Chapter 13

They’d flown home a week ago, but Kiley was more excited than ever. She’d texted her friends as promised and told them the news. All of them were ecstatic and couldn’t wait to visit her in Maine. Shannon finally told them all her wedding date and said the girls would have to fly to Chicago when they could for dress fittings. Kiley was the first to text back saying she would be there whenever Shannon needed her to be.

Life was good. She received word from Detective Baron that they’d closed in on the thugs who had attacked her and were getting closer to Ned every day. She was anxious for it to be over and hardly left the penthouse unless Charlie was with her.

On one such evening, they were at the café she was meant to meet him at the day she was kidnapped. After dinner, they rode through the city, Kiley laughing as the wind blew her hair back. She watched the stars come out one by one. When they pulled into the garage, she hopped off the bike, exhilarated by the drive, but sadly, this was her off week so she would have to stop herself from tackling Charlie. On the other hand, she could tackle him and torture him for a change and he could do nothing about it. With plans of romping around in his bedroom on her mind, she missed the man coming at her out of the corner of her eye.

“Kiley,” Charlie yelled, but someone smacked her hard across the face. She slammed into a nearby car, gasping with pain, and when she lifted her head, found a gun aimed at her and Charlie.

“Ned?” she asked in disbelief at the man holding it. “Why the fuck are you here?”

“I heard you had a new boyfriend,” he snapped and staggered forward a step.

Kiley looked down and saw the blood oozing between his fingers as he held his side. “You’ve been shot.”

“No shit, you bitch, and it’s all because of you. I should kill you right now.”

“Then why don’t you?” Charlie asked as he moved himself in front of Kiley like a shield, but she wasn’t scared anymore. She shoved him out of the way and blocked him instead. Ned was her problem, not Charlie’s.

“You’re a doctor, right?” Ned muttered. “You’re going to patch me up and send me on my way or I’ll blow her brains out.” He moved the gun so it pointed at Kiley’s head.

“I can’t treat a gunshot wound in the parking garage.”

“Then we’ll go up to your penthouse. Move, now.”

Kiley thought of reaching for her cell and calling the cops, but Ned was unstable and his finger rested on that trigger. She hadn’t gone through all this shit to get shot by her ex. They led the way to the elevator and rode up with Ned pressing the muzzle of his gun into her lower back, out of sight of the camera in the corner. When they exited, he shoved her forward, and Charlie cursed but didn’t make a move for the gun. They reached his penthouse, and he hurried to the bathroom to grab his first aid kit. Ned and Kiley followed, his grip on her hair tight in case Charlie tried to do anything like call the cops.

“Lay down,” Charlie ordered in full doctor mode. “I can’t work on you sitting up like that.”

Ned grunted and pulled Kiley down with him, but Charlie shook his head. “I need her help.”

“No, she stays by my side.”

“She will be. Look, here’s my phone. Kiley, toss your purse away,” Charlie ordered as he threw his cell across the room. “See? I need her help or you’ll bleed out.”

Ned grimaced and shot her a threatening look but let her sit beside Charlie so she could help him. “One wrong move, doc, and it’ll be the last thing you do. Got it?”

“Understood. Who shot you?” he asked as he shoved aside Ned’s ruined shirt after putting on gloves and handing a pair to Kiley.

“Fucking cops because someone snitched on me.”

Kiley swallowed hard but said nothing to confirm or deny what he said.

Charlie poked and prodded the wound, reaching around Ned’s back. “There’s no exit. I should dig the bullet out. It’ll hurt like a bitch.”

“Don’t give me nothing. Just do it.”

Charlie hesitated but using tweezers, stuck his fingers in the wound. Kiley’s vision swam, and she looked away. Ned cursed and twitched in pain. Deep down, she was happy he was in pain, but seeing his blood spilling out of the wound was sickening and the smell was harsh in her nose.

“Got it,” Charlie muttered and extracted the bullet carefully. The second he did, blood poured out of the wound and Ned’s head hit the floor, his body going limp. “Shit! Ned? He’s losing too much blood. He’s out. We have to get him to the hospital.”

“Why?” Kiley asked coldly as she reached over and yanked the gun from Ned’s fingers. “Let him die.”

“Kiley, you don’t want that.”

“I don’t? You can’t tell me you honestly want to save his life.”

He looked at her fiercely, and it was like a hit to the gut. What was she saying? “I’m a doctor, Kiley. I swore to do everything in my power to save lives, not take them. I hate this man for what he did to you, but he’s a patient. I won’t stop treating him just because the world would be better off without him. I can’t. I’m not judge and jury and you are no executioner. Put the gun down and call for an ambulance. Please.”

The gun shook as Kiley aimed it at Ned. Was he right? She could pull the trigger now and he would be dead, but she would be a murderer. If they let him bleed out and did nothing to help, they would be murderers. They would be just like him.

“Shit,” she snapped and scrambled away from Ned’s body. She set the gun on the dresser and grabbed for her purse, tugging out her cell. She called 911 and told them where they were and what happened.

After she hung up, she dug through her wallet for Detective Baron’s card and told him they had Ned. He said he would meet them at the hospital and hung up.

“Kiley, I need your hands,” Charlie yelled. “He’s bleeding out.”

She rushed over and did as Charlie instructed, doing everything to keep the bastard alive. The paramedics arrived, and he told them what happened and what he’d done. He tossed Kiley the keys to his bike and said to meet him there. She’d driven it a few times around his hometown so figured she could get herself to the hospital in one piece. He rode in the ambulance, and she watched them take off. The night’s events swirled around in a crazy haze of anger and relief and the fact that she’d almost let herself become just like Ned. Thanks to Charlie, she hadn’t.

Once she arrived at the hospital, she was told Charlie was with the man in the ER, trying to stabilize him.

“Kiley,” a deep voice boomed behind her, and she turned to see Detective Baron.

“He was waiting for us in the parking garage,” she told him as they sat in the uncomfortable plastic chairs. “He was there, waving a gun around. He said the cops shot him.”

“They thought they had, but he disappeared.”

“How did he find us?”

“The thugs we arrested—those who attacked you—apparently told him you had a new boyfriend. They said they figured out who he was in case they ever needed money again. They planned to try and use you to get to Charlie,” he muttered gruffly. “Said it would be good to have a doc on hand.”

“They would never turn Charlie,” she said softly. “He’s too good a guy.”

“And you, my dear, are now safe. Ned’s organization is scattered, and if he lives, he’ll be in jail, probably for the rest of his life.”

“Good, but I won’t be here to see it. I’m moving to Maine with Charlie.”

He held out his hand and she shook it. “I’m glad to hear it. You’ll have to come back as a witness if this goes to trial. Are you okay with that?”

“If it puts that asshole in jail, yeah, I’m fine with that.”

Charlie exited the ER a few minutes later, his shirt covered in blood, and nodded grimly. “He’ll live. They’re taking him up for surgery now,” he told them. “Are you all right?”

Kiley nodded and kissed him. “I’m better now. Shaky as hell, but it’s over and you… you’re an incredible man, you know that?”

“Yes, he is,” Detective Baron agreed. “Not many men would have tried to save him.”

“I’m a doctor. It’s my job,” Charlie said. “We don’t always like our patients. We merely have to do our best to save them.”

Detective Baron said he would hang around the hospital until Ned woke up, and Kiley asked if she could do the same. “Why?” both men asked in unison.

“I want to speak to him, is all,” she explained. “Trust me.”

Charlie said he would find them some fresh clothes as theirs were covered in blood. Kiley waited and waited as the hours ticked by. She washed up in the restroom, borrowing a new shirt and jeans from the lost and found to wear until they returned to the penthouse. When a nurse finally came down to inform Detective Baron Ned was out of surgery, she asked if she could go wait for him to wake up. Charlie hesitated, but Baron said she would be safe. Ned was handcuffed to his bed and two armed officers were outside his door. Kiley said she wouldn’t be long and went to sit in his room.

Ned’s eyes fluttered open eventually, and he tugged violently at the handcuff when he realized where he was.

“You’re finished, Ned,” Kiley informed him, not getting up from her chair.

“You bitch! What did you do to me?” he hollered.

“Did you hear me? I said you’re finished,” she repeated louder.

“Yeah, I heard you. So you came here to gloat? I’ll get out and I’ll come for you.”

She stared blankly at him and smiled slowly. He blanched as she stood and paced towards his bed. “I wanted to see your face when you woke up. I wanted to tell you the only reason you’re still alive is because of the man I love. He let you live. He kept you alive. I would have killed you.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

“Because as much as you broke me down, you failed to break me completely. I’m not like you. And I never will be.”

“You think that man loves you?” he yelled as she walked away. “It won’t last.”

“Maybe, maybe not, but either way, you’re out of my life forever. Have fun in prison. I think your friends are already there waiting for you.”

She exited the room to his screaming and cursing. Once outside and down the hall, she sagged against the wall. Two strong arms closed around her, and she turned automatically into Charlie’s strong chest.

“Feel better?” he asked quietly.

“I do. I think I can move on now, get over this shit.”

“Good. Then let’s go home.”

They walked hand in hand through the hospital and out the doors into a night that was more beautiful than any Kiley had ever seen.

***

One Year Later

Kiley watched the snow falling outside the windows of Charlie’s practice and grinned. Another twenty minutes and they would be outside in the snow for a few hours. Shannon’s rehearsal would start at eight once everyone arrived in this small, sleepy town. Her friend wanted a unique place to get married, and Charlie had suggested his hometown. There was an old chapel perfect for the small wedding Shannon had in mind.

“You seem awfully happy today,” Charlie said, coming up behind her as he saw his last patient out the door.

“It’s snowing and my friend is getting married tomorrow. What’s there not to be happy about?”

“How’s your leg feeling?”

She glanced down at the scrubs she wore covering the new, intricate tattoo on her thigh. “It itches like mad.”

“Don’t scratch it.”

“Yes, Dr. Devons,” she purred. “Whatever you say, Dr. Devons.”

He grunted and wrapped an arm around her body to crush her to him. He kissed her passionately until she reminded him the door was unlocked and the windows were opened. They were waiting on the construction of their new home a few acres away from his parents and were living with them until the time came to move out. She loved his parents, but it made for some interesting nightly romps, trying not to let them hear her screams of passion.

Charlie locked the door as she tugged down the blinds. As the last one fell, he picked her up and carried her to his office in the back of the building, the one with a convenient couch in it. They tore at each other’s clothes, shedding the day, and finally, she had him within her as she straddled him on the couch. The bright colors of the burning phoenix tattoo on her leg made her smile even more. The scar was no longer visible. They moved as one body, their cries and moans swallowed by the other as they rushed to their quick release. She wanted it to last longer, but if they really got into it, they would be late for the rehearsal. She needed to get back to the house and change, as did Charlie.

“You’re too good at this,” he groaned, his body shuddering beneath hers.

“Says the man who made me bite a pillow last night to stop myself from screaming until I was hoarse,” she pointed out. “All is fair in love.”

“Speaking of love,” he muttered and reached for his white coat on the floor while holding her on his lap. She giggled as she held onto his shoulders and he finally sat back up. She tried to see what he’d grabbed, but he kept it out of sight behind her. “Kiley, my love, my heart, I should have asked you sooner, but life seemed to get in the way and I never found the perfect time. So I’m asking you now before we get caught up with anything else.”

Her heart pounded in her chest as he revealed the tiny black box.

“Marry me?” He opened it, and she gasped at the gorgeous emerald ring staring back at her.

She didn’t say yes, but she kissed him long and hard. He laughed as she kissed his cheeks, his neck, and every part of him she could reach until he caught her hand and slipped the ring on her finger. They rolled over on the generous couch, and he buried himself inside her again, making love as the snow fell outside the windows. Kiley didn’t have the life she’d dreamt of. She had a better one, and with Charlie at her side, there was no need to fear anything ever again.

Needless to say, they were quite late to Shannon’s rehearsal, wrapped up in their love and the possibilities of their new future together.