20. It’s Over

KATHERINE

 

“Jay?” I call as I push open the front door to his house and remove my key from the door.

He doesn’t answer.

We’ve been back from our weekend getaway for a couple weeks now and so far, things have been great. I felt like an idiot for having fought him on this mutual attraction for so long. During our getaway, I realized that I was really just using him, his body. I used him whenever I needed an escape, to forget about the whirlwind of events that have happened over the last several months. I became reliant on the escape his body provided.

I don’t know when it all changed, maybe when David attacked me outside of the lingerie store, or when I was staring down the barrel of his gun, but I realized that I would miss our back and forth banter, I would miss the way one corner of his mouth would pull up into a half smile and his eyes would shine with mischief.

He was the one who suggested we take things slow when we got home, because of the whole David thing. I was okay with that. It was going to take me a while to get used to the fact that I don’t have to keep fighting what I’m already feeling for him. I’m really excited to see how things progress with us.

“Jay?” I call again, poking my head into the kitchen when I don’t see him in the living room.

I didn’t see his truck out front but he almost never leaves his vehicles parked in the driveway. Unless he’s not planning on being home long, he usually parks them in the garage.

Figuring that I probably beat him here, I make my way back out into the living room to hang up my jacket in the coat closet. Just as I reach the kitchen to start preparing lunch, a noise draws my attention and I spin around expecting to see him.

Instead, what greets me is the barrel of a handgun and five feet, five inches of angry female. If looks could kill, the one she’s levelling at me could take out a whole army. I’m almost surprised that there isn’t smoke emanating from her head right now. Almost.

Focus Katherine.

“Jane.”

“So, you do know who I am?” The corner of her mouth pulls up in a smirk.

I nod. “I recognize you from David’s office.”

“If I didn’t want to kill you right now, I’d be impressed. You only saw me for what? A split second? Maybe a little longer.”

“You don’t tend to forget the face of the woman straddling your boss in his office.”

Okay, good. Keep her talking, Katherine. Just stall long enough for Jay to get here. He is coming.

“Oh, honey. He was my husband I could straddle him wherever I wanted.” The sound of her laugh makes my skin crawl.

Think Katherine. What would Jay do?

I try to take in everything in my peripheral vision. Sink. Toaster. Coffee maker. Knife block. I’d like to think that my aim and throw would be faster than her trigger finger but it’s highly unlikely.

And then I see it. Jay’s junk drawer is slightly open, like he didn’t bother closing it all the way.

It’s like the heavens opened up and placed it right where I needed it when I needed it. Then in the next second I’m wondering why the hell does Jason have a 9mm hidden under random fliers and coupons in the junk drawer. To anyone who’s not looking for it, it wouldn’t be visible. Just the corner of the magazine is sticking out from under all the papers. I make a mental note to ask him about it later. If there is a later.

Please be loaded. Please be loaded.

“I told him that hiring you was a mistake. That people tend to look more closely at where a person goes missing. But the idiot just needed to toy with you for as long as he could,” Jane continues, not noticing as I inch closer to the drawer. “Then he had to go fall in love with you, and get himself killed.”

“David never loved me.”

I’m closer to the drawer now, but if I can move even closer, even just an inch or two, it’ll put the drawer behind my back and then maybe I can remove the gun without her knowing.

She scoffs and for a split second it looks like she has forgotten that she’s pointing a gun directly at me and why she’s here. “Please. He wouldn’t shut up about you. He almost deserved what those friends of yours did to him.” Her whole stance changes then. Her back straightens, her eyes go dark, and she’s not just levelling the barrel of her gun at me but now it’s pointed right at my head. “But he was my husband. So it’s only fair that you pay with your life. An eye-for-an-eye and all that bullshit.”

“I wasn’t the one who killed him.”

My fingers wrap around cold metal.

“I know. But that new boyfriend of yours will know what it’s like to have someone he loves taken from him. I only wish he was here to see it.”

 

JASON

 

“What are you doing here?” Danielle looks right at me as she and Parker stroll out of his office.

“I work here,” I grin, raising a questioning eyebrow at her.

Danielle huffs crossing her arms. “I know that. I meant what are you still doing in the office. I thought you were supposed to be meeting Kat at your house.”

The hairs on the back of my neck stand up at her words. Kat and I didn’t have any plans to meet up today.

“We never made plans to see each other today. She said she was going to be busy job hunting all day.”

Now it’s her turn to raise a curious eyebrow at me as she pulls out her phone and starts scrolling through her messages. “She said she got a text from you an hour ago asking her to meet you for lunch at your place.”

“I never…” I stand to pat down my pockets looking for my phone but it’s not in my jeans or on my desk. I am pretty sure I had slipped it back into my pocket after getting out my car this morning.

Before I can finish that thought, Cole walks up and he looks like he’s seen a ghost. “Jay,” he says before clearing his throat. “We got a location on Jane’s cell.”

“Where is she?”

Cole looks to Parker then Danielle before back to me. “She’s at your house.”

“She knows you killed David. She’s going after Kat,” Parker guesses as I grab my jacket from the back of the chair and put it on.

“Over my dead body,” I throw over my shoulder as we race to the elevators.

“Parker, don’t let him do something stupid,” I hear Dani plead.

I don’t hear his response but seconds later I hear his booted feet behind me.

“Cole, get the teams geared up and meet us there, and see if you can locate Mike!” Parker yells just before the doors of the elevator close.

We ride down in silence and as soon as the doors open on the underground parking lot we’re both hightailing it to one of the team SUV’s.

“You can’t kill her, Jay.” He grabs on to the oh-shit handle while I slam the vehicle into drive and peel out of the parking lot.

“Why, because she’s a woman?” I hiss.

“No. Because your ass is already being looked at for shooting David.”

He braces his other hand against the dashboard as I drive like a bat out of hell trying to get to my girl in time.

“That was a clean shoot. You know that, man.”

“I do, and the Inspector does too. Jay, you know it’s just a bunch of technical bullshit. But you still can’t kill her. We need to bring this one in.”

I don’t answer him because as soon as we turn the corner onto my street there is another big blacked-out SUV as well as our tactical vehicle.

“How the fuck did they beat us here?” My foot slams on the brake and I throw the SUV into park a split second before I’m bolting through the driver’s side door.

“There’s no movement from inside,” Mike fills us in as soon we make it to the group.

And then, because this day couldn’t get worse, my stomach sinks as a gunshot rings out. Every member from all three teamspull out their guns and then, as if we’ve choreographed this dance a million times, which I guess we have, we split into two teams; one goes around back while the other prepares to go in through the front door.

Two well-placed booted kicks to my front and back doors later, we’re all splitting up into teams of two to clear the house. Parker and I clear the living room before heading to the kitchen. Kat is standing on the far side of the room, breathing hard, arms fully extended, her 9mm in her hands. I’m suddenly very glad that I hadn’t given it back to her yet.

“You missed!” Jane chuckles from my kitchen floor, her left hand clutching her right arm. Her gun lies on the floor next to her.

I watch as Kat slowly lowers the gun and hands it off to Parker. To Jane she says, “I didn’t miss. Killing you would’ve been too easy. You don’t get a free pass out of paying for your actions. You deserve to rot in prison.”

Cole and Mark check Jane’s injured arm before hauling her off to the waiting paramedics.

“Are you okay?” I start checking Kat over as soon as I make my way to her. When I’m satisfied that she hasn’t been harmed in any way, I wrap my arms around her.

I don’t plan on ever letting her go.

“I’m okay.”

I know that she’s not when I feel her arms tremble as she wraps them around my waist. She may be physically okay but I can only imagine the emotional toll that today and the last six months must be having on her.

“Is it over?” Her voice sounds so small.

“It’s over.”

“Jay,” she whispers.

“Yeah?”

“Can you just hold me for a little while longer.”

“Babe, I’ll hold you for as long as you need me to.”

I keep my arms around her for a few more seconds before she’s pushing away slightly. I cup her face in my hands. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Jay,” she responds, a smile tugging at her lips before her eyes narrow at me. “But um, why was my gun in your junk drawer?”

I drop my hands from her face and allow myself to get lost in her eyes for a second. “I had planned on giving it back to you after you passed your course but forgot and ended up putting it in the junk drawer instead.”

“Are there any more randomly hidden firearms I should know about?”

A slow grin tugs at my mouth.

She laughs. “On second thought, I don’t want to know.”

I laugh, pulling her towards me again. “I put away a lot of bad guys doing my job. Most of the time those guys don’t work alone. I’d rather be safe than sorry, and today I’m extremely grateful that it was there when you needed it. Baby, never doubt that I will do everything in my power to protect you.”

 

***

 

“Have a seat, gentlemen.” Inspector Porter motions for the three of us to enter his office and have a seat in front of his desk.

Nobody says anything for a while. Instead Parker, Mike, and I wait for Porter to start. Very few men have the ability to make me squirm in my seat, and Porter is one of them. I know he’s about to rip us, or more specifically me, a new one for going rogue on Walker, and I should be worried about my career in the Emergency Response Team, but I did what I had to do to keep my girl safe. I wouldn’t do anything differently.

“Look, you guys are the best I have in this unit and if I were in your shoes I would’ve done the same thing. But the higher-ups think that it paints the RCMP in a bad light. They think it makes it look like the ERT unit acts above the law, and I have to agree with them on that. You can’t be tying up a CEO in some secret warehouse and torturing him.”

“It was hardly torture,” I scoff, remembering my years in the military.

“Regardless,” Porter barks as he levels me with a death glare, “the three of you will have to toe the line from now on. I don’t want to have to fire the three of you but if the powers-that-be aren’t happy with your performance from now on, I will have little choice.”

Porter looks pointedly at each of us and we nod our acknowledgement of his warning, however reluctantly.

“Good. Now, go do whatever it is you guys get up to on a free Friday night.”

 

***

 

Brandt’s is packed with its usual after work crowd when we step through the doors of the pub and the Hostess leads us towards a booth in the back. Parker orders a couple pitchers of the house brew as Cole and Mark join us.

“You think Porter will make good on his threat?” Mike asks.

“I don’t doubt it. His hands are tied,” Parker responds.

“What if we just started our own company,” I throw out.

It’s an idea that’s been bouncing around in my head for a while now. With my military training and our combined years in law enforcement, it would be doable. By branching away from the RCMP and the Emergency Response Teams, it would allow us more freedom and discretion in determining which cases we want to take on. Plus, it’ll allow Parker to be home with Dani and the kids whenever he needs to.

“What, like private security?” Cole asks.

I nod, taking a couple drinks of my beer. “We’d have full discretion about what cases we take on. We could, essentially, make our own hours.” I look to Parker. “And you wouldn’t have to leave Dani and Bella on a moment’s notice.”

“What would we call ourselves?” Mark ponders.

“The Protectors,” Parker suggests after finishing his second beer.

“The Championers,” Mike adds.

“Dude, is that even a word?” Cole laughs.

“The Guardians.”

Conversation around the table stops as what I said sinks in. I look around the table at the men who have had my back since the very first day of RCMP training in Regina, and who did not think twice about helping me deal with Walker and making sure that Kat is safe. I know that I couldn’t have asked for a better brotherhood than this one. One by one, each of them nods his head in agreement.

The situation with Walker brought out something in me that I never knew existed. It was completely out of character for a guy who served his country, and who was one of the best members serving in the RCMP under Porter. I acted without thought and without regard to what the consequences would be. I acted outside of the law that we’re supposed to be upholding. But when someone threatens the person you love more than life, more than yourself, you’ll go to any lengths to make sure they are safe and can never be harmed again.

Could I have handled it all differently? Yes, I could’ve, but the caveman in me had only one thing on his mind. Protect what’s his, and that’s what I did. I don’t regret a second of it. Katherine is the reason why I’m able to keep going after seeing the things I saw while on deployment. Before meeting her, the nightmares were becoming unbearable, but now, sleep is an actual thing. I no longer wake up in night sweats, and when a nightmare does manage to squeeze its way in, just feeling her soft body curled into mine is enough for me to push the memory away.

She is a piece of me that I will always fight to protect.