by Payne, Jenna
What mattered is that I knew the words were true. Both for him and for me.
And, I knew that, no matter what happened next, no matter what other stupid thing he got himself into, I would be right there by his side.
Thoughts of love were still in my head when I drifted off to sleep. These were pushed out immediately as I woke to the feeling of harsh, cold steel against my scalp.
I blinked my eyes and looked up at my side of the bed. There, a large man with a shaved head was holding a gun to me. I opened my mouth automatically. I meant to scream. But the large man beat me to it.
“Scream and you’re dead,” he told me.
*****
“You’d better wake your boyfriend, sweetheart,” the large man told me. I didn’t hesitate to obey. I turned towards Heath and shook his uninjured arm gently.
“Heath,” I said in a shaky whisper, “Heath, wake up!”
I didn’t dare turn back to look at the gun I knew was still poised on me. I felt its presence. I didn’t need to see it.
Heath turned slightly in his sleep and muttered “What is it?”
Before opening his eyes and seeing the large man and gun still pointed at my head. He scrambled to sit up beneath the covers.
“Mornin’, Heath,” the large man said. “Bunsun’s just outside the door.”
“Look, man, you don’t have to—”
“Thought you’d send us on a fuckin’ wild goose chase huh Heath?” the large man said, interrupting Heath. “Bet you think you’re pretty funny, huh? We’ll see who’s laughin’ when your little girlfriend gets her head blown off.
“Leave her alone,” Heath said throwing the covers off and standing up. “She’s got nothing to do with this.”
Clad only in his boxers and a white undershirt, he began striding towards the large man who immediately turned his gun from me to him.
“One more step and you both die,” the man said.
Heath stopped where he was, glanced at me and put his arms up in a sign of surrender.
“All right, All right man, I’m not moving,” Heath said, “just don’t do anything stupid.”
“Funny,” the large man said, “maybe that’s advice you should’ve followed. Where’s the coke?”
“It’s here,” Heath said. I stared at him.
“Where?” the large man asked.
“Garage,” he said. “With my bike. I can show you.”
Heath slowly began putting his shirt on over his boxers. As he did, the man turned to me.
“She’s coming with us,” he said.
Heath immediately turned around.
“She doesn’t need to-”
“I’ll decide what needs to fuckin’ happen here,” the man said sharply, still pointing his gun at Heath. He then turned back to me and prodded my side with the gun.
“Come on, sweetheart, up,” he said.
I was very aware, suddenly, that I was completely naked under the covers.
“Ca-can I just…”
“What’s the fuckin holdup?” he bellowed. “Come on! Up!”
I reached forward quickly and grabbed my bra and panties as Heath stepped forward.
“Come on, man,” he said. “At least let her get dressed.”
He looked me up and down. There was a sneer on his face that made me want to crawl back under the covers.
For a moment, I thought he was going to order me out of the room as I was. Completely naked, entirely exposed.
Then, the large man moved towards the window behind us. In one movement, he moved the desk in the corner of my room in front of the window. Once that was done, he turned back to me and Heath.
“You wait outside with me,” he said to Heath, “your girlfriend’s got two minutes to make herself decent. She doesn’t come out in two minutes we come in shooting. Understand?”
Heath nodded.
“And you?” he asked turning to me.
“I…yes,” I said shakily, eying the gun.
Heath moved towards me and, to my surprise, the gunman backed off.
“It’s okay, Kyla,” he said, “I’ll be right outside.”
He moved to quickly kiss my lips. No sooner had his lips met mine than he moved them to whisper in my ear.
“Create a diversion as soon as I give him the bag,” he muttered. He’d barely finished the sentence before the large man pulled him up.
“That’s enough,” the man said. He pulled Heath away from me then pushed him to the door, gun still poised at his back.
Heath opened the door and, with one last look over his shoulder at me, went out into the hallway. I could barely make out the image of another tattooed arm standing right beside the door.
As soon as Heath disappeared, the large man turned towards me.
“Two minutes, not one more,” he said, “we’ll be out here keeping time.”
As soon as he slammed the door shut, I began to panic. I had less than two minutes to dress and think of some kind of diversion that would get these men away from us without anyone dying.
It was true, I’d been under pressure before at the hospital. People died if we didn’t get to them in time. I’d seen it happen. But this was different. This was more personal.
I knew even if Heath did give these men what they wanted, they would kill him. There was no way they were going to let him live to testify against them.
That meant that both my life and the life of the man I loved was riding on me coming up with a brilliant plan in the span of two minutes.
I’d never felt more pressure in my life.
*****
I came out shaking, well before the two-minute deadline and without even the faintest beginnings of a plan.
I finally saw the face attached to the arm of the man outside my door. He was taller than the man who had burst into my room waving a gun, but, he was less built.
And, the pure white of his mustache told me that he was a good deal older than either Heath or his gun-toting companion.
“I’m sorry about this,” he said to me in an oddly gentle voice as soon as I emerged from the bedroom. “Hopefully it won’t take too much time.”
I didn’t say anything. Simply glared at him, squared my shoulders and marched over to Heath who was standing in between the two men.
“Are we ready?” the older man whom the large gun wielder had called ‘Bunsen’ asked.
“Yeah,” Heath said, “I’ll show you.”
Heath led what felt like an ominous death march to the garage. I moved behind Heath, grasping his hand with both of mine.
Behind us were the two bikers, their guns drawn.
When we reached the door that lead to the garage, I saw Heath’s hand move, not to the garage light, but to the garage door opener.
Apparently, the large man caught this too. Because before Heath could press the button, the biker extended his gun towards him.
Heath stood staring at the man, his eyes wide. It was clear he had frozen.
“The garage light’s out,” I said, thinking quickly. “The only way to see anything once we close the hallway door is to open the garage door. Then the light from the front will shine in.”
It was a complete lie but, apparently Bunsun believed me.
The large man turned towards him and in the soft light from the hallway, I saw him nod to the other man.
“Fine,” the gunman said grudgingly as he closed the hallway door.
We were cloaked in darkness for several moments before the garage door opened and allowed several pricks of flood light to shine through.
It was still fairly dark. But, at least now we could make out each other’s faces and the items in the garage.
“It’s in my bike,” Heath said pointing to his motorcycle that stood in an open space right next to my car. “I’ll get it.”
“Don’t turn your back,” the large man said, extending his gun towards Heath. I barely saw Heath nod before I felt a strong arm reach around my waist and pull me roughly towards the large m
an.
I gasped in surprise before I felt the cold steel of the gun once again meet with my forehead.
“And if you try anything at all, I’ll shoot her first. You get it?”
Heath opened his mouth as though to speak but, in the end, he looked at me and simply nodded.
Never turning his back on the two men, he reached into what looked like a small compartment behind the front wheel.
When he came back up, he had a bag of white powder in hand.
“Here it is,” he said moving towards them. “All of it’s here.”
He was coming closer. He was going to hand it to them and I still didn’t know what to do.
That was when I remembered. That millisecond before the bag reached Bunsen's outstretched hand, I thought of the simplest, most primitive thing I could do to cause a stir.
Quickly, I reached my leg backward and kicked up into the large man’s groin. He let out a help of pain. As soon as he did, he let go of my arm, when Bunsun reached out to catch me, Heath dove back into the secret compartment just above the tire on his bike and fished out a key.
As soon as I heard the engine rev, I rushed to jump behind Heath just as the large man pulled the trigger.
A bullet flew just above my head.
“Move again and we shoot. No more warning,” the large man said. Both his and Bunsun’s guns were aimed straight for us.
Heath did not move from the bike and I wrapped my arms around his waist.
“Hold on,” he muttered to me before turning the bike around and whizzing out of the garage.
I heard another gun fire, but I didn’t dare look back. I knew the two men were scrambling to get onto their own bikes which I’d seen parked in my front drive.
What’s more, I knew it wouldn’t be long before they caught up with us.
“How far is the police station from here?” Heath called back to me just as I heard two more engines rev in the distance.
“Not far,” I called back to him. “Turn right at this next corner then straight—”
The rest of my sentence turned into a yelp as a gun fired and yet another bullet whizzed past our heads.
I heard the engines of our pursuers’ motorcycles coming closer as Heath turned the right corner just as I had instructed.
I heard the squeal of tires behind us as we started down the street. I caught sight of the police station in the distance.
“There!” I told Heath, “It’s—”
I cut myself off again, this time with a cry of pain. I hadn’t heard the gunfire. I didn’t realize that the other two were so close until the bullet tore into the flesh of my arm. Blood spurted out of the wound.
“Kayla!” Heath shouted. He didn’t slow down.
As I wrenched my eyes closed in pain, I felt his bike swerving and swaying trying to avoid the bullets.
A moment later, I heard sirens begin to sound from the police station. I heard men yelling. We slowed to a stop outside the station.
As Heath helped me off the bike, I opened my eyes just long enough to see the two other bikers turning around and rushing the other way. Two cop cars were chasing them.
Heath put my arm around his shoulders and hoisted me up and over the bike seat.
The stinging in my arm had increased and I looked down to see streams of blood pouring down as Heath walked me into the station.
I saw cops swarm around us. I heard one call for an ambulance as Heath set me down on a bench.
“It’s ok, Kayla,” he said, “I’m here.”
I looked into his eyes and smiled before resting my head back and closing my eyes. After that, the world faded to black.
*****
I didn’t have to stay long in the hospital. Less than a week and that was more for safety reasons than because I truly needed it.
Heath spent every day with me at the hospital. He refused to leave my bedside and got angry with the nurses when they tried to tell him that visiting hours were over. It was only when I told him that I needed sleep, he agreed to leave me for a few hours every night to go back to the townhouse.
The police came in to see me twice. Once it was to take my statement about the break in. The two men they had been chasing had disappeared and they hadn’t been able to find them yet.
But, they did find the drugs.
Heath revealed that he kept a fake bag behind the tire of his bike in case he needed it. That was the bag he had given Bunsun and his gunman. It was filled with icing sugar.
The real drugs were inside the warehouse where I’d found him beaten two days before.
The warehouse was owned by the Bulls biker club. The police said that gave them enough evidence to arrest not just the two men who had chased us, but all the leading members of the gang.
The second time the police came was the day I was set to be released. They were accompanied by a man in plain clothes who identified himself only as Agent Murphy. He claimed he worked with the FBI.
“Why do the FBI want to talk to me?” I asked, confused. Heath, clutching my hand beside the bed, did not look confused. He looked wary, even defiant.
“Well, I had hoped to talk to both of you separately. But, Heath insisted—”
“Whatever you’ve got to say, you can say to the both of us.”
“Ok, then,” Agent Murphy said.
“We know that you’ve given evidence against the two men who broke into your home,” he said, “and that those men are still on the loose. We can offer you protection if you would like to take it.”
“What sort of protection?” Heath asked. Now pressing my hand so tightly that I was afraid the blood would stop circulating.
“We give you both new identities, move you to different cities, give you different jobs,” he said, “that way they’re less likely to find you.”
“What about the rest of our family?” I asked.
“The rest of your family should be safe enough,” the agent said, “the gang doesn’t know their names or where they are and it’s unlikely they’d be interested even if they did. What they’re interested in is you.”
I was silent for a moment. I knew I had to take what they offered. I would never survive if I didn’t.
Then I looked at Heath. His eyes met mine and I remembered what I had told myself. What I had decided the night I ended up in the hospital.
“Would you be able to place us together?” I asked agent Murphy.
He hesitated, looking from me to Heath and then to our hands clasped together over the hospital bed.
“The agency won’t place couples together unless they’re married,” he said. “If we put you in the same city...it would be too much of a risk.”
I nodded then looked to Heath. I was willing, prepared to turn back to the agent and tell him that, in that case, I couldn’t do it.
I opened my mouth to speak, but, Heath beat me to it.
“Can we have a few days to think about it?” he asked.
“You can take two days,” Agent Murphy said. “But, we need to know your answer by the day after tomorrow.”
With that, the agent left.
I wanted to ask Heath why he needed time. I wanted to know what there was to think about.
After all, that night, he had said that he loved me and I’d believed him. He’d stayed with me while I was in the hospital. I couldn’t imagine why he would want to think about being apart from me now. Unless he was trying to protect me. Unless he was going to pull some stupid noble shit and tell me, I was better off without him.
He was in for a fight if he tried that. Now that I’d decided I was sticking by Heath’s side no matter what, no one and nothing was going to pull me away from him.
Throughout the rest of the day, I tried to think of some way to tell him this. But, the timing never seemed right.
Before I knew it, I was checked out of the hospital and Heath was driving me home. He’d taken my car and left his motorcycle in the garage.
We sat in silence most of the drive. The silence stre
tched on as we entered the house.
Heath moved to the table and slumped into a chair beside it, exhausted.
I knew I had to say something. Anything. So, I decided I would.
“Heath I—”
“Kayla, do you want to marry me?”
I stared at him with my mouth hanging open for several seconds.
“I...what?” I asked lamely.
“I mean it,” he said looking up at me. With a sigh, he turned and moved towards me. I was still standing by the garage door, motionless.
“I don’t want to be without you anymore,” he said, “and if we go through with this protection and we’re not married, it means I might never see you again. I can’t do that.”
He moved closer to me and I backed into the wall. I was very aware that my mouth was still opening and closing like a particularly stupid fish.
“And I...I know I do stupid shit and I might not change overnight but...for you I will try. You could help me. We could help each other. I just think—”
Before he could finish the sentence, I had leaped forward and pressed my lips passionately to his. Not a moment passed before he was returning my kiss with equal passion.
Suddenly, I was being moved back towards the wall. I felt my back collide with it as Heath lifted me from the ground. I wrapped my legs around him as he pushed me further up the wall and took one hand to run it along my body.
He ran his hand down my leg and reached up to the place between my thighs where he pressed hard against the still covered fabric.
I leaned my head back against the wall and let out a low moan.
“Is that a yes?” he whispered in my ear.
“What do you think?” I asked pulling back slightly with a flirty smile on my lips.
He smiled back and his hand moved from between my thighs.
I was disappointed for one moment before I felt him unbutton and unzip my pants. Still looking at me with a naughty smile, he dipped his hand beneath the waistband of my underwear and touched my hot, wet center.
I moaned loudly once again as he said.
“I guess I will take that as a yes.”
Then he kissed me.
The rest of the night was spent in the bedroom, his body towering over mine, pressing into me, giving me more pleasure than I had ever felt before, I realized that this was the only man I would ever want to spend my life with.
