by LR Potter
She wondered why Alex hadn’t call for an ambulance. Surely it would be better for her father to receive immediate medical treatment. Leaning down, and ignoring the tears streaming down her face, she pressed her lips against his face. Please, don’t die, she begged silently, I can’t lose another parent this way.
It seemed to take forever for Alex to return to her, when in all actuality it probably was only a matter of minutes. He crouched behind her and surveyed the room protectively.
She jerked her head up when the front door was shoved open. Alex laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder, “It’s only Shane,” he said calmly. Alex stepped away from her and met Shane in the middle of the room. He bent his head as Shane spoke quietly to him. Trinity watched as Alex nodded, then turned back to her.
“The perpetrator or perpetrators have gone. We need to get your father to the hospital. We will take both SUVs in case we need a diversion. We’ll place you and your father in the backseat of one, okay?”
“Wouldn’t an ambulance make more sense?” she asked as fear flooded her senses.
“No, we don’t know what we’re dealing with yet. This is the best way. Are you ready to move?” he asked in his same calm manner.
“Can I grab my purse? It’s in the study.”
“Be quick,” Alex advised.
Trinity darted into the study and grabbed the purse and coat she’d thrown over the chair when she’d entered the house earlier that day. When she returned, Alex picked her father up, seemingly with little effort. The bunch of his shoulder muscles underneath his suit jacket the only sign of the strain of his burden. She followed him as they made their way quickly to the set of black SUVs now parked in the garage. She slipped into the backseat first and waited while Alex laid her father onto the seat. She shifted him to lay his head onto her lap.
Alex spoke to Shane briefly before crawling into the driver’s seat of the SUV. Glancing at her in the rearview mirror, he said, “Be sure to buckle up.” Wordlessly, she complied. “You ready?” he asked softly. She nodded.
Alex depressed the garage opener and waited until Shane pulled out before following. Once they arrived at the end of the drive, Shane turned right and Alex pulled left. From her position in the backseat, she could see the tiny green light attached to the Bluetooth in Alex’s ear. She heard the cadence of his voice, but not his words. She looked down at her father and gently brushed his hair into place. She leaned down to press a kiss to his forehead when she heard Alex shout, “Trinity, hold on!”
His words barely registered before the bright lights of a vehicle flooded the interior of the SUV seconds before slamming into it broadside, on the side across from her. Trinity screamed at the impact and when her father’s body was thrown against her, she reached around his chest and held him as tight as she could. The SUV seemed to travel sideways for miles before crashing into a line of parked cars. Trinity felt the buckle of the door as it strained against its reinforced frame.
She watched in horrified fascination as the dark-colored SUV that hit them back up slowly. She heard the grinding of gears and the squealing of the tires as the vehicle struggled to gain purchase on the asphalt. Seconds before the vehicle hit them again, Alex punched the gas. The crunch of metal against metal and the shattering of glass filled the air as the attacking SUV crashed into the line of cars they’d just pulled away from.
Trinity struggled to right her father’s unconscious body as Alex sped through the darkened streets while talking in quick, quiet tones into his Bluetooth. Fear made her hands tremble, and a deep cold seeped into every fiber of her body. Her teeth began to chatter as she hugged her father tightly against her body.
“Trinity, you all right, back there?”
When she opened her mouth to answer, a sob flew from her lips instead.
“We’ll be at the hospital soon,” he said soothingly. She could only nod as tears flooded her eyes and spilled over onto her cheeks.
One of the SUV’s tires was -punctured during the assault, causing the vehicle to wobble and lurch. Alex turned onto a side lane, extinguished the lights, and parked. He turned his head left and right, surveying the surroundings before slipping over into the backseat. Squatting in the back floorboard, he reached for her father and ran experienced hands over his body, searching for further injuries. Apparently satisfied, he turned his attention to her.
“How are you holding up?”
“What’s happening? Who’s after us?” she whimpered.
“I don’t know. Shane is on his way. We just need to sit tight. Were you hurt?”
Swallowing, she merely shook her head.
The bright lights of the hospital’s emergency room entrance hurt her eyes. As before, Alex carried her father’s body while Shane had a hand on her elbow, guiding her into the hospital. Her mind struggled to absorb the gravity of the situation, but just couldn’t – so she shut down. When Shane led her to a chair, she sat without comment and stared blankly straight ahead. Without looking at them, she was aware of Alex in deep discussion with Shane before Shane walked off to where the hospital staff had taken her father.
Alex sat down across from her. She took in the man who’d been so tightly ensconced in her life for the past six months. She’d never really given him much thought before. But now that she owed hers and her father’s lives to him, so couldn’t take her eyes off him. He lookedto be in his mid-thirties, with military-cut blonde hair, and green eyes. It took her a minute to notice the blood streaming down his face. “You’re hurt,” she whispered.
He lifted a hand to his head and wiped a negligent hand against it. “I’m fine.”
“Thanks, Alex,” she murmured.
“You’re welcome,” he replied, eyeing her thoughtfully. “We need to discuss what’s going to happen once your father is placed in a room. It will be better for everyone if you stay as well. Is that okay with you?”
“For now,” she answered. She shivered and ran her hands up and down her arms to warm herself. She thought longingly of the coat she’d left in the wrecked SUV. Noticing her discomfort, Alex rose and draped his suit jacket over her shoulders. “Thanks,” she murmured.
“Security going to be tightened, Trinity. You have to realize that,” Alex said, eyeing her thoughtfully.
“Security… for my father, right?”
With slow movements, he shook his head.
“Who’d want to hurt us?” she whispered.
Exhaling deeply and once again swiping at the blood at his temple, he asked softly, “Has your father mentioned the death threats he’s received?”
“Death threats? No, he didn’t. Who’d want to kill my father?” she rasped.
“Your father has a powerful job, which makes him a target.”
Trinity’s eyes darted left and right as she tried to understand. Slowly, it began to become clear to her. “Is that why he has you?”
He scrunched his eyebrows at the illogical question. “Yes.”
“He told me all Judges were now required to have bodyguards. I never questioned it,” she ended lamely.
“He probably didn’t want you to worry.”
Lifting stormy, black eyes to meet his calm, sea-foam green ones, she exclaimed, “I’m not a child. He should have told me the truth.”
Without comment, Alex leaned his head back against the wall. Anyone looking at him would think he was a man calmly waiting for someone in the hospital. But Trinity knew from the slow shift of eyes back and forth, that he would spring into action at any sign of danger. She snuggled down into the folds of his jacket and closed her eyes, scared for her father and furious at him all at the same time.
“Ms. Grace?” A deep voice questioned.
Opening her eyes, she sat a little straighter at the sight of a doctor. “Yes,” she answered.
“I’m Dr. Kane,” he said with an outstretched hand.
Trinity reached out her own hand and shook his. He frowned as he looked down. She followed his line of sight to her hand. There were cuts and
gashes from her crawl through the shards of glass.
“Oh my,” he murmured. “You’ll need to get that looked at.” Raising his eyes back up to hers, he said, “I wanted to let you know your father has been taken up to surgery. All initial reports look good. If you’d like, you can go to the waiting room up on the fourth floor. I’ll come find you once he’s out of surgery. He’ll need to stay, of course, so I’ve notified the front desk to arrange a room for him.”
“Thanks, Doctor,” she murmured.
When the doctor walked away, Alex stood and waited for her to rise. Together they made their way to the fourth floor.
The wait seemed to last forever, but actually was only a matter of a couple of hours. She paced and sipped bad coffee until Dr. Kane reappeared as promised.
He walked to her quickly and smiled down. “Your father came through surgery with flying colors. We expect him to make a full recovery. It appears the bullet went through the soft tissue of his shoulder and missed all vital arteries. The bullet which grazed his head, while it probably hurt and knocked him unconscious, wasn’t life-threatening.”
“When can I see him?” she asked on a sigh of relief.
“He’s in recovery right now. He’s been assigned to Room 407 if you’d like to wait there. He should be rolled down in about an hour. Anything else?” the doctor asked kindly.
“No. Thank you for everything,” she said somberly.
Once he left, she and Alex made their way to Room 407. Alex entered the room first and did a quick search before waving her in. She stood for a moment in the stark white room and heaved a tired sigh. It’d been a long night.
She pointed to the bathroom and Alex gave a slight nod of his head. Closing the door quietly behind her, she slowly walked to the sink and turned on the faucet and let the water run. Bracing her hands against the sink, she leaned forward and studied herself in the mirror. Her long, dark hair swayed against her waist. Surprisingly, it was still clasped neatly at her neck. Her father would be pleased, she thought. There were dark smudges under her brown eyes where her mascara had ran; he’d not be pleased about that. Her sleeveless, white form-fitted dress was marred with blood, dirt, and tiny shards of embedded glass. Her father’s demand of perfection would definitely not be pleased with her dishevelment.
She glanced down at her hands, and seeing the cuts, she ran them under the water. She grimaced at the sting. Why hadn’t her father told her about the threats? Ever since her mother’s death when she was ten, he’d been so overprotective, but she’d taken it. She understood his need to protect her and keep her close, but this was too much. She was no longer a child, she was an adult. Tears filled her eyes in direct contradiction to her words. Stuffing her emotions back down deep within, she grabbed a napkin from the dispenser and scrubbed the makeup from her pale face.
***
Sun was streaming through the windows when she woke the next morning. However, that wasn’t what woke her – it was the harsh whispers being exchanged between her father and Alex Masters.
“… I had no choice. She needed to be told. She’s an adult, Arthur, no matter how much you wish she was still your little girl,” Alex said.
“That wasn’t your decision to make,” her father declared.
“The better she understands the seriousness of the situation, the better it will be for all of us.”
“If you’d been doing your job, this wouldn’t have happened,” her father admonished.
Silence met her father’s words and she cringed at his cruelty.
Unable to restrain herself, she said softly, “I think a simple thank-you will do, Father. After all, the man did save your life, not once, but twice.” Both heads turned in her direction. “Alex, do me a favor and give me a minute alone with my father, will you?”
At her father’s nod, Alex stepped through the door. Trinity had no doubt he was standing right on the other side, vigilant. Rising and stretching her weary muscles, she rose and sat on the edge of her father’s hospital bed. The bandage now covering both his head and arm did nothing to distract her from her memories of the night before.
“How are you feeling, Dad?”
“I’m fine. I don’t know why I can’t go home.”
“I’m sure you’ll be home soon enough. Alex is right, though, you should have told me you were in danger,” she scolded.
“I didn’t want you to worry.”
“Too late. I always worry,” she said flippantly, trying to lighten the mood.
“Protecting you is my job. I don’t want to give it up,” her father said.
“I know. But I’d rather know the truth. When I think about…” she paused as tears clouded her eyes.
Her father raised her hands to his lips and grimaced when he saw the scrapes on her hands. “Trinity Allura Grace! What have you done?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Oh, baby. I’m sorry! It had to have been so horrifying for you. I never wanted you to have to go through something like that again,” he exclaimed.
Leaning forward, she placed a kiss to his head. “Well, it all worked out,” she murmured, “but you need to apologize to Alex. He was wonderful last night. We’d never have made it without him.”
“I will, I will,” her father promised.
“Good.”
“I need you to do something for me,” he said.
“Okay.”
“I need you to go to into my study and pull out my case files for the judge who’s taking over my cases. Okay, darling?” he asked.
“Of course. Whatever you need.”
“Good girl. I gave the list to Alex. My keys are in my pants pocket. The files are in the top drawer on the left side of the desk,” he instructed. “A courier will be by tomorrow to pick them up. I’ve instructed Alex to take you home. There’s no reason for you hang out around here.”
“I’d really rather stay,” she protested.
“I appreciate that, darling. But, you need to get cleaned up, you’re a mess.” She cringed at the recriminations. “Plus, I need a small case packed, and you know what I like. Also, I need to make sure the windows are replaced and the dining room cleaned up. Can you take care of that?”
“Yes, Father.”
“Good girl!” he said with a smile. “Now, get Alex back in here and get ready to go,” he said dismissively.
As she and Alex drove silently through the streets of downtown Savannah she tried to wrap her mind around the fact that someone had deliberately shot her father. While he was a Judge, she couldn’t think of any reason anyone would want to kill him. He could be a little abrupt and aggressive at times, but to want him dead? With a headache brewing behind her eyes at the lack of sleep, and the stress of situation, she absentmindedly reached back and released her hairclip. She closed her eyes as she massaged the back of her scalp.
“Tired?” Alex asked quietly.
“Not as tired as you, I’m sure,” she murmured without opening her eyes.
“All part of the job,” he replied.
“What happens now?” she asked as she leaned her head back against the grey leather of the SUV.
“Security will be tightened,” he stated in a matter-of-fact tone.
“What about my job? Will I be able to go to work?” she asked.
“You can. But you’ll need to have someone with you.”
“For how long?” she asked.
“For as long as it takes.”
“For as long as it takes for what?” she asked, opening her eyes to stare at his profile.
He flicked a quick look in her direction. “To ensure yours and the Judge’s safety.”
Trinity thought of how tightly restrictive her father already kept her, and shuddered to think of even more constraint. “Do you think my father is overreacting with my need for security as well? The threat is against him, not me. Right?”
Alex remained silent for so long, she thought he wasn’t going to answer. “You could be used against him. You are a weak link where
he is concerned,” he said without inflection.
She bristled against the words weak link. All her life, her father had treated her as if she were indeed weak. And even though she’d graduated Suma Cum Laude from college, he acted as if she didn’t possess an ounce of common sense. Not for the first time, she wished her mother had lived. Her slaying at the hands of their kidnappers had been the catalyst of her father’s irrational over-protectiveness – or maybe rational over-protectiveness, in view of recent events.
Trinity and Alex were met in the garage by Ringo Barnes, another bodyguard from Alex’s agency, Savannah Security, Inc.
Alex shook hands with Ringo. “Everything okay?”
Ringo nodded, glanced at Trinity, and then turned back to the entrance of the house. Trinity trailed behind them, more nervous than she expected. Cautiously, she split away from them when they headed into the kitchen. She stepped slowly into the dining room and was surprised to see it looking as if nothing had happened. The only difference being the window now housed a standard window glass and not the beautiful stained-glass work. It had cost her father a small fortune for the stained-glass, she was sure he wouldn’t be happy about having to replace it. She looked at the carpet where he’d fallen, and outside of it still being wet, there was no evidence of the blood that had been there the night before.
She jumped when Alex spoke from behind her. “Trinity? You okay?”
She swallowed at how close her father had come to dying the night before. “I’m fine. I think I’ll shower and catch a nap,” she said, turning away from him.