Kevlar to My Vest

by Lani Lynn Vale

  I didn’t have any other option since the alternative was cutting the rope and losing her to the gorge down below.

  I thanked God the woman was on the smaller side; otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to get her up by myself. With quick, efficient pulls, I had her up and over the bridge within moments, laying her limp body down on the hot asphalt.

  After requesting a medic, I felt for a pulse and didn’t find one.

  That’s when I started CPR.

  By the time the ambulance showed, my muscles burned from the exertion, and I was sweating like a pig in the late afternoon sun.

  “Take over compressions. I’ll tube her.” One medic said to another.

  I moved, reluctantly, to let them do their job, but I had zero hope.

  The woman was dead. There was no other explanation for it. She was stiff as a goddamned board. After nearly fifteen minutes of CPR and no pulse, I was fairly sure she wouldn’t be coming back.

  I’d worked a lot of cases with dead people, and there was just no way.

  ***

  “My fears were confirmed twenty minutes later when I called to check on the patient and they told me she didn’t make it. Her neck had been broken with the impact of the fall.” I said woodenly. “When I performed a search of her vehicle, I found a medal of honor, and a note. The note said that she’d gotten the news that her husband was never coming home from the war. That he’d died in a roadside bomb. She said she couldn’t live without him; that she never wanted to¸ and she decided to join him in the afterlife. That she loved him too much to live without him anymore.”

  “That’s just horrible. Oh, God. How dreadful.” Viddy whispered sadly.

  It was horrible. The whole thing was just a completely gut-wrenching situation. One that tanked my career in Las Vegas so completely that I’d been jaded ever since.

  I couldn’t sleep at night. I had nightmares. I replayed certain cases over and over again.

  So much of this world was dark and nasty, that at times I couldn’t see the light.

  Or at least I hadn’t been able to…until I met Viddy.

  “How about we eat?” I suggested to try to lighten the mood, even though that was the honest to God last thing I wanted to do right then.

  “Sure,” she said softly.

  Scooping up a massive amount of spaghetti, and then smothering it with sauce, I sat at the table, watching as she made her plate of food. Not once did she spill, bobble, or even trip. She was doing it as if she was seeing it, and it amazed me.

  “I hope you don’t get offended by this, but I think it’s truly impressive that you can do all this without your sight.” I said carefully.

  She shrugged one shoulder as she sat, placing the napkin in her lap and tucking her hair behind her ears before she took her first bite. “I know no different. Seriously, though, what would you do right now if you lost your sight? Would you curl into a ball and whine about what was taken away from you? No. You’d grin and bear it just like I have. I’ve learned to cope. I’ve learned to do things that others thought would be impossible. Hell, I can even do sign language. Do you know how? I felt with my hands each word. That’s how. I listened and learned. Just because someone is blind or deaf or can’t walk doesn’t mean that they can’t enjoy life.”

  “That makes me feel humble.” I said shaking my head.

  Then I took a bite of her spaghetti even though my stomach was still churning from reliving one of my greatest nightmares. I ate every single bite, and then placed the plate on the floor for the dogs who were all laying in the middle of the kitchen floor like lumps on a log.

  Lumps that Viddy had avoided.

  ***

  Viddy

  “No, no. Nooooo.”

  Moaning woke me from a deep sleep.

  Sitting straight up in bed, I was confused for long moments while my brain caught up with my body, and it was then I heard the low moans of Trance.

  I could hear him from his room all the way across the house.

  He had me in his guest bedroom.

  Somewhere in the time that I’d been at his place last and now, he’d gotten a brand new bedroom suite for the guest room.

  Last time I’d slept in his bed.

  I’d breathed in the masculine scent of him while I’d slept, gathering peace from the comforting smell.

  Rolling to my feet, I exited the bedroom, keeping my hand on the wall as I went. Not bothering with the light, because what the hell would be the point?

  I’d cased the house when I was left alone for the afternoon, and I was fairly sure I knew where everything was. I got all the way to the hallway before I found my first obstacle.

  Radar.

  I knew it was him by the long fur.

  He wasn’t laying, but more like waiting for me in the darkness.

  He nudged me forward, placing his head under my hand and led me all the way to Trance’s bedside.

  The moaning had gotten steadily more heartbreaking as I got closer, and by the time I was close enough, I was very near tears just by the raw agony in his voice.

  “Trance?” I called softly.

  Trance didn’t move. Didn’t even stir.

  “Trance,” I called louder, placing my hand on his body.

  Turned out it was his chest. He was laying on his back.

  Moving my hand to the side of his ribs, I gave him a good push, but still nothing. He was locked in his own personal nightmare.

  Moving to the bed, I straddled his hips and started to move him a little harder, grabbing him by the shoulders.

  “Trance, honey. Wake up.” I said.

  You know those times where you watch a movie, and the woman rouses the man from sleep and he wakes up and reverses their positions? Where the woman is flipped sideways on the bed, and she ends up underneath of him?

  Yeah, Trance didn’t work like that. Instead, he just rolled over and dumped me off on the floor.

  My head struck the side of the table as I went, causing me to wince.

  I couldn’t help the giggling, though, which is what eventually woke him from his dream.

  “Viddy?” He asked.

  I heard the snick of the light, and then I saw it.

  Saw it!

  “Oh, My God.” I breathed. “I can see you with half my left eye.”

  Trance’s face went from frowning to confused. And then slowly morphed into joy.

  I was feeling all of those things, too. Joy, confusion, hope, denial, everything and more.

  Suddenly I was hauled up by my armpits to straddle him the way I’d been doing it earlier.

  “I can see you from here, over.” I whispered hopefully, starting in the middle of my left eye making a sweeping motion with my hand to the left.

  His smile was fucking beautiful.

  Out of all the things in the world I’d wanted to see over the years, his smile and face had been near the top of my list.

  “You have a cleft chin.” I said, indicating the indention on his chin with my finger.

  He smiled, and his dimples popped out. Honest to God dimples.

  He also had a row of perfectly shaped, beautiful white teeth.

  “God, you really are gorgeous. And your eyes!” I said, leaning closer until I was staring into the left one, taking in the striations and flecks of blue.

  His breathing stalled in his chest at my closeness, and when I started to pull away, finally realizing what I was doing, he held me firm, refusing to let me go.

  “Trance,” I said hesitantly. “Uhh, I’m sorry for waking you. But you were having a nightmare.”

  He nodded. “I have those a lot. What happened right here?” He asked as he rubbed his finger over the mark on my forehead where I’d struck the night table.

  “I hit my head on the night table when you rolled over.” I said sheepishly. “I was trying to wake you up. You know in the movies, it never works like that.”

  He chuckled, and then leaned forward, placing his warm, wet lips on the mark. “I’m sorry
. I’m not really a Prince Charming.”

  “That’s okay, I’m not really looking for Prince Charming,” I said.

  Leaning closer, I was millimeters away from his lips when the bedroom door crashed open.

  “What the fuck, Bro! You were supposed to pick me up at the airport!”

  Chapter 5

  You had me at ‘let’s go to Taco Bell.’

  -Viddy to Miller.

  Viddy

  “Who’s the chick?” The man asked, and then hopped onto the bed beside us, lying down and closing his eyes.

  He was tall like Trance. Same blonde hair color, only his hair was wavy instead of insanely curly. Same cleft chin. Same dimples. He was also about twice Trance’s size, muscle wise, and that was saying something since Trance wasn’t a small man himself. In fact, he was pretty damn huge in my opinion, which made the man now curling up in bed beside me more resemble a Goliath in the muscle department.

  “Viddy,” Trance growled, covering me up with his sheet. “I’d like you to meet my brother. The asshole.”

  “I thought I was the asshole.” Another man said from the doorway. “You told me last time I was the asshole. I want to be the asshole. He can be the shit head.”

  That one was the same height as Trance as well, but his hair was a nearly snow white, and curly like Trance’s. Same dimples. Same cleft. Less muscles. He was more what I would call wiry. Oh, he had muscles, but of the three, he was definitely the smallest. And youngest. He still had some boyish look to him.

  Their mother and father must be freakin’ gorgeous.

  Then he, too, got into bed, sandwiching himself between my thigh and the other man on the bed.

  I giggled.

  Seriously, who could not giggle at a time like this?

  I was seeing out of half my eye.

  Three gorgeous men were with me in the same bed.

  “Viddy, the one on the far side is my big brother, Miller. The one currently using your thigh as a pillow is my baby brother, Foster.” He chuckled.

  It was obvious that they were all really close.

  Especially since Trance hadn’t kicked them out of bed yet.

  Even after they’d walked in on me straddling their brother.

  “It’s nice to meet you both. I’ve heard a lot about you.” I said, smiling slightly at them.

  “I bet he told you everything bad we’ve ever done, huh?” Miller asked, glaring at Trance.

  I giggled again.

  Not one to be left out, Radar jumped from the floor to the bed, settling in by laying across Trance’s chest and my lap, licking Foster’s face.

  “Stop you big galoot.” Foster laughed.

  “How did y’all get past Radar and Kosher?” I asked curiously.

  “They love us. We actually saw you walking towards his room earlier, so we let y’all have a few minutes before we came to announce our presence.” Foster said as he pulled Radar down until he was laying length wise down the bed.

  Kosher, not one to be ignored either, jumped up on Miller’s side and started licking, too.

  “The bed’s not supposed to hold this much.” Trance said dryly.

  I looked around, surveying the space, still practically giddy inside that I was able to see, albeit not very well. It was good enough for me though. If I never got anything back for the rest of my life, I would be happy.

  “So, since everyone’s awake at...” Trance glanced at the watch on his wrist. “4:43 A.M. we can go to breakfast. I don’t have anything to cook. Cracker Barrel or IHOP?”

  “Cracker Barrel.”

  “Taco Bell.”

  “McDonald’s.”

  I out right laughed at the exasperation written all over Trance’s face. “Were Taco Bell and McDonald’s even options, dipshits?”

  Of course, it was the brothers that’d come up with the two suggestions that weren’t even options. I was a conformist. I was a go with the crowd type of person.

  Although, now that they’d mentioned it, Taco Bell did sound pretty good.

  Which was how we wound up in Trance’s Tahoe, driving to Taco Bell at five in the morning.

  “We need some tunes!” Miller declared loudly, as soon as we were pulling out of Trance’s driveway.

  I was in the back with Foster, while Miller sat up front with Trance.

  When the only thing Miller found was news programs, I offered my phone. “I have Pandora. You should be able to find anything you want to listen to.”

  Greedily, Miller snatched the phone from my hand, plugged it in, and pulled up the Pandora app.

  Embarrassingly enough, the first song to come on was Hakuna Matata.

  After a few moments of stunned silence, I found myself staring at three grown men, all of them sporting beards, singing the Disney song at the top of their lungs with the windows down.

  They were dancing and moving, shaking the SUV with their movement.

  Miller even pulled out the old school moves with the sprinkler and the robot.

  Laughing my ass off when we pulled up to the stop light one intersection away from Taco Bell, I looked over to see a car full of teenagers staring at us warily.

  Then, doing what teenagers do, they revved the engine of their little four door Mazda.

  Trance, not one to be out done, kept singing, but made sure to rev his own engine.

  Trance’s was louder.

  It was a V8 with headers and a Flo Master exhaust. There was never going to be a comparison.

  The song ended, moving on to the next, which happened to be A Whole New World.

  Which also happened to be known by each man.

  Which was how I found myself racing a car full of teenagers to the local Taco Bell as they all sang along as if they were on Broadway.

  FYI…Trance won.

  ***

  Trance

  “I like your girl.” Miller said with a tilt of his beer in Viddy’s direction. “I thought she was blind though.”

  I looked at Viddy as she threw a stick for Mocha and Tequila.

  Each puppy would race the other, and then carry it back side-by-side, offering their war prize to Viddy to throw again.

  “Yeah, she is.” I said, and then explained her condition.

  “So what, she sees, but she doesn’t see?”

  I shrugged, just as confused with her condition as he was. “I guess. She was seeing with half her left eye this morning, but by the end of work¸ she was down to a quarter. Seems like stress and her environment affect her vision.”

  “That just fuckin’ sucks. Still, though, I like her. You should put a ring on it.” Miller said.

  I snorted. “That woman right there has an independence streak a mile wide. If we got together, there’d be no way I could refrain from helping her on a daily basis, which I think she’d end up hating.”

  “You want her. What more is there to question?” Foster stated.

  “Whether she could deal with me being a cop. I got shot yesterday, and she didn’t handle it very well. The day before that I pulled over a teenager and he cut my face open with a pair of scissors. She didn’t handle that well, either. I’m not sure she’s cut out to be a cop’s woman.”

  I didn’t know who I was trying to convince. Them or me.

  It wasn’t that I didn’t want Viddy.

  I did, like crops need the rain.

  Every day I thought about her. She was the first thing to cross my mind every morning, and the last thing before I fell asleep at night. But I’d done the whole scared-for-her-man girlfriend thing already. I remember exactly what it felt like to get my heart ripped out of my chest by the one woman who was supposed to be there for you through thick and thin, and I didn’t want to deal with that again.

  That was why I always dated the ones that didn’t have any expectations of me.

  Tillie, for example.

  She was a hoe-fo’-sho’, but she gave good head and didn’t ask me for anything more.

  Viddy, though, wouldn’t be up for just a quick
fuck.

  She’d demand things of me. Things I wasn’t willing to give anymore.

  Mainly my heart.

  I’d learned my lesson.

  “I think you ought to give her a chance, little brother.” Miller said softly.

  I glanced at him, and saw the look in his eyes.

  The one that told me he knew what I was feeling.

  All three of us brothers had gone through nearly the same thing.

  Bree, my ex, left me after one particular drug deal that’d gone horribly wrong, leaving me with a scar that spanned from hip to hip at my back. Miller and Foster’s exes left because they couldn’t handle their men being in the military and in danger all the time.

  Our mother thought she’d gone horribly wrong when it came to her sons. My father, however, knew the score. He’d been in the military for nearly his whole life, and had been lucky to find one that stuck with him through thick and thin. He’d had friends, however, that weren’t so lucky.

  “What’s she doing here?” Miller asked.

  “Her ex broke into her house while she was there and started jacking himself off to the smell of her underwear. She was scared shitless so she came home with me until I can get the alarm installed.” I explained.

  “What happened to him?” Foster asked.

  “He got out on a year of probation. Wasn’t enough, but I plan on having a talk with him to let him know what will happen to him if he decides to pursue her in any way.” I informed them.

  They grunted in acknowledgement. I had a feeling I wouldn’t be going alone. Especially since I already had Kettle and Loki chomping at the bit to tag along, too. It’d be one big fuckin’ carnival.

  Foster, seeing Viddy approaching just as I did, changed the subject.

  “I think we should go fishing tomorrow. I have another week of leave before I have to go back. I really could use a little relaxing time.” Foster groaned.

  I glanced at my little brother, seeing the fatigue lining his mouth and eyes.

  Although he was always in a perpetual good mood, I knew when he was out of sorts. All three of us always knew when the others were hurting. Our parents liked to call it our brother bond. We just liked to call it perception.