Twisted Love

by R. C. Stephens

  How could I give up now? I wouldn’t relent, but my mind was so muffled that clear thoughts had been drowned in darkness. Between this asshole pinning me to the cool cement wall, his hot breathe lingering close to my face and his lips spitting venom, I was lost. He was trained, I’d give him that. “Shut up, bitch,” he spattered as he pressed his large body into me. His warning had turned my blood cold and I was scared a bullet to the head was next. If I was lucky he would walk away with only a verbal lashing. Sweat trickled slowly down my face. Think of a way Lex, there was always a way out of a bad situation. Life had taught me the hard way.

  Suddenly a car made a right turn skidding its tires and hitting the curb, coming to an abrupt stop. Cold air is sucked back into my lungs. My dark knight had arrived.

  He yelled out, “Henri back the fuck off now,” with a voice embedded with danger.

  “Shut up big brother, you clearly don’t know how to handle things on your own, you’re such a fuck up,” Henri spat out his venom.

  “Henri, you’re my brother, but I swear if you don’t let her go right now, I will tear you to pieces.” At that moment Henri turned his head, but didn’t release the grip on the collar of my jacket. Luc looked like he was ready to pounce and he was much bigger than Henri, but I didn’t know what to think. Henri took his elbow and smashed me in the face, then he let go of my coat. My head hit the concrete wall and I crumbled to the floor, winded. The two brothers attacked each other with shear brutality, neither one holding back. Henri threw his fist fast and hard and it landed on Luc’s jaw. Luc stumbled back gripping his face in pain and lunged forward grabbing Henri by the waist. He pushed him forward and Henri fell on his behind. Luc kicked Henri in the stomach causing him to keel forward. The events unraveling before me didn’t seem real. How could two brothers be so mean to each other? So hurtful. They begin muttering in French, but I couldn’t understand. Then Henri’s fist flew again and Luc ducked dodging it. They were circling each other, a masked cruelty on each of their faces. Luc suddenly lunged forward nailing Henri in the nose. Henri’s nose began to bleed. Henri sputtered what must have been hateful words. Then he quickly lifted his right fist and at a short distance smashed Luc in the eye. The corner of his eye oozed blood. I watched the brothers fight, locked in place watching them. When they’d both drawn blood they stepped a few feet away from each other.

  I suddenly became conscious of the fact that my head was killing me and I could barely see straight, I tried to get up and walk toward the apartment building, I had to get to Dylan. As I was walking, Henri grabbed me by the neck holding me close to him. This time I felt something cool touch my skin and through my dizziness I knew it wasn’t a leather glove. Luc lifted his hands in surrender. “Henri please don’t do this.” He begged, “you’re my younger brother, it shouldn’t be like this.” Through blurry eyes I saw the fear in Luc’s. Henri wanted to shoot me in the head. After everything I’d been through a mobster was going to kill me. I didn’t know if it was the fear or the fact that my head was just smashed against a brick wall, but I began to laugh. My laugh caused Henri to glare down at me with confusion. The moment he took his eyes off of Luc to stare down at me I noticed how similar they looked. The only subtle difference being that Henri’s eyes were harsh and evil. A feeling of serenity passed over me, at least Dylan and I had our second chance. It was brief and it was worth it. I was ready to make peace with the situation when Luc suddenly lunged forward grabbing Henri in a lock.

  “Run Alexis, run,” he ordered. I moved a couple of feet away but I was frozen. The gun could go off at any time. “Run Alexis, run,” he ordered again with his raspy accent that now sounded choppy through his huffing breathes. I was in a nightmare trying to run away from the bad guy and as much as I wanted to run, my legs weren’t moving. My head swiveled as the doors to the condominium opened and I saw Dylan running toward me in slow motion. He was waving his hands at me, I think he wanted me to come to him. I looked back to Luc struggling with Henri. The gun pointing in all different directions and that’s when it happened… A quiet shot, and a look of shock crossing Luc’s perfect features. His brother glared wide-eyed while Dylan was yelling my name, sounding miles away. Dylan ran up to me and lifted me in his arms and I still couldn’t move. Henri let go of Luc and ran the other way. Luc fell to the ground. Dylan was picking me up to carry me away. Luc. Hit. The. Floor. Too. Hard. I began to hit Dylan.

  “Put me down, put me down,” I hollered hitting him in the shoulder. He looked terrified but let me down. I ran to Luc, he was bleeding. There was too much blood. “Dylan help him, please stop the blood,” I begged.

  “Alexis,” Luc whimpered holding onto his stomach. Dylan whipped off his white shirt and pressed it against Luc’s stomach.

  “Please help him,” I begged again as tears streamed down my face.

  “Alexis,” Luc muttered.

  “Give me your phone Lexi,” Dylan ordered. I frantically passed him the phone and he dialed 911 for an ambulance. Giving them our location and the nature of the wound while holding on to Luc with his shirt. There was too much blood. My heart was racing so fast that I thought I may die or faint.

  “Alexis, I love you,” Luc murmured. My heart squeezed tight, he was dying.

  “Luc, Luc!” I yelled, he couldn’t die. “I love you Luc, wake-up please, I love you,” that was when I noticed Dylan staring at me wide-eyed with a look of horror.

  Chapter 34

  This Is a Broken Heart

  Dylan

  I heard the sirens nearing in the distance, Lexi was on her knees hovering over Luc, holding his head in her arms, cradling him. The ground was wet and the air was bitter cold. She was weeping over him while I was on my knees beside her, shirtless despite the near freezing temperature. Pressing on his wound so he wouldn’t bleed out. I didn’t want him to die, but I couldn’t believe Lexi’s reaction either. Her staring into his heavy eyes pleading that she loved him and begging him to stay awake was too much.

  “Dylan, please help him, save him, Dylan,” she sobbed hysterically. I had one hand pressing firm on the wound. The bullet went through his abdomen it didn’t come close to his heart or arteries, I think. We wouldn’t know for sure until he arrived to the hospital and a surgeon opened him up. With my other hand I lifted his wrist to check his pulse, it was slow but his heart was still beating which was a good sign. His eyes shut and Lexi’s cries grew more strangled.

  “Please Dylan, is he dead? Did he die?”

  “No Lex, his pulse is weak, but he still has a pulse. He’s probably in shock,” I responded, telling myself that I was a doctor now, not a man whose heart had been torn out and crushed onto the wet pavement. A moment later the ambulance pulled to an abrupt stop. Two paramedics moving swiftly approached us holding their medic bags.

  “Male, late twenties, shot at near distance, bullet wound to the abdomen, losing high frequency of blood, we need to move fast,” I said looking at the paramedic. The other paramedic ran to the ambulance throwing the back doors open and pulled out a stretcher.

  “Okay we got it from here sir,” he said to me, motioning for me to back away. I did and let them do their job, Luc needed to get to a hospital fast. We didn’t know if he had a ruptured organ by the way he was bleeding out.

  The two paramedics swiftly lifted him on the stretcher. “Ma'am, did you want to join him?” the medic on the left asked Lexi.

  She looked back to me, I think for approval, I nodded for her to go ahead. “Ah, yeah, of course,” she answered. She was a shaking mess and I couldn’t blame her watching someone else take a bullet for you is a life changing, surreal moment. She took a few shaky steps toward the ambulance. I wanted to stay behind. I didn’t want to go in there and listen to her profess her love for another man. I didn’t think I could handle hearing those words leave her lips again, but looking into her pained expression and knowing what she just went through being held at gunpoint by Luc’s lunatic brother, I just didn’t have it in me to leave her. She had clearly
chosen him, but as her friend I couldn’t walk away not when she was in such a fragile state.

  I entered the ambulance and took a seat on the bench beside her. The medics were working quickly hooking Luc up to oxygen, and monitoring his heart rate. The other medic began to prep him for intravenous which he would need for the anesthesia for surgery. Both men were on top of their game. I began to shiver as I sat beside Lexi shirtless. She looked up to me with her blue eyes looking wounded and lost. I placed an arm around her shoulder and she curled up in to me.

  “It’s not what you think Dylan,” she whispered between pained sobs. I couldn’t respond, I didn’t know what she thought I was thinking, but I was lost right now. My life was meaningless without her. I knew I took too long to get back to her, I knew I should have been there for her a thousand times over. The past month I thought we had been working on getting things back on track. I couldn’t believe how wrong I was. I couldn’t believe I didn’t realize what hold this French prick had on her. Even with him lying here with a bullet wound, I hated him, but I hated myself even more. At least he saved her, he took a bullet for her. He must really love her, I couldn’t blame him I knew what it was like to love her.

  We arrived to the hospital and the medics moved quickly. Lexi and me hopped out and waited on the curb as the medics rolled the stretcher off the ambulance. Lexi was quiet, almost too quiet, it was scaring me. I took her by the arm and followed the medics into the hospital. They pushed the stretcher past triage and straight into an operating room. It almost felt like deja-vu as I remembered Lexi’s limp body being rolled past triage into an emergency operating room. A nurse came around her desk nodding her head at us and telling us to stop.

  “We’ll notify you soon, you can’t come past this point,” she said with a tough tone. Lexi looked up to me with the same look of despair and my heart ripped apart even more. I held on to her though because despite what she felt I would always love her. I would always want to be here when she fell, wanting to catch her.

  “Come,” I took her by the hand guiding her out of the emergency room and back into a small patient waiting area.

  A young nurse followed us through the doors. “Uh Dr. Priestley? Here you can wear this,” she blushed offering me a doctor's blue garb. I looked down at my chest and realized that I didn’t have a shirt on. I took the shirt from her.

  “Thank you,” I replied, slipping it on. She smiled again and looked warily over to Lexi. Lexi wasn’t paying attention, she looked withdrawn and she was shaking so bad I wondered if she was having some sort of post-traumatic stress from the attack.

  “Lex, I think we should get someone to look at you, you were just held at gunpoint.”

  “I’m okay,” she answered solemnly wrapping her arms around her waist. I could tell she was far from okay. I ran my hand over her hair lovingly and when I pulled my hand away there was blood.

  “Lex, what happened?” I said looking at the crimson coating my fingers. Her eyes turned wide and I could tell she was scared.

  “He smashed my head into the brick wall,” she responded with the same blank look on her face. I stood up and lifted her into my arms in one swift movement, walking her over to triage. She was weak and her head fell onto my chest making me worry that something was very wrong. I updated the triage nurse on Lexi’s condition and being a head injury she got fast tracked right through. Since I worked in this hospital I knew most of the employees. I was very aware that I looked muffled and sweaty wearing a dirty pair of jeans and I noticed some of the nurses eyeing me. I carried Lexi straight into an examination room. I was about to start asking her some questions when the doctor peeked through the blinds.

  “Hello, Alexis White?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she replied softly.

  “I’m Dr. Watkin,” he said, then he looked over to me doing a double take. “Dr. Priestley?” he said shaking my hand.

  Dr. Watkin asked Lexi numerous questions and began to examine her. She seemed to be responding well to his initial neurological assessments and relief washed over me.

  He ran his finger through her scalp checking for any abrasions or maybe cracks. Chills warped their way through my body. Listening to what she went through with Luc’s crazy brother. I wanted to get to her faster, but when she said someone was following her and the phone cut out, I didn’t know where she was or where to look. I used the tracking device on my phone but it took time to download. I quickly threw on a pair of running shoes and ran outside in a t-shirt and a pair of jeans. I was busy cooking her dinner and expecting her to walk into the apartment at any moment. When she called, her voice calm and cool but laced with panic my heart dropped and I couldn’t get to her fast enough.

  When I finally ran out the doors of the apartment and rounded the corner I saw two men fighting in the dark and Lexi frozen in her spot. I kept calling her but she was not responsive, maybe in shock. Then everything happened so quickly, Luc yelling to Lexi to get away, Luc fighting with another man, and then a shot. Nothing loud or ear shattering just a quiet zip and the look of horror washing over Luc as he realized he had been shot.

  “You’ll need about three stitches at the back of your head, otherwise you should be just fine. If you get any strong headaches, nausea or dizziness come back for a re-assessment,” he said explaining everything slowly to her. Her shoulders were slumped and she looked so withdrawn. He placed solution on the back of her head to numb the area then he wrapped her entire head in gauze and said he would be back shortly.

  “Dyl, I want you to do it,” she said once Dr. Watkin had left the exam room. Her eyes were glazed and she looked at me like a scared little girl. I walked over to her and enveloped her in a hug. She looked up to me with puppy dog eyes and I couldn’t deny her. Although I didn’t want her associating me with someone that stuck a needle in her to sew her up. “Please,” she murmured. Her voice was quiet and it looked like the fight in her had left her eyes. Despite everything she had been through there had always been a flame in those dark blue eyes that gave me relief that she was strong and wouldn’t take things sitting back. She had been through too much and I wished she could just have the normal stable life that she always craved.

  “Okay.”

  “Okay?” she answered her shoulders deflating a bit.

  A few minutes later Dr. Watkin came in to check if the area was completely numb. He conducted a small assessment confirming that she was.

  “Ah! Dr. Watkin, she wanted me to do it, if that’s alright?”

  “Yes, of course.” he nodded and smiled. “Just mark it on the file for the records.”

  “Definitely,” I walked over to the sink and began scrubbing my hands with soap all the way up to my elbows.

  Lexi sat on the edge of the examination bed, her legs flailing back and forth nervously. I set up all my utensils.

  “Lex, I need to shave the area a bit,” I said gently, knowing she wasn’t going to like to hear that. Her eyes turned wide immediately, but then they soften and she nodded. I shaved as little as possible moving her golden locks off to the side to make a clear way.

  “Okay, just try not to move,” I smiled, hoping to relax her.

  She looked up to me. Then she closed her eyes.

  “You know this whole situation kind of reminds me of that night I found you crying outside on your mother’s front porch. I was coming back from Matt’s house after a game of b-ball and I saw you in the shadows. Your light hair was vibrant in the dark,” I continued to speak hoping to relax her. Her eyes flicked up to mine and I knew I had her attention. I laced one stitch through her skin. She didn’t flinch and I knew she was definitely numb.

  “I remember bringing you back to my parent’s kitchen, the whole side of your face covered in blood. You had been wiping it off with your shirt and I remember that the sight of you covered in blood sent my blood roaring. I wanted to know who did it to you, but more than anything I wanted you to be okay. When you confided in me about your mom you looked at me as I taped your eye back
together as if I wasn’t human or something. I don’t know what happened in that moment but I remember my heart beating so fast and feeling warmth fill my chest. As I taped you up, I willed my hands not to shake from whatever it was I was feeling… when I was done… you got up quickly looking at me with those stormy blue eyes and you were gone. I couldn’t fall asleep, thoughts of you running quickly through my mind. The way your eyes searched mine, like I was a wonder, the way you looked at me, with such caring and reverence, it was like I had a direct channel through those turbulent eyes to a perfect soul. I fell in love with you that night, Lex. I fell in love and I never stopped loving you,” I admitted as I thread the third and last stitch through her head. I cut the strings and placed a new piece of gauze around her head. Giving her directions for treatment. Her eyes slowly opened and she sat up slowly looking at me, fresh tears swelling. “It’s okay you don’t have to say anything,” I said taking her hands and helping her up.

  “I feel a little dizzy,” she finally spoke.

  “Come, I’ll help you, we should go get something to eat, you probably haven’t eaten all day,” I said guiding her gently by the arm.

  As we passed by the nurse’s station she looked up to me and asks, “Can we check on Luc?” I knew I shouldn’t feel angry or jealous about her statement but I couldn’t help my feelings.