Completion - Chapter 236

I ran toward Brack, who had fallen to the floor. There was so much blood and I tried wiping it off his face. My hands turned dark red.

“You did it, baby,” he whispered before his body went completely limp.

Sander and a woman who must be Molly ran into the enclosure with guns drawn. I could barely hear them. Echoed gunshots continued ringing in my ears.

“Call an ambulance and please someone check on my father. He’s in the van,” I said as I held Brack’s head in my lap. Blood soaked my panties and covered my legs. Head wounds bleed, I kept saying to myself. Sander practically jumped over us and went straight to Ty’s body. He turned back when he had assured himself Ty was no longer a threat.

“Where were you?” I asked softly. I didn’t want Brack to hear me yelling at his team.

Sander sat down next to me and took Brack’s arm checking his pulse. “The bastard used some kind of scrambler. It took us a while to figure out the van didn’t leave the premises. We recovered the phones. Brack had a text from Detective Fuller. It said the perp worked at the zoo.”

I watched Brack’s still features. “He walked in here after being shot. That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

Sander’s expression changed. “I’m not finding a pulse. Lay him flat.”

He helped me move Brack to the floor and he started chest compressions. A medical team arrived and took over. They called out orders to each other as they used a defibrillator to try to restart his heart. I needed my father. I had to back up because of the amount of medical personnel entering the small area. I stood at the opened door. I took my eyes off the people surrounding Brack and saw another crew by the van loading my father onto a stretcher.

I was so cold. I didn’t realize Sander stood beside me until he handed me my t-shirt. I wondered if I’d spoken aloud. Sander gently helped me pull the shirt over my head. I didn’t really care. I could be completely naked or bundled up in snow gear. The cold inside of me was fear. It wrapped around my insides and turned them to ice.

“Clear,” an EMT yelled.

I watched Brack’s body jolt off the ground. “Clear.” It happened again- and again. The ice spread.

“We’ve got a heartbeat.”

The medical team scrambled around Brack in a form of chaotic order. They found a vein and placed an IV line in his arm. Blood matted his shaggy hair and a piece of what looked like skull bone protruded. He shouldn’t be alive. I sucked air into my lungs and tried to steady myself. Brack promised me that no one else would die and I’d hold him to it.

They finally transferred him to a stretcher. I only had my t-shirt covering me, but I followed. Sander held me up because my legs were unsteady.

“A chopper is landing in the lot. I’m sorry, Miss, but you can’t go.”

I looked up at the man speaking to me. They’d called a helicopter. I knew it was bad. This somehow made it worse.

“I’ll take her to the hospital. Where are you taking him?” Sander asked when I didn’t say anything.

“Methodist.” The man turned and entered the back of the ambulance. I watched it pull away and heard the helicopter blades from a distance.

The paralysis suddenly left me. I turned to Sander. “Find out where they’re taking my father and get an update on his condition. Ty said he was drugged, but he could have lied.”

“Your father had a steady pulse. We checked him in the back of the van before we found you.”

I took a relieved breath. “Get me to Methodist.”

Forty-five minutes later, I ran through the doors of the hospital. Molly had grabbed my pants off the floor of the enclosure and I’d put them on in the back of the car. I called the hospital where my father was and received an update. He was groggy, pissed off, and demanding they take him to Methodist. Someone must have told him about Brack.

The emergency room nurse informed us Brack was in surgery. Herman and Ray arrived within minutes. No one had any more information on Brack’s condition, so now it was a waiting game. About an hour later, Herman stood up and moved into another chair. I looked up and saw a bruised and battered Mack. He took the seat beside me with a heavy sigh.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked as he placed his arm around me. I hadn’t cried since killing Ty. Knowing what it must have taken Mack to get here brought tears to my eyes.

“Just hold me up so I can look tough in front of the guys,” he whispered in obvious pain.

“You’re nuts,” I said with a small laugh.

“His parents are on the way. I spoke to his dad about thirty minutes ago.”

Crap. I knew Brack hadn’t popped out from under a rock; he’d even mentioned his mother that one time. I just hadn’t considered parents; people who loved him too. I guess it was quite selfish of me really. It brought all the mysteries about Brack back to the surface. I knew practically nothing about him. What I did know was that I loved him and I held that thought.

Mack’s phone rang and I listened to him speak softly to the person on the other end of the line.

“We’re in the emergency waiting room.” He paused for a moment and listened. “That works. Let us know when they give you an update.”

He looked at me. “Brack’s parents are here. The hospital provided a small private waiting room. One of the surgeons gave them a very short update and said it could be hours before he’s out of surgery. Only immediate family will be allowed in intensive care once he’s out.”

“They’ll let me in, right?”

“I’ll talk to Brack’s mom and dad again once he’s out. Don’t worry. One way or another I’ll get you into that room.”

Mack’s poor face was black and blue with faint orange starting to appear in blotches. His hand was in a cast and he had a stabilizing collar around his neck. I have no idea how he made it out of the other hospital, but I was so thankful he had. He was a part of Brack and having him here gave me strength.

“I need coffee. What about you?” I asked.

“You know you’re covered in blood, right?” The concern in his voice had me giving him a small grimace.

I looked at my hands. “It’s Brack’s, well most of it,” I managed to say before bursting into tears. Mack grunted as he pulled me into his chest. I didn’t know him well, but he was all I had right now. I cried until I soaked the entire front of his shirt.

When I finally pulled back, coffee forgotten, all I could do was ask, “Tell me something about Brack- anything.”

Mack smiled. “He beat me up in fifth grade.”

“Tell me more,” I begged. I needed words, descriptions, anything that confirmed life.

Mack pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to me. I stared at it for a moment. The men in the tennis world didn’t carry handkerchiefs. I turned slightly and blew my nose. When I gazed at Mack again he was still smiling. His busted lip made him look oddly endearing.

I wadded the material tightly in my hand. “Don’t worry, I’ll wash it before giving it back. Why did Brack beat you up in fifth grade?”

Now Mack laughed. “There was this blonde-haired girl and we both had a crush on her.”

I needed to hear this story. “I didn’t start thinking about boys until high school. This was fifth grade?”

“That’s the year girls came up on our radar. It doesn’t mean we knew what to do with them. This girl, Veronica, had blonde hair and a crooked front tooth. To us, she was the sweetest thing we’d ever seen. One day at PE, Brack chose her for his side during a game of dodgeball. I made the mistake of nailing her with the ball. She started crying and Brack beat me up.”

“So Brack protects the target and you do the other stuff?”

Mack nodded his head slightly. “I never thought of it that way. I guess the answer would be yes. Brack has always protected the target until you.”

I felt indignant. “He protected me.”

“He broke every rule in the book.” He continued when I gave him a sour look. “It was you who got the bad guy.”

“I killed him.” It pissed me off that my voice actually quivered when I said it.

“Crap, are you going to cry again?” Mack asked in exaggerated horror.

I smiled and wiped my eyes so no tears escaped. “No. If I could kill him again I would.”

“That’s my girl. Oops, Brack’s girl.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know about that. When all’s said and done, I’m a job.”

The noise Mack made was somewhere between a groan and a snort. “Keep telling yourself that. Brack fought tooth and nail to take a backseat on this job. Your father put the screws to him hard. I still didn’t think he would take it.”

“That makes no sense.”

Mack looked away for a moment before sheepishly turning back. He was no better at prevaricating than Brack. “I really need that coffee and I’m not feeling so good. Do you mind getting it for me?”

The only thing that kept me from convincing him to continue was the swelling and bruises on his face. It just didn’t seem right to kick a man in the nuts when he looked as pathetic as Mack did.

I stood up and Molly stood, too. I gave her an inquisitive glance.

“We’re still on payroll until the senator calls us off. I’ll be hanging with you until that happens.”

I could complain, throw a fit, or straight up refuse. I just didn’t have it in me. “I’m heading for a bathroom to clean up and then the cafeteria.”

“Lead the way.”