I stood frozen, like a deer in headlights, unable to make myself flee. Phil was staring at me. I thought he was going to shoot me and still I couldn’t move, too terrified to make my brain or my legs work.
Just when I had come to the conclusion that this was it, he’d really kill me, he smiled that terrifying damned smile he always got before he hurt me, and then set off running. I took a deep breath of relief and then looked again where he had been stood. Why would he point a gun at me and not use it? And then I saw him, on the steps. Rob was sprawled on his back across the steps, blood pouring from his stomach. Phil had shot him!
“Rob!” I screamed as I ran out towards him. I was intercepted halfway by a huge guy dressed all in black. He was tall and bulky with dirty blonde hair. He ran at me and stopped me at the top of the steps, placing hands on the tops of my arms.
“Get back inside!” He shouted, but I tried to push him aside. I had no idea who he was, but I didn’t care. He was standing between me and Rob.
“Get off of me!” I screamed as I fought to get to Rob.
“It’s not safe. Get inside!” The guy ordered. That was it, I’d had enough. The man I loved could be dying on the steps metres from me and this guy wanted to stop me, no way! I balled my fist, just the way Matt had taught me when I was a teen and punched him as hard in the face as I could. He reeled back and I ran past him to Rob, ignoring the raging pain in my hand. I didn’t care. I didn’t think about anything except getting to Rob.
There was a large pool of blood surrounding him and it still poured from the wound. There were several people staring at him from the foot of the steps, but no one helping. I knelt beside him and ripped off the jumper I was wearing. I balled it up and pressed it to the wound trying to stop the bleeding.
“I’ve called 911.” A woman shouted and for that I was grateful.
“Rob, please stay with me!” I begged as I kept pressing on the wound. He was staring at me and I knew I was losing him.
“I Love you Lucy.” He whispered weakly.
“I love you too so don’t you leave me Robert Shepard. Do you bloody well understand? I just got you, don’t you dare die!”
“I love you.” He said once more and then his eyes closed just as the sirens began to approach.
“Rob, wake up!” I was screaming at him now as I sobbed desperately. I had lost him. I was sure I had, and my world had just shattered. I looked up as the paramedics ran up the steps and I saw the guy who had tried to stop me, stood behind me.
“We’ll take over now miss,” One of the paramedics said as they knelt beside him.
“Please, don’t let him die……please!” I begged as I stood back and watched uselessly. I was sobbing desperately, stood covered in Rob’s blood.
“Lucy, you need to come with me now!” The strange guy said as he came even closer to me. One side of his face had swollen and was bright red. Good!
“Who the hell are you and how do you know my name?!” I raged as I turned to face him angrily.
“I’m Alec. I work for Rob. I was assigned yesterday to protect you.” He said hurriedly. The paramedics were putting Rob onto a board to move him.
“Protect me from what?”
“From this, from your ex-husband. Rob was worried he was going to target you.” That made no sense. I had been in Chicago for months. Why assign someone to follow me just yesterday unless he already knew Phil was here! Damn it! He knew Phil was here and he didn’t tell me! “I’m sorry, I know this is all a shock, but I have to get you someplace safe, right now!” He persisted as he pulled my elbow to move me. I shoved my elbow back and forth until it was free from his grasp and then I backed away from him.
“I am getting in that ambulance with Rob and there is no way you will stop me, so get the fuck away from me!” I almost screamed. The paramedics looked up at me from where they were loading Rob into the ambulance.
“Are you ok?” One of them called. I took the opportunity to get away from Alec and ran to the ambulance.
“I want to stay with him. Is that ok?”
“Are you family?” The young paramedic asked.
“I’m his girlfriend.” He nodded and indicated for me to jump in and take a seat which I did. I sat beside Rob and just prayed to God over and over, not to let him die. I needed that man in my life, we needed our chance at happiness.
The paramedics said his vitals were weak and as we neared the hospital machines started to beep and the guy flew into action, shouting at the driver to hurry up.
“We’re losing him!” He shouted and I was crying hysterically. Finally the doors were thrown open by a huge group of doctors and nurses and Rob was rushed from the ambulance and inside the ER. A nurse helped me out and through to a cubicle where she checked me for injuries under the masses of Rob’s blood I was covered in. I tried to assure her I was ok, but I was crying so hard and in such a state I knew I made no sense. Finally I managed to take a breath and say what I really needed to get out.
“Can you get Matt Simmons for me……please?” I whimpered.
“Dr Simmons? You know him?” She asked.
“He’s my brother…….please, I need him.”
“Ok sweetie. Try and calm down. I’ll see if I can get hold of him for you.” She left then and I sat back trying to get it together. I needed to be better when Rob woke up, or if. No, don’t think like that. He will wake up. I also had to think about what was going to happen with Phil. He was there, in Chicago, for me and I wouldn’t let him hurt anyone else. It was time I stood up to that maniac. I couldn’t let him destroy me again, not when I was starting to mend, slowly but surely.
“Lucy?” I looked up as Matt raced into the cubicle looking worried sick. “What the hell?” He ran to me and started looking at the blood on my arms, clearly trying to find where it was coming from.
“Matt…….Matt stop! It’s not my blood. I’m ok……..it’s Rob’s blood…….he shot him Matt; Phil shot him!” I was crying again, and Matt pulled me into a tight embrace. “He’s going to die Matt.”
“He’s tough Lucy. He’ll fight every step of the way to live. If there’s a chance he can make it through, he will.” Matt said as he pulled back and looked at me from arm’s length.
“I love him Matt. We only admitted it to each other tonight, but I know I love him. Please don’t be mad. He was going to tell you as soon as you got home.” I babbled.
“Oh Darling. Come here.” He pulled me into a hug again and I clung to him desperately.
“Matt……can you find out?......Please can you see how he is?” I asked as I managed to get a grip of myself.
“Yeah, of course I will. You stay here and I’ll see what I can find out.” I nodded and sat back as he left the cubicle. I looked at the blood on my hands. Not the first time I’d been covered in blood, but the first time it wasn’t my own. This time it was the blood of a person I loved and that made me want vengeance more than any time Phil had hurt me. I knew if I saw him right then at that moment I was angry enough to kill him with my bare hands! He had beaten and raped me again and again and I let him because he had beaten me down and down until I thought I was nothing. Escaping him made me stronger, meeting Jack and Rob and being with Matt had made me stronger and now the need to protect the people I loved made me stronger. I couldn’t be weak anymore, couldn’t sit back and let him destroy my life anymore. It was time to fight, if not for me, then for Rob. Phil had to die, and I had to make sure I was strong enough to face him when the time came.
It felt like an eternity later when Matt finally came back in. He was barely through the curtain before I demanded to know what he found out.
“I’m going to be honest with you Darling. He’s in a really bad way. The bullet has caused a lot of damage and he’s lost a lot of blood. They’re working on him now. He’s going to be on the table for hours. We just have to stay positive and hope he makes it through.”
“Oh God!” I cried as the tears flowed again. I was going to lose him.
&nbs
p; “Don’t give up on him Lucy. Like I said, he’s the toughest guy I know, and he’ll be fighting, I know he will.”
“I was happy Matt, for twenty-four hours I was truly happy and then he ruined it……he ruined it.” I sobbed.
“Don’t think about him now Darling. He’s going to get what’s coming to him, don’t you worry.” I realised then that Matt hadn’t reacted at all to the fact Phil had appeared out of nowhere.
“You knew too, didn’t you? You all knew he was here. You knew Phil had come for me and you didn’t tell me!” I accused suddenly angry.
“It wasn’t like that Lucy,” Matt defended.
“Oh, so how was it Matt?! You found out my psycho husband had come to kill me, and you thought ‘oh, that’s something Lucy doesn’t need to know!’ You had no right to keep it from me, no right!” I screamed.
“Lucy, please calm down.”
“No Matt. If I’d have known I could have warned you guys what you were dealing with, I could have stopped this! If Rob dies it’s all your fault!” I didn’t mean that. I knew it as soon as I said it, but I was mad, really mad and I wanted to vent.
“Lucy…..”I cut him off instantly.
“Just leave me alone Matt, please. Just give me some space.” I said more calmly.
“Ok Darling, but I’ll be right outside if you need me. I’m not going far.” I buried my head between my knees which were pulled up to my chest and ignored him as he left me alone.
“Please Rob,” I whispered. “Please fight and come back to me. I need you.” I sat there for hours, just praying and pleading for Rob to make it through, just asking over and over again for him to find his way back to me.
JACK
I had spent most of the morning with Cal at the gym and then later that evening we had met up for our date, and it had all been great. He was a good guy, kind and funny and we found we had a lot in common. We had laughed more than I ever remembered doing with a date. The workout that morning had been fun. Cal had pushed me as far as he could, and he’d matched me all the way too. His strength and fitness level easily matched my own, which was a huge turn on for me.
I found myself relaxing with him and for some reason I was able to relinquish control to this man I had only just met, something I did not do easily. Everyone knew I was a control freak, I liked to be in charge, and I liked everything done my way and to perfection, but with Cal I relaxed and let him take the lead, which was odd, but strangely comfortable.
He picked me up that night for our date, something I would never usually agree to, but with Cal I did. He looked great when I opened the door to him, dressed in dark jeans, a blue button-down shirt and a navy blazer. He was immaculate, just the way I always aimed to be.
“You good to go?” He asked.
“Sure, let’s go.” I agreed. I locked up and followed Cal down to his silver Dodge. We jumped in and I smiled when his playlist started. The Smiths, one of my favourites.
“So where are we going?” I asked.
“I thought we might go to Trattoria Lorenzo to eat. I’m starving and the food is good there. You ok with Italian?”
“Sounds great.” I once again relinquished control, and it felt good.
We chatted all the way to the restaurant. Cal told me how he’d spent twenty years as a beat cop with the NYPD until his partner was killed brutally by a gang. He decided then, that there was more to life and moved to Chicago and bought the gym. I was amazed he had taken such a drastic life change and I admired him for it. He seemed so fulfilled when he talked about the gym, working out was what he loved to do, and the gym made that his job. He was studying part time for a qualification in physiotherapy and he had plans to start sessions at the gym. He was clearly a highly intelligent, driven and very worldly guy.
We sat down and ordered quickly in the restaurant. We were both starving, and we didn’t want to mess around. We both ordered a beer and got chatting again. I told him about my career, moving from the marines, finishing medical school and starting out at the hospital. I made it clear how much I loved my job and the crazy hours I worked. If he wanted a relationship with me, he needed to know I was hard to date. The food came and we continued to talk as we ate.
Eventually the subject got around to Lucy and I had some explaining to do. The night before I had rung Cal very abruptly in the chaos of everything and told him Lucy may be in danger and asked him if he was willing to keep her safe while she was at work. He agreed without asking for further explanation and I hung up, needing to get back to Lucy. Now he deserved an explanation.
“Lucy has had a really tough road to be honest Cal. She got here a few months back, beaten to within an inch of her life for the millionth time, only this time she’d left him. She had a long recovery, and mentally I think she still has a long way to go. The things her husband put her through……..well, it was bad, really bad.” I summarised, not wanting to go into detail. “The reason I called you last night though is that we found out that her husband, Phil, is in Chicago and Rob thinks he’ll come for Lucy again. We decided not to tell her, but we need to keep her protected until we can take this psycho down.”
“So you think he’s dangerous then?”
“He’s crazy Cal. He’ll kill her if he gets near her again. If you had seen her when she arrived, the state he put her in. She was literally black and blue, and she had broken ribs, a broken wrist. He absolutely destroyed her mentally and physically and it’s only now she’s coming back to us.” I raged at the knowledge he had already gotten to her in that damned hotel room the other night, but I kept that part from Cal, not wanting to tell him things Lucy wouldn’t want her boss knowing. Plus, we were yet to tell her Phil had been involved. I didn’t want her hearing the truth from Cal.
“That poor girl. She’s so tiny as well and so damned sweet. How could anyone lay a finger on her?” I saw anger in Cal’s eyes, and I felt comforted to know it made him so angry, to know he cared so much. It just reinforced my impression that he truly was a good guy.
“I don’t know Cal, but I’m willing to repay the favour when I get hold of the slippery sonofabitch!” I said angrily. At that moment, the waiter casually slipped the cheque on our table. I looked around and saw that most tables were empty. I looked at my watch. It was almost one am. We had been chatting for hours and it had felt like no time at all.
“Jesus! I had no idea it was that late. I bet this place is closing.”
“I know, I guess we really lost track of time.” Cal said with a smile. Damn, he was hot when he smiled.
“We should get going.” I took out my wallet and pulled out my credit card.
“No way Jack. I’m paying.” Cal said firmly. I looked up to argue and he grabbed the cheque from in front of me with a cheeky grin. “I chose the date, I pay. Next time you can pick, and you can pay.”
“So there’s going to be a next time?” I asked as I conceded and put my card back in my wallet.
“Damn right there is, isn’t there?”
“I hope so. I’ve had a really great evening.” I agreed. He smiled and nodded, then pulled the waiter over with the card terminal so he could pay. I stood to put my jacket on and checked my cell in the process. I was shocked to see five missed calls from Matt, all in the last half hour.
“I just have to make a call Cal.” I said as I hurried outside. I was worried. I knew something was wrong if Matt had rung so many times, so late. The call connected as I got out to the parking lot. Matt answered on the first ring.
“Jack, where have you been?!” He barked.
“On a date. What’s going on?”
“It’s bad Jack. Phil showed up outside our building with a gun and he shot Rob right in front of Lucy.”
“Holy shit Matt!” I gasped as Cal walked up to me from the restaurant. “Is Lucy ok?”
“She’s really upset, but unscathed.”
“And Rob?”
“Still in the OR. He’s in bad shape, but he’s holding strong for now.”
“
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” I yelled. Rob had been my best friend for years. He was all of the family I had, apart from my mom, and I couldn’t lose him. I looked to Cal who looked worried sick, probably because I was throwing a tantrum in the middle of the parking lot.
“Jack, he’s hanging in there for now.” Matt said calmly.
“I’m on my way in.” I said and then I hung up.
“What’s happened Jack?” Cal asked as he put a comforting hand on my shoulder.
“Rob, the guy who picked Lucy up from the gym last week……he’s not as much a dick as I’m sure he seemed to you. He’s like my brother. Lucy’s husband shot him tonight. He’s being operated on now, but it looks bad.”
“Shot him? Shit, Jack! Is Lucy ok?”
“Yeah. She’s not hurt, but she saw it happen. Matt said she’s a mess.”
“Come on, let’s get to the hospital. You’re obviously needed there.” He put his arm around my shoulders and led me to his truck. I was trying to keep it together, but I was falling apart. I didn’t know what I would do if I lost Rob, he was my brother.
Cal had us at the hospital less than ten minutes later. He parked up the car and I turned to him in surprise.
“I’m coming with you Jack.” He said firmly before I could say anything.
“You don’t have to. I’ll probably be here all night,”
“No arguments. I can’t leave you upset like this. I’m coming with you and I’m staying for as long as it takes. I want to be there for you.”
Something Other than Fear Page 20