Chapter 19 #2
He scans his eyes around and shakes his head. “Nope. None of these are his that I know of.”
“Okay. Look, guys. I don’t have a plan. If she’s okay, I want to get her out. If she’s not … well, let’s just see, okay? Lottie, I want you to wait here.”
“No fucking way,” she yells.
“Lottie. I need eyes out here; you know what he looks like. Jack doesn’t. Can you drive this?” I ask her, tapping the dash of the car.
“Of course I can,” she answers indignantly.
“Well, then I want it running and ready. Just in case of … well, just in case, okay?”
“Okay,” she pouts.
“Good, you’re as much use to me out here as you are in there.” I kiss her cheek, and she smiles sadly.
“Just bring my best friend back, okay?”
“I’ll do my best.”
***
“I’m here to see Arianna Fraser,” I say to the night staff at the desk.
“I’m sorry, sir, visiting time is over. You’ll have to come back tomorrow,” she replies professionally.
“Look,” I say sharply, my patience is near nonexistent and I’m trying my hardest to contain my anxiety. “I need to see her, and I’m not leaving until I do so.”
“Sir, I’ve told you there is no visiting now. Do I need to call security?”
“For fuck’s sake,” I grate out, dipping my hand into my pocket. Maybe I can buy my way in.
Aaron then lets out a howling cry and drops to the floor.
My hand instinctively flies to the gun at the back of my jeans, but I don’t pull it out.
I catch Aaron’s eye, and he flicks his head toward the corridor, before crying out again.
The nurse rushes from behind her station and calls out for someone to come and help her.
Within a minute, there are three nurses surrounding him, trying to ascertain what the problem is.
He’s not in pain, he’s providing a distraction. It’s that moment that solidifies that he’s helping us and not leading me into something I might not be able to get out of.
Jack and I run down the corridor and into the first wing on the left. There’s a whiteboard over the nurses’ station with room numbers and patients’ names.
“Room four. Jack. Room four,” I call out.
We run to her room, and burst through the door, stopping abruptly when I see her lying there.
There’s a nurse tending to her, and Arianna looks so pale and helpless.
She’s hooked up to a drip. There’s a monitor attached to her, measuring her heart rate.
There’s a steady bleep echoing around the room, but that’s the only sound.
She doesn’t open her eyes at the intrusion.
“Excuse me, sir,” the nurse snaps, turning a hard glare to me.
“I’m sorry. I … is she okay?”
“And you are?”
“I’m her … shit … I’m her fiancé,” I say, thinking it’s the only way she’ll tell me what’s wrong with her. I stand by the side of her bed and reach out to touch her face.
“But, the other guy,” the nurse answers confused.
It looks like I need to tell her the truth, and hope she believes me. “Look, I need to know what’s wrong with her, and if she can be moved. That other guy is her ex fiancé who beat her to within an inch of her life just a few years ago,” I explain, hoping it’s enough for her to not stop me.
“I remember,” she whispers.
“You do?”
“Yes,” she says sadly. “I was the one who sat with her every day. So when she came in this evening …”
“Okay, then you’ll know that I’m telling the truth,” I say, and she nods. “What’s he done this time?” I ask, not wanting to hear it, but I have to know.
“It wasn’t him this time. It was her. She tried to take her own life.”
“She, what? She ... how? Will she be okay?”
My girl. She … it was so bad that she didn’t want to be here anymore.
“She took sedatives, too many. But luckily for her, they were low dose. We’ve pumped her stomach and we have her hooked up to an IV, but she’ll be okay. She’s gonna be out of it for a while.”
“Can we move her?”
“I wouldn’t recommend it, sir. She’s very vulnerable right now.”
“Okay, if I take her to another private hospital right away, can I move her?”
“Well, if you make sure she’s hooked up to the IV, I can’t see that it …”
“Good. Jack, give me a hand.”
I don’t give her a chance to change her mind, and I slide my arm around Arianna’s back carefully.
I kiss her forehead tenderly, and it’s bittersweet to have her back in my arms. “Hey, Stunner,” I whisper.
“We’re gonna get you out of here, okay?” I wish that we were somewhere else, another time, and another place.
I would never stop kissing her. I would never stop touching her.
“I wondered how long it would take you,” The deep voice resonates around the room.
Fuck.
Jonny appears in the doorway. Only, he’s not on his own. He has Lottie in front of him. His arm around her throat and the other has a gun to her head. “You just couldn’t leave her alone, could you? You would have thought that after the warnings you had—”
Lottie struggles, and he tightens his grip with a cruel smile on his face. His strength is too much for a little thing like Lottie, it doesn’t matter how fierce she is.
I let Arianna back down on the bed gently and stand in front of her. The nurse stands behind Jack, who is surveying the situation with a mask of calm and ease. But I know Jack. He’s ready, and so am I.
“Why do you feel like you have to have everything that belongs to me, huh?” Jonny asks cryptically. “You took over The Kingdom, and if that wasn’t enough, you took my woman, too.”
“Look. I don’t know what you’re talking about. But if this is about money, you can have whatever you want, name your price,” I say, meaning every word. If the last couple of days have taught me anything, it’s that I don’t have a damn thing if I don’t have my family and my girl.
He laughs, a manic, controlled laugh, and I feel everyone go still. “You just don’t get it, do you? All my life, I’ve fought to be noticed. And you … you’re me, just minutes earlier.”
I hold my hands up on either side of my shoulders and try a different tactic. “Hey man, how about we go for a beer, talk it out? I’m sure we can work something out between us, you want a bigger share in The Kingdom, we can talk about it.”
“It’s too late,” he spits. “It’s all too late. You … You’re the reason everything goes wrong. You and your family. Your father took what was mine, and handed it to you.”
My father?
I feel the creases in my forehead pull together as I try and piece together what he’s telling me, but it still doesn’t add up.
“For a smart guy, you’re not so clever now, are you?
” he sniggers, pulling his forearm tighter around Lottie’s neck, and the hand holding the gun shakes against Lottie’s temple.
She whimpers, and I know we need to stop this now.
“…and you’re still not fitting the pieces together, are you?
” His eyes go wide as he pushes the gun hard into Lottie’s head and she cries out.
“Simon Ackerman … Simon fucking Ackerman! Ring any bells yet?” he screeches.
It takes a couple of seconds before the name sinks into my mind. Simon Ackerman … he was my father’s best friend.
Your father took what was mine and handed it to you …
“Simon Ackerman was your … father?” I say quietly in disbelief.
“Give the man a fucking medal.” He cries manically. “Yes … I’m the bastard son. The one he wouldn’t acknowledge. The one that was born from an affair that he ended as soon as it interfered with his perfect fucking life …” His composure is dropping, and I know we have to end this soon.
“So, you want The Kingdom, is that it? You can have it; I’ll sign it over to you now. Just let Lottie go. She has nothing to do with this.”
“You know what I did?” he says, laughing and ignoring my statement.
“I only loaded every other chamber. So, how about we play a little game? You like roulette, right?” His eyes go wide.
“Of course, you like roulette, you own my fucking casino! So here’s what we’re gonna do …
We’re gonna have a little game of our own, it’s called Russian Roulette.
One for her, one for you.” He twists his head to the side, and his finger starts to shake as he puts more pressure on the trigger.
I place my hand on my hip, hoping I can slide it to the back of my jeans to retrieve my gun in time.
Then he says something that changes the game completely.
“I’m curious to see if you have the same expression as your father did when I fired that bullet through. His. Skull,” he hisses.
Those words fire through my heart and rage rips through me. My hand moves fast, but not fast enough. Lottie cries out and claws at his hand, but he holds her tight and squeezes the trigger. I rush forward, knowing there’s no possible way I can make it in time, but having to try anyway.
He hits an empty chamber, but all of us are knocked to the ground when Aaron flies through the door from behind and takes Jonny down by his neck.
The rest happens so fast.
Three shots are fired, one of them from my gun.
Then the room falls silent, letting the echo of the shots ring out.
I pull myself up from the ground and make a grab for Jonny’s gun. He doesn’t fight back. He doesn’t move. As my eyes travel up his torso, I notice the bloom of fresh blood across his shirt. He’s dead.
Aaron is unconscious, too, and I’m just about to check him when Lottie’s screams fill the room.
“He shot her, oh my god, he shot her. No, no, no … Jack … do something,” she yells frantically.
I rush to her, pulling Lottie out of the way to see what she is yelling about.
Blood is staining Arianna’s white gown and is splashed across her chest. “Jack. Is she okay? Jack …” No answer.
His body lies across Arianna’s, where he’s shielded her.
“She’s hasn’t been shot,” I mutter under my breath.
“Shit, she hasn’t been shot, that’s not her blood.
” I shake his shoulder to rouse him. “Jack, man, can you hear me?” I ask him in a panic.
“Sir,” he gasps on a strained breath. He is still laying over Arianna so I roll him carefully onto his back and he slumps to the floor. I kneel next to him and support his head in my hand. His breaths are shallow and coming irregularly. Shit. He’s been shot in the chest.
“It’s okay, man, listen to me. We’re gonna get you some help, okay? Stay with me, buddy.”
“I can’t,” he groans and stops trying to keep his eyes open.
“Don’t talk, just stay with me, okay? You’re my man.
You saved my girl. You saved her. And when we get you out of here later, we’re going to have a fucking great big party, and maybe you’ll tell Tara how you really feel about her, it’s about time she knew, okay, man?
” I’m waffling, I know I am. But I want him to hear me, to stay with me.
I need to keep him alive. He has to live. “Jack …. Jack? Fuck. No … NO!” I yell.
The room comes to life with a flurry of doctors and nurses, and one bends to check Jack’s pulse.
She sighs and her eyes soften regretfully. “Sir,” she says softly, and my stomach sinks with dread.
“No. He can’t—” My throat constricts, and I know what’s coming next.
The nurse shakes her head gently. “I’m sorry.”