Falling Hard (Hidden Secrets Book 6) (19 page)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Danger

This little fucker wasn’t going out like that. Not if I had anything to say about it. The pussy has been on and on about how much better he is than me. He wasn’t about to be brought down by that same low lives that I used to be a part of.
The kind of low life that I am.

I walked into the precinct today to take Nate to lunch and wake him the fuck up before he lost Kristy. Jackson and Mary have been going on and on about how she’s hurting. There’s no way he’s going to lose the one thing that made the fucker finally man up. Plus, I kind of owe Kristy. What I hadn’t expected was to see what I did. In the middle of the precinct, surrounded by cops, my brother was taking on the very man that was going to kill him with no remorse and collect what he came there for.

What shocked me more was that there was no fear in Nate’s bloodied glare. There was only determination. This was a side of Nate I’ve never seen. But then that last swing by Vin knocked Nate back. I knew what was coming. I knew because I’ve pulled this same move several times, more times than I really care to recount. Pulling my gun from the holster too slowly, a shot already hit Nate. Pulling the trigger several more times, I watched as Vin’s body slumped to the floor.

I knew without going over there that the fucker was dead or will be soon. My shots were dead on, always have been. It’s why I’d been one of Chain’s first men he sent in on difficult cases. I’ve got plenty of scars. Never claimed to be invincible, but I’m too damn good to be brought down.

Now here I sit the verge of becoming a pussy myself as I watch the life slip away from my brother.

“Nate! Can you hear me?”

“Danger?” His voice groggy, strained and hard to hear, especially with all the commotion going on.

“Yeah, brother. The ambulance is on the way, just hang on man,” I said through my emotions, making it almost sound angry and gruff.

“Tell her for me. Tell Kristy I love her. Tell her…” He broke off as he began to cough up blood.

There was no way I was letting him give up like this. He couldn’t give up. He has Kristy to live for. Not everyone gets the love of a good woman.

“Don’t give up, brother. Kristy needs you. Don’t let go of that. You don’t get that kind of love often. Hold on to it. Don’t give up,” I said over and over again.

Keith and this blonde chick kneeled down on the other side of him just as his arm fell limply to his side. Panic shot through me. I’ve never cared if anyone lived or died before, but I do now. I shook him, tapped his face, screamed at him.

“Damn it, you can’t die on me you asshole. We were a team remember. Outsiders stick together. Damn it, Nate!”

There was no response, but the shake of his body against the force of my attempts to ‘wake’ him. My heart clenched tight in my chest. Everyone thinks because I have this gruff exterior that nothing registers with me. They think that I’m that disconnected to life. Maybe I was before running into these fools, but ever since then I’ve suddenly got more to lose than I ever knew possible. Now here I am on the verge of losing one of my brothers because of a mistake from years ago coming back to haunt me. Okay, so he came after Kristy and Nate, but had I not set the whole thing in motion, believing Chain, we wouldn’t be here right now.

The ambulance finally arrived. They rushed to Nate quickly securing him and placing him on the stretcher. The blonde woman was crying while Keith held her. They just stood there, but I ran with the stretcher.

“I’m riding with. He’s my brother.” I climbed in without waiting for the okay.

They worked frantically on him. My heart was banging in my chest. This wasn’t his time to go. He just found the love of his life. I’ve had my doubts about God over the years, but even with them I knew he couldn’t be so cruel as to take him from this earth right when he found his happiness. The last memories he had were… Well, I guess they were of Kristy.

Leaning down, I whispered. “If you love Kristy like you said you do, then dammit fight.”

The sirens were drowned out by my own heart racing and the thoughts that rushed through my head. This was why I didn’t get involved with anyone more than one night and never to repeat. It was too risky. Thinking back over my life, maybe it was time I gave up on the girl that’s taken my thoughts over the past several months. Maybe it was time to set her free. She’s the only girl I’ve had repeated sex and still wanted more. But damn if I was going to let her go through this.

Before long, we arrived at the hospital. Jumping down, they quickly wheeled the gurney through the doors. He’d coded three times on the way here. When they made me stay back, I knew what I had to do. I made the phone calls that killed me to make. Everyone hung up before I could finish telling them anything. I knew they just wanted to get here as quickly as possible.

Sitting in the quiet waiting room was freaking me out a bit. Before I could stop the anger from rolling through me, I punched the wall just as the door opened. But it didn’t stop me from hitting it again.

“Danger?”

“What!” I roared as I whirled around.

Shannon screamed and stepped back a little into Jackson’s arms.

“Damn it! I’m sorry Shannon,” I said sincerely.

“I’ve never seen you like this. I mean I always knew you were scary, but never to me.”

“I’m sorry, but…”

“I know,” she said sadly. “Any word?”

I shook my head sadly. Jackson stepped next to me and placed his hand on my shoulder. “He’s got a lot to live for, he’ll pull through.” He looked around the room. “Where’s Kristy?”

“I don’t know. I’ve tried calling her, but she’s not answering.” I paused a minute before looking at the family gathering around the waiting room. “I killed him. Vin is dead and will no longer bother Kristy again. When I get my hands on Chain, I’ll kill him too.”

“Keith just told me that Kristy left back to Australia,” Jason said as he entered the room with Jackie in his arms and Kayla following behind him. “He said she left him a note, but told him that she was tired of being ignored. When Keith tried to assure her that he was just busy, she said that she hasn’t even been staying at his house for a while and couldn’t even get him for five minutes today.”

“Damn, I wonder if he even knows,” Jackson said under his breath, but the silence in the room caused it to echo as if he screamed it.

“Know what?” Not really wanting to hear the answer, but had to ask anyway.

He looked around at everyone before his head dropped and he whispered, “That she’s pregnant and might have Lupus.”

Everyone gasped. But Mary’s was the loudest. “I made him come out to the ranch today to find out what the hell was going on with him and Kristy. Oh God,” she groaned, taking a seat.

“I’m out of here. Keep me updated.” I started heading for the door.

“Where are you going son?” Mr. Williams asked.

“I’m going to go get Kristy,” I growled before throwing open the door and storming out of the room.

When I push through to the lobby area, I was shocked at the sight before me. Officers lined the walls and filled in the walk space. The sight made me angry. Where were all of them when Nate was taking on Vin alone? Why didn’t anyone run in and help him, save him?

“How is he?” Keith asked when he saw me.

“I don’t know. He’s in surgery.” I turned and looked at each of the officers who were all quietly waiting to hear an update on Nate. “To you all he’s just a comrade, but to me and to that group of people in there he’s family. Where the fuck were you all? He was in the middle of the fucking police station, hundreds of officers present and not a single fucking one of you can lift a fucking finger to help one of your own. You’re all pathetic, sorry excuses for cops and should be ashamed of yourselves. That man, that coded three times on the way to the hospital, whose future is uncertain, has a pregnant girlfriend. He may not even know she’s pregnant. His last words to me were to tell her that he loved her. Well, my last to all of you pathetic fucks! If that man dies, everyone that suffers as a result is all on you just as much as it is on Vin.”

With that, I stormed out of the hospital and hailed a cab. On the way to the airport, I asked them to get me the quickest flight. It left in an hour. Leaning over the seat, I spoke to the cab driver.

“If you can make it to the airport in less than twenty minutes, I’ll throw in an extra two hundred dollars. Don’t worry, not a single cop will give you a ticket today. Trust me.”

The driver smiled and floored it. We were whipping through traffic, flying through stop lights and in exactly eighteen minutes arriving at the airport. Throwing the money over the seat, I ran into the airport.

By the time I made it through security and getting my tickets, I was just seated on the plane before takeoff. Thankfully, I have a memory like no other and remember Nate telling me about the apartment he bought for her. The only thing I can hope is that she went back there.

* * *

The flight was way too long for my liking. I had exactly four hours to get her and back to the airport before the next flight left back home. We couldn’t miss that flight. It might be too late otherwise. At this point, I’m calculating everything. The time it took to get out of the airport, to how long it took to get to her apartment. However, I didn’t expect to run into the road block that I did.

“You are not going up there, Sir. Unless she invites you up or you have a key.”

My patience gone, I grabbed his shirt and hauled him over the desk and slammed him into the wall. His breath audibly left his lungs as he stared back at me in shock.

“I don’t have time for this shit! Nate is in the hospital because he took on Vin alone to save Kristy. She’s pregnant with
his
kid and Nate deserves to have her there with him. Now take me up there or so help me, I’ll commit another murder and find the apartment myself.”

He swallowed hard. “Another?”

“Vin’s dead,” I hissed darkly. “Now are you going to help me or not!”

Within five minutes, I’m pounding on her door like a mad man. Just then the door opens and a man stands there glaring at me.

“You’ve got the wrong apartment. Go away!”

“No! Get the fuck out of my way or I’ll move you myself. I need to talk to Kristy. It’s important.”

“You’re not seeing-”

I shoved passed him, knocking him into the wall hard, before barreling into the apartment. I had one thing on my mind.

Getting Kristy to Nate before it’s too late…

Chapter Twenty-Five

Kristy

Waiting outside the police station was hard. I was a nervous wreck. How would he react to me telling him I may be dying or that he was going to be a dad? I know how I
wanted
him to react. My heart wanted him to pick me up and twirl me around in a circle telling me how much he loves me. Tell me how sorry he was for working so much…

Any of that would have been acceptable, but instead I stand outside the station and he doesn’t show. I get a text message.

Nate:
I’m about a block away, but I just got a call out. It’s an emergency. I’ll be back soon.

What did he expect me to do? Wait? No, I’ve waited for him to come around since I got here and got nothing from him. I’m done waiting. If I wanted to be without him, I’ll do it from an ocean’s distance, where it’s not as obvious that he’s ignoring me. After texting Aaron to come get me, I waited until he arrived to go inside and leave him a message. The guy across from his desk introduced himself as Keith.

“I’m just leaving a message for Nate,” I forced out through my tears.

“He’s out on an urgent call, but should be back soon if you just want to wait.”

“No,” I shook my head, “I’m tired of waiting. I’m always waiting,” I mumbled.

“Oh, um, okay. Uh, here’s a piece of paper, there should be a pen there in his holder.”

Sitting down at his desk, I reached for a pen when I saw the picture frame. It was of me. I think this was at the Floridae. The flowers surrounded me as I leaned in to smell one. I’d turned my head to admire Nate. I saw him with his camera, but I assumed he was taking a picture of the display. My heart tightened in my chest.

“He’s had that there since the day he got back. He told me all about you and told Chelsey this was his woman. Chelsey had a thing for Nate, but Nate wasn’t interested. He only had eyes for you,” Keith commented.

“Yeah, some eyes,” I mumbled and turned back to writing the letter.

With each word I wrote, my tears fell relentlessly. No matter how many times I stopped to wipe my eyes, they still fell. Eventually, I just gave up and let them fall. Aaron squatted down next to me.

“Calm down, Krissy. Hold it together until we leave the police station and I promise I’ll figure out how to fix all of this.”

Finishing up the letter, I left the police station and told Aaron to just go right to the airport. I didn’t want to wait. I needed to be away from the reminder of what I lost. Placing my hand on my stomach, I thought about it for a minute and realized that I’ve lost here, but I’ve also gained. I was pregnant. Maybe it would have been better to have the father with me, but he didn’t love me. I will love this baby and honestly, I hope that he or she look just like their dad.

Thankfully, we arrived just as one was loading, after calling ahead, they waited for us to get to the terminal gate. Looking out the window of the plane, my heart finally shattered. Here I thought I flew to my Happily Ever After, but I couldn’t have been more delusional. Happily Ever After’s don’t happen to lonely pathetic people like me.

“Hey,” Aaron grabbed my hand. “Why not get some sleep?”

I nodded my head and leaned it against the window closing my eyes.

I’m running as fast I can toward a building in the distance. My heart is hammering in my chest, but I kept running. Nothing was stopping me. Something told me that in that building in front of me was Nate. What was he doing in there? What was the building? I just didn’t know, but I knew I needed to get to him. My heart ached to be there, my world blurred past me as I ran to get to him.

No matter how fast I seemed to run, I couldn’t get any closer to the building. Stopping only for a moment to scream his name, I continued to run. Sweat began to trickle down my face, but I only ran faster. Screaming his name louder, I sped up faster. The sweat increased its trek down my face.

“Nate! I can’t get to you!” I screamed.

Reaching up, I wiped the sweat from my vision to be able to see the building better. When I pulled my hand away there was blood. I screamed again. Echoing around me, coming from nowhere that I could see, was Nate’s voice.

“I love you, Kristy. You have your freedom, be free.”

“Nate? Where are you?”

“I love you, Kristy. You have your freedom, be free,” came his voice again.

Strength left me and I collapsed to my knees. “I love you too, Nate,” I sobbed. “Please don’t leave me. Everyone always leaves me. Please not you too,” I cried harder.

His voice was no longer echoing. I was alone. He left me. I’m not worth it. Never have been, but I thought Nate saw me. Again, that was just me and my wishful thinking.

“I love you Nate. I’ll always love you.”

“Krissy, wake up?”

“Nate!” I shot up, looking around I realized that we had landed back home.

“Come on, Sis. Let’s get you home.”

Aaron helped me stand up with a concerned look on his face. It was odd to think of anyone concerned over my wellbeing, but he wasn’t the one I wanted concerned about me. I wanted Nate. He was all I wanted and I feel like I’ve lost him forever.

We had just gotten into the apartment when I turned to Aaron with tears streaming down my face.

“I feel like I’ve lost part of myself. Nate brought so much of me back to life and in my heart… I just feel like there is no coming back from this,” I cried.

“Things will work out how they are meant to. I know that you’re hurting right now, but if you guys are meant to be together,” he lifted my head before continuing, “And I believe you two are, it’ll all work out how it’s meant to with you back with him.”

“I just don’t understand what I did wrong,” I sighed, sitting down on my couch. “He was all over me when I first got there. He was telling me he loved me without saying the words, I just know he was. Then he goes and collects my clothes and everything changes.”

Aaron sat next to me, taking my hands in his. “I wish I had answers for you, Kris, but I don’t. All I can do is tell you my gut and that’s that I think there’s more going on than meets the eye. Just give it time, okay.”

“How much time? How will I ever know when enough time has passed before I let myself out of the fantasy it so strongly wants to believe in?”

“When the time is there, you’ll know. Maybe it’ll come knocking on your door,” he winked.

After telling Aaron I was heading to bed, I laid in my bed for what seemed like an eternity just tossing and turning. At some point, I must have fallen asleep because I jerked awake by the sound of frantic pounding on my apartment door. Opening my bedroom door a crack, I watched as Aaron headed to the door.

Thank God Aaron was still here!

“You’ve got the wrong apartment. Go away!” I heard Aaron say to whomever was pounding on my door.

“No! Get the fuck out of my way or I’ll move you myself. I need to talk to Kristy. It’s important.” I heard a familiar voice hiss.

Where do I know that voice from?

“You’re not seeing-” Aaron’s next sentence was cut off.

The next thing I saw was a big tower of a man stepping into my line of sight looking toward my kitchen. My heart hammered in my throat as I realized who it was.

“Danger?” I said softer than intended. Clearing my throat and opening the door wider, I tried again. “What are you doing here, Danger?”

His head whipped in my direction and he stalked down the hallway toward me.
Fuck!
This man was scary. Inadvertently, I stepped back out of fear of being mulled over by the train of a man.

“You are coming with me, so pack whatever you need to and do it fast,” he growled.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I placed my hands on my hips. “What are you doing here Danger?”

He shot me a glare that seriously had me scared for my life. He wasn’t this scary when I saw him at Nate’s. He wasn’t even this scary when I saw him all those years ago.

“Nate is in the hospital. Not sure if he’s going to make it. I’m sure as shit that man would want you there with him.”

My heart stopped. The dream flickered back through my head again. My body was moving without my mind fully understanding what I was doing. Soon enough, I’m packed, dressed and headed out the door. Yelling at Aaron that Nate was in the hospital and I’d call him later, I left with Danger.

Unable to go without knowing, I turned to Danger who
looked
to be sleeping.

“Danger?”

“What?”

“What happened?”

“Well, Vin showed up at the station. He was choking out another officer when Nate stepped in. They really started going at it. Nate did some massive damage,” he said with a smirk. “But he was bleeding bad when I walked in. I watched as Vin hit him hard, knocking him back a few steps.”

He turned to me and his eyes held pain. I’ve never seen anything
feeling
related in his eyes.

“Vin pulled a gun and shot him. I quickly fired off several rounds before rushing to Nate.” He looked down for a minute before meeting my eyes again. “I’m sorry if I scared you, but he’s not doing well. He coded three times in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. He told me to tell you… When I got to his side, his last words were ‘
Tell her for me. Tell Kristy I love her. Tell her...
’ If you’ve ever doubted that man, know that he loves you.”

My tears, that never seemed to go away, fell again. “But he’s been ignoring me. How can you love someone and ignore them?”

He turned in his seat, looking at me for a minute before he spoke. “It may seem like he was ignoring you, but he was protecting you. He’s going to be pissed for me telling you this, but when he went and collected your clothes, the hotel room was completely destroyed. He called the station and later they informed Nate, with a picture, that Chain is after him because he’s pursuing a case against him. He told him he’d get to him through you.

So, he came home slept on his uncomfortable as all hell couch – trust me I know – to keep watch and keep you safe. Then the idea was thrown out there that if we got you to a hotel he could have a guard watch you without you being aware of it. So he pushed you away more.
It was killing him not to have contact with you, but he did it because you’re safety meant more to him than his need to hold you and be with you. Everything that happened was because of that message. He didn’t want you involved anymore. Nate wanted you safe.”

Tears filled my eyes, “Why didn’t he just tell me?”

“Because then whoever was following him or you around would see that he wasn’t around you anymore and that it hurt you. The pain would be genuine, believable. The tail that was on you, left three days later, but he couldn’t go back to you yet until he had Chain. So he worked himself to the bone trying to come up with a case to get Chain out of the picture, to get back to you.”

I sat there silently just looking out the window before turning back to Danger. “He’ll be okay, right? He’s going to make it, right? Because he needs to know that I love him too.”

“I don’t know, but I know he knows. According to Keith, he’d read your letter and was on his way to you when he intercepted Vin. My guess is he didn’t want to pass up the chance to get Vin out of your life for good.”

* * *

We were rushing through the city toward the hospital. I was clinging to my seat as if my life depended on it and it did. Danger told the guy that he’d give him extra money if he’d get us there in less than twenty minutes. The guy wasn’t about to waste the chance at extra money and that leaves me wanting to puke and scream. Horns honked loudly as he hurried through traffic lights. My heart was in my mouth by the time we got to the hospital.

Danger dragged me from the car. It was hard for my short legs to keep up with his long ones. When we walked in, there were several uniforms cops all standing around. Each looked up at us as we hurried through the room. Danger had made a call and there at the door waiting for us was Jackson. Danger continued to pull me. I was out of breath by the time I was able to stop.

“He’s out of surgery, but not out of the woods. He’ll remain in ICU until he wakes up, if he wakes up,” Jackson said sadly.

“Go in there Kristy. Let him know you’re here,” Danger urged, but my feet wouldn’t move.

All I could do was stare at the door that Danger pointed to and mentally urge my feet to move, but nothing happened. Danger leaned down next to my ear.

“Go in there, if not for you or for him, for your child.”

My head snapped in his direction. How had he known? I didn’t ask though. That wasn’t what was important. One heavy foot in front of the other, I slowly made my way into the room. The first thing that hit me was the smell and then it was the sounds. Beeping and a buzzing like sound, filled the air and sent my heart rate up even more.

His head was bandaged. There was a tube in his nose and mouth. The sight scared me and made me sick all at the same time. When I reached out to grab his hand, I could see the bruising. Leaning down, I kissed his hand lightly.