The Night He Saved Me

by Sarah Stevens

  Jackson leaves me his phone number in my phone and shoots off a text to himself so he has mine. We leave things as tomorrow evening we will meet up at four and drive down to Boston with his security team.

  I haven’t been to New York in a long time so I decide to spend the rest of my day wandering around the city. When I walk by Tiffany’s, the blue calls my name. I walk into the store and look around to find the one piece that screams out Katarina. I want to show her in some way what she means to me. I decide on a delicate rose gold chain bracelet with a small diamond. I have them box it up and hand over my card to pay for it. Once I sign, I am presented with a small blue bag tied with a bow with the box inside.

  This bracelet reminds me of Kat. She is delicate and has a ray of light that bursts my heart. The diamond is her ray of light, small enough just for me to see. As I walk out of the store, my mind goes directly to her, and I can’t get her out of my head. I look at my phone to see what time it is and realize I have a message waiting for me. I take a look and realize that she reached out to me. She sent a text to me this morning. It must have been when Jackson was putting his info into my phone and texting himself. All it said was, “Hope you are okay. We need to talk.” I let it sit there for the rest of the day without a reply. I want to talk to her, I want to reach out, but right now I just want to keep her safe, and I need to deal with my father first. Later that night, as I sit in my room still not being able to get her out of my head, I send her a text.

  James: I’m okay. Talk when I get back.

  I don’t get a reply, but I didn’t figure I would since it is so late.

  I wake up the next morning after actually getting a full night’s sleep and I call down to room service for some breakfast. Once it arrives, I sit and eat in a silence that is too much to bear, then shower and put myself together for the day. I pack my bags and head out the door with still a few hours to go until I am due to meet Jackson. I decide to leave my bag with the concierge desk and head out to Central Park across the street. I just wander around, hoping that this day goes as planned and that I can go back to living the life I made for myself. I really hope that I can keep this life he is trying to drag me into as far away from Kat as possible.

  As usual, my mind goes back to her. To the way that she looked stumbling out of that alley. To her waking up and screaming in pain. To her scared face as she told me she was pregnant. I want to take care of her, I want to be there for her, and I want to protect her. So far, all I have done is fail her. It is my fault that she was attacked in that alley, and I will never forgive myself for bringing that on her.

  Before I know it, the alarm on my phone goes off to let me know I need to head back to the hotel to meet Jackson. Once I arrive, I grab my bag and go to the lounge for a drink. Who says you have to wait until five o’clock? I get two fingers of scotch and wait for their arrival.

  Jackson soon enters the door and heads straight for me.

  “We need to talk before we go. I just got word that Al had one of his guys drop off a note to Kat at her new apartment with a threat and a 25k check enclosed. He wants to pay her to stay away from you. Do you think she will take the money or rip it apart? Is this all worth it for a girl?”

  “This is more than for a girl, Jackson. Even if there was no girl, I don’t want that life. I want my life. Did you say her new apartment? And how did you know who I was talking about?”

  “Looks like her friend Bren and her mom signed a lease this week and the girls are living there together. That is all I know. I did my own digging. You are easy to find things out about too. I have someone looking out for her. That is the last time she is approached.”

  “We need to get this done so I can get back and protect her from him. I need to get back to her now. I need to be the one to protect her. Let’s go.” I grind out.

  “Okay, man, I just wanted you to be sure this is what you want to do. Also, I wanted you to know what he was up to. I give you props for being able to stay away from it as long as you have. Let’s get you and your girl out of this mess.”

  We head out the door to the waiting SUV, and I toss my bag in the back and get in. We are off to Boston. No one seems to be in the mood to talk so it is a long quiet ride. I actually haven’t heard his security team say a word since I met them from afar. I check my phone to see if Kat has replied and she has, just one word.

  Kat<3: Okay

  I decide after what I was told I need to check on her.

  James: Are you okay?

  Kat<3: I’m good. Come back soon.

  I want to pick the phone up so bad and hear her voice, but I don’t. I sit there in silence as we drive down I-95 toward Boston. A few hours later, we pull up to The Grand Empire Hotel and get out. I grab my bag and follow Jackson into the hotel. This place is amazing. I may have to bring Kat here some weekend.

  We check into a three-bedroom suite and form a plan for the morning. A call to room service for dinner, and once it arrives, we eat and continue to plan. It is a really simple plan. I walk in flanked by my new security team of three, I go to my father’s office or bedroom or wherever his sick body lies, and we confront him. Jackson reveals himself, and that is when we plan for all hell to break loose.

  Right when we think we are done for the night, I get a call.

  “James, I know you are in Boston. Get your ass to your dad’s house now. He won’t make it through the night the nurse says. We need you here now,” his number one goon calls to tell me.

  “Well, Jackson, are you ready for a late night? Looks like Dad won’t make it through the night. My presence has been requested now.” I emphasize with a chuckle to follow.

  We set to getting everyone ready to leave with Jackson dressed in a dark suit like his team and he has the added fedora to cover his dark blonde hair that matches mine and his face a little bit since we could pass as twins.

  We drive over to his place on Beacon Hill and find a place to park not too far away, surprisingly. One guy stays with the car, and the other comes with Jackson and me to the door. I don’t even need to ring the bell because it is opening for me as I walk up. I recognize the guy with a nod and walk through the door with Jackson and his team member on my heels.

  “Who do you have here?” asks the door man.

  “If I am taking over this show I needed my own security team, here they are. Where is the old man, anyway?”

  He replies,” In his room, but only you go, not them.”

  “From the sounds of it, I will be your boss by morning, so I take whoever I want with me.” I head toward his room on the second floor and leave Jackson’s team member at the top of the stairs with a view of both the entry and my father’s bedroom door. Jackson and I walk into the room and see that he is in really bad shape. I ask the nurse if he is lucid, and she says he is. He knows what is going on around him but his lungs are quickly shutting down. He is basically drowning from the inside out. She says they have been waiting for my arrival to be able to give him morphine so that he would still be lucid when I got here.

  I walk over to the man dying in the bed with a purpose. I don’t know him nor do I feel any pity for him. He was just a man I wanted out of my life, never a father to me. I was finally going to get my wish. I am finally going to become free.

  “I’m here.”

  “You came, now you can take over the family. Now—” he pauses to cough and attempt to take a deep breath but coughs again. He starts again, “Now your girl will be safe. I can die at peace knowing you are the head of the family.”

  “I’m not going to lead the family dad, my brother is.”

  His eyes widen as I speak the words. He thinks I am bluffing. Then over walks Jackson, taking off his hat to reveal himself. My dad’s eyes widen even bigger, and he coughs as he tries to take a breath.

  “Who … Who told you about him. Why is he here? It is you who will lead, James, not that POS. He is not Milano; he is part of the Castillo family. Blood or no blood, he will not lead.”

  “Nice
to see you too, Dad,” Jackson says to him. “No one told him about me, he found me on his own. He doesn’t want to lead that bad that he went looking for another option. That has to tell you something, Dad,” he says with disdain in his voice.

  Al tries to push him away. “Go to hell, boy. Leave a dying man in peace.”

  “We are here to tell you how it is going to happen. You die, you have no say in the ranks. You die tonight, I will lead for about five seconds long enough to appoint Jackson as the new head of family. No matter how you look at it, I am out within the next twenty-four hours.”

  “You will ruin this family. The Milano and Castillo families do not need to mix. I will not allow it,” he forces out with another cough to follow.

  “I am so glad you are supportive of me and that you love me as much as I love you,” Jackson says. “It was nice to see you, but I think I must be off. I have plans to make for moving into this house. James, are you coming, or are we going to stick around and wait for the old man to die?”

  There is no love in this room between us. I can see my brother and I becoming close eventually, but right now we have a job to do. I walk over to my dad, kiss his forehead, and tell him to rest in peace.

  “Since you are this sick and not in any condition to lead the family, I am taking over right this second. I will get everyone together downstairs and fill them in on what will be happening. I will also let the nurse in here to finally give you that dose of morphine so that you can maybe die in peace tonight. You wanted a mean alpha from me, you just got him. I am in charge of this now, and you and your lackeys can go to hell. You know that check will never clear the bank, right, old man? You know she is stronger than you think she is.”

  “You don’t take over I have one of my guys on standby in Portland. Someone here in this house respects me enough to follow directions so the second you hand the reins over to him is the second she goes away for good.”

  Both my brother and I turn toward him with anger in our eyes, and mine with added rage. I can’t help it, I lie to the old man just to save her life. I look over to Jackson hoping that he will follow along with me, grasp that this is a lie. He knows the card I am about to play, because like he said earlier he has done his research, he knows she is pregnant. He knows what I am about to do to save her life.

  “So you would kill your grandchild because you want me as head that bad? You remove her from the picture, you remove my child—your grandchild, your own blood—from the picture too. “

  A look of shock crosses his face. He doesn’t know what to do with this information, I can tell by the look in his eyes. He has Jackson call the nurse in so he can request the presence of one of his guys from downstairs. That is the second I know he has made his decision. My lie worked in my favor—he believed me. And now I will become free of him.

  “I have one request from you, please stay here if not in this room this house. I would prefer you stay in here until I am gone,” he asks both of us to stay by looking back and forth between us. We both nod our heads and find a seat in the room.

  When Al’s guy comes into the room, he doesn’t see us in the shadows. “Do I make the call?”

  “No, the hit is called off on her. She carries my grandchild. I want you to know I free James of the head of family title and give it willingly to Jackson. Once I am gone, my eldest son will be leading the family as it should be.”

  Jackson and I stand up from the shadows and into the light where he can see us. He didn’t know there was another son, I can tell by the look in his eyes.

  “So, you were the one that was going to call the hit on my girl. Good to know,” I say and go back into the shadows. “I think you better call your guy off the girl now, right here. If you don’t want to, I have my own guy on her who would gladly take yours out. He isn’t very good at staying hidden by the way. Let me guess, Trent?”

  The call is made and he leaves. Jackson told me that he was keeping his guy on her anyway so we keep her safe until I go home tomorrow. The nurse comes in and gives the dose of morphine to our old man, and Jackson and I sit in the room in silence listening to the machines and monitors. About two or three hours go by, it is either really late at night or early in the morning however you want to see it, when the machines go off. There is no more beep, beep, and beep. There is just a constant beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep and a flat line across the heart monitor. He’s gone, and I’m free.

  Jackson and I walk down the stairs after I give my last goodbye to him. The nurse does her thing with disconnecting the machines and monitors. I walk to the front door and out. Jackson follows me but only to say good-bye. We promise to stay in touch, and I promise him if I need anything I will let him know. His first security team member motions me to get in the car and brings me down the street there is a car waiting for me in a parking lot. I get out and grab my bag and head toward the car with Team Member One, as I call him. The trunk opens, and I put my bag in, close the trunk, and get in the back seat.

  “Welcome, Mr. James, I should have you in Portland depending on traffic in a little over two hours”.

  I sit back and relax and close my eyes and wait to arrive in Portland and to get my girl.

  Katarina

  We wake up Friday morning and get ourselves ready for the day. I have an appointment at Planned Parenthood today for my first official ultrasound, and I am more excited about this than the one I had at the ER last week. At this appointment, they are going to check me over, do an ultrasound, and refer me out to a pre-natal care clinic and go over what I need to do to get myself set up with the state medical program.

  “You know, Bren, I am still on my mother’s insurance, maybe after this appointment I should go back to my own OBGYN. Get better care than state insurance. What do you think?”

  “I think that’s a good idea, but I would get all the information today and talk to your mom Sunday night about it. See where she is after you tell her the truth.”

  “See, this is why you are my best friend; you always know what to do. Are you excited to see the baby today? I sure am. I want to make sure everything is still okay and see the little bean wiggle around.”

  Bren parks the car and we head to the door to be buzzed in. I get signed in and then we wait.

  “We should go to Target after this appointment and look at some curtains. We need to start putting the place together.”

  “We should. I most definitely need to find something that will go with the apartment and my hidey area. This will be a fun day. We need a fun day with no issues.”

  “Bite your tongue. We don’t need anything to curse this day.” A nurse comes through the door and calls my name. “Here we go!” I do the normal height weight and vitals and then get sent to the restroom for a urine sample. How fun. Once I get back into the room, the nurse is waiting for me along with the insurance counselor.

  “Hi, Kat. I’m Nancy, and I am going to go over a few things with you real fast before you get on with your checkup. So, I understand that you have insurance under your mom, but now that you are eighteen you want to be covered through the state. It is a bit of a process, but I am here to walk you through it. I am going to give you a packet for you to take and fill out and then you need to take it to the office downtown. They will decide there if you are eligible. In the meantime, we need to refer you off to the prenatal clinic for the rest of your care. Are you okay with all of this?”

  “Yes, I understand. It isn’t an automatic thing, and I may be denied. I was actually thinking of asking my mom this weekend about keeping me on her policy. Until then, I will take the information and move forward. Thank you so much, Nancy.”

  “If you have any questions, here is my card, just give me a call. Have a great day, ladies.”

  Nancy walks out the door, and Mary the nurse comes over to me to start asking questions.

  “So, Kat, have you had any problems since your last visit we need to be aware of?”

  “Yes, actually, I was in the ER last Saturday night for severe
pain because of an assault. I was kicked in the stomach. The ER doctor said to stay off my feet as much as I can but that everything looked good in the ultrasound that they did.”

  Mary notates my file with the information then walks over to me on the table and asks for me to lie down. She takes a tape measure looking thing and after feeling around my stomach, measures me with it. “Looks like your uterus is measuring just fine, twelve weeks. Let’s move on to the ultrasound.” She gets the machine up and running and moves it toward me. I look over toward Bren who has a huge smile on her face.

  “A little bit excited, are we?” I ask her. She looks like she is about to burst and is trying to not do her signature jumping up and down.

  “Uh, yeah, just a little bit,” she replies.

  Mary puts the cold gel on my stomach and has a look of apology as I suck in a little breath. She grabs her wand and starts moving it across my skin. She turns the volume up, and we hear the strong heartbeat. Once again, I get tears in my eyes but brush them away. When I look at the screen, I see the little bean moving around, but then I notice the nurse’s face. She looks a little concerned. Before I know it, she is excusing herself to go speak with the doctor.

  “Oh, my God, Bren, I told you not to curse us,” I whisper as new tears hit my eyes. Bren takes a strong hold of my hand and squeezes. She doesn’t say anything; we just sit in silence and wait for the doctor to come in and take a look at the screen herself.

  “Hi, Kat, nice to see you again. Let me take a look and see what we have here.”

  “Is something wrong?” I ask.

  “I’m going to take a look and find out. Mary thought she saw something but wanted me to take a look and verify.” She moves the wand around on my skin some more then stops in one area. “Kat, it looks like there is a small tear in the placenta. Everything else looks good with the baby. I understand you had an incident the other night. This may be a result of that but was probably not noticeable then.”