Independence (32 page)

Marcus stood and just as he barreled toward
me,
out of nowhere it seemed, from the shadows of the bushes and darkness…was Haddock. He ran and swung Marcus around, landing a solid blow to his jaw. He went down.

The first thought I had was his accomplice and when I looked, he was gone. I knew right where he was going a
nd swung around.
I s
aw him make a swift ascent
to Bish and Jen. He was determined to finish the job. I heard Caleb's argumentative, "No, Maggie," a split second before I took off. This was it. This was Caleb's vision that he'd had the nightmare about. I
was
going to get shot and I
was
going to die on this beach. Because I
was
going to stop him from taking out two people who just wanted to be happy, who just wanted to live their life and
had
been caught in the crossfire because of my collateral damage. Bish and Jen deserved every happiness. I just hoped that Caleb could forgive me and understan
d that I had to save his sister and
my brother. They couldn't die just because Marcus hated me. I would never be able to live with myself.

So I pushed harder, forgetting about the pain and aches my body complained about.
Forgetting about the searing burn of the arm I suspected was broken.
None of it mattered now. Caleb ran behind me, but we both knew he wouldn’t catch me. I was faster. And I hated the agonizing pleas as he begged me not to, he couldn’t live without me, please stop,
please
stop, stop.

I couldn't.

It all happened so fast, but the world seemed to slow to a crawl at the same time. I saw as he raised his arm, Bish and Jen so absorbed in each other that they still hadn't even seen him. I yelled, but the wind was so loud, they didn’t hear. He raised his arm, gun in hand, and pointed it at my brother and his significant. Though I knew I'd never get to see the children that I'd seen in the vision, never get to see Caleb graduate college and keep his dream of opening his centers, never get to intimately mutualize with him like we'd talked about, about how it was so
mind-blowing, I'd never get to see Caleb's face
again
when he looked at me like I was his everything
…

I leapt.

And as the bang entered my ear, the bullet seared through my ribs. I closed my eyes, relief filling me. I stopped it. I stopped the vision. Bish and Jen were safe. I saw Caleb tackle the man and toss the gun into the waves before Bish ran and took the man's collar in his grip. One swing of Bish's fist, even when he was weakened, and he was down.

Caleb sprinted to me, skidding in the sand as he reached me. "God, no. No, no, no, no." He picked my head up as he looked into my eyes.

"I stopped it," I said proudly.

"I can't heal you, baby." His eyes glazed over. "The bullet…" He looked at it and then back to my face. "My touch won't heal you, remember?"

"I know. I'm sorry," I said sincerely, my voice cracking.

"But you still did it," he growled. "Knowing that I couldn’t heal you, you still did it."

"I had to." I sniffed. "I had to."

His face contorted and he pulled me up to kiss my forehead.
I felt a tear fall to my skin.
"I know."

He tried anyway, he poured every ounce of his healing touch and calm into me, but it just wasn't enough. He leaned back, his face wild and hysterical.
He looked where we had just run from and I saw in his mind that Marcus was just getting up.

"Bish, take her to the truck.
Hospital.
I'll be there in just a second."

"What are you-"

"Just do it!" he roared. "There's something I have to do. It won't take long. If I'm not there in two minutes, leave without me."

He kissed my lips sweetly. "I'm no good to you anyway, so there's something I have to do. I just…have to," he told me in a low voice.

Marcus. That was what he had to do.

"I love you," I said, because I knew I wouldn't make it to the hospital. I knew.

"I love you with all that I am," he promised in a growl before kissing my forehead and jumping up. He took off and yelled over his shoulder. "Take her now!"
I was lifted into Bish's warm arms and the last thing I saw before darkness sweeping in and claiming me was Caleb's running form and him silently promising me that this ended here. This ended tonight. He would avenge me and no one else would ever suffer at the hands of Marcus Watson.

I thanked him and closed my eyes for the last time.

Caleb

I shook with a rage that I'd never felt before. I'd always heard rumors and stories about a man that was avenging his mate was something not to be trifled with. That it consumed you, and gave you this strength in your bones that you didn't have before. There was something in me telling me that I couldn't function, couldn't eat, breath or sleep again until Marcus was six feet under.

I'd never been one for
retaliation. My family and most clans practiced a more peaceful way, but this was almost supernatural. This was…ingrained in my very core that
I wasn't allowed to do anything
but kill that bastard.

I started to run. He was getting up, rubbing his head, and looking around. He saw me coming and the coward in him took over as he scrambled up, slipping in the sand, and then making a break for it through the bushes. I jumped and landed on his back with my knee, my hands w
rapped in his shirt. I drove his
face down in to the dirt and immediately turned him to see his face, to look at him as I choked the life out of him.

I gripped his throat tightly and ignored the scratches and marks he made as he tried to fight me off. I couldn't even take pleasure in it. It was just something I had to do. Maggie was all I could think about as I sat there on autopilot and drained the life out of him.
I prayed they made it to the hospital on time. That was the only thing that could save her now since this spineless worm had made sure that I couldn't heal her.

I squeezed harder.

And then a bang resounded behind me and I jerked to the side. Just in time, it seemed, as Marcus' cousin took a shot at me. Marcus wheezed and coughed as his cousin took aim on me again. I rolled to miss the next shot and it shot sand up in a blast beside me. I stood, hands raised.

Marcus stood, too, and bent in his disorientation, holding his throat. I grabbed him just as his cousin shot again and placed him to my chest. Marcus' eyes were wide with shock and betrayal. It made me a terrible person, I knew that, but I watched as his eyes fluttered to a close and he f
ought to catch his breath. And then he wheezed one last time before going limp in my arms. I peeked over his shoulder before letting him fall to the ground and saw Haddock with the bat in his hand and Marcus' cousin on the ground.

With the amount of blood coating the dirt under him, I didn't imagine he'd be getting back up. Haddock tossed the bat aside and looked to the house as we heard the sirens. He tossed me his
keys. "Go. I'll take care of this
."

I ran as fast as I could manage. My truck was just leaving the parking lot and I pushed myself faster to run in front
of it
. Bish slammed on the breaks and I threw the back door open and was surprised to see Maggie's eyes open. "She just gasped and woke up a minute ago," Jen explained.

Maggie reached for me and I obliged wholeheartedly. I pulled her gently into my lap and was slammed with a hit of her c
alm. Jen looked stunned, and she
and Bish both reached for each other at the same time. They clasped hands and both groaned as they were filled with each other's touch.

That meant…

I lifted Maggie's shirt and watched as the bullet pushed itself out from between her ribs. She winced and breathed raggedly. It hurt me to watch it.
I pulled her closer and kissed her forehead, leaving my lips there to give her as much of me as I could. "Wow, that hurts," she breathed.

"I know," I said wryly.

"I knew it," she said in awe. "It hit me after you left…something Marcus said about my blood and his blood." She gulped. "He's dead, isn't he?"

I knew what he'd done to Maggie over and over again, how he'd tortured us all, but having just watched him die in my hands made me feel kind of raw. "Yeah," I whispered.

She
wrapped her arm around my neck and pulled me closer. She spoke against my lips. "I love you and I understand why you had to do that. I understand. He would have never stopped." I nodded. "Look at me," she said harder.

I opened my eyes and met her
gaze
, so close. "Don't you dare take blame for sticking up for me. Marcus did this to himself. And now it's finally over, because of you." S
he broke down. "Thank you
. I'm sorry you had to do that, but thank you for putting my mind at ease. We can finally live without looking over our shoulders." Her voice broke with her tears and I just held on to her. I pulled her to my chest and squeezed, probably too hard, but it was just what I needed to do.

I heard so
meone walking in the gravel behind us and whipped around. Haddock was there with a policeman. "Caleb, they need a statement."

I looked
at Maggie's face and gritted my
teeth. I did not want to move away from her for a second. "I'll be right back," I told her.

She nodded and I walked over to the cop and told him as much as I could tell him. And I didn't lie. I told him how his friend had tried to shoot me and I used Marcus as a shield out of self defense from both of them. "I'm sorry. I know you've been through a lot tonight, but
with the staff dead, too,
self defense or not, we have to take you both in for questioning," he told Haddock and me. I groaned and
ran my fingers through my hair with the sounds of sirens and doors opening and closing behind us
"Fine," I said, because there was nothing else I could say.

When Maggie realized
that they were about to take me, she jumped from the back of the truck. "No," s
he begged him.
She hugged me around my middle and I felt like I was leaving her once
again
when she needed me most.

She looked up at me. "You don't understand at all, do you?"
I scowled in question.

If Marcus was still alive, we would still be in withdrawal. Don’t you see? He poisoned us with my and his blood. One of us had to die f
or the blood bond that he put
on us all to break. It was either him...or me.

I did see then. That was why the thing, the need, the ache in my chest made me go after him. Killing him saved us all.

Yes,
she agreed.

I gulped and nodded. "OK."

"All right," the officer said. "Come on. Let's go."

They turned me, pulled my arms behind my back and handcuffed me. Bish hugged Maggie to his side and I gave him a grateful look. Kyle and Lynne were running across th
e lot, but it was too late. He
ducked my head and slid me in the back seat, along with Haddock.

I watched Maggie, my eyes never leaving hers, as they drove us away.

"So, no offense, man, but what are you doing here?" I asked. We'd been in
t
here for hours now. They questioned us for what seemed like forever. They separated us hoping to catch us in a lie. I explained everything to them. That Marcus held a grudge, had followed us here while I was on my honeymoon, and had murdered the guard and the concierge in an effort to ambush us. Eventually they
told us to wait in the cell, and
they'd come later and let us know something. That had been over five hours ago.

"Jim called me," he said. He rubbed his head and sighed. "He called and said he knew I wa
s in town and that the Jacobson
s were on lockdown. He said that Maggie sounded weird on the phone and was there any way that I could go down there and make sure everyone was OK. So I jumped right in
the
truck and here I am. Just in time, too, it seemed."
"Yeah," I agreed with a humorless chuckle, "the timing couldn't have been better. Thanks, man. I…" I didn't know what to say. The guy had killed someone for me.