Rush of Innocence (Rush Series #1) (2 page)

“Trinity,
it’s me. Are you hurt?” At the infinitesimal shake of her head, Alex Masters,
her father’s chauffer and bodyguard, whispered in urgent tones in her ear.
“Stay down and be quiet. Do you understand?” With her heart pounding, and
whimpering softly, she nodded.

From
the light of the fireplace, Trinity watched through horror-filled eyes as Alex
made his way on hands and knees to her father. She held her breath as she
waited to see if he were alive. She cringed when she thought of her earlier
pique, it seemed so unimportant now. She closed her eyes and prayed God would
give her an opportunity to apologize and tell him she loved him.

When
she opened her eyes, she watched as Alex leaned over her father and pressed two
fingers against the artery in his neck. He glanced back and gave a small nod.
He was alive!
She exhaled sharply. Alex
pulled a cellphone from his pocket and hit a known contact on its face.

With
quick and efficient command, he said into the phone, “Shane, I need you down
here
now!
There’s a situation with
the principle. I need the perimeter searched ASAP. There are weapons involved.
Once cleared, I need both SUVs brought around. I need to get the Judge to the
hospital, also ASAP. Understood? Good. Both the principle and sub-principle are
with me in the dining room. Okay, I’ll wait to hear from you.”

Gesturing
with his hand, Alex motioned Trinity to join him and her father. Ignoring the
shards of glass cutting into her knees and palms, she made her way as Alex had
done.

When
she reached him, he leaned and whispered into her ear, “I need to ensure
there’s no one in the house. I want you to stay with your father. Can you do
that?”

With
her eyes wild, she immediately began to shake her head. She lifted trembling
hands to his bicep. Her voice shook as she begged, “Please don’t leave us.
Please!”

Alex
placed a hand against her face to get her to concentrate on his eyes. “Trinity,
I need to make sure you’re safe here. I’ll be right back. I promise. Okay?”

With
everything in her screaming ‘no’, she slowly nodded her head as she swallowed
the huge lump forming in her throat. Alex gave her a reassuring smile and
patted her cheek softly. Slipping to his feet, he kept his body bent at the
waist as he withdrew his weapon and crept away, the only sounds being the wind
whipping through the broken window, the flickering flames of the fireplace, and
the soft crunch of glass as he stepped away. Trinity moved to her father and
touched his face with her fingertips. Being this close, she could now see the
gouged surface on his head where the bullet had slid uncomfortably close to
ending his life. In the flickering light, she was surprised to see a second
wound. Blood soaked through the sleeve of his white dress shirt. Inanely, the
thought crossed her mind that he was definitely going to hate having his
expensive, tailored-made shirt ruined. She leaned back to snag the white linen
napkin her father had used earlier and pressed it with gentle fingers against
his wound.

She
wondered why Alex hadn’t call for an ambulance. Surely it would be better for
her father to receive immediate medical treatment. Leaning down, and ignoring
the tears streaming down her face, she pressed her lips against his face.
Please, don’t die
, she begged silently,
I can’t lose another parent this way
.

It
seemed to take forever for Alex to return to her, when in all actuality it
probably was only a matter of minutes. He crouched behind her and surveyed the
room protectively.

She
jerked her head up when the front door was shoved open. Alex laid a reassuring
hand on her shoulder, “It’s only Shane,” he said calmly. Alex stepped away from
her and met Shane in the middle of the room. He bent his head as Shane spoke
quietly to him. Trinity watched as Alex nodded, then turned back to her.

“The
perpetrator or perpetrators have gone. We need to get your father to the
hospital. We will take both SUVs in case we need a diversion. We’ll place you
and your father in the backseat of one, okay?”

“Wouldn’t
an ambulance make more sense?” she asked as fear flooded her senses.

“No,
we don’t know what we’re dealing with yet. This is the best way. Are you ready
to move?” he asked in his same calm manner.

“Can
I grab my purse? It’s in the study.”

“Be
quick,” Alex advised.

Trinity
darted into the study and grabbed the purse and coat she’d thrown over the
chair when she’d entered the house earlier that day. When she returned, Alex
picked her father up, seemingly with little effort. The bunch of his shoulder
muscles underneath his suit jacket the only sign of the strain of his burden.
She followed him as they made their way quickly to the set of black SUVs now
parked in the garage. She slipped into the backseat first and waited while Alex
laid her father onto the seat. She shifted him to lay his head onto her lap.

Alex
spoke to Shane briefly before crawling into the driver’s seat of the SUV.
Glancing at her in the rearview mirror, he said, “Be sure to buckle up.”
Wordlessly, she complied. “You ready?” he asked softly. She nodded.

Alex
depressed the garage opener and waited until Shane pulled out before following.
Once they arrived at the end of the drive, Shane turned right and Alex pulled
left. From her position in the backseat, she could see the tiny green light
attached to the Bluetooth in Alex’s ear. She heard the cadence of his voice,
but not his words. She looked down at her father and gently brushed his hair
into place. She leaned down to press a kiss to his forehead when she heard Alex
shout, “Trinity, hold on!”

His
words barely registered before the bright lights of a vehicle flooded the
interior of the SUV seconds before slamming into it broadside, on the side
across from her. Trinity screamed at the impact and when her father’s body was
thrown against her, she reached around his chest and held him as tight as she
could. The SUV seemed to travel sideways for miles before crashing into a line
of parked cars. Trinity felt the buckle of the door as it strained against its
reinforced frame.

She
watched in horrified fascination as the dark-colored SUV that hit them back up
slowly. She heard the grinding of gears and the squealing of the tires as the
vehicle struggled to gain purchase on the asphalt. Seconds before the vehicle
hit them again, Alex punched the gas. The crunch of metal against metal and the
shattering of glass filled the air as the attacking SUV crashed into the line
of cars they’d just pulled away from.

Trinity
struggled to right her father’s unconscious body as Alex sped through the
darkened streets while talking in quick, quiet tones into his Bluetooth. Fear
made her hands tremble, and a deep cold seeped into every fiber of her body.
Her teeth began to chatter as she hugged her father tightly against her body.

“Trinity,
you all right, back there?”

When
she opened her mouth to answer, a sob flew from her lips instead.

“We’ll
be at the hospital soon,” he said soothingly. She could only nod as tears
flooded her eyes and spilled over onto her cheeks.

One
of the SUV’s tires was -punctured during the assault, causing the vehicle to
wobble and lurch. Alex turned onto a side lane, extinguished the lights, and
parked. He turned his head left and right, surveying the surroundings before
slipping over into the backseat. Squatting in the back floorboard, he reached
for her father and ran experienced hands over his body, searching for further
injuries. Apparently satisfied, he turned his attention to her.

“How
are you holding up?”

“What’s
happening? Who’s after us?” she whimpered.

“I
don’t know. Shane is on his way. We just need to sit tight. Were you hurt?”

Swallowing,
she merely shook her head.

The
bright lights of the hospital’s emergency room entrance hurt her eyes. As
before, Alex carried her father’s body while Shane had a hand on her elbow,
guiding her into the hospital. Her mind struggled to absorb the gravity of the
situation, but just couldn’t – so she shut down. When Shane led her to a chair,
she sat without comment and stared blankly straight ahead. Without looking at
them, she was aware of Alex in deep discussion with Shane before Shane walked
off to where the hospital staff had taken her father.

Alex
sat down across from her. She took in the man who’d been so tightly ensconced
in her life for the past six months. She’d never really given him much thought
before. But now that she owed hers and her father’s lives to him, so couldn’t
take her eyes off him. He
lookedto
be in his
mid-thirties, with military-cut blonde hair, and green eyes. It took her a
minute to notice the blood streaming down his face. “You’re hurt,” she
whispered.

He
lifted a hand to his head and wiped a negligent hand against it. “I’m fine.”

“Thanks,
Alex,” she murmured.

“You’re
welcome,” he replied, eyeing her thoughtfully. “We need to discuss what’s going
to happen once your father is placed in a room. It will be better for everyone
if you stay as well. Is that okay with you?”

“For
now,” she answered. She shivered and ran her hands up and down her arms to warm
herself. She thought longingly of the coat she’d left in the wrecked SUV.
Noticing her discomfort, Alex rose and draped his suit jacket over her
shoulders. “Thanks,” she murmured.

“Security
going to be tightened, Trinity. You have to realize that,” Alex said, eyeing
her thoughtfully.

“Security… for my father, right?”

With
slow movements, he shook his head.

“Who’d
want to hurt us?” she whispered.

Exhaling
deeply and once again swiping at the blood at his temple, he asked softly, “Has
your father mentioned the death threats he’s received?”

“Death threats?
No, he didn’t. Who’d want to kill my father?” she rasped.

“Your
father has a powerful job, which makes him a target.”

Trinity’s
eyes darted left and right as she tried to understand. Slowly, it began to
become clear to her. “Is that why he has you?”

He
scrunched his eyebrows at the illogical question. “Yes.”

“He
told me all Judges were now required to have bodyguards. I never questioned
it,” she ended lamely.

“He
probably didn’t want you to worry.”

Lifting
stormy, black eyes to meet his calm, sea-foam green ones, she exclaimed, “I’m
not a child. He should have told me the truth.”

Without
comment, Alex leaned his head back against the wall. Anyone looking at him
would think he was a man calmly waiting for someone in the hospital. But
Trinity knew from the slow shift of eyes back and forth, that he would spring
into action at any sign of danger. She snuggled down into the folds of his
jacket and closed her eyes, scared for her father and furious at him all at the
same time.

“Ms.
Grace?” A deep voice questioned.

Opening
her eyes, she sat a little straighter at the sight of a doctor. “Yes,” she
answered.

“I’m
Dr. Kane,” he said with an outstretched hand.

Trinity
reached out her own hand and shook his. He frowned as he looked down. She
followed his line of sight to her hand. There were cuts and gashes from her
crawl through the shards of glass.

“Oh
my,” he murmured. “You’ll need to get that looked at.” Raising his eyes back up
to hers, he said, “I wanted to let you know your father has been taken up to
surgery. All initial reports look good. If you’d like, you can go to the
waiting room up on the fourth floor. I’ll come find you once he’s out of
surgery. He’ll need to stay, of course, so I’ve notified the front desk to
arrange a room for him.”

“Thanks,
Doctor,” she murmured.

When
the doctor walked away, Alex stood and waited for her to rise. Together they
made their way to the fourth floor.

The
wait seemed to last forever, but actually was only a matter of a couple of
hours. She paced and sipped bad coffee until Dr. Kane reappeared as promised.

He
walked to her quickly and smiled down. “Your father came through surgery with
flying colors. We expect him to make a full recovery. It appears the bullet
went through the soft tissue of his shoulder and missed all vital arteries. The
bullet which grazed his head, while it probably hurt and knocked him
unconscious, wasn’t life-threatening.”

“When
can I see him?” she asked on a sigh of relief.

“He’s
in recovery right now. He’s been assigned to Room 407 if you’d like to wait
there. He should be rolled down in about an hour. Anything else?” the doctor
asked kindly.

“No.
Thank you for everything,” she said somberly.

Once
he left, she and Alex made their way to Room 407. Alex entered the room first
and did a quick search before waving her in. She stood for a moment in the
stark white room and heaved a tired sigh. It’d been a long night.

She
pointed to the bathroom and Alex gave a slight nod of his head. Closing the
door quietly behind her, she slowly walked to the sink and turned on the faucet
and let the water run. Bracing her hands against the sink, she leaned forward
and studied herself in the mirror. Her long, dark hair swayed against her
waist. Surprisingly, it was still clasped neatly at her neck.
Her father would be pleased
, she
thought. There were dark smudges under her brown eyes where her mascara had
ran;
he’d not be pleased about that
.
Her sleeveless, white form-fitted dress was marred with blood, dirt, and tiny
shards of embedded glass. Her father’s demand of perfection would definitely
not be pleased with her dishevelment.