by Bella Emy
“Rick, that’s great, and I feel the same way about you, but—”
He grabs the side of my arm. “No, Maddox, you don’t understand. It means so much to me you’re with Addy and I one hundred percent on this. Man, I’m so happy, and to be completely honest with you, I really think I’m making the right decision and marrying her.”
I’m silent. I don’t know how to respond. He thinks? He is not sure? Shouldn’t he be a million percent sure he wants to marry her? A funny feeling sits in the pit of my stomach as I consider his words.
“Don’t you agree?” he pushes, asking for an answer.
Just as I’m about to respond and ask him if maybe he should really think about the whole thing before he goes ahead and does it, a call on the radio comes through from Brooks. “Martinelli, come in.”
I lift the radio off the receiver and respond. “This is Martinelli.”
“Martinelli, you and Hemmings get over to Sinclair’s. We finally got enough evidence to hook the son of a bitch. Get your asses over there now and make the arrest.”
Rick and I exchange a glance. Finally. It’s showtime.
“10-4. Copy that boss, we’re en route now.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“Thomas. It’s Officer Martinelli. Please open up. We know you’re in there. We just want to talk to you,” I say after rapping on the door three times with no response. But I saw him waiting behind the curtain.
Rick waits from behind a tree lining the street in front of the Sinclair residence for me to give him the okay. Finally, we’re going to nail this son of a bitch.
“Sinclair, open the door. I know you’re here. All we want to do is ask you a few questions,” I try saying again, but in all honesty, I’m losing hope that he’ll cooperate. I’ve seen how scenes like this play out so many times.
The door finally cracks open, but it’s barely enough for me to look inside. I see Thomas Sinclair, fear lacing his expression.
“I’m not falling for it!” He screams and slams the door once more.
Again, I knock. “There are no tricks here, Thomas. We just have a few questions we need to ask you about the night at Windown Industries.”
He cracks the door yet again. “I’ve told you everything I know about that day. It wasn’t me. Now back up from the door and go away!”
And as fate would have it, he slams the door all over again.
Nice… I tilt my head forward, shaking it from left to right. Then I look over my shoulder to see Rick waiting for me to motion him forward.
Turning back to face the door, I try a different approach, hoping this works. “Okay, Thomas, I’m backing away from your door.”
I take a few steps back so that I have an entire visual of his property, but I’m still close enough that he will hear me from inside. “Thomas, please… let me just talk to you. I know if you come out and we have a conversation, we can get this all figured out. I know life has been hard on you recently, but I promise we can help you with—”
In an instant, I’m cut off from my statement, as a screaming Sinclair comes emerging from the back of the house. With shaky hands wrapped tightly around a black Glock 19 Gem 4 9mm pistol, he holds it up, pointed directly at me. “Put your gun down on the ground now!” he commands.
How everything has changed in an instant. Damn. The only good thing is that he doesn’t know Rick is here, and at the right moment, I can signal him to take control of this crazy situation. But I need to play this out wisely and act like I’m cooperating with him or this could get ugly fast.
I hold my hands out and slowly inch toward the ground, reaching for my gun. “Whoa, Thomas… Okay, I’m taking my gun out of its holster and placing it down on the ground.” I straighten back up with my hands out in front of me and slowly take a step forward. “Tom, please just—”
He watches me through small eyes, all red from crying. But he never points the gun away from me. “Don’t take another step! I’ll shoot you! I promise I will! I already know I’m going to jail, so shooting a cop doesn’t fucking bother me!”
“Whoa, whoa. Okay, I’m backing up. I just want to talk. We can figure this thing out and get you a great deal so that you can serve the least possible amount of time.”
He shakes the gun frantically in my direction, opening and closing one eye. He looks strung out on Coke. He probably is and has been.
“You, you can’t offer me anything! You can’t give me anything I want,” he declares after a few moments.
I take a breath. “Well, what is it you want? Maybe we can talk about this.”
He sobs. “My wife left me. She, she, she took our kids… and then, as if that wasn’t enough, I lost my job… they fired me after fifteen years of service. Fifteen! Can you believe that, Officer Martinelli? Can you?!” He shouts the last part.
I nod. “I know. I’m sorry, Thomas. Sometimes that’s just the way things work. Why don’t you give me the gun and we can figure the rest out together?”
“No! No! No!” Sinclair screams, moving the gun back and forth. “Nothing is worth it anymore, Nothing!”
Nothing is worth it? Sure it is. I mean, I get how the poor man feels. His wife left him and took their three children away from him. Not long after, he got canned from a position he held for fifteen years. It felt to him as if everything was falling apart, because to him, it was.
In a way, I can definitely relate. Everything around me seems to be falling apart, too. The girl I love is being swept off her feet, and pretty soon, she’ll be marrying my best friend. Even though Pops is doing much better now, and he pulled through after that operation, I almost lost him. I almost didn’t even have the chance to let him know how I feel. But thankfully, I had. My parents’ store has almost gone down the drain, but I’ll help them get it back to the way it was if it kills me.
Although sometimes it feels like everything is coming to pieces and getting destroyed from one second to the next, something can always change, and things can always work out for the best.
And this is what I have to relay to Sinclair. This is what I have to tell him before he does something incredibly stupid that he may not be able to fix once it’s too late.
“Sinclair, you’ve got to hear me out. Things may seem bad, like they can’t get better now, but there’s always a chance that everything will work out in the end. Things always have a way of working themselves out. Please, just listen to me. This is not the end. It’s not over. It doesn’t have to end like this.”
“Yes, it does! This ends now!” In the blink of an eye, Sinclair runs to the right, making a beeline for his car.
“Stop!” I shout and pick up my gun.
“You’re surrounded, Sinclair! Stop or we’ll shoot!” Rick bellows as he emerges from behind the tree, pointing his gun at Sinclair.
Thomas spins around, once again pointing the gun at my chest, at the sound of Rick’s voice. But instead of dropping his weapon as he was instructed, two gunshots go off in an instant, one after the other.
Gasping sounds come out from the back of my throat. I can’t believe the scene that just unfolded before me.
As I drop to the ground and get ready to say goodbye, piercing red blood flows, covering the sidewalk and driveway all around us.
Chapter Twenty-Two
It’s funny how in an instant, everything can change. Your entire life can turn upside down in the blink of an eye.
And then, everything is different. Everything changes and the life you knew is gone and can never be brought back.
As I rock myself from back to forth, my eyes swell up from the tears that have spilled over for the last two minutes. Two minutes. Ha. It feels like an eternity. It feels like I’ve been on this sidewalk cradling my dying best friend in my arms for much longer than that. And yet, I know it hasn’t been all that long.
As the gunshots went off one after the other less than five minutes ago, everything that mattered this morning is now useless. Now, none of the nonsense matters.
The mi
nute Sinclair fired his gun, Rick responded and fired back. Instead of shooting me as he had intended to, Sinclair missed and shot Rick as he came into view. He wouldn’t have missed. Sinclair would have shot me and hit me had Rick not intervene. A bullet that was meant for me hit Rick, and now, he’s lying in my arms, barely hanging on.
My best friend saved me, and now he’s paying the price.
Why? Why did he have to be the hero? Why did he have to save me from the bullet that was meant for me? Sinclair aimed at me; he wanted to hit me. Instead, he hit my best friend. This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening.
When Rick fired, he hit Sinclair in the middle of his forehead, ending his life. Rick had no choice but to fire once Sinclair tried to hit me.
“Rick,” I whisper, rocking back and forth.
A weak smile sits on Rick’s face as the blood from his injury washes out onto the pavement; the bullet entered Rick’s chest, right above his heart. Thankfully, there was back up already on the scene when we arrived and I know someone already called in an ambulance.
“H-hey, Mad. Good thing… I was… there… he would have… hit you…”
I shake my head back and forth. “Rick, you shouldn’t have stepped forward, why did you do that?”
“That’s what… best friends and partners… do… they save each… other.”
Without even thinking, I would have done the same thing for him. No question about that. And I know Rick would have asked me the same thing had the shoe been on his foot.
I swallow hard. I press tightly on his wound, but it doesn’t stop the bleeding. The sight of crimson blood flowing out of him and onto the sidewalk is a reminder that with each second that passes, we’re one second closer to losing him.
We.
Me and Adelyn.
Oh my God… Adelyn. What am I going to do when she finds out? When she finds her fiancé is bleeding out on the ground with a gunshot wound to his chest, about a month before their wedding?
Not like if it were at any other time, it would have made this any easier. But still.
This is scary for me, and I’ve seen this type of thing happen a million times before. But this is my best friend, and he’s not doing so well right now. This is her fiancé, and I can’t imagine what it’ll be like for her.
“M-Maddox,” Rick’s meager voice brings me back to reality.
I stare down at him for only a second before letting my gaze roam around, asking my peers how long until the ambulance arrives. “Call my brother, Maverick. He’s an EMT, get them out here now!” I wipe the corner of my eye with the back of my hand.
“They’re on their way, Martinelli,” Liam, an officer on our team announces.
“Ma-Maddox…” Rick speaks again.
I look down at him. “Rick, hang on for me. Hang on… help will be here soon. You’ve just got to hold on a little longer. Just hold on.”
“You’ve always been the brother… I never had.” Rick closes his eyes.
“Rick! Stay with me! Stay with me,” I shake him gently.
He opens his eyes once more; his small smile is once again sitting on his face. “Mad, you were the greatest friend… I ever had… thank you.”
Were? Had? Why is he talking in past tense?
“No! Don’t you say that! Don’t you talk like that! This isn’t over! You’re not dying today! You’re not dying today!”
“Maddox… it, it’s okay.”
I fight back the tears threatening to spill over once more. I can’t let him see me cry. I can’t let him see that this is killing me, but it is. I can’t lose him. Not today, not anytime soon.
Rick takes me by surprise as he grabs my hand and gently squeezes. I know it’s taking every ounce of fight that he has left in him to do so. “Mad… take good, good… care of A-Addy for me…”
I furrow my brows. “Wh-what?”
He swallows as the tears form in his eyes, matching mine. “Take care… of Addy. She’s… going to need you. I’m fine with it, really. I-I know you both… never stopped caring… about one another. I know you still… love her. And that’s okay… I’m happy you do. Because I know… you’ll be there for her now.”
What the hell? He knows I still love her? I didn’t even know I loved her until recently. And now he’s telling me he’s fine with it if we get together? This cannot be happening. It cannot.
“Rick, stop. What are you—”
“Hey, I may be… dying and that’s okay. I w-want you to take… care of Addy… when I’m no longer around. Be ev-everything she needs. She still loves… you.”
What in the ever-loving fuck is my best friend talking about? Adelyn doesn’t love me. She never loved me. I think the gunshot wound is getting to his head.
“Maddox, she loves you… take care of my sweet—”
“Rick! No!”
It’s at that very moment that Rick’s eyes roll to the back of his head, and as I look up to see if an ambulance is nearby, I see the paramedics have finally arrived on the scene. But so has Adelyn, and she’s running toward us.
Chapter Twenty-Three
It’s as though she’s seen a ghost. Adelyn rode the entire way over to the hospital in the ambulance while I took the car. I wanted to go with her, but of course, they wouldn’t let me. Adelyn and the paramedic were already more than enough people in the back.
And now, as we sit patiently—or fuck, impatiently, who am I kidding—in the waiting area of the hospital, Adelyn rocks back and forth in her plastic green chair, staring into deep space nine. She looks straight ahead, eyes red and full of tears.
I sit next to her, quietly. I can’t manage to say a word. I’m so shocked by the whole ordeal myself, and at the same time, I don’t even know what I would say. Never would I have expected to be back at the hospital visiting my best friend who is currently in surgery while my father lies in the room upstairs, getting better by the day.
After sitting in the waiting area for what feels like a century, Adelyn finally speaks. But she doesn’t face me. She continues staring ahead of her, never meeting my gaze. “Maddox. What happened?” She says my name then pauses for a good while, like she has to think of what to say to me.
“Ad,” I begin and then search her face, looking for something, anything. Lord knows I don’t want to be in this moment right now. “It was—”
“Don’t lie to me, Maddox. Tell me exactly what happened. Why did my fiancé get shot?” Finally she turns and faces me, her eyes full of tears and red-rimmed. She never meets my gaze, though.
I hold out my hands, and she finally looks into my eyes. Those gorgeous dark brown irises of hers always have had a hold on me. “Adelyn, that bullet was meant for me. He was protecting me.”
She furrows her brows, my comment not letting her emotions ease up at all. What was I thinking? That if I told her that bullet was meant for me, she would feel better about the whole thing? Like I’m not her friend? Like she doesn’t care about me?
Like she doesn’t love me…
What the hell was that about that Rick said. It can’t be true. Adelyn doesn’t love me. We’ve just always been friends. Of course she’d be upset if the suspect was aiming for me as well.
“What are you talking about, Maddox?” Her voice cracks, but it still sounds beautiful.
I chuckle, but it’s void of humor. “R-Rick got in the way of the shot… Sinclair was aiming it at me… Rick jumped out once he heard the gunshot, got in the way so I wouldn’t get hit and shot back, killing him on impact. Now he’s lying in that emergency room, getting operated on, when all the while it should have been me.”
Adelyn’s mouth turns into an O. She places both of her hands on either side of her head. “Oh, Maddox…” She runs her hands over her face, stopping at her mouth.
“I’m sorry, Adelyn…” is all I manage to blurt out.
She shakes her head from left to right. “No, no. Don’t you do that.” She grabs my hand in hers. “This is not your fault, and I’m not blaming you for it. Do yo
u hear me?”
I nod.
“I wouldn’t have wanted it to be you behind those doors any more than I want it to be, Rick. Do you get that? Do you understand what I’m saying?”
I nod again because words have become something I’m no longer capable of forming.
She sucks in a deep breath and I catch the rise and fall of her chest from my peripheral. “This was just a terrible accident. We’ll get through it though, I know we will. Together.”
“Together,” I repeat.
“Maddox?”
I turn my head to meet her gaze once more. “Yes?”
“Do you think we’ll hear something soon? About Rick?” Another deep breath inhaled.
“I think so,” I reply, but what I really want to say is I hope so. I don’t know how long we’re going to be here today waiting for something, anything, and hoping for the best. That’s all we can do right about now. The waiting is just so difficult. Especially when you don’t know what’s going on.
“Maddox?” she repeats.
“Yes, Ad?”
“Hold me.”
I nod and let her fall into my embrace. She leans into me and my arms wrap around this wonderful woman, who becomes more and more broken by each passing second.
Two hours later, and still no word on Rick. Adelyn and I have been taking turns pacing the area. For most of the time, she’s been quiet. I’ve tried to say things to her here and there, letting her know that no news is the same as good news, but she doesn’t say much.
I can sense her fear. The far off look in her eyes and the way she moves lets me know she’s scared shitless… and so am I. But I can’t let her see that. I can’t let her know that I’m worried about Rick. I have to be the strong one here and give her some kind of hope.
My anticipation grows as a doctor walks into the lobby area. Adelyn and I exchange looks for a second, hoping for some good news, but we’re let down when we realize the doctor didn’t come in to see us. Instead, he walks over to a mother carrying a baby in her arms; her red eyes and tear-stained face matches Adelyn’s.
