Finally Home (Home Series) (47 page)

"
You
locked me up, Charles!  He's been keeping me safe from
you
!"

"I would
never
hurt you, Miss Lainey!"

"No, of course not," she snapped.  "Your preferred method is to terrorize me and hurt all those around me.  Tessa.  Mike.  Now Colt.  You know nothing about me if you think for a minute that what you've done hasn't hurt me, Charles.  Look what you've done to the children I help!  Because of
you
, I can't counsel those who need me like you needed me.  It's time to end this once and for all, Charles."

"This ends when you leave here with me!  I can make you happy, Phoebe, don't you see?"

Lainey held her breath.  Phoebe was his ex-wife.  He was even farther gone than she thought.

"Look at me, Charles.  I am not Phoebe.  I'm Dr. Riley, remember?  Miss Lainey?"

"No!!" Charles cried, waving the gun at her. "No, no, no!!"

"Look at me!!!" she demanded.  "I know that Phoebe hurt you, Charles, but I am not her.  I am Lainey."

"Lainey," he repeated, his eyes filling with tears.

"Yes, Charles, Lainey.  Please, put the gun down.  You don't want to hurt anyone else.  You are a Marine.  You are supposed to protect those around you."

"You made the voices stop," he said desperately, "when no one else could, you made the voices go away.  But then they took you away from me and they came back.  You're the only one who could ever make them stop."

Lainey's heart was breaking for him, but at the same time, she was so angry
, and scared for Colt.  He hadn't moved and the blood pool was getting bigger by the second.  She couldn't tell where he'd been hit, but it appeared to be his head, which scared her even more.

"Keep him talking," Mike whispered low.

"I can make the voices go away again, Charles, but you have to let me.  You have to put your gun down and let me help you."

"I can't go back to jail, Miss Lainey, not even for you."

"You would go to a hospital facility, not a jail," she said, though she wasn't entirely sure that was true, but he didn't have to know that.

"I won't be locked up again!" he cried.

"What do you hope to accomplish here?" she asked.

"I want you to come with me.  I love you.  I want to be with you."

"Charles, you don't love me.  What you feel is gratitude, but that's not love."

"I do love you!!
  We could be happy together."

Lainey's heart raced when she saw Whit outside one of the windows behind Charles' line-of-sight
, suspended by a harness. She immediately drew her eyes away and focused on Charles, not wanting to do anything to tip him off.

"What would you expect me to do, Charles?  Live my life on the run?  Out in the woods with you, wherever you've been hiding?  What about my kids?  They need me, too."

"I need you!" he cried.

"Whit doesn't have a clear shot," Mike whispered low to her.  He'd been so quiet, had it not been for his body heat behind her she would have forgotten he was there.

"You stop talking to her, Casiano!" Charles yelled.

Lainey felt a slight change in the air around her, feeling Mike's anger.
  She reached behind her to touch her hand to his hip, trying to get him to calm down.

"Charles, please.  Let's end this.  Put your gun down and let us help you."

Mike spoke for the first time, his voice steady and calm.

"I understand what you're feeling.  You were hurt serving your country.  You've come home and it's hard to relate to everything in the civilian world now.  I get it...but there are ways to deal with it if you just let someone help."

"You don't talk to me!  I know your type.  Officers all think you're high and mighty, so much better than the rest of us.  Send us out to do your dirty work."

"I was an officer, but I was right there with my men.  I still have nightmares of the things that I saw and did.  The things that were done to me.  I know all about the voices.  They talk to me often.  You look around in a public place and see that these people don't have a clue what we've done for them.  They don't know the cost of their own freedom.
  But we do, don't we?"

"Stop trying to act like you know what I'm going through!  You were a damn officer.  You don't know shit!"

Lainey squeezed his hip.  "He's not going to listen.  He's too far gone," she told him softly.

What happened next came to Lainey so clearly, it was almost as if someone had hit pause on a DVD and were going through the scene slowly, frame-by-frame.  She saw Charles' eyes narrow when he saw her hand on Mike.  She felt Mike tense and felt his body slide under her hand as he stepped slightly to her side, his clutch piece in his hand.  She saw Charles' eyes shift, saw his gun track Mike's movement and she knew she was about to lose the one person who meant more to her than anyone else in the world; and she knew she couldn't let that happen.  Turning, she threw herself against Mike's chest at the same time Charles and Mike both fired at the other...

Chapter Thirty-Four

Riley headed toward the warehouse, doing his best to look at the situation as a professional and not as Lainey's cousin.  It was hard to admit that what they were doing was right when it involved someone he cared about.  Ultimately, though, he did know that Lainey couldn't keep living the way she was.  She needed this situation to be handled so she could go back to her life.  Didn't mean he had to be happy about it, but he was sure Mike was even less happy about it.

His phone rang, drawing his attention to
the dash, that displayed that was Lainey calling.  Taking a deep breath, he hit accept on the call.

"I'll be there in just a minute, Tink, we can talk about it then," he said, then waited for her to reply.  "Hello?  Lainey?"

What he heard next had his blood running cold.

"Toss your gun and stand up.  Now!!...You know what I did in the Marines.  You know I won't miss."

He heard whispering and things being shuffled around.  He heard Lainey's voice and an occasional word from Mike but couldn't make out what they were saying.

"Miss Lainey, now, you step away from him.  Go see to the big man if you want, but you step clear of Casiano."

"I'm not moving, Charles.  If you want to shoot him, you'll have to figure out how to do it around me."

RIley cursed viciously and stepped on the gas.  He made it to the warehouse
and saw Coop and Whit rounding the corner, alarmed when he came to a screeching halt in front of the garage door.

"Hey, Stanton, where's the -" Coop began but he cut him off.

"Conroy is up there.  He's got a gun on Mike and Lainey and it sounds like he took Colt out."

Coop and Whit began cursing and ran into the garage to the elevator. 

"It's locked," Coop said.  Whit ran around to the stairwell and found that the door was chained shut from inside the stairwell. 

"Here," Riley said, handing his phone to Coop.  "Monitor that.  Let me have your phone so I can call my uncle."

Within moments, the police had swarmed in, silent as per Riley's instructions.  Whit was the best shot of the group, so it was agreed that he would be lowered from the roof to a window in hopes of getting a clear shot at Conroy.  Riley stayed on the ground level with his uncle as they worked to override the lock on the elevator.  This is where Riley knew he needed Colt or Melissa.  He wasn't good with this electronic shit like they were. 

"How the hell did this guy get through all these elaborate security system fail
-safes?" his uncle growled.  "I thought your guy Colt was the best at all of this."

"He is," Riley replied, trying to concentrate.

"Then how the hell did this happen?"

"I don't know."

"Riley," Whit said, sounding in Riley's earpiece.

"Go ahead."

"Conroy is on the stairs.  I don't have a clear shot.  Colt is on the floor by the elevator.  There's a lot of blood.  He isn't moving.  Mike and Lainey are just to the left of Colt.  Standing, hands up.  Lainey is talking.  Her voice is too soft.  Can't hear what she's saying.  Mike's standing to her left, slightly behind her."

"You have no clear shot on Conroy?"

"Only shot would graze his shoulder and I'm afraid he'd shoot in reflex.  He's standing right at the gap where the bottom of the loft floor is."

"Understood.  Keep an eye on it."

"Lainey's still talking to him," Gavin said, listening in to what was coming thru on Riley's phone.  "She's doing really well. She..." Gavin stopped when the sound of gunfire came over the line.

"Shots fired
," Whit reported.   "Son-of-a-bitch!  Get in there, Riley.  NOW!  Lainey and Mike are both down."

Riley felt his heart stop. 

"If you have a shot you take it," Riley told him.

The
y heard Conroy screaming Lainey's name over the line. 

"What's he doing?" Riley demanded from Whit. 

Before he could reply, they heard four more gunshots, then Whit spoke.

"All are down.  Get in there, Riley, and call the medics," he said, voice grim.

Mike knew this wasn't going to end well.  Conroy was too unstable.  He saw Whit make the "no shot" sign to him and knew that if this was going to end, he had to take care of it himself.  While Lainey continued talking, he slowly moved so that Conroy couldn't see him reach behind his back to pull his clutch piece.  He tried talking to Conroy himself, tried to let him know that he understood what was going on with him
, but saw that the Marine's own prejudices against officers weren't allowing him to hear what Mike was saying.  When Lainey's hand squeezed his hip and she told him that Conroy was too far gone to listen to reason, Mike decided that was the time to act.  He also saw that Conroy, too, had decided to act, eyes narrowing, his gun tracking Mike's movement.  He thought he could get a shot off. What he hadn't counted on, was Lainey.

She'd turned an
d launched herself at him at the same moment that both he and Conroy fired.  Lainey hit him with such force, he was knocked off his feet at the same time a burning sensation hit his chest.  He fell violently back, his arms instinctively wrapping around Lainey to protect her from the fall, taking the brunt of it himself, his head hitting on the wood floor as he landed, Lainey heavy across his chest.

Dazed, he looked down at Lainey, seeing a bri
ght red patch blossoming on the back of her shoulder.  He heard Conroy screaming as if from a great distance away.  Blinking, he looked up just when Conroy came to stand over him, gun aimed at his head.  His arms instinctively tightened on Lainey.  His head was fuzzy, but he knew he was about to die and was grateful that he was holding his whole world in his arms, that he would take his last breath with Lainey pressed against him.

He grunted when Conroy kicked him in the ribs and locked his arms tight around Lainey when the crazed man tried to pull her from him.  Conroy straightened then and again pointed the gun at Mike's head.  He took a deep breath and accepted his fate, when suddenly, Conroy's body jerked, first forward, then back as four bullets ripped through him.  Dazed, his eyes drifted over to where Colt lay and saw that the big man had managed to prop himself up and fire his gun at the same time that Whit shot through the window. 

After Conroy dropped, Mike heard Colt's gun clamor to the floor and saw that he had again collapsed.  He concentrated on pulling his phone from his pocket, hitting the code to unlock the elevator, cursing when it didn't work.  He forced himself to concentrate through the reset sequence, relieved when he heard it buzz.  Then he concentrated on Lainey.  She'd jumped in front of him and took the shot meant for him. 

"Lainey. 
Cara mia
, talk to me.  Talk to me, Lainey," he said, his voice firm. Her eyelids fluttered but didn't open.  "Lainey!  Look. At. Me." he growled.  Her eyes opened but were glassy.

"Mike," she whispered.

"Stay with me,
cara mia
," he said, seeing her eyes glassing over.
"Cara,
don't you leave me."

The elevator opened and Riley and her father game running in to them, paramedics close behind. 

"Mike, man, you gotta let her go," Riley said, trying to get him to release her so the medics could care for her.  "Mike!  Let her go."

"I love you, Lainey," he told her, kissing her brow before he let his arms fall away.

"Sir!" a medic said to him, pulling his gaze from Lainey.  "Sir, have you been hit?"

Mike nodded, swallowing hard, watching them work on Lainey, ripping her blouse away from the gunshot wound.

"Bullet went through her...in my chest."

"Colt!" he heard Coop calling, shifting his gaze briefly over to them.  "Come on, Colt, don't do this to me.  Come on."

That was the last thing Mike remembered hearing.  His gaze shifted from Colt back to Lainey, then everything went blissfully dark.