Chapter 32
Nothing
I stashed the gun in the junk drawer and pulled out the burner phone, turning it on and setting it on the kitchen counter. I made a point to keep it charged and it lit up, ready to go. I set about making coffee, and honestly, I didn’t see it coming. I was getting into the fridge to grab the creamer one second, and the next I was on the floor seeing stars.
Charity, was my first thought, my second was that I didn’t want to get hit again, or go unconscious, so I played possum, and made like I was down for the count. Whoever was in my house, predictably, went for the bathroom, and my woman, leaving me to my own devices. I got lucky he didn’t tap me, really lucky. I guess ‘unconscious’ was enough for him.
“Nothing?” I heard her call, and then the curtain rattle; her short shriek of fear twisted the knife in my heart and had me pushing to my feet. My vision swam and I fought down nausea, as I went for the drawer with my gun. I got it in hand just as there was a crash, and it sounded like the whole damn curtain and rod came down.
“Nothing!” Charity screamed and I was around the corner and down the hall. She was on the floor, trying to pull herself out into the hall but whoever’d hit me had a hold of her.
I rounded the bend, and aimed down at him, “Let her go,” I said with authority.
“Or you’ll what? Shoot me, and risk hitting your bitch?” his accent was thick, and he looked up and sneered. His head was shaved, and his thick, black eyebrows were drawn down into a frown.
“Shoot him!” Charity screamed and kicked back, catching our friend in the mouth. Good girl! I thought savagely. He let her go and she scrambled out of the bathroom around my legs.
“Still want me to shoot him?” I asked, knowing if she rang that bell she wouldn’t be able to unring it, and neither would I.
He snarled and lunged, taking the decision away from me. I pulled the trigger, and I honestly felt nothing about it. No regret, no guilt, he was trying to hurt the woman sheltering behind me, the woman I loved, and I wasn’t about to let that happen.
The shot took him high, in the upper left anterior quadrant of his chest. Charity screamed and jumped, clapping her hands over her ears. She stared wide eyed as our attacker fell backwards against the tub, and left a red smear against the white bath.
“Okay, we have a gunshot to the upper left anterior chest, with a posterior exit wound to the,” I tucked my gun into the back of my waistband and gritted my teeth against the burning sensation just above my butt, it couldn’t be helped. I pulled the man forward and declared, “Left posterior, center mass, through and through, pretty fucking sure I clipped a lung. What do we do, Charity?” I asked, getting her brain engaged away from the fear, and as much as I loathed to do so, saving this fucker’s life became the top priority.
“Heartbeat?” she demanded.
I checked, “Yeah.”
“Here, apply pressure, I’ll call 9-1-1,” she ripped the towels off the floor where they’d fallen and I pressed them to the wound. The son of a bitch coughed, and started to come around.
“Phone’s on the kitchen counter, try and find some clothes, Baby. I got this for right now.”
“Okay!”
She ran down the hall to the kitchen and I heard her voice, frantic on the line, “Yes, please help, a man’s been shot… I don’t know, Nothing, what’s the address!?”
I pressed down hard on the wound, the man crying out and glaring murder at me, “Trying to save your life, you sack of shit,” I told him, before calling out my address to Char.
“Why?” he demanded, in his thick Slavic accent.
“Because, it’s what we do… her and me… you picked the wrong house to come rob and the wrong girl to attack. You live through this, you can tell your boss and the rest of your boys.”
“Niet,” he said, and spit blood onto my floor.
“Could always let you die here,” I said easing up on the pressure, his eyes widened and I saw defiance, no fear. He was a cold piece that’s for sure. Charity’s voice dimmed as she went, presumably, into the bedroom, she returned a moment later.
“He attacked me, in the shower, my boyfriend, he shot him. Please hurry, he doesn’t look good. No, I don’t know who he is, neither does my boyfriend. He’s a medic, and he’s applying pressure, but we need more than that. No, I’m a nurse, we don’t have any equipment to handle this kind of thing here. Okay, Okay, sure. I’m as calm as I’m going to get.”
I risked a glance over my shoulder and Charity was in a light summer dress, her hair dripping onto it and still half soapy. I swallowed hard and returned my sight to my patient. I could hear sirens, and it sounded like they were an eternity away. Of course, I wasn’t used to being on this end of things. I was the one used to riding to the rescue.
“Yes! I hear sirens, I’m opening the front door, now.” Charity’s footfalls pounded across the floor, and I heard her unbolt the front door and fling it open.
“Please hurry! Through here!”
“Shep!” I heard a familiar voice call.
“Yeah, Brody! Back here!”
“What the fuck happened man?”
“Dumb son of a bitch picked the wrong fuckin’ house, that’s what.”
The guy was fading, but he would make it if Brody and whoever he was partnered with made good time.
“Shit, we’ve got to get him out of there.” I helped Brody lift him and carry him out to where we could get his ass on the stretcher. His partner must’ve been green, because I’d never seen him before for one, and two, he wasn’t a paramedic – no patch, so he was just an EMT.
“Right, we got it, man. Shit, I’m sorry it was you of all people,” he said and glanced at Charity, “Ma’am,” he said and shook himself.
“That’s my girlfriend, Charity,” I said and Brody looked pole axed.
“Sorry to meet you this way, Ma’am, but if you could see fit to get Shep here to come back to the team, we’d not only appreciate it, but we’d be in your debt.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” she said and smiled wanly. Brody and his partner finished strapping the guy down and hustled the hell out of there, just as a couple of cops pushed through my front door. I held my arms open and Charity rushed into them, holding me tight. I held her back and soothed as best I could while the cops waited a moment for us to collect ourselves.
“Charity!” Hope screamed from outside and she and Cutter were through the door next.
“We’re good, Captain,” I said, and leveled Hope with my gaze, “We’re good, I got her.”
Hope nodded at me, and Charity flung out an arm blindly to her sister, who joined us. We huddled around Charity who shook, but didn’t cry. My brave, beautiful, fucking girl.