seen Marcus, and I needed to know if he was alright.

  There wasn’t anyone guarding the front door, so I took a step inside the living room of Marcus’s house. What I saw was worse than any television show or crime drama. I instantly saw why there was no need for anyone to be guarding the front door.

  There were two men lying on the ground who had been shot. One of them had his face looking upward, and the other had his face down to the carpet. Blood was pooling up around the men, and I felt like I was going to pass out after seeing it.

  No one was in the living room and instead seemed to be going back to another room, the second bedroom in the house. It was the room I thought Marcus had been keeping those ten large duffle bags in.

  Another SUV pulled up in front of the house, and two men dressed in khakis came walking up to the front door. They looked more like accountants than police officers or EMT’s, and I was more confused than ever as they looked at me for directions on where to go.

  “Where is he?”

  I pointed to the back room. I wasn’t sure who the person was that he was talking about, but I was pretty confident he was in the back room where all these other guys kept going. No one seemed to care that I was standing there, and whatever danger had been going on in that house seemed to have died with the two men in the living room.

  I still had not seen Marcus among the men coming and going from the back room, and I started to get very worried. I needed to make my way back to that room to see what was going on, but by this point there were men standing in the hall, so I certainly wasn’t going to be able to get past them.

  For the time being, I stayed in the living room and tried to look at the walls instead of down at the two dead men on the ground. It was hard not to look at those men, and I was sure that I would have the memory of their faces burned into my brain for a very long time.

  “Get him to the truck now!” I heard a man yell as the other men moved out of the hallway.

  I was now trapped in the living room and tried to move into the kitchen so I could be out of the way. My heart fluttered with anxiety and fear as I waited for someone to be brought out of the back room.

  In my head I thought that Marcus could certainly be one of the men helping out in the situation. Just because he was involved in a shootout didn’t mean that Marcus wouldn’t be perfectly fine. In fact, I was probably being way too over dramatic, and Marcus was going to walk out of the back room any minute.

  Then I saw him. The most horrible sight I could have imagined.

  Marcus was being carried by two of the men dressed in black. Marcus was wearing a blue T-shirt and cargo shorts, and he looked so out of place when next to the other men because he had been in bed with me only a few minutes earlier. He was covered in blood and looked like he couldn’t even hold his head up and was about to pass out.

  “Marcus, are you OK?” I said as I tried to talk to him.

  Marcus did not respond.

  Chapter 17

  “Marcus! Marcus,” I screamed.

  The men continued to carry him out to the SUV and laid him in the back seat.

  “I’m coming with you,” I said as I started to climb into the vehicle.

  It was the first time any of the men addressed me.

  “No, you can’t. We are taking him to the hospital. Someone will let you know an update as soon as we know something,” a man dressed in black swat gear said.

  They closed the door and took off, leaving me standing there in the middle of the street. I could see the two other men working inside, but I didn’t want to go back in there and see the dead bodies on the ground.

  I looked around the neighborhood, and it dawned on me how isolated I truly was living in Bain, Missouri. There wasn’t anyone home during the daytime, and many people didn’t even come home until the weekends. All the commotion that had just gone on, and no one was even around to call the police and report gunshots being fired except maybe Stanley, but I wasn’t positive that he was going to call either.

  My legs started to feel weak, and I made my way over to the stairs in front of my house. The adrenaline made my body shake, and I started to feel like throwing up. My hands vibrated with fear, and I could feel a cold sweat coming over my body.

  I leaned over and put my head in my hands as I tried desperately not to throw up. I hated the feeling of vomiting and would do everything in my power not to give in to the nausea.

  “Are you alright?” one of the men from Marcus’s house said as he stood in front of me.

  “I’m not sure.”

  “If you’ll let me, I’d like to help you inside. Marcus asked me to make sure you were alright.”

  He seemed like a nice guy, and I had seen him with Marcus at the airport before. I didn’t exactly respond, but I did try to stand up, and he reached his arm out and helped to stabilize me.

  “I’m Isabella,” I said as we walked into my house.

  “I know. I’m Zed.”

  I smiled at him as he helped me over to the couch. He put a couple pillows on one side of the couch, and I moved over to lie down. He disappeared into the kitchen and was back very quickly with some water and a few saltine crackers.

  “Thanks.”

  My hands were shaking as I tried to drink the water, so Zed took the cup from me and held it while I drank. It was a very kind thing to do. I didn’t know this man, but if Marcus had told him to take care of me, and he was so willingly doing it, I had to figure he was a good guy.

  He was a very handsome man, not quite as handsome as Marcus, but still very close. Zed had more of a baby face and looked to be closer to my age. He didn’t seem old enough to be doing whatever it was that Marcus was doing.

  “You don’t look too well. Is there anything else I can get for you?”

  “I’ll be alright. I’d really like to know how Marcus is as soon as you know something, though. He did not look very good.”

  “Oh, it looked like the bullet went straight through the shoulder; he should be fine as long as they get the bleeding stopped.”

  Zed seemed like a pretty laid back guy to be in whatever this business was. Although, Marcus also was pretty laid back and was shot in a hospital right now. Perhaps being laid back in their business wasn’t the best personality trait.

  His light brown hair was shaved tight on the side of his head with some wavy length on the top. I found it difficult to take him serious with the two large dimple
s on either side of his perfect smile. My only reason for being able to listen and talk with him was that I had seen him with Marcus at the airport a couple weeks prior. Zed seemed like a pretty intense guy, and his eyes looked at me with a powerful desire. But he stayed away from showing any of that desire; he was wholly appropriate with me. It probably didn’t hurt that I looked like I was going to puke at any moment.

  It dawned on me that Zed had said he knew who I was. I wondered how much Marcus had told the guys about me?

  “You seem like you’ve seen plenty of shootings,” I said with a little bit of a laugh. “I mean you look unconcerned by this whole thing.”

  Zed didn’t look like he was going to respond at first. Then, perhaps because he knew I was friends with Marcus, Zed told me a little more than I could have imagined.

  “Yes, I have seen some pretty horrible stuff. Saw a friend get his neck cut once. Many of us have had other injuries like gunshots or being stabbed or something like that,” Zed said. “Marcus has been shot before, though. I’m not too worried about him. I’ll bet you he’s back here in not time making sure I am really taking care of you.”

  There seemed to be a little sexual undertone in how Zed had just said that sentence. Certainly, Marcus hadn’t told him to come and sleep with me? That was ridiculous. But I couldn’t help thinking about having Zed. He was utterly adorable. Although I was going to hold back because I was really worried about Marcus, and he was my first concern.

  “Why do you do it? I mean it’s obviously a dangerous job. Why keep putting yourself in the middle of things?”

  I wanted to know. Did it pay really well? Did this job help with the ladies? Why would any man choose a job where he could see his friends murdered?

  “We are saving people. You can’t beat knowing that you are taking these bad guys off the street, and they won’t have anyone to lead their cause.”

  Their cause? I wondered who these people were that they were taking them off the streets. It sounded like Marcus and his friends worked as bounty hunters or something like that. Maybe that was why they could afford to travel on a private jet instead of like normal people. Or maybe they had some big person who financed their operation and paid for things. I wasn’t going to keep trying to get information out of Zed, though; he needed to get back to cleaning up the crime scene over at Marcus’s house.