Touching Scars (33 page)

“I’m going to head up and get a shower.” She paused to chew on her lip. Something else was on her mind. “Meet me?”

I was sure my eyes were round with shock. We’d not been together since the morning before she was attacked. I wasn’t going to push her, so I’d just been biding my time. “You don’t have to ask me twice.” She giggled. Turning around, I called towards her back, “You’re not hogging the water again this time, just so you know.”

Her laughter was music to my ears. I didn’t want to keep her waiting long so I quickly made work of the deadbolts on the front door, then made my way to the back door to make sure those were secured as well. Taking the steps two at a time, I went to her apartment, growing more excited as I heard the water running in the shower. I was just about to strip my shirt off when I stopped cold in my tracks. Standing by the dresser was Adam, holding Kat to his front with his arm over her chest and pointing a gun at her head.

“Hello,
friend
.” Adam’s calm voice was like pouring a cold bucket of ice on my already burning blood.

My eyes were on Kat, making sure he hadn’t hurt her any further than holding her the way that he was. She was looking at me, gauging my reaction to this new predicament.

“How the fuck did you get in here?” I clipped.

“Fire escape. Seems Katherine here is too stupid to put locks on her windows. I’m starting to think she
wanted
me to come inside.”

She whimpered and I growled at his insinuation. “You do know that you are a dead man.”

He chuckled. “That’s funny, considering I’m the one with the gun.”

I looked at him. His brown eyes were nearly black. Any bruising he’d had from before was now gone, and he looked absolutely deranged. Feeling the panic rise in me, I asked, “What are you planning on doing?”

“Ah, I’m so glad you asked.” If he hadn’t been holding a gun to my girl right now, I would have laughed at his snooty tone. “I’m thinking I’m going to kill you for putting me in the hospital, and then I’m going to take Katherine, load her in my car, and disappear.”

My hands clenched and unclenched into fists. “You’re not taking her anywhere.”

“Oh, I’m not? I’d like to see you stop me.”

Kat’s eyes were darting from me to the door. She was silently begging me to leave. I gave my head a slight shake, telling her no. Her perfect hazel eyes were brimming with tears.

Raising my voice, I said, “The only way you are leaving this room is in a body bag, Adam.”

The smirk on his face lowered. “You know, I thought we were friends. We grew up together. I gave you a job and a raise that would keep you content for the rest of your pathetic life. And now you are threatening me?”

“You can take your fucking job and shove it. We both know that I would have never worked for someone that abuses women, let alone my girl.”

I was goading him. I wracked my brain for anything, any of my military training that could possibly help. If I could just get him to point his gun somewhere else, even for just a second, I could charge him and give Kat enough time to run. I wasn’t positive, but I figured that if I got him to the ground, I could overpower him and get the gun away from him. If I did, he was dead. In fact, we both knew that one of us wasn’t walking out of here alive. I was just hoping to catch a break for a change and turn the odds in my favor. Either way, I was going to have to try. I’d never let him leave here with her. She’d never survive him. He’d rape her and kill her the first chance he got. Just thinking about it made me tense up.

He bastard took the bait. He shouted, “She’s MINE! You fucking took her from me and you’re going to pay for it.” He pressed the gun into her temple and she cried out. “You stupid bitch. You’re lucky I still even want you. You’ve let this piece of trash into your pussy when you belonged to me!”

Adam was losing control. I couldn’t let this go on too much longer or he’d completely snap and kill her anyway. Kat’s wide terrified eyes saw me take a step forward, then another. She was pleading with me to go, even without words.

Refusing to look at him, I continued to stare at her. “It’s going to be okay, baby.”

“Don’t you fucking talk to her!”

“He’s not going to hurt us anymore.”

She barely was able to speak but pleaded with me again, this time aloud. “Timber, don’t.”

Just before I made my move, I said, “I love you.”

That’s all it took. Adam turned the gun to me just as I knew he would. I dove towards him, and Kat screamed my name. A shot went off. I had no idea where it went. All I knew was that I was on top of him, wrestling for control of the gun. He tried to flip me over to my side, but my arm came down and stopped him from getting the upper hand. Or at least I thought I did. The gun was raised above both of our heads. Each of us had a hand on it, fighting to get a better grasp. It went off again, this time shooting through the window.

“Kat, get out of here. Go get help!” I grunted as Adam’s free hand socked me in the stomach.

“You’re dead! Don’t you fucking talk to her!” He sounded completely psychotic.

Using my free hand I grabbed hold of his collar and lifted his head off the ground, then brought it back down. His head hit the wood floor with a hard thud. I did it a second time, noticing his grip on the gun loosening. I was still fighting to maintain control when I lifted him a third time. He anticipated my move and bucked up with his hips, flinging me over to the side. He shook his head as I was sitting up. He still had the weapon in his hands. I’d
failed to get it away from him. In the middle of all the commotion, Kat was still frozen in place, screaming for me.

As Adam came to a sitting position, everything started happening in slow motion. Kat came towards me. I turned to look at her and then back to him. All I saw was the gun being lifted in her direction. I watched Adam’s mouth turn up into a menacing smile. It was so familiar. I found myself seeing the dark eyed Iraqi woman staring at me, and Holt’s body plowing into mine as he shouted my name. My ears were ringing just as a shot went off. In the short span of a few milliseconds, I realized that this was why I was the one that lived. I was meant to save her. My life was coming full circle and I needed to do everything I could to protect her. He wasn’t going to win.

The clarity gave me a chance to shove myself off the ground and go full force at Adam, throwing myself in front of the gun.

Kat let out a blood curdling scream. She knew I was hit.

We both went tumbling back to the ground in a heap. Somehow, the gun fell from Adam’s hand and slid over to where Kat was standing. Adam took advantage of my pause when I’d looked up at Kat and flipped me over onto my back, straddling me. His hands were around my neck and he was choking every bit of air out of my lungs. He was going to kill me, right here in front of her, and I’d never know if she made it out. Oh, God, please give her the sense to pick up her damn feet and run!

I had no way to yell at her to go with his grip being so tight. Stars began to cloud my vision and I felt myself blacking out. But then something happened. His hands loosened, and I looked up at him, confused. There was red seeping out of his dark gray shirt and spreading across his chest. Adam was looking up at Kat, with a bewildered look in his eyes as he registered what she’d done.

“You shot me,” was all he said.

“You don’t hold the power anymore!” Her voice rang loud and clear through the room. My chest swelled with pride that she slung my words at him.

Adam slowly slumped down until his entire weight was crushing me. He was limp and I was too weak to push him off. Kat saw me trying to roll him over and she came to help me. I knew she didn’t want to touch him, but she gave him a good shove, and he moved.

“Oh, God, where are you hit?” she asked, as she lifted my head onto her lap.

Her small hands were flying all over me, trying to find the source of my bleeding. “Right here.” I showed her the center of my stomach.

“Shit, I don’t have my phone. Shit!”

I started to cough and felt light-headed. “Kat, baby, listen to me. My phone is in my back pocket. Get it out and call 911.”

She nodded and did exactly what I told her to do. I heard her on the phone with the paramedics, explaining what happened. I couldn’t keep my eyes open and my head was feeling really heavy.

“No! You stay with me, damn it! I can’t live without you, please don’t close your eyes,” she pleaded.

I desperately wanted to go to sleep. I was so tired. Her cries for me to stay awake held me there with her a little longer. I heard sirens screaming in the background and I thought to myself, thank God. She’s finally safe. Kat was putting pressure on my stomach and it made me groan. I remembered back to me holding Holt just like this. It seemed so ironic to me that she was now the one begging me to stay with her. Was this what Holt felt like when he was slipping away? I barely felt any pain. In fact, the only sensation I felt was how cold it was in the room. Had he known, just like I did now, that his time had come? The edges of my vision were melting away, and I knew it wasn’t going to be long.

“I love you,” I croaked.

“I know you do. Just please keep fighting, Timber. I can’t be alone.” Her small tears fell on my face and warmed my cooling skin.

“He’s gone now, Kat. No more nightmares. I love you.”

“No! Open your eyes!”

And just like that she was lost to me.

I
FELT
COMPLETELY
AND
UTTERLY
ALONE
. The desolation I’d felt inside after Adam raped me the first time had been an unbearable thing to live with. When he attempted it a second time, I honestly wasn’t sure I wanted to live anymore. Except, the thing of it was, I had a light. A light that was a towering six foot three man that guided me back to wanting to live. He gave me so many reasons to fight for my life, to
want
to live for the next day and the day after that. But that will to live came with a stipulation. A price that was non-negotiable. I couldn’t do it without him by my side. My life became so entwined with his that I only felt like I could breathe when he was with me. Right now I was suffocating.

“Hey, kid, how’re you doing?” Beaver spoke from behind me. He sounded tired. I was washing my hands in the sink, trying to get rid of any remnants of blood. I wasn’t sure if it belonged to Timber or Adam. But the simple fact that it could be Adam’s made me desperate to get it off.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Not sure.”

He looked over his shoulder, then back to me. “What did the doctor say?”

Drying my hands, I pushed past Beaver and back to the chair that was sitting by Timber’s bed. “He said the bullet was lodged in his diaphragm and he had lost over half of his blood. They’ve given him several transfusions, but they aren’t sure how long he’s going to be out. He could wake up now, or a week from now.”

Plopping down in the chair, I sighed. Beaver came over to me and put his hand on my shoulder. His small gesture made my lip quiver, but no tears fell. “Did they say whether or not he’s going to pull through?”

“At this point it’s a 50/50. They told me there was nothing else that they could do. It was now up to him.”

“He’s strong, Kat. And you give him a reason to fight.” I nodded, putting my hand over his. “Did the police say anything to you?”

“They said that I’d need to come in at some point to give a statement. But because of the last time, there’s a record of what Adam had done. They said it was a clear cut case of self defense.”

“Damn straight it was.” Beaver sounded angry. I’m sure he was upset with himself for leaving, but it wasn’t his fault. None of this was any of our faults. It all belonged to the person that was dead. I wished I could tell him so, but frankly, I didn’t have the energy for much more conversation.

He stood there for another few minutes, and then told me he was going to go call Mel and tell her what was going on. When I was alone in the room again, I let the silence swallow me.

Timber was lying in a hospital bed covered in wires and tubes that were helping him stay alive. His IV was giving him a steady drip of fluids and pain medication, the tubes across his nose were feeding him oxygen, and his pulse was a steady light beeping on a machine in the corner of the room. I stared at him for a long time, willing him to wake up. I needed some sort of sign that things were going to be okay. I wouldn’t allow myself to feel closure that Adam was gone until I saw Timber’s eyes and I knew that his life wasn’t over as well. Getting up, I gingerly crawled into bed beside him. I rested my hand over his beating heart, counting the breaths that he took each minute. So much time had passed and my eyes were growing heavy. Sleep was taking over my exhausted body and I didn’t want to fight it anymore. I shut my lids and dreamed of crystal blue eyes and my light that saved me.