by Nicole Fox
"I want some guarantee that Corinne won't be harmed the way that Chelsea Grant was. Or Leo Turner. Or Melinda Watts."
Rassi's eyes narrowed. "My, you have a command of names."
"Oh, those ones you recognized?"
"They are all names of people who have in some way been tied to me by ugly rumor and corrupt law enforcement, but what interests me is the level of research you seem to have done before coming here." Rassi made an airy, matter of fact gesture. "Perhaps it's a personal prejudice, but I never considered bikers to be heavily into research."
I had gone too far. I had made the man suspicious. The important thing, now, was Corinne's safety. Unfortunately, Rassi knew exactly what I was thinking. His hand moved like a striking snake, grabbed Corinne, and pulled her in front of him as a human shield.
"If I'm going down, she's going first, Mr. Covert!"
The world seemed to slow in front of me as options scrolled behind my eyes. All of them sucked. Any second, the SWAT team was going to burst into the building, but what could they do? If they went in guns blazing, then Corinne was dead. If they let Rassi go with his hostage, then she was as good as a dead. Rassi would want to punish the people who had tried to trick him. Rassi's minions all around him were armed, so if I tried to help Corinne now, then I was as good as dead.
But Rassi, himself, did not seem to carry a weapon. It would ruin the line of his suit, and he was the sort of man for whom such things mattered. If I moved quickly, then perhaps I could get Corinne away from him. His men would be afraid to fire with their boss that close, so Corinne would be safe. Then, when the SWAT team entered, Rassi would be unprotected. I would be as good as a dead, but Corinne would have a fighting chance.
It was a no-brainer really.
The guns started firing the moment I launched myself at Rassi. I felt the shock of the first bullet, but the pain, for the moment, seemed not to hit. The second bullet tore through my shoulder. From behind me, I heard an explosion. The SWAT team had arrived. Perhaps they had been waiting for me to make my move, but, either way, their timing was excellent, as assorted minions now had something to fire at other than me.
Rassi cried out as I bore down on him with murder in my eyes. He gripped Corinne tightly around the throat, trying to threaten me, but actually just making me madder. I grabbed his arm, pulled it loose, and was delighted to see Corinne sharply elbow the mobster in the ribs and tear herself free.
"Go!" I yelled. I might have known that wouldn't work. Corinne Dugas seldom did as she was told. She grabbed my hand, pulling for me to follow her. But now, Rassi was scrambling out of the way, trying to get himself to safety, and, without him nearby, I had once again become a target for his men. I saw the guns turn towards us, almost in slow motion. Without thinking, I pushed Corinne as hard as I could out of the way.
The guns fired.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Corinne
I had always hoped that I would be one of those people who did well in a crisis. It turned out that I wasn't. As I watched Asa convulse with each bullet hit, and fall, crumpled to the ground, all I did was just stand and stare, gaping like an idiot. I wanted to move, to go help him, to put myself between him and the bullets, but I was frozen. Truthfully, even had I been able to move, there was nothing I could have done. But that knowledge didn't make me feel any less useless and impotent.
I wasn't aware of anything else happening at that moment, although there was a hell of a lot going on - utter pandemonium, in fact. None of it got through to me. I couldn't see beyond Asa. He looked so small suddenly, this little body, bloody and unmoving on the ground. Let the rest of the world explode for all I cared. My whole world was right there.
Suddenly, I was grabbed by the arm and dragged in the direction of the exit. In the moment, I had no idea which side was taking me, and, in the moment, I didn't really care. But I didn't want to leave.
"No! Don't leave him! He needs help!"
The SWAT guy dragging me along ignored me completely, protected me with his body as the gunfight continued around us, and pushed me in the direction of safety.
Once we were out of the warehouse, away from the danger and the noise, the SWAT guy removed his helmet, and I started.
"Dad?!"
He threw his arms around me, but I shrugged him off.
"You left Asa in there! He saved my life, and you left him to die!"
Dad tried to speak, but I wouldn't let him.
"This is what you wanted, isn't it! You wanted him dead! You've never liked him! This is like the perfect outcome for you, isn't it! Isn't it!" I wanted to go on, but I couldn't as I saw the tears rising in his eyes.
"I'm sorry, baby. I know you care about him, but I couldn't bear losing you."
I'd never seen my Dad cry before. I suppose he must have, from time to time, but he always took himself away somewhere, I guess. It was a strange sight. I hugged him, and he hugged me back, and we cried together. Even now, Asa had managed to bring my dad and me closer than we had been in years.
"Porter!" Dad suddenly broke away from me. "Look after Corinne."
"Dad...?" As I watched, he put his helmet back on and strode back towards the warehouse. "Dad?!"
Porter grabbed me as I tried to follow my father. "You're not going to stop him now."
"He's going back in for Asa!"
"Of course he is." Porter nodded.
"He's not SWAT trained."
Porter shrugged. "He's Brian Dugas. That's just as good."
"But he's only going back in because I..." I didn't want to say it. "He's doing it for me."
Porter shook his head. "He sent Asa in there, and the man didn't flinch. No way would your Dad just leave him. He's not doing it for you. He'd do that for any one of us, and - whoa! Where are you going?"
I just barely heard the last few words of this, as the world had started to fade and my legs buckled beneath me. My vision swam, and I fought to maintain consciousness. It was as if it had all just caught up with me in that instant. The stress and the confinement all suddenly hit me.
I heard Porter calling for paramedics and was vaguely aware of figures running over, as my Dad's deputy laid me down on the ground. A voice beat through my mind, telling me to stay awake. I had to know that Dad was all right, if Asa was alive. But however strong that voice was, however desperate the desire to know, my body was having none of it. I sank into a blank, unresisting unconsciousness.
# # #
"Welcome back."
I blinked my eyes open and asked the stupid question that everyone in this situation asks, regardless of how pointless it is. "Where am I?"
"In the hospital," said the unfamiliar face, peering down at me. "My name is Dr. Yates. Can you tell me yours?"
"Corinne Dugas."
"That's correct. Good news for both us."
"My dad..."
Dr. Yates held up a hand. "Just stepped out to get some coffee. What the man really needs is sleep, but when I suggested that, he just glared at me. At this point I'm more worried about his health than yours."
"He's okay? He's alive?"
"Oh, yes," the doctor nodded fervently. "Alive and intimidating. And, before he gets back..."
"What about Asa?"
I saw an expression of uncertainty spasm across the doctor's face. "I'm going to let your dad talk to you about Mr. Covert. But, now, before he gets back, I have to ask you something."
"What?" So many dreadful possibilities ran through my mind.
"Are you aware that you're pregnant?"
That had not been one of the dreadful possibilities.
"What?"
"You are pregnant, Miss Dugas. I didn't want to mention it in front of your father, in case you hadn't told him, and because he scares me. Besides, at this early stage, it seemed quite possible that you were unaware of it yourself. And that would seem to be the case."
"I'm pregnant?"
"Yes."
"That's impossible," I said, adding to my tally of stupid
things said to Dr. Yates. "I've only been with one man."
The doctor pulled a face. "I know there are some weird beliefs knocking about concerning birth control, but let me assure you that it only takes one man. Did you and this one man have unprotected sex?"
"Oh, lots," I said, perhaps a little smugly. "It was awesome."
Dr. Yates shrugged. "Not medically pertinent, but good for you. Anyway, the point being that, lots of unprotected, awesome sex can result in pregnancy, even if it's just with one man."
"Yeah. Yes, of course," I acknowledged. "I do know that."
"Sure."
"I'm not a complete idiot."
"I know."
"It's just..."
The doctor smiled sympathetically. "It seems like it's been a bit of a week for you."
I nodded. That more-or-less covered it.
I had to tell Asa. And then I realized that I still didn't know what had happened to him. I still didn't know if he was alive.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Asa
It seemed to me that the least that you could expect from your body when you had been shot multiple times was to lose consciousness. That would certainly be the decent thing, because, if you retained consciousness, there was a great deal of pain, fear, and confusion which you really didn’t want to deal with.
I was certainly conscious enough to know that the fight continued around me, and conscious enough to know that, as long as that was the case, no one was taking me out of here. With every moment that passed, my survival became less likely, and I began to feel that I could actually sense my life flowing from my body, minute by minute. I was also conscious enough to recognize the figure who bent down over me as the shooting continued. I'd rather have been rescued by Porter Crucero, someone who I had helped back in the day. Being saved by Brian Dugas... well, maybe he owed me one for going through with this plan and saving his daughter, but I would have done that anyway, so it didn't really count.
"This is probably going hurt," I think I heard him say. They were wasted words, really. I had lost all touch with my body. Either nothing hurt, or everything hurt, and I could no longer tell which was which. Dugas somehow managed to pick me up and half-carry, half-drag me through the warehouse.
"Did Corinne get out?" I don't know how I found the strength to speak, or maybe I didn't, and it was all in my head, as Dugas didn't answer.
I may have blacked out there for a bit, but I found myself drifting through consciousness again as I was put into an ambulance. Dugas was once again hovering above me.
"Tell her I love her."
This time he answered. "She knows, son. And she loves you too."
My last thought, as I once again slipped from lucidity, was that I had just had a 'moment' with Sheriff Brian Dugas. The day-to-day experiences of my life had changed in many ways since meeting Corinne.
I couldn't call what happened next 'memories,' because, although the events certainly happened, I'm not sure if I remember them, or if I'm imagining it based on what people told. Me later. We arrived at the hospital, and I was rushed into emergency surgery like a hero. They gave me blood transfusions to try and restore my lost reserves. The anesthetist came in and looked gravely down at me, for what seemed like a very long while, before putting a mask over my face. He may have asked me to count down backwards from a hundred, which I seriously doubt I was able to do.
From that point, the dark, ugly periods of unconsciousness seemed to become a whole lot pinker and fluffier. I'd only been under anesthesia once before, and I remembered it as being a pretty relaxing experience, but I was vaguely aware that this time I might not come out again. What then? The pink and fluffy clouds just went on forever? Fortunately, such deep questions ceased to matter as the anesthesia took hold.
There was Corinne. Seated in a tree, like the first time I saw her. Perhaps this was the first time I saw her. We went on our first bike ride together, with her holding me so tightly. I felt her eyes on me as I fought outside Fiona's bar, and then felt her hands on me as she bandaged up the knife wound. I saw the first time we kissed and felt that precious rush of sensation. I saw the first time we made love and felt, again, the guilt afterwards, discovering that she had been a virgin. Yet, the guilt was tempered by desire to go further with this wonderful girl. I recalled the night by the waterfall, which was the last time when everything had really seemed right with the world. I watched the aftermath, the chases, the motels, and the lengthy lovemaking. What I watched, it occurred to me, as it had before, was a catalogue of bad decisions and mistakes made by two people who were in every way not meant to be together, except for the fact that we were perfect for each other. You couldn't fight against that. Sooner or later, love would force good intentions back into the natural pattern of things. Though life had done everything it could to distance us from each other, Corinne Dugas and Asa Covert would always wind up together. That was the way of things.
I wondered at how much time I had spent pushing her back towards her dad. That had not been wholly wrong, but I should have been going with her. My mistake had been in thinking that she had to choose, when there was no reason we couldn't both be happy. If I got out of this, then that was what was going to happen. One big, happy family.
Even as I thought it, vaguely at the edge of my consciousness, I heard the flat-line and the voices of the doctors, grave and hopeless, pronouncing me. The pink fluffiness began to fade.
The hell with that. I had finally managed to realize how life with Corinne could work. If that wasn't enough to keep me alive, then I couldn't imagine anything that might be. I had spent my whole damn life fighting for one thing or another, and I wasn't about to stop now.
Of course, all of this might just have been the product of dreams and anesthesia-induced hallucinations. But that was how it struck me looking back on it, and the fact that I could look back on it was the main thing.
# # #
The next thing I remembered was a woman's voice whispering to me, beckoning me back to wakefulness and to the land of the living. It was a voice that I'd crawl over broken glass to follow.
"Corinne..." My mouth felt like I hadn't had a drink for a month.
"Asa! You're awake!"
"Am I? Oh good."
"I'll get someone."
I managed to open my eyes, but the world was bright, blurry, painful, and didn't make a whole lot of sense. "Who?"
"I don't know, a doctor, or someone."
"Am I ill?"
"You were shot."
"I feel like I'm over it."
"I'd better get someone."
"Okay, you do that," I agreed. "I might grab some sleep. I'm pretty tired." These few seconds awake seemed to have exhausted me. I couldn't keep my eyes open, and my words were slurring more and more.
"Okay, you do that."
"I love you." Was that the first time that I had said that to her? It couldn't be, could it? I'd meant it for long enough. But, thinking back over things, I found that, yes, because of my antipathy for actually saying the word, that was the first time I had said it to her. I had even told her Dad before her. How irritating that this important first should be now, when she was likely to write it off as the effects of the anesthesia on my dopey mind.
There was a long pause. Although my eyes were now closed, and I was sliding back into sleep, I could imagine the look of surprise on Corinne's pretty face.
"I love you too, Asa," I heard her say. Then, as I really began to sink back into unconsciousness, I was sure I heard her add something else.
I might have been wrong Things were still very confused, and I was pretty addled at that point, but it sounded as if she had told me that I was going to be a father.
That was something to deal with when I woke up.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Corinne
The joy of Asa making it through surgery and being on the road to a complete recovery was soon tainted by bad news from elsewhere. I had known for a few days that something was bothering Da
d. I had overheard snippets of angry phone calls. He always shut the door when he realized I was nearby, but I heard enough to know that whatever was going on had something to do with Asa. Finally, I couldn't stand the tension any longer.
"What's going on?" I sat Dad down at the kitchen table and demanded an explanation.
"Not much. What's going on with you?"
"You know what I'm talking about."
"Almost never." Dad tried to keep things light, but I could easily see that he was hiding something.