Second Rate Chances

by S. C. Stephens

  Anger flashing up her spine, Makayla began to wonder if anything Chance had told her had been true. Had he used her from the very start? Had he always intended to thrust a gun in her face? Had he ever really loved her?

  The more she puzzled the pieces together, the clearer the image became. No, no he hadn’t. He’d been manipulating her from day one. He’d chosen her in the movie theater…chosen her because she worked at the bank. Then he’d introduced himself in such a way that Makayla couldn’t help but take notice, couldn’t help but to be intrigued. It’s even possible that he’d known that about her before the movie theater, known that she wouldn’t go for any typical pickup lines. Maybe he’d been watching her for a while prior to that meeting. God, that thought gave her chills.

  If everything about him was a lie, then Garrett must be a lie too. They probably weren’t brothers at all. She sighed, her sobs easing into hiccups. Of course they weren’t…they were accomplices. They’d been working together all along. God, for all she knew, Chance had asked Garrett to beat the crap out of him, just to convince her that he was in danger. And she’d fallen for it, hook, line and sinker. She was such an idiot.

  She wasn’t sure how Adrian fit into the deception, but he must somehow. Maybe he was a just another accomplice in the robbery. Maybe he was their getaway man and he’d just been too late to help the others. She wasn’t sure, but she knew he was involved…and she had to tell Neil now. He had to know that his ex-boyfriend wasn’t the man he thought he was, just like hers wasn’t.

  An ambulance and fire truck arrived at the scene, their sirens mixing into a sad but beautiful duet. Makayla turned to watch the paramedics pull a stretcher out of the back. Glancing at her red fingers, she hoped her mysterious stranger was alright. He’d risked everything to save her, blown in from out of nowhere and literally jumped into the face of danger to save her life. It was the most heroic thing anyone had ever done for her. A pang in her belly reminded her that Chance had saved her life too, by knocking away Garrett’s gun blast. If it hadn’t been for him, she’d have been splatter on the pavement long before the guard had jerked her to the ground. But, then again, all of this was Chance’s fault, so she didn’t feel as thankful as she probably should have. Plus, Chance’s injuries had been pretty minor. He hadn’t taken a bullet at any rate.

  Standing, Makayla pulled Neil over to where the groaning man was being lifted. A police officer held the two of them back from the man, but Makayla pointed over to where his limp body was being arranged on the makeshift bed. “Please, he saved my life. I just want to tell him thank you, before it’s too late.”

  Makayla wasn’t sure if the man was critically injured or not, but it looked bad. The officer nodded and allowed Neil and Makayla to pass. As she stepped up to the stretcher, Makayla asked a petite, blonde, blue-eyed paramedic if the security guard would be alright.

  “Don’t know yet, Ma’am, he took a pretty bad hit.” The young woman looked over at her burly EMT partner. “I hear he’s the one that spotted the robbery, called in the cops.” She nodded at her partner and they simultaneously pushed the contraption into the back of the ambulance.

  As its wheels folded in on itself, Makayla whispered, “I need to thank him…he saved my life.”

  The paramedics shoved him all of the way inside; his face was ashen, his eyes fluttered under closed lids, his breath misted the inside of an oxygen mask. He didn’t look like he’d hear any thanks Makayla made at this point. He looked like he was hanging onto life by a very thin line. She’d thanked him repeatedly on the street, but Makayla had hoped to thank him again, maybe learn his name.

  The male paramedic hopped inside the ambulance with the fallen hero. The girl prepped to jump inside, then looked back at Makayla. “We’ll do our best to keep him alive,” she told Makayla matter-of-factly, then she hopped in.

  Neil squeezed Makayla’s shoulders as the paramedic’s ominous words tumbled through her brain. Just as the girl started to shut the heavy door, her partner telling the driver that they were good to go, Makayla asked, “Wait, I don’t even know his name?”

  The paramedic paused. “Joseph.” She pointed over to an older security guard being questioned by some police officers. He was misty-eyed, and anxiously watching the ambulance. “His partner called him Joseph.”

  Makayla nodded and the paramedic slammed the door shut. Leaning against Neil, Makayla watched as the blocky vehicle sped its passenger to safety. Her guardian angel had a name…Joseph. Closing her eyes, Makayla took a moment to thank him. She prayed he would live.

  After the ambulance pulled away, numbness went through Makayla. She supposed it was shock, but it kept the hysterics at bay so she welcomed it. She watched the officers take witness statements, recording all of their vital information, as she waited with Neil in a soft chair in the bank’s lobby. Watching the men and women doing the job that she longed to do one day, no, the job that she would do one day, Makayla couldn’t help but wonder if they’d caught Chance or not. A part of her wanted him to remain free.

  It was a small part though. Most of her wanted him to be where he belonged, safely behind bars, right next to his father…if any of that story had been true. She then wondered if the sad story about his mother and his little brother dying in the Oklahoma bombing had been true. God, was he even from Oklahoma? Maybe the accent was just as fake as he was.

  Twisting over to look at Neil, his gray eyes watching the officers as well, Makayla felt like it was time to come clean with what she knew. Sighing, she put a hand on Neil’s thigh. His glum face twisted to look at hers, reluctance clear in his features, like he knew what she was going to say. “I should tell you…about Adrian.”

  He sighed and looked down. “Yeah, I figured you might.” He kept his head down for a minute and a flash of guilt ran through Makayla. She hated to break his bubble of what his relationship had been, she knew exactly how that felt, but being kept in the dark was no better, and she wouldn’t do that to him. After another second, Neil looked back up at her. His eyes were calm, accepting. He knew that being in the dark was no option either. “What do you know?”

  In a quiet voice, Makayla began to tell him everything that she knew about the seemingly simple man that Neil had once dated. She didn’t have a whole lot of facts to tell him, but she confessed all of Chance’s stories about Adrian and let Neil come to his own conclusion about his ex-love. His eyes misted as he listened, the veil over his illusionary relationship lifting to reveal something twisted and convoluted with lies. There was no way to know for sure without asking Adrian, but Neil quickly came to the same conclusion Makayla had.

  “He’s one of them…they were all in this together.”

  Makayla nodded, her eyes filling again. “Yep. They used us…both of us.”

  Neil nodded and looked back over to the officers now approaching them. He reached down to grab her hand. “We don’t let them get away with this, Makayla.”

  They met eyes and Makayla nodded. “Agreed.”

  No, there was absolutely no way she was going to let Chance get away with robbing her bank, shoving a loaded weapon in her face, associating himself with two men who’d fired shotguns at her, and then escaping it all with Adrian. But, if she were going to be honest, none of those were the real reasons she’d never let him get away. It was pure and simple revenge that would keep her on his tail. He’d made her fall in love with him, then used her…for money. That wouldn’t go unpunished.

  Makayla looked up at a slim, male officer when her name was called. He had a determination on his face that Makayla instantly admired. Walking over to him, she was reminded of the guard who’d been whisked away. She hoped Joseph was alright.

  As the officer had her take a seat across from him, Makayla made her mind focus on every detail of the encounter that she could. And since she had an eye for details, she was able to give the officer a mountain of information…especially about Chance. She held nothing back when it came to him. She had so much to say in fact, that the of
ficer immediately handed her over to another cop who escorted her down to the station so she could give a more thorough statement.

  Makayla took a deep inhale as she walked through the halls bustling with people in uniforms. Smiling, she told the officer at her side, “I’m going to work here one day.”

  The man gave her a placating smile, but his female partner nodded at Makayla. “Good, we need a few more girls around here.”

  Makayla smiled back at her as they moved her into an office. For a moment she wished they’d moved her into the room with the two-way mirror, but it was a regular room with a regular desk that she was shuffled into. Staring at all of the paperwork on the messy desk, Makayla spotted the plaque with the officer’s name on it. She automatically pictured her own there and smiled. Despite the hurt in her heart, she had something to keep her going—a drive that even Chance and his monumental stab in the back couldn’t derail. If anything, he’d just strengthened it. Just as she’d told him with their final words to each other, she didn’t intend to give up on her dream.

  After she gave her vivid account of her last few weeks with Colton Burke, the officers brought in a sketch artist and had Makayla help the man draw him. Once they were finished, Makayla stared at a perfect recreation of the man she loved. The artist got everything right—the simple, but stylish haircut, the warm eyes, the angle of his jaw, the slope of his nose, the general air of a man who looked no more threatening than the average small town, good Samaritan neighbor.

  But looks were deceiving. He was dangerous. He’d held a gun to her face, ordered her to do things she hadn’t wanted to do. And he was deceitful—a liar and a manipulator. Makayla’s heart hardened as she nodded her head at the artist. “Yep, that’s him. That’s who robbed the bank. That’s Colton Burke.”

  When the officers let her go, Makayla walked out of the room a little dazed. This was definitely not how she’d seen their relationship ending. Staring across the hall, Makayla looked through a giant window into another office. Neil was in there, running his hand back through his shaggy hair and trying to describe Adrian to the artist who was in the room with him now. They’d both been escorted over to the station once Neil’s history with the getaway man was revealed.

  Neil glanced up and saw Makayla watching him through the glass. They gave each other soft, supportive smiles. Makayla figured she should go into the room and help Neil with his description. Even though Neil was the one who’d dated him, Makayla could probably describe Adrian in better detail—her brain was just wired that way. Exhaling, suddenly very tired after her draining day, Makayla waved a goodbye to him and left Neil on his own. He’d get the artist to a decent enough picture that an alert for Adrian could be released. Come tomorrow morning, there wouldn’t be too many places the pair could hide.

  Makayla brushed past men and women wearing crisp uniforms as she made her way outside. A couple of squad cars were in the parking lot. She’d ridden in the back of one on the way to the station. It had been just as exhilarating as she’d imaged it would be, especially with her eyes glued on the officer and his command station of gadgets in the front seat. But even though it had been exciting, her heart hadn’t really been in it. Her heart was still lying in that bank, broken, shattered beyond repair. She really didn’t know how she’d mend that mangled organ back together. At the moment, it didn’t really seem possible.

  Deciding that standing around, waiting for an officer to be free enough to give her a ride back to her car, wasn’t going to help her twisted emotions, Makayla started walking. At first, she hadn’t been conscious of where she was going, she just needed to get away. But after a while direction seemed to come to her and her steps over the cracked sidewalks of Plymouth starting heading out to the hospital where the wounded hero had been taken.

  It was early evening now, but the sun still lit the skyline, its heat warm on her cheeks and arms. The air was still and clean, and if it weren’t for the events of the last several hours, Makayla would have considered it a perfect evening for a stroll. She might have even made the suggestion to Chance when she’d gotten home from work. They could have talked some more about what to do about his crazy brother. They would have talked about Chance’s job, and whether or not he’d been successful in asking for fulltime…since that was the story he’d given her this morning, when she’d woken up and he’d been gone. He’d said he was going into work, securing his career for their future…not planning a bank heist.

  Makayla shut her mind off and concentrated on nothing more than placing one high-heeled foot in front of another. No point in thinking about a future that was never real in the first place.

  By the time Makayla got to the hospital, the sky was starting to darken. Makayla wiped her palms on her dark slacks as she walked through the automatic doors, both to wipe off the sweat, and to try and rub off the remaining red tinge of her blood-smeared fingers.

  Taking a moment to make herself presentable, Makayla ducked into one of the several unisex bathrooms dotting the halls and washed her hands. Staring up at her drawn face, she splashed some water on her cheeks for color. It washed away some of her makeup, but Makayla really didn’t care at this point, she just didn’t want the hospital staff asking if she needed to be admitted since she was so ashen.

  Sighing as she ran her fingers through the slight wave that had re-entered her normally board-straight hair, Makayla figured she was as decent as she was going to be tonight. And considering what she’d gone through, she looked a lot better than she could have, bloodshot eyes and all.

  A polite query at the receptionist’s desk got her Joseph’s room number. Luckily, he was out of surgery and in a room recovering. Makayla exhaled with relief that he was still alive. She’d have felt absolutely horrid if he’d died because of her. Hurrying her way to the second floor, she noted the door plaques until she got to the very last one in the hall. The door was ajar when she got there, so she gave it a light push and let herself in.

  The room was eerily dark. Heavy curtains were drawn over the windows and the only light seeping into the room was coming up from under the bathroom door. Makayla could make out the shape of Joseph on the bed, seemingly deep in sleep, could see the outlines of tubes in his nose helping him to breathe. He looked pale in the faint light of the room, a ghost lying in a ghostly white bed. But he wasn’t alone in this solemn space.

  A man sat on the edge of the bed, his head down, his back to Makayla. Just over the soft whirring and buzzing of the machines in the room, Makayla heard the man say, “I’m so sorry, Joseph, I never wanted this to happen to you. I never wanted you involved. I never wanted anyone to get hurt…”

  Makayla’s back stiffened as the familiar southern tang in the voice hit her ears. Feeling faint and at the same time furious, she stepped to the edge of Joseph’s bed. The visitor turned to look at her and Makayla’s heart seized at the love and warmth she saw reflected back to her in those dark eyes, eyes that didn’t look surprised to see her.

  “Chance? What the hell are you doing here?”

  Sighing, he stood from Joseph’s bed and faced her. “Hello, Makayla. I was hoping I would run into you before I left town. I think we have a few things to talk about, don’t you?”

  Makayla’s jaw dropped as far as it would possibly go. A few things? More like everything! Her mind was spinning so hard and so fast that Makayla could only stupidly stammer out, “Uh, well…yeah.”

  Chapter 20

  A Choice

  She looked great. No, considering she’d just been held at gunpoint, knocked out two shotgun-wielding men, and then been questioned for hours by the police, she looked amazing. Chance knew he was stupid for still being in the city, Adrian had pretty much told him that right to his face, but Chance had to stay and explain…if he even could. There was a lot that was unforgiveable, but if he could somehow make Makayla see that he wasn’t as evil as she probably thought he was, then maybe they could separate on amicable terms.

  God, he hated the thought that they were
separating at all. They wouldn’t, if it were up to him. But he knew that Makayla would never be with him after this. It just wouldn’t happen.

  Chance indicated a chair next to Joseph’s bed for Makayla to sit in, since she might want to for this conversation. She put her hands on her hips and glared at him instead. Chance sighed, then nodded. He knew she wouldn’t react well to this. Honestly, he was a little surprised that she hadn’t dive-bombed for the phone yet. Makayla seemed a little surprised by that too. Staring at the clunky contraption on the nightstand next to comatose Joseph’s head, she snipped, “I should turn you in right now.”

  Chance smiled, nodding again. “Yes, you probably should…but you won’t.” At least, he hoped she wouldn’t. Not yet anyway.

  Her eyes snapped back to his, the pale blue depths cold and icy. It was a look he hadn’t seen on her since he’d stolen her wallet, what felt like a lifetime ago. It was a look he’d been hoping to avoid ever seeing again, but in the back of his mind he’d known this would happen. She was too smart for him to hide his true nature forever.

  “Why wouldn’t I?” She clipped each word like just having a civil conversation was a struggle for her. She probably wanted to scream at him, and he wouldn’t blame her if she chose to…although the hospital staff may not appreciate it.