Page 89 of Free to Dream
Everyone, but me, bursts out laughing as intended. I check my watch. Another five minutes have passed. “Phil, do you still have your earpiece in?”
“Yes, I turned the transmitter off though. Why?”
“Can you turn it on and see what’s keeping Cassidy? I want to get out of here.”
“Sure, give me a second.” He reaches into his pocket, grabs the small black box and flicks a switch. When he does, he stays quiet for a few moments and his face goes chalk white. “Oh God, Caleb. You have to get to her. Your mother…oh my god!”
“Give it to me. Give it to me now!” I bellow. He fumbles the bud out of his ear and hands it to me. What I hear almost immobilizes me.
My eyes flash up to Keene’s. In his face, I finally see what I hadn’t before. I’m stunned for half a second before I ask, “Are you armed?”
He pulls back his jacket as he nods.
“Charlie?” A second nod.
“Both of you outside the library window ready to take out my mother the first chance you can without hurting Cassidy. Jason.” I swallow hard. He’s an ER doctor. “We might need you after.”
“Phil, I need you to call 911 and tell them to come in silent. The code for the front gate is 7-6-1-3. Can you do that?” He’s frozen to the spot, about to go into shock. “Can you do that?” I yell at him. I have this awful feeling every second is going to count.
“Yes,” he whispers.
“Go. Now.”
We all run.
I break through the library door heartbeats after my mother has shot the love of my life. Her body falls back as I scream.
I can’t get to her fast enough.
The animalistic shrieks of “I’m glad the bitch is finally dead!” are ringing in my ears as I run through Cassidy’s blood to find out if she still has a pulse.
Somehow, she does.
“JASON!” I scream. He comes running in, his tuxedo jacket off, ready to use it to apply pressure.
Phil’s standing at the doorway, screaming. “Oh God. Oh, Cassidy. Little Girl! What the fuck happened?”
“Gunshot wound to the neck. I can’t tell where the blood is coming from though. There’s no other obvious signs of a bullet.” I’m frantically running my hands over her body.
“Caleb, put pressure on her neck. It grazed her. Let me do my fucking job!” Jason yells at me. Slowly, carefully, he reaches behind her head and I see it. The blood. “Fuck, she must have tripped when she fell. Fold your coat up and give it to me.”
Vaguely I’m aware of someone shooting, and from the voices, I know my mother’s hand was hit by a shot from outside the window, and the gun she was holding is halfway across the room.
As Keene and Charlie enter the room, Keene lets out a sound of wounded desperation as Charlie moves to cover Mildred. I hear the sirens in the distance. After what I heard in the headset, Keene’s reaction makes complete sense.
How did I miss it? Her mother’s hair? Her father’s eyes? Her brother’s smile?
I look from the woman I love to the brother of my heart, and then to Jason.
“How much blood is she losing?”
Jason replies grimly. “Too much. They’re going to want to transfuse, and with her blood type being so damn rare…”
I make a snap decision.
“Keene, you’re in the ambulance with her.”
He’s stunned. “Wha—what?”
