Chase (Lakefield Book 4)

by Jennifer Vester

  I stood back from the stairs and tried to think of anything else I could do. I could try going for the window again but I knew it was a lost cause at this point.

  I wondered if they would shoot me. It didn’t seem like such a bad way to go if this plan didn’t work. Better than any other scenario I could think of. Drowning would be top on my list of things I didn’t want to experience anytime soon.

  A shiver ran up my body. It was hard to tell how much time had passed in this place. Two minutes, five minutes. Maybe at a stretch ten. Where was Drew?

  Brock was probably going out of his mind. I loved him. If I got out of this mess I would tell him six hundred times a day until he got tired of hearing it then I would tell him while he slept.

  He was the strangest most irritating person I knew and yet I loved the idiot. He was mine and I was his. He had told me things that he felt embarrassed about, told me things that scared him and despite the fact that he had nearly screwed this entire thing up, I still loved him.

  I saw that the table was in view of the stairs and walked over to move it back to where it had been. It wasn’t terribly heavy but I still had to slide it carefully across the floor in order to keep it quiet.

  When I had it back in place a thought popped in my head. Going down to my knees I looked under the table and saw that it was also built with nuts and bolts. I tried unscrewing a couple but they wouldn’t budge. On the last try I managed to get it loose and unscrew the entire thing.

  Getting the leg off was another story. I wrenched at it several times and it moved but didn’t slip free. Finally, I leveraged it with my bare feet and it let out a large CRACK as it dislodged from the top. There was a split in the top but it might do as a weapon.

  I heard loud voices upstairs and picked up my makeshift club ready to use it on one of them if I had to.

  That’s when I heard the sirens. I nearly dropped the table leg in relief.

  I heard the basement door open right at that moment and brandished my weapon like baseball player. I was ready for them.

  “Well it looks like the cavalry is here,” Elaine sneered at me from the top stair.

  Just a few more steps bitch. Walk down them.

  She came down three steps but not to the point where I wanted her to be. She had a gun pointed at me and laughed.

  “Think that little piece of wood will stop a bullet?”

  “Where’s Angela?”

  “She’s leaving right now. She doesn’t have the stomach for killing someone. Where’s the kid? Hiding under the stairs? It won’t matter because both of you will be dead in a minute and this place is already on fire. They’ll find your bodies in the rubble. Boohoo.”

  I glanced up for a moment at the ceiling. Fire, that wasn’t something I expected. If I didn’t get out of the basement I would burn to death if she didn’t kill me outright.

  There was a loud banging upstairs and Elaine moved down another stair. I could see smoke now coming into the basement a little and could smell the acrid bitterness of it.

  I walked forward another step, trying to stay far enough away that a bullet might not kill me if she was a bad shot but one to the head and it was going to be lights out.

  “Elaine, we could both leave right now and still live. If you do this, you might not escape.”

  There was pounding upstairs and I could hear a window breaking.

  “It’s too late for you anyway,” she said and waved the gun at me.

  A shot rang out as she fired at me and it hit the wall behind me. I flinched and ran to the side as she took aim again.

  I could hear voices upstairs yelling as I tried to keep her guessing on where I would move. Shuffling to the other side of the room she shot at me again and the makeshift wooden club I had been carrying split into a thousand shards. The wooden bits and pieces stung my face and I flung what remained of it at her.

  She had a surprised look on her face as and took another step down trying to regain her balance from moving out of the way.

  She stepped down again and took aim. This time when she shot at me it grazed my arm and I could feel the sharp sting of it. My arm jerked back slightly and I rushed the stairs.

  She took another step down and the wooden stair underneath her slipped just as I heard someone yelling at the top of the stairs.

  “ANDI!” I heard Brock bellow.

  Elaine lost her footing as she fired another round. The bullet pierced the ceiling above me as I rushed forward and watched her tumbled down the last dozen stairs to the bottom.

  Her hand flew out to the side as she landed on her back and the gun she was holding slid across the floor.

  “Brock! I’m here! The stairs aren’t safe!”

  “Hold on baby, I’m coming to get you,” he said. “We need to get out of here, now!”

  He gingerly came down the stairs and my eyes swung back to Elaine. She was groaning and trying to sit up. One of her legs was bent under her at a bad angle and blood was seeping through the pants that she wore.

  I heard two soft pops and a hole appeared in her head and eye. She slumped back down in an unmoving and lifeless pose. Brock reached me before I looked away and tucked a gun into the back of his jeans.

  “Don’t look, baby. It’s over.”

  He picked me up in his arms and started carrying me up the stairs as carefully as he could. I was too speechless to respond. We moved through the basement door into a smoke filled room that was partially ablaze.

  We passed by another body with blonde hair. Angela.

  He killed them both.

  I started coughing as we moved through the room. The front door was closed and we were making our way toward it. Fire suddenly leapt from the curtains to a chair in front of us and flared.

  Brock turned away from the blaze and tucked me closer into his chest.

  “Back door?!” I screamed.

  I could feel him grunt then he started coughing as the smoke started billowing through the room even heavier than before.

  He stumbled through two more rooms that were quickly going up in flames before he set me down and started coughing harder. I grabbed his hand and pulled him toward a light source that I assumed was a window.

  The black smoke was gagging me and tears started to roll down my face.

  He yanked me back for a second and started lifting the window.

  “Andi, climb out!”

  The last time I had followed his orders I had gotten kidnapped with no guarantee of whether he would live or die. The smoke started clearing out through the open window and I yanked on his arm.

  I stepped outside onto a manicured lawn and saw half a dozen people rushing toward me.

  Turning back to the window I yanked his arm through and pulled with every bit of energy that I had until he was partially clear of the burning room.

  He sucked in a breath and slumped to the ground but he was out of the house. His face was gray with smoke and soot as he lay there for a moment.

  Someone was picking me up but I struggled against them, trying to keep Brock within view. My lungs felt heavy and still full of the smoke inside the house.

  I recognized Jake bending down beside him and talking. Brock shook his head and turned toward me as I was carried further away from him.

  My hand reached out to him but I was unable to see him respond as two paramedics came rushing toward him, blocking my view. Jake walked away holstering a gun and glanced over at me with a grim look.

  I didn’t know what that meant but I was worried for Brock. He had sucked in a lot more smoke then I had while he was in the house.

  I was loaded into an ambulance and finally looked at the person who had carried me away from the house. I saw Holden leaning over me as he looked at my arm.

  “You’re a tough one, Andi. Just a graze though, you’ll live.”

  I coughed as a paramedic hooked me up to something and put an oxygen mask over my face. I pulled at it until my mouth was free.

  “Brock,” I croaked.

>   “He’ll be fine. They’re going to load him up for a little trip to the hospital, I’m sure. He can deal with those vampires up there. I hate hospitals.”

  “They said—framed Blackwell.”

  “No worries we know,” he said as he put the oxygen back on me. “Noah figured it out. Someone at his company put two and two together on a financial investment done between a Ms. Elaine Vosceles and Angela Parker. The investment was going to launch a chain of designer clothing for Angela but Elaine’s background was sketchy. Colton Blackwell’s name came up on several bank transfers from years ago, making her a very rich woman.”

  I pulled the mask down again. “Don’t think Angela knew.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe, not my area of expertise to figure out though. Put all of those coincidences in a room, the recipe Brock was obsessing over, Colton Blackwell, Angela’s background, her mom with Colton and it becomes a little less coincidental. Brock is going to have a million questions for you I’m sure. Just get better champ.”

  I tried to frown at him and he laughed as he exited the doors.

  Owen hopped in and nodded at the medic just as he was giving me a shot.

  “Hey sis, just going to ride along with you. Brock got loaded into his own truck and they’re going to be headed there soon. Drew is good, he’s headed back to Aiden’s house. Speaking of, I’ve never seen anyone that pissed off before. Blew his top until Olivia started yelling at him, then he called Holden. That woman can be a ball buster and I’ve never heard someone cuss so much in my damn life. Jesus.”

  I nodded at him and felt drowsy suddenly.

  He leaned in and gave me a serious look. “I wasn’t there when that old bat took him out. I was on the phone with Noah and by the time I got back they had already left. I had no idea. Bet you’re rethinking that whole chip thing now, aren’t you?”

  I narrowed my eyes at him.

  He chuckled. “All it took was one fraction of a second where your device showed up on Brock’s tracking system and we had you. The kid calling 911 was fast thinking though. We heard it about the time that one of Holden’s helicopters got into the air.”

  My eyelids drooped and I tried to shake it off but I felt a hand on my head smoothing down my hair as I lay there struggling.

  “Sleep, Andi, he’ll be there when you wake up. Let me take care of him for a couple of days. I promise no more paintball lessons for at least a week. Brock will be too. He really does love you. Just between you and me, he’s bought a very expensive looking engagement ring. He texted me a picture earlier before you met up for dinner. It’s ridiculous. Act surprised when he pops the question. Did I not say you were a Fleming?”

  I coughed when I chuckled, then drifted to sleep. The last thought I had was of Brock and his brothers. A family I was willing to join.

  Epilogue

  I was surrounded by babies.

  Wailing and unhappy babies with the exception of Kate’s daughter Mira. She was sweet most of the time. Even when she was hungry she seemed a lot more like her mother than her twin did. Ethan was a hellion already and had his parents panicking every time he threw a fit. In those instances, he would throw his head back, scream, then hold his breath until he turned red in the face.

  I watched as Logan took him from Kate and walked around patting him on the back. Kate looked relieved that her two month old son was in his dad’s arms and not hers. I could tell that the rigors of dealing with two babies at the same time was making her stress like any other new mother would. Happy but stressed.

  Julia was comforting her new baby, Daisy, as we sat outside on Aiden’s huge patio. Holden was talking with Aiden while they cooked on a huge grill that was built into a stone enclosure. He kept looking over at Julia and Daisy like he needed to rush in and take over the situation at any minute but was resisting the urge.

  Liv played in the yard with her son Tobias, while Drew looked on with amusement. They were trying to teach the toddler how to catch a ball but he just kept giggling and chasing after Drew.

  Mira stretched an arm and yawned as I held her. She was completely oblivious to the antics around her. I slipped my finger into her hand and she grasped it and looked at me. We got along just fine until she started crying. Right now she was easy and sleepy.

  “Sure you still don’t want to have a baby?” Brock suddenly whispered in my ear.

  I flinched and a shiver ran down my back. I wondered if that would ever stop happening with him.

  We had both recovered well from the fire without too many complications. When I had come out of my sleepy daze he had been there right beside Drew. Both of them had fussed over me even though Brock had been ordered several times to go back to his room. Eventually the staff had given up and given us a double room. It didn’t stop him from getting out of bed from time to time to crawl into my small one just to lay down with me.

  “I’m still absolutely positive I don’t want a baby,” I whispered back at him. “I’m perfectly happy being a good aunt to all of these kiddos.”

  Brock slid into the seat beside mine and looked at Mira. “She’s sweet, we can just take her home for a few nights. They won’t miss her.”

  I chuckled. “Right. They’re not always like this. Look at Ethan.”

  Brock glanced at Logan and smiled. “Clearly, the evil child. We’ll take the angel.”

  I gave Brock a look that told him to shut it.

  “He’s just a baby but I don’t want one. I want to go to school first, then we’ll talk about adopting an older child. No babies.”

  Brock smirked at me and looked down at Mira again.

  “Fair enough. So, does that mean you’re going to marry me then?”

  “I’ve told you no for two months straight so why would that indicate that I want to marry you? Plenty of people just live together in relationships without marriage.”

  “Because I gave you the best orgasms of your young life last night with my head between your legs and you said a lot of yes, yes, yes when I asked.”

  I looked around to see if anyone had heard, then scowled over at him.

  “Will you be quiet about that?” I hissed.

  He shrugged and gave me an indifferent look. “What? I like making you scream. Should I give you my impression of how you sounded.”

  “No!” I hissed again and Mira stirred. “You’re going to wake up Mira and her poor little innocent ears don’t need to hear about it.”

  “Marry me then and I’ll stop. Otherwise I’m going to sit here and describe every moan, scream and begging word I heard last night. I don’t give a shit who hears it.”

  I snuggled Mira closer to my chest and rolled my eyes.

  “I love you, Brock, but we don’t have to be married to be happy.”

  “Says you. I would be happy being married. That way I can call you Andromeda Renee Fleming and you can officially be my wife. When we adopt our hoard of children, they’ll all be Flemings and I know Drew wouldn’t mind changing his name too.”

  “And you’ll chip all of them no doubt.”

  Brock looked at me like I was nuts. “Of course. All Flemings get chipped. Drew didn’t mind.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  Brock cleared his throat and spoke up. “Hey Kate, did I tell you what Andi was saying to me last night?”

  She opened an eyelid and looked at him like she could care less.

  “She was saying—”

  “That we’re getting married,” I smiled at her, then scowled at Brock.

  The guys turned toward us and said congratulations.

  Logan gave their son to Kate and shook Brock’s hand. They spoke for a moment privately then Logan left.

  Brock sat back down afterward and leaned back in his seat. He put his hands behind his head and shut his eyes.

  “Told you not to test me, Andi.”

  I sighed and shook my head. This was my family and he was most definitely going to be my husband. It was not the family I was born with but the one that I would have chosen over
any other and I was more than happy.

  Mira burped quietly and spit up on my shirt. Reason number one-hundred-eighty-two why I was never having a baby. They were messy. Even the sweet ones.

  Brock looked over at me, still wearing a smirk on his face. I handed Mira to him and smiled.

  He held her at arm’s length for a minute and looked like he might panic.

  “Just cradle her for a little bit while I go wash this off.”

  He gave me look that promised retribution if I didn’t hurry.

  I stepped into the kitchen, walked around the island and started trying to dab at the spot that Mira had left.

  I heard Logan on the phone somewhere in the living room.

  “Just thought I would let you know, man. Contact me when you can. Hang in there. Bye.”

  I finished rinsing my hands and turned back to him as he walked in.

  “Everything okay?” I asked.

  Logan looked surprised to see me for some reason.

  “Good. Just passing along your news.”

  I tilted my head and looked at him. “Hmm. Anyone particular?”

  He shook his head. “No, just family. Everyone likes good news.”

  We stared at each other for a moment longer.

  I nodded and smiled at him. “Have I ever told you that I’ll murder you if you ever do anything to Kate?”

  Logan laughed. “I would never hurt Kate and you know it. It was family. We’re all happy for you both.”

  I gave him a sheepish look. “Thank you.”

  “I mean it. Of course, you know that Brock is a nuisance half the time. So, if you would like a tranquilizer for him, I would be more than happy to send one home with you.”

  I laughed and headed through the door. “I might take you up on that.”

  “On what?” Brock asked. I noticed that Mira wasn’t in his arms anymore.

  “Nothing dear,” I smiled at him and sat in his lap.

  “Hmm, I love you,” he said and kissed my cheek.

  “I love you too, IAN.”

  ~ The End ~