Chapter 28 – Live

Addy – Fifteen minutes earlier

I look to Bev, who’s sitting on the porch of the main building with a book in her lap. This is exactly why she won’t let me hire her. If she wants to sit and read while looking out over the countryside, she doesn’t want to feel guilty about doing it.

“If anyone’s looking for me, I’m going for a walk. I want to see how far they got in the vines today. They should be done in a day or two, tops.”

Bev looks to me and smiles. “Okay sweetie. I brought dinner for Morrie and all the workers. You and Crew are welcome to eat if you want, there’s plenty.”

I turn back and smile after making it down the stairs. “Thanks, we might just do that.”

The workers have made it to the far side of the vineyard and are finishing with the last few acres. This is only my second harvest. I purchased Whitetail in early summer, those first few months here were a whirlwind. I didn’t appreciate the excitement of reaping the grapes my first fall here, but I do this year. Watching my vines come to life in the spring after the dead of winter was magical, but I’m still sad. The vines, which have become heavy with fruit, look bare and even a little pitiful already. Soon they’ll lose their leaves and be nothing but a ghost of dead, tangled twigs.

I’m almost halfway to where they’re working near the far edge of my property when I hear crunching from the side. Turning to see what it is, the noise grows quicker and louder by the second.

I vaguely see someone’s legs through the bottom of the vines when I hear my name. “Addy.” I freeze, barely having the chance to fully turn to the voice when he appears through the grapevines. His words come out labored and rushed. “I need to talk to you.”

I step back instantly, realizing I don’t have my phone since I’m wearing a dress without pockets. What is he doing here out in the middle of my vineyard? Crew said he was under constant surveillance. I try not to let my eyes scan the surroundings, wondering where Crew’s cameras are. I really should’ve asked. Damn it. I try not to sound scared when I address him, but it’s hard because I know everything about him. What he’s capable of and how my dad was killed because of him.

“What are you doing here, Sheldon?”

He takes a step toward me and I unconsciously step back, slipping on the loose ground below me. I stumble into a vine and yelp when the branches tear the flesh on my hand. He stops, puts a hand up, trying to calm me or keep me in place. As if he’s in a hurry, he takes a deep breath and says on an exhale, “Your father was my friend. I never meant for anything to happen to him.”

I bite my lip to keep my emotions in check, not saying a word. Looking back and forth, I wonder if I should make a run for it, if he could catch me. I’m in my rain boots, I’m not sure how fast I could even run, let alone get away from him. Then I wonder how he got all the way out here and why those damn cameras aren’t doing their job.

“I did my best to keep him safe.” He takes another step closer, and this time there’s nowhere for me to go. My chest rises and falls quickly, my breathing an erratic mess. He gets even closer when he continues. “I tried to ward off those who knew he was onto something, but your dad was smart. He kept coming at me with his worries about what was going on at work. And then he started asking around, he knew exactly what he was talking about, no matter how much I tried to put him off.”

I’m backed up against my vines, feeling them biting me through my dress when I lie, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You do,” he insists, still in a hurry, and every word that leaves his mouth is more agitated than the one prior. He’s losing control as the seconds tick by. When I side-step to try and get away, he closes the distance, seizing my bicep tightly to keep me in place. Gripping me to the point where it’s painful, I wince, trying to turn out of his hold, but it only makes him squeeze tighter. “Addy, you need to stop what you’re doing because they’re questioning your motives. They’ve hacked into your internet history and are suspicious why you never leave your property by yourself. You’re being watched, they’ve got eyes on your every move. I think somehow you were aware of this since your patterns have changed, but for fuck’s sake, quit with the internet searches. Things are so fucking twisted right now, I don’t know which way’s up. I came to warn you. You’re gonna get yourself killed!”

He shakes me, almost violently, when the last words leave his mouth, his anxiety peaking. Holy shit, I was researching Sheldon, and even Whittaker, when I thought it was him who was trying to screw with my business. I can’t believe they know—whoever they are. Russians, terrorists, aliens? Who the fuck are they that everyone keeps talking about?

I try to pull it together, knowing I need to get away from him. I pull my arm again and almost beg when I ask, “Why are you telling me this?”

“These people,” he pulls me even closer and pauses, taking a breath. “They’re paranoid. When they get this way, they take people out. They did it with your dad and I’ve seen it done since. The pressure is mounting, Addy. I feel it, and it’s never felt like this before.”

Another voice comes from our side, I didn’t even notice his approach because I was so distracted by Sheldon, but there he is—Marc Whittaker—standing in my vines with a gun pointed at us.

“You fucking traitor. The whole time I followed you out here, I couldn’t believe you were coming to her.”

Sheldon turns to Marc, letting go of me. I stumble to the side and out of sheer self-preservation, turn as fast as I can, and start down my row of vines. I knew my boots wouldn’t serve me well and I was right. I barely make it a few steps when I slide on the twigs and branches.

“Stay where you are!” Marc screams and I immediately stop, letting out a little scream.

“This is between you and me, Whittaker, let her go.” Sheldon looks straight at Marc, but he shifts, standing in front of me.

“What is it with her? You still hung up on her mom after all these years?” Sheldon narrows his eyes, but Marc keeps spewing his words. “Yeah, I heard all about Anne Ross. You might’ve been friends with her husband, but you really wanted her.”

Maybe he did have a thing for my mom. Maybe that was just one more reason for her to disappear, creating our new identities.

Sheldon doesn’t let Marc’s words faze him and looks back to me. “I never had feelings for your mother. I’d never do that to Wes.” Looking back to Marc, he continues. “The Rosses had nothing to do with me. They were innocent victims. I couldn’t stop them from taking out Wes all those years ago when he was suspicious, but I’m not going to let it happen to his daughter. This is between you and me, Whittaker. Let her go, we can work this out once and for all.”

“She’s not going anywhere. I’ve come to take care of this shit myself. They want her eliminated, she’s making them nervous, and you’ve fucking put them off for months. You’re pissing me off, playing games with them, and making it hard for me to do what I need to do. Now I’ve gotta take care of your shit, too,” he spits at Sheldon.

I start to shake. I’ve got to get away. Doing the only thing I can do, I turn to look behind me. Finding the widest opening in the vines, I take my chance.

I’m only two steps toward my opening when a shot blasts so close to my head, I hear it hit the branches I was trying to move through.

Screaming, I bring my hands to my ears and stumble into the vines. This time they tear through the skin of my arm, ripping my dress. Blood instantly seeps through the material of my sleeve from the gash.

“What the fuck?” I hear Sheldon scream at the same time I turn to see Marc lower the gun in his hand, aiming at me once again.

“I told you not to move!” Marc screams at me.

Barely catching my breath, my voice is edging on hysterical when I beg, “Please let me go. I don’t know anything.”

“Addison.”

I pull in a quick breath and turn quickly to find him. His voice, calm and controlled like always, is coming from the other side of the vines. When he steps through, he doesn’t make a noise. Of course he wouldn’t, he’s trained to be unheard and unseen.

He’s loose and relaxed, and if I didn’t know him better, I’d think he only happened upon us while strolling through my vineyard. I see it in his eyes—focus and complete awareness of everything. He’s at least six feet from me, standing in the middle of the path, but we’re separated by Sheldon, with Marc standing across from all of us.

Between the gun being fired in my direction and knowing Marc is here to take me out, seeing Crew is too much. I can’t keep my tears from coming, and they instantly overflow. Instinctively, I start to move to him, but Marc approaches me and screams, “I told you to stay the fuck there!”

I freeze, looking into Marc Whittaker’s crazed eyes. He’s out of control, agitated, and doesn’t seem like he has a plan.

“Stay there, baby,” Crew gently demands. He might’ve been talking to me, but he’s not looking at me. He’s looking straight at Marc. “What’s up, Whittaker? You strolling through vineyards now instead of selling State secrets?”

Marc, surprised by Crew’s revelation, turns his gun on Crew.

“No!” I scream and start to move to him.

Crew takes another step toward Marc. “You can’t see them, but there’re cameras everywhere. You might want to stop and think this through. Every move you make is on video, and trust me, it won’t make you happy knowing who has the feed to these cameras.”

Marc, frantic, not knowing who to point the gun at now, yells, “Everyone stop moving!”

“Addison,” Crew’s voice turns soft, but he doesn’t look away from Marc, holding his hands out low, showing he’s unarmed. Even with a gun pointed at him, Crew takes a step toward Marc but keeps speaking to me. “Hang on, baby, and stay there.”

“I don’t know who you are,” Sheldon starts, and when I look over he’s addressing Crew. Crew lifts his head, but never takes an eye off Marc’s gun that’s still pointed at him. Sheldon shocks me, throwing Marc Whittaker to the wolves. “You know more than I gave you credit for. I’ve got all the information on Whittaker you need. I’ve kept tabs on him, every drop he’s made to the Russians, every piece of information he’s stolen and sold over the last four and a half years.”

Marc, promptly forgetting about Crew, turns his gun on Sheldon. “You bastard. Like I don’t have the shit on you? You taught me everything I know.”

I move back a step, the rocks and twigs crunching under my boots.

“Be still, Addison.” Crew looks past Sheldon, catching my eyes. His voice gets my attention, steeling me in place because it’s not soft anymore. It’s firm and the look in his eyes back up his words and tone.

“Really, Marc?” Sheldon continues bravely as if Crew didn’t just speak to me. He takes a step toward Marc, and for some reason, I sense he’s distracting him. “You have proof of that? You have a timeline, pictures, records of my communication with them? Because I have all that on you and more. You got greedy and wanted all the action for yourself. If you think I didn’t see that, you’re not smart enough for the task.”

Sheldon takes another step toward the weapon and Marc screams, “Stop!”

“Hang tight, baby,” Crew says, not moving a muscle.

Neither Sheldon nor Marc give us their attention as Sheldon keeps throwing it in Marc’s face. “If you were clever enough to see the big picture, you’d realize everyone’s your enemy and you would’ve kept track. See, I didn’t teach you everything, Whittaker. I know how to cover my ass and stay in the shadows. You forget, I’ve done it for many years.”

I look into Crew’s dark, beautiful eyes, they’re the sharpest I’ve seen yet. Something about them makes me still, or at least try, as he told me to. I do try, but I can’t stop them, my tears continue to fall and he sees it, too. So minutely, I would’ve missed it had I not been looking into his eyes, he gives me a shake of his head. “Give me five beats, Abby. You’ll be in my arms.”

I frown instantly, not understanding.

“I go down, O’Rourke, you go down with me,” Marc warns.

“Still.” Crew’s voice softens the way it does only for me right before his next word comes out so differently, I know for a fact it’s an order, but to who, I’ve no idea. “Now.”

“What—” Marc’s surprised face barely has time to register Crew’s order. At the same time, Sheldon advances on Marc as he squeezes his hand around his gun, in what looks like sheer panic.

It happened so fast, that one second there were four of us before the gunfire resounded, and the next, there was only Crew and me.

I’m not even sure if I screamed, if anything came out, but I meant to. My hands come to the sides of my head in pure disbelief as I look down to see Marc Whittaker laying face-first on my land, the back of his head obliterated. I hear something else, someone writhing in pain, but I can’t take my eyes off Marc.

Then I see nothing.

Just as he promised, I’m in Crew’s arms. Then again, he’s never broken a promise.

I can’t see anything but I feel myself moving backward. Crew has one hand in my hair and the other around my back, my face pressed to his chest.

Through the ringing in my ears, I hear him comforting me with his lips at the top of my head. “It’s over, baby. Calm down.”

It’s only then do the tears flow on my face, my chest heaving with sobs.

We stop moving and he wraps me up tighter, trying to console me with whispered words into my hair.

When the ringing starts to fade, I hear another voice, a familiar voice. I look over and see Grady, but he doesn’t look like the Grady I know. Crew’s friend, who’s just as built and bigger than life like Crew, has his arm in a sling, and his face is bruised and battered. A handgun is stuck in the waist of his pants and he’s talking on the phone, but his eyes are on Crew.

“Whittaker’s dead,” Grady informs whoever’s on the other end of the phone. “Yeah, I did. We need EMS, probably a chopper, O’Rourke’s got a gunshot wound to the shoulder. He’s hangin’ on. You wanted him alive, he’s alive for the time being. By the time I got here, Whittaker was about to unload on O’Rourke. I waited ‘til I got the all clear from Vega, but didn’t get a shot off before Whittaker shot O’Rourke.”

Listening to him retell it, I try and breathe deep, sinking into Crew’s chest. Grady looks to me and then back to his friend as he ends his phone call. “Yeah, Vega and his woman are good.”

With his eyes on Crew, Grady goes on. “Carson said he’ll clean this up. I should get out of here. He’ll have his people here soon and said he’d take care of local law enforcement.”

I don’t look up, but feel Crew nod against my head. Then Grady turns to leave, doing it slowly, even gingerly.

“Grady.” Crew’s voice vibrates through his chest and I feel it everywhere. It takes Grady a moment to turn he’s moving so slow, and now I wonder how he got here fast enough to do what he did. When he turns to us, his marred face is intense with its bruises and scrapes. I don’t know the details of their assignment and can only imagine how bad it was when Crew says, “You said you’d never be able to repay that debt. But man, you just did.” He gives me a squeeze before going on. “You don’t know how grateful I am, but someday, I hope you get it.”

Grady looks to me and then back to Crew. He lifts his head to Crew right when we hear commotion. That commotion includes a cow mooing and I can tell it’s Harry. I can’t believe, now of all times, she somehow got through the fence and is wandering through the vines. Besides my cow and Morris calling for me, blades of a helicopter fill the space.

I barely see Grady turn to disappear into my vines when Crew turns me into him, holding me tight. When the commotion gets closer, Crew dips his lips to my ear. “It’s over, baby. Time to live.”

Even with one traitor lying on the ground with his brains splattered all over my land and the other on the brink, I couldn’t agree more. Surrounded by death, another moment in time weaves its way into my soul, this one making the others shine bright as the sun.

I’m so ready to live.