The slamming of a door made me jump.
“Where the fuck is she?” a familiar voice demanded. “Her car’s on the lot.”
Holy shit, that’s him! The familiar voice belonged to my attacker, which meant…
I attempted to creep closer, staying concealed behind pile after pile, so I could hear their conversation better. Okay, so I was perhaps hoping to maybe find Rosie without coming out of hiding, so we could both get the hell out of there.
In my efforts, my foot caught on the edge of a muffler, sending a few old parts scattering to the cement flooring, which generated a loud clang.
“Ah, there she is!” the stranger announced. “Emberlyn, come out, come out, wherever you are.”
His cajoling tone alluded to his craziness, sending shivers up my spine and chilling my blood.
“I’d do what he says, Emmie.” This from Trevor.
Realizing that I had no choice, I tucked my gun under the front of my shirt, glad that I’d chosen to wear something a little looser in fit today, and got to my feet slowly.
“Where is she?” I croaked, my throat having gone dry.
“That’s what I’d like to know,” stranger stated.
“Relax, Dodge, I have her in the side office,” he said.
“Dodge?” came flying out of my mouth. “A-as in–”
The man smirked. “I see my reputation precedes me.”
“You’re a murderer,” I declared. “You’ve killed…all those women.” I gulped. “Eva.”
“Don’t you dare speak her name!” he bellowed, taking a few steps toward me until Trevor put a stop to his movement.
“You promised she was mine,” he growled.
Goosebumps spread over my skin as an impending sense of doom filled my senses. He’d killed Eva and fifteen others, what said that he wouldn’t be doing the same to Lana Rose and myself?
Fuck my life!
Shane
“She’s in there, Shane,” Cade told me. “Both of them are in there. We have fire, but the last thing we want to do is go in, guns blazing.”
“Don’t need that,” I said shortly. “You’ve got me. It’s what the fucker wants. Hell, it’s probably what Sykes wants too. Me…dead.”
“You’re not going in there by yourself,” Brycen said with finality.
“Then what are our options? This isn’t a hostage negotiation scenario. This is personal, guys.” I sighed, pacing a few steps away, then back again.
Cade, a man who showed emotion rarely, grinned. “Listen, I think I know how we can do this.”
By the time Cade had finished explaining his detailed plan, a few more of the team had shown. Surprisingly, Dalton had done the exact opposite of what I’d told him and come along, having picked up Rex.
“Before you lay into me for deserting my wife, she’s the one who told me to get my ass out here,” Dalton explained.
I nodded, then turned to Cade with a conniving smirk. “I think your plan needs a bit of a revision.” The more men we had on task, the better off we would be.
Cade and Brycen were on exit points, while Rex guarded the front, Dalton and I taking the lead and going in by the main entrance, which we’d cleared a few minutes earlier.
“Find your daughter, then let me handle the fuckers and get your woman out,” Dalton reiterated the agreed upon plan. “I want this to go smoothly, no going off half-cocked.”
“We’re good, D.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
Clearing the door to the back, without being noticed by anyone on the other side of the door was going to be interesting, but oddly enough, when we got to the other side, no one was around.
“Ember!” Lana Rose cried out.
“Let her go!” Emberlyn cried, tears distinct in her voice. “You told me you’d trade, Trevor. So be a man for once in your life and live up to your fucking word.”
That’s my girl. No matter what, though, her ass would be meeting the flat of my palm when this was said and done. It took everything in me not to make a mad dash, but I’d be putting too much at risk, so I clenched my jaw and stayed put.
“They’re not going anywhere,” Casen Dodge’s voice was hardly recognizable.
Peering at Dalton, who looked as if he were ready to explode, he signaled me that we were on the move toward the voices. Weapons drawn, we crept toward the commotion which was coming from down a hallway, right around the corner from where we were positioned.
“You can have the kid, but she’s mine,” another man—I figured to be Trevor Sykes—stated. “You promised.”
“I promised nothing, Sykes, but don’t worry, I’ll let you have your fill after I’m done with her.”
“Get away from me!” Emberlyn shouted.
Dodge tsked. “Oh, Emberlyn, I only want to play.” Such a patronizing tone. “You’ll be glad to know that it isn’t you that I want. You’re not my type.”
“Oh, I know who your type is, asshole,” she growled.
A hard snap of skin on skin resounded. “Shut up, bitch!” A piercing scream from my daughter came next. “But you, my little Evie, you I could have even more fun with.”
The urge to storm in there and take Dodge and Sykes out was about to take over. So much so that Dalton sensed it and had to restrain my forward movement. I’d had no idea I had already been moving toward the chaos I was blindly listening in on.
“Get away from her!” Emberlyn ordered once more as Lana Rose yelled out, “Mommy, he’s got a knife!”
One look at Dalton told me all I had to know. We were going in.
Chapter 39
Emberlyn
One minute I was flying through the air at my intended target, and the next, I was on the floor, searing pain radiating in my side, while chaos hit at full strength in the small room. Bullets were flying, yet I didn’t recall seeing any other guns, other than the one I now remembered was still tucked into my pants. It was useless anyway, considering I could feel the lights dimming, my eyes having grown heavy.
Grunts, fists against flesh…hisses and the coppery smell of blood filled my senses.
Then nothing…
Disoriented was one way of putting it. Consciousness regained, I kept my eyes closed until I heard a disgusting crunch of what my only guess was bones breaking and a man wailing.
“S-she was mine, first,” came sputtered.
“I’ll ask again,” I recognized Shane’s growled voice. “Why?”
“S-she was m-mine l-last,” Casen’s teeth chattered.
With another sickening crunch, my stomach wanted to revolt.
“I should eviscerate you like you’ve done to those women.”
“It won’t change a thing,” Casen said. Fist against flesh resounded in the air, followed by spitting and very low laughing. “I would know. The lure of the spilt blood only gets stronger. You’ll come to see it in time.”
Oh dear, God, this guy was sick. No sane person could get their jollies by harming another human being.
“I’m done,” Shane declared, and in the next second, my eyes snapped open simultaneously with a gun going off.
Shane
It was over.
Lana Rose was safe.
Emberlyn—my heart ached—was safe but would need medical attention. She’d hit that floor pretty damn hard.
And Casen Dodge was no more.
Staring at the brain matter spattered all over the office space, I was brought back to the present when a hand grasped my ankle. My first instinct was to kick out at the son of a bitch that was trying to get to me, but my mind snapped my reasoning into focus so fast, I’d realized that there was no more danger.
Peering downward, I took in the pale form of the woman I loved with my whole heart. Thank fuck Dalton had made away with Lana Rose when he did. Suffice it to say, our plan hadn’t worked out the way we’d intended it to, but we’d come out on top, albeit a little banged up.
“Rosie,” she whispered.
The one word had me collapsing onto the
floor beside her, brushing the hair out of her face. “She’s safe,” I told her.
A sigh escaped from her lips as her eyes closed, her lips forming a grimace. “I think I might need an ambulance.”
It wasn’t until I inspected her more closely that I noticed the large gaping gash on her side, right below her ribcage.
“Oh fuck,” I said, my voice hoarse. Putting pressure on her wound with one hand, I reached into my back pocket for my phone. My hand, barely able to function from the slew of punches I’d thrown at Dodge earlier, made things difficult to dial 911.
“911, what is your emergency?”
“My girlfriend’s been stabbed. I think her lung may be punctured,” I explained. “She’s not breathing right.”
“Okay, sir. I need an address.” I provided it. “Stay on the line until the medics get there.”
Dropping my phone to the floor, I leaned down into Emberlyn’s face. “Stay with me, sweetheart. Please stay with me.”
“Always,” she whispered, then her body went entirely limp.
“Will she be okay?” Lana Rose asked as I found myself in the hospital waiting room for the second time today.
“The paramedic seemed to think so,” I answered. I hoped the man had been right on that front. By the time we’d reached the hospital, Emberlyn had looked as white as a ghost from the loss of blood that had surrounded us on that disgusting garage office floor. They’d suspected internal bleeding was the culprit.
The waiting room was filling up quickly with everyone we knew: Rex, Cade, Brycen, Will, Captain Dodge, and a few other guys from the precinct. Dalton was here too, but he was going between floors to spend time with Devolin and their new baby boy, Carter. I’d even seen Skylar, Dalton’s sister, pop by; then again, she did work here.
“Any news from your mom?” Brycen asked.
That was another thing that was bothering me—her lack of contact after numerous tries.
I shook my head to indicate the negative. “I want to send someone over to the house to take a look inside,” I told him.
“I’ll go,” he volunteered.
Removing my house key from its ring, I handed it to Brycen. “Thanks, man.”
“No problem.”
An hour later, a nurse approached us to let us know that Emberlyn was out of surgery. It turned out that the knife had nicked an artery, and the bleeding had ended up pooling into her chest cavity, compressing her lungs.
She’d be sore as hell, and she’d have to work on breath training for the next little while, but she’d be fine.
“Can my daddy and I see her?” Lana Rose asked.
The nurse eyed me suspiciously, then turned to my daughter before crouching down to her level.
“And who might you be to her?”
“She’s my mommy,” she stated plainly.
This was the second time that I’d heard her say that about Emberlyn, and it warmed me to the core, despite leaving me feeling a little sad. All of this time, I’d known that she’d been searching for a mother figure, and I’d denied her. It made me wish that I’d found Em a lot sooner. Then again, I had; I just had been too caught up with work and vengeance that I couldn’t see past those things for the gem my mother and daughter had discovered.
A tug on my hand and a, “Come on, Daddy,” had me snapping out of my musings.
Following the nurse, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when we reached Emberlyn’s room, except what I did see had me cursing.
Chapter 40
Emberlyn
The constant beeping was what woke me. I shifted to turn the bloody alarm off, only to be met with excruciating pain in my side and a gentle hand preventing from moving further.
“Don’t move, Ember,” I heard a female voice say. “You’re alive. You’re in the hospital with a chest tube in your side, to drain the fluid that built up inside of you.
“Do…do I know you?” I asked, after cracking my eyes open. The woman looked familiar but my head was so fuzzy, I wasn’t sure if it was a temporary memory block, or if this person and I had actually met.
The woman gave me a kind smile, and that’s when I noticed her scrubs. “You’re…nurse,” I slurred.
“Dalton sent me in here because he trusts I know my shit, and he had to help Shane with something,” she explained. “I’m Skylar, D’s sister.”
Skylar—Devolin had mentioned something about a Skylar a few times in our conversations.
“You’re Devolin’s best friend, right?”
“That’s right,” she beamed. “And I’m officially an auntie as of today, too!”
“She had the baby?” The heart monitor was beeping frantically with the quickening of my pulse. “What did she have?”
“A boy. Carter.”
I closed my eyes, feeling my lips tug upward. “Carter,” I whispered, thanking the higher powers above that some good could come of this day. The thought of kids brought Lana Rose to mind. “Fuck…Rosie.”
“That sweet little thing is just fine,” she patted my hand.
“Dodge?”
“Dead.”
“Trevor?”
I got no answer, but with the way the woman beside me was biting her bottom lip, I knew that none of what had been happening was completely over.
“It’s not over,” I verbalized my thought.
“You’ll have to talk to Shane or Dalton about that,” she answered. “I’m not privy to my brother’s ongoing cases.”
I gave her a curt nod. “Okay.”
“You need to rest. If you’re lucky, the doctor will be here in the next few hours to see if that tube is ready to come out. Trust me on this, it’s not a fun process.”
I cringed. “Thanks for the heads-up.” My sarcasm was potent.
Shane
How could a day go from bad to worse, to better, then reach the pits of hell? When my phone rang, listing Brycen as the caller, the sinking in the pit of my stomach told me all I needed to know.
If Mom had been all right, she’d have been the one to call; but she wasn’t.
“Shane…fuck,” the man sounded torn up as I left Lana Rose at Emberlyn’s bedside and exited her room. “It’s your mom, man. I found her. The paramedics are working on her before they can get her a transport to the hospital.”
“What?” My breath left me in a whoosh. I took the necessary few steps back so I could let myself fall into a chair.
“She’s been messed up bad, Shane. Frying pan,” he explained. “Massive blow to the head. There’s a note here, I’ve taken pics of it, but it’s from Dodge.”
“I don’t care what it says right now,” I growled. “The fucker is dead, just text it to me, but please tell me she’ll be okay.” My phone went off with a notification that the man had done just I’d requested.
“I don’t know.” His voice was filled with sorrow. “I’m sorry, bro. There was a lot of blood loss, and because I’m not family, the medics won’t talk to me much.” I heard a shuffling in the background before Brycen spoke up. “They’re loading her up and heading out. I should be there in fifteen.”
“Right.” My voice shook.
“I’m sorry, Shane.”
“Yeah. You’ve said that already,” I said dryly. “It’s not your fault. It’s mine.”
“Shane–”
“See you soon.” Without waiting for a reply, I disconnected the call, letting my arm fall to my lap as I pulled up the image Brycen had sent over.
I killed your wife.
I did your mom too.
Next is your daughter, then I’m coming for you.
-CD
“What’s up?” Cade walked up and asked, having noticed that something was wrong.
“I-I need someone to look after Rosie,” I croaked.
“You’ve got it,” the man said.
“Dodge hit up my mom’s place this morning. She’s been home all of this time, probably hemorrhaging out of her brain,” I growled low. I didn’t need my daughter overhearing me, and freak
ing out about her grams, when she’d had more than enough between her kidnapping and seeing some of the violent parts of what went on with her rescue.
“Fuck,” the man grumbled.
“I’m fucking sorry, man,” Rex grunted. “I’ve really fucked up today.”
Our eyes met. “Rex, if anyone fucked up, it was me. You did what was asked of you. I should have made certain all was right by sending someone in and not taken the fact that the doors were locked as if shit was fine.”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t take the sting out from not being able to manage to keep your woman from getting into trouble,” he rebutted.
“Trust me, Em has a talent for getting into trouble,” I told him.
The guy chuckled without much humor. “Yeah…most women do have the knack for finding it; you’d think I’d have clued into this by now.” A flicker of darkness passed through his eyes, and not for the first time, I wondered if he spoke of experience. Something told me yes.
Chapter 41
Emberlyn
The next time I awoke, I’d heard the snick of the door to my room shut. Tilting my head to see who’d come in, I was met with Shane’s red-rimmed eyes.
“Shane,” I whispered.
His eyes filled, tears spilling over as he came to my side.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” his voice shook. “Fuck am I a sorry fucker.”
“Honey…” I let my voice trail while I lifted a hand to cup the side of his face as he bent forward so I could reach him better. In that moment, I saw everything he was feeling. My eyes welled up; my chest tightened. “Shane, I’m okay. Rosie is okay. Everything is over now.”
He shook his head, pressing his cheek deeper into my palm. “He got to Mom,” he choked out. “We’re not sure if she’s going to make it. She’s in surgery now, but it looks bad, sweetheart.”
Night Shift (Nightshade Book 2) Page 15
