Chasing Carson

by Amanda Bennett

  “This is Wakely.”

  “Wakely, its Ruger. We have a situation at the farmhouse. I have Carson and a man by the name of Rollins Worthington with me. I need you to contact the home base and find out who the hell is tryin’ to shoot up my fuckin’ house.”

  “Got it. I’m already callin’ on my other cell. Is everyone okay?”

  “Yeah, and please don’t tell Lyndley or anybody else.” I whispered into the receiver so only he could hear me.

  “Do you think I’m stupid or somethin’? I’ll leave that up to you. Give me a minute.”

  The line went quiet, but I knew he was still there; he was just on the other phone. I glanced back at Carson who was sittin’ behind me and gave her a half-hearted smile. If this wasn’t yet another sign as to why we shouldn’t be together, then I didn’t know what was. Maybe my father had it right the first time. Leave the ones you care about behind and safe. Of course I didn’t understand it when I was younger, but it was better that she understood it now, as opposed to later.

  “You there?” Ky’s voice broke through the line, interruptin’ my train of thought.

  “Yeah. You find out who it is?”

  “Yeah, and you’re not gonna like what I’m about to say.”

  I closed my eyes and let out an exasperated sigh as I heard Trey’s name and the Nelson brothers’ come out of his mouth. There was just no way of gettin’ rid of all of them. No matter what happens, they are always gonna be comin’ around, tryin’ to kill me or even worse, Carson. “What did they say to do?”

  “Take em’ out. They’re sending backup now. I’m on my way in the chopper, but I still won’t be there soon. Do what you can until we show up. Got it?”

  “Ten four. See ya when I see ya, Wakely.” I hung up the phone uncertain of what would happen next, but my survival instincts quickly kicked in. I turned and looked at Carson hard, my mission was to keep her safe, and I would die doin’ just that if that’s what it came down to.

  Twenty Four

  Carson

  His eyes were staring straight through mine, and deep into my soul. I felt vulnerable and exposed under his gaze, and I instantly knew that it wasn’t good news. I opened my mouth ready to protest with him, but the look on his face told me it would be pointless. Instead, I ran over to my bag and pulled out a small gun that Ky had snuck into it for me. I cocked it back to make sure there was one in the chamber, and then crawled over to Ruger.

  “Where the hell did you get that?” He pointed at the gun in my hand.

  “Ky thought I should have it, just in case.”

  “Fuckin’ Wakely. I’m gonna kill him when we get out of here.”

  “Ruger?” He looked down at me, his eyes shattered with guilt. “Don’t you even blame yourself for this. Do you hear me?” All Ruger could do was nod.

  “You two ready for this?”

  I turned in the direction of Ruger’s father’s voice and something inside of me just snapped. “You did this! You just had to come find him, didn’t you? You couldn’t just leave well enough alone. You are a selfish, destructive, undeserving asshole. You didn’t care if you brought trouble to our door. You just wanted to see your son at any cost, even if that cost was his own life. Do you feel better now? Do you feel like all is right in your world now?” I stood up to move away from his father, when they both shouted in unison.

  “CARSON!”

  Everything that happened next happened in slow motion. First the sound of a gunshot echoed throughout the night. I turned towards the noise and that’s when I heard the glass that made up the bedroom window shatter into about a million pieces. There were shards of glass flying everywhere, scraping and nicking every inch of my exposed skin as it went soaring around me. Next I felt pain, indescribable copious amounts of pain. I clutched my stomach as the impact of the bullet had me doubled over, and blood was rushing out between my fingers, and then dripping onto the carpet beneath me.

  I watched as my gun hit the floor, causing another shot to be fired, but luckily missing everything in its path. I let out a loud huff as I suddenly lost all control of my body, sending it down onto the ground. My head smacked against the floor extremely hard the first time, but quite a bit softer the second. My vision went blurry as my eyes rolled around in their sockets, but finally coming to rest on Ruger’s face.

  His beautiful face was hovering over mine, his lips parted just enough to let the ragged breaths escape, only to be replaced with another. I took in every aspect of his face, committing it to memory in case this happened to be the last time I saw him. His lips were moving as if he was trying to speak to me, but I couldn’t hear a single sound. I was disoriented as I tried to reach up and caress my love’s flushed face. I could see it in his eyes that something wasn’t right. His expression was full of fear and fright. It was a look I hadn’t seen before, and one I most definitely never wanted to become accustomed to.

  His eyes bounced from my face and my stomach and I knew that it couldn’t be good. Ruger had a great poker face, but it was starting to crack and reveal his true emotions. “Wh…wha…t…wrrr…” I had the words on the tip of my tongue, but my brain didn’t seem to be communicating with my mouth.

  “Don’t talk, Carson. Just try to stay still.”

  I wanted to nod, I wanted to let him know that I heard what he was saying, but I just couldn’t. The ringing in my ears started to get significantly worse, as the sounds of gunshots kept ringing out through the house. Ruger glanced behind him, and then back at me before disappearing completely. I started to panic because I couldn’t see where he had gone to, but my panic was interrupted by me coughing. The unmistakable metallic taste of blood hit my tongue as I continued to cough, while everything inside of me came pouring out.

  “Ruger, she’s coughing up blood now.” Everything began to fade in and out, and I was only catching every other word that they were speaking.

  “Sit…why…doing.”

  I tried to raise my hands up to my ears to block out the obnoxious sounds, but they were being held down. I made one last ditch effort to raise my head, when the blackness began to affect my peripheral vision. It was moving slow, but as I lie there unable to move, I found myself wondering if my time was up. Just as the blackness moved over my right eye causing me to go blind, I saw his face one last time. His hair had smears of blood going through it, making his once beautifully brown hair, bright red. He still looked effortlessly gorgeous, and I smiled just as the world went black.

  Twenty Five

  Ruger

  “FUCK!” Every few seconds for the last ten minutes, I found myself shoutin’ out a cuss word.

  “We have to get her to a hospital, Ruger.”

  I looked up at Rollins with a murderous glare. “There are people outside shootin’ at us, and you think we’ll be able to get her to the hospital? You are some serious kind of stupid, aren’t you?” I shook my head and crawled over to the window, and fired off a few shots at whoever was shootin’ at us.

  “Well I don’t hear you making any suggestions. Don’t you care for this girl?”

  I crawled back over to where Rollins sat next to Carson’s catatonic body, and got right in his face. “Don’t you ever question how I feel about her. You have no idea what our relationship is. Hell, you don’t even know me. So please shut the fuck up.”

  My fingers trembled as I reached out to run them through her thick head of blood tinged blonde hair. As she lay there, still as a statue, I prayed with every fiber of my being that she would be okay. That all of this, was just a bad dream and we would wake up any second now. I needed this girl to live. I needed her to be the one to infuriate and annoy me on a regular basis, even though she never means it. She was the exact replica of everythin’ I have ever wanted in a partner. She saw right through my bullshit, and had no issue with callin’ me on it. Most of all, she made me feel like I could be a better man.

  “Okay, here’s the plan.” I wasn’t exactly sure how well this plan was goin’ to work, but it was
our best option, and Carson’s best option to live. “Do you think you can carry her?” I looked over at Rollins with my eyebrows raised, waitin’ for an answer.

  “Yeah. Yes, I can.”

  “Okay. I’ll go first and check the house. You follow me with her when I give you the signal. Got it?”

  Rollins nodded his head, and I quietly cracked the door to look out in the hall. When I didn’t see anybody, I flung the door open, ran across the hall and stood with my back against the wall, watchin’ to see if anybody was comin’ up the stairs. When I didn’t see anybody, I waved Rollins over. I took in a deep breath as he stood next to me, and I quickly looked around the corner. I still didn’t see anybody, so I started to make my way down the stairs, one at a time. When I reached the bottom, I was about to wave Rollins down, but then I caught sight of a shadow movin’ in the kitchen. I held my fist up so Rollins would know not to come down, and I hurried over to the wall closest to the kitchen.

  I waited with my gun up next to my face, as I slowed my breathing so nobody could hear me. I watched as the shadow moved back and forth, but never saw the shadow holdin’ anything. I wanted to assume that whoever it was, wasn’t packin’, but I knew I wasn’t about to get that lucky. With one more pass, I quickly slid around the corner and aimed my gun at the intruder. As he turned and caught sight of me, he raised his weapon and without a second thought, I squeezed the trigger. The man went down to the ground and I quickly rushed over to check his pulse.

  “One down, only who knows how many to go.” I walked out towards the bottom of the stairs and waved Rollins down. We both half ran over to the lever on the wall, and then snuck inside the surgical room before anybody knew. I locked the door from the inside, and started to turn on the monitors that brought up every security camera I had and every angle. I took a minute to look at each box, but didn’t see anybody else roamin’ around outside or in the house.

  “Where do you want me to put her?”

  “Sorry, just lay her on the table. Right there.” I pointed at the steel table in front of him.

  “This is quite some setup you got here.”

  “It’s my job to keep people safe. That and I used to be an EMT. It just makes more sense for me to have a surgical room here. It also doubles as a safe room.” I grabbed some gloves and pain medication, and made my way over to Carson.

  As I stood over her bleedin’ body, visions of Lyndley started to float through my mind. I couldn’t believe that all of this was happenin’ twice in one year. Before, it was Wakely’s girl on the table, and now it was mine. I would never forgive myself if I couldn’t save her life, and neither would her family. I bit back the wave of emotions that threatened to take over, as I motioned for Rollins to grab some gloves.

  “I’m gonna need your assistance. Do you think you can do this?” Rollins nodded and that was all the reassurance I needed.

  As I began operating on Carson, I found myself envisioning what our life would be like together. All the things I wanted to give her, show her, and face with her. She was the most amazing woman I had ever known, and I couldn’t wait to get to know her better. When all of this was through, we’d move. I would take her to a safer place, a place where nobody knew our history or us. A place where we could raise kids and animals, and live in our own little world without any interruptions.

  “How are you doing, Ruger?” It wasn’t the question I expected from him.

  “I’m fine. It’s not me I’m worried about.”

  “I get that.”

  “Hold this clamp please.”

  “Well seeing as we might be here for a while, you wanna tell me about yourself?”

  I glanced up at Rollins, and then back down at Carson. “Look Rollins. I understand that you want to know all about your long lost son and what not, but I’m not your long lost son. I’m your son that you chose to leave and never talk to again because of your job. So if you don’t mind, I’d rather not tell you about me.”

  “You’ve never been forced to make a decision like that before when it comes to your job?” We both looked up at one another, and I knew he could see it written all over my face.

  I knew I didn’t owe this man anything, but I also didn’t want to lie to him. “Of course I have.” I was just goin’ to leave it at that, but then I looked at him and I suddenly started to see the similarities. We had the same nose, the same mouth, and even the same jawline. The resemblance was uncanny. “What do you want to know?” Somehow, I knew I would regret this later.

  “When did you get out of the Army?”

  “I was in for five years. I got out six months after my mom died. I didn’t make it to the funeral.”

  “What did you do after the military?”

  “Somethin’ tells me that you already know the answers to these questions.”

  “It’s not the same as hearing it from you.”

  I shook my head. “Whatever you say. I’ll tell you the rest of my story, but you have to do somethin’ for me.”

  “What’s that?” He seemed hesitant.

  “After all of this is done, you leave. You leave and never look back. Do we got a deal?” I watched as he mulled this over, but then he quickly answered with a deal. “Alright then. Well I was a medic in the Army for the first two years, but then decided that I wanted to learn to be a sniper. I met a guy who taught me everything he knew, and I was a natural. At least that’s what he used to say.”

  “Used to?”

  “Yeah, he died.”

  “I’m sorry.” And I believe that he truly was. “Did you ever date anyone serious?”

  I looked up at him in confusion. “I don’t see why that matters, but yeah. Her name was Rowan. She’s actually a surgeon now. We dated for five years, but that ended and since her, well not really.” Then I looked down at Carson. “Until now.” I muttered, but he still heard me.

  “She seems like a great girl.”

  “She is…amazin’. I’ve never met anybody like her. She makes me want to be a better person. Have you ever felt that way?” I didn’t know why I was askin’, or why I even cared what his answer would be, but I found myself intrigued.

  “Your mom. I was one hundred percent head over heels in love with that woman. I would’ve done anything for her.”

  “Except quit your job, right?” I knew I sounded like an asshole, but if he wanted to get to know the real me, well then he was going to have to learn to deal with who I was.

  “It wasn’t like that, Ruger. We made the decision together. She knew exactly what she was getting into when she married me. Besides, once you came into the picture I cut back on my hours quite a bit. I no longer took the overseas cases, and we were great for quite some time. It wasn’t until she got pregnant with your brother that things went wrong. We had both agreed that we didn’t want any more kids. It just didn’t suit our lifestyle. But I refused to leave her. She was the one who pushed for the divorce, not me.”

  “So it was okay to have one child, but bringin’ another one into the mix was just too much? That sounds like a copout to me.”

  “Look, I know what you must think of me. But I’m not some loser father who just up and abandoned his kids and his wife. I was willing to give it all up for you guys, for our family, but your mom insisted that I would resent her. I suppose in some ways she was right, but I really would’ve left it all behind for her.” I wanted to believe him, but there was only one thing that didn’t make sense.

  “How did I never know about Trey? I lived with you and I don’t ever remember him comin’ over, or us goin’ over there.”

  “We thought it would be better if we kept him a secret from you. She got the child she wanted, and I got the one I wanted.”

  My head snapped up as I gave my father the shittiest look I could. “Well doesn’t that just make me wanna call you Dad. You’re a real piece of work. You know that? Just when I thought I could give you a chance, and then you say some shit like that. Well I guess that explains why Mom never wanted to see me.”r />
  “Would you rather me sugarcoat it for you, Ruger? Tell you that we were one big fucking happy family? We weren’t, and we were never going to be. You spoke to your mom, and when you became a teenager, you cut us all out. We were lucky if we ever heard from you.”

  I shook my head in annoyance. Of course he would rather blame me over himself, and as much as I regretted not tryin’ to see my mom more, I now knew it was the right decision. “I’m just curious, what do you want with Trey?” I stopped workin’ on Carson for a second and looked over at my father. He seemed to get agitated when I asked the question, and that to me, seemed odd.

  “I was sent to kill him.”

  It’s never what you think it’s gonna be.

  Twenty Six

  Carson

  All I could hear when I came to was Ruger and his father yelling at one another. I wasn’t even sure what it was over, but it seriously had to stop. My vision was beyond fuzzy, same with my head, and I was having a hard time moving. I felt around below me to see what I was lying on when my fingers grazed cold metal. Suddenly I felt as though I was fifteen feet from the ground and I began to panic.

  “Hh….ee.” My voice came out all gravely so I cleared my throat and tried to speak again. “Hey.” They still continued to argue, so I shouted louder. “HEY!”

  The arguing desisted and Ruger was instantly at my side. “Hey, try not to move. You have stitches inside and out.”

  “I feel fine. Can you please get me off of this hard as a rock thingy?” I tried to move, but Ruger held me down by my shoulders.

  “You can’t move, Carson.” He was being firm, which wasn’t like him.