Chapter 13 Thomas
THOMAS
Icouldn’t have asked for this night to go better. Sure, our first date might not be what others would prefer, what with having our families with us as more of a group date, but I think this was what we needed. And I’ve gotten plenty of one-on-one time with Hannah as it is.
When she told me about her social anxiety, it made things really start to click. I want to do what I can to make her comfortable with me and my family. I want to learn all about her.
Two songs later, I regretfully pull away from her. Having her in my arms for most of the night has been a dream. “Ready to go?” I ask, taking her hand in mine again.
I don’t miss the way her body stiffens. I wasn’t implying anything by my words, but I wonder if she thinks that I was.
“I can walk you to your car,” I say, hoping to clear it up. Her body is still stiff, but some of the tension visibly eases.
“I’m on one of the side streets,” Hannah says, pointing her free hand down the street.
“Thomas!” My name is called from across the street. I turn to see Henry, and slow my pace.
Looking down at Hannah, I ask, “Do you have a minute? I want to make sure everything is okay.”
“Of course,” she replies. “That’s Henry Thorson, right? He’s the detective they brought on to help with the trafficking situation?”
“Yeah. I’ve been working pretty closely on the case with him.”
I keep Hannah's hand in mine as we walk toward Henry. “Hey, man,” I greet him.
“Hey, I wanted to update you on something quick before your shift in the morning. I was going to call tonight when I got home, but then I saw you.”
“Sure, what’s up?”
Henry glances between Hannah and me. He widens his eyes at me. I reluctantly let go of Hannah’s hand, immediately missing the feel of her. “Can you give us a minute, freckles?”
“No problem,” she says, stepping aside and walking thirty feet down the sidewalk. I’m glad she’s staying in my line of sight.
“What couldn’t you tell me in front of Hannah?” I ask, honestly feeling a little irritated with my friend.
“We found a trail,” he murmurs, eyes glancing around like he thinks someone is about to pop out from behind the buildings.
“What do you mean, a trail?”
“For the trafficking ring. We found the name of the leader.”
My gut churns. This is the first lead we’ve had in months, and we have to take advantage of it. “Holy shit,” I breathe, glancing behind him to check on Hannah.
“His name is Charles Cook, but he goes by Chaz. Tomorrow, we’re going to set up a game plan on how to infiltrate and take them down.”
A renewed sense of motivation swirls inside of me.
This is the break we’ve been waiting for.
If we can arrest him, we can hopefully put a stop to the trafficking happening in the town.
We’ve had more drug-related deaths in the last five years than ever before.
I can’t handle another teenager dying from an accidental overdose.
They’ve been lacing their shit, killing these kids before they even have a chance to live.
I reach out, clapping his shoulder. “Finally,” I breathe.
“It’s not over yet,” he states. “In some ways, this is only the beginning. Cut off one head, and two more will appear, or so they say. We’re in for a long ride, my friend.”
I offer him my hand. “Yeah, but we’ve got this.”
“We do,” he says. His brow is set in a determined line. “I’ll let you get back to your night. Is that Hannah Pearson?”
I offer him a smile. “Sure is. If I have anything to say about it, she’ll be my girl soon, so don’t even think about it.”
Henry chuckles. “Congrats man. I’ve met her a few times in the field. Nice girl.”
I look at her again as she stands on the sidewalk waiting for me. “Yeah, she is.”
Henry and I walk together to meet Hannah. “Thanks, Hannah,” Henry says. “I’ll let you get back to your evening.” He offers us a parting wave, and turns down the side street, heading to his truck that I can see on the opposite side of the road.
“I’m down this road too,” Hannah says.
I take her hand again. “I had a great time tonight.”
With a deep breath, Hannah replies, “I did too. It was a lot of fun.”
“Think I can convince you to do it again sometime?” A hopefulness blooms in my chest, because fuck, I want to do this again. I want to spend all the time I can with her.
I catch the blush creeping up her neck, even in the low glow of the moonlight.
“Yeah, I think you could convince me,” Hannah says with a smile. We arrive at a small silver sedan that must be hers. I don’t want to let her go yet.
“This is me,” she says, and I squeeze her palm a little tighter. My heart pounds in my chest. Fuck, I want to kiss her so bad right now. Is that going to be too much for her?
“Hannah,” I breathe her name, my voice dropping an octave.
She lets out a breathy sound as she leans back against her car. “Thomas?”
I take a step closer to her, reaching out to rest my free hand on her hip. “Can I kiss you?”
She swallows thickly, her pupils dilating. She doesn’t speak for a long moment, and I think she’s going to turn me down. It would suck, but I would obviously respect her decision. Tonight has been a big night, and I’d rather not push her too far.
“Yes,” she surprises me by saying. Her voice is shaky, and my hand on her hip trails up her body, to the base of her neck, then to cup her cheek.
“Are you sure?” I say, dropping her palm from my other hand. I move it so both hands cup her cheeks.
“Thomas, I need you to kiss me before I chicken out,” Hannah replies, and I chuckle. Her palms rest on my chest, and I can barely feel the shaking in her hands.
She’s so adorable.
I lean in, more ready than I’ve ever been in my life for a kiss. Our noses brush, and I can feel the faintest hint of her rapid breaths on my lips as I get closer. I’m about to press my lips to hers when I hear the shouting.
Hannah pulls away first, her breathing increasing even more. “What was that?”
I pull her into my chest, turning her so she’s angled behind me. “I don’t know. Stay behind me,” I tell her.
The shouting gets louder and louder, the voices rising in pitch and anger with each word. I can’t understand a word of it until I catch Henry’s voice.
“Put your gun down!” he yells, and my heart drops.
“Hannah, get in your car and duck,” I tell her, throwing open the backdoor and shoving her in. “I’ll be right back.”
“Thomas, wait!” She tries to stop me, but I can’t. Something is going on, and I need to help Henry.
I reach around my body to grab my gun, and come out empty-handed. That’s when I remember I chose to leave it at home tonight. Fuck. I should have at least brought Arson, he could take the fucker down.
I quietly close the door behind Hannah, glancing back to see her tucked into her backseat like I told her. Good girl.
Crouching down, I rush as fast as I can in the direction of Henry’s vehicle. It’s not lost on me that I’m making an idiotic decision. No gun, no protection of any kind, but I have to get to him, have to help in any way I can.
When I’m fifteen feet away, I see Henry standing with his arms held in surrender.
His gun is in the holster on his hip. I take in the man in front of him, holding him at gunpoint.
I slow my breathing and try to take in any features I can of the man with the gun.
He’s about five-foot-ten, wearing dirty blue jeans.
Black work boots that are nearly ripped to shreds.
White t-shirt that’s ripped on the bottom corner, covered in dirt.
He’s got a black mask covering his face, no visible facial hair.
Hair is hidden. Caucasian, unable to see eye color.
Snake tattoo on his right arm. I try to make out the words inked alongside the belly of the snake, but I can’t. I’m too far away.
“This will teach your crew about getting too close to Chaz,” the man says, his voice quieter now, no longer a yell. I know what’s going to happen before it happens, and I stand, running toward Henry to throw him out of the way.
The gunshot is quicker than I am.
I watch the gun recoil in his hand, and the shot hits Henry before I can take two steps. Henry drops to the ground, clutching at his shoulder. As soon as the man sees me, he holds the gun up to me. Blood pools around Henry’s shoulder as he lies on the ground, motionless.
Instead of running, the man turns his attention to me. “Should have known you wouldn’t be far behind him. Seems you two have been working together a lot, haven’t you, Cunningham?” he spits my name out with a venom that sends a shiver down my spine. Fuck, this isn’t good.
I flick my eyes down to Henry at my feet, and check the distance between my raised hands and the gun on his hip.
It’s too far for me to move fast enough, get the gun, aim, and shoot him before he could shoot me first. I’m caught between a rock and a hard place.
He could shoot me, and it would be over in a second.
Sirens wail in the distance, and I take a breath. I have to keep him occupied for another minute or two until they get here. Someone had to have heard the gunshot and called it in.
“How do you know who I am?” I ask.
“You and that motherfucker have been hunting us, and you thought we didn’t know?” He chuckles menacingly. “Of course we knew. We know everything.”
“So now what? You kill us and call it a day?”
He lets out a cackle. “No. I think I’ll let you live. Let you have the knowledge that we know who you are, where you live, and we are watching your every move. Let you stew in fear for a little longer.”
“Why?” I ask, unable to hold the question in.
“It’s fun to watch.”
I inch closer to Henry, who lets out a low groan on the ground. Thank fuck, he’s alive. For now, at least.
The distant sound of a door opening and closing sends my heart racing. Please, no. Please, please please let it be anyone other than Hannah.
“We’ve been watching you already for weeks, even tonight, while you were on your special date with that paramedic. What’s her name again?”
I don’t take the bait, but my gut churns with the knowledge that they’ve been watching Hannah tonight. That means it’s not just me in danger, it’s her, too. It’s all of my family.
The sirens get closer, and the man takes another step closer to me, gun pointed directly at my chest. One wrong move, and it’s over.
“I’ll leave you with this,” he says, wobbling the gun in his hand. “You’re next. Thorson is as good as dead, so my job here is done.”
I move one inch closer to Henry, listening to his shallow breathing. The dumbass hasn’t realized I’m close enough yet, but the second his guard drops, I’m onto him.
“Do you really think you’re going to make it out of this?” I ask, my voice steady. “To me, it sounds like half the county is on their way here. Are you really going to be able to run?”
“The whole point was never to run. I know I’m not getting out of this alive. The point is to tell you to watch your back, cause soon, you’ll end up bleeding on the ground like him.”
With that, I move as quickly as I can, reaching down to grab the gun from Henry’s hip.
A shot fires, but I’m not hit. Instead of firing again, the man turns and runs down the street.
I lift Henry’s gun, click off the safety, aim, and fire at him as he runs.
He jerks, clutching at his arm, and running out of sight before I can stand to chase him.
“Fuck,” I curse, turning my attention back to Henry. I flick the safety on, set the gun by my leg, and move to assess Henry.
His shoulder is bleeding like a bitch, but thankfully, it looks like it's too high up to have hit his heart. I can’t be sure it didn’t hit an artery, though.
I put pressure on the wound with one hand, while sliding my other hand to see if the bullet went through.
When I don’t feel an exit wound, I curse under my breath. This just got a bit worse.
A voice calls my name, and I look up to see Hannah running toward us, a bag in tow. “Thomas,” she calls again.
“I told you to stay in the car,” I tell her, scanning behind her for any more threats.
“You need help.” I can see her shift from fear to all business.
Fuck, she’s amazing at her job. Dropping to her knees beside me, she checks his pulse, and once she feels a heartbeat and sees his chest moving as he breathes, she tears open her bag, dumping out the contents.
She grabs a pair of gloves and puts them on, ripping open a package of gauze and switching out with me.
I let her continue to apply pressure while I open more gauze for her.
“Did you call it in?” I ask.
“Yes, they should be here any second.”
We work in silence, and I check Henry’s pulse. The rapid thumping under my fingers helps me take a deep inhale of breath, feeling the proof of life beneath me.
Henry groans again, this time, trying to sit up. “What the fuck?” he grumbles.
“Stay down, man.” I push on his other shoulder to get him to lay back down, as the ambulance arrives on the scene. I let out a sigh of relief when two familiar faces climb out of the rig. Henry loses consciousness before they reach us.
Hannah starts calling out information. “GSW to the left shoulder, heavy blood loss. Thomas, what was his pulse?”
I blink as I watch her work. “I-uh, I didn’t count.”
She nods, and turns back to the paramedics. “Respirations are shallow and labored.”
They transfer him onto the gurney, throwing an oxygen mask over his mouth.
Hannah steps aside to let them work, and I reach for her arm. “Are you okay?” I ask her, my panic starting to rise as the adrenaline shifts.
“I’m okay,” she assures me, snapping her gloves off and dropping them to the ground for now. “Thomas, are you okay?” Hannah reaches out, resting her hands on my chest. Her touch is grounding.
“I’m okay,” I say, hopefully in a convincing tone. Physically, I’m okay. Mentally though? What the actual fuck?
I don’t even know how to start processing what has happened. The most important thing right now is that Hannah is here, she’s okay, and I’m okay, and Henry is getting the help he needs.
Minutes pass as they work to get Henry’s bleeding semi under control before heading to the hospital, but it’s not long before they’re loading him into the back of the rig and taking off.
I hold Hannah, not even caring that I’m covered in blood.
Officers that I recognize filter into view. My chief appears in my line of sight, and I let out a deep sigh.
“Jesus, Tommy. You okay?” Chief asks.
“Yeah. I couldn’t get a good view of the guy, though. He had his face covered,” I tell him. “I have to tell you everything while it’s fresh, Chief.”
“Alright,” he agrees. “Let’s get you two cleaned up. Hannah, you okay?”
Hannah nods. “I was hiding. I could barely see what was going on.”
“We’ll still have some questions for you, if you can come down to the station.”
She agrees, and Chief leads us to his vehicle. I slide in the back with Hannah as I try to process the last fifteen minutes.