by Claire Adams
I followed Chris for the whole drive back to town and I felt like he was purposely driving slowly. Otherwise, he drives like an old lady. I had always been a slower driver, but since we were just getting started I would have driven faster to keep up with him. After following him to the airport the other day though, I knew he typically was not so cautious and probably was just driving slow for me. It made me smile to think that he was thinking about me on his drive back to town.
When we both parked our cars in our garages, we met in between them to say goodnight. It was almost midnight and I was exhausted. I certainly knew I would be asleep in only a few minutes after I got to bed.
“Well goodnight,” Chris said as he hugged me.
“Night.” I turned to walk back to my house but then stopped to look at him. “Do you want to come over?”
He didn’t hesitate at all and was standing right next to me within three seconds. His enthusiasm over the invitation to come visit my house was really exciting to him.
“I think that’s a perfect idea,” Chris said as we walked into my house.
“I don’t know how exciting and fun I’ll be, I’m pretty tired.”
“Well, I would be happy to just lay next to you for the night.”
And that is exactly what we did. Both of us were so tired, we lay down on the bed and fell asleep on top of the covers, fully dressed, our bodies on top of the comforter and fully dressed in our shorts and t-shirts from the night before. It was the first time I was going to bed with Chris without having sex. That wasn’t something I had even thought about after our first meeting. But now I was starting to get closer to him and this was just one more step in that direction.
Somewhere in the middle of the night Chris and I moved under the covers because the draft from the old house was just too much. It was nice to fall asleep next to Chris. The feeling of being next to him made it so much easier for me to actually get some sleep. Just before dawn I woke up to Chris peering out the window at his house. He was hiding from someone and just barely had the blinds open.
“What’s going on?” I said as I got up from the bed, still dressed in my shorts and t-shirt from the day before.
“I think someone is in my house.”
I came close and was about to look through the blinds, but Chris grabbed my hand.
“Let me see. What is going on? Why would someone be in your house?”
Chris just ignored my questions and dialed a number on his phone. I thought it would be 911 to have someone come and investigate. Although, living in Bain meant the nearest Sheriff or police officer could be a half an hour away. There just was not a need to have more than a couple officers on duty in the county at any one time.
“They are here. How fast can you get here?” Chris said to someone on his phone.
“Who is here?” I said as I went to the other window to try and look out.
I continued to keep the curtains closed to prevent the people at Chris’ house from seeing that I was watching them. He was right, there were people in his house. I could see the curtains moving, just like the other day when I thought I saw someone in there.
“While you were gone I thought I saw someone in your house. I came into my house and waited to see if I saw the movement again, but I did not.”
“What day?”
“I think it was the night you left town.”
“Alright.”
Chris went back to talking to the people on his phone. I couldn’t make out everything he was saying, but it sounded like he was trying to get them to come to his house.
“If their team could help out today that would be great. Send them down as soon as possible.”
I stood at the window and continued to look between Chris and his house. I didn’t know what was going on, but I could see the tension and change in Chris and I felt like there was something pretty dangerous about to go down.
“I need you to trust me. Do you trust me Katelyn?” Chris said intently.
“Yes.”
“I need you to get into the closet and not to come out. Even if you hear something horrible. Even if it’s been thirty minutes and you haven’t heard from me. I need you to stay in the closet until I come back for you. Can you do that?”
I looked at him and tried to take in everything he was saying. I hadn’t hid in a closet since I was in elementary school. What could possibly be going on that it would be necessary for me to hide in my closet? I didn’t see why I couldn’t just stay in my room. Certainly the people robbing his house weren’t going to come over to my house. Or at least that’s what I thought.
“Katelyn, this is serious. Pay attention. Can you get in the closet please?”
Chris guided me to the closet and moved some things out of the way. He had me climb in to the way back and then he put the items in front of me.
“How long do I need to stay here?”
“Until I come for you.”
“Alright.”
I could hear Chris moving something around and then he left my room. It was hot and stuffy in the closet but I tried to stay put for as long as possible. Unfortunately that only lasted about sixty seconds and I was up and looking out the window at Chris’ house again.
I had never been very good at listening as a child and was horrible at hide and seek. I just had to see what was going on with Chris, there was no physical way possible that I could sit at home and watch the coverage of the event from my bedroom. I could hardly see anything from there.
Slowly I made my way down the stairs and toward the front door.
Chapter 29
I watched Chris leave my house and slowly make his way toward the front door of his own house. He really did look like some sort of professional police officer or military man. His eyes were focused and there wasn’t anything that could distract him.
He had a gun drawn and pointed at his house in a defensive position. I had never seen him look so serious since we met. It was scary and invigorating all at the same time.
I thought that I should go back to the closet but then I figured it would probably be just as safe to look out my window. Really if someone wanted to kidnap me they would eventually find me in the closet anyways.
I watched intently as Chris made his way around the outside of his house. He would look in the windows when he thought he could see something and then he would move around to the next window.
Most of the fight movies and other crime dramas that I watched would have already had the hero blowing the doors up and just going inside to see what was going on. I was waiting for something exciting to happen, but Chris just kept looking around the exterior of the house.
He must have seen something when he looked through his front window though, because he kicked down the front door very quickly. I opened my window to see if I could hear what was going on and all I could hear was a faint commotion.
But soon I heard gunshots ringing out throughout his house and I ran down to the front door. I didn’t know what I would be able to do and I certainly wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into, but I couldn’t let something bad happen to Chris.
As I ran out of my house and toward Chris’ house a black SUV pulled up. A man that I had seen at the airport with Chris a few days before came over to me.
“Get back in the house. Lock the doors and don’t come back out.”
I didn’t question him as he was carrying what looked like a very large semi-automatic gun. I turned around and went straight back into the house. I did feel a sense of relief that someone else was there and that they would help Chris.
The thought came to me that the people in his house must really want something bad if they kept coming back to his house to look for it. I wondered what it was that they were looking for. Certainly it would have to be worth a lot of money or important in some other way. Perhaps they just wanted Chris and that was why they kept coming back.
I locked my door behind me and pushed a few things in front of it. Then I went around the house and mad
e sure all the other easy entrances were locked and had a few things pushed in front of the doors. I went back to the front window to see if I could figure out what was going on and just then I heard a rain of shots being fired.
It sounded like one shot went on by itself and then several shots went off right after that. I estimated that it was probably more than one gun going off during the event because the sounds were closer together. My heart sank as I watched the house for a clue as to what was going on. But I just couldn’t take it. I finally opened my door and walked slowly over to Chris’ house. I could feel the eyes on me, but I wasn’t sure if they were good guy eyes or bad guy eyes.
I took a deep breath and moved closer and closer.
There was no more gun fire going on, and one of the people that Chris had called came bursting out of the house and running toward their SUV. I could hear him on his cell phone and that was what scared me to death.
“Charlie tango niner, we have an officer down. Unmarked only, but send assistance now.”
I stood still by the rock garden in front of Chris’ house and tried to look in the window to see if I could figure out what was going on. The man went back into the house with a first aid kit and I could hear a man grunting. I tried to just look through the window but I couldn’t see anything. Instead, I ended up going to the front door. I didn’t know what was going on, but I did know the man I was starting to have feelings for was in that house.
Chapter 30
There wasn’t anyone guarding the front door so I took a step inside the living room of Chris’ house. What I saw was worse than any television show or crime drama. I instantly saw why there was no need for anyone to be guarding the front door.
There were two men lying on the ground who had been shot. One of them had his face looking upward and the other had his face down to the carpet. Blood was pooling up around the men and I felt like I was going to pass out after seeing it. No one was in the living room and instead seemed to be going back to another room, the second bedroom in the house. It was the room I thought Chris had been keeping those ten large duffle bags in.
Another SUV pulled up in front of the house and two men dressed in khakis came walking up to the front door.
“Where is he?”
I pointed to the back room. I wasn’t sure who the person was that he was talking about but I was pretty confident he was in the back room where all these other guys kept going.
I hadn’t seen Chris in all the men coming and going from the back room and I was starting to get very worried. I needed to make my way back to that room to see what was going on, but by this point there were men standing in the hall so I certainly wasn’t going to be able to get past them.
For the time being I stayed in the living room and tried to look at the walls instead of down at the two dead men on the ground. It was hard not to look at those men and I was sure that I would have the memory of their faces burned into my brain for a very long time.
“Get him to the truck now!” I heard a man yell as the other men moved out of the hallway. I was now trapped in the living room and tried to move into the kitchen so I could be out of the way. My heart fluttered with anxiety and fear as I waited for someone to be brought out of the back room.
In my head I thought that Chris could certainly be one of the med helping out in the situation. Just because he involved in a shootout didn’t mean that Chris wouldn’t be perfectly fine. In fact, I was probably being way too over dramatic and Chris was going to walk out of the back room any minute. Then I saw him. The most horrible sight I could have imagined.
Chris was being carried by two of the men dressed in black. Chris was wearing a blue t-shirt and cargo shorts and he looked so out of place when next to the other men. He was covered in blood and looked like he couldn’t even hold his head up and was about to pass out.
“Chris, are you ok?” I said as I tried to talk to him.
He didn’t respond.
Chapter 31
“Chris! Chris!” I screamed.
The men continued to carry him out to the SUV and laid him in the back seat.
“I’m coming with you,” I said as I started to climb into the vehicle.
It was the first time any of the men addressed me.
“No, you can’t. We are taking him to the hospital. Someone will let you know an update as soon as we know something.”
They closed the door and took off, leaving me standing there in the middle of the street. I could see the two other men working inside, but I didn’t want to go back in there and see the dead bodies on the ground. I looked around the neighborhood and it dawned on me how isolated I truly was living in Bain. There wasn’t anyone home during the daytime and many people didn’t even come home until the weekends. All the commotion that had just gone on and no one was even around to call the police and report gunshots being fired.
My legs started to feel weak and I made my way over to the stairs in front of my house. The adrenaline made my body shake and I started to feel like throwing up. My hands vibrated with fear and I could feel a cold sweat coming over my body.
I leaned over and put my head in my hands as I tried desperately not to throw up. I hated the feeling of vomiting and would do everything in my power not to give in to the nausea.
“Are you alright?” One of the men came over from Chris’ house and stood in front of me.
“I’m not sure.”
“If you’ll let me, I’d like to help you inside.”
He seemed like a nice guy and I had seen him with Chris at the airport before. I didn’t exactly respond, but I did try to stand up and he reached his arm out and helped to stabilize me.
“I’m Katelyn,” I said as we walked into my house.
“I know. I’m Gunner.”
I smiled at him as he helped me over to the couch. He put a couple pillows on one side of the couch and I moved over to lie down. He disappeared into the kitchen and was back very quickly with some water and a few saltine crackers.
“Thanks.”
My hands were shaking as I tried to drink the water, so Gunner took the cup from me and held it while I drank. It was a very kind thing to do. He was a very handsome man, not quite as handsome as Chris, but still very close. Gunner had more of a baby face and looked to be close to my age. He didn’t seem old enough to be doing whatever it was that Chris was doing.
“You don’t look too well. Is there anything else I can get for you?”
“I’ll be alright. I’d really like to know how Chris is as soon as you know something though. He did not look very good.”
“Oh it looked like the bullet went straight through the shoulder; he should be fine as long as they get the bleeding stopped.”
Gunner seemed like a pretty laid back guy to be in whatever this business was. Although, Chris also was pretty laid back and was shot in a hospital right now. Perhaps being laid back in their business wasn’t the best personality trait.
His light brown hair was shaved tight on the side of his head with some wavy length on the top. I found it difficult to take him serious with the two large dimples on either side of his perfect smile. Gunner seemed like a pretty intense guy, his eyes looked at me with a powerful desire. But he stayed away from showing any of that desire. It dawned on me that Gunner had said he knew who I was. I wondered how much Chris had told the guys about me.
“You seem like you’ve seen plenty of shootings,” I said with a little bit of a laugh.
Gunner didn’t look like he was going to respond at first. Then, perhaps because he knew I was friends with Chris, Gunner told me a little more than I could have imagined.
“Yes, I have seen some pretty horrible stuff. Saw a friend get his neck cut once. Many of us have had other injuries like gunshots or being stabbed or something like that.” Gunner said.
“Why do you do it? I mean it’s obviously a dangerous job. Why keep putting yourself in the middle of things?” I wanted to know. Did it pay really well? Did this job help with the lad
ies? Why would any man choose a job where he could see his friends murdered?
“We are saving people. You can’t beat knowing that you are taking these bad guys off the street and they won’t have anyone to lead their cause.”
Their cause? I wondered who these people are that they are taking them off the streets. It sounded like Chris and his friends worked as bounty hunters or something like that. Maybe that was why they could afford to travel on a private jet instead of like normal people. Or maybe they had some big person who financed their operation and paid for things. I wasn’t going to keep trying to get information out of Gunner though; he needed to get back to cleaning up the crime scene over at Chris’ house.
“What are you guys going to do with those two dead guys?”
Gunner just smiled. It was one of those smiles that said to me, I didn’t want to know the answer to that question.
“I’m going to get back. You alright?”
“Yes, I’ll be alright. Thank you.”
Gunner let himself out of the house and I got up to look at him out the window. He was much more my type of guy than Chris was. His age and appearance fit more with the type of guy I found attractive. But that was because Chris was beyond the type of guy I thought I could ever date. I never, in a million years, would have thought a guy like Chris would be with a girl like me.
Now I was sitting and shaking while I worried about him. I had no idea where he was taken or which hospital. I didn’t even know his last name! It was going to be really hard to get any sort of update on his health.
Hopefully Gunner would come back and give me the news as soon as they figured out what was going on. I also desperately hoped that Gunner was right and the bullet went through Chris’ shoulder without having any permanent damage.
Chapter 32
I fell asleep out of exhaustion and didn’t wake up until the middle of the night. I had a nightmare and was sweating when I sat up straight. I looked around the room and could feel my heart beating out of my chest. Beads of sweat filled my brow and I needed to check to make sure all the doors were locked.
