22. CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
SASHA
“ O h, god! No!” I bent down and pressed my hand on his wound to try and stop the blood. Zeke winced. Tears flooded my eyes. “You can’t leave me. You just can’t, Zeke.” I kept my right hand on the wound and then patted his clothes to see if I could find his phone. I needed to call someone. Anyone. I wasn’t sure how quick the paramedics would get here but I couldn’t sit by and do nothing.
I found his cell in his back pocket and quickly pulled it out, but when I tried to unlock his phone with my finger, blood smeared all over the screen. “No! No! No!”
Zeke’s eyes were closed when I tried to use them to unlock his phone. “Open your eyes dammit.” I’d seen him use facial recognition before but with the blood on him, there was no chance I would have been able to unlock the damn thing.
My head collapsed onto his stomach as I knelt in front of him. I felt useless. There was nothing I could do except watch him die and hope to god that Ethan somehow saved him before that happened. But Zeke did say he was far away and it might take them a while to get here.
I lost all hope.
“Sasha,” Zeke’s voice was weak and croaky but it made my head whip up to look at him.
“Zeke?” My face felt puffy from crying. “What happened?”
“Everything is going to be okay.”
“You’re shot and bleeding.” How was it going to be okay? He was dying. I was watching him die.
“It’s going to be okay,” he repeated. His lips tilted to a smile. “It didn’t hit any major organs. I’m gonna be fine.”
“But… you look…almost…”
“Dead?” he laughed. “No, not dead. Just in shock.” He tried to sit up again and he groaned, then fell back onto the couch. “Fuck, I forgot how much this hurt.”
“You’ve been shot before?” I gasped, not remembering any scars on his body.
It was hard for him to talk through the pain, his words were slow and broken. “I got shot in the ass. It was during training and Ethan wasn’t as good a shot as I.”
I laughed through my tears. “God, I love you.”
“I love you too.”
There was a faint sound of a helicopter in the distance. I knew it was Ethan or the other backup he’d managed to send. The whipping woosh got louder when it flew closer and then it was like thunder when it made a landing. People yelled and screamed out orders until the front door swung wide. Eight soldiers walked in holding their weapons as they scouted the house for any threats.
“We’re civilians,” Zeke tried to call out but he coughed when he lost his breath.
“Is there anyone else in the house or on the property?” The question was directed at me.
“They’re all dead,” I told him. “But Zeke. He’s been shot. We need help. Please.”
That same soldier yelled out. “We need a medic.”
Everything else happened so fast. I was pushed aside and another soldier came in with a paramedic bag and worked on Zeke. He groaned a few times in pain when they put bandages on him. They finally managed to stop the bleeding. Hope suddenly flooded through my veins and relief poured into me, allowing me to relax.
I wouldn’t have been able to handle losing him. I’d had enough loss for one lifetime.
We were soon escorted out of the house and taken onto the helicopter straight to the nearest military hospital.
Z eke had machines attached to him that monitored his heart, blood pressure, and oxygen. The operation to fix him took less than an hour, but they only allowed me in to see him thirty minutes into his recovery. He was still asleep then.
I was tempted to give him a kiss and wake him up but he needed his rest, so I sat beside the hospital bed and held his hand. It was warm. The doc said he’d make a full recovery as soon as he regained consciousness. I was grateful. He also said if the bullet had struck to the left into his heart, he’d be in a morgue. The shot missed all his vital organs. Luckily Nick was as horrible with a gun as he was a friend.
I’m glad he was dead but I was also glad I knew the truth. Maybe I wasn’t as good as a friend as I thought I was considering I had no clue Nick had gambling issues to begin with.
The nurses came in a few times to check on him and wrote down notes on the clipboard that hung at the end of the bed. They seemed nice. He was being well looked after.
Zeke stirred and inhaled slowly. His eyes blinked open a few times until they landed on me. He smiled. “Hey, you.”
“Hi.” My eyes teared up. “How are you feeling?”
“Seeing your face makes it all worth it.”
“You scared me, asshole.” My eyes watered. “I thought I was going to lose you back at the house.”
‘I told you everything was going to be fine.”
“I know, but before that.” I didn’t want to cry in front of him but the tears dropped down without my permission. “When I thought you were going to die, I wanted to die with you.”
“Well, thankfully that’s not going to happen. Besides, even then, I’ll come back as a ghost and haunt you.”
I laughed. “That’s still creepy, dude.”
“Get used to it, sweetheart.” Zeke smiled and squeezed my hand. “I’m here to stay.”
“I cleaned up while you were in surgery,” I told him. “That guy’s blood was on my face and I couldn’t look at my reflection.”
“You did what you needed to do to protect yourself,” Zeke assured me. “He had to die, so did that bitch and so did Nick.”
His name stung my soul.
There was a knock on the door behind me. It was Ethan leaning against the frame with his brows lifted. “You’re gonna run out of luck soon.”
“I know, I know,” Zeke said. “At least it wasn’t in my ass this time.”
“Whoever shot you in the ass was an idiot who probably still feels really bad.” Ethan walked in and took the spare chair on the other side of Zeke. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been shot.”
“You went all Rambo on everyone there,” Ethan said. He leaned back on his seat and crossed his legs. “It was a bloodbath. Pretty.”
“They were there to kill me and more importantly my girl,” Zeke said. His teeth clenched down. “That was their only mistake. Well, that and underestimating me.”
I’d heard what went down when Zeke went on his rampage but I never saw any bodies. Maybe that was a good thing. I knew what Zeke was capable of but witnessing it might have been a different story.
Ethan cleared his throat. “I know you guys have just gone through this, but I’ve been asked to offer you your position back on the force.”
Zeke tried to sit up but he whimpered. I placed my hand gently on his chest and guided him back down. “Easy there.”
“What?” Zeke said. “What are you talking about?”
“They want you back on the team. I’ve been instructed to make you an offer,” he said. “Once you’re better of course. If you want the position on the team, it’s yours.”
The idea of him going back into the military, worrying about him every time he was on a mission, wondering if he was alive or dead scared the crap out of me. It made my heart sink. But if this is what he wanted to do, if this is where he wanted his life to go then I was just going to accept it.
“No,” Zeke answered.
Oh, thank god.
“At least take some time to think about it.” Ethan stood from his seat. “Let me know and I’ll tell the others. We miss you, bro.”
“If you need someone to help you plan things or you want someone to investigate shit, then I’m your guy.” Zeke turned to me. “I don’t need to think about it, Ethan. My priorities have changed.”
“Okay, I’ll let them know.” Ethan nodded. “I’ll come by and visit you again soon. Sasha, it was really nice to see you again.”
“Nice to see you too.”
“At least bring me something next time,” Zeke joked. “A box of chocolates, burger and fries, some waffles.”
Ethan turned his back and pointed his finger in the air. “Dark chocolate it is.”
“Asshole,” Zeke yelled back. He turned his head to look at me and sighed. “God, you’re so beautiful.”
“I think whatever drugs they’ve given you are making you a little loopy.” I circled my finger around my temple. “Maybe a little crazy.”
“I’ve always been crazy. I was scared today, Sash.” Zeke’s eyes showed vulnerability like I’d only seen a few times before. “I thought I was going to lose you too. I was so scared and when I couldn’t find you in the shed, and saw that body, I fucking lost it. I thought they’d taken you.”
“They did.”
“I know and I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”
“You were kinda busy killing everyone else,” I told him.
“I think the threat is over now,” Zeke said, adjusting his body into a more comfortable position. “I think you’re finally free.”
“I got a call while you were out.” I paused for a few seconds before I told him the news. “They actually killed Barrett. He told them where we were and they killed him. The FBI offered me a new name and another job but honestly, I’m kinda sick of running.”
“You don’t want to hide anymore?”
I shook my head. “No, but I don’t think we need to anymore. According to the guy I spoke with, Marissa, who was my uncle’s wife, was the last threat. The empire has shut down and their government has taken over their assets. They offered me security just in case.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I told him thank you but no thanks. The only thing I needed was to live in a new place with a nice house and a backyard for a couple of dogs,” I replied. “A nice oversized bath with a swimming pool at the back, a big kitchen, preferably with two islands, and it’s got to be close to the city and entertainment as well as public transports, though I have requested for a couple of cars to use.”
Zeke smiled. “And what did he say?”
“He said he’d get back to me.”
Zeke cleared his throat. “And where you live, will there be any room for me in your life?”
I gave his hand another gentle squeeze. “Like you have a choice.”
Life returned to his eyes. “So, my gorgeous spy, where exactly are we moving to?”
I slowly spread my lips into a smile.
There was only one place in the world I wanted to live.