Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 97275 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97275 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
“I’m going to be with Payton until they kick me out.” I said to the room as a whole, and left.
ɸ
The door shut silently behind Jessie, and I finally worked up the courage to look at Payton.
An IV ran from her left hand up to what looked like a pain pump of some sort. I remembered having one when I was in the hospital after the helicopter crash. Her face was swollen and bruised. Her left arm was in a sling against her chest. A blanket covered her from the chest down, but luckily, she didn’t have any other injuries.
Fuck that. She wasn’t lucky. She coded. Her brain was god damned bleeding. Her liver was bleeding. She was in a coma. How was that lucky?
Dropping down heavily in the seat next to her bed, I picked up her hand and brought it up to my face. I curled her palm around my cheek, and longed for her to scratch my beard, as she knew I liked. She didn’t though.
I held her hand for another hour; until her nurse came in and told me visiting hours were over. She told me that she would be send the milk they were able to pump over to the NICU, and that they’d call me if anything changed, or I was needed.
I slogged slowly down to the entrance, and found myself without a ride. Everyone had left an hour ago, and I didn’t know what the hell to do. I was so lost. My head still pounded in time with the beat of my heart. Each inhalation of air into my lungs sent a burning sting through my chest and ribs.
I sat down heavily on the bench outside the ER entrance and waited for my ride. James pulled up an hour later, yet I didn’t get up. He finally got tired of my crap and yelled at me through the partially rolled down window. I smiled at his name for me, and shuffled to the car.
Just as I reached for the door handle, I dropped my phone onto the concrete and cursed. Bending to retrieve it, a familiar sounding zing sailed past the top of my head. I dropped low and tapped the side of the car hard once, letting James know that I was okay. The passenger door opened and James practically fell out.
“Came from the West side of the building.” He said before yanking the passenger side door open and producing a twenty-two rifle that he used for squirrel hunting on occasion.
“Just got ‘er sighted in, too!” He smiled manically.
Awe, fuck.
He handed me a range finder, and then dropped to his belly underneath the car. I followed suit, used the tires for cover, and scanned the area.
“Two o’clock.” I said to him.
There she was. Partially hidden behind the side of the building. My phone rang underneath me, and I dug it out of my pocket while keeping my eye on O’Hare. “Yeah?”
I pressed answer and set it down next to me on the concrete. Luke’s voice filled the night air. “Don’t kill her if you can help it.”
“She’s on the west side of the building.” I answered quietly.
“We can see her, and you. No clear shot though. Take what you can, just try not to kill her. We’ve got civilians out the ass over here.” He ground out.
Seconds ticked by as I measured the wind speed and the distance, and then gave him the stats.
“Got it.” James said.
His finger slowly pulled the trigger, and then a shout of pain filled the night air.
“Got her. Left cheek.”
Not fatal, but enough to incapacitate her until Luke could get to her.
“Got her.” Luke said through the phone.
I hung up on him, and crawled out from under the truck. James handed out the rifle, and then stood up; smiling as if he’d just won the lottery.
“You’re so full of yourself.” I muttered and handed the rifle back to him.
He laughed. “You just wish you had my awesomeness to call your own.”
He expertly unloaded it, and then we went to find Luke.
“You shot me in the face!” O’Hare screamed hysterically.
“I shot your cheek. You won’t even have a problem eating by morning.” James said as we walked up.
She hissed at him, and then went on moaning that her face was falling off. Luke strode up to us, and James handed him the rifle. “If you don’t give that back by Tuesday, I’ll run out of food to eat.”
“I’ll be sure to have it back to you ASAP. In the meantime, you can borrow mine.” Luke joked.
James gave him a droll look. “That one was already sighted in to perfection. I’d have to take yours to the shooting range, and then hours perfecting it. Not gonna happen.”
Two hours later, O’Hare was stitched up and sitting in a jail cell at KPD.
“Why?” I asked her.
“Fuck you.” She sneered.
I sat down and watched her quietly.
“A two year old. A pregnant woman. What do you have against children?” I tried again.
“Fuck you.”
“Such a nice vocabulary you have there.” I chided.
Standing, I got up and pressed my index finger just under the bullet hole in her cheek. “Try again?”
“Go to hell.”
“O’Hare. Do you even know what you’ve done?” I asked.
“Of course I know what I’ve done!” She snapped.
“So you know you caused a pregnant woman to have an emergency C-section and deliver her child over three months early? You know you broke a two year old’s arm, and she had to have surgery on it to get it straight again?” I said, and then continued. “You know that my wife is in ICU fighting for her life? What exactly did they do to you?”
She stayed stubbornly silent.
“So the CIA doesn’t want you. The Army doesn’t want you. Your own men don’t want you. You know they were picked up yesterday for a bar fight? Yeah, they were all thoroughly drunk and were quite chatty.”
Her eyes narrowed, but otherwise showed no reaction.
“You realize we don’t need your statement, correct? We have enough on you to charge you with four counts of attempted murder, breaking and entering, kidnapping, destruction of property…” I said.