Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sebastian knew his walk through the mall was a dangerous risk but he felt better knowing his friends and Aeslyn all had his back. He hadn’t been this tense since the last time he was out in the field during his last tour. There is no worse feeling than walking around thinking every person around you was there to kill you.
He entered the bathroom, nodded to Ash then went to the stalls. He was not ashamed of his manhood in any way and Aeslyn sure hadn’t complained but he still wasn’t willing to whip his dick out and pee in front of the other man.
The door at the end of the aisle opened, a man he didn’t recognize stepped out. He held up a picture of Sebastian’s mom at a playground with Christopher and Benjamin. Nausea swept through him. The man pointed a gun at him and waved him to follow him. He had no choice but to follow, the threat was clear and he would gladly die before letting this piece of shit near his boys. He had to hope the lack of sound would trigger Ash to come looking for him. Unless the asshole knew what was happening and was looking away on purpose, he wouldn’t put it past the other man to want him out of the picture.
He walked down the hallway, hands up, the gun poking between his shoulder blades. “Do I know you?”
“We’ll talk soon.” The man’s voice was shaking, that was not a good sign, nervous people tend to have itchy trigger fingers. On the other hand, maybe that meant he could be talked out of whatever he was planning.
They turned a few corners, he was led to a door that had broken open. Sebastian was pushed in and found himself in the mechanical room.
“Go kneel between the two A/C units.” A poke in the back reminded him not to try anything.
It was smart to make him go in between the machines. They were huge and not likely to break down so his body wouldn’t be found for a while. “If you are going to kill me you better look me in the eye.” Sebastian was getting more pissed by the second and was shaking with the need to attack the other man. He had to have faith though that his unit would come before anything happened.
“That won’t be a problem,” The man was younger than Sebastian first thought, sweat was rolling down his face, he was clearly nervous. “I want to watch you die, maybe it will heal this hole you’ve left in my heart. You’ve taken everything from me and I need retribution or I’ll never have closure.”
“Sebastian still had no idea what he was talking about, “I’ve never hurt another person in my life, what is it you think I did?” A movement at the doorway caught Sebastian’s eye. A large chimpanzee had snuck in and was climbing the machines quietly. If there wasn’t a gun in his face he would laugh at the absurdity of seeing a monkey in the mall and knowing it was one of his best friends. He did feel a little relief knowing the cavalry arrived.
“Airmen First Class Justin Chappel.” The blood drained from Sebastian’s face, how was this nightmare still following him. “Yeah, I can see you recognize that name. After you murdered him my dad couldn’t cope with losing his son so he swallowed a bottle of pills and left me all alone. I had to leave my high school, live with an aunt I’d never really known and learn to live without my brother and father. You ruined my life and now I’m going to take yours.” He raised the gun higher, it shook violently.
“Wait, let me tell my side first, please.” The room had slowly been filling up, the giant lion and tiger were ready to pounce and his friends were standing behind them with guns drawn. He never wanted to relive those days again and now he was going to have to say it out loud in front of everyone.
“Your brother’s death was the reason I left active duty, I couldn’t get past what happened either, I’ve never forgiven myself for not being able to save him.” Tears were threatening to fall, Sebastian did not want to cry in front of everyone.
“Save him? You didn’t even try, I read the reports, the medicine was nearby and you didn’t go get it, you sat there for two days watching him die and did nothing to help him. The autopsy report showed where he was shot, I want to do the same thing to you then I’m going to leave you here to bleed out like he did. I want you thinking about him till your last dying breath.”
“That’s not how it happened, we were pinned down in a remote area. We had been under fire for days and were running low on supplies. I did everything I could to stop your brother’s bleeding but we had run out of blood products.” Sebastian knew the tears were pouring but he was in his head remembering those hours.
“Reinforcements were close by, all you had to do was get the supplies and you could have saved him. Instead, you were a coward and hid until he died.”
“No, you are wrong. We got the report that the supply trucks were a few miles away but the bridge had been taken out and they were stuck being shot at too. They weren’t allowing helicopters in either, it was too dangerous. Some of the unit volunteered to go, they were willing to risk their lives to get him what he needed but we were ordered to stay. Our commander weighed the risks and decided he wasn’t going to risk four lives to save one. I begged him to let me go on my own but I was denied. Those were the worst hours of my life, knowing what could potentially save him was close and we couldn’t get it.”
“You are so brainwashed that you decided to follow orders rather than save a man’s life. You are a coward, you should have given him your blood, you could have saved him.” Sebastian’s heart was breaking, the boy was sobbing.
“It doesn’t work like that, we have to give packed red blood cells and we didn’t have any. I couldn’t give him whole blood directly from me or anyone else. It would have killed him faster if he had antibodies that didn’t match. My blood alone wouldn’t have saved him as he had lost so much already. We had to hold out hope that the trucks would get to us before he died. His death is my biggest regret in life.”
“Liar! You just didn’t want to risk your own life for his.”
“That’s not true.” A voice behind the boy startled him, he screamed at the sight of the large cats. He backed up to one of the machines pointing the guns at them, the air rushed out of Sebastian’s lungs. Even if Aeslyn healed fast she couldn’t handle another gunshot so soon.
Gloria had her hands up and was walking towards the boy. “We were there, Sebastian isn’t lying, we all begged our commander to let us go. Every one of us offered up our lives. Following orders is what we are trained to do, Sebastian didn’t sleep or eat the entire time he was treating your brother. He never gave up on him and did everything he could to save him. Our commander thought the trucks would get free in time.”
“You are right, I should have defied orders, I should have gone and if shooting me would help I would let you take the pain from me too but I have two little boys, you’ve seen them. They would be just like you but alone at a much younger age. Please don’t take me from them, I’ll help you any way I can but let’s end this.”
The boy still had the gun pointed at the cats but staring conflictingly at Sebastian. He never saw the chimp who was standing on the machine above him, jump down and land on him. The gun slid from his hand, Connor locked his arms around the boy, he was too strong, the boy went slack and gave up fighting him.
Sebastian jumped to his knees and ran to Aeslyn, he paused unsure what do, he wanted to hug her, he didn’t know if he should pet her since she hadn’t shifted back?
The liger chortled before shifting then Aeslyn jumped into his arms. Words weren’t needed, she was kissing him trying to heal his pain and he was kissing her, relieved she was safe.
“Has someone called the cops yet?” Fernando had his phone out.
“Stop, no, he’s been through enough. Let’s take care of this on our own.” Sebastian shocked everyone, he was not going to be responsible for this boy’s life getting any worse. He didn’t care if it made him look like a bleeding heart, he was going to help him turn his life around, he owed him that much.