Dying to Run (2 page)

My stomach clenched tighter. Damon escaped. “Is Sham okay?”

“The big black guy?” Shine asked.

More sirens announced an ambulance.

“He’s breathing,” Fine muttered.

Chapter Two

Unfortunately, breathing was about all Sham was doing. Nana and I gave our statements to the police, hurried to the hospital, and then waited and waited. I shifted on the plastic chair. Raquel and my newborn nephew had only been released from this hospital a few days ago. Sitting here reminded me of all the stress and worry over my sister-in-law and the baby’s life after Raquel had been forced off the road by some of the scum who worked with Damon.    

Nana hounded the receptionist again and a young, thin doctor finally deemed us worthy of five minutes. His pale blue eyes gave my fitted t-shirt and yoga pants a slow once-over. It said something about how upset I was that I didn’t tell him off. The only doctor I wanted looking at me like that was Jesse, who I’d missed horribly since he’d gone back to Mexico to try and infiltrate the traffickers, his own father one of the men he wanted to stop.   

Jesse had called yesterday and said he may meet up with my dad and come home soon. Why was Sham here instead? Was Jesse in trouble? Was my dad?

“The patient,” the doctor began, his spiky hair wobbling slightly.

“Sham,” Nana interrupted.

“Sham.” He nodded, focusing on me instead of Nana. “Has been stabilized, but is heavily sedated. He has lost a lot of blood and needs to rest. Please go home and get some rest. You may come back tomorrow morning and see him for a few minutes.”

“Were there injuries besides the bullet wound?” Nana asked.

“I am not at liberty to discuss that with anyone but family.”

“I am his Nana!” Nana stretched onto her toes and jutted out her chest.

“Oh.” The doctor’s eyebrows shot up as he glanced at her bright yellow mumu and the determined look on her face. He consulted his clipboard. “I wasn’t aware.”

I silently laughed at the obvious questions shooting around the doctor’s eyes about the relations of a huge, black man to this round, white-haired lady. Sham probably called her Nana like everyone else, but they were in no way related.

Nana pushed the clipboard down. “Well, I am. Now tell me about his wounds.”

The doctor didn’t look convinced. “Um, just the gunshot wound.”

“What’s wrong with him besides loss of blood?”

I had to hand it to Nana; she was as persistent with the doctor as she was when she questioned me about Jesse. She glared at me, like I should be participating in twenty questions along with her. If I’d had any sympathy for the doctor I would’ve tried to stem the questions, but I needed to know as much as Nana. Sham had been trying to protect me when he got shot.

“The bullet did some damage to his right lung.”

“Decreased lung capacity or more serious than that?” Nana asked.

Oh, no. Sham was going to be forever hampered because of me.

The doctor shrugged. “He may make a full recovery. Now if you would please go home.” It was obvious he was now done with us, probably because his overt glances had gotten him no attention from me. My dark hair was in a haphazard ponytail and I hadn’t consulted a mirror since doing my makeup on the way to a personal training appointment this morning. How desperate could he be?

“I’m not leaving until I’ve seen him,” Nana said, crossing her arms under her ample chest with a huff.

“Just for a few seconds?” I asked. “Please?”

He studied me, reaching up to massage his own neck with long fingers. “All right.”

“Thank you,” I said.

Nana nodded her thanks and we followed him through the doors and down a hallway. The door to Sham’s room stood open. We filed in quietly and eased next to the bed. Sham’s huge body was covered from the waist down in a tan blanket. A few tubes poked out of his arm and one was inserted into his chest, oxygen lay close to his nose. Besides the beep of the machines and an odd bubbling sound coming from the chest tube, it was too quiet. Closer inspection did reveal his chest was slowly lifting up and down and his lips were also moving.

I leaned in. The smell of iodine burned my nostrils. “He’s saying something.”

The doctor looked skeptical. “I suppose it’s possible he could be having a dream, but there’s no way he could be awake. You wouldn’t believe the drugs we pumped into him.” He looked down, fiddling with his chart.

“Why?” Nana questioned.

“Well, he’s huge.” He gestured at Sham. “And he fought the anesthesiologist and nurses, kept saying something about ‘protecting Cassidy’.”

I jerked upright. “I’m Cassidy.”

The doctor’s eyes dissected me again. “Aha. That makes sense.”

I turned back to Sham and lowered my ear next to his mouth. After a few seconds I could hear him mumbling, “Cassidy, Cassidy,” over and over again. I wished I could wake him up and tell him I was okay, put poor Sham at ease. I stood to tell Nana what he was saying, but my heart started hammering in my chest as the significance of what had happened tonight hit me. Sham had been sent here to protect me and almost died. Damon was out of jail and had promised he wouldn’t leave without me. We’d heard nothing from Jesse or my dad. I was suddenly paralyzed with fear. I didn’t want to leave Sham’s side. I wished he was healthy and could protect me. I really wished Jesse was here, but I needed to stop being so selfish. He must be busy protecting innocent children from traffickers like Damon.  

“Satisfied?” the doctor asked.

I couldn’t force my lips to move.

“Yes,” Nana said. “We’ll be back later.” She latched onto my arm and dragged me away.

The night was inky black, crisp with cold and fear as we exited the hospital and picked our way to our car. Rubbing my hands on my arms to warm them, I stared at every possible ambush spot and jumped when a car door slammed. Would Damon have followed me here? A police car signaled us with their lights. It was a bit of comfort as they idled behind us through the parking lot, but I was still relieved when we sank into my Altima. I locked the doors and sped towards Smithfield.  

Nana muttered the whole way home about punk doctors and Damon. I was so distracted I just drove and mumbled uh-huh once in a while to satisfy her. The guilty truth was I wasn’t thinking about Sham and his injuries. I was wondering where Damon was. He must’ve been released on bail and come straight for me. He’d escaped Shine and Fine tonight. And I could hear him saying over and over again in my mind, “I’ll be back.”

I shuddered, then had to hide my distress when Nana started questioning me. “Why didn’t someone inform us Damon was out? Why is he after you again? You’d think you were some supermodel the way these boys can’t leave you alone.”

I gripped the wheel tighter and arched an eyebrow, wondering how Damon coming after me in the middle of the night with a handful of hired guns counted as boys not leaving me alone. I wished every man but Jesse would leave me alone. As soon as we got home and Nana wasn’t inches away, I would call him. Maybe he’d come home to protect me, even if he couldn’t it would be wonderful to hear his voice.

We waved to the police stationed out front of our house. There was some security in having them there, but Jesse was the only person I trusted to keep my safe from Damon.

The first thing I saw when I opened the back door and ushered Nana inside was the mess Damon and his men had made. The debris was taped off as part of the crime scene. The house stunk of plaster dust and gunpowder, I could taste it floating in the air.

“Can we clean in the morning?” I asked, praying she wouldn’t make me pick up shards of wood and scrub Sham’s blood right now. I was so tired and I had personal training appointments starting at six a.m. I couldn’t afford to miss them as I worked to build up a clientele. I’d also promised Raquel I would watch Tate so she could nap with baby Nathan tomorrow afternoon. Tate was understandably excited to have his new brother home and was driving his mom nuts. I needed some sleep so I had the energy to wear him out.

Nana eyed the mess like it was as evil as Damon. “Probably shouldn’t touch anything until the police get their evidence and such out of here.” She muttered a few cuss words I shouldn’t have been able to recognize.

In all the craziness I’d left my phone sitting on Nana’s bed. I ducked under the yellow tape and grabbed it.

“What do you need that for in the middle of the night?”

“Going to charge it,” I mumbled.

I climbed the stairs to my room, so exhausted I scuffed my heel along each stair. My brain was fuzzy, but as I entered my room and fell onto my bed without taking my shoes off, something felt wrong. I wanted to curl up on my comfy bed and sleep without even brushing my teeth, but fear crept back into my throat, clogging it. I could hardly breathe. I glanced around and realized it wasn’t something I could see that scared me—it was a smell that was different.

“Maybe I need to take out the garbage,” I muttered to myself, but the smell wasn’t rotted apple cores; it smelled nice, like a man who wore some decent quality cologne.
A man.
I snapped fully awake, eyes darting around the room. I listened hard. Was it my imagination or could I hear breathing?

Damon couldn’t be here. He couldn’t. But if he was, he’d have to be hiding in the closet or under the bed. I should be brave and check, but bravery just wasn’t in the script for me right now. My heart was beating so high in my chest I felt like I was hyperventilating. I stood and started edging towards the door, fingers fumbling with my phone as I slid the touchscreen to unlock it. Detectives Shine and Fine might hate me for raising a false alarm, but I wasn’t searching this room by myself.

A hand closed around my ankle. I screamed and thumped to the floor, my forearms barely breaking my fall. My phone flew across the room. The hand jerked me back towards the bed. The carpet yanked skin off my elbows. A man scrambled out from underneath the bed and jumped on top of my back. He clamped his hand over my mouth to cut off the screams squeaking out.

“You knew I wouldn’t leave without you,” Damon whispered into my ear.

With his hand covering my mouth and screams still trying to escape his hand, I couldn’t find enough oxygen. The room started to turn black. Damon’s entire body rested on top of mine, pinning my arms and chest into the floor and making it even harder to breathe.

I heard footsteps from downstairs. Nana! Maybe she would think to go outside and get the cops before she came to investigate.

“Cassidy Christensen,” she squeaked. “I’m exhausted. Stop making so much noise.”

Honestly Nana. Did she think I was up here having a party? The exasperation calmed me enough to think how I could survive. First, I needed air. I sucked through my nose and felt my head clear.

Damon eased off of me, careful to keep his hand over my mouth. He stood, jerking me with him. “Tell Nana you’re sorry and you’re going to bed now.”

I glared at him. He was a bigger idiot than I had previously realized. Like I was just going to let him kidnap me.

“Cassie?” Nana called, tromping slowly up the stairs.

“You’d better get her to turn around or I’ll kill her.” He smiled at my obvious terror. “I’d love to shut Nana up.”

The hatred in his eyes was no act. My entire body shuddered. I couldn’t let him kill my Nana. I nodded under the pressure of his hand. He removed it, holding me close to his side with one arm and removing a pistol from his belt with the other. How kind of him to reassure me that the threats weren’t facetious. 

“Sorry, Nana,” I called out, unable to keep the tremor from my voice. “I saw a spider and screamed, then tripped over the side of my bed.” I paused then yelled, “
Don’t
tell Fine.”

Nana’s upward progression halted. I took a full breath, praying she’d turn around. The real hope was she’d understand the hint about Detective Fine, turn around and run outside to the police, but I’d settle for her turning around and not getting herself killed.

“Only you, Cassie.” Nana heaved a huge sigh. “I’m going to bed.” Her loud thumps down the stairs reassured me that she wouldn’t get a bullet from Damon. My heartbeat ramped up again when I realized I probably would.

“Who’s Fine?” Damon asked into my ear, tucking the gun into his belt again.

“New boyfriend,” I muttered.

“Already bored with Jesse?” Before I could rebuttal, Damon whipped out a cloth and gagged me with it. I’d never known why it was called a gag until I experienced this. He jammed the rag so deep in my mouth I was literally gagging. Bits of cotton drifted down my throat. I swallowed some of them and coughed violently a second later.

“Don’t need to hear the funny thoughts hiding in that beautiful head,” Damon said.

He jerked me out of my room and towards the spare bedroom that overlooked the backyard. Nana was my only hope at this point. Had she gone out front to the police, or was I destined to endure Damon’s brainless comments until he decided to kill me? He rushed me towards the open window where a ladder was propped up. “Climb down,” he said, his hand touching his gun.

I looked out the open window. A few men circled the bottom of the ladder. I shook my head, refusing to take one more step away from the hope of rescue.

Damon put all his frustration into his grip on my bicep. A yelp started up my throat, transforming into a whimper between my gagged teeth.

“Don’t give me a reason, Cassie,” his voice was low and menacing, “Ramirez wants you dead, but the timing of that is up to you.”

Staring into his eyes for half a second convinced me I would live longer if I climbed down that ladder. Damon was obviously not planning to forgive me for getting him arrested anytime soon. That was fine with me. I would never forgive him for pretending to like me and then betraying me.

I swung my leg out the window and started climbing. My tennis shoe slipped off the rung halfway down. I clung to the icy metal with equally cold fingers. Glancing up, I stared into the short barrel of Damon’s pistol. “Keep moving,” he snarled.

I regained my footing and slowly descended. I was a few feet from the ground when strong arms grabbed me and hauled me down. It was too dark to make out the faces of the three men waiting for us. Damon was almost to the ground when we heard a shout from the window. “Stop! Smithfield City Police.”