That afternoon, as Sara was leaving her first job to go home and change for her second job, she decided to call Carter. Even if she didn’t need money from him now, she was pissed that he might be involved with something like that auction, and even more so that he might be the one to be running it and creating such an event. She had also decided that she needed some way to thank Saxton. Even if it was just to bake him a pie or send him a card, she had to do something. And Carter might be the only person she had access to that might know where to find him.
She had called him earlier, on her lunch break, and left a message. He hadn’t called back. She dialed his cell phone again and it went to voicemail again. Where was he? He always picked up, and on the rare occasion he didn’t, he either called back immediately or quickly. Carter was the type of guy who would answer his phone in the middle of a movie theater or while you were mid conversation.
She waited a few minutes, then called him again. No answer. What in the world was going on? She tried his girlfriend next.
“Hey Sara,” she answered.
“Hey Jess. I’m trying to get ahold of Carter. Do you know where he is?”
She made a huffing noise and said angrily, “No. I’ve been trying to find him all day. No idea where the hell he is. He won’t answer his phone, and he always answers that damn thing, especially if it’s me.”
“Right, I know.”
“Wait, you tried calling him?”
“A few times.”
Jess let out a long sigh. “Even if he was pissed at me, he’d take your call. He better not be sitting in jail somewhere.”
“I hope not. If you see him, ask him to call me?”
“Yeah. Same.”
Jess ended the call and Sara set her phone down.
What in the world had Carter gotten himself into? Was he in trouble? It seemed like that might be the best explanation for why he wasn’t answering any calls. Even his girlfriend was worried. And pissed. So it’s not like he’d been unreachable for five minutes. Hours probably.
What if he was in jail, like Jess had said? She had been calling him partially to see if the club did keep some sort of records of their patrons, but now that idea terrified her. What if they did have records of the auctions, and what if somehow she was on there? Had he seen her there? And what would that mean? Could she get in trouble? Could Saxton get in trouble? What in the world had Carter done now?
Not that she wasn’t used to him being in trouble. He’d been arrested more times than she could count for possession of drugs, for soliciting a prostitute, for having guns with no registration, that sort of thing. But she had thought now that things were serous with Jess, he would stop that. He seemed like he wanted to settle down and start a family. But maybe she’d just been deluding herself. Carter wouldn’t change. He was how he was, and she would just have to be prepared to visit her brother in jail for the rest of her life. Seemed like sooner or later, he’d do something serious enough to land him there permanently.
She thought of Saxton and worried, too. He was probably used to the same sort of life. In and out of jail, spending time on probation, that sort of thing. She hoped she was wrong, but he’d all but said his MC did illegal things, so she had to assume that meant he’d get caught sooner or later. Still, she didn’t want him to get caught because of her brother. She felt like she owed Saxton enough as it was, she couldn’t have his freedom in her debt, too.
If Carter was unavailable, that also meant her chances of finding Saxton had just vanished. Maybe she’d hear from him eventually, but if he had been to jail, he might destroy those records if they existed. As much as she hoped they didn’t exist so that no one would get in trouble, she hoped they did because she wanted to find Saxton. And now that it seemed impossible, she needed to more than ever.
As she drove home, she saw motorcycles everywhere. It seemed like more than normal, but maybe that was only because she was paying more attention that usual. Each time she saw one, she gave it a careful look. Saxton’s bike was black with big silver pipes. She remembered that because she had been very careful not to let her leg touch them. There was a blue design on the side at the front, like some sort of smokey wisp or a ghost. He’d been wearing a big patch that said Jagged Souls. Maybe the ghost thing was meant to be a phantom? Whatever it was, it made it easy to know that every bike she passed wasn’t Saxton’s.
She turned the corner to drive through some back streets, avoiding the major traffic holdups in the city. She’d lived here long enough and taken this route enough times to know all the little tricks of where to go when in order to avoid sitting at lights three or four times at this hour. She turned the corner and saw a black bike sitting at the edge of an alley.
Again, she went through each part of the bike, waiting for the moment when she knew it wasn’t Saxton’s. But when her eyes reached the front of the bike and she saw the blue wispy thing, her heart jumped. It was Saxton’s bike. He had to be nearby then. She parked her car in the first spot she could find on the edge of the road, and jumped out. She ran over to the empty bike like it would give her some information.
Where could he be? There was a bar on one side of the alley. Maybe. That place looked really shady, though, and she didn’t want to just wander in there. On the other side of the alley was a boarded up building. She’d stay far away from that. Just as she decided that maybe waiting for him by his bike was the best option, she heard a scraping sound nearby.
She looked down and saw a hand. Covered in blood. She gasped and jumped back. She was ready to turn and run and wait for him in her car, but then a sick thought settled in her stomach. If someone injured was so close to his bike, there was a good chance…
She gulped and took a step to the side to see around the bike. Lying on the ground behind the bike, in a pool of shadow and blood, was Saxton.
“Saxton!” She rushed over to him and put her hand on his shoulder.
He made a murmuring sound, but didn’t open his eyes.
“Oh, my God, Saxton, what happened?” She looked him over and saw the huge blood spot on his shirt. He must’ve been stabbed or shot. “We need to get you to the hospital.”
He didn’t move. He was breathing, she could see that. Her first instinct was to call an ambulance. But she knew, again because of her criminal brother, that that could mean trouble. An ambulance would come to the area, would know where he’d been when he was hurt. And she didn’t know if he had weapons or drugs or wads of cash on him. And besides, if he had no real job, he probably had no insurance, and that could mean a huge bill. He might not care about that, but she didn’t want to do anything that would cause him to lose more money.
She knelt down and wedged herself under his shoulder. She straightened her legs, and with great effort, managed to raise him to his feet. He grunted and tried to straighten his legs. She took a few steps, grateful that in this part of the city, no one would think it was strange that she was carrying a bloody man to her car.
She stumbled. He was heavy and she wasn’t that strong. He tried to help, tried to walk, but was barely conscious. She got him to the side of her car after what felt like the slowest walk in history. Her heart was racing with urgency. She had to see how bad it was and figure out what to do with him.
She fumbled in her pocket with one hand to get her keys out and opened the door. She tried to be careful, but ended up sort of dropping him into the backseat of her car. He groaned in pain.
“Sorry, sorry,” she said.
She dug her hand in his pockets and pulled out some cash, a few crumpled receipts. At his back was a gun, and when she patted him down, she found his knife. When she felt satisfied she’d gotten everything off him that could get him in trouble, she tucked the items far under her seat. Then she carefully lifted his shirt to see the wound.
A gaping hole poured blood out of his stomach. It looked really bad and all she knew to do was put pressure on it. She usually had a few sweatshirts in her car for either her or Ian. One of them wold leave it there when the day turned warm, or it’d be put there in case the temperature dropped, then end up not being needed and was forgotten.
She picked up one of her sweatshirts and pressed it to his stomach. He moaned again and made a gurgling sound. That seemed bad. She had no choice. She had to get him to a hospital or he’d die. It was a risk, but she had to take it. At least she’d made it better by getting his weapons and things off him.
She wiped his blood from her hands and dashed to the driver’s seat. She jumped in and took off, almost hitting a car in her haste to pull out into traffic. The guy honked and gave her the finger, but she didn’t care. Where was the closest hospital?
She made a few turns and breathed out in relief when she saw the blue H sign pointing to the hospital. She pulled up to bright red ER sign and ran inside to find someone.
A nurse sat behind a desk and looked up at her when she approached. “I have someone in my car. I think he was shot or stabbed, I don’t know, but he’s bleeding badly.”
The nurse picked up a phone to call someone, then stood. “Is he conscious?”
Sara shook her head and the nurse followed her back out to her car. Behind them, two more nurses pushed a stretcher. They wheeled it up to her car and together, lifted Saxton out of the seat and onto it, then pushed him back inside.
She watched in horror as they took him through the doors. The nurse who had followed her out said, “Go ahead and park your car. I’ll take you to him when you get inside.”
Sara nodded. She turned to close her door and saw the huge stain of blood on her backseat. She covered her mouth with her hand and had to blink tears away to see to get the car into a spot. By the time she walked back into the ER, tears ran down her cheeks. What if he died? What if she never got to repay him for what he’d done? She should have slept with him after all. It might have been his last time ever.
The nurse took her to a trauma waiting area. “You can’t go in just yet. They’re working on him, but as soon as you can see him, they’ll come get you.”
Sara nodded and slumped into one of the seats. As she waited, her mind ran wild with worries. Somewhere in the middle of it, she remembered that Ian needed to be picked up.
With a shaking hand, she called Patty.
“I—I—” She could barely speak through her tears.
“What’s wrong?” Patty asked. “Did something happen to Ian?”
“No. Can you—”
“Do you need me to pick him up?”
“Yes.” She breathed out heavily. Thank God for Patty. She swallowed and managed a few words. “I’m at the hospital with a friend. It’s bad.”
“Okay, dear, don’t you worry. I’ll get him. Don’t you forget to call work, now.”
“Thanks.”
She hung up. She’d forgotten all about work. Patty was more like a mother than a neighbor. She wouldn’t be able to do life without that woman.
When she called her second job, Jessica answered.
Sara had calmed a bit now and could at least get out a few words between sobs. “Jul, I can’t come in.”
“Oh my God, are you okay? What happened? Was this because of last night?”
“Sort of. But not what you think. It was fine. But the guy. He—” How could she even describe what was happening? “He was shot.”
“Whoa. Did you shoot him?”
“No! I found him, though.”
“Are you safe?” she asked. “Like, is someone coming after you next?”
“No. But I can’t come in tonight. Can you tell whichever manager is on?”
“Of course,” Jessica said. “But I want full details of everything.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
Sara hung up the phone and looked at the door to the room where Saxton was. There seemed to be a lot of commotion from what she could see from her glimpse of the window in the door. She wished someone would come out and tell her something.
It felt like she sat there for hours. But she kept checking her phone. Partially to keep track of real time, and partially in case Carter called or Patty needed something. Forty-five minutes after they’d taken him in, a nurse came out.
“Are you the one who brought in the stabbing victim?” he asked.
“Saxton? Yes. Was he stabbed?”
The man nodded. “We’ve got him stabilized and his bleeding is under control. No major organs were damaged, so he should make a full recovery. He should wake up soon and we’ll get him to a room shortly.”
“Thank you.” She wanted to hug this man for saving him.
“You can go ahead in.”
She stood up shakily and walked into the room. Saxton was still passed out, but was now covered with white hospital blankets. A beeping machine kept track of his pulse and it looked like he had an IV of some clear fluid going into him. She saw no hint of blood, which was good. Her stomach couldn’t handle more of that today.
She sat in the chair beside the bed. After a minute, she reached over and took his hand. He felt warm and clammy, and she took that as a good sign.