Chapter 12
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Translation: Bitches be crazy, so don’t fuck with them.
-E-card
Winter
“There’s some guy waiting for you to come out of the side entrance.” A nurse said from beside me as I had her sign my report.
“What’s he look like?” I asked, even though I didn’t need the confirmation.
I knew who it was. I also knew I did not want to talk to him. Not now. Not ever.
“Tall, muscular, tanned skin, black hair. Hot body. Tall drink of water on the worst day of a Texas summer.”
Yep. That was Jack.
“Thanks.” I muttered as I walked towards Danni. She was flirting with an ER doctor. Typical. The girl had no morals. Especially since the wedding ring was blatantly obvious to me twenty feet away.
“Unit fifty one, standby at 112 Doral Drive for a pregnant woman in labor. Husband is said to be armed and holding the wife hostage.”
“Unit fifty one on standby.” I said as I jogged past Danni, calling her name as I went.
I ran out at a full sprint, only stopping long enough for the doors to open. Ignoring the imposing shape waiting adjacent to where the ambulance was backed into a bay, I snatched open the door, hopped in, put on my seatbelt, and then waited a minute and seventeen seconds for Danni to hop her happy ass in. That’s right, I timed her ass. Which would be making it into my report on her evaluation when I did it later today.
During that minute and seventeen seconds, I made note that Gabe was no longer there. Typed in the address on the GPS. Flipped on the radio. Fiddled with my watch. Turned the headlights on. Counted buttons on the dash. Anything that didn’t make me look at the asshole cheating bastard in front of me.
“Sorry, girl.” Danni said, as she finally made her way into the truck.
I ignored her flippancy. The girl had zero initiative. I didn’t see her making it long here. That is, unless she succeeded in seducing the boss, which I happened to overhear during a phone conversation she’d had earlier.
Pulling out, I flipped on the lights and headed where the British man on the GPS told me to go. The siren wasn’t needed yet
We made it to the scene unscathed, which was a win with the traffic at its best. That feat in itself was saying something because people are dumbasses when it comes to emergency vehicles. Paramedics have to follow the same laws that regular people do, although we do have some latitude depending on the situation. We still have to stop at stop signs and stop lights. We still have to follow the speed limit.
A muscular officer dressed all in black with his badge clipped to his hip stopped us from getting too close and came up to my window. His eyes flicked to Danni in the passenger seat, but her flirty eyes didn’t faze him any because just as fast they flicked back to me. He was tall, with reddish blonde hair that was sticking up at the top, as if he’d been woken up.
The longer I looked at him, the more I thought he totally belonged on the cover of those historical novels with his chest glistening. He could totally pull off a kilt with a broadsword in his hand and a half-naked woman, dressed only in a tartan covering her buxom bosom, draped at his feet.
His no nonsense clipped tone kicked me out of that fantasy fast. “Stay here until we let you know it’s alright.”
“What’s going on?” Danni said with a husky tone to her voice.
Disgusted at her sultry woman act, I rolled my eyes and focused back on the man. “We’re not sure. The man was the one to originally call and say his wife was holding a knife on him, threatening to stab him. Then the wife called and said the husband was holding her hostage. We’re not sure yet. You’re here just in case….for either one.”
“Downy!” A man yelled and jogged over to him.
As he got closer, I saw that it was the same man who’d pulled me out of the car the first day I saw Jack. He was in much the same attire as Downy, only he had a bulletproof vest over his shirt. Glancing at Downy, I saw that he didn’t have one on. Curious as to why, I asked.
“Where’s your vest?”
His irritated gaze slid to me and then slipped away as he saw the concern on my face.
“Just got here myself. It’s on the hood over there.” He gestured to a black SUV with a lump on the hood.
“What’s that going to do for you over there?”
“Jesus.” He muttered and then stomped over to the SUV, plucked the vest off the hood, and settled it over his shoulders.
Luke’s surprised eyes went back and forth from me to Downy and back again. “What?” I asked.
“Nothing.” He muttered and walked to Downy.
“They’re so hot.” Danni said dreamily from beside me.
I snorted. That they were, but they probably weren’t in the right income bracket for her taste. Cops didn’t make shit, money wise. Same as paramedics.
I was so preoccupied with what was going on in front of me that I failed to look sideways until it was too late. My door was yanked open, and I found myself staring down at a very pissed off woman who was heavily pregnant.
“Scoot over.” The woman demanded.
“Fuck you.” I replied automatically.
It wasn’t until I felt a burn, and the excruciating pain in my thigh that I registered that she even had a knife. “Mother fucking son of a bitch!” I fumed, covering my thigh with both hands and applying pressure.
“Now, move over before I slit your fucking throat.” She hissed and waved the knife.
There was absolutely no way I was going to let her have this vehicle. I also knew I wasn’t going anywhere with her, whether it meant I was stabbed again or not. I wasn’t some stupid chick. I knew she would kill me if I went with her. Plus, the bitch was hormonal as hell and I wasn’t sure she was that stable to begin with.
“Move!” She roared and started to swing her knife.
But her downward stroke never came. Suddenly, she was yanked away by the hair. Her struggling body went down hard, but she came back up swinging that knife again with a lethal force.
Jack was standing over her, and jumped back just as she swiped at his lower leg. Once hefting her bulk up off the ground, she went after Jack like she was on speed. Jack, for his part, was trying his best to disarm the woman without hurting her, but she was just nuts. Swinging her arms like a windmill while kicking and spitting.
Her yells attracted the attention of the police officers that were still watching the house. Downy and Luke were the first to surround the woman. Then, as if she were in a movie, she started spinning around as fast as she could with the knife held out in front of her. Jack, Downy, and Luke all backed away and watched as the woman spun, screaming like a banshee to ‘Go to hell.’
Heart in my throat, I got back into the ambulance, then closed and locked the door as I should’ve done in the first place. I watched as the woman kept going and going. She wasn’t tiring out in the least.
Mother Nature decided to make herself known in the next instant with a boom of thunder and a crack of lightening lighting up the night sky. The woman, startled at the sound, lost her balance. Her top-heavy stomach brought her down hard to the ground.
Then the screaming started, followed shortly after by the blood pooling on the road around her. Hopping out, I realized my mistake a second too late as I put weight on my injured leg, collapsing it beneath me. Remembering fast what I’d done, I realized that there was no way I could help. My leg was throbbing like a SOB and there was no way I was going near all that blood with an open wound of my own.
It also didn’t help that Danni passed out as soon as she got close to the bleeding woman. Apparently, a knife the size of a small sword sticking out of her arm shocked the girl enough that she just couldn’t handle it. Lucky for us, there was another ambulance on the scene that took over the woman.
Once she was loaded onto the stretcher, Luke cuffed her to the rail, and then stepped back to let them take her to the hospital. It was the sway on my feet from the blood loss that finally brought the attention back to me. Downy was the first to react and I found myself swooped up bridal style in his arms. Jack’s hiss of outrage was cut off mid-growl as he finally saw the wound.
I found myself placed in the back of my own ambulance and thought it was weird as hell riding in this position, instead of sitting on the bench beside it. Then I had a moment where an Indian warrior, a blonde Viking, and a Scottish highlander started to feel me up and I lost consciousness.
***
Jack
“Did she just call us what I think she called us?” Downy asked.
I glared at him as he looked at Winter curiously and then went back to her leg. Luke handed me a pair of scissors and I cut the pant leg of Winter’s blue pants all the way up to her crotch.
Saying a silent prayer that she had on underwear, I surveyed the damage. Luke’s hands handed me a package of four by fours, and I ripped them open and started cleaning away the blood. Once the wound was exposed, bile rose in my stomach as I saw the deep wound that was about one and a half inches wide.
“You need gloves. That’s how you get AIDS.” A bitchy voice said from the back of the ambulance.
I glanced up at the blonde who said that and just as quickly went back to what I was doing. Applying pressure with a new pair of four by four bandages, I said, “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Can you do an IV?” Luke asked.
“Uhh, if I have to. Only done a few in my time, but I’m sure I can manage it.”
“I’ll do it.” The blonde said.
“Well then, get it done.” I snapped.
After the second miss, I took the supplies out of her hands and slid the needle in on the first try. “I could have done that!” The girl snapped.
“Well, so could I.” I said as I hooked the IV bag up to the port.
“What’s her blood type?” Luke asked.
“We’ll just give…”
I interrupted whatever she was about to say with, “O negative.”
“Get up front and drive to the hospital.” Downy demanded of the girl.
“I-I can’t. Winter’s the driver.” She sputtered.
“Fuck.” He said and hefted himself out the back.
Slamming the doors, he rounded the vehicle and was in the driver’s seat in the next instant. We moved fast, but since Winter’s pulse was strong and steady, and we had some fluids going into her, we didn’t use the sirens.
Once Winter was safely ensconced in the trauma room at the ER and we were kicked out, I rounded on Luke and Downy with my fists clenched. “What the fuck was that?” I bellowed.
Bystanders backed up and gave us a wide berth. It wasn’t every day that a man yelled at two police officers in full riot gear, and to them I must’ve seemed out of my mind. Which I was. I’d just witnessed a woman with a seven inch knife go after my wife and I was livid.
“What happened to doing your fucking jobs? What kind of goddamn cops are you?”
I was still yelling and they let me. Realizing that I needed the release, they didn’t say a word until after I hung my head and took a seat with my back to the wall. My stomach was a riot of roiling emotions.
This very feeling right here was one I never wanted to feel again. Yet, I’d felt it a lot more lately than was good for me here lately. Once she was healed, I was going to forbid her ever to leave our house.
“Sorry man.” Luke said with pain in his eyes.
Tonight, when James dropped me off at Free, I thought I was going to be fighting a different battle with Winter.
Oh, I didn’t doubt for one single minute that she’d confront me over the incident. I was just ecstatic that she would be well enough to have it at all. She could’ve easily been killed by that psycho bitch and I would’ve never been there to stop it if she hadn’t seen me tonight.
“Goddammit.” I said in desperation.
I stayed that way, knees up to my chest for what felt like days, but was more like an hour until the doctor came to get me. “Mr. Stoker?”
My feet brought me to him before my mind even processed the words. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine. The wound itself isn’t bad. It will, however, be painful until it heals. Being at the inside of her thigh, it missed anything major like an artery, as well as any muscle. The fat that it went through doesn’t make it any less painful, only quicker to heal. She’ll need to take it easy for a few weeks. Light duty once she’s up to it. She’ll know when that is. She’s also been released.”
“Released? Where is she then?”
“She had someone pick her up, but told me to tell you only after twenty minutes had gone by.”
I closed my eyes. That woman was in so much trouble. Not that I didn’t know where she was coming from. She was nursing a broken heart at what she thought she’d witnessed. If I were in her shoes, I wouldn’t be too happy either.
Downy and Luke came up beside me and stopped. “Where would she go?”
“Home.”
I knew she wouldn’t go anywhere else. She may be pissed, and leave me here worrying and waiting, but she wouldn’t run. She was a smart woman, and brave to boot. She wouldn’t put anyone else in danger, and she wouldn’t make me worry about her either. That was just the type of person she was.
Now, that didn’t mean that when I got home she wouldn’t rip me a new one. She would yell, scream, and throw things. She would make sure I was aware of all my faults before she kicked me out.
Payton was coming out of my front door as I parked the bike in front of my house. She gave me a good hard glare before throwing her green highlighted hair back and stomping away.
Building up my defenses, I walked in quietly through the door and closed it just as quietly behind me. Winter wasn’t in the living room, the kitchen, or our bedroom. Sighing in defeat, I found her in Tai’s room, curled into his side.
Tai had an ‘I told you so’ look on his face that just dared me to say something. I didn’t. Instead, I walked to the side of the bed and picked her up gently. She was dead to the world, which was good, because I didn’t want her getting worked up right now. The morning would be early enough.
Laying her down on the bed, I lifted the covers from the floor and laid them gently over her sleeping form, before stripping out of my own clothes. Throwing them down to the ground, I got into bed beside her and gathered her up as gently as I could. I kissed her forehead softly, and breathed a sigh of immense relief at having her in my arms, safe and sound.
“I love you.” I said to her quietly.
“I love you, too.” She whispered, startling me.
“Faker.” I said with a laugh and settled in more deeply, before dropping off to sleep.
***
That fucking song, Here Without Me, played in an endless loop through my head over and over again. It was the only thing that I kept thinking about.
“I’m here without you baby.” I said to Winter’s headstone.
“You fucking promised me. You said you’d wait.” I said with a thick voice.
Choking back my tears, I turned and walked away from the grave.
I was pissed, too. She didn’t want to be buried. She wanted to be cremated. She thought it was weird that her body was rotting away in the ground. She wanted to be free. Wanted her ashes floating away on the river.
Her sister was a heartless bitch though. Her and her boyfriend, who’d acted so fucking concerned, when just a few months ago he’d threatened Winter’s life when I told him to stay the hell away from her.
Even though I was her husband, they buried her without me, because I wasn’t around. I had no choice in the way she was buried. It burned me even more that I was gone in the first place. Maybe if I was here, I could have done something.
A strong hand clasped me on the shoulder, and I turned to see my father. “You know what I think about all of this. It’s time to be strong now. She needs you.”
This was also another problem. My father saying she was here when she wasn’t.
“I need to be alone for a while. I’ll walk home. Just let me get my bag first.” I said, ignoring him.
His tired, haunted eyes looked at me for a long moment before he nodded and turned to walk away. Setting my bag on the ground, he walked around his truck and got in. Stormy left as well, her boyfriend driving a newer model Mercedes, which was definitely something that they couldn’t afford just a few short months ago.
His eyes stayed connected with mine until they exited the cemetery parking lot and pulled out on Hollister. My gut clenched just thinking about that man. Why couldn’t it have been Winter’s sister that died. Why did it have to be my Winter?
Then I admonished myself. I couldn’t keep thinking like that. What the hell was I thinking?
Walking to my bag, I pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels and took a seat next to Winter’s headstone. Leaning my back against it, I started drinking. The burn only lasted for the first five sips. After the sixth, I wasn’t feeling much of anything anymore.
My poor dream catcher. I left her alone, and unprotected. What had I been thinking? Fuck, I might as well have chopped her head off myself. Oh, God. What she must have gone through; I just prayed that her death was quick. The fact that she might have suffered burned me.
Vowing to myself then and there, I told myself that I would find who did this to her. And when I did, I would make them pay. I would make him wish he was dead. Wish that he never laid eyes on Winter. One day. One goddamn, glorious day, I would do it. Make it right.
It could have been hours or days when I felt myself being lifted off the ground. “Jesus. He smells like a brewery.”
“Wonder if that bottle was full when he started.” Adam said.
“You fucking know it was full.” Tai said.
“I’m surprised he’s not dead.”
“There’s still time.”
“Very funny.” Adam deadpanned.
“Kill me.” I told them.
Their sparring barbs stopped when they heard what I said.
“Was that what you were trying to do?” Tai finally asked.
“What does it matter?”
“What matters is that Winter wouldn’t want you to do it. What matters are the people you still have here that love you. She would want you to get up off your ass and stop sulking like a little bitch.” Adam all but yelled.
Shame filled me, but it didn’t stop the feelings of not wanting to be here. What the fuck was the point? But then a memory of myself and Winter watching Romeo and Juliet popped into my head.
She’d said that she would never do that. Because it takes more strength to live than it does to die; I was going to be someone she could be proud of. Someone that she could look down on and claim.
In the meantime, I would see her in my dreams until the day I could be with her again.
***
Moaning woke me up the next morning, pulling me out of my dream faster than anything else could.
Winter. Alive. Breathing. Whole.
Propping myself up on my elbow, I let my eyes adjust and found Winter standing beside the bed with a pained expression. Standing up, I went to her side. “What are you doing?” I yelled.
“I have to pee, ass wipe.”
Grabbing her around the waist, I took her into the bathroom, and carefully set her back on her feet in front of the toilet. She wouldn’t meet my eyes, and struggled to pull her panties down without bending her leg. Seeing the problem, I carefully removed her panties, stretching them as wide as they could go to avoid the bandage on her leg.
Seeing that they were beyond repair due to the wound she’d sustained, I tossed them in the trashcan beside the toilet, then helped her sit down. She grimaced, and then gave me a pointed look that very clearly told me to get the fuck out.
Grinning at her, I turned my back on her and started the shower. I wasn’t leaving her and she could just get over it.
An unused roll of toilet paper hit me in the back of the head and I turned my head giving her a pointed look. Once my thoughts were conveyed, I turned back to the shower and started stripping out of my clothes.
“Need to wash the smell of her off you?” She snapped.
Freezing with my shirt halfway up, I stared at her twisted features. “I’ve never, nor will I ever, cheated on you.”
“Well you could have fooled me last night. Here I was, worrying about whether I was bothering you, and you prove it to me without me even asking. If you want me to leave, all you have to do is say so. You didn’t have to go out with her behind my back.”
Knowing that I should have said this a long time ago, I finally told her what we did with the Freebirds. “Do you remember what Catori’s favorite song was?”
She looked confused in the direction I was taking the subject in, but answered anyway. “Freebird. Why?”
Turning the shower off, I turned to her and helped her stand. She pulled my shirt down as far over her ass as she could, but didn’t struggle as I took her to the computer.
“Go ahead. See what you can find on that song in my files. Tell me what you see.” I demanded.
She was beyond confused, but her nimble fingers worked over the keyboard like lightning. It wasn’t but three minutes later that she gasped. “What the hell are y’all doing? Good hiding by the way. Would have been impenetrable if I didn’t know you so well.”
I smiled at her praise, but told her what the files were about. “We started Freebirds after I got out of the army. Sam put up the capital, but the idea was all me. Later on, an anonymous donor helped us fund the program. I wanted there to be someone that a woman could call if she had no one else. If she couldn’t break free. I wanted to help them fly.”
Tears filled her eyes as she finally understood. “She would be so proud of you. So that was Teal?”
“Yes.” I said simply.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You had so much going on that I didn’t want to add to it. I didn’t want you to worry either. What we do isn’t very legal. I knew you would want to help, and I didn’t want you to bring any attention, whatsoever, to yourself. We still don’t know who the man is that attacked you, and I didn’t want to take any chances.”
“What about last night? Why not last night?”
“Stupidity.” I finally acknowledged.
Holding up her hand to me, I took it and helped her to her feet. She wrapped her arms around me and leaned into my chest. “Don’t do that to me anymore. Don’t shelter me. I’ve experienced a lot of things in my life. I don’t need you to keep things from me, too. It won’t help.”
“I won’t.”
“Promise?”
“Pinky.” I said holding my pinky finger in the air.
Laughing, she took her pinky and curled it around mine. “One of these days, Jackopa, your charm won’t get you out of the hole you dig.”
“Hopefully not any time soon.”