Natalie put her forehead on Campbell’s upper arm momentarily because her ears started ringing.
Thank God. At least she’s alive. Thank God.
“Sounds like life to me, buddy. Everybody has trouble making ends meet. What the fuck makes you think you’re so special?”
“And you believed my father when he said he’d give you anything if you got rid of me?” No idea where the question came from but another flicker of doubt shot across Jay’s face.
“What reason would he have to lie? And he’s our father. Not just yours.”
“Are you kidding me? If you do believe him then you already know he’s willing to have his daughter murdered for money which he has more than enough of.”
“Attrition. Some people have to be stepped on so the rest of the winning class can rule.”
She acted as if she didn’t hear him at all. “And if you don’t believe him he’s turned you into nothing but a pawn to do his dirty work. That’s not a father I’d ever want to be associated with. You can have him all to yourself. I washed my hands of the both of them years ago.”
“I kill you and he’s been lying to me he doesn’t get anything out of it. There’s no way he’s trying to screw me over.”
“Why? Because he’s been father of the year to you up to this point when he wanted something from you? He’d get rid of two birds with one stone, Einstein.”
“How do you figure that?”
“Simple. You kill me and then he will pin it on you so fast your head will spin.”
“He wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t. He promised me.”
Campbell shrugged. “And I can’t imagine the drunk driver was a coincidence.”
Jay’s eyes got huge.
He was so shell-shocked Natalie almost felt sorry for him as Campbell continued.
“I’m sure you called Father Asshat and told him you were about to do the deed and he told you something about helping take care of it for you.”
“But I told him I was fine. I was strong. I’d take care of it.” He pointed the gun at himself while he spoke, emphasizing his words. “I could do it. He trusted me with taking care of the matter.”
Natalie held her breath until he was done talking, terrified something would happen when the gun was pointed at Starling. “Take care of what?”
“The squeaky wheels. That’s what he called them. Wren and Hazel. Squeaky wheels.”
Campbell shook his head. “He didn’t give a shit about them being squeaky and implicating you, Jay. Not at all.” He shrugged his shoulders and his mouth turned down into a frown. “They were squeaky against him. They could testify against him. That’s all he cared about when Wren had a change of heart.”
“No. They wouldn’t do that.”
“Because he told you to kill them, Jay.”
He brushed the back of his hand across his forehead, blocking his view of them for a few precious seconds.
Just that fast, Campbell reached beneath his shirt in the back, flipped open the small strap holding his gun in the holster and shoved it into the waistband of his pants.
Jay mumbled to himself. Talking himself into something or out of something she wasn’t certain of.
Then the most welcome sound in the world filtered through the glass to Natalie. A siren. And then another growing steadily closer. The faint shrill noise grew louder and somehow Jay didn’t seem to notice as he talked to himself.
“Jay,” Campbell called to him.
“What?” he asked as if someone had kicked his favorite puppy.
“The glass out front. What happened to it? Were you trying to still pin something on Braden or was it something else I haven’t twigged on yet?”
“Paintball gun. Ingenious. Short range but they were perfect for what I needed.”
The sirens were even closer and Jay shifted his weight from foot to foot as he tried to process everything.
“But what was the point in it? You just broke a glass that was fixed in a few hours.”
“Braden was supposed to be here. It was something else to pin on him. Then he didn’t show. Fucker.”
“Then why the fire?” Natalie asked. “It was just a small something in a trash can. Did you really mean to burn the place down?”
He shrugged. “Of course not. If I wanted it burned down then I would have burned it down. Or blown it up. I was the one who called 911.”
“But why?” Campbell prompted. “I don’t follow.”
“The cops showed up at my buddy’s house that night. They were there when I got home.”
“Home, Jay?” Natalie asked him. “That was home.”
“As good as any other.” He focused back on Campbell again. “So I had no place to be. No place to go. I was tired of running and tired of coming here every day to see her happy and rich. It was time to finish this so I could get my money and move on. So starting the fire I knew you’d have to close the shop and you wouldn’t just leave the repairs to someone else to oversee. The both of you would have to stick your noses in one more time. And you’d be here alone. Just as you did.”
Campbell acted as if none of that info affected him at all and he wouldn’t let up. “And the gun, Jay? Where’d the gun come from? Who’s it registered to?”
“He gave it to me.”
Natalie heard him swallow several feet away.
“And I don’t know who it’s registered to. He told me it was all taken care of. All of it. Down to every last detail.” He stared at Campbell, beseeching him to be wrong, Natalie thought, but unable to see any flaw in his very simple logic.
“I’m sure it is. I’m sure he’s hired a legion of people to make sure his nose stays clean after you kill us.”
The sirens grew even closer and Starling’s hand squeezed again and she shifted her arm against her chest.
“They were here tonight.” Natalie looked up at him and he seemed to freeze.
“No they weren’t.”
Natalie nodded one time toward the door. “They came in wanting me to give up the clinic. Come back to work there.”
“They even talked about adding her back into the will.” Campbell’s jaw tightened and he pulled her close as Jay pointed the gun at them again.
“But I’ve done everything he’s asked me to. Everything he’s wanted I’ve taken care of. Without question. Without fail.”
“But you have failed, Jay.” Campbell’s words were quiet but Jay stumbled back as if he’d been hit.
“No I haven’t,” he whispered.
The look on his face was a gut punch to Natalie. He wasn’t her stalker then nor the un-remorseful son of the man she was born from. The man who’d used him and turned him into nothing but a weapon to do his dirty work. Another person for him to use and then throw away. In that moment he was the sibling she’d always wanted. Someone else who understood how horrible it was to have everything laid out before her but have one of the people meant to protect them be nothing but an uncaring human being focused on nothing but his own sick games.
“Sure you have, Jay. Natalie’s still alive.”
Jay looked at her and then back to Campbell and he smiled. An evil emotion twisted his features, turning him back into the man who’d been after her for a year and a half. “Not for long. I hold all the cards now. I’m in charge.” He yelled the last line and Starling tried to open her eyes. “But I’m going to make you pay first for getting in my fucking way. None of this would have happened if you hadn’t shown up and made Natalie fall in love with you.”
Campbell chuckled. “She doesn’t love me.” His unflappable confidence in his words stopped Natalie’s heart in her chest.
“The fuck she doesn’t,” Jay yelled. “She lets you do anything to her. Everything. My wife wouldn’t even let me touch her for months. Nothing.”
“Natalie submitting to me doesn’t mean
she loves me, Jay.”
Sirens came even closer as Jay raised the gun and pointed it at Campbell’s chest. “I’m gonna shoot you first and make you watch me teach her a lesson and then I’ll shoot you both. A murder suicide is going to make great news tonight.”
“You’ll be nothing but a blip on the radar of this city and then your father is going to throw you under the bus as hard and fast as he threw you away. You’re nothing to him. Nothing. And you’re going to find that out soon enough. I almost feel sorry for you. Almost.”
“I don’t need your goddamn pity. I don’t need anybody.” Spittle flew from his mouth just as two NYPD squad cars screamed to a halt outside the clinic.
Jay panicked and tossed Starling into the air.
Natalie screamed and leapt for her, but she had to move out of the protective cover of Campbell’s body.
Catching Starling and cradling her to her chest, she turned at the last minute and crashed into the coffee table. Just as she landed hard on her back with Starling against her chest two gunshots exploded behind her.
She screamed as glass shattered, and she rolled to the side to protect Starling. She glanced over her shoulder as soon as she could. Jay was on top of Campbell and her heart stopped beating.
“Campbell,” she whispered, so afraid she couldn’t move.
Then Jay fell lifeless to the side and Campbell got to his feet with his gun aimed downward.
He turned toward her, blinking rapidly as if he were trying to focus on her. She could tell the moment he found her and a smile tilted his lips as he took a step toward them.
Then time seemed to slow to a crawl.
He took another step and then fell to his knees. Cursing, his hand went up to his side. To his rib cage.
“Campbell,” she yelled as she tried to get to him. Holding Starling close, the baby let out her first wail and Natalie cried with her.
“Thought. I. Moved. Fast. Enough,” Campbell wheezed out as he went down on his side.
Natalie pushed him over onto his back and gasped. A bloody bullet hole stained his shirt and she could hear the wet sounds of Campbell trying to breathe.
“No, no, no,” she cried as she looked up at his face.
Blood ran from his mouth as he tried to speak.
“Drop the gun, drop the gun,” someone yelled as several uniformed officers poured into the clinic through the broken glass pane.
Natalie panicked when someone dragged her away from Campbell. “Save him. He’s been shot. Save him. Please.”
Trying to get back to Campbell, she kicked and fought the hold the officer had on her.
She kneed them in the shins and with an oof they let her go. She scrambled back to him and took the hand he’d outstretched to her. Sliding in a pool of blood seeping from his side she stared down at him. “Don’t leave me.” She held Starling close as she clutched at her.
More men and women came in and vaguely she remembered someone calling for a bus and someone else said two were almost there.
“You can’t leave me. You can’t,” she cried with tears streaming down her cheeks.
His eyes lost focus as his eyelids slowly closed.
As she squeezed his hand it went limp and she screamed at them to help.
Paramedics came through the glass and someone tried to pull her away again. She fought them like they were dragging her to the gates of hell. And if Campbell died that’s exactly where she would end up.
She fought harder and then she heard her name.
“Natalie, you have to let them work. Natalie!”
She blinked and focused on the man lifting her and Starling to her feet.
Detective Wyatt.
“Let them do their job. It’s the only thing that’s going to save him.” His words permeated her panic and she stopped fighting.
As he pulled her back two paramedics descended on Campbell. One bagged him and the other cut his shirt down the middle.
Blood poured from his chest wound, which the paramedic at his side shoved some kind of material against to try to stop. Quickly it was covered with red.
People were yelling, and another team of paramedics were crouched down by Jay.
All Natalie could do was stare at Campbell and his limp, bloody hand on the floor as they started chest compressions.
She panicked again. “He doesn’t know. He doesn’t know.”
One of the paramedics pulled out a portable defibrillator and turned it on.
“He doesn’t know what?” Wyatt asked as he held her back.
Devastation swamped her and nearly sucked her to the floor again. “He doesn’t know I love him. He doesn’t know how much I love him.”
“You’ll get to tell him. You will.”
Natalie could hear it in his voice that he didn’t believe his words any more than she did as one of the paramedics yelled, “Clear!”
Campbell’s body jolted as the electricity zapped his heart.
Starling clutched at her and she held her tight as they cried.
“I’ve got a rhythm. Let’s move him. Hurry.”
Wyatt comforted her as they lifted Campbell’s lifeless body onto the gurney.
How does this turn into happily ever after?
She shook her head as they strapped him down.
Chapter Thirty-One
Campbell
Natalie wouldn’t leave his side. He knew that much.
He’d come in and out of consciousness several times, but his body wasn’t responding to what he wanted it to do.
He remembered pushing the panic button in the clinic when Jay walked out holding Starling. Greta had told him about it when she gave him the grand tour the first week.
Starling.
Was she alive or dead? Hurt? Scared?
Blacking out again, he came to with Wyatt talking to Natalie. He heard him say something about accessing the cameras after he got the panic button signal. Jay didn’t know he’d put the camera system on a UPS battery backup to keep them functional. So when he cut the main power they still kept recording, transmitting.
Wyatt knew what he was walking in on and brought what seemed like half the department into the clinic. He remembered something about the boys in blue storming the front section before he’d passed out.
Ice hit his veins and he wanted to moan but he couldn’t swallow, couldn’t talk, couldn’t—the world faded away again.
The next time he came to there were two more voices. Familiar.
Clay and Angela.
They came only for a little while. Something about ICU being douchebags. But they had to hurry anyway because the babies were with Detective Wyatt in the waiting room.
They talked with Natalie for a few minutes, telling her not to worry. They would care for Starling for as long as she needed to be with him.
He could hear them but he couldn’t talk, couldn’t move.
The pain.
It lanced through him every time he tried to move. His head was the worst. No. That was wrong. His chest was the worst. Both.
Fuck. Natalie. I’m here. I’m…here. Fighting the wave of nausea proved fruitless even though he knew he was lying down.
In a hospital bed?
A cool hand brushed across his forehead and the pain lifted for a few precious seconds though he couldn’t open his eyes. He was so tired.
“I’m here, Campbell. I’m not leaving. Rest, you hardheaded man.” Natalie took his hand and he tried to squeeze it.
So. Tired.
His thoughts faded away again.
When he woke the next time something was different. Very different. He didn’t feel like a balloon anymore. Sucking in a shallow breath through his nose, he wanted to sigh in relief. No more tube down his throat. No more ventilator.
He was so happy.
Until he
tried to swallow.
Fire.
His throat was on fire.
Struggling to open his eyes took almost everything he had. He tried to move his fingers and they actually wiggled against something. Then all of a sudden the most beautiful thing appeared above him.
Natalie.
“You’re awake,” she whispered.
He closed his eyes to keep from crying like a baby and then panicked when he couldn’t get them back open.
“Wait, wait. Calm down. I’ve got you.”
A warm washcloth brushed across his eyes, helping him open them again.
“Just a little residual from the surgery and your extra-long nap.”
He opened his mouth and tried to swallow again and couldn’t hide the wince.
“The tube came out just a couple hours ago. You’ve still got one in your side though so no trying to yank it out again.”
“Again?” he croaked.
“Lemme get you a little bit of water. They said not too much too fast or it could upset your system.”
He tried to watch her but had to close his eyes, fighting another wave of nausea.
“You got a concussion taking out Jay. Saving us.” She put a cup to his lips and a little trickled into his mouth.
He swallowed, so thankful for something to wet his lips and tongue. “Starling?” he croaked. “Is she…?”
“She’s fine. Fine.” She set the cup aside and her hand shook. “He chloroformed her. He could have killed her and I don’t think he really would have cared either way. And then he threw her. She could have been paralyzed or worse.”
Moving his hand in small degrees, he kept going until he found hers again. He held on to her and she him. Tears came and she wiped them off both his cheeks.
“But she’s fine. I caught her while you protected us. You’re so brave.” She wiped beneath her own eyes and she tried to smile and grimaced.
“You?” he asked with a squeeze of her hand.
“I’m okay.”
He squeezed again and scowled at her.
“Cracked a couple ribs on the fall. Bruised a couple more places. I’ll be fine.” More tears leaked over her eyelids. “I don’t know what I would have done if something would have happened to you. I can’t live without you, Campbell. I just can’t.”
Ultimate Surrender: The Surrender Series, Book 2 Page 34
