by Penny Childs
Now, moving slowly, they made their way to the window of the guest room. This window, they could not see into, the shades did too good a job of covering it.
“Well?” Craig whispered.
“You have a knife on you?”
“Of course,” Craig said, as though offended by the question.
“Cut the screen and get the window open.”
Craig grinned. “No problem.” He remembered the windows on this place. They had the old fashioned locks that could be jimmied open with a knife from the outside. He and Mel both had tried to get the old lady to change her windows, but she would hear nothing of it. Pulling his knife out of his pocket, he cut two slits in the screen on either side and easily removed it. Next he moved his knife blade along the bottom sill of the window, gently feeling along the middle, until it caught. With one deft move, he had the lock released and was pulling his knife back out, folding it and shoving it back in his pocket.
“Break and enter much?” Bill asked with raised brows.
“Not so much,” Craig said evasively.
“Yeah.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “Okay, here comes the fun part. Once we have Trevor covered, I give the boys the go ahead. It could get ugly.” He paused. “We may have to shoot her. Are you prepared for that?”
Craig thought about it for a millisecond. “Yeah, I am. I took on this job knowing someday it might come to that.”
“Good. Because if she comes running into the bedroom she’s going to have one thing only on her mind. That’s going to be to put another bullet in Trevor. When she sees us, she’ll try the same on us.”
“I got it,” Craig said, reaching up with both hands and gently pushing the window up, inch by inch. Surprisingly, the old window did not protest being opened and stayed silent. Once it was up far enough, Bill pushed the shade aside and looked in.
He smelled the blood before he saw Trevor lying on the bed in a pool of it. His first instinct was to jump in, but he held back, reminding himself if he screwed up now he could cost them all their lives. He pulled back out. “He’s there,” he whispered to Craig. “Handcuffed to the bed. He looks bad.”
Craig nodded. “Then let’s get him out of there.”
The window was low enough they could climb in without issue, both drawing their weapons the second they hit solid ground.
Bill went directly to Trevor and finding a pulse, sighed relief. He then pulled the two way radio from his pocket. Instead of saying anything into it, he pressed the send button six consecutive times and shoved it back in his pocket. Still next to Trevor, he gave Craig a nod. Now they would sit and wait.
It wasn’t sixty seconds and Bill heard a voice in his ear. “Sir, she must have the door from the basement barricaded. Do we break it down?”
Bill thought about this for a moment. They had been prepared for this. He pulled the radio back out and hit the send key twice. Yes. “Be ready,” he mouthed to Craig. It was a sure bet she would come barreling back here. She would be prepared to die, and take out as many of them as she could along the way.
The sound of breaking wood came then and all hell broke loose.
Craig heard Bill’s agents breaking the door down, he heard the woman scream out in fury and surprise, then he heard her running down the hallway. Down on one knee, he kept his weapon trained on the closed door, seeing that Bill was doing the same.
He heard one of Bill’s agents then announce himself and order her to stop. Twice. Evidently she did not. Next he heard a gun bark once, twice, then silence. For a moment. The dog started howling.
“She’s down, sir,” Bill heard in his ear, amid the barking and howling of the dog.
“Dead?” he asked.
There was a long pause as one of the men went to check her. “Yes, sir.”
Now Bill stood and went to the door, opening it and turning on the light in the room. “Told you she didn’t stand a chance.”
Craig, looking back at Trevor, grimaced. “Holy shit.” He pulled his phone out, ordering up the ambulance they had waiting down the block.
Bill stepped out into the hallway. “Check her for a handcuff key so we can get Agent Giles freed up,” he told his agents.
They found it in her right back pocket and tossed it down the hallway to him. Taking it back into the room, he went to the bedside and used it to uncuff Trevor’s hand from the bed. Now he allowed himself a look at his friend. “Jesus, Trev, you and Mel make quite the pair right now.”
“He doesn’t look so good,” Craig said, taking in the blood soaked bedding.
“He’s not. He’s lost a lot of blood.” He sat down on the edge of the bed. “Trevor, c’mon, say thanks to me,” Bill said, shaking him lightly.
“Tell… Mel… no,” he said hoarsely, blinking his eyes.
“Don’t worry about that right now. Just tell me you’re not going to die on me. We went to a lot of trouble to get to you.”
“How?” he croaked, afraid of the answer.
“We’re good, that’s how.”
“Mel,” he said again, looking for her. If he were being rescued, she should be here. She wasn’t though. Something was wrong. “Mel.”
“She’s fine, Trevor. She’s fine.” Bill saw the look Craig was sending him and scowled. He didn’t want to lie either, but wasn’t sure Trevor could take the truth at the moment.
“I felt her…Here…With me.”
Bill heard the sirens then.
Twenty-six
Bill sat reading a six month old copy of Field and Stream while Craig paced the waiting room in the hospital.
“How the hell can you just sit there reading?” Craig asked. He looked over to the other couch, where Renee lay sleeping. “And how can she sleep?”
“I’ve had some practice at waiting. She’s simply exhausted,” Bill told him, looking over the top of the magazine. They were waiting for word on Trevor’s surgery. “He’s in good hands. The doc assured me he looked good before he went in.”
“Yeah. People come here for routine surgeries and die all the time.”
“I doubt that. You need to settle down.” In truth, Bill was worried about Trevor too, but knew getting himself worked up wouldn’t do any good. “I kind of got the impression you weren’t all that fond of Trevor anyway.”
“Well, that doesn’t matter. Mel is. If anything happens to him…” He did not finish his sentence because he did not know how. Mel was in a coma and they still did not know why. He had the feeling though, Trevor was the only chance she had of ever coming back. If he died…
Bill didn’t tell him they would both be fine. He knew better. “Her parents and brother should be here within the next few hours. Maybe they’ll be able to get her to come around.”
“Have you ever heard of anything like what happened to Mel?” Craig asked, finally coming to rest on the edge of a chair.
Bill hesitated. “Yeah. I’ve made it my business to research all I can about what they can do, her, Trevor and a couple of the others.”
“And?”
“And, there have been cases where a psychic has pushed so hard they literally fry part of their brain. On some occasions it has caused death. In others, vegetative states. Some, like Mel, go into a coma and never wake back up.”
Craig squeezed his eyes shut. “She knew that was a possibility going in, didn’t she?”
“Of course she did. I never minced words with any of them. I always told them what the risks were. She’s pushed herself too far in the past and I’ve had to talk to her.”
“And yet she did it anyway.”
“She loves him, Craig. That was all that counted to her.” He started reading again, then stopped to look over the magazine at him again. “He would have done the same damn thing for her.”
Craig nodded. He knew this was true.
“It’s too bad Mrs. Clemmins didn’t have any family,” Bill added.
“Yeah.” They had found her in a back corner of the basement, broken and battered from a fall down the
basement steps. Craig was sure that Sarah had pushed her down them, then drug her into the corner to die. “For someone who liked to watch people getting tortured, Sarah sure didn’t like to get her hands dirty, did she?”
“It’s not really all that uncommon,” Bill told him absently.
“Once again, I’m glad I don’t live in your world.”
“It’s not so bad all the time. Sometimes we win one.”
Trevor woke, feeling fuzzy, his head pounding. Slowly he opened his eyes, expecting to see her. Instead, Bill stood over him. “What the hell?” he asked.
“You’re in the hospital. Next time you see Craig, you might want to give him a big, sloppy kiss. He helped save your ass.”
“Craig?” He tried to raise his arm to put a hand to his head and had to bite back a cry of pain.
“Yeah, don’t move that. Do you remember what happened?” Now Bill took the chair next to the bed.
“Shot.” He still felt groggy. Like he was drugged. “Drugs.”
“Yeah, you’re on some pretty healthy pain killers right now. You were shot twice.”
Now it was coming back to him. He remembered the struggle in the truck. He remembered waking up to find himself handcuffed to a bed. He remembered her making him talk to Mel and then making Mel listen as she shot him. His head clearing little by little, he looked around the room. Where was she? Surely she wouldn’t desert him? They were beyond that now. “Mel. Where is she?”
Bill looked away from him then. “Trevor, you should get your rest.”
“Bill?” He could tell that Bill was evading. Not a good thing. “What’s happened? Where is she?”
He wasn’t supposed to upset him. Nurse’s orders. And the nurse was a big burly thing who had threatened him with bodily harm. “She’s fine, Trevor, don’t worry about her.”
Not buying it, Trevor reached out suddenly with his good arm, grabbing Bill by the wrist. He had his answer in less than ten seconds and fell back into the bed, his eyes closed. He had seen flashes. The blood, the gun she had clenched to her chest, her eyes bloodshot, the doctor saying there was nothing more she could do, saying Mel might never wake up… “Mel, no,” he whispered. “Not for me.”
Bill knew what he had done and silently cursed himself for not thinking to stand further away from him.
“I need to see her.”
“Trevor, you just woke up from surgery. You can’t go anywhere.”
“Get me down to her room, Bill.”
“They aren’t going to let you go anywhere right now.” He paused. “Besides, her parents and brother are with her right now.”
“I don’t care, Bill. Go get a wheelchair and get me down there. Now.”
Bill shook his head. “That’s not going to happen.”
Gritting his teeth, Trevor started to sit up, only to be pushed back down by his friend. “Bill, you get me down to see her or so help me, I’ll crawl down there.”
Taking in a deep breath, knowing his friend would not relent until he got his way, Bill said, “Fine, I’ll go get a nurse and see if we can make this happen.”
“Don’t tell me why you can’t do this Bill. Just do it.”
Turning, Bill scowled at him. “You don’t get to use that line,” he said, walking out.
Five minutes later he came back with a perky nurse who shook her head at him.
“There’s no way you can get out of bed right now Agent Giles. You just had surgery.”
“Which is exactly what I told him,” Bill said.
“I don’t give a shit what either one of you tell me,” Trevor growled. “Go get my doctor.”
The nurse pouted at him. “She’s very busy today.”
“I don’t care. Get her. Now. Before I rip all this shit out of my arm and get out of bed myself.”
“You can’t do that,” the little nurse said, eyes wide.
“I beg to differ. I managed to make my way to a bathroom with a bullet hole in my leg twice a day at gunpoint. I can sure in the hell make it down the hall now. You better get that doctor unless you’d like to see me try on my own.”
With a hand over her mouth, the little nurse fled the room.
“That’s right, piss off the people taking care of you. See how quickly they come with your pain meds from here on out,” Bill said sarcastically.
“I don’t care right now.”
“Trevor, Mel’s not going anywhere.”
“I want her to know I haven’t left her, Bill. It’s important.” He had to make sure that she knew this was not a repeat of last time.
Bill did not point out to him she didn’t know anything right now anyway.
“She’ll be fine. She will be.”
“Trevor, she pushed way too hard. She used your gun to make the connection to you.”
“I know that Bill. I know everything you do. I also know her. She just needs to know it’s okay, and then she’ll come back.” He looked up as a woman in a long white coat entered the room. She looked pissed.
“Agent Giles, you are not moving until I say you can.”
He read her name tag. “Doctor Winters?”
“Yes. I’m your doctor.”
“Well, you better say I can, because I’m going to move, whether you like it or not. The woman down the hall risked her life to save mine. I love her and I want to see her. Right now.”
They stared each other down for a long moment, then the doctor made a face. “Normally, I would call your bluff, but I think you really would crawl down there.” On a weary sigh, she added, “I spent a lot of time making sure those stitches were perfect. You mess them up, it’s on you.”
“Whatever.”
“Get a wheelchair and get him in it,” the doctor said to the nurse. Then she came to his bedside. “That woman down the hall is a patient of mine as well. Don’t do anything to jeopardize her. You hear me?”
Bill didn’t know what she thought Trevor could do to hurt Mel, but kept his silence. She looked ready to strike and he didn’t want it to be in his direction.
“I would never hurt her,” Trevor told her, his eyes still blazing.
The doctor gave Bill a withering look. “You can push him down there and bring him back.”
“Thanks. I think,” Bill said to her back as she left. “Nice legs,” he muttered.
“Not now, Bill.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
A half hour later they had him in a wheelchair, one leg propped up and one arm in a sling.
“I’m willing to bet her family is not going to be happy to see you, pal,” Bill told him as he pushed him down the hall. “Her father gave me the evil eye when I stopped in there earlier and I didn’t even do anything the last time.”
Trevor remembered her father. The Colonel. No, he would not be happy to see him.
Bill stopped him in front of a closed door then moved in front of him to open it far enough to stick his head in.
The Colonel, Bradford Rhodes sat on one side of the bed, his wife on the other and Neil stood at the foot of the bed. They all looked to the door when Bill opened it.
“I have someone who would like to see her if it’s okay.”
Candice, Mel’s mother smiled at him, Bradford evil eyed him and Neil came to the door. He met Trevor’s gaze. “You’re brave, I’ll give you that. He’s already bitching about you and he hasn’t even laid eyes on you.” He stepped out of the way so Bill could push Trevor in.
When Bradford laid eyes on Trevor he stood, his face hardening.
“Brad…” Candice said softly.
“He doesn’t belong here,” he told her. Looking back at Trevor he said, “Why is it the two times my daughter has been in the hospital fighting for her life you’re involved somehow?”
“I just want her to know I’m here, that’s all,” Trevor told him, not looking at him. His eyes were only for Mel. He wanted to be next to her but knew he would have to get past her father to do so.
“You gave up the right to sit at her bedside seven years ago, Age
nt Giles, when you deserted her.”
“Mel and I have moved past that,” he told him, finally looking at him.
“I don’t care. I don’t want you anywhere near my daughter. Why don’t you do the right thing and leave?”
“Brad,” Candice said harshly. “That is not what Mel wants.”
“She’s right dad,” Neil said, though he looked unhappy about it.
“Neither one of you knows what she wants right now.”
“I know that she still loves him, dad. I knew when we met last week.” Neil moved over to stand by his mother.
“Then she’s a fool,” he said with a shake of his head.
“We were talking about going out for breakfast somewhere and checking into a hotel,” Candice told Trevor. “Maybe you could keep her company while we do.” She looked exhausted. Worry lines creased her face and dark circles hung under her eyes.
Trevor, thankful for her kindness, nodded. “I’d like that.”
Getting up from her chair, Candice walked over to her husband and took his hand.
Glaring at Trevor, he allowed himself to be walked out of the room.
“My sister does love you, man, so try not to rip her heart out this time, okay?”
Before Trevor could respond, Neil left the room.
“Mr. Popularity today, aren’t you?” Bill asked as he pushed the wheelchair to the bedside.
Trevor thought she looked like she was sleeping, other than the heart monitor on one finger and the IV line. Reaching out he took her free hand in his. “Mel,” he said, “I’m here.” But she wasn’t, her mind was distant from where she lay. He wondered where she was and hoped like hell she could find her way back.
“I’m gonna go make some calls. Holler for a nurse and have her come get me when you’re ready,” Bill told him.
Trevor nodded absently, staring at Mel’s face, squeezing her hand. “C’mon Mel. I need to see you. I need to know you’re okay.” Closing his eyes, he leaned his head back. He was sure he was more tired than he had ever been in his life. “You have to wake up so I can bitch you out for doing what you did.” On a yawn, still holding her hand he fell asleep.