Chapter 10
“Who’s your friend?” Charlotte/Eddie asked with another giggle.
The sound made Gael’s ballsac sweat. What the ever-loving fuck was going on? He’d known something was off when Dallas supposedly started talking to the Lieutenant, because it was widely known L.T. had taken his wife to Italy and would be gone for the next two weeks. It was also known, L.T. and his wife couldn’t have children, so the fundraiser conversation was a total sham as well.
He suspected now Dallas had been trying to signal someone on the other end of the line. Gael shot a sharp glance her way. Horror kept her immobilized on the couch, her mouth frozen in a gaping “Oh.” Nothing to do now but play along and hope to hell they could get out of this unhurt.
“I’m Gael. I work with Dallas. It’s a pleasure to meet you Charlotte. I’ve heard a lot of good things about you,” he lied with a broad smile. He and Dallas had dealt with crazy before. The key was to keep the subject calm and speak in a normal, non-threatening way.
“Work together? When did you get a job, Dallas? I thought your mom didn’t want you working while you were going to school?”
Shit! So they were dealing with teenage Charlotte from thirteen years ago. Great. Gael looked to Dallas for any type of sign she was clued in to what was going on. Still she sat, unmoving and silent. He searched his brain, trying to recall conversations about her past.
“Did I say work? I’m sorry. I meant on a class project. We’re working on a class project together. It always seems like work with the amount of homework they dump on us, don’t you think?”
“Who do you have for first period?”
Christ, maybe he should just rush Eddie and try to subdue the guy. Crazy lent its own strength to the mix, but Gael could probably take him. Anything was better than trying to talk his way through the minefield of a high school schedule he’d never had.
Dallas seemed to snap out of the trance she’d been held captive by and answered for him. “Mr. Lahey. Gael has Mr. Lahey with me for science. It’s the project we’re working on. Didn’t you have to do a co-assignment for the science fair?”
“Yeah, I got stuck with Sarah Whatley. That bitch!” Eddie’s mouth curled in a snarl and anger flared bright.
Nothing to do but play along. Gael took a stab in the dark and asked, “Is she the blonde cheerleader chick?”
“Yes! She’s a total skank,” Charlotte/Eddie confirmed.
“No wonder you’re pissed.”
“Um, Charlotte, Gael and I really need to get started on the project before mom gets home. You going to be around tomorrow? Can I come over then?” Dallas improvised, darting a frantic look in his direction.
“Oh, sure. Yeah, I can come back.”
Gael breathed a sigh of relief when Eddie rose and ambled toward the front door. He’s relief turned to sick dread as Eddie locked the door and started to laugh. Fuck!
“You should have seen your faces! Sarah Whatley! There was no Sarah Whatley in our school. I’m surprised you didn’t remember, Dallas. Or should I call you D.J.,” Eddie sneered, reaching into his waistband for the gun he had hidden there. “So who was on the phone? Who knows I’m here? Did they tell you Charlotte’s dead? That stupid bitch thought she was going to save you. Can you believe it? She caught me preparing to light the place up. Thought she could talk me out of it. She even went so far as to pull the older-sister-ordering-me-to-behave routine.”
Gael had gained his feet the same time Eddie and Dallas had with every intention of seeing Eddie out the door and bolting the damned thing behind him. Now they all stood staring at one another, trying to anticipate each others’ next action. Gael shifted closer to Dallas. He wasn’t sure what he could do by way of protecting her, but he damn sure didn’t intend to do nothing.
“What do you plan to do now, Eddie?”
The calmness in her voice surprised Gael. She seemed matter-of-fact about the whole hostage situation. Respect for her flew off the chart.
“I intend to finish what I started thirteen years ago. I intend to watch you burn, you cheating whore.” The fury coating Eddie’s words had Gael’s heart stopping. Okay, yeah the guy was unhinged, but something deeper was at play here.
“Why?” Dallas, using her crutches, hobbled a step closer to the deranged psychopath with the gun, kicking Gael’s heart rate back into gear and shoving it into overdrive. Her moving away from the nut job would have made more sense.
“Why?” The question confused Eddie if his dark frown was any indication. “What do you mean ‘why?’ I loved you.”
His explanation was clear as mud. A lot of people loved another person. It didn’t mean they sought to barbecue them at the first opportunity.
“And I loved you,” she returned softly. “But why did you call me a cheater? I never cheated on you, Eddie. Not once.”
Tears burned brightly in the other man’s eyes, and Dallas took the opportunity to shift closer. With each step she took, Gael died a little more inside. He wouldn’t be able to reach her to help when needed.
“You did! Charlotte told me you didn’t want to see me anymore because you’d met someone else.”
“I don’t know why she would have said that. It wasn’t true,” Dallas assured him, moving closer still.
“D.J.” Her name popped out of his mouth in an involuntary plea to halt her progress. Dumbass reaction on his part because Eddie’s rage kicked back in once Gael had made it known he was still in the room.
“What about him?” Eddie snarled the question with a glare of hate and a wave of the gun in his direction. “Don’t tell me you’re not fucking him. I see the way you look at each other.”
“Eddie, look at me. Please.”
Gael worked hard to keep his emotions in check, but Eddie’s mental stability was nonexistent, and he feared the guy would pull the trigger on one, if not both, of them at any time.
“Eddie,” Dallas tried again. “Please look at me.”
“I loved you, Dallas,” Eddie cried brokenly finally focusing on where she stood only a few feet from him. “I loved you.”
“You have to realize what we had was a long time ago,” she said with another half step. “Another lifetime. But I was faithful. I swear it on my mother’s grave.”
Honesty shone bright and bold from her eyes. If Eddie didn’t believe her, he was a fool. Still, she hadn’t taken care of the issue at hand—the current relationship Eddie seemed so obsessed with.
“Your father told me you didn’t want to see me.”
“When? At the time of the fire?”
“No. Last month, when I tried to get your address.”
Eddie looked everywhere but at her, and Gael had the sinking sensation he’d hurt Frank Jennings. Dallas would be devastated to lose someone else. She pretended not to care what happened to her dad one way or another, but the reality was, she felt his rejection to her core.
Her voice shook slightly as she asked, “Eddie, did you… did you do something to Frank?”
“He was trying to keep us apart again.” Eddie sent her a pleading look, begging her to understand his actions. He didn’t know the hell he’d unleashed.
Dallas lost her shit. Her rage and fear swirled inside, creating a cyclone of emotion. “What the hell did you do to my father, you sick fuck?” The words were out before she had control over her tongue. She shocked Eddie into silence.
Taking advantage of his surprise, she drew the knife from her hoodie pocket and charged the two-foot distance between them. She was sure she heard Gael swear from somewhere behind her. Not caring that she was putting her life at risk, she slashed in Eddie’s general direction, connecting with his arm holding the weapon.
The loud report of the gun echoed in her tiny apartment and made her momentarily deaf. The ringing in her ears was horrendous. Still, she flailed about with the knife trying to connect with any part of Eddie which might slow him down or incapacitate him.
From a distance, she could hear shouting and banging. Just as she plunged the blade into Eddie’s abdomen and twisted, her front door was kicked open and policemen flooded in. Rough hands grabbed them both, taking them down to the floor. Her arms were jerked behind her back as cuffs were fastened to her wrists.
“Jesus, get me a paramedic in here. This guy’s been shot.”
Gael! She struggled in earnest against the hands hauling her to her feet, trying to contort her body in an effort to catch a glimpse of Gael. “I’m a paramedic. Please, let me help him. Please.”
“Hold still,” barked the arresting officer, who removed the knife from her sleeve.
“Gael,” she sobbed when she finally bore witness to his blood-soaked chest. “Please God, no! Gael!”
“Dallas!”
Her name had been called by Clay Riggs, an officer she’d dated a few years back.
“Thank God! Clay! Please, tell him to let me loose so I can help Gael.”
A quick nod between the officers had her free and staggering to Gael’s side. She felt for a pulse as a third officer kept pressure on the wound. Faint, but still there.
“Gael, I need you to hang on, okay? Help’s on the way, baby. I need you to stay with me.” She snagged the blanket from the back of the sofa and covered him to keep him warm. “Someone grab my medical kit from the front closet. Move!”
To the officer pressing on his would, she said, “Roll him slightly. I need to see if there’s an exit hole.” The two of them shifted him to one side. Nothing. She suspected a collapsed right lung. He needed surgery, STAT. “Keep his injured side facing down. I’m hoping gravity will keep that lung open for air.” She ripped open packs of gauze and cut off his shirt. “Here, hold this over the hole. Keep steady pressure there. Not too much… right, just like that…”
Gael’s thick, black lashes lifted to reveal dull, pain-filled eyes. The honey color didn’t seem as vibrant or alive, and Dallas had never been more helpless in her life. Without her supplies or truck, all she could do was continue to monitor his pulse and pray he wouldn’t succumb to shock or loss of blood.
“Please don’t leave me, Gael. Please. I love you, baby. Please fight.”
In the distance she could hear the ambulance sirens. Another sob, this one of relief tore from her. A third feel of his carotid artery had her panicking. His pulse was thready and slowing by the second. Breathing was shallow pants. She didn’t know how much longer he had.
“Call ahead and have Parkland prep an O.R. It’s the closest hospital to here.” She ordered Clay. She listened as he relayed information to the intake nurse. Dallas answered what questions she could about Gael’s medical background.
She was relieved to see her co-workers, Cary and Terry, clear the door with a medical bag.
“Move, move, move!” Terry barked. “Clear a path.”
No one spared her a glance, they just demanded answers to relevant questions and worked on getting him prepared for transport. When Dallas would have trailed them downstairs, the officer who’d cuffed her earlier placed a restraining hand on her arm.
“I still need to get a report and find out what’s going on here, miss,” he said apologetically. “I also need to take you to the station for questioning reference the shooting and stabbing.”