“Why?” I ask her.
Glaring at me, she shakes her head impatiently. “You know why. It’s been explained, Cooper. Now put on your big boy pants, and face up to your responsibilities. Your father’s come all this way. It’s time you come back home with us to begin the life you’ve been robbed of all this time.”
“Face my responsibilities? Are you really saying that to me right now? Did you face up to your responsibilities to me as your son my whole life? I have no responsibility to this man,” I say. “And none to you, either. Not anymore. I will never forgive you for this. Ever.”
She scoffs. “Please don’t be so dramatic. Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for our family. Period. I won’t apologize for any of it.”
“Really? The abusive marriages? The drugs? All for our family, huh? How much does he know about all of that?”
“Enough.” My father’s strong voice which hasn’t wavered yet, sounds strained.
The door opens once again, and the face I’ve been anxiously waiting to see appears. My eyes shoot to the man behind her, shoving her forward into the room, and I almost lose my mind.
“Cooper!” she breathes, relief flowing into her beautiful face.
Her voice is the only thing that stops me from breaking the goon’s arm that pushed her into the room.
Dara follows behind her and the fear in her blue eyes almost beaks my heart. How did I get them dragged into this?
I open my arms, and Camryn rushes into them. I hold her away from me with both hands and look into her face.
“Baby, what are you doing here?” I cradle her face with my hands, needing to touch her.
Tears stream down her cheeks and I try to wipe them away. There are too many to catch, and my gut wrenches at the sight of them.
“We were supposed to meet today.”
I close my eyes briefly, remembering the date I’d planned and cursing myself for not being able to protect her from any of this.
“Lilly came instead of you, and I started to panic when I didn’t hear from you. I didn’t know what was going on. Dara and I went to your aunt’s, and then I followed your mom’s car here.”
Her words tumble out in a garbled rush, and I have to concentrate to understand her.
I crush her to my chest. I close my eyes tightly, wishing with everything inside me that I could change this, so that she doesn’t have to see or know about any of it.
I can’t see ahead or I’d have known that it doesn’t matter how hard I wish.
Chapter 26
Slow Motion
Camryn
Cooper doesn’t look hurt, thank God. But I don’t understand any of this. I look around the room and notice his mother standing next to a tall man who is the spitting image of Cooper. My eyes widen when I see him.
It can’t be.
My eyes find Cooper again; I’m stricken and he reads my expression. He nods, and that’s all I need to know that I’m looking at Cooper’s father.
It doesn’t look like a warm and friendly reunion.
The tension in the room is palpable. Every muscle in Cooper’s face strains with anger and frustration, and I need to know what has made him feel that way.
“Well, now that his girlfriend is here, what are we going to do with her?” His mother glares at me.
His father studies me, and the look on his face holds no warmth or concern of any kind.
I’m suddenly afraid for myself as well as Cooper. Dara and I don’t know any of these people. Something very wrong is happening here, and whatever it is, we have no business being a part of it. In their eyes, we are intruders.
Cooper nearly shouts. “You’re not doing anything with her. She’s leaving. She has nothing to do with this. Camryn and her friend are leaving, now.”
“It’s very much in your nature, son, to try and command the situation. It’s exactly what I would do. But you’re not in charge here. I am. So stop trying to call the shots. You haven’t earned your stripes yet.”
Cooper trembles next to me. The rage is evident on his face, and in the erect way he holds his body. The arm holding me is stiff and fraught with tension.
“I’m not trying to earn anything from you!” he says, his voice as steely as the door that had shut so forcibly behind us.
“I’m done with this. I’m taking Camryn and Dara, and we’re leaving. Don’t try to contact me. Don’t even think about sending your watch- dog Lilly after me again. I’m not having it. This is it.”
He tugs me closer to him and grabs Dara’s hand. He turns to walk away, but pauses when his father speaks again from behind us.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, son. I’m not letting you walk out of here. Don’t be absurd. After I’ve tried this hard to bring you back to me? You’re not going anywhere. This little girlfriend who seems to have wrapped you in a chokehold isn’t leaving, either. This ends here.”
Cooper turns around slowly, and my heart is beating so fast I’m sure everyone can see the pulse through my shirt. He pushes me behind him, and I push Dara behind me.
Then Cooper does something I never expect him to do.
His movement is so fast it’s nearly a blur, but in my line of vision everything seems to slow down.
He rushes his father, grabbing him around his middle in a football-like tackle. His father literally flies backward and hit the ground hard with Cooper falling on top of him.
Cooper’s mother screams, and I think Dara does, too. I can’t move or think, so the scream frozen on my lips never finds its voice.
The door behind us crashes open and two men in black muscle shirts raise their arms, brandishing guns.
Guns.
The sight of them forces me into action, and I scream Cooper’s name as loudly as I can. I’ll never forget how my voice sounded, so shrill and high-pitched. Not at all like myself.
Two shots ring out, and all I can think as I drop to the ground is please, God. Please let Cooper be alright.
I roll when I hit the floor, onto my back. I stare up at the industrial ceiling for a full second, mentally ticking off body parts to make sure I’m not shot. Then I turn my head to the right and see Dara lying flat on her stomach.
She’s shaking all over, which I take to be a good sign. I reach out and grab her hand. She squeezes it tight, and I know she’s okay.
In the next second, a rush of many booted feet pound in the hallway, and a loud booming voice shouts.
“Freeze!”
I look up at the door, and see two police officers standing there, guns drawn. A female officer rushes in and grabs Dara and I, pulling us out of the now-congested room.
“Stop!” I scratch wildly at her arms as she pulls me.
“Stop it! I need to get to Cooper!”
“Stop fighting,” she hisses. “I’m getting you to safety.”
I go limp in her arms as she drags us down the hall. The lights overhead pass quickly before my eyes, and I watch them without really seeing them. My body begins to go numb with shock, and I welcome the feeling. I don’t want to feel anymore. I want Cooper, though. The panic and worry are pressing into my consciousness, not letting me pass out from the trauma of being shot at.
When we suddenly surge into the sunlight, Dara screams and runs into Brandon’s waiting arms. He rains kisses all over her face, and tears are streaming down his.
“You came,” she sobs. Mascara is running down her cheeks and she is clinging to his arms as he crushes her to him.
“Oh, baby,” he answers. “Always. I’ll always come for you. I got your text. What the hell happened in there? We heard gunshots, and we thought…God, Dara.”
He buries his face in her hair.
I’m getting ready to slump to the ground when strong arms wrap around my waist, holding me up. I fall back onto Luka’s chest, and he picks me up because I am no longer able to stand.
“Cooper,” I mumble. “Where’s Cooper?”
“Shhh,” Luka whispers, stroking my hair. “Are you okay, Cam? Are
you hurt?”
“Doesn’t matter!” I snap. “I need to see Cooper, now. His father…guns…Lilly…”
I’m not making any sense. The words are spewing out of me and I can’t stop them or make them intelligible.
“Bring her over here,” a voice commands, and Luka shifts me in his arms. He follows a paramedic across the asphalt-paved parking lot over to an ambulance and I begin fighting wildly again. The red flashing lights of the vehicle hurts my eyes, and I wince.
“No!” I scream. “No! I will not leave Cooper. Put me down, Luka. Now!”
Luka ignores me and continues carrying me toward the ambulance.
“Shhh. Relax, Princess. They just want to check you out, make sure you’re okay,” he soothes.
He sits me on the edge of the open gate of the ambulance, and paramedics ask me questions about whether I have any injuries. I shake my head numbly at all of them. Long, nimble fingers poke and prod my limbs, my neck, my head. I try to sit patiently throughout the exam, but I am growing more and more irritated and anxious. A woman with long brown hair attaches a large square bandage to my head where I apparently injured myself when I slammed to the floor. Then they finally leave me alone.
Luka stands next to my legs, watching me, arms crossed over his broad chest. His chocolaty eyes study me, never leaving my face.
“Cam,” he says hesitantly. “What happened?”
The worry and pain in his eyes would have been heartbreaking, if I was in any state to notice it was there.
I check out the scene around me, bewildered. The parking lot is littered with police cruisers, and officers are rushing around in all directions.
They are setting up bright yellow crime scene tape and muttering into walkie-talkies. The darkening sky grows steadily blacker, and stars begin to litter the landscape above the trauma. I look back toward the warehouse and officers are exiting the building with men dressed in black, their wrists handcuffed behind them.
I blink twice and sigh. “I don’t even know. Dara and I wanted to find Cooper, so we followed his mother here. These huge thugs dressed all in black brought us inside and took us straight to the room where they were holding Cooper. He was holed up in this back room with his father. They were all gangsters or something. When his father talked, it sounded like he had been watching Cooper for awhile. He wanted Cooper to come with him, but Cooper refused.”
A police officer marches over to me then, and I have to repeat my story for him. He asks questions about Cooper’s mother, and about his father. He wants to know how long I have known the family, and I try to explain that I don’t know them at all. Only Cooper. He takes copious notes on an iPad and orders me to stay put.
“You’ll have to come down to the station later, and give an official statement,” he says. His business like manner makes me want to shove his iPad down his throat.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I tell him indignantly. “Not until I see my boyfriend.” I look back toward the warehouse. The minutes tick by and I still don’t see Cooper; my stomach sinks further and further toward the ground.
Luka sits with me, not saying anything, and I am so grateful. He knows I am worried about Cooper, and he can tell I’m all out of words.
And tears.
As I stare at the warehouse doors, time stands still once more as a paramedic backs out of the building, pulling something in her hands.
A stretcher eases slowly out of the doors, followed by another paramedic carrying the other end. I am out of the ambulance before Luka can help me, and running for the warehouse doors.
When I reach the paramedics holding the stretcher my world breaks into pieces all around me, and I lose my footing for the second time that hour.
I stay upright though, because Cooper’s ashen face looks up at me from the stretcher. He is unconscious, and the white button-down shirt he’s wearing is slick with his blood.
Chapter 27
Over
The hospital waiting room smells sterile and sick at the same time. I’ve never been to a hospital; I’ve never had a reason to come and sit and wait.
The waiting is almost killing me.
My eyes are glued to the wall in front of me. I’ve been staring at the same picture for hours. A still portrait of a family playing on the beach. Why they would hang such a happy print in a hospital waiting room is beyond me. I want to tear it down and throw it across the room, stomping on it until it shatters into a million sad little pieces.
“Sweetie,” Dara says from her chair next to mine. “You gotta eat something.”
I shake my head. I’m still numb, but I know this isn’t the first time she’s said this tome. “I’ll eat when Cooper can eat with me.”
She shakes her head, looking worriedly at Brandon.
“Cam,” he says gently. “I’m going to the cafeteria to grab some food. I’m going to bring some back, and Luka will force feed you if he has to. You will eat.”
He gets up and leaves, and I barely heard what it was he said to me.
Then I’m looking into Luka’s beautiful face as he kneels down in front of me.
“I want to take you home,” he pleads.
I stare at him like he’s lost his mind, because he surely must be joking. “If you touch me, I’ll scream bloody murder.”
I lean back in my seat and wait.
And wait some more.
Down the hall, I see Cooper’s Aunt Stacey pacing the tiled floor. She hasn’t been sitting in the waiting room with us, because I don’t think she’s physically able to sit. She just keeps walking the floor.
Over and over again.
I rise out of my seat and approach her.
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper, unable to meet her eyes.
She stops pacing and grabs my shoulders.
“Camryn,” she says firmly. “Cooper wouldn’t want you to fall apart on him now. You have absolutely nothing to be sorry about. If I had any idea what my sister—“
She breaks off as a sob escapes her throat. She takes a deep breath and starts again. “Don’t apologize. Not to me. You have saved my nephew’s life just by being in it, and I am so grateful that he loves you.”
She goes back to pacing, and I slump against the wall as I wait some more.
Several hours later, I’m finally done waiting.
A doctor in green scrubs walks down the hall. It takes him hours to reach us, or at least it seems that way.
“I understand that Cooper Goode’s mother is unable to be here, and that he lives with you,” the doctor said to Aunt Stacey.
“That’s right,” she says. Her words are faint, and I can see the question in her eyes that she’s too afraid to voice aloud.
“Cooper survived the surgery,” the doctor says.
All of the breath I’m holding inside my lungs whooshes out in a giant exhalation. “He’s going to be okay?”
The doctor glances at me. He smiles. “Girlfriend?”
I nod.
“He’s going to be okay,” he says. “The bullets were removed without too much damage to his internal system. He will be sore and will have to stay a few days for observation, but overall he is beyond lucky. I’d say there’s a greater purpose for this young man.”
The doctor turns and walks away. Stacey grabs me and squeezes me In a fierce hug.
We hug and hug, and then we wait some more.
Cooper
As I struggle back to reality through a white haze of nothingness, I follow the sound of Cam’s voice.
I open my eyes to see her sitting next to me. I quickly close them against the harsh lighting overhead. I open them again when I hear her sharp intake of breath and her strangled exclamation.
“Cooper?” she barely gets the word out.
She shouldn’t sound like that. I want her happy. So I open my eyes again, trying hard to focus on her face.
She sighs heavily, seemingly relieved.
“Hey,” she says. Her whole face breaks into her usual sunny smile, and I don’t ca
re about anything but the fact that I have made her smile like that again.
Then my brain clears a little more, and I look around wondering where I am. I tried to sit up, and that is a very bad idea.
“Motherf—“ I choke out.
“Don’t do that!” Cam says quickly. She puts her hand on my chest, gently. “Don’t try to sit up. You’ve been shot.”
She bends low and whispers in my ear. “Seashell.”
Memories come roaring back when she says “shot.”
I groan, remembering.
“Yeah,” I say shakily. “I feel like it. How bad is it?”
“I’ve been terrified. You’ve been unconscious for days. When they brought you here, they had to do emergency surgery to remove the bullet. It was lodged in your chest cavity. You’ve got broken ribs from the impact, but they were able to remove the bullet. You lost a lot of blood. I’m sure your doctor can explain everything better.”
“You did a pretty good job,” I say, smiling up at her. “Have you been here the whole time?”
“I went home to shower a few times,” she says. “What do you remember?”
“Everything,” I say. “Are you…okay?”
“Yes,” she answers immediately. “And so is Dara. Thanks to you.”
I relax a little then, because as long as she is alright, everything else is secondary.
“Did they get my dad?” I ask.
She hesitates. “We can talk about this later. You should rest now.”
“Cam,” I say, some of the pleading I feel leaking into my voice. “I need to know. Did they get him?”
“Yes,” she answers. “They got him. He’s in jail.”
“What about my mom?”
“They’re not pressing charges against her. Something about not having evidence against her. But they took Lilly’s dad to jail along with all the men your father had with him as guards.”
I sigh and relax into the pillows. “Good.”
“Cooper--” she begins.
“I know,” I tell her. “You need explanations. A lot of them.”
Color Blind Page 19
