Caroline rose to her feet and ran to her father’s side kneeling beside him. “Noooo! Daddy!” She looked up at Jason giving him the most evil look a person could ever give to another human being. Her breathing became rapid as she rose back to her feet and slid her hand in the pocket of her jeans. “I’m going fucking kill you!” She ran towards Jason in a fit of rage nearly knocking him over when they collided causing his gun to fly out of his hand and onto the floor.
He pushed her off of him but she continued to scream and charge at him again and again. Amour had never seen a woman filled with so much rage in her life. She was completely out of control. Tears ran uncontrollably down Caroline’s cheeks as she continued to attack Jason. She clenched on to his forearm with her fingers digging her nails into it as she lifted her other hand to his bicep. Jason gritted his teeth and groaned in pain. Amour could see that Caroline was holding something when her arm fell to her side. After she’d seen the item partially sticking out of Caroline’s closed fist and she’d managed to hop on Jason’s back, she knew exactly what Caroline was about to do.
“No!” Amour screamed as she watched the needle penetrate Jason’s skin and Caroline pump the liquid inside of him before hopping off of his back. Jason stood quietly as he began to lose the use of his muscles; then after about twenty seconds, he fell to the floor. Everything seemed like it was moving in slow motion to Amour. She gasped for breath knowing that Jason only had about twenty minutes to get medical treatment or he was going to die. Her heart once again started to beat so hard it felt like it would bust straight through her chest. “Jason!” she cried out before suddenly feeling another slap across her face but this time the pain felt like it seeped into her brain.
“Shut up! You killed my father! So now I’m going to kill you!”
Angela came from out of the corner and ran towards Caroline. “Do it! Do it now!”
She looked at Angela with the same evil expression she’d given Jason. Shut up! I hate you too! You’re nothing but a slut just like Carly!”
Amour looked over at Jason lying on the floor. She watched his eyes close as life slowly began leave him. “Please don’t die…” she mumbled to herself. The fact that she knew he could feel every bit of the suffering he was going through instantly made her cry even more. She tried to emotionally send him enough strength to hold on before focusing her attention back to what was going on.
Caroline was now pointing her gun at Angela. “Come on sweetie.” Angela said. “I’m your Aunt Angie, remember? You don’t want to do this.”
Without saying a single word, Caroline fired one shot straight through Angela’s head and she dropped to the floor. She turned to Amour and pointed the gun at her again. “You’re next bitch!”
The door swung open again causing it bang against the wall and in came five uniformed cops along with Mack and Jax. Alex tried to lift up by couldn’t so he laid back and clenched his teeth. “It’s about time! What took you so long?”
“Hey we got here as fast as we can. You didn’t call us until you were almost here.” Mack said.
All of the cops pointed their guns at Caroline. “Drop your weapon!” one of them said. Caroline said nothing; she just continued to point the gun at Amour. Anger along with tears filled her brown eyes as she just stood there, gun in hand staring at her target. “I said put it down!” the officer screamed.
After a few seconds, Caroline looked around the room, down at Angela lying dead on the floor and then at her father in the same condition. She looked at Amour again as more tears filled her eyes but this time it wasn’t anger she saw in them, it was sadness. Suddenly, a strange calm seemed to have come over Caroline and she took a deep breath and blinked once. “Lots of people think that I’m so lucky.” She shook her head. “No, I’m not. You’re the lucky one because Ted was smart enough to rescue you. What no one told you was that your mother broke up with my father years before she died. She didn’t want you to be a part of his lifestyle because she saw what it had done to me. I hated you for that, for being rescued, I still do.” She took another deep breath. “Angela lied to me and Beatrice at that time and told us that my father had started sleeping with her again. Now I know it wasn’t true but I will never accept you as my sister.” She chuckled. “Too bad the baby died right along with Carly because you probably would’ve actually had a real one.”
Amour frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“She was knocked up by Ted when I killed her.”
Amour became instantly lightheaded and soon felt as if she were going to pass out. She began to feel so many different emotions that she didn’t know which one to act on. This was all too much. She felt like she was in the Twilight Zone. When she heard the ramblings of what sounded like medics approaching, she quickly snapped back into reality. Thank god. As much as she wanted to call Caroline ever swear word in the English language, Amour knew that she was obviously unstable and the slightest thing could set her off. She had to keep her cool especially for Jason’s sake. He had to get medical treatment and he didn’t have much time to do so. “Caroline, please don’t hurt the medical workers. Please let them save Jason.”
She lowered the gun. “Whatever, I don’t’ care if he dies.”
Two of the cops moved two steps closer to Caroline as the medics rushed in and lifted Jason onto a stretcher. “Ma’am please put the gun down or we’ll be forced to use excessive force!”
Caroline looked at her father’s body again and then her eyes went back to Amour. Raising the gun up again, Amour knew without a doubt that she would surely kill her now but instead, she pointed it at her own head. Amour’s eyes widened as Caroline looked directly into them. Her lips parted before she softly spoke. “So, very, lucky…” Before Amour could take another breath, Caroline pulled the trigger and she also fell to the floor.
* * *
Amour paced back and forth in the waiting room of the E.R. scared to death that Jason wouldn’t make it out of there alive. When the ambulance had arrived with him, he was completely unconscious and his heart rate was very low. It had been about an hour since the doctor had come out and told them that it was a very good chance that the drug had done too much damage to save him. The thought of him leaving her after everything they’d gone through made her whole body start to tremble.
“Hey,” Mack said softly in her ear after touching her on the shoulder. “He’s gonna make it okay. I know Jason and if anyone’s a fighter, it’s him.”
“But the doctor said…”
“Doesn’t matter,” he interrupted. “Jason will be fine.”
“This is my fault Mack; this and Chandra’s death as well. I’m so sorry I caused all of this.” Tears formed in her eyes. “Because of me you’ve lost her and now you’re going lose one of your best friends.”
“That’s not true Amour!” He lifted her face to his. “If you had just simply hired him for a job then it probably would’ve been the same outcome. It comes along with what we do. Chandra’s death had nothing to do with you. She made the choice to help you because she thought that it would bring her and me closer together. If anybody needs to take the blame for that it’s me. I should’ve just been honest and not led her on.”
“Didn’t you love her?”
“I did, but not in the same way that she loved me. I used to but after she cheated on me, I just couldn’t fully give my heart to her again because I couldn’t trust her. I should’ve just let her go but I guess the selfish part of me wanted to keep her around because she provided me with what I needed most of the time. Sometimes, she was the only person I could count on.”
Alex and Jax approached them with four cups of coffee and a large box of donuts. “Any word?” Alex asked.
“Not since the last time,” Mack said.
The four of them grabbed a cup and sat on the sofas in the corner of the small room. Amour sat her coffee on the table because she just couldn’t bring herself to drink it, her stomach was in knots. She dropped her face in the palms of her h
ands. “I can’t lose him.”
Alex put his arm around her shoulders allowing her to rest her head on his chest. “You won’t, just have faith okay.”
Two hours of agonizing waiting had passed before the doctor returned to update them. The four of them quickly rose to their feet and waited for him to speak. “It was a very close call but I think we’ve managed to stop the progression of his muscle paralysis in time to save him. It turns out that whoever injected him with the drug didn’t put as much in him as we previously thought. Don’t get me wrong, had not received medical intervention for any longer then he did, he wouldn’t be alive and there’s still a strong possibility that he could go into cardiac arrest but for now he seems to be stabilizing.”
Amour stepped closer to the doctor. “But it is entirely possible that he will be okay right?”
“It looks as though he will be. Now he may not have full use his left arm anymore because that’s where it seems that the drug has taken the most effect but we won’t know until he’s fully conscious and tries to use it.”
“Is he still asleep?” Jax asked.
“Yes, but he should be waking up soon. The anesthesiologist just left the room.”
“Can I see him?” Amour asked.
“Yes you can.”
Amour decided to let the guys go into the room first. She wanted the most time with him because she wanted give him some of her strength to fight this. She placed the small chair that was in the room beside his bed and sat down next to him. He had tubes running through what seemed like every orifice of his body. He didn’t look good, at all. The only comfort she’d taken from this was the fact that the doctor said he’d most likely be okay.
She touched the side of his face with her finger. “Please get through this Jason.” She ran her fingers through the front of his hair and softly kissed his forehead. “If you can hear me, I need you to fight.” Tears formed in her eyes and slid down her cheeks. “I need you Jason. I know I told you that I didn’t know what we were, that’s not true. I do know what we are. We’re two people that probably shouldn’t be together because we could very well be toxic for each other. But you know, I read somewhere that some people are completely immune to certain toxins and that it doesn’t matter how much of it they receive, they just continue to live their lives as happy as can be. So yes Jason, we are two toxic people, but I know in my heart that once we are together as one, our love will be our immunity.”
She laid her head on his chest and listened to his heart. For the first five or ten minutes, it sounded weak and low but then she could hear it suddenly getting stronger. She closed her eyes and let the tears flow down her face and on to Jason’s chest. She didn’t speak, she didn’t move; she just kept her eyes closed and thanked god because at that moment, she knew that Jason would be okay.
* * *
The five of them along with Ace, a handful of family, a few friends and what looked like half of the Los Angeles Police Department stood in remembrance as the pall bearers carried Chandra’s casket at waist level towards the burial plot. The large American flag that covered it seemed to have let off a glow that gleamed in the sunlight and Amour felt as if she could feel Chandra’s presence at that very moment. Tens of fellow officers, family and friends paid tribute to her as they gave emotional speeches and the preacher recited a few scriptures.
The officers who served in Chandra’s department were then called to salute her. “DEEETAIL…PREEESENT ARMS!” someone yelled at a distance. An honor guard then raised flags in the air and they flapped loudly in the wind. A twenty-one gun salute was then preformed followed her casket being laid by the graveside and Taps being played by bag pipers. “ORDER ARMS!” was yelled by the same man in the distance as before. One of the honor guards then removed the flag from the casket, folded it up and gave it to Chandra’s mother. Tears ran down her face as she took it and held it to her chest.
She looked over at Mack as Amazing Grace began to be played eloquently by the three bag pipers. He seemed to be in his own world and completely oblivious to the one around him. He had no tears but she could see the sadness in his eyes which made tears form in her own eyes.
She felt Jason’s arms wrap around her waist from behind. “Are you okay?”
“I will be. I just feel so bad for him.”
“He’ll get through it. He just needs time.”
Jason was still feeling the effects of the drug that Caroline had given him. He was going to be fine in the long run but for the time being, his left arm was a tad weak which was expected. Jax, Alex and Shyla just stood quietly among them with blank expressions.
After the final song was played, the man in the distance called out, “DEEETAILLL…DISS-MISSED!” Mack placed a single rose on Chandra’s casket and blew her a soft kiss goodbye. And just like that, the funeral was over and Chandra was gone. Even though that may have been the case, because of the all the help and support she had given Amour and Jason, she will never be forgotten.
EPILOUGE
Three months later…
Jason and Amour sat nervously outside of his mother’s house. She’d decided to host Thanksgiving dinner at her place this year and she wanted everyone including Jax, Mack, Alex and Shyla to join them as well. She’d always considered all of them family so it was only natural that’s she’d want to spend the holiday with them. He looked over at Amour in the passenger seat as she admired the two carat diamond engagement ring Jason had surprised her with by hiding it in a cupcake at the Tropic Coast Restaurant. He figured it would be the perfect place to propose to her since it’s where they had their first meal alone together. It proved to be just as perfect as he imagined it would be because she burst out in tears and immediate said yes.
“I sure hope she likes me,” Amour said.
“She will honey. You’ve already talked to her multiple times on the phone.”
“I know, but you know it’s different when you meet someone in person. She’s your mom; I just want to make a good impression. I am going be her daughter soon.”
Jason cupped the side of her face and leaned in to kiss her lips. “Stop worrying okay. Besides, I’m the one that needs to be worried.”
“Why?”
“Because I have to meet Ted.”
She kissed Jason back. “My father is going to love you, especially since he’ll finally have the son he always wanted.”
Amour had called her father shortly after Chandra’s funeral and had a long talk with him about everything that had happened. He came clean about knowing about Carly’s affair with Pierce and also about knowing that Pierce was her biological father. It took some time but she’d finally made amends with Ted. She couldn’t bring herself to be mad at him for long because she understood why he’d kept it all from her for all these years. He wanted her to live a normal and happy life and not be wrapped up in all that craziness of the Harrington’s. She was forever grateful for his decision to do so because she couldn’t have asked for a better father than Ted.
Pierce ended up getting the reputation he tried so hard to avoid even in death. It was a shame, because he actually was a noble politician but unfortunately he will forever be remembered for his latest scandal and not for all the good he did in his work. Beatrice however, was cleared of all charges after Marcus and Armando confirmed that it was in fact Angela’s voice on the phone and not hers.
After being released from jail, continued to play the poor little housewife role and had managed to cash in on her husband and daughter’s deaths by writing a tell-all book and convincing the entire state of California to donate millions of dollars to various charities she’d started. After pulling some strings, she’d convinced the judge to go easy on Westfield and Riley in exchange for their testimonies on her behalf and their willingness to confess to their part in what happened. Because of that, they each only received five years probation. That had pissed Amour off royally but eventually she let it go because she just glad for all of it to finally be over with.
Jas
on looked up at her and smiled. “Hey you think we should have Christmas at our house?”
The house that Carly lived in still belonged to Pierce at the time of his death. After doing some digging, Amour found out that only one family had lived there since her mother and it had been empty for that last ten years. Jason suggested that she try to purchase it and after some hesitation on her part, she’d agreed. Upon Pierce’s death, his entire estate including her mother’s house went to Beatrice but she wanted no parts of it and had given Amour no problems taking off her hands. After spending several thousand dollars renovated it, she finally was able to call it home. It took a while, but she was also finally able to convince her father to move back to Los Angeles and transfer to Pleasanton’s sister clinic for his care. She knew that he really didn’t want to and the only reason he’d agreed is because he was happy that she’d finally found someone to love. She wasn’t at all bothered by his reasoning for moving back, she was just glad he did. Everything was finally looking up for her and she never felt more alive than she did at that moment.
“Speaking of fathers,” Jason said quietly. “I’m going to need all the strength I have to face him you know that Amour.” His mother had arranged for him and his father to talk over the phone once he was inside. He wasn’t comfortable with it yet but with his mother’s convincing, he knew it was something that had to be done if he wanted to get passed his anger towards him. Amour was proud of him for going through with it and glad that he’d finally let go of his anger.
“You need to do this Jason,” she said while stroking her finger across his stubble.
Love's Protector: A Maverick's Shield Novel Page 32
