by Dale Mayer
“I need to phone other people.”
“I need you to stay on the line. We have to keep this communication open.”
She fretted but understood. In the distance she could hear the sirens. “Oh, thank God. I hear sirens.”
“That’s right. They should be there any minute now.”
Before the woman stopped talking, she heard a screech of brakes outside, and two EMTs ran into the house. They took one look and moved her out of the way.
Into the phone she said, “I’m hanging up now. They’re here.”
She wrapped her arms tightly around her chest. She could hardly breathe. It was bad. It was so goddamn bad.
She called Levi. Blubbering into the phone, she said, “He shot him. Brendan shot Flynn.” The tears choked her throat and stopped her voice from coming through. “The ambulance is here right now. But I don’t think he’ll live through this.”
“I was on the phone with him when it happened. How bad is it? Do you remember exactly what happened?”
“I just woke up. I heard the shot, looked out the window, and I saw Brendan leaving. He threw the gun into the neighbor’s garbage bin.” She stared around the room. “I should go get it. I’m not even dressed.”
“Stay calm. Somebody’ll be there. We’re going to find him. Hold tight. Do what you need to do to keep Flynn alive. Stay in touch. But don’t run out there right now.”
“You don’t understand … the gun. The gun that shot Flynn—I saw it. What if somebody grabs it? And I don’t want to leave Flynn.”
She stared down at her bare legs with his blood on them and his T-shirt in her hands. “There’s just so much blood.”
“We’re in the vehicle already. Stay calm. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
She gave a half laugh, one full of grief. “It’s hardly minutes to get here.”
“True, but Logan’s on his way now too.”
And she cried out, “Oh, my God. I should have called him first.”
“It’s not an issue. We called him. He’s heading toward you right now.”
Inside she wanted to feel relief. She wanted to know something would work out. But she knew it wouldn’t. There was no way it could. “Levi, you have to see him. Oh, my God!”
And then she couldn’t talk anymore for the tears clogging her throat. She sobbed quietly, deeply.
Levi’s gentle voice whispered to her, “We’ve seen all of us recover from some horrific injuries,” he said. “I don’t know how bad it is, but you have to hold on to faith. More than that, Flynn has to know you’re there for him. He has to have something to fight for.”
She nodded. It was the same with animals. She knew, when they gave up, it was all over. The spirit had to be there fighting, and it needed a reason. She wiped away her tears, taking several choking breaths and said, “I’m going upstairs to get dressed. I’ll follow Flynn to the hospital. I don’t want him to be alone right now.”
In her bedroom, she dressed as quickly she could. She tossed the phone on the bed, not even knowing if she’d shut off the call. She quickly washed the blood off her hands and face, finished dressing, grabbed her phone and went back downstairs. She slipped on her shoes, grabbed her purse and headed outside. The EMTs were already loading Flynn into the back of the ambulance. She told the attendant, “Go. I’ll follow.”
She stood near her car, hugging her chest, watching as they took off. She didn’t want him to go alone. But she also knew she would need wheels, and she would be damned if that Brendan asshole would get away with this. And for that she needed the gun.
She had a roll of poop bags in her pocket. She walked down to the garbage can where she’d seen Brendan throw the gun, opened the lid and looked inside. Sure enough it was here. She turned on the camera on her phone, took several pictures and then reached inside with the poop bag and grabbed it, carefully wrapping it inside.
As she turned around, Logan raced toward her. She started crying again. She held up the gun and said, “I saw him throw it in there. Oh, my God, I saw him throw it away.”
Logan took her in his arms and held her close. “Did you actually see Brendan?”
She nodded. “From the back at first. Then he turned to look at the house as he threw the gun in the garbage.” She motioned at the can where the gun had been. “And then he got into a small black car and took off. But it was too far away to get the license plate. I tried. I tried.”
“Take it easy, sweetie. Take it easy. Let me take a quick look through the house and see if there’s anything I need to do. Then we’ll drive to the hospital.”
Just then the cops came into the yard. Not one car, not two, but three. And she knew it wouldn’t be easy to get out of her driveway now. Logan said in a low voice, “That’s the same detective I spoke with earlier.” The two men greeted each other. The gun was passed over.
Anna knew Logan was angry, but it was nothing compared to what she was feeling. She walked up to the cop and said, “The cops should never have let that asshole out. It’s not enough that he shot me, but you had to wait until he actually killed somebody.”
The cop didn’t have anything to say. What could he anyway? It wasn’t really his fault. It was the system’s. He took the gun. “He’s not dead yet. We’ll do everything we can to ensure Brendan doesn’t hurt anyone else. Can you show me the crime scene?”
Bitterly, she walked inside the front door of her house, following Logan. “Just put a bullet in his head. Save us all the trouble.”
Inside she stopped and stared, tears flooding her eyes as she remembered the blood spurting out of Flynn. So much blood was in her living room. She knew that, whether Flynn survived or not, she was done with this house. She could not come into this living room ever again and not see the blood and the trauma she’d been through today. Nobody should have to. This place was going up for sale as soon as she could arrange it.
She turned to Logan. “I need to get to the hospital. Are you coming?”
“You’re not driving.”
She stared at him in determination. “I’m leaving now. With or without you.”
He looked over at the cop and said, “You know what you have to do. You don’t need us here.”
The cop nodded. “Go. We’ll catch you at the hospital.”
She went with Logan to his truck, hopped inside and asked, “Should we tell Levi we’re going?”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll tell him.”
She sat frozen, completely locked with fear as they drove to the hospital. It seemed like every mile they went, the fear grew worse. She just knew Flynn wouldn’t make it.
“He’ll make it. He’s a fighter. You have to trust.”
She stared at Logan blankly. “Trust what? They had him. They had Brendan, and they let him go.”
“And they will get him again. This time they will throw away the key and forget he ever existed.”
“It’s too late for that. It’s just way too late.”
*
It was chaos with lights, sirens, and screaming. Flynn lay caught in the dark cloud of confusion. But one thing he understood fully was the red fire that consumed his body from head to toe. So much pain. Everything hurt. Just to breathe hurt. He didn’t dare move. He wasn’t even sure he could. It seemed like so much weight was on his chest. Something was holding his legs and arms down. He struggled, trying to get to Anna. Danger was all around them. And he was fighting. He had to save her. He couldn’t let her get hurt again. Not anymore.
And yet he could do nothing. He struggled and struggled, but he knew nothing came of it. He wanted his arms and legs to move, but he couldn’t get them to. As he fought against the heavy pain, with huge blackened hands reaching out for him, he knew he didn’t want to go in that direction. He tried to get away from them. But they moved inexorably toward him.
He wanted to run. He wanted to cry out. In his mind was this endless long-drawn-out scream of “Noooo.” But nothing stopped the march of those hands. They latched on to his hea
rt, mind, and soul. They dragged him back under into the murky depths of unconsciousness.
But he knew what they were. He knew they were really the fingers of death.
Chapter 19
There was nothing to do but wait. There was no update. There was no doctor coming in to give her a status. Flynn was in emergency surgery. Nobody knew anything.
Levi and Ice had arrived. Stone and Merk had gone to her house. Logan was at the hospital with her. Rhodes had gone down to the police headquarters. Apparently, he knew several cops and would raise Cain.
There wasn’t enough Cain in this world for anybody to raise to make her happy. She had one goal now: to ensure Flynn survived. And if she had a secondary, it was: make certain Brendan didn’t. But she had no idea how to get her hands on him.
Levi sat down next to her; Ice on the other side with her arm around Anna’s shoulders. She said, “We need to hear your words. Exactly what you saw.”
She stared at them, more tears burning her eyes, so hot with fear that nothing would cool them, and she once again explained what she’d seen. “I think it was the shot that woke me up.” She shook her head. “After that it’s all a blur. Just a painful, agonizing blur.”
“At least it did wake you up. Flynn got attention as fast as possible. You have to hold on to that. Plus, you can confirm it was Brendan, and you found the weapon.”
“I guess it proves Brendan was after Flynn all along. He could have come upstairs and shot me. I don’t know that I would’ve been awake and aware enough to have avoided it.”
Ice gripped her fingers. “Thank God he didn’t.”
Anna turned to look at Ice. “Did you guys find his car? Did the cops get the gun?”
“Yes and yes. You gave the gun to Logan, and he gave it to the cops.”
Anna frowned. “Right. I remember that.” She waved a hand. “Honestly, everything’s a blur. I don’t really understand the sequence of what happened.”
“And you don’t need to. The police are running the ballistics on the gun. We think the black car you saw at your house might’ve been Brendan’s brother’s.”
At that Anna gave a half snort. “The brother who doesn’t believe Brendan would do anything, right?”
“Well, he might be changing his mind now,” Levi said coolly. “He’s down at the police station. Rhodes is clueing him in.”
“Good. He should be locked up too.” Anna glared at Levi. “I suppose it’s his damn lawyer connections that got his brother out in the first place.”
“It’s possible.” Levi shrugged. “There’s just no reason sometimes.”
“Right now I know the reason. The best murderer is a dead one. I’m now a believer in the death sentence.” She slumped back in the chair and leaned her head back.
Ice looked at her. “Did you have your arm checked out?”
Her head rolled over toward Ice, and she asked, “What’s wrong with my arm?”
She could hear the heavy sigh from Ice and remembered her stitches from the bullet wound last night. She glanced down to see fresh blood all over the bandaged injury. She stared at it in surprise. “No idea how that happened. I can’t feel it, so it can’t be bad.”
“You can’t feel it because you’re in shock. But those are stitches, and if you’ve ripped them, we need to get them looked at.”
“I’m not leaving,” she said firmly.
But Ice wasn’t having anything to do with that. “There’s stupidity, and then there is stupidity. We only deal with one kind. Right now Flynn’s being taken care of. Now you need to be as well.” And with a firm grip on her uninjured arm, Ice forced Anna to her feet and said, “Come with me now.”
Ice, just like all the men in the company, was a force not to be ignored. Anna turned to look back at Levi as Ice dragged her toward the doorway.
“Don’t let him be alone,” Anna cried out.
“He’ll be in surgery for several more hours. You’ll be back before he comes out. If I hear anything, I’ll let you know. And I promise, I won’t leave him alone.”
Sobbing quietly, Anna let Ice drag her down to the emergency area. It was full but not crazy. Ice walked over to one of the nurses and explained what happened. As it was, it was the same nurse she’d had the previous evening.
She took one look at Anna and asked, “Oh, my dear, you’ve had a terrible twenty-four hours, haven’t you?”
Anna, hating to be the watering pot, turned and scrubbed her face. “It’s probably nothing. Ice is just worrying over the blood.”
“And she’s right to.” The nurse led Anna to a bed and made her sit down. She left a moment and came back with scissors, quickly cutting off the bandage. “It’s not too bad though.” She patted Anna on her good arm and said, “I’ll let the doctor know in case he wants to see you too.”
As her eyes went down to study the wound, Anna realized she probably needed to get it taken care of, but she hated to think about herself when Flynn had suffered so much.
“You have to consider your own health,” Ice said. “The animals will need you, as will Flynn as soon as he wakes up.”
Anna stared at her. “I didn’t think about that.”
And she hadn’t. She’d been so locked into the immediate negativity, she hadn’t seen that, if he did survive the surgery, somebody must take care of him. And she did have animals to look after. Therefore, she needed her dominant arm, which was the one that was injured.
She looked down at the blood. “You are right. I should’ve gotten it looked at. But I really didn’t notice.”
“Of course not,” Ice said in a gentle voice. “But once you take care of the first emergency, it’s very important to take a look around and see what needs to be dealt with next.”
“That’s your military training,” Anna said. “Most people don’t think like that.”
“It’s not just that training or even my medical training. But it is from a life lived on the edge all the time. Which we still are.” Ice smiled at Anna. “You got the right stuff. Your instincts are strong and sound. But you have to learn to look after yourself. Because without that, it’s almost impossible to do the same for those around us. And regardless of what happens, we’re still females. We tend to be nurturers. So Flynn will need your help. If you aren’t strong enough to help him, he won’t get the care he deserves.”
Anna nodded. She grabbed a tissue from the Kleenex box, wiped her eyes and blew her nose awkwardly with her left hand. She wasn’t very good at looking after herself that way. She’d have to change that. Eventually.
Ice’s phone rang. And the nurse returned. With her attention caught between what the nurse was doing and the phone conversation Ice was having with Rhodes at the police station, Anna couldn’t keep track. By the time the nurse was done rebandaging her arm, it was on fire.
The nurse turned to her and asked, “Did you manage to bring any of your painkillers with you when you came to the hospital?”
“No. They’re back at the house. And I probably won’t be allowed in for a while. It’s full of cops right now.”
The nurse disappeared and returned a few minutes later with a small bottle. “There are enough here to get you through the day. Somebody should be allowed back into the house to at least get your medications.”
She accepted them gratefully. “Thank you. I’m sure somebody will be able to.” She managed to hop off the bed but hung on for a moment as the room swayed around her.
Ice looked at her sharply. “Have you eaten?”
She stared at Ice blankly. Then shook her head. “No, I haven’t.”
Ice nodded as if that was exactly what she figured. “Let me phone Levi to confirm there is no change, then I’m taking you to the cafeteria.”
They waited in the hallway for Levi to confirm Flynn was still in surgery. At the cafeteria, they filled two trays and went to a table at the back of the room where they sat down and ate. Anna didn’t want any juice, but Ice insisted. “I can’t have you passing out.”
&nb
sp; Every time Ice opened her mouth, it was logical, reasonable, and made so much sense that Anna found herself following Ice’s instructions without question. She poured the orange juice into a glass and drank half of it down. It didn’t take long for her to start feeling better. As she looked at her omelet, she realized she really was hungry. It was just so hard to eat, knowing Flynn was upstairs.
Ice reached across the table and grabbed her hand. “Remember, you’re eating for you, so you can be strong enough to look after him.”
With a ghost of a smile, she teased Ice. “You get away with that line a lot.”
Ice smiled. “I’ve been where you are.”
She studied Ice, seeing the remembered pain and agony of almost losing somebody. Anna nodded. “I believe you.” And she tackled her omelet. She made it almost all the way through before she slowed down. She stared at the last couple bites and shook her head. “I don’t think I can do it.”
“Finish your eggs—leave the toast.”
Anna stuffed down the last of the omelet and pushed back her tray. A large hand reached over her shoulder, grabbing the toast off her plate, as the unmistakable Stone sat down beside them. She studied him. “You have any news?”
“I just came from your house. The cops are all over the place. It looks like Brendan walked in the front door and surprised Flynn or waited until he showed up. What I’m thinking is that Flynn put on coffee and went to look after the animals. When he came back in, Brendan was waiting for him.” She could see it happen just like that in her head. It didn’t make it any easier. “Why is it nobody has picked up Brendan?” She caught Ice and Stone exchanging glances. “What?”
“First, we have to find him. And second, he won’t be picked up. He’s likely to end up in a shootout to avoid capture.”
“Good,” she said in a hard voice. “As much as I like the idea of that man wasting away in a prison somewhere, I don’t want to take the chance of him coming back out anytime in the future and ruining my life again. I want him dead. He deserves nothing less.”
Stone grinned, studying her. “She’s bloodthirsty. I like that.” And he took a big bite out of her toast.