by Jayne Blue
“Give me five minutes to grab my purse and I’ll meet you over in the lounge. I can’t do breakfast today.” I would at least do him the courtesy of not making up some fake reason to say no.
Chris’s face fell but he didn’t let the smile leave his eyes. He gave me a salute and headed over to the lounge while I grabbed my things. I needed to make this as short and sweet as I could. He was such a nice guy and I knew whoever he did end up with was going to be one lucky girl. I didn’t know what would have happened if Dex hadn’t come back into town, but he did.
I took a breath as I came back out of the locker room and headed for the lounge. Chris’s face brightened again when he saw me. He came toward me, took my hands in his and gave me a peck on the cheek.
“You sure you don’t have time to grab some pancakes or something across the street?”
I shook my head. “Not today, Chris. And I’m sorry I’ve been so hard to get a hold of lately. I’ve been meaning to call you.”
“How about tonight?” he said. “Misty said you’re rotating off. There’s a new Chinese place over in Quail Hollow I’d like to take you to.”
“Chris,” I took another steadying breath. “Some things have been going on that I’ve been meaning to talk to you about. I feel like a huge jerk for waiting this long to do it. I just can’t see you outside of work right now.”
The smile finally left Chris’s eyes. Eager he was. Stupid he was not. Although he deserved to hear all of this from me, I was pretty sure the hospital gossip machine had filled him in on the broad strokes already.
“Yeah,” he said. “I was wondering when you were going to get around to this. The fact that you hadn’t kind of gave me hope it wasn’t something I needed to worry about. Your ex, that biker ex-con ... he got paroled or something, right?”
“He’s not an ex-con.” It seemed important to me to make him understand the distinction just then. “He was set up, Chris. He was exonerated. But, yes. He’s back in town and I’m trying to figure out where we stand. I’m sorry. I haven’t been fair to you and that’s my fault. You deserved to hear from me sooner than this. I just need to figure out what everything means.”
Chris nodded. “You don’t have to decide anything right now. I’m just asking for some equal time to prove my case.”
I had hoped he’d give up easier than that, even though a small part of me was flattered he didn’t. “Chris, it’s too complicated right now. I’m not going to string you along when you probably have ten other girls chomping at the bit for a phone call from you.”
He shook his head. “I thought I was being a lot less subtle than that. I’m not a one-night-stand kind of guy.”
His eyes raked over me and I knew he was in the middle of envisioning how I’d let him fuck me in the backseat of his Lexus as if we’d been on a prom date. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Now I knew sleeping with Chris so soon had been a mistake. But how could I have known Dex would walk back into my life the very next day?
“I’m falling in love with you,” he said. “I’m good for you. And you can’t just let me in like that and then cut me off.”
“Chris, please, don’t. I’m really sorry. I wasn’t trying to lead you on and it wasn’t casual sex for me either. I had no idea things in my life were going to get complicated afterwards.”
“They don’t have to be complicated. I know you felt something with me.” Chris gave me a look that downright made me uncomfortable. I knew he was still imagining the things I’d done to him and let him do to me.
“I need to go now. I’m trying to be as nice about this as I know how to be. I am sorry. I’m just not ready to take things any further with you right now.”
He surprised me then. Nothing about Chris’s personality prepared me for what he did next. He crossed the distance between us and gripped me by the shoulders.
“He’s trash, Ava. I’ve asked around. You can’t honestly tell me you want to get mixed up with a bunch of thugs like that.” His grip on my shoulders started to hurt and he actually gave me a quick shake. “You really want everyone in town to think you’re some biker’s whore? Because that’s what they’re already saying about you. It makes me sick.”
“Chris.” I tried to pull away from him but he held me tight. His eyes flashed with anger and hurt and I couldn’t believe I’d misjudged his feelings on this so badly. I was also more than a little angry and took a breath to give him an earful, except I didn’t get the chance.
“I want you so bad, Ava. You drive me crazy just thinking about it. You can’t stand there and tell me that wasn’t one of the most wild nights you’ve ever spent. God. I dream about it. I can’t even look at you without getting hard all over again.”
He tried to kiss me then but Chris’s eyes went wide at something over my shoulder and a hand swooped down and gripped him by the arm.
Dex’s voice was low and quiet, but dripping with menace when he spoke. “Take your hands off her, you filthy little prick.” Dex gave him a solid shove and Chris let go of me.
Chris’s face went ash gray at first then color flushed back into his cheeks. Then he actually took a swing at Dex. I saw the punch coming almost in slow motion and I cringed, knowing how it would end.
Dex ducked and body slammed Chris against a pillar just near the exit doors.
“Dex,” I stepped forward and put light hand on his shoulder. Dex’s fingers twitched where he gripped Chris’s sleeve and he didn’t look at me. “Dex. I work here. Let’s just get the hell out of here, okay? Take me home.”
Dex let go of Chris. Chris snapped his lab coat back into place and narrowed his eyes at Dex. It occurred to me then that mild-mannered Chris the pharmacist might actually have a screw loose. He took another step toward Dex and shook a finger in his face.
“You’re nothing but a thug. You’re not good enough for her. She’s going to figure that out sooner or later. It’s gonna be too late then, Ava.” He glared at me; his face had gone so white his lips all but disappeared. “He’s gonna turn you into trash too. No guy’s going to want to touch you again after he’s finished with you.”
I tugged on Dex’s arm. He stood like a wall of granite but mercifully didn’t make another move on Chris. This was progress. Dex 2.0. A decade ago Chris wouldn’t have walked out of this with his facial bones in the same place.
“Go home, Chris,” I said. I pulled at Dex and after another tense moment, he finally came away with me. He walked ahead of me, making me practically run to keep up with him as he stormed out into the parking lot. Was he so pissed he was planning to leave me here? I hadn’t done a single thing wrong. He climbed on his bike and revved the engine. I half expected him to tear off without me, but he waited. He was a brick wall of pent-up rage as I slid behind him and held on.
I wanted to shout to him not to make a bigger deal about Chris than necessary. He wasn’t even a former boyfriend. He was just someone I dated a couple of times. Dex knew I had a life before he rolled back into town. It’s what he’d told me to do when he pushed me out of his life all those years ago. Still, I hadn’t intended for my life to get thrown in his face quite like that.
Ten minutes later, he rolled into the Wolf Den parking lot and cut his engine. I climbed off the bike but he stayed stock still, white knuckling the handle bars. I walked up to him but he kept his gaze straight ahead.
Billy, Sly, Tiny, Sawyer, Colt and a couple of the prospects came out of the bar at that moment. They’d either all woken early, or more likely hadn’t gone to bed yet. They were laughing and joking about something and started to head over toward us. Sly saw Dex’s posture and put a hand up to stop the rest of them. He gave me a quick nod and the group of them stayed near the doorway.
“Dex,” I said. “Let’s go inside.”
“You go ahead,” he said and I didn’t like the tone of his voice. “I need a minute.”
I sighed. “Thank you for not making a bigger scene back there than you did. Chris was out
of line and I appreciate you showing some restraint.”
“I can’t fucking stand the idea of him touching you ... of anyone touching you ever again.” There was no inflection in his voice and I recognized the barely contained rage behind it.
It was in me to try and joke him out of his mood, but something about his eyes stopped me. Whatever turmoil brewed behind them, Dex looked deeply hurt and it gutted me to know I could cause that kind of pain.
“Let’s just go inside,” I said again, putting a light hand on his upper arm. “The sun’s coming up and I’m hungry. And I’ve been on my feet all night and I want to eat breakfast and go to bed with you.”
Dex peeled his fingers off the handle bar and threw his leg over his bike. He didn’t move to embrace me or put an arm around me as we turned toward the Den. He looked over my shoulder toward Sly and the others. He was coiled rage; his biceps twitched and veins popped out of his forearms.
Sly shot him a questioning look and Tiny stepped forward. Dex wouldn’t put his arm around me but Tiny threw one around Dex. Sly gave me a wink. We were the two people in the world with the most experience dealing with Dex McLain when he was in a mood to brood. I figured I was in for a long day.
A car pulled up behind us and I turned to look over my shoulder when the world stopped. My body knew what to do before the next moments truly registered with my brain. Dex took a little longer. They all did. At the first pop! pop! Dex froze. I had already dropped to my knees. I saw hair fly up on the side of his head as a round whizzed by.
I might have screamed. I don’t remember. I rolled and crawled on my elbows behind the dumpster. Dex was right behind me. He shoved me to the ground, laying his body over mine as the next deadly volley sprayed overhead.
Then it was as if the sound got sucked out of the world and my ears buzzed. I had no heartbeat, no breath and all I knew was the smell of blood.
Chapter Eighteen
Dex
Ava moved before the rest of us. I became aware of a queer expression on Tiny’s face as Ava dropped to the ground at my feet. I went toward her and through a spray of blood as Tiny’s chest exploded. He crumpled to the ground.
There were shouts. Screams. A haze of bullets that lodged in the door, shattering windows before me. I threw myself over Ava but she’d already taken cover behind one of the dumpsters. Then it was over. I got just a glimpse of the black van as it sped off toward the mountains.
Pagano. Hate-fueled rage heated my blood. With my bare hands, whatever the consequences, I would murder that man. But now, there was Ava.
“Go!” I shouted. Sawyer and Colt got to their bikes and tore off after the van. Sly, Gunner and Curtis ran toward their bikes but stopped when they saw Tiny lying lifeless and gray across the threshold of the Den.
“Call an ambulance!” Sly yelled and I moved off Ava. I didn’t think she’d been hit but we were both covered in blood. Her face held a blank expression, like she was seeing something behind her eyes different from what was in front of her. It lasted for only a moment, then she sat up and laid her hands flat on my chest.
“Are you hit?” she said; her voice was toneless. It held no fear, no alarm, just calm purpose as she lifted the flap of my vest and checked for wounds.
“I’m okay,” I said. “What about you?”
She shook her head and sprang to her feet; her eyes were on Tiny. Her hands fluttered near her waist as if she were looking for something. “I need comm,” she muttered, her eyes turning glassy for a moment before she seemed to come back to me. She was here, but there and it tore my heart apart. It was as if her nightmares of Iraq came back to life and it was all because she’d been standing next to me.
I would kill Pagano for her and for me.
She dropped to her knees and crawled over to Tiny. She pulled his shirt apart, exposing the great raw wound on his left upper chest. His skin was torn away in chunks and he seeped blood.
“I need you to call it in!” Ava shouted to Sly. “Get me on speaker with the dispatcher.”
Gunner handed Sly his phone and he held it near her ear as she worked on Tiny.
Ava stripped down to her tank top. She wadded her t-shirt and shoved it over Tiny’s wound, putting pressure on it. It soaked red within a matter of seconds. She rolled him slightly, checking for an exit wound. Not seeing one, she set him gently back on the ground. I knelt next to her, ready to do whatever she needed. Blood pooled and bubbled in the wound and Ava held her ear to his chest.
“Tiny!” she shouted. “You stay with me, okay? Help’s coming.” She looked behind at Gunner. “Go get me a clean garbage bag and Mo’s first aid kit; hurry!”
I took Sly’s phone from him and held it out near Ava’s ear while she talked to the dispatcher.
“Tell them to prepare for a major trauma.” She turned to me. “You know Tiny’s blood type?”
“B positive,” Sly shouted. “We sponsor a blood drive.”
Ava nodded. “You hear that?” she yelled into the phone. “Tell them to be ready with at least four units, okay? I’m going to try and get a field dressing on him. How far out is the rig?”
I took over staunching the blood flow and handed Ava the phone so she could hear better. Tiny was still conscious but not by much. His breath was shallow and his eyes kept rolling back into his head.
“Don’t you check out,” I said to him through gritted teeth. “Ava’s going to take care of you.” He moaned a little but I knew he heard me.
When Gunner came back, Ava tore through the first aid kit and taped the plastic bag over Tiny’s gaping wound. It seemed to help him breathe a little better but there was still so much blood everywhere. I knew the situation for him was pretty grim.
I don’t know how long it took after that. There wasn’t much Ava could do and I could read the desperation in her face. Then the sirens blared as the ambulance arrived. I recognized one of the EMTs. She’d called him Cal and he’d been on scene when Franco was brought in.
Ava shouted orders to him as they worked on Tiny. They put an oxygen mask over his face and Ava helped heave him on to the stretcher. Ava ran alongside it, holding an IV bag. Sly got to one of the cars and pulled up behind the ambulance so we could ride behind it. Ava tried to hop into the back of the rig but Cal stopped her.
“We’ve got him, Ava. You can meet us there.”
She pushed back and said something. Cal grabbed her shoulders. “You’ve been on your feet for more than twelve hours,” he said. “I said we’ve got this. You’ve done what you needed to do for him.”
I came behind her and put a gentle hand on her shoulder. She trembled beneath my touch but finally nodded, letting Cal and the other medics lift the stretcher into the ambulance and swing the doors closed. I guided Ava to the back seat of Sly’s Hummer and he peeled out before I got the door shut.
“How bad is he, Ava?” Sly shouted as soon as we made the turn for the highway.
I kept a tight grip on her. She seemed there but not there still. Ava’s skin was like ice and she shuddered. Her skin looked so pale I worried maybe she really had taken a hit and the adrenalin kept her from feeling it. She put a hand up and shook her head, sensing what I was thinking.
“If they can keep him from bleeding out in the back of the rig, he might have a chance,” she answered Sly. “His lung’s collapsed.”
“Ava, look at me,” I said, not liking her ashen color one bit.
She held a hand out in front of her face and turned it, inspecting it like it belonged to someone else. “Shock,” she said. “It’s shock.” She shivered next to me and I pulled her closer, trying to give her some of my body heat.
“How’d you know they were coming?” Curtis looked back at her. “I swear to God I thought those were firecrackers.”
Ava blinked hard then looked out the window. When she answered, her voice was so soft I knew I was the only one who could hear her.
“I know what an AK-47 sounds like.” I kissed the top
of her head and squeezed her tight.
***
Tiny survived. At least as long as it took them to get him to the hospital and up to surgery. We wouldn’t know anything else until they opened him up and repaired the damage to his chest. The bullets missed his heart and that was the good news. But like Ava had said, he’d lost so much blood and that was the real danger. That, and she was pretty sure he’d never be able to use his left arm the same way again. She said the muscles in his shoulder were shredded and she figured most of the nerves too.
But he was alive. Ava, on the other hand, looked like the walking dead. Her color hadn’t improved and she’d said no more than two words as we waited. She drifted between sitting next to me and the nurse’s station. While Sly sat with her, I found her friend Joleen and cornered her. She was with one of the doctors who’d first worked on Tiny. He was a tall, solid guy with a mass of sandy hair and an odd smile. Endicott. That’s what I heard Joleen call him.
“I’m worried about Ava,” I said. Joleen narrowed her eyes at me and Dr. Endicott set a stack of charts on the counter next to him.
“Then you should steer clear of her,” Joleen said. “This is the second time somebody close to you has been hauled in here near bled to death.”
Endicott flinched but I held my ground. I couldn’t argue Joleen’s point but this was about Ava right now.
“She’s a combat veteran and somebody just shot at her head. Take her someplace safe, someplace quiet,” Endicott said. I didn’t know him, but something in his face and voice told me he understood something about her that I didn’t. “Jack Daniels might also help. Stay close but leave her alone. She’ll come out of it in a little while. If she doesn’t, call me.” He wrote his cell phone on a sticky note and thrust it into my hand.
“Thank you,” I said, ignoring Joleen’s laser stare.