“What did you mean, Cade? You and Scott killed those hookers, didn’t you?”
“What do you know about it?”
“I know some of them went missing. That platinum blonde one, the one who looked like Kit, never got back together with me. I liked her but she never showed up again even when I called and requested her. They told me she disappeared, left without a word and didn’t come back.”
“Shut up, Collin.”
“No, no I won’t, not this time. That’s why you weren’t upset Scott took a bullet, isn’t it? Scott knew because Scott helped you. That’s why we buried him with those other rotting bodies.”
Cade narrowed his eyes at his brother. “And that’s the same spot where I intend to bury all three of those bitches. I plan to put Quinn, Baylee, and Kit in the ground right alongside those whores if it’s the last thing I ever do.”
When Cade moved toward him, Collin flinched and aimed his Luger at Cade’s chest. “Don’t you ever hit me again; I’m tired of taking your crap. I’m in this just as deep as you; have just as much to lose, too. You want to stay and finish this, fine. But after we get Kit and that Boston prick, I’m heading out of here. I’m done with all of this.”
“Fine. Let’s just get tires on the damn truck so we can get out of here.”
“How do we get back our money now that Gloria’s gone? She was our bargaining chip, our insurance.”
“I believe in spreading around the insurance. There’s another way we can take care of all of them once and for all.”
“What time did Cade say he’d call back? It’s been well over an hour,” Kit pointed out as she paced the living room, back and forth, back and forth, all the while chewing on her thumbnail. “I knew I should have insisted she come stay with us until this was over.”
“Kit, you tried and she said she had too much to do before Ben got here.”
“Obviously, I didn’t try hard enough. She was vulnerable and I…I let her stay at home by herself.”
“You did try, honey.”
“Then I should’ve made her.”
Jake ran his hand through his hair. “There’s no point in beating yourself up. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine. Some of Donovan’s men should’ve been there with her. I should’ve thought of it.”
About that time, Kit’s cell phone rang. She looked at the display and grunted, “It’s a blocked number. Hello,” she said impatiently.
“Hi, Kit.”
“Mom, are you okay?” Kit asked, her voice breaking with relief welling inside her chest. “We’ll get you back, no matter what we have to do, I promise we will.”
“It’s okay, honey. I’m okay, thanks to my avenging angel who showed up out of the blue and got me away from them.”
“What? What are you talking about? What do you mean you got away? She got away,” Kit revealed.
“He saved me. But he’s shot, honey. He’s losing a lot of blood. I’m bringing him back to Crandall House right now. We’re on our way. Tell Quinn I need her in doctor-mode ASAP.”
“How close are you? Is there any chance you were followed?”
“I don’t think so. We’re humming along the 101 now, not yet at the Ventura County line.”
But twenty long minutes later, the Chevy pulled into the driveway at Crandall House and six anxious adults poured out of its double doors. Kit ran around to where Gloria was getting out of the car and made sure she was all right while Reese, Jake, and Dylan headed straight for the passenger side door where they found an unconscious man with black hair but graying at the temples passed out on the front seat.
The three men gingerly picked him up while Quinn led the way into the dining area where she had already set up a makeshift trauma room.
Quinn sized up the situation as Baylee stood by prepared to assist in the role of impromptu nurse. As soon as the men stretched him out on the table, the two women began to cut away his shirt so Quinn could examine the wound.
“Before we do anything, let me see what we’ve got first. Looks like the bullet entered through his right shoulder and traveled up to the clavicle. Missed the subclavian artery, though, at least I think it did. But he’s bleeding badly from somewhere. Without an x-ray I can’t tell if it nicked rib bone, though. Baylee, try to keep the pressure on the wound, right here.” She showed her what she meant near his right shoulder blade.
“I’m going to try and turn him over to see if there’s an entrance wound.”
“Should I get the alcohol?” Baylee asked.
“No,” Quinn answered absently. She examined the underside of his shoulder blade and then found the pierced flesh near his armpit.
“Anything we can do, Quinn, just let us know,” Dylan offered from the doorway, a little nauseous from looking at the red stains on the man’s clothing. “Do you think he’ll need blood?”
“Probably, but right now, I need supplies before I need anything else.”
Baylee chimed in, “I brought everything I could find from the bathroom medicine cabinet already. There isn’t a lot. Jake and Kit haven’t lived here long enough to accumulate much of what you’d call first aid staples. Alcohol is all I found.”
“That’s fine. What time is it?”
“Almost midnight,” Reese answered. “Why?”
“Perfect. There’s a pharmacist supply clerk at the hospital who is having an affair with one of the nurses. Every night he’s on duty, they manage to sneak off and leave the supply room door unlocked and unmanned. Reese, start making out a list of supplies. First on the list is a blood type kit, then Betadine, lots of it, gauze, all the bandages you can carry. And grab plenty of antibiotics.
“Baylee, go get Kit. I need the two of you to make a midnight run to the hospital pharmacy. I’ll make do with Surfer Boy here as my stand-in nurse while you two go get the supplies I’ll need.”
Jake spoke up. “Now wait a minute, Kit isn’t going anywhere…I want her here, safe and sound. Whatever you need, I’ll go get.”
“Damn right. Baylee’s not going anywhere either. Jake and I’ll both go instead,” Dylan agreed. “I don’t want Baylee leaving this house without me.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Kit argued. “I’m a grown woman. If I can help…I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for this man. Tell me what you want me to do, Quinn.”
“Dylan Burke, after what you did, sneaking out of this house behind my back, you have the nerve to try and tell me what to do? Just back off,” Baylee snapped. “Quinn has a plan, let’s hear it.”
“No need for anyone to get pissy. A man won’t get the job done. It’s that simple,” Quinn stated emphatically. “The supply clerk adores blondes, considers himself a bit of a lady killer when it comes to the fairer sex. Either Kit or Baylee will distract him long enough to raid the place for what we need. I’d say the job falls to Baylee since he loves little petite women. Kit will only intimidate him. While you’re at it please feel free to pay him back for being such a horn dog, horse’s ass.”
Kit snickered. “Oh, he’s gonna love Baylee.”
Baylee shook her hair back. “Damn straight. I haven’t lost my touch either.”
Dylan grinned at her. “I can attest to that.”
“And if you drive like a bat out of hell, you should be there by the time he goes on break at one o’clock. Surfer Boy, get over here and keep pressure on this wound. Let the women handle this one.”
Quinn grabbed a piece of paper out of Reese’s hand and started drawing the map of the storeroom and the path to take to get there. “Most everything I need will be here. If you enter through the loading dock, say right here, take a right down the first hallway, there will be no one around to challenge you, or ask questions.”
“I’ll drive,” Kit volunteered. “Baylee drives like an old woman.”
“I do not. Will he be okay till we get back, though?” Baylee asked.
“He’ll be fine. No way am I going to lose this guy after everything he’s done for us.”
Four hour
s and one surgery later, they had transferred Trevor to an upstairs bedroom where Dylan sat on a chair next to his bed giving him blood. With his arm outstretched, Dylan supplied him with a new source of A positive, which happened to be a perfect match to Trevor’s.
“How’s he doing?” Baylee asked.
“Still out of it, but then Quinn gave him enough morphine to dull the pain after she got out the bullet.”
“Quinn says he’ll make it.”
With his free hand, Dylan squeezed Baylee’s. “Of course he will. He’s getting my life force, some of my awesomeness thrown in there, too. He’ll have super powers for sure now.”
Baylee laughed and shook her head. “How is it there’s so much ego stored up inside that little brain of yours? You’d think it would explode.”
“That supply clerk didn’t flirt with you too much, did he?”
“We have a date Saturday night.”
“Like hell.”
She grinned. “You’re too easy, Surfer Boy. You think I’d two-time you with a sleazy supply clerk. No way. You should have seen this guy. He looked like something out of Saturday Night Fever. What’s up with Reese, though? He’s been quiet all night.”
“Says he has a lot on his mind but I’m thinking he’s fallen hard for the doc here and can’t wrap his mind around it.”
“Really? Quinn says he’s a really good dancer.”
Dylan shook his head. “Women. Why is it a guy who can dance gets you women all hot and bothered? Never knew Reese to turn down the opportunity to show off, though, that’s for sure.” He caught the twinkle in her eyes. “Why? What gives? Did Quinn share some kinky thing he did that I should know about?”
Just then, Dylan looked up as the doc came strolling back into the room. Quinn handed him a glass of orange juice and immediately snapped on latex gloves, started removing the IV. “I think you’re about done here, Surfer Boy. Drink that juice and get some sleep. And Baylee should not be sharing certain points of gossip when I know the most amazing deets...”
“Okay, okay,” Baylee interrupted. “No sharing of deets.”
Quinn leaned over Trevor, took his pulse for the tenth time since they’d brought him up to his room. “He’s got a fever but that’s normal for what his body’s been through.”
“At least you got the bullet out. Remind me if I ever get shot to let you dig around in the wound.”
“You ever get shot, Dylan Burke, you go straight to the ER, do not pass go. Oh look, he’s coming around,” Quinn said.
“I’m telling you it’s all that Burke awesome life force flowing through his veins now, works every time.”
Trevor’s eyes fluttered open. He tried to get up and blanched in pain. Weakly his head dropped back on the bed. “Fuck. Where am I? How long have I been out?”
“The Quinn Tyler Medicine Show and Traveling Circus at your service. Any pain?”
His eyes tried to focus on Quinn. “Some. How long have I been out?” he repeated.
“About six hours total. I’ll give you more morphine.” In one fluid motion, she reached over, filled a syringe with liquid and began to pull back the sheets to give him the injection in his butt.
“Six hours?” Trevor groaned and gripped the covers like a nun holding on to her skirt. “I don’t want it if it knocks me out again.”
“Tough guy, huh? We’ll see how you feel about that when the morphine completely wears off and the pain comes back for real, especially after I dug around your upper chest for bullet fragments. There were several. That’s why you lost so much blood.”
“I’ve been shot before. This one felt—different.”
“Hollow points,” Dylan surmised.
“Probably,” Quinn agreed. “All I know is they did some damage to the surrounding tissue.”
Trevor zeroed in on Dylan. “The Boyd brothers last I saw were holed up in a cabin near Malibu Creek State Park. I could draw you a map but after six hours, I doubt they’d still be there.”
“Gloria wasn’t sure where they took her. She didn’t see much of the cabin except the closet.” Dylan shifted his feet. “By the way, that thing with Connor…”
“He said he wanted to kiss you on the mouth to thank you if he ever got the chance,” Quinn tattled. “Come on, Surfer Boy, I’ll stand aside while you give him a big smack on the lips and tongue. I’ll even grab my camera phone.”
Dylan looked dumbfounded for half a second before he moved closer. “I…we’re… Baylee and I…thank you for what you did.”
Baylee took pity on him and leaned over Trevor, kissed him on the cheek. “What he wants to say to you is how very grateful we both are for what you did. As her mother,” she glanced back at Dylan. “As her parents, bringing Sarah back to us was nothing short of a miracle in our book.”
Flustered now, Trevor looked like he wanted to change the subject.
Then Reese came into the room. “Awake and talking, that’s always a good sign.”
“Jesus.” Trevor swiped his free hand down his face. “How’s Gloria? She had a nasty bash to the head when I found her.”
It was Quinn who answered. “Took three stitches to close, but she’s fine now. She’s in the kitchen. She’s pissed they killed Morty and upset about them messing up her new ’do. But she and Kit are doing their thing in the kitchen and whipping you up some breakfast.”
“Not sure I can eat.”
“We’ll force it down you then.” She winked and picked up a bottle of water off the nightstand. “Drink some water. The bullet did some damage to your scapula.” With her hand she waved it over her own shoulder. “I removed some bits of bone, too. Nothing you can’t live without. And you had some internal bleeding, which I believe I managed to stop. Of course an x-ray would tell me more, but something tells me I couldn’t talk you into heading to your nearest health care provider right about now if I tried.”
His lips curved slightly. “Not if I can help it.”
“Then I’m glad our little facility here could provide all your medical needs. We’re a twenty-four-seven operation. Baylee here is standing by to take your insurance information.” She gave him another wink.
About that time Gloria appeared in the doorway holding a tray. “Quinn said you could try to eat something if it’s light.”
Kit came into the room followed by Jake.
“Looks like the gang’s all here. I believe you know most of the players,” Quinn announced.
Kit went around to the bed to fluff up his pillows so he could sit up. “I hear we have matching bullet wounds in our shoulders.” She knuckle-bumped him playfully on his left hand. At the astounded look on his face, she explained, “War wound from my time spent with Alana, mother of the year. Mine was clean, went straight through. Looks like yours is a bit more of a challenge. Are you right- or left-handed?
“Right,” he answered, cautiously looking around at the crowd now gathered at the foot of his bed. Clearly uncomfortable with the attention, he wanted to be anywhere else at the moment.
“Since your right arm is at a major disadvantage, we’ll spoon-feed you, how’s that?” Kit offered.
“Look, if I could just have my clothes, I’ll get out of your way.”
“Oh, really?” To prove a point, one-handed, Kit pushed him back down into the stack of pillows.
“I don’t think so. You’re in no shape to try to make a run for it. Good thing we’re an all-inclusive hospice. Besides providing excellent medical care we also run a nice little quiet B & B here in the boonies where no one will think to look for you.”
With a bandage covering the side of her patched-up head, Gloria set the tray down on the nightstand and took a seat in a chair beside the bed.
In an upbeat voice, she wanted to know, “How’s my avenging angel, the one who goes around saving everyone?”
Trevor’s voice grew brusque as he screeched out, “More like avenger from hell. I’m certainly no angel.”
Gloria patted his hand. “You are to us. And we have no intentio
ns of letting anyone find you either. We’re keeping you to ourselves and safe until you feel like traveling.”
An amazed expression came into his eyes. “No cops?”
“No anyone. Whether you like it or not, you’re one of us now. You’ll just have to get used to it. Now, stop being such a pain in the butt and eat some of this chicken soup Kit made.”
“Soup?” He made a face. “I thought I smelled cinnamon and apples when I woke up.”
“Ah, good thing I consider a picky eater a challenge. What you smell is Kit’s apple tarts. But you aren’t getting any of those until you can keep down—the basics.”
She spooned up some liquid with noodles, brought it to his lips. “Now, why don’t all of you find something better to do like go get ready for your workday while Trevor and I get to know one another better?”
He stilled her hand, lopping some of the soup onto the bedding. “What did you call me?”
“Trevor. That is your name, isn’t it? Yes, we know who you are. Now be a good boy and open your mouth.”
CHAPTER 19 Book 3
“So you should probably get dressed. With traffic we’ll be cutting it close getting to the office on time,” Reese suggested.
“Are you nuts? I’m not going now. I have a patient. And besides, Gloria’s here so I won’t be alone. Plus, Kit decided to hire a high school kid to open up the shop, run the counter. After what happened last night, she’s sticking as close to Gloria as possible. And you heard Jake; he isn’t letting Kit out of his sight. I’m not even sure Dylan and Baylee plan to head out now to the hospital, either. This place is like grand central station now.”
Great, thought Reese, now what was he supposed to do?
“I’d really like you to come with me.”
“Okay, let’s have it. What is this all about? What are you not telling me?”
“Gloria can take care of Trevor. I want you with me, okay? I’d feel better.”
“Aw, that’s sweet.” She patted his cheek. “Okay, I suppose he’ll be fine until I get back.”
Evil Secrets Trilogy Boxed Set Page 94