by Jessie Cooke
The ugly bastard walked over and put his gun to Collin’s temple. “Take her over by the fucking door!”
“No.” He didn’t have a tremor in his voice and his refusal was as firm a one as Ciara had ever heard. Who is this guy?
“You stupid fucking ginger! Do you want your brains smeared all over her body as she flies out that door? Take her over there.”
“Do it yourself.” Ciara had heard the footfalls on the stairs stop several seconds before. Whoever he was waiting for was standing outside the locked door now. She assumed that it was Noah, but he hadn’t said anything yet. When Collin told Psycho Joe to do it himself, the look in the killer’s black eyes was nothing short of murderous and Ciara thought he was going to shoot Collin right there.
“I can walk,” Ciara said. She felt Collin’s arm tighten around her and she looked up at him and said, “It’s okay. I can do this. Psycho Joe here will be right behind me if I fall, right, Joe?”
“Walk, you stupid bitch. I will be so happy to be rid of you.” Ciara looked up at Collin again. She thought that he understood what she was trying to convey to him. If Joe led her over there his back would be to Collin. He was so skinny that all Collin would need would be a few seconds of his being distracted and the guy would be toast. He was still hesitant to let her go, though. Gordon quickly moved the gun from Collin’s head to Ciara’s and the look in his eyes was a warning. “Let go of her.” Collin looked down at her one last time. She doubted that any of her thoughts were coming through her eyes, but she was trying. He let go of her just as Noah began banging on the door. Psycho Joe pulled her arm and they backed away from Collin, with the gun to her head. At the same time Ciara heard her brother banging on the door and yelling:
“Gordon! I’m coming in! Open the door or I’m kicking the fucking thing down and my sister and Collin better be in one piece when I do.” Gordon giggled like a schoolgirl. This was fun to him. Ciara had spent most of her life hating and resenting her mother. Now, she was just glad that she hadn’t had his mother.
Noah busted the door down and Gordon didn’t flinch. He kept the gun pressed tightly to her temple and the smile firmly planted on his creepy face. It was good for Ciara to see Noah. He was dressed in a suit, which she knew he never did unless he was going to court. His hair was cut and his face shaved. Her first thought was that he must have a girlfriend…but then she remembered Gordon saying something about his marrying Ava, the girl who used to work for him. She hoped he was happy, because this miserable son of a bitch was about to ruin his life. “Let her go, it’s over, you don’t have to hurt her anymore.”
She felt the barrel of the gun dig into her flesh. “No, I don’t have to hurt her…but I want to. I’m leaving this earth today, Detective, and I want to go out with a bang.”
“Then shoot me,” Noah said.
“No!” said Ciara. “I’ve already been dead for years, Noah. Just let him do this and then he’ll be gone and I’ll be gone and you’ll have two less things to worry about. I know you love me, Noah. I have known that from my first memory. If it wasn’t for you I would have died years ago. But it’s time now, big brother, to let me go.”
Gordon giggled again. “Yes, Noah, let her go. She’s not an angel, you know. She really is just a pathetic, drug-addicted whore. She’ll be as useless in death as she was in life, but you won’t have to deal with her any longer. You really should be thanking me for doing you a favor.”
Noah still had his eyes trained on the killer’s face. Ciara saw his Adam’s apple move as he swallowed hard. His gun was pointed at Gordon’s head and Ciara knew exactly what was going on in her brother’s at that moment, and letting this man kill her wasn’t even an option. The next few minutes happened in slow motion. Noah looked at Collin and the two of them communicated something with a look. Then Collin took a step toward Gordon and Ciara. He was close enough that she could have reached out and touched him. Gordon pulled the gun from her temple and pointed it at Collin. “What are you doing? Get back or I’ll put a bullet in your ginger brain.” Noah pulled the trigger just as Gordon did the same. Gordon disappeared out the door and Collin lay on the floor in a pool of his own blood.
Noah threw his phone at Ciara, yelling for her to call 911. Then he stripped off his jacket to press into Collin’s wound. Ciara couldn’t tell where the blood was coming from; it was either his chest or his stomach. She dialed 911 and before the dispatcher finished asking what her emergency was, a tiny little red-haired woman came busting into the room. She rushed toward Noah and then threw herself on top of Collin, sobbing. Ciara told the operator what they needed and watched the life slipping away from the only man besides Noah that had ever stood up for her.
29
The first conscious thought Collin had was that he could smell his mother’s perfume. For as long as he could remember she’d worn the same kind. It was called Tabu and sometimes he thought that she might also wash her hair and clothes in it. His next thought was that he had to open his eyes and find out what happened to Ciara and Noah. The last thing he could remember was taking a step toward the killer and Ciara. Everything was blank after that.
He fought through the fog that still shrouded his brain and opened his eyes. His mother had her back to him when he did, but he would swear she had radar of some kind. She turned around at that exact moment and the next several minutes were a flurry of activity in his room. She squealed and called out his dad’s name and then she ran out of the room. Collin’s dad came over to the bed and he was talking to him. He looked sad, and remorseful, but Collin wasn’t really processing any of it. His mom came back with a nurse, or a lady that looked like a nurse, and a few minutes after that a doctor came in. Ava was hot on his heels and Collin could see Noah standing at the edge of the door. Machines were beeping, lights were being shone in his eyes, and blood pressure cuffs and oxygen saturation meters were being slapped on his arms and fingers. He opened his mouth to talk and it was only then that Collin realized that he had a breathing tube down his throat.
“Collin, can you hear me?” He nodded slowly and his head felt like it might explode. He didn’t even try to talk because he knew it was a moot point with that tube down his throat. “I’m Dr. Patterson. You’re in the ICU at Phoenix General Hospital. You were brought in two weeks ago with a gunshot wound to your chest.” Two weeks ago? What the hell? “The bullet struck the main artery in your heart and you lost a lot of blood before they brought you in. We had to transfuse you three times before you were stable enough to operate on and even then it was touch and go. A few days after you came in we repaired your heart. You were in an induced coma to allow your body time to heal. Do you understand all of this?”
Collin nodded again.
“Your vital signs look good. You’ve been steadily improving day by day. I think we’re ready to take out the breathing tube.” He asked Collin’s parents and sister to leave them alone for a few minutes. Noah gave him one last long look before he turned and walked away. Collin was suddenly afraid that Ciara hadn’t made it, but he was trapped in the bed with a tube down his throat and he couldn’t even ask.
The doctor took out the tube and even though his chest felt like someone had cracked open all of his ribs, which they did, he was taking that as a positive. His throat hurt like hell too and burned like fire but he had to know where Ciara was. “Can-I-have-a-drink?”
The doctor brought him water. He would have preferred something much stiffer at the moment but he didn’t think that was an option after open heart surgery. Fuck…there was going to be a lot of things that were no longer options. He knew it was a good thing he didn’t want to be a firefighter any longer and hoped it wouldn’t hurt his chances at being a part of the Skulls. Collin sipped the water and when his mouth and throat felt less like someone was sliding a rasp across them he said, “Do you know what happened to the girl they brought in with me?”
“She’s downstairs on the fourth floor. I don’t know what her condition is today because she’s not m
y patient, but I can tell you that when we transferred her out of ICU here, she was stable.”
Stable would have to do. At least he knew she didn’t go out the window with Gordon. She had looked at Collin with the same trust in her eyes that she had for her brother that day, and he couldn’t stand to think the last thought she had was that he had failed her. “Thank you.” The doctor finished up and when he left he let Collin’s parents, his sister, and Noah come back in. His mom and Ava fussed around him, and then, finally bursting into tears, his mother began to sob, while apologizing. Collin’s throat hurt when he tried to talk, but he tried to convince her he understood and didn’t hold a grudge. That was bad enough, but when his tough-guy father also approached him with tears in his eyes, it was almost too much.
“We love you, son. I was wrong to ever say I would turn my back on you. I hope that one day you can forgive me.”
“It’s all forgiven, Dad. I’m sorry for scaring you both.”
“And me?” Ava said. Collin tried to roll his eyes. It hurt. With as much of a smile as he could manage he said:
“Sure…” Ava nudged his shoulder and his mother said:
“Stop it, Ava. You’ll hurt him.” Collin laughed. That hurt like hell. The whole time, Noah continued to hover near the door, not really making eye contact. Collin loved his family, but he had to say he was glad they hadn’t let his other two brothers in yet. Collectively they all were exhausting. When the nurse came in and told them time was up for a while, Collin’s mother kissed and hugged him like she might never see him again. Ava and his dad reassured him that they’d be back and Noah was still waiting by the door.
“Hey, Noah, stay for a minute, please.” Collin whispered that in a raspy voice, because Noah almost visibly winced. Noah had an expressive face, but Collin was having a hard time reading him. He saw Ava reach out and squeeze his arm as she walked by. Noah tried to smile at her but it didn’t really work. Collin was beginning to worry that the doctor hadn’t been straight with him about Ciara, because why else would Noah be in such a funk? “How is Ciara?” Collin asked him when they were finally gone.
Noah finally came all the way into the room and stood next to the bed with his hands in his pockets. He was unshaven and his hair was a mess. He looked like himself again. “She’s been through hell and it’s going to take her body a long time to recover, but she’s going to be okay, thanks to you.” Collin breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t believe it was thanks to him, but right then wasn’t really the time to debate that. “Is he dead?”
He nodded. “Yeah, he hit the sidewalk hard enough to break quite a few bones and fracture his skull; no hair to cushion it. They’ve dug up five more bodies out of his backyard so far. Some of them aren’t intact and so far four of them have yet to be identified. One of them was his wife. She was the one with the money and there was a strong prenup in place. She’s been dead over a year and no one even noticed. Her family was all in Europe, but you think they’d check in every so often.”
“I couldn’t be dead a minute without my family knowing.”
Noah did smile at that. “True story. One other thing about Gordon and then I’m going to get out of here and let you get some rest. Apparently he’d been suffering with horrible pain for a few years before he died because he had pancreatic cancer.”
“He told me that. He said it had spread to his liver too and that’s why he wanted to get caught. He wanted to make sure the world knew he was the killer before he died and someone else got the credit.”
“Sick bastard. I wonder sometimes if it makes me a bad person that I was happy to know he was in pain. I want to think of it as karma.”
“I’m a bad person right alongside if that’s true. If anyone deserved pain it was that monster.”
“Collin…I’m so fucking sorry.”
“For what?” Collin was genuinely confused not only at the change of conversation but the apology itself. What was he apologizing for?
“For this,” he said, gesturing at the bed. “I used you to save my sister and…Jesus, you could have died.”
Collin thought back with as much clarity as he was able to muster at that moment. Noah looked at him and there was an unspoken understanding between them. If Collin hadn’t moved and gotten Gordon to focus his attention on him, Ciara would have been dead for sure. She couldn’t have survived a three-story fall. Her body wasn’t up to it. Collin could see the guilt on Noah’s face then. That was the emotion he hadn’t been able to pin down. It was eating away at him. Collin said the one thing that he knew Noah could understand and believe: “I would have done the same to you for Ava.”
A semblance of a smile crossed Noah’s face; he knew Collin wasn’t lying. Collin loved Noah like one of his own brothers, but if it came down to a choice between him and Ava it would always be Ava. If he’d chosen anyone in the room that day besides Ciara, Collin would have no respect for him any longer. Noah put his hand on Collin’s arm above and below the IV tubing and B/P cuffs and gave it a squeeze. Collin got the feeling he wasn’t finished beating himself up, but at least they had a better understanding of each other.
“So how did you find us that day, anyhow?”
“Ironically, your stalker called Ava. She had Gordon’s name and Hayden got us an address.”
“Ann?” Noah nodded. Collin had a vague memory of her calling when he was sitting naked on Gordon’s couch. “I guess every cloud does have a silver lining.” Noah chuckled. “So what did Hayden say about all of this?”
He smiled again and said, “He says we made a fucking mess of it and we all need to stay out of police work from now on….and he says thank you. By the way, on another note…your biker brothers have been sitting vigil in the waiting room.”
Collin laughed and then winced. “That’s nice, but I’ll bet my parents loved that.”
Noah smiled and said, “Your mother made them brownies yesterday…and Jace has your dad thinking about buying a Harley.”
“Get the fuck out!’
Noah held up his hands and said, “Swear to God. They’re trying, Collin.” As Collin watched Noah leave he thought about his parents. He’d always known he’d hit the jackpot with them, and that they always loved him. But maybe until that moment…he had never realized just how much.
It was about three or four days after Collin had come out of the medically induced coma that he woke up to Ciara’s face. It wasn’t the downtrodden defeated one in the mug shots or the beaten and bloody one from that fateful day. Her face was clear of the sores the drugs had put there and the bruises the monster had given her. Her skin looked almost healthy and her hair had been cut, probably to get all of the matting out. It was short around her petite little face and it made her hazel eyes look that much bigger. She was still painfully thin, but she looked so much better and it did his newly mended heart good to see her.
“Hi.”
“Hey. I don’t think we’ve ever properly been introduced. I’m Ciara Campbell.”
Collin chuckled. It still hurt his chest but it felt good to laugh at the same time. It was funny that they had never even really met yet, but it seemed like they didn’t have any secrets at that point. He had seen all of her and she’d seen all of him. He had held her in his arms skin to skin and they had shared the worst day of their lives together. He felt like he’d known her forever. “Collin Kelly,” he said.
“A pleasure. It seems there are a lot of you Kelly people.”
Laughing again he said, “Yeah, but I’m the original.”
“The big brother,” she said. “I saw that in your eyes that day. Thank you, Collin. You went so above and beyond, and I wish that there was some way I could make it up to you.”
“I just did the big brother thing,” he told her. “I’m glad you’re okay. You look beautiful.”
She actually blushed. “It’s been a long time since anyone other than Noah said that to me.”
“Well then, everyone you’ve met has been crazy.” He realized even as he sai
d the words that it had been a while since he had said something like that to a woman that he wasn’t trying to get into bed. He really meant it, though, he thought she was beautiful.
“The doctor said they patched up your heart.”
Collin nodded. “Yep, they say I’m almost as good as new. I get sprung from here tomorrow.”
“Good. You have a good heart, Collin Kelly. I’m glad they fixed it.”
Collin smiled at her. “Me too. When are they going to let you out of this prison?”
“Today,” she said. “But don’t be jealous. Warden Noah and Headmaster Ava will be looking after me for a while.”
Collin laughed again. “You think you’ve got it bad? You should meet Drill Sergeant Kelly and her hapless brood.” She smiled broadly at that and he could tell as soon as she did that she was self-conscious about it. She put her hand up and covered her mouth with it. Her teeth weren’t in great shape from all of the years of being on the streets and using drugs. “Hey, Ciara?”
“Yes, Collin?”
“You have a beautiful smile too. Don’t cover it up and don’t waste it.”
She had tears in her eyes when she pulled herself to her feet. She leaned over the bed and kissed his cheek and whispered, “Thank you.” As he watched her limp out with a cane, he had a feeling that it was going to be a long road for her. But he had heard her try to give her life for her brother’s and he had seen that light inside her eyes that she was not even aware of. He got the feeling she was more than capable of traveling that long road. She had a whole new family to help her now too.
30
Three Months Later
Collin picked up the drink that the club girl set in front of him and brought it to his lips. “Aren’t you still on medication?” The sound of his sister’s voice, in the Phoenix Skulls clubhouse, startled him. He spun around on his stool and sure enough, he was face to face with Ava. She was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt and black boots. She could have been one of the club girls; Collin smiled as he wondered if she’d bought the outfit specifically to come down there.