Through the Storm (The Montclair Brothers) (10 page)

"Thank you!" Free of the tube, he asked the nurse for some things to get cleaned up with.

She walked to the bathroom and brought out a clean gown, washcloth and towel, toothbrush, toothpaste, and a warm basin of water.

"Do you need any help?" asked the nurse.

"Nah I got it. Em, come back in about ten minutes?" asked Jacob.

"I'll stand outside the door. Holler when you're done." Emma winked and went out into the hall.

As Jacob washed himself up and brushed his teeth, he was happy about how everyone was healing, but uneasy at the same time. Even when they got discharged, they'd still be in no shape to fight, or run from Robert. Those who weren't injured were getting by on fumes. He wondered when the last time Tyler had gotten decent night's sleep was. He knew Sean and Vincent were on their last leg as well. Sean kept talking about old times with him, to keep him cheered up, and Vinnie kept reciting, "We'll get that bastard, don't you worry." But it was Emma he worried about the most. He feared she'd be emotionally scarred for life. Would she ever trust anyone ever again? After Robert was caught, or dead, and they'd found Angelique, would she still keep checking over her shoulder? Would they all do that?

After Jacob was finished getting himself cleaned up, he hollered for Emma to come back in.

"Wow, don't you look spiffy!" She walked over and took his hand.

"I feel pretty spiffy," laughed Jacob. As he stared at her, he could tell she'd lost a lot of weight. "Honey, have you been eating?"

"Yes, but not as much as I normally do. One can only handle so many sandwiches," she laughed.

Jacob knew it had nothing to do with sandwiches; he'd seen Sean eating trays that the nurse had ordered for him from dietary. His best guess is that she had no appetite.

"I want you to eat something for me. I'm going to ask the nurse to order you a tray for lunch."

"
It's okay, Jacob. I'm doing fine, honestly." Emma held up her fingers. "Scouts honor."

"I want to tell you a secret," Jacob said softly as he pulled her down to him. Just as Emma was about to turn her head to listen, he suddenly held her face and put his mouth on hers. He'd dreamed about kissing this woman for so long, and she tasted as sweet as he'd imagined. Her mouth opened to greet him, and
with all of his heart, he slowly made love to her mouth. It wasn't long before Robert began to invade his thoughts. Jacob pulled Emma closer.
Where the hell is that stupid bastard
?

Sometimes what you can't see can hurt you the worst. Robert was invisible, coiled and hidden in the brush like a deadly snake. He was nowhere and everywhere, all at the same time. Emma was more than aware of how strong the Montclair men were, but even they had been stopped by this monster lurking in the night; a force that kept trying to kill them. She knew the failed attempts weren't going to cause Robert to give up. No matter how ugly things got, she refused to allow her friend, Renee, to be thrown at his mercy. Could she kill him? Emma often questioned herself and was surprised at how quickly she was able to answer.
Yes. A thousand percent, yes.

It wasn't about saving
her own butt at this point. Robert was a killer and he needed to be stopped. Running from him had slowly destroyed their happy spirits. He was now a part of the very air they breathed.
Invisible but deadly
. When Emma thought about it, Robert had caused seven people to stop living their lives and go into hiding. Who was really winning? Perhaps it was true about the good guy finishing last. Tyler, Sean, and Vincent were her brothers, and what scared her the most, was that they'd try to be heroic and get themselves killed.

Emma felt like a hundred pounds had been lifted off of her shoulders once she'd
learned who Jacob was having dinner with on that night so many years ago. Normally she could carry on a regular adult relationship with the man, but Robert had halted her ability to do that as well. Emma couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by impending doom. Normally that wasn't the case. She loved being optimistic, and providing others with a bit of pleasantness in an otherwise ordinary day, but that Emma was gone.

Would she ever get the chance to be happy? Maybe get married and have a family, or watch Brian grow into a wonderful man? For the first time in her life, she wasn't excited
about the future. Even after making amends with Jacob, she didn't dare take even the next five minutes for granted. It had only taken Robert seconds to try and kill them.

The detectives didn't share a whole lot of information with the group. They had to believe that they were being protected. She'd caught some officers' texting, or reading the paper and flirting with the nurses. How could they possibly be ready if Robert stepped off of that elevator? The police were breathing the same deadly air as the rest of them. Robert would come out shooting at anyone who got in his way.

They'd been up on the sixth floor for almost a week now. The doctors were trying to figure out the best way to discharge everyone. Her friends reminded her of soldiers; hurry and heal so we can either throw you onto the front lines again or send you home. Emma knew there'd be no going home for them. Southfield was out of the question. She could just picture being shot by a cop, who was friends with Robert.

Hiding was just a symptom of being hunted. They couldn't do it forever, and the only cure was Robert's demise. Even if they arrested him, he'd haunt them from prison, or escape. They had no choice but to play his cat and mouse game. The worst case scenario wasn't dying; it was Robert going underground. They'd have to live in fear every day, wondering if he'd
pick them off one by one until he felt it was safe to come up, aim, and fire. Emma couldn't help but think the monster would go after Tyler and Renee first, leaving the rest of them to exist in an ocean of grief. In her mind, she knew it'd be crippling.

The sixth floor was, to their surprise, a psychiatric unit. The floor was divided into two sections, A and B. One side was for those without precautions, and the other was for patients requiring major supervision. They were on the gentler side, and luckily the census was low. Out of ten rooms, there were only two patients on the floor when they had arrived. Per the hospital administrator, the group could stay as long as the beds weren't needed.

Then what?

Emma realized that this unit was heavily guarded, with keys needed to access the floor from every entrance, including the elevator. Instead of relaxing in the secure environment, the tension was building amongst them.

Detectives Delcan and Joy, came to the unit every couple of days to provide updates on Robert and Brian's parents. Bond had been set for Shirley and Hank Waters at five hundred thousand cash, each. Brian didn't look concerned. He said they couldn't afford to pay it, but Emma still saw the concern on Tyler's face, a look that was always present now.

Today was different, though. The detectives met them inside of a
therapy room and announced that they'd come up with a plan. Sean was the first one to roll his eyes. It wasn't that they distrusted the detectives, but the faith they had in law enforcement's abilities to outsmart Robert, was pretty much nil.

"I'm happy to see everyone recovering so steadily," began Detective
Delcan as he carefully sat down with a steaming cup of coffee.

"They're doing really well," offered Tyler. His mood hadn't seemed to alter much since he'd spotted Robert and the cop at Emma's apartment. She watched his eyes narrow.

"Our best option, which you have all been adamantly against, would be to put each of you into protective custody," explained the detective. Delcan didn't bother looking up.

Sean shook his head and spoke firmly. "We'd all have to go our own separate ways. Besides, we believe our safest bet is to stay together. Regardless of where we go, Robert will find us. We'd each get picked off if we were separated."

"He's right," began Tyler. "Hopefully you've come up with a different plan."

"Our second best option would be to send you all out of state," said Detective Joy. "But you're against leaving Michigan."

Sean stood up and paced. "Don't you guys understand? Robert will follow us wherever we go. There's a blasted leak in your department."

"This last choice is pretty much our only route. We've decided against sending you to a remote location, like we've discussed before. Robert obviously doesn't want to be caught, so we're going to temporarily house everyone in a twelfth floor apartment in Lyons, southwest of here," Joy instructed, as he smiled nervously at the glaring men. "He's not going to make an attack when there're lots of people around."

"Here's the deal," started Jacob. "We have a business and lives to tend to. How close are you to capturing Robert?" he asked angrily.

"We're trying to locate him." Detective
Delcan stood up. "We'll let you know when you'll be transported. If you need anything, just call."

No one said goodbye to the detectives. They just stared at their backs as they walked out the door. Emma wanted to believe them. Maybe Robert wouldn't come to the surface if he couldn't catch them alone, but maybe at this stage of the game, his desperation would lead him to take drastic measures.

Jacob turned in his chair to face Tyler. Emma could tell he was still in pain when he winced at the movement. "This is ridiculous, Ty."

"I know it is, but unfortunately, if we let our guard down, which could easily happen at home, we could be attacked. We're kind of
stuck." Tyler looked at each of his brothers.

"We'll go to the apartment," began Sean. "But we'll have to arm ourselves to the gill."

"Then what?" asked Renee. "We can never go outside, or by the windows for that matter. I think our best bet is to call him out of hiding and then blow his brains out!" She yelled.

"I don't think Robert's left the area," offered Emma. "He knows the cops are after him."

"No," explained Jacob. "I think he fled the state the minute he took off from the hospital."

"It's all speculation," said Vincent. "We can guess until the cows come home. The point is
, he's out there somewhere. Regardless of where we end up staying, we'll have to protect ourselves. I plan on calling Frank, the officer who helped us before, and find out what he knows."

"Tell
us what you find out." Emma reached over and squeezed Jacob's hand. If Robert did show up, she knew of three people who couldn't fight or escape.

∞  ∞  ∞  ∞

Robert stared at himself in the full length mirror on the back of the cheap ass bedroom door in the shoddy trailer. One little bump and the whole place would fall flat. He needed a shower to wash off the blood, which had soaked through his favorite t-shirt. As he opened the closet door, he picked out some clothes that would fit him just fine. They were ugly as hell, but if he was going to be the Stupid Buck Roy, he'd have to dress like him too.

Robert walked to the shower, and then looked down at his arm. He remembered when he'd had stitches in his head as a boy, which if his old man was alive, he'd blow a hole in his throat too,
the doc told him not to get them wet. Nurse Nosey in the hospital, had said if he wanted to shower, she'd put a bag over his arm to keep it dry. Hopefully Big Bad Buck would have something he could use.

After digging around, Robert found garbage bags under the sink. He carefully wrapped his arm. "Just
like wrapping up a baby." He laughed at his humor as he turned on the shower. At least his hair was pretty much gone and he didn't have to use good ole' Buck's Girly Shampoo.
What man uses lavender damn shampoo
? He closed his eyes and scrubbed his face. The hot water felt good to Robert, but soon he was pissed off again by having only one arm to wash with. Now that Little Miss Prissy was counting her days, he didn't have to put up with being bugged to do this once a week.
Only celebrities needed to shower every day…and Renee, because she has to jog around like an idiot.

When Robert was finished with his shower, he dried off with one of Buck's shitty towels. They were light
blue, just like Doc Needle Nose's pj's. He was proud of himself for not getting his stitches wet, but his arm sure did hurt after that pain in the ass shower. Robert waltzed naked into Stupid Buck's cheap bedroom, and opened up a drawer.
They must have made this with leftover wood from the door
. Robert laughed at his quick observation. He pulled out a pair of boxers, the black ones so he couldn't see any stains, and a t-shirt with yellowing around the neck. The gray sweatpants got him excited.
Just like home
, he thought, but then he got pissed off all over again because his Stupid Ass wife had ruined everything by not dying.

Robert went back to the mirror. The red flannel shirt was nice. He
had to leave it unbuttoned because of his arm, but he still thought he looked like Buck the Dumb Roy. He put the glasses on his face and hoped like hell he could take them off in public. Robert couldn't see shit.

While driving down to the dirt road, he remembered that he would have to get rid of Ron the Cops rental, and call him today. Stupid Buck didn't have a bank account as far as Robert could tell. He'd dug all over that hell hole and couldn't find a thing. He felt kind of sorry for the bastard, because stupid Renee wouldn't let him have one either.
One more reason to pop her one
.

Driving into the pathetic small town, Robert was instantly waved at. He waved back, but quickly spun his
head in the opposite direction. There was no way in hell he could pull off a conversation with someone who actually knew Big Fat Buck. It'd cost him extra money to drive far enough to get to a new town, but that's what Ron the Cop was for! 

Robert drove twenty-five miles to a town called Redford.
Matches my shirt
, he laughed as he drove up in the parking lot of Merle's Diner.
A fine name
, he thought, and walked through the front door.

"Just one?" asked the ancient waitress.

"Yes. Coffee please." Robert smiled but wanted to sock the woman for wearing so much disgusting perfume. What he really wanted to do was ask her if she'd let a blind man put her lipstick on.
How the hell do you miss your lips
?

As Ancient Smelly Lady poured his coffee, Robert eyed the menu. There it was.
Two eggs with the meat of your choice. The picture of the fried ham sang out to him.

"I already know what I want," said Robert as he pointed to the menu.
"Ham for the meat."

"Oh okay. How would you like your eggs?" Smelly Thing was smacking her chewing gum.

"Scrambled. Don't bring them here if they're runny or you won't get a tip."
I gotta tip for ya. Don't look like shit.

"Yes, Sir.
I'll put your order in right way." Snot Wench glared at him and walked away. Robert wanted to slam her face into the wall. He could just picture her red lipstick left on the bricks. He laughed.

After fifteen minutes, his food was finally delivered. Robert wasn't too happy about them taking their sweet ass time, because he was starving. While he was eating, he ordered two more pieces of toast, and two more pieces of ham. The Smelly Wench glared at Robert again, but did as she was told. He couldn't wait to make himself a good ole sandwich.

"Got mustard?" Robert mumbled with his mouth full.

"It's on the table." She pointed like a witch, and Robert wanted to stab his fork into her.

When he finished his meal, he went to the register and paid the bill, compliments of Big Fat Buck. Robert walked out, leaving no tip. He had to restrain himself from giving her the bird. If she hadn't been such a bitch, he would have ordered something to take home for lunch. Piece of Shit Waitress.