by Amanda Wylde
I motion to his chest so he knows exactly why I'm bringing this up. "I overheard you call Remi 'Cherry' the other day."
The smug smirk only fans my already smoldering insides. "Yeah, I call a lot of girls that."
"And why's that?" I ask trying my damndest not to snap but seeing the symbolism of the dripping cherries pisses me off and I'm making sure right now he never calls Remi that again.
"Different reasons but her it's obvious right?" He holds up his hands and I pass him the ball a little harder than I normally would. "The hair."
"Yeah, well do me a favor. Use her name when you talk to her from now on."
"I've been calling her that since--"
"I don't give a fuck! She's my girl and I don't like it."
Travis chuckles shooting the ball and making a basket. "Relax, lover boy. It's just a nickname."
He passes me the ball as I try to calm myself, glad he's making light of it. I could be way off here. Travis does have pregnant girl back home. Albeit, one that looks just like mine but still. I might be overreacting to this and his tattoo but I won't deal with hearing him call her that. It pissed me off the first time and this just made it worse.
"I hear you call her that again, I'll clock you," I say then shoot the ball. "Wouldn't be the first time I've kicked someone's ass because of her."
Travis grabs the ball after it bounces a few times and this time he does the peering. "You kicked someone's ass for her?"
"Yep,' I say wiping the sweat from my forehead with the sleeve of my shirt. "Same asshole you did years ago. Chaz something or other."
His brows jump and his eyes go wide. "Did he touch her?" he asks and suddenly any humor in his eyes or words is gone. "Tell me he didn't fucking put his hands on her."
"Hell no," I say tilting my head trying to make sense of Travis's reaction to this. He looks ready to kill. "His drunk ass just disrespected her. So I let him have it." I pause for a moment unsure if I should even ask then start to. "Did you and Remi ever . . ."
I stop because I can't even say it. This is just too weird. She was older than him. He was a kid when she first started babysitting. It's how my aunt told the story anyway. She was his baby sitter for fuck sakes. Travis turns to shoot the ball. "The guy almost raped her, Kris. Did she tell you the whole story?"
"Yeah, she told me," I say but he doesn't turn to pass me the ball like he was doing earlier. Instead he keeps shooting and his back is still to me.
"The guy's lucky my friends were there to stop me or might've killed him. Told him if he ever touched her again I would." He catches the bouncing ball and now he turns to me. "Still will." He stares straight at me. "I don't talk out of my ass when I warn someone about something. I hope you fucked him up."
"I did," I say but I'm still a little stunned over this whole conversation.
"You got the barbeque for now?" he asks picking up his shirt and bounces the ball to me. "I gotta take a shower. It's hot as fuck out here and I'm sweating like a pig."
I nod telling him I got it, glad for the moment alone so I can call Remi. I'd rather ask her what I almost asked Travis. I don't want Travis to even get the idea that I'm sweating his ass. Except I do need answers. This just got too weird.
It rings so long I almost give up then she answers. "Hey, babe. How you feeling?"
"Like crap still," she says although her voice does sound a little better.
I frown walking over to check on the charcoal. "Alright I won't keep you long I just . . ." I move the charcoal around not sure how to say this but I have to. "I just had a weird conversation with Travis and I wanted to ask you about it." She doesn't say anything so I ask if she's still there."
"Yeah, I'm here," she says. "Weird conversation? What about?"
"About you." I finish moving the charcoals around and place the lid back on the grill. "Did you and him ever . . ." I shake my head because even saying it makes me uncomfortable. "I mean I know he's younger than you and all, and back then the age difference was probably more noticeable. But did he like, have a crush or something on you?"
I hear her clear her throat. "Not that I know of," she says then clears her throat again. "Why?"
I almost tell her about the tattoo and then think better of it. I don't need to be putting thoughts in her head when it may not have anything to do with her. Last thing I want is to pique her interest about the damn thing. So I go another route. "Chaz came up. The incident at the pizza place and he just got pretty worked up about the whole thing. Made me wonder if maybe he didn't have a thing for you back then and that's why he'd be so pissed about it."
"No it was just." She goes quiet for a moment then I hear her sniffle again. "He walked in at a moment when I was pretty hysterical, Kris. I think any guy might've reacted the way he did."
She's right and it makes me feel better but I already know myself. The seeds been planted. I'm just glad Travis will be gone after tomorrow and decide I'll take Remi being sick and unable to hang with me while he's here is a good thing. I don't think I could take watching her around Travis too much now. Especially if he decides to be an idiot and call her Cherry just to piss me off.
I let her go so she can rest then start barbequing. There’s no more talk of Remi once Travis comes back out and we have our barbeque with the boys. We toss the football around a little and I'm glad when Travis announces he needs to run a few errands. I'm not completely over the confusing exchange we had earlier. Him leaving can't come soon enough.
There's a lull in my workday and just like I have all week I sit there in the squad car with my partner Williams, pondering to myself about what I'm beginning to obsess about. The whole week I've been on edge. I know it's mostly because I haven't been around Remi as much as I'd like. She's still sick but she's let me come by at least a few times. Only she refuses to let me kiss her. Not on the mouth anyway. Says she's still contagious and as bad as it's been she'd hate for me to contract it. I could pass it on to the boys and then she'd feel terrible if she got us all sick. I know she's right but at the same time I can't help feel something's changed. I can't put my finger on it but it feels like she's pulling away.
Except I also know my being on edge all week has a lot to do with Travis. It's not just his smug response to me asking about his calling Remi Cherry. It's everything. The more I think about it, the idea of him having a crush on Remi when they were younger is not such a long shot. How couldn't he? It makes perfect sense even if she is a couple years older. Travis hasn't been an innocent kid in years. Not from what I remember when we visited a few times when he was in his early teens. The guy's been smoking weed from a very young age. He was probably getting laid just as young.
Only it's not just the fact that maybe he had a thing for her once upon a time, it's everything else that's starting to make me a little crazy. Like the fact that they've known each other for so long. He hooked up with a girl who looks just like her. If he did for that reason alone and that tattoo has anything to do with Remi then whatever feelings he had for her must've been pretty significant. Maybe he's still feeling it. Maybe it's why he still calling her Cherry. Maybe she's had feelings for him too or maybe I'm just a paranoid ass.
I shake my head as the call comes in for all cars in the area to report to a possible convenient store heist in progress my partner Williams turns on the sirens and steps on the gas. My heart thuds as the adrenaline starts pumping. I've seen a little action since I started patrolling but nothing like this.
An update comes in about the suspects being on the run now and what direction they're headed. Williams floors it and now we're blowing through intersections at full speed. We see a car matching the description of the suspects skid around a corner so we give chase. This is definitely a first for me. I grab on the handle above the window and hang on for dear life. In the academy they warned us no matter how much we trained for the high speed pursuits nothing would prepare us for this in the real world and they were damn right. My heart's going about as fast as this damn car. And we're go
ing pretty fucking fast.
Even now Remi crosses my mind several times as my life crosses before my eyes when we narrowly miss hitting a few cars more than once. I inadvertently wonder on several of those near misses if I'll ever see her again.
Williams jerks the car out of the way just in time to miss a truck that stopped cold when hearing the sirens instead of pulling over.
"Fucking idiot," I mutter when I can finally breathe again.
We're gaining on the suspects. From the updates we already know the car is stolen. There are multiple suspects and they're all armed. The car we're chasing suddenly hits the back corner of another car and it spins out of control. We skid out of the way and I ready myself to jump out for a possible foot chase. The second we stop and can see the suspect's car has lost a tire and isn't moving I jump out.
That's when the gun shots start and I know these guys aren't going to just give in. "Shots fired! Shots fired!" Williams is yelling into his shoulder radio.
I duck down then start running when I see them go in three separate ways. I make note of their descriptions: three young punks in their twenties, all male, two black, one white and then the shooting starts again. I start to duck behind a car when I see the white male drop his gun as he tries to jump a fence. I give chase again and I reach him just before he reaches the top and pull him down. He falls face down on the ground and I drop a knee to his back. "Hands above your head where I can see them before I blow your fucking head off," I yell holding the gun to his head.
I know this isn't the usual or even acceptable protocol but I don't give a shit, my adrenaline is too fired up. Within seconds other officers arrive, the guy's in cuffs and I'm feeling a little dizzy. It isn't even until the paramedics arrive and start working on me that I even realize I've been shot—twice.
I never even felt it I was so wound up. But the moment they tear my pants open and I see the wound on my outer thigh I'm in a world of pain and I groan squeezing my eyes shut. That's when I feel them working on the other wound and I open my eyes. The other injury is on my shoulder and I realize just how close that came to my head.
They work fast to get me patched up enough to get me on a gurney and in an ambulance. Just like that, I'm in another fast moving vehicle with sirens blaring and it's when I black out.
Chapter 17
Remi
A part of me is torn. Not about who I want to be with. I know for sure it's Travis who I belong with. But I'm torn about holding off breaking things off until Travis is ready to tell him the truth. He needs to get things squared away with his brothers. He says things will be too awkward if they remain living there with Kris and his aunt. But he's adamant about telling Kris the truth from the moment I break things off. Says we owe him that much. Of course we won't rub in that we've already been doing things and we certainly won't be telling that Travis took my virginity while I was already in a relationship with Kris. But Travis says he'd like to try and keep a relationship with at least his aunt. It's what his mom would've wanted. So any chance that a relationship with Kris is salvageable it'll only be if he comes clean and explains it straight away and is completely honest. Tells him that we tried but our connection is one we made years ago and it was undeniable.
He's even going to tell him how he tried to make a clean break. How he tried to do the right thing for Elsa and the baby's sake but there was just no fighting our feelings any longer. Travis has already broken things off with his girlfriend so at least he no longer has to deal with the guilt of lying and cheating on her. I squeeze my eyes shut remembering what he said to me this morning when we last spoke.
"You're not cheating," Travis explained. "As long as you're not sleeping or doing anything with him anymore you're just technically still with him but your heart no longer is. He already feels it, babe. And this won't be for long. I promise. We can do it this weekend when I fly out again. My dad's already agreed that Atlanta's a good place to start flipping. We've been having issues over here anyway and he'd begun to talk about trying somewhere else. I'll get a place with him out there and move the boys in with me. This way when I have to fly back for the baby's sake he can stay with them. Kris won't kick the boys out in the meantime because of me. I know it. When I go visit until I get my place out there, I'll just keep them with me at a hotel room to avoid any awkwardness. It's all gonna work out. Just give it a few more days."
I dread the day we do this but I know it has to be done. Despite the happiness I feel in my heart that I'll finally be with Travis like I should've been in the first place, I've been drowning in guilt this entire week for what I've done to Kris. What I'm still doing to him. When I'm with Travis, even just hearing him over the phone is the only time I'm freed from the mountain of guilt I feel pushing down on me. When he's here, when he's holding me, telling me how much he loves me and making my body feel things only he's ever made me feel, it just makes everything feel okay. But when he's not, when I'm slapped with the reality of what I've done, what I'm doing, I'm sick to my stomach over it.
Literally.
The day after Travis left. It sunk in. All weekend I avoided so much as a kiss from Kris. Yet I made love to Travis every chance I got. He came over Sunday evening after spending the day with Kris and his brothers and did things to me that still make my body tremble. Travis made good on his promise of claiming me in every possible way. I wasn’t even afraid because I knew he would never hurt me and I relaxed enough to actually enjoy it. My face heats with the memory of what we did the very day before he had to fly out. Every single time he made love to me was beautiful and I was in heaven the whole time but once he was gone everything changed. Once he was no longer here to keep me on that cloud, reality sunk in and I actually threw up.
Even now I feel a little queasy just thinking about Kris. He doesn't deserve this. I know what Travis says is true. We belong together and always have. There's no other option. Doing the right thing by Kris or even Elsa who's pregnant with his child is not the right thing. We'll never get over each other and we'd only be prolonging the inevitable. I only wish now that it hadn't been his cousin who won over my heart and helped me feel like I might be able to move on after no other guy had even come close.
In spite of everything I've been feeling all week, I was quick to get excited when Travis mentioned the urge to just jump on a plane to come and make love to me since it's been days since he last did. I've secretly wished all day that he might show up at my door and surprise me.
In hindsight I now know that maybe this was how it was supposed to be. Had I been with anyone else it wouldn't have forced me and Travis to see each other again. Though I ask myself if that's really true. The way neither of us has ever stopped feeling for each other would we have found a way back into each other's lives again anyway? This just may've sped up the process. Travis is right about another thing. Even though it appears Kris has bought my lies about being sick all week, it does feel like he's noticed something's changed. As perceptive as Kris has always been I just wonder what else he’s picked up on.
After ironing my scrubs I check on my parents in the hospital with my grandpa again. I start to get ready for my shift in a couple of hours when my phone rings with a call from work.
I answer wondering if they might need me to come in earlier. "Hello?"
"Is this Remi?"
"Yes it is," I say rushing to my room certain they're calling me to come in earlier.
"Hi Remi. This is Georgia. I'm calling from Kingman General emergency room. Your boyfriend Mr. De Luca has asked me to call you. Unfortunately he was rushed here today after suffering multiple gunshot wounds."
I nearly drop the phone, my entire body goes cold. Everything she says after that sounds robotic. Then I'm finally able to string a few frantic words together.
"Oh my God!" I say already feeling hysterical. "How is he?"
"It appears he's gonna be okay. But he's worried about Trace and Trevor?" she says as if to ask if I know them.
"Yes!" I say in tears as my shaky
hands pick up my keys. "His cousins. How did this happen?"
"We don't have all the details yet except that he will be admitted at least over night if not longer. It's why he's worried about the boys being alone."
"Tell him not to worry," I manage to say through my tears as the genuine fear that Kris might be in grave condition washes over me.
I may be ready to leave him for Travis but the reality is I truly care about him. Just because my heart belongs to Travis and always has doesn't take from what I feel for Kris and at the moment I'm paralyzed with fear that he might not be okay.
I'm too broken up to talk to Trace so I text him, thankful that I still have his number from before when I watched them. I need to talk to Kris first, find out how bad this is before I break the news to his family.
Remi: Kris won't be home tonight but I'll be there to stay with you. I'll explain when I get there in a couple of hours okay?
I rush to my car and try to calm myself but I never stop crying the whole way to the emergency room. Shot? My God, I've never even held a gun and Kris has been shot twice? Mostly I'm scared to death the lady on the phone didn't tell me everything. I know from experience in working the ER. You're not supposed to give out too much information over the phone, especially when it's not immediate family. What if he's really hurt? What if— I gasp then sob as I pull into the parking lot. I run to the window at the emergency room because I already know the drill. "My husband was rushed here." I say frantically not wanting any technicalities to keep me from his side. "De Luca, he was shot twice."
She looks him up on the computer then immediately buzzes me in. I push through the door and she points. "Bed seven."
I rush through the busy ER, past gurneys and wheelchairs, trying not to bump anyone in the process. Then reach the open door and my eyes meet Kris's. "Kris?" I ask relieved that he doesn't appear to be in critical condition like I expected.
