CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
EVERYTHING HURT. CHARLEEN’S head attempted to morph into two separate pieces. It sent her stomach upward in a climb sure to make a mess. She managed to swallow back bile. Tried to get her bearings and failed.
“Vi. There’s not much time.” Someone touched her shoulder. The hand was warm and gentle. “We did it. I need you to wake up.”
Dexter. It was Dexter’s voice. Why was there panic and sadness laced in his sentences? “So tired.”
“You gotta get up. Time to be the hero.”
The hero?
You saved everyone in that room, but not the one person who mattered most.
Eileen.
Charleen’s eyes snapped open, air rushing into her lungs as she stood. The room inside Mercy hospital came into a view distorted by the throb in her skull.
Amanda stood with Robinson’s LCP Ruger in her uninjured left hand. Her arm wasn’t steady. She wouldn’t shoot that way. Not with Paige being held at gunpoint across from her.
“Let her go.” Amanda’s voice was firm. Angry. “You’re okay, Paige. I’ve got you.”
The teen nodded. Took in a quick breath and closed her eyes.
Another man had his gun prepared as he circled the room. Drawing closer. Leaving little time for Amanda to do what she needed to do. Leaving them all little time.
Eileen got to her feet. “She’s innocent. You don’t want to do this.”
Eileen. She had a welt across her face, but she was alive.
Thirty seconds earlier.
Charleen moved toward Amanda. Toward the gun in her hand.
“Not much stopping me.” The man holding Paige aimed the gun toward Eileen now, his free arm around Paige’s neck.
No. No. She could stop this. Make it right.
Behind him Dr. Porterville gripped a chair and raised it over her head. The other armed man shot off a round. The bullet pinged against the metal rung of the chair. Glanced off. Amanda flinched.
Beside her, Eileen started to fall.
No.
“If you fix it, Vi—” Beth appeared next to her. “If you rush to Eileen and absorb somewhere that someone can help her, everyone here dies. It’s Simone choosing between you and her husband all over again.” Beth’s eyes hit hers. “Everyone dies. You won’t make it back in time no matter how hard you try.”
When every ounce of Charleen wanted to find her normal mud and crawl through it to the one woman she’d failed, she moved toward Amanda. Placed her hand over the other woman’s. Aimed and pulled the trigger.
There were some things that couldn’t be undone. Some things that had to be relinquished. Forgiven. Redeemed.
The man holding Paige went down. Charleen repeated the motion. The other man hit the tiled surface with sightless eyes.
She released Amanda’s fingers.
Charleen was supposed to save lives.
The door to the room burst open. A dozen armed officers filed in. The ones Charleen had called before charging into the fray.
Amanda moved toward Eileen, who was crumpled on the floor, a blotch of red surrounding the area where her heart was.
“Mom.” Amanda’s voice was broken. It would be broken for the remainder of her life. Charleen understood that to her toes. Paige hurried to the older woman’s side, Robinson crashing down next to them.
Tears clouded Charleen’s vision as she sank to the floor. Flipped the safety on the Ruger.
Dexter was in her line of sight. Pale and listless. His blood was everywhere. Everything inside her stopped. She moved toward him. Gathered him into her arms.
“Oh, God. I’m so sorry.” She put pressure on the wound. “I didn’t mean to take us back here, Dexter.”
His hand found her shoulder. Gripped it. “Talk about it this time, Vi.”
___
She couldn’t go inside. Charleen had been arguing with herself for the last ten minutes. Wondering if this event in history needed to be repeated at all. She noted the boxes by the door of the old house Amanda and Robinson had been staying in. The same one she’d handcuffed Dexter inside.
Dexter insisted she needed to have this conversation. For closure. To finally move past the guilt of losing Eileen. To move forward with everything. She’d argued against the logic for the better part of two weeks. And only the thought of his annoyed and bedridden face forced her to move inside the open doorway.
Toward the family saying goodbye to one chapter of their lives and entering another. Robinson gave a wave before walking toward the back of the house, one of the newborn twins strapped around his torso. Amanda turned in her direction.
“Hey.” Her voice echoed around the empty living room.
“Where have you been hiding for the past few weeks, Charleen?” Amanda bounced the bundle in her arms. “Or should I refer to you as Vi, now?”
“Your mom used to call me that.” Eileen’s memory would have to be just that. A memory that was sweet, the regret left behind. The knowledge that while she hadn’t saved Eileen, she’d managed to save a lot of other lives. Managed to turn Josiah’s life around. “Don’t ask me where it came from. It sort of caught on. I’ve been at my aunt’s house on the coast.”
Or with Dexter while he recuperated following the gunshot wound. Becoming ensconced in his family. Hugged by his dad. Sucked into conversation with his mom. Teased by Finn and Juliana. Loved by Ricky and Dexter.
One of Amanda’s brows arched “Your aunt?”
“Not biological. Just a good woman who knows where I’ve been and loves me anyway.”
There was a prolonged silence before Amanda said, “Thank you.”
Charleen jammed her hands in her pockets. “When are you coming back? You’ll probably end up talking to Dr. Hicks. He’s about as boring as they come, but knows his stuff.” And he was alive. Very much alive, as were Josiah and Fay’s parents.
“After my FMLA leave.”
Davis nodded. Watched Robinson and Paige deep in conversation as they headed toward the living room. The guy was a natural with kids. Because of that, he’d likely never really trust Charleen.
She got it. Respected it. She was too much of an unknown—another thing Dexter encouraged her to close the gap on. “My vacation is over Monday.” Charleen shifted. “It would have been weird… You know, if I’d waltzed up to you and said hey, your mom is like my mom too. And I knew Beth—even decked her once. I’m a cop. You’re a cop. Our boss hates us both. I’m an amazing shot. Working covert ops right now. Wanna hang out?”
Except Dexter had suggested those words. Just this morning. Right alongside Beth. The both of them this annoying duo she didn’t know what to do with.
A small smile hit Amanda’s lips. “When you put it like that—”
“It would have freaked you out. Especially after the last couple of years.”
Amanda nodded. “Probably.”
“And it would have been a code violation for me. Some IA officers know how to get chummy with their persons of interest. I’m just not wired that way. So I kept my distance.”
“Did cuffing Dexter have to do with IA as well?”
Maybe there would be a day when she could share that story. Maybe it would be something she and Dexter shared on cold nights. Reminisced about with Ricky and any future children they may have. “Nope.”
“So, what was it about?”
Charleen worked to keep a smile from blooming over her face. “You ask him?”
Amanda rolled her eyes. “He said it wasn’t his story to tell.”
Charleen couldn’t help the smile. “Sounds about right.”
Amanda blinked at her. “What’s going on with you? Are you and Dexter seeing each other?” There wasn’t any disgust in the words. Just pure curiosity. The promise of friendship.
Charleen shrugged. “We still on for some shopping next week? I’m looking for the perfect pair of pants.”