Taking Chances (Pleasant Grove Book 1) by Tara Lee (26)

Chapter 29

CHARLI

FTER A NIGHT OF EXHAUSTING each other with endless orgasms, I had been blissfully drained. I eventually fall asleep in Eli’s arms, this has been my

A noise tears me from my blissful sleep I look at the alarm clock it is three thirty in the morning.
I can hear someone. There is someone in the house.
Eli is already sitting up, he puts a finger to his lips telling me to be quiet.
I am so scared, Eli seems eerily calm, he slowly gets out of bed trying not to make a noise, and he slowly slips on a pair a pants.
“Stay here and call the police. Lock the door behind me, try and be quiet.” He whispers as he opens the door and heads out.
I quietly get up and lock the door behind him, I can hear him creeping through the hallway.
I quietly put some clothes on and I listened for any sort of noise. I can’t even hear Eli anymore.
What is happening?
I remember that Eli wanted me to call the police so I call 911,
“911 what is your emergency”
“Hello, my name is Charli, I think there is someone in my house,” I whisper.
“Okay Charli, are you alone in the home?”
“No, my fiancé is here, he has gone out to check on the noise.”
“Okay Charli, we have your address from your phone, we have someone on their way to your location, stay on the line Charli do not hang up,” the operator replies
I hear a knock on the door.
“What was that Charli?” The operator asks.
“My bedroom door, I think it is my fiancé,” I whisper.
“Okay Charli, answer the door but do not hang up, units are on their way.”
I unlocked the door and opened it.
Eli is standing there with his hands up, Hannah is behind him, pointing a gun at him.
She shoves him in the room, the gun at his back, I drop my phone.
“Charli are you there…Charli?” I hear the operator say as the phone falls to the floor.
My hands go to my mouth covering the gaps I know are escaping.
This is really happening? She has a gun.
Hannah pushes Eli into the room more and points the gun at me.
My eyes fill with tears as I start to panic, she is going to kill us.
“GET IT OFF HER NOW HANNAH, she has nothing to do with this. I swear if you hurt Charli it will be the last thing you do.” Eli barks angrily at her as he tries to step in front of me more then he already was, he tries put his arm around me and hide me behind him.
“NO, she has everything to do with this!” Hannah screams at Eli while waving the gun at me, her face is red from crying.
“She took you from me, we should have been together but you choose her.” She says shaking. “You could have had me. What is it you see in her, she was a virgin before she met you, she can't do the stuff I'd do for you, and she can’t make you feel the way I can.” Hannah says tears filling her eyes.

Hannah is truly psychotic, she is that in love with Eli she is going to kill us because she can’t have him.
“Hannah, I don’t love you, I love Charli. I’m sorry it has to be like that but please put the gun down and we can talk about it” Eli says trying to reason with Hannah
“NO.” Hannah screams pointing the gun at Eli’s head. I grab at Eli not wanting him to get hurt because of me.
“Stay behind me,” he says, pleading with me.
He looks back at Hannah, his eyes bored into hers she is crying uncontrollably, her hands shaking, sobs tear through her as she keeps the gun focused on Eli.
Where are the police, they should be here by now!
Hannah starts to move and Eli moves with me keeping me behind him.
“She has to go, I won't let her have you.” Hannah says shaking her head.
I grip Eli's arms
“Please, please just leave, we can forget this all happened, we can tell the police it was a false alarm and it was nothing. Please Hannah just leave before you do something you can't come back from.” I beg her.
“You're a liar” She says pointing the gun at me.
“GET THAT GUN OUT OF HER FUCKING FACE, HANNAH!!!” Eli yells, the veins in his neck are bulging.
“This is between you and me Hannah, Charli has nothing to do with it,” Eli tells her.
“No, no, no, no, no this has everything to do with her, she took you from me,” Hannah says as she starts to shake her head, losing control.
I can hear sirens, finally they are here!
I can see Hannah looking towards the sirens she is running out of time.
“Come on Hannah, drop the gun it’s over the cops will be hear soon, it’s over just put it down” Elis says trying one last time to reason with Hannah
“You bitch you took him from me,” Hannah says pointing the gun straight at me.
“HANNAH NO!” Screams Eli
BANG!!!!!!
The gunshot echoes through the room. I have a ringing in my ears and I am on the floor, I feel blood but I don’t feel any pain, that’s when it hits me that Eli is on top of me.
I hear footsteps running through the house, which snaps me back into reality.
I sit up trying to move Eli.
The police come crashing through the door tackling Hannah.
“NO, ELI!” I scream with tears streaming down my face. Shaking him he isn't waking up.
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” I scream at Hannah. I am trembling, my own sobs filled the room I was hunched over Eli.
“Baby wake up, please.” I beg him.
“No, no, no, this can’t be happening.” I cry
An officer comes towards me as he radios for an ambulance.
“I- I-it was s-s-supposed to be you,” Hannah says as the police cuff her.
The officer puts pressure on Eli's stomach.
She shot him.
My mind isn’t there, I start to go into shock.
I am crying uncontrollably and shaking. I feel the officer shake me to get me to pay attention to him.
“Hold this here,” he says putting my hands on a piece of material.
“I need you to keep pressure on it,” he says.
I nod as he checks for a pulse.
“He’s alive but his pulse is weak,” he says to his partner as his was taking Hannah outside.
“IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE YOU” Hannah screams again as the officer takes her out.
“The ambulance is on its way, just hold on.” The officer says, as he takes my hands from Eli’s wounds and replace them with his.
I’m not sure if he was talking to Eli or me.
I close my eyes praying to god not to take him.
He can't die, we have just started our forever.
The officer screams to the paramedics,
“HE’S IN HERE.”
The paramedics rush through the door. The Officer moves away from Eli taking me with him as the paramedics take over, they give Eli oxygen and try to stop the bleeding, putting him on a stretcher, they take him out the door
“I'm not leaving him,” I tell them.
“You can come with us,” the lady paramedic says.
“What's his name?” She asks.
“Eli,” I say, holding back a sob. “Is he going to be okay?”
“We are going to do everything we can but we need to get him to the hospital. He needs surgery. He’s losing too much blood” The other paramedic says, as they put Eli in the back of the ambulance I follow him into the back sitting next to him taking his hand.
I look down, I am covered in Eli’s blood. I can't get the image of Eli’s blood on the floor, out of my head.
It was so much blood, can people survive that much blood loss? Will he survive?
I can’t lose him, we haven’t had enough time.
One of the ambulance officers drive while the other works on Eli in the back.
I grab Eli’s hand and hold it tight as I speak to him. I’m not even sure if he could hear me.
“Eli, baby you need to wake up, we haven't had long enough yet, we need more time. I can't go on without you, please wake up.” I am begging him.
“I can't lose you. You can't leave me, not like this” I say getting angry at him. I hold his hand and sob.
My head rests near his head. The tears rack though my body. Praying to anyone to in hope that it will help him survive.
Time feels like it slows down on the ride to the hospital, like it had taken forever.
They rush Eli through the doors at the hospital and I’m not allowed to follow; the doctors tell me I had to wait.
I’m alone, standing in a hospital, covered in my fiancés blood, not sure whether he will live or die and now I can’t even be with him, I fall to the floor and sob.
“Miss, is there someone I can call for you?”” a voice says quietly.
I sob harder as arms wrap around me.
“Come on sweetie, he is in good hands. Let me help you up. Let’s get you cleaned up and I can call someone, a friend a family member perhaps?” this sweet voice says.
“M-m-my brother.” I say through sobs.
A set of arms help me up. There is a nurse in front of me but the arms around me, they belonged to one of the officers that was at our house.
He had followed us here.
“You're brother’s number?” The nurse asks.
I tell her Jensen's number, she says she will be right back.
The officer walks me to a chair and sits me down another nurse brings some wet towels to wash me.
I looked at myself I’m covered in blood, Eli's blood!
“Where is Hannah?” I simply ask.
“She is in custody.” The officer replies.
“She will be arrested and charged for attempted murder.”
“She was aiming for me.” I whisper.
“It was supposed to be me.” I say putting my face in my hands.
“Well it looks like your man saved you.” He replies.
“I can't lose him” I tell him.
The nurse rubs my shoulder. “Miss.”
“Charli.” I tell her.
“Well Charli our doctors are doing all they can to save him, they will do everything they can but you have to try and stay strong for him.”
I nod but I can't talk anymore, I just need to see Eli, I need to see him and make sure he is okay.
I look back at the doors, breathing heavily through my tears, I just needed to see him.
I say a little prayer, I’ve never said one before but I need a miracle right now.
Please let him be okay. Please don't let him die I beg you.
I have prayed so much tonight.
The nurse helps wash Eli’s blood off me but I can’t move, I just sit there, staring at the doors. When the nurse finishes wiping the blood off me, she sits with me while I wait. She holds my hand while I cried but she never says a word she just holds me, she knows words aren’t going to help right now. I catch her name tag out of the corner of my eye.
Kate.
Kate doesn’t look much older than me, she squeezes my hand softly letting me know she is here. I sob harder, I can’t control the tears breaking free from my body.
She wraps her arms around my shoulders as we sit there for what seems like hours.
My tears have stopped, I am all cried out and there is nothing left in my body.
“CHARLI.”
I look up and see Jensen running towards me. He pulls me up, wrapping me in his arms.
My tears start again, I sob while Jensen holds me. So much for being cried out.
I hear other voices asking the nurse and officer what happened. I realise it’s the guys, Jensen must have called them.
“I'm going to lose him?” I whisper through tears.
“Don't you dare think like that Mad's, Eli's a tough son of a bitch and he will fight this.” He says as he rubs my back trying to comfort me. My head is buried in his chest as he holds me tight against him.
The officer explains to Jensen what happened.
“Fuck, you serious?” he says.
The officer nods.
“I hope you have locked her crazy ass up.” he barks. “Yes she is in custody.” The officer replies.
“We will need your statement.” He tells me.
“I-I can't not until I k-know Eli is okay.” I stammer, he nods seeming to understand.
Jensen holds me for what seems like a lifetime as images of Eli and my future flash through my mind or are they images of a future we will never have.
The doctor comes out, we all hold our breath
“He is in a stable condition now but it is still early and he is in an induced coma,” The Doctor says
He is alive!
“We lost him twice, but he is a fighter. We are keeping a close eye on him and once we know more,” the doctor continues
They lost him twice, he died twice....
“Can I see him?” I ask the Doctor.
“He needs his rest…” The doctor starts to reply before he looks into my eyes and see’s my desperation.
“Okay, you can see him but the rest of you are going to have to wait”
The doctor takes me through to Eli, he is hooked to tubes his eyes are closed, he looks almost peaceful, and the Doctor sits a chair next to Eli’s bed for me.
“I’ll leave you with him but I’m just outside if you need anything” He says.
The Doctor leaves the room as I lean in to Eli.
“Eli baby, it’s me Charli, you keep fighting baby.” I say through tears.
“There is something that I need to tell you baby and I have been waiting to surprise you with this but I guess now will have to do…” I take a deep breath. “I’m pregnant, you’re going to be a daddy, Eli, so I need you to wake up…no, we need you to wake up,” I tell him, placing my hand on his as tears roll down my cheeks.