by Fiona Palmer
A beam of light came around the edge of the warehouse. ‘Digger, what the hell are you doing and why does Cujo have a steak? Bloody dog won’t move from his kennel.’
His torchlight hit the body. Jaz tried to stand in the dark, hoping to move behind the pallets.
‘Holy shit, Digger,’ said Tommy, before she heard a gun cocked and the beam of light flicked around, searching.
Jaz turned to run as the bright light swept in her direction. A shot rang out and simultaneously she was thrown to the ground. A dull ache came from her leg and something was caught under her shoulder blade. Jaz realised it was the other man’s gun.
‘Turn over slowly. Who are you and what are you doing here?’ he demanded.
Jaz tried to sit up but moving her leg caused pain. She reached down and felt a gooey wetness. She’d been shot!
‘Did you hear me? I said turn around.’
But she didn’t want to turn around and let Tommy recognise her. Plus she was struggling with the relisation she’d been shot. Bloody hell.
‘Put your gun down,’ came a familiar voice. Jaz had never been so happy to hear Taylor.
Tommy swung around, dropping the torch. It’s light sprayed against the warehouse wall. Tommy and Taylor were facing off, guns pointed.
‘You’re just a kid,’ said Tommy. ‘You wouldn’t even know how to use that.’ As Tommy’s arm flexed to fire, two guns went off.
A body fell to the ground as Jaz looked at Taylor. Both of them still had their guns trained on Tommy. ‘I don’t think he’s going to get up,’ said Jaz eventually.
‘Not with two bullets in him.’ Taylor picked up the torch so he could see Tommy’s wounds. Then he felt for a pulse. ‘Shit. He’s dead.’ His face was pale, his eyes confused about what had just happened.
‘Thanks for saving my life, Tay, but we need to get out of here now.’
‘There’s another guy. Did you…?’ He stepped over to the skinny guy and she heard him dry-retch. ‘Oh, he’s not good either.’ He staggered back to Jaz. The light from the torch picked up the slick shiny blood running down Jaz’s leg. ‘You’re shot.’
‘Ya think. Can you help me back to the car?’
Taylor tucked his gun into his pants and then got under Jaz’s arm to help her.
‘Is your car far?’
‘Not far, can you make it?’
‘I hope so. People will have heard those gunshots. We gotta move.’
‘What about them?’ he asked.
‘Not much we can do. Maybe they’ll think it was a break-in?’
Taylor shone the way while Jaz tried not to drag her leg. They’d probably follow her marks. The gates were open. They kept moving towards the tree line on the other side of the road where Taylor had hidden his car.
‘Wait here,’ said Taylor, as Jaz leant against the Mustang.
‘I’m not going anywhere,’ she joked dryly.
Taylor had pulled a shirt off his back seat and tied it around her leg.
‘Ouch, careful. It hurts.’
‘I bet it does. Let’s get you to a hospital before you bleed out,’ he said, opening the door and helping her in.
Jaz still had the man’s gun in her hand. The solid form of it between her fingers usually wasn’t so scary. Not at the range it wasn’t, but holding one that had just been fired and taken a life? That was a whole different ball game.
Taylor started driving and they didn’t look back. ‘Take back streets and take me to Ryan’s house.’
‘What? No. You need a hospital.’
‘Taylor,’ said Jaz, feeling rather woozy. ‘We can’t go to a hospital, they’ll find us. Promise me you’ll take me to Ryan’s.’
He nodded. Relieved, she put her hand to her head. It was sore from the headbutt and the elbow she’d taken. Her face felt swollen. Life felt like it was leaking out of her as she drooped in the seat. She didn’t know if she’d have enough energy to get out of the car. Then she thought of Tilly, who had driven them through Pakistan after being shot in the arm.
‘I’m sorry if I get blood in your ‘Stang,’ she said.
‘Oh Jaz, you worry about the weirdest things.’ He glanced at the gun she was holding in her lap. ‘What are you going to do with that?’
‘See if Ryan wants it.’ She shrugged. Man, was Ryan going to be pissed. ‘I hope he’s home, if not we’ll just have to wait.’
Jaz instructed Taylor to park his car a block away and then walk to Ryan’s house. She was sure that if anyone saw them, they’d think they were just a couple of drunk kids staggering home. Jaz had the staggering part sorted.
‘You’re heavy, Jaz,’ teased Taylor. ‘Too many muscles.’
She laughed. ‘I wish.’
Jaz unlocked the gate and they slipped into Ryan’s yard. She was struggling to stay lucid with the blood loss. Taylor knocked on the door while trying to hold Jaz upright. They both had guns down the front of their pants and probably looked ridiculous. In the glow from Ryan’s outside light Jaz could see Taylor’s white shirt soaked with red blood. Would Ryan think they were off to a costume party? She almost giggled at the thought. Maybe the adrenaline overload was making her a little loopy.
‘What if he’s not here?’ asked Taylor as he banged on the door louder. Then he checked his watch. ‘It’s late, maybe he is asleep.’
They heard the thunk of the door unlock, and the door swung open.
Ryan stood there in just trackpants, which hung low from his waist. His hair was a little ruffled from sleep and his eyes still waking up. For Jaz, just seeing his naked chest was the right amount of morphine. She forgot all her aches and pains.
‘Sorry to wake you, but we need your help,’ said Jaz.
Ryan’s eyes focused properly on her face wounds, the guns and then her bloodied leg. In that instant he was wide awake.
Without a word he stepped out and scooped Jaz up into his arms. ‘Taylor, can you take the gun?’
Taylor did as he was told and yanked it from the band of her leggings.
But Jaz didn’t care about anything. She was feeling woozier and she wasn’t sure if it was from the blood loss or the way Ryan was carrying her into his house. His eyes never left her face as he navigated his way with his peripheral vision. Jaz had her arm around his neck, holding on to his straining muscles. He smelt so good. She didn’t care if he yelled at her. Jaz pressed her face into his warm skin. Right now she felt like she was home and safe.
Chapter 29
Ryan took her straight into his bathroom and sat her on the bench by the sink. Jaz again had a feeling of déjà vu. He’d stitched up her arm in here, and now he had to stitch her up again.
‘You’re such a good doctor,’ she said dreamily. Everything was going to be fine now that she was with him.
Ryan was tugging at her laces, trying to take her boots off. He lifted one and pointed to a series of teeth marks.
‘A friendly dog called Cujo did that.’
Ryan glanced at Taylor, who shrugged. He threw her boots to the floor then opened a cupboard and pulled out his first aid kit. After taking off Taylor’s makeshift bandage, he used scissors to cut her leggings around the gunshot wound. The lower half of the material was soaked with her blood so Ryan pulled it off, exposing her leg stained red.
‘I didn’t like them anyway,’ said Jaz as Ryan poked around in her wound, causing Jaz to grimace and grip her leg. She risked a glimpse at it and felt her stomach roll. Was that her flesh?
‘I was going to ask if you know what you’re doing, but it looks like you’re familiar with this kind of stuff,’ said Taylor, looking at the scars along Ryan’s back.
Jaz pulled up her sleeve and stuck her arm out at Taylor. ‘He stitched me up here, see,’ she said proudly. Taylor’s eyebrows shot up but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he watched Ryan work.
‘Have you got anything for the pain?’ Taylor asked when Jaz sucked in a breath.
‘No, but Jaz won’t need it. She’s tougher than she looks.’ He looked
her right in the eye as if challenging her. ‘But I have some painkillers in the kitchen, last drawer. Not the aspirin.’
Taylor opened his mouth to protest, but Jaz waved him off. ‘I’ll be fine, Tay. A bullet wound, some gravel rash and a swollen face won’t stop me. See, wasn’t this more fun than sleeping?’ she said with a forced chuckle.
‘Yeah, totally.’ Taylor pulled a face, before retrieving the pills for her. Jaz swallowed them back with the water he brought.
Ryan lifted her leg gently so he could see the back. ‘Clean through and through, no major arteries, just a flesh wound. You’ll live.’
Ryan begun to clean the area on her leg. ‘So, which one wants to tell me what happened tonight?’ His voice remained calm but Jaz could see the fire in his eyes. He was boiling mad.
‘We killed someone. Actually, quite possibly two.’ She hadn’t meant for it to sound so blasé and cold. It didn’t even sound like her. Feeling fatigued, she let her shoulders slump, her body was trembling. Shock? Her vision became blurry with tears as she began to remember the night. Seeing Ryan had momentarily made her forget the dramas. But the gun going off in her hand was real. The recoil. The thud as the bullet hit Tommy’s back. Poor Tommy. What would Marcus think? What would the police think when they found them? What would Carl think? Did Tommy have a family? Jaz felt a wave of sickness and begun to lean to one side. Ryan caught her, holding her shoulders.
‘Are you okay? Just a little bit longer,’ he promised.
Jaz nodded as a tear fell down her cheek. She put her head down and clung to the benchtop.
Ryan squeezed her arm before he continued fixed her up. ‘Is she right, Taylor?’ he asked. ‘Did she kill someone?’
Taylor sat on the closed toilet with his head in his hands. He was looking less than peachy.
‘Are you alright?’ asked Ryan.
Taylor ran his hands over his face, causing it to go whiter. ‘Not really.’ His Adam’s apple bounced. ‘I never thought I’d actually have to fire a gun to kill someone. But he was dead. We both shot him before he shot us.’
Jaz counted maybe three seconds before Ryan exploded. ‘What the fuck kind of mess did you two get yourselves into!’
Jaz almost welcomed Ryan’s anger. She needed to feel something and his anger was better than the horror.
‘What’s the address?’
Jaz gave it to him before he stormed out. She could hear him on the phone to someone, giving a short sharp message.
‘I’ve got someone to drive by and see if the cops have turned up. Should I be worried?’ he asked
Reaching out, Jaz put her hand on his arm to calm him. ‘No, it should look like a break and enter gone wrong. We left no prints, no one saw us except for the dead guy. And the other man, if he recovers, didn’t see my face.’
Ryan’s dark eyes were scary dark, like a dangerous hurricane. ‘I really want to throttle you both, but I can’t when you’re bleeding in my bathroom. Again, I might add. You’re making a habit of this,’ he said.
So many feelings surged through her, but they all disappeared when she realised how much she needed him and how close she came to dying tonight and never seeing him again. The anger she had for him earlier vanished. How could she stay angry with him? She loved him.
‘Want me to start from the beginning?’ she said softly. Ryan glanced back to Taylor, uncertain about letting him listen. ‘He may as well hear it. He already knows about you, sort of.’
Ryan rolled his eyes. ‘Any of your other friends you want to tell? You do realise that this is all meant to be secret?’
Taylor sat up. ‘I would never tell anyone. Jaz, Anna and I would never do that. I’ve got shit happening to me too, with my dad, and Jaz said you would be able to help. I wanna know and you have my word, it stays here.’
Jaz had never seen Taylor look more dead serious about anything before.
‘Righto.’ Ryan was pressing the sterile gauze to her wound and she felt herself fading. She had to stay strong, so she focused on the night’s events.
‘Not long after I got your text, I went to see what Carl does late at night in his warehouse. I got in through the toilet window and then his workers left. I had a look around and worked out they were bringing the drugs in by using the sea containers. In the walls with a fake lining.’ He looked up; she could tell he was a little impressed with her news.
‘Nice one, Jaz.’ He lifted her leg so he could clean the exit wound and then pressed more gauze to that one.
She smiled but looked away quickly as he continued his work. ‘Anyway, I went to leave and they’d let Cujo, the dog, off his chain so I couldn’t get out the window without help. I rang you, no answer so I called Taylor. I knew he could help and he had access to a gun, just in case. But the guys came back, probably forgot something, and I think they saw Cujo had been eating the steak I’d brought because one guy came around the warehouse for a look and grabbed me as I was getting out. We fought, he pulled a gun, I hit him with a brick.’ Jaz shivered as she heard the crunching sound replay in her mind. But she forced herself to continue. ‘Then the next guy comes and shoots me, I go down and just as I think I’m a goner, Taylor turns up. Both of them faced off. He didn’t think Tay would pull the trigger, but we both did.’
There were so many more details Ryan would want but they were the main bits.
‘Why did you go there alone, Jaz? I thought we’d had this talk before? No risking your neck. Remember?’
Jaz yawned, and pretended not to hear him. ‘How’re you holding up, Taylor?’ He was staring at the floor and Jaz almost thought he’d fallen asleep.
His voice was weary. ‘Alright. I s’pose I should go home in case Dad wakes up and notices I’m gone. I don’t want him to panic. What’re we going to do about this?’
‘Tell no one. Get some sleep and come back here tomorrow and we’ll talk. Jaz can stay here for the night. You can cover for her?’ Ryan asked.
‘Yep.’
Ryan finished wrapping the bandage around her leg to keep both wounds clean and then washed his hands. When Taylor got up, Ryan gripped his shoulder and shook his hand. ‘Thanks for saving Jaz. I’m glad you didn’t get shot in the process. Will you be alright to get home?’
‘Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for looking after her.’ Taylor stepped around Ryan and wrapped his arms around Jaz, and they gripped each other like there was no tomorrow.
‘I love you, Tay. Thanks for coming to my rescue.’
He kissed her head. ‘What are friends for, hey?’ He looked as if he’d aged ten years in one night and Jaz felt horribly responsible for it.
She brushed the hair back off his face. ‘Try and get some rest and I’ll see you tomorrow. Text me if you need.’
He squeezed her hand and then left the bathroom. Seconds later, she heard the door shut. Now it was just her and a half naked Ryan left in the tiny bathroom.
‘You two care a lot for each other,’ said Ryan.
‘That we do. Been friends for a long time.’ Jaz was staring at the bandage over her leg, only because she was avoiding the big elephant in the room that was Ryan.
‘Let’s get you cleaned up.’ Ryan washed the blood off the rest of her leg and helped her to stand up.
Before she could take a step, he’d lifted her up and carried her to his bed. The doona was already thrown back from when he’d got out to answer the door. Jaz felt a tingle spread through her at the thought of being in his bed. He pulled the cover back over her and then sat down beside her on the floor, his dark eyes watching.
‘What will I tell everyone about my leg?’ she said, turning her face on his pillow so she could see him. Everything smelt like Ryan, better than any painkillers. Her eyes felt heavy as she strained to keep them open and focused on him.
‘That you pulled a muscle at the gym during a fight with me? I don’t know, I’m sure you’ll come up with something convincing,’ he said, brushing her swollen cheek. ‘I should get you some ice for that.’
Jaz rea
ched for his hand, hardly able to cope with him touching her. She still had things to say. ‘I have the number of a sea container coming up in a sale. I think it has more drugs in it. Carl had it written down on his desk.’
‘Jaz, Jaz. It’s not important now. You need rest. We’ll sort all that out later.’ He went to move but then paused, his brow creasing. ‘Jaz, you didn’t answer my question before. Why did you go off without telling me?’
Oh that, thought Jaz, turning her head to the other side. But Ryan reached for her chin and guided her back.
He leaned against the edge of the bed, his bare chest taunting her with muscles. She wanted to reach out and touch him. Touch his scars. Feel his heartbeat. ‘I was angry at you.’ She may as well spit it out, it didn’t look like he was going to move until he had an answer. ‘I was with Marcus…we were having a great time and then you texted that.’
His face creased with tension at the mention of Marcus. ‘You didn’t…’
Jaz sighed as the truth fell from her lips. ‘No. How could I? Even if what you said was a lie.’ Her eyes closed tightly. She didn’t want to read the truth on his face.
‘Jaz.’ His hand found hers, holding it tightly. ‘I do care. Don’t ever doubt that.’ It was his deep voice, but the words surely didn’t come from him.
‘Yeah, right. You have a funny way of showing it,’ she mumbled.
‘I care for you more than I should.’ Then he moved her hand, bringing it to his lips.
Jaz was floating and any minute she’d hit the ceiling, she was sure of it. His lips were better than any drug, and for the moment she forgot the horrors of the night and the painful throb in her leg. She opened her eyes and caressed his face with her other hand. Stubble was already shading his face. This time his eyes were closed as he pressed into her hand, as if her touch was magical. While his eyes were still closed, Jaz lifted her head and kissed his lips. He instantly let her in, deepening the kiss as if this was the last time they’d ever see each other. Moving her hand, she dropped it to his heart where it pounded beneath his warm skin. He covered her hand with his and she could sense his relief. But his release was only fleeting. He pulled back, but instead of walking away like he did in Pakistan, he brushed her lips with his thumb. ‘You need rest. I’ll get you some water.’
