Page 25 of Stay With Me
“I’m sending Eli an alert. I don’t see anything on the cameras or motion sensors, but the alley camera at the back door is offline. Watch your ass, Ev.” I can hear the slight sound of panic in Breaker’s voice.
Slowly, I clear the break room, Eli’s station, and the back hallway before coming to a stop at the bottom of the stairs. My heart is beating loudly in my ears, blood and adrenaline pumping through my veins at a dangerous pace. I take one step forward, barely placing my foot onthe bottom step before I hear a loud pop and the sound of glass shattering, followed by the feeling of heat slicing across my shoulder, wood splintering next to my head. I drop to the floor instantly, the sound of the alarm blaring and Breaker’s voice screaming through the speaker on my phone. Did someone just take a fucking shot at me?
“Everett! Everett! Answer me, asshole! Everett!” Breakers yells, I pick up my phone from the floor next to me, searing pain shooting through my arm as I stretch to reach for it.
“I’m here, I’m here.” My voice is painfully strained as I use my free hand to put pressure on the bleeding wound on my shoulder.
“Was that a fucking gunshot? What the fuck happened?” He’s rapidly firing questions at me and my head is swimming with adrenaline and pain.
I physically shake my head, clearing the haze and quickly assessing the situation like I was trained to do. I fall onto the steps in the stairwell, using the enclosed space as cover from a second shot, if need be. “GSW to the left shoulder, feels like a flesh wound. The shot came through the front window as I was heading to the back staircase, so they had to have had eyes on me. Disarm the alarm and don’t dispatch the cops. We don’t need their fucking help. Tell Eli I’m in the back hallway so he doesn’t shoot me when he gets here.”
“Got it, he’s 2 minutes out.” His words are clipped,all professional. Control amid chaos is a necessity in the Corps. I didn’t think I’d need that training so close to home, but I’m grateful to have it.
“I’m gonna hang up, Break. I need to call Kelsea. If they took a shot at me here, then they know where I live,” I say through gritted teeth, the pain in my shoulder pulsing through my entire arm.
“Fuck, okay. I’ll go. You and Ev are gonna be busy there. I’ll go to your place and get the girls,” he suggests, and I’m surprised he’s volunteering to leave the safety of his state-of-the-art security compound.
“Why don’t you go get the girls and we’ll meet at your place? You have the tightest security out of any of us, and that’s where your digital home base is. It’s a better choice,” I suggest.
“You’re right. You call Kelsea and tell them to be ready. I’ll reach out to Eli so he can get Ember and the babies moving.” He hangs up without another word.
In the back of my mind, I wonder if we really need to be going through all this trouble. But the pain in my shoulder reminds me that if I was just a second too late, that bullet would have hit me in the head and not the shoulder.
I scroll through my contacts, pulling up Kelsea’s number and dialing. It rings twice before I hear her angelic voice and the vice squeezing my heart releases. “Hey, baby. You on your way home?” She says and I letout a heavy sigh of relief. If nothing more, at least I know she’s safe.
“Kelsea, listen to me very closely. I need you and Rory both to pack a bag, enough clothes for a few days, and be ready to go in five minutes.” My tone is firm, but I try not to cause her to panic.
“Ev, I hate surprises. I need to know what kind of outfits I have to pack here, honey,” she laughs lightly and I know she doesn’t hear the gravity of the situation in my voice.
“Kelsea, listen,” I snap, and I hear a squeak of shock from her end of the line. I don’t ever speak to her that way. “Pack your shit. It doesn’t matter what you wear. We’re all going to Breakers for a while. It’s the safest location at the moment. He will be there in about five minutes to pick you guys up.”
“Everett, what’s wrong?” Her voice is barely above a whisper.
“I just ran into a little trouble, goddess. It’s better if we’re all together and safe.” My shoulder screams in pain, and I hear the crunch of broken glass as Elijah steps into the lobby. His phone is pressed to his ear, and I hear him giving Ember the same orders I’m relaying to Kelsea. I hate to put them in this situation, but we don’t have a choice. I won’t risk their lives.
“Rory!” I hear Kelsea’s muffled yell as she attempts to cover the phone speaker, giving quick directions to Rory in the background.
I wave Eli over, motioning for him to help me up onto my feet so we can get the fuck out of here. I don’t think a smart person would stick around after they missed their mark, but you never know. He hangs up the phone and stomps into my station, grabbing some gauze pads from the desk and pressing them roughly against my shoulder. I let out a painful, frustrated groan and shoot daggers at him with my eyes. He ignores me as he pushes through the back door into the alleyway.
“Ev? Honey? are you okay?” Kelsea sounds panicked, exactly what I didn’t want to happen.
“I’m okay, goddess,” I relax, hoping my calm mood will soak into my words and she will absorb the feeling. “All in one piece, I promise. Breaker there yet?” I ask, hearing shuffling in the background as I imagine her throwing shit into her bags in a rush.
“Yeah, he just got here. We’re grabbing our stuff and leaving in just a few minutes.” Her voice trembles slightly and I find myself itching to touch her, calm her, reassure her that nothing will ever touch her again.
“Ok. I’m gonna let you go with Break and we’re gonna meet you guys at his place, okay? Ember is on her way there now,” Eli comes in from the alley with a sheet of plywood for the broken front window and I hold up a finger to let him know I can help.
“Ok. I’ll see you in just a little bit. I love you, Everett.” The last part comes out breathy and strained, as if she’s fighting back tears.
“I love you too, Kelsea. I won’t promise you it’s all gonna be okay, because I’ll never make you a promise I can’t keep. But I can promise you that I’ll be six feet under before anyone ever hurts you again.” My voice is thick with emotion, but I try to rein it in. I hear her sniffle, but she doesn’t break. I never want to know what my life feels like without her by my side again. Slowly but surely, we board up the broken window and lock up the shop.
“You can’t ride, Ev. We’ll have to come back for the bike tomorrow.” I know he’s right, but I hate the idea of leaving my bike here, even just overnight, when I know somebody is trying to kill me. It might be different if we had a garage or something, but we don’t. I’ll have to leave it out where anyone can get to it, and that just doesn’t sit right with me. But I don’t argue. Climbing into the cab of Elijah’s truck, I lean my head back against the seat, the pain in my shoulder lessening slightly to a dull throb.
“Let’s just get to Breaker’s place. I need to know the girls are okay.” I feel guilt creeping into the back of my mind, knowing it was my finger on the trigger that caused this chaos in the lives of the people I love the most. For fuck’s sake, my sister has two newborn babies. She shouldn’t have to cart them around like this.
“Don’t get all self-deprecating on me over there, man. This isn’t your fault.” Eli tries to stop my mind from getting ahead of itself.
“How is it not? I put the fucking bullet in Justin’s head. Me, not anybody else.” I say with a frustrated bite.
