A Home for Lily (19 page)

“Happy Anniversary, sweetheart.”  Logan
appeared in the kitchen, a huge bouquet of flowers in his hands.

Lily stared at him in surprise.  “You’re
home early from work.”

He grinned.  “I am.  Bill told me to go
home and spend some time with my beautiful wife on our one-year anniversary.”

She laughed and kissed him firmly on the
mouth.  “How nice of him.”  She admired the flowers in his hand.  “These are
lovely.”

“Lovely flowers for a lovely girl.”  He
winked at her and set the flowers on the counter.  “Is the baby bee sleeping?”

“She is.  She was in a real mood this
morning.”  Lily laughed again. 

“Hmm.”  Logan gave her a thoughtful look. 
“The baby bee is sleeping and Hazel won’t be finished school for another couple
of hours.  What should we do with so much unexpected alone time?”

Lily grinned at him.  “I’m sure you can
think of something.”

“I certainly can.”  He cupped her breast
and kissed her softly.  “In fact, I – “

He stopped, a small smile crossing his
face, and rested his hand on Lily’s round belly.  “Someone’s active.”

Lily placed her hand on top of his.  “Your
son has been kicking rather enthusiastically all morning.”

He bent and kissed her belly.  “Hello,
little man.”  He smiled again when Lily’s belly rippled under his hand.  “I
can’t wait to meet you.”

END

Please enjoy a sample chapter of Elizabeth Kelly
’s latest novel, “Saving Charlotte”.

SAVING CHARLOTTE

By Elizabeth Kelly

* * * *

Copyright 2014 Elizabeth Kelly

“How are Melody and the kids?”  Charlotte
turned the clippers on and began to carefully shave the back of Vince’s neck.

“They’re good, real good.”  Vince smiled at
her in the mirror as she finished shaving his neck and brushed away the small
bits of hair that still clung to his sunburned neck.

“Jade’s leaving for college next week.”

Charlotte shook her head in disbelief.  “I
can’t believe she’s starting college this year.”

“You and me both.”  Vince grimaced a
little.  “And why she feels the need to move halfway across the country is
beyond me.”

“Mel is going to miss her.”  Charlotte
replied.

Vince sighed heavily.  “Yeah, she really
will.”

“At least you still have Daniel at home.”

“True.”  Vince acknowledged.  “Although
this is his last year of high school, and I imagine he’ll choose a college as
far away from here as he can get too.”

“This is a small city.  Kids are always
eager to leave.”

“Yeah, but I had hoped that one of them
might follow their old man’s career path.”

Charlotte smiled gently at him.  “Jade is
going into criminology is she not?”

He nodded.  “Yeah, but it ain’t the same as
being a cop.  We both know she’ll become a lawyer like her mother.  And Daniel
is planning on majoring in theatre.  Theatre!  Tell me, what kind of job will
the kid get from that?”

Before Charlotte could reply, Vince
sighed.  “Mel says kids need to follow their own path and we need to encourage
Daniel to follow his dreams.  I don’t disagree, but we’ll see how she feels
when Danny’s thirty-eight and living in our basement.”

Charlotte laughed and Vince grinned at her
in the mirror.  “It’s good to hear you laugh, Charlotte.  Mel and I have been
worried about you.”

“I’m fine, Vince.”

He grunted and shifted in the chair before
glancing around the salon.  The other two hair stylists were chatting in the
back of the salon and Carmen, the receptionist, was on the phone booking an
appointment. 

“I doubt you’re fine.”  He said gently. 
“It’s only been three months.”

“True.”  Charlotte replied as she swept the
bits of iron-grey hair from his cape-covered shoulders.  “But he was sick for
nearly two years before that.  It gives a person time to prepare.”

“I know.”  He drew his hand free from the
cape and placed it on top of hers.  “It doesn’t mean you’re not lonely though.”

“No, it doesn’t.” Charlotte admitted.  “But
there’s relief in knowing he isn’t suffering anymore.” 

She squeezed Vince’s hand briefly before
unbuttoning the cape and carefully shaking it out.  “Are you heading home now?”

He shook his head.  “Nah.  I’m working late
tonight.  We’ve been having some trouble with a motorcycle gang that showed up
a couple of months ago.  We suspect they’ve been trafficking and dealing in
drugs.  As if we don’t have enough trouble with that already.”

He eased his body out of the chair and
straightened his uniform before placing his police cap back on his head.  Charlotte
followed him to the reception, leaning against the counter as Vince paid Carmen. 
He left her a generous tip as usual, and she smiled gratefully at him.

“Why don’t you come by this weekend?  I
know Mel would love to see you again.”  Vince asked as he slid his wallet into
his back pocket.

“That sounds nice.  Tell Mel to text me.”  Charlotte
answered. 

Vince hesitated and then gave her a brief
but firm hug.  “And you know if you need anything, anything at all, you can
just call us right?”

“I know, Vince.  Thank you.”

He nodded and left the salon as Charlotte
returned to her station to sweep up the bits of hair on the floor around her
chair.  Her back hurt and she had the beginning of a headache, but she thought
she had done an admirable job of convincing Vince that she was fine. 

She sighed.  It wasn’t that she wasn’t
fine, she decided.  She wasn’t anything.  She felt no overwhelming sadness or
loneliness, nor did she feel happiness or joy.  The morning after Rick had died,
she had woken to discover a curious sort of numbness had swallowed her every
emotion as neatly as the whale had swallowed Jonah.  She had hidden it well
from her friends and family; only her therapist knew about her sudden inability
to feel anything at all.  She didn’t believe she was suicidal, but she also
couldn’t deny that the thought of her own death brought only a weary kind of
relief.

She swallowed hard, trying to force herself
into feeling some kind of terror or even discomfort at the idea of her very
existence fading out like a dying candle, but there was only the numbness.  As
she swept at the tiled floor, she sighed again.  There was no point in trying
to force herself to feel something she didn’t.  She had to work through the
grief just like her therapist kept telling her.  This lack of emotion, this
numbness, was just a cleverly masqueraded stage of grief – it would pass
eventually.

Her head swivelled towards the front door
of the salon as the loud pop of firecrackers came from outside.  She wandered
towards reception as Darlene stood up from behind her desk.

“Did you hear that?”

Charlotte nodded.  “Weird to have
firecrackers this time of the year.”

“I don’t think it was firecrackers.”  Darlene
hesitated.  “It sounded like gunfire to me.  Maybe you shouldn’t go out there
Charlotte.”

Charlotte who was pushing open the front
door, glanced over her shoulder at the young woman.  “I’m just going to check –
“

She gasped as Vince, his face pale and his
hand pressed against his side, staggered through the open door. 

“Charlotte, lock the door.”  He wheezed. 
He suddenly toppled over, knocking her off her feet.  She gasped with pain as
she fell to the floor, her elbow slamming painfully into the hard tile.  With a
grunt of effort, she pushed Vince off of her and on to his back as Rita and
Helen hurried over from the back of the salon.

“Vince?”  She stared in disbelief at the
bright bloom of blood seeping through the front of Vince’s shirt.

“Charlotte,” he groaned, “the door –
quick.”

Before she could gain her feet, the bell
over the door rang out and three men entered the salon.  All three were dressed
similarly in dirty jeans, white t-shirts and leather vests.  The first man had
a gun in his hand and Vince’s gun shoved into the front of his pants, and he
pointed the gun in his hand at Darlene.

“Lock the door - now.”

She stared frozen at him and he slapped her
across the head.  “Now, bitch!”

She stumbled to the door and locked it as
the second man pulled the shade down over the large picture window.  He moved
to the door, shoving Darlene out of the way and turned the open sign to close
before pulling the shade on the door as well.

The third man, he was tall and broad with
long dark hair tied back in a ponytail and a thick beard covering his face,
grabbed a stack of towels from Rita’s station and knelt beside Vince.  He
pressed two of the towels to the gunshot on Vince’s side and grabbed
Charlotte’s hand.

“Apply pressure.”  He growled to her,
pressing her hand down hard on the towels.  She did as he asked as he leaned
over Vince and felt for his pulse in his neck.

“Hang on, old man.”  He breathed so quietly
that only Charlotte and Vince heard him.  Charlotte looked at Vince.  He was
staring at the man above him, and Charlotte could have sworn that a flicker of
recognition crossed Vince’s face.

“What the fuck are you doing, Ren? Leave
him!”  The first man snapped.

The man named Ren stared at Charlotte for a
moment, his dark grey eyes assessing her coolly.  “Don’t let up on the
pressure.  Do you hear me?”

She nodded as he stood and moved back to
the other two men.

“What the hell, Ren?  Who gives a shit
about that old fart?”

Ren glared at the smaller man.  “Do you
want to add murder to your list of crimes, Steve?   Killing a cop will get you
the chair, you moron.”

“Fuck you, Ren!”  Steve spat.  Like Ren,
his dirty blonde hair was long and tied back in a ponytail.  His stocky body
was nearly vibrating with excitement, and his faded blue eyes were darting back
and forth nervously.  Charlotte suspected that he was high on something as he
turned and shoved Darlene towards Rita and Helen.  The three women huddled
together as the second man paced back and forth in front of the door.

“Jesus Christ.”  He moaned.  He had a blue
bandana on his head and he swiped it off, revealing his bald and gleaming
skull, and wiped the sweat from his face with it. 

“We’re dead, man.  We’re so fucking dead.”

“We’re fine, Jasper.”  Steve grunted.

“Are you kidding me?”  Jasper was the
smallest of the three.  Short and thin, his jeans hanging from his non-existent
ass and his leather vest wrapped loosely around his chest, he looked like he
was going to vomit.  “You shot a goddamn cop!  Ren’s right – we’re going to fry
for this.”

Steve slammed his fist down on the
reception desk.  “It’s not like I had much choice.  Stupid fucking pig
practically fell on to our deal.”

Ren moved the shade and peered out.  “We
have to go.  Staying here is dangerous.”

“Where the hell are we gonna go?”  Steve
nearly shouted at him.

“We grab our bikes and ride.”  Ren hissed
at him.  “For Christ’s sake, three different people watched us chase that
bleeding cop into here.  This place is going to be crawling with cops at any
moment.”

As if his words summoned them, the faint
sound of sirens could be heard.

“Shit!”  Ren dropped the shade and stared
around the salon.  His gaze fell on Jasper.  “Go check the back door, make sure
it’s locked.”

Jasper nodded and disappeared into the back
of the salon as Charlotte took Vince’s hand in her own.

Ren knelt beside her once more and pulled
the belt free from Vince’s pants.  He slid it under Vince, the man groaned with
pain, and pushed Charlotte’s hand out of the way before adding more towels to
the blood-soaked ones.  He buckled the belt so that it held the towels firmly
against Vince’s bleeding side.

Charlotte leaned over him.  “Vince?  Can
you hear me?  Squeeze my hand.”

Vince squeezed her hand with surprising
strength and Charlotte felt a thin thread of relief.  “How are you feeling?”

“Like I’ve been shot.”  He mumbled.

She smiled and ran her hand over his
forehead, leaving a bloody smear, as Ren stood and moved away.  “You’re going
to be just fine.  I’ll get us both out of this, okay?”

He shook his head.  “Just stay quiet and do
exactly what they tell you, Charlotte.  They’ll kill you if you don’t.”  He
whispered.

She squeezed his hand.  “I’m not afraid. 
And I don’t want you to be afraid either.”

She let out a gasp of pain as a hand was
twisted into her long, blonde hair and she was yanked to her feet.  Steve
pulled her head back and she wrinkled her nose in disgust as his stale,
tobacco-infused breath washed over her.

“What the fuck are you saying to that pig?”

“I was just telling him he would be fine.” 
She gritted out as he pulled her hair tighter. 

“You’re a pretty little thing ain’t ya?” 
Steve suddenly crooned.  He rubbed his finger across her cheek.

For the first time in three months an
emotion broke through the blank numbness that had enveloped her like a thick
blanket.  She was afraid for Vince.  She didn’t want Mel to lose him like she
had lost Rick.  The thought of her own imminent death brought on that same
feeling of relief from before, and she had a moment to understand just how
broken she really was before Ren was standing in front of them.

“Let her go.”

“Since when did you care about some skinny
little bitch?”  Steve said with an edge to his voice.

“Let her go.”  Ren repeated himself as the
sirens outside grew louder.

“You gonna make me?”  Steve sneered.

“If I have to.”  Ren replied quietly.

Charlotte watched as Ren’s eyes grew
darker.  After a long tense minute, Steve snorted and thrust her towards Ren so
roughly, she would have fallen if he hadn’t caught her.

He held her against his large body, one
hard arm wrapped around her waist and his big hand resting on her hip, as the
sirens stopped abruptly.

“They’re here.”  He pulled Charlotte
towards the window and carefully peered behind the shade.  He swore violently
and stared at Steve as Jasper burst back into the salon. 

“The back door is locked.  But there are
cops in the alley.”

“There are three cars out front.  We’ve
lost our chance.”  Ren glared at Steve.

“We’ve got a dying cop and four other
hostages.  They’ll do whatever we ask them to do.”  Steve answered.