I didn’t want to find out. I curled a finger around the trigger and had to narrow my eyes to focus because wavy lines and black stars were dancing all across my vision. The river rushing between my ears had turned into a waterfall and I was having to concentrate really hard to stay up on my feet.
“I don’t want to find out, Drew. Hasn’t enough damage been done? Haven’t both of us lost enough?” My finger twitched on the trigger and I told myself I needed to pull it even if I really didn’t want to.
He roared again and I saw the muzzle of his gun flash right before an explosion blasted next to my head. I felt hot air buzz across my cheek, swore I could see the bullet as it zipped by me, but instead of feeling even more pain, or recognizing I had been shot, I saw a perfectly round hole appear right above one of Drew’s eyes as he toppled forward and landed on his knees. He gasped and wheezed as the knife and his gun clattered to the carpet and he pitched all the way forward to land on his face as blood started to trickle out of the bullet hole in his head.
I spun around and promptly burst into tears when I saw Dovie standing inside the broken doorway clutching a small black pistol.
She looked awful. Both of her pretty green eyes were ringed in black-and-blue bruises, her nose was bleeding, and she had an ugly gash decorating her cheek. She was paler than normal and her freckles were standing out in stark relief on her nose and cheeks. She looked like she’d had the crap kicked out of her, but the gun in her hands was steady and the line on her mouth was hard.
When she saw me gaping at her, she shook herself a little and gasped when she saw Booker.
“I already called Bax. He and Race are on the way.” She threw the phone to Karsen and told her to call an ambulance for our bleeding bodyguard. She made her way over to me and gently grabbed my arms and forced me to lower the gun I was still clutching like a lifeline. She took the weapon from me and looked at it with a frown.
“You had the safety on.”
I stared at her for a split second before bursting into a torrent of hysterical tears. I felt her wrap her arms around me and I let her hold me while I shook and shook.
There were two shot and bleeding men at my feet. I had seen my life flash before my eyes, and my sister was more worried about an injured thug than she was about her own safety. I couldn’t believe Dovie was acting like this kind of thing just happened every day. I couldn’t take it.
“I thought he might have hurt you.”
She dropped Drew’s gun and tucked her own into her pants as she rubbed her hands up and down my arms.
“He jumped me in the parking lot of the university. Bax told me Race was on the warpath about him, so I knew immediately what was going on. He shoved a gun in my face and made me call you. I was hoping you could tell something was wrong, but I didn’t want to be too obvious. The idiot wanted to take my car in case there was an outside camera on the condo. He pistol-whipped me when we pulled up out front, which knocked me out for a few minutes. But I’ve been in the Point long enough that I don’t go anywhere without some kind of firearm. I got the gun out of the glove box and prayed I wasn’t too late. Looks like I was for Booker, but I got to you in time. You need to learn how to use a gun, Brysen. Have Race teach you.”
I couldn’t believe how calm and collected she sounded. All I could do was cry and let her try and soothe me.
Somewhere in the distance sirens started to howl, and it was just in time because Booker let out a low moan.
Karsen’s head snapped up and she screamed, “He’s alive!” just as thundering feet and male voices barked, “What in the fuck!” and “Holy fucking shit!” as Race and Bax shoved each other to get into the room.
Bax bolted to Dovie, took one look at the gun in her pants and Drew’s still form, and cocked an eyebrow at her.
“This is getting to be a habit.” He put a finger under her chin and looked at her battered face with a scowl. “Ouch, Copper Top.” He snagged the gun from her waistband and made it disappear.
I fell into Race as he scooped me up into his arms. He cradled me to his chest and rubbed his cheek against mine.
“I tried to call you to warn you about him. I knew something was up when I couldn’t get ahold of you, and Dovie wasn’t answering the phone. Thank God you’re okay.”
I squeezed him as tightly as I could as the sirens got closer and closer.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be okay again.”
All I could think about was the tragedy that could have been avoided all the way around. It was heartbreaking.
“What are we going to do about him?”
I didn’t even want to use Drew’s name. He seemed totally inhuman to me now so something as simple as a name felt wrong when referring to him. I cuddled into Race’s embrace even harder and felt his hand rub over my hair.
“Bax called Titus already. He knows about the stalking and the attempts on your life so he’s on the way and will take care of everything. Don’t worry, Brysen. I know I’ve done a shitty-ass job so far, but I promise to take care of you.”
I snorted a little into his neck. “You’ve done a better job taking care of me than anyone else ever has, Race. You can’t be everywhere at once, and who would’ve predicted Drew would go after Dovie? He was crazy, and it’s unfortunate he kind of had a reason to be.”
I think he was going to say something back but just then a swarm of paramedics flooded into the room and a tall guy who looked like a slightly older, more polished version of Bax strode into the room like he was automatically in charge of everything that was going on. He had bright blue eyes that looked like they had seen everything and nothing would surprise him anymore. He mechanically searched out Bax and Dovie then landed on me and Race.
“Every single time I get a call from you in an emergency, Bax, I expect you to be the one with bullets in you by the time I show up.”
I heard Bax snicker, saw Dovie roll her eyes, and I realized that to everyone else, this really was just another day in the Point. How on earth was I ever going to adjust to this kind of life? I closed my eyes and buried my face in Race’s neck and let the floaty and drifting darkness that had been pulling at me take over. I just needed a minute in the darkness to wait until all of this passed and then I would deal later with the fact that this was how things worked in the Point.
Chapter 18
Race
WHEN BRYSEN WENT LIMP in my arms, my heart stopped and I almost dropped her. I bellowed for one of the paramedics that were hovering around Booker as they loaded him onto a stretcher. Titus had declared Drew DOA so there wasn’t as much focus on him from the emergency service workers. I laid Brysen down on the floor and let out a relieved breath when her eyes popped back open as soon as she was flat.
I went to put her down so the EMTs could get to her, but she wouldn’t let go of the stranglehold she had on my neck. Now that some of the fear and panic was beginning to recede, I could see the wicked-looking bruise blooming on her temple and another one on her cheek.
“My head hurts.” She sounded like she had been eating glass for a month and I could see that her eyes were fuzzy and unfocused.
“I know. Let these guys look at you, Bry. You need to go back to the hospital.” I told the young paramedic that was closest to me, “She just suffered a major concussion a couple of days ago.”
He nodded and tried to get to my girl but she just wouldn’t let me go. “She probably needs another CT scan.”
Brysen whimpered and I felt it like a fist in the gut. This was just one more time I had let her down and hadn’t been where she needed me to be. Stark had called earlier while Bax and I were busy moving all of our ill-gotten assets from Spanky’s to the garage.
Nassir had shut down. He was always kind of cold and reptilian, but now that an unidentified threat was striking close to home, he had turned into a full-fledged, violent predator. He wanted revenge, he wanted blood vengeance in the form of bodies and blood, and there was nothing that was going to stand in the way of him gettin
g it. He didn’t seem at all worried that Bax and I were moving close to two million dollars out of his sight. Whoever thought crime didn’t pay had obviously never tried to make a living on the wrong side of the law. Crime paid big—that’s why there was so much of it in the modern world. I figured it was smart to get the business straight while we waited to hear back from Stark on the info I asked him to get. After I had gotten all I needed to know about Drew Donner, I had fully intended on heading over to the college.
Stark declared that there wasn’t anyone named Drew Donner on the books. The guy didn’t exist before he showed up at the university a year ago. It was like he had popped up out of thin air. I asked Stark to run a check on just the name Drew or Andrew that might have any link with Brysen and her family. It had only taken him a second to come back with Andrew Bohlen, as in the son of the guy Brysen’s mom had killed while drinking and driving. The fucker had a pretty sound reason for going off the deep end, but that didn’t mean he had a right to hurt my girl.
I dropped everything, told Bax that we had to go, and we started back to the condo. Things had amped up, tension had exploded thick and heavy when I couldn’t get Brysen, Karsen, or Booker on the phone. I thought Bax was going to put the gas pedal through the floor when he called Dovie not once, not twice, not even three times but ten, and they all went to voice mail. Things were not right, none of it was right, and when we had reached the condo and encountered the unmistakable Road Runner that she drove parked haphazardly and with the doors left open, all I could think was that my sister and my girl were going to be lying in puddles of blood because I wasn’t where I was supposed to be at.
The sight of Karsen crying over Booker while blood leaked steadily out of bullet holes decorating his back had made every single drop of blood in my body freeze. Bax had no qualms about running me over as he pushed past me through the broken doorway. I had to force myself to find Brysen, terrified of what I might see.
She was shaking and she looked like a ghost, but she was upright and only bleeding from the cuts on her face and head. She was staring at Dovie in shock, and when Bax pulled the gun out of his girlfriend’s hands and stashed it, I could see why. My sister had obviously been beaten pretty soundly, but rather than look broken, she mostly appeared pissed off and annoyed. Like saving Brysen’s life and getting smacked around by a guy twice her size was just a minor inconvenience in her busy day. When she looked up at Bax and gave him a wry grin, I realized how fully my little sister had integrated herself into this place and into this life. She was as much a part of the Point as Bax was.
As I scooped Brysen up into my arms and held her while she quaked and shook apart, I knew that eventually she was going to have to make a decision about how much of herself she was willing to give to this place as well. Just like my sister had.
“Don’t let me go.”
Her whisper was so soft I thought I might have dreamed it, so I bent down to kiss her and told her against her trembling mouth, “Never.”
Titus was barking orders and trying to direct traffic as Booker and Brysen were loaded up and moved into ambulances. He told me that he was going to need to get statements from the girls and he took the gun from Bax as a bunch of people with jackets with CORONER printed on them joined the chaos. I blanked it all out and climbed into the back of the ambulance with Brysen and Karsen. The younger Carter wanted to ride with Booker, but Brysen gave me a hard look, so I gently told her no and guided her into the waiting vehicle with us. I didn’t know if Booker was going to make it or not, but he wasn’t my concern. He knew how things happened here, and yet he signed on for it anyway.
Brysen let out a little whimper when the ambulance started moving, so I made my way to her side and wrapped her frozen fingers in my hand. Karsen huddled herself into my side as we both gazed down at the injured and battered person we loved.
I sighed and put an arm around the younger girl’s shoulders.
“I should have stayed home. Should have been there.” Or at least told Brysen I had left the gun Booker gave me on the top of the fridge so she could have had some kind of protection against her tormentor.
Brysen opened her mouth to say something but it trailed off in an awful-sounding groan. The paramedic looked at me and then back at her.
“Stay still and try not to talk. You have a really nasty knot growing on your temple and I noticed you pulled some stitches in the back of your head. Try and relax until we get you in front of a doctor.”
I squeezed her hand and looked down at Karsen when she quietly told me, “You can’t live your life like that. Brysen’s been trying to protect me from the fact that our family was falling apart for a year. I’m not blind and I’m not stupid. Sure, her coming home postponed the inevitable, but all the bad things were going to happen whether she was there or not. Same thing with you. If you had been there today maybe that guy wouldn’t have shown up, maybe he would have waited until Brysen was alone at school and forced her into a car like he did Dovie. Maybe he would have tried to run her over again, or pushed her down an even bigger set of stairs. Bad things happen, and we just have to figure out how to deal with them when they do. He wanted to hurt her and he would have gone through you just like he did Booker to get to her. None of this is your fault, it’s none of our faults. I refuse to feel accountable because my mom—who is a functioning adult—made the choice to drink and drive and ruined that boy’s family. That’s what happens when bad people are making the hard choices. It isn’t right that Brysen had to pay for someone else’s mistake.”
I saw Brysen’s eyes flicker to her sister and then tear back up. I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding on to.
“Should you be this cynical at sixteen?” I asked it as a joke, but I kind of really meant it.
Karsen snorted into my side. “I’m not cynical. I’m realistic.”
She could call it whatever she wanted. She was way too perceptive and way too aware of the ways of the world for a pretty young thing from the suburbs.
The ambulance rolled to a stop and they wheeled Brysen into the emergency room. I trailed after them and noticed Karsen frantically looking around the busy unit.
“They probably had to take him into surgery.”
She blushed bright red and fiddled with her hair just like Brysen did.
“Don’t you want to know if he’s going to be all right? He got shot trying to keep us safe.”
I didn’t know Booker well, but I knew the cloth he was cut out of. It was the same unbendable steel that Bax was hewn from. Guys like Booker didn’t take a bullet because they were chivalrous, or because they were altruistic and brave. Guys like him jumped in front of hot lead because they thought they were going to end up there anyway. They took that risk every time they left the house and hit the streets, it was a living, breathing part of who they were, but I wasn’t positive I could explain that to Karsen in a way a sixteen-year-old with an obvious crush would understand. Or that she would believe me if I did find the right words. I could see her tender heart shining out of her dark eyes when she talked to me about the big brute.
“I’m not going to leave your sister but I’m sure she would understand if you took a minute to go check on Booker. Don’t be gone too long, all right? Once we know Brysen is all right, I have to get in touch with Titus so you can give him your statement about what happened.”
I was pretty sure it was a clear-cut case of self-defense, but I guess when there was a dead body I could see why Titus felt the need to handle the situation by the book. I had no worries that he would draw it out, not with Dovie right in the center of another shooting. There was no way Titus would risk pushing Bax back out onto a ledge by messing with my sister. Karsen nodded her agreement and took off toward the busy nurses’ station.
I went into the little area where they had stashed Brysen and pushed aside the privacy curtain just as a nurse was jabbing a needle in her arm. She winced and jerked her gaze up to mine.
“I have to get my brain looked at
again.”
“That’s probably a good thing.” I walked up next to the bed and grabbed her chin in my hand. I brushed my thumb along her battered cheek. “He smack you around with the gun?”
Her blue eyes flashed and got stormy. “Yeah, and I couldn’t do anything to stop him. My little sister had to get him off of me and my best friend had to save me. How pathetic is that? I just did nothing and let everyone else ride to my rescue.”
She sounded disgusted and I let go of my hold on her face to brush the backs of my fingers across the nasty purple-and-black ring of bruises around her neck. I swore that if I looked close enough I could see the indentations of that asshole’s fingers in her delicate skin.
“You stayed alive, and when I got into that room, it was pretty clear you put yourself between him and your sister. You did what you could and you made it out in one piece. That’s all that matters.”
She caught my wrist and pulled my hand up to her mouth so she could put a little kiss on the back of it and then curled it back around her cheek.
“Then that’s all that gets to matter to you too as well. It’s not your job to save me, Race, and it’s not your job to save the Point. I know you nominated yourself for both those roles, but it isn’t required.”
I sighed. “I keep telling you that I’ll take care of you, and yet I seem to be doing the exact opposite. I’m never there when bad shit happens.”
She rolled her eyes and it made her wince. “No, but you rushed me away from gunfire and took me home and cleaned me up so I wouldn’t freak Karsen out, you bought me a new computer, you got my situation at school handled, you fixed the BMW, you got my mom the help I never would have been able to afford, you found me a place to stay, and you make me feel normal and happy, which no one else has managed to do in a very long time. I don’t need a hero, Race. I just need you to want to be with me and to love me. I need someone that will be there for me when all the little things start to add up, because that’s what real life looks like. There isn’t always going to be a stalker or a major crisis for us to navigate, but there will always be hiccups and bumps because that’s what being together looks like. We just have to want it bad enough to make it work.”
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