In Time to Love

by Gloria Martin

  But, that meant there was no one to protect him. He could run away in the morning and try to hide from these men all he liked but, without his gang to protect him, he was a sitting duck. It was only a matter of time before he was found and killed.

  I knew then that there was only one thing for Heath to do.

  “You have to go to the police,” I told him finally.

  “Kayla, I told you—” Heath began, but I wasn’t having any of it now.

  “No, Heath,” I said. “There is no other option now. Your buddies aren’t going to help you out. Besides, you’ve got the drugs. Take them to the cops and they’ll be thrilled. They’ll probably cut you a great deal!”

  “I can’t,” Heath said. “I just can’t do that to my—”

  “So-called friends who abandoned you?” I said. “No. If they won’t help you, why should you help them?”

  To my surprise, Heath didn’t argue. He just sat back and stared at me wide eyed before his face broke into a smile.

  “Hey,” he said finally, “do you have any idea how sexy you are when you’re mad at me.”

  I rolled my eyes. I’d heard that line a million times before.

  “Don’t change the subject,” I said.

  “I’m not,” Heath answered. “You’re so sexy that I’m willing to say yes to you. I’ll go to the police in the morning.”

  “You will?” I asked hesitantly.

  “Yeah,” he answered. “You’ve got a point, anyway. The Mats dumped me as soon as I made one mistake. I was never far up. I should have known they were just using me as cannon fodder anyway.”

  I stared at him for a moment. His smile was gone. He looked back down at the floor, hands folded.

  I moved my medical bag back over to the couch, took out my alcohol swabs and began dabbing at the spot near his cheek.

  He winced and tried to pull away as soon as the liquid stung the spot.

  “Don’t be such a baby,” I said with a roll of my eyes.

  “You could’ve warned me,” he said.

  “When I lifted the swab to your cheek, what did you think I was going to do?” I asked.

  He looked at me and raised an eyebrow. A smirk crossed his lips.

  “Do you really want me to answer that?” he asked.

  I felt heat race up my cheeks as I looked into his eyes. I should have rolled my eyes. I should have given him a sharp reply and moved my hand away.

  But, in that moment, I couldn’t move, I could hardly breathe.

  As though in slow motion, I saw my hand move to his cheek. He cupped my face in his hand and pulled my lips towards his.

  We kissed and I felt like I was falling. I wrapped my arms around him as my stomach swooped up into my chest, as though I was tumbling one hundred stories to the ground.

  He grabbed me and pulled me closer to him. Before I knew it, my body was flush against his. I was almost in his lap, kissing him as passionately as he had kissed me.

  I felt his hand move from my shoulders up underneath my shirt. I felt his hand move to my bra and fondle my breasts over the cloth. I felt him growing harder beneath me through his jeans.

  I let out a low moan into his mouth.

  This, apparently, was too much for him. Quickly, roughly, he moved his hands to my shirt and lifted his mouth from mine to tug the fabric over my head.

  Just as quickly, he reached behind me and unsnapped my bra. Immediately, his mouth moved to suckle my bare breasts as his hands began to unbutton my jeans.

  I gasped as his tongue played against my nipple and moved my hands to his shirt. I lifted it to feel the warm skin of his bare chest beneath my fingers.

  I felt his hands finally undo the button and zipper of my pants. I shifted to allow him to pull the jeans from my legs. As soon as I was free I moved to tug his tight, white shirt over his shoulders.

  The moment I did, he let out a grunt of pain and I pulled back.

  I looked at him as he raised a hand to the arm that was still bandaged from the day before.

  “Stupid arm,” he said apologetically wincing.

  “We should probably be doing this in the bedroom then,” I said. “After all, you need bed rest to recover.”

  With a mischievous smirk, I took his hand and pulled him willingly from the couch.

  “Is that what we’re calling this?” he asked. “Bed rest?”

  “What else would we call it?” I replied as we neared my room and I opened the door.

  “I could think of a few things,” he muttered quietly before kissing me again.

  He moved me backward, his arms firmly around my middle. Even with my eyes closed, I could tell we’d entered the bedroom. All the same, I gasped when my legs reached the bed.

  I gasped again when Heath, almost roughly, pushed me back onto the bed. He then grabbed my panties and pulled them down my legs.

  When I heard them gently fall to the floor, Heath stood there for a moment. Staring at my naked body, which, I have to say, I’ve never been particularly proud of. My skin’s always been too pale, my hair too light, my breasts lopsided and my hips too wide. No size zero, like I said.

  For half a second, I thought he would walk away thoroughly unimpressed and say ‘forget it’.

  That’s why my heart melted when I heard his next words.

  “Holy shit are you beautiful,” he whispered.

  My eyes widened and my heart stopped. No man had ever called me beautiful before. They never used that word for me.

  “You don’t know that, do you?” he asked correctly reading the surprise on my face as he took off his shirt revealing perfect, hard, tight abs. “You really have no idea how gorgeous you are.”

  He unbuttoned and slid his pants off his hips and his boxers with them.

  He moved to the bed and began to crawl towards me. I felt his hand move down my body to touch my center, just where I’d been dying to be touched by him for so long.

  I moaned and he let out a satisfied chuckle before moving his lips to my ear.

  “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted this,” he whispered, “how long I’ve dreamed of seeing you here. Like this. Writhing and hot and wet and desperate for me.”

  Unable to bear it any longer, I wrapped my arms around his neck and moved my lips hungrily, desperately to his.

  We didn’t speak the rest of the night. Instead, I writhed and screamed in pleasure underneath him. He in turn kissed and licked and suckled every part of me he could find. And, when he finally pressed into me, all the tension, all the fear, all the frustration I had felt seemed to melt away.

  When he cried out and released into me, I could feel the tension release in him too. It was like a breath of fresh air for both of us. All our anxieties were shoved aside by this one desperate act.

  When he rolled over next to me, I wondered if he would stay. I wanted him to, but I knew I couldn’t push him.

  I thought about all Heath’s past girlfriends, if you could call them that. None of them lasted more than a month or two, and he’d always been very casual about leaving them behind. Would it be like that with me?

  As we lay there, spent and exhausted, I clearly pictured Heath getting up, apologizing quickly for losing control and fleeing out to the living room. I almost expected it.

  That was why I was surprised, shocked even, to feel him roll back to me and curl his arm around my waist.

  He pulled me into his chest like I was his lifeline like he never wanted to let me go.

  I felt him nuzzle into my hair before his lips reached my ear once more.

  “I love you, Kayla,” he whispered gently. I paused for a moment as my heart seemed to soar in my chest.

  “I love you too,” I said clearly. Though I barely got the words out before I felt him begin to breathe with sleep. Even now, I’m not sure if he heard me then. But, that didn’t matter.

  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 w
hat 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 man.

  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.