Into the Blackness (Blackness Series Book 4) (34 page)

The house is pitch-black as I move room to room searching for my family. The silence is bothering more the lack of light. I want to know what I’m looking for. I make my way to the office and ease myself in the room. I scan the monitors for any movement or motion sensors lighting up. I find them in the basement. There’s low light in the theater room so I don’t have a good view, but the motion alerts are flashing from their movement. I grab two guns out of the safe and head in that direction.

Phil is still standing outside and I make a rush decision to let him in. If Patricia’s on drugs, armed or not alone I’d like the extra set of hands. He eyeballs my gun in my hand as I open the door, holding my finger to my lips and then indicate where we need to move.

“Give me your other weapon,” he whispers.

I take another risk and hand him the gun out of the back of my pants. He cocks it and holds it at the ready like a pro. Who the fuck is Phil Ganesly? He toes off his shoes and we move. Yeah, he’s not Maybelle. I open the basement door and ease my way down the stairs with my back against the wall and my gun aimed in front of me. Phil follows, mimicking my stance.

I can finally hear something when we reach the bottom of the stairs. The door to the theater room is shut so I lean against it, hoping to gain an idea of what we’re walking into. I can’t make anything out. I can hear voices, but nothing I can discern. I lock eyes with Phil and he nods. We’re going in.

I kick the door open and scan the room quickly as I enter. The boys are huddled on the ground shielding Kat. She’s unconscious. I see red. I see nothing but crimson Martin Scorsese red. Patricia is standing menacingly over the group with a gun in her hand and a crazy gaze focused on me.

“Jake,” I growl. He nods, understanding what I want.

“Boys close your eyes,” I order and they immediately comply while covering Kat with their bodies.

“What—” Patricia’s cut off as I unload two rounds in her. One in the gut, one in her leg.

She doesn’t flinch. She’s on drugs, meth probably. Jake jumps into action tackling her as she shoots rounds in my direction. I fly at her as Phil makes his way to the boys. She’s fighting Jake like a feral animal. Jake’s trying to get the gun out of her grasp as she fires rounds in the room.

I jump into the mêlée and land a knee in her leg wound. Jake is lying across her chest, pinning her gun to the ground as she shrieks and squeezes her trigger. She flicks her wrist and aims the gun at Jake’s head before firing her last round. She misses, almost grazing the side of his head. I release her legs and stand up, kicking her wrist and relishing in the sound of bones snapping in her arm as the gun flies across the room. Her fight doesn’t lessen.

Patricia is clawing, kicking and hitting Jake as he tries to subdue her. He hasn’t hit or harmed her. He’s a good person. I’m not. I reach down and pull Jake off of her before landing a vicious blow to her head with my fist. She fights back, not reacting to the impact. I continue pummeling her head before connecting with her jaw with such force I feel it break beneath my knuckles. She’s finally unconscious.

I’m heaving and shaking as I stand from her body and fling myself to the boys and my wife. Phil’s hovering over Kat with his phone to his ear. I don’t see a mark on her as I scan her body.

“Pistol whipped her,” Jake growls.

“Ambulance is on the way,” Phil murmurs, ending his call.

I want to hold Kat to my chest, but I don’t want to risk furthering a head injury by moving her. I bend down to her ear and talk to her instead, crushing her hand in mine.

“Kat, wake up,” I order gruffly. “Wake up now. The boys need you to wake up. I need you to wake up. Wake up.”

She doesn’t. She doesn’t wake up while we wait for the ambulance. She doesn’t wake up while they load her on a stretcher. She doesn’t wake up while we ride to the hospital with Phil driving the boys behind us. She doesn’t wake up as they wheel her away from me into the emergency room.

She doesn’t wake up.

Nick

“Nicky,” I hear a familiar voice call in the distance.

I flutter my eyes open to find Kat asleep, my hand still cradling hers. I lift my head off the edge of the bed and find my best friend standing across the room with her fiancé behind her pushing a stroller with a sleeping Johnny in it.

“Hey, Shanny,” I croak.

Her face is a mask of fierce fury and empathy. A year ago she was in Kat’s place and Kellerman was in mine. His features are incensed and pained, behind his support of his fiancée.

Shanny moves to me quickly, considering the size of her belly. She engulfs me in her arms reminding me of the strength her thin body contains. Her lips press a firm kiss to my forehead before she releases me and moves to Kat’s face. Shanny rubs the back of her fingers across Kat’s cheek before placing a kiss to her skin then whispering in her ear.

Shanny moves to the other side of the bed and sits in the chair Kellerman pulls there for her. She scoops Kat’s hand into her own before locking eyes with me. Her bright green eyes are craving vengeance for a woman she barely knows. She may want vengeance for Kat, but the look she’s offering me says she give it to me.

“How’d you know?” I ask softly as Kellerman drags a chair next to Shanny after parking the stroller at the end of the bed.

“Some guy named Shane called me,” she explains with a waver in her voice.

She thought I was hurt or worse.

“How is she?” Kellerman asks with compassion in his voice.

“Hasn’t woken up. The baby’s okay and they say Kat’ll wake up when her body’s ready. I’m sick of fuckin’ waiting.”

“I know you are,” he says pointedly.

He’s been here and he blames me for that. I blame me for that too.

“I’m sorry,” I pronounce, meaning it more now than any other time I’ve said it to him.

“You don’t have anything to be sorry for, Cooper. It’s been a year. I’m done bein’ an ass. I got Shannon back and you made sure that happened. We’re good.”

I hold his strange teal eyes and let that information sink in. I don’t know if I’d be that forgiving of me, but I take it. I nod and move my gaze back to Shanny.

“You could’ve just called. You shouldn’t be traveling,” I admonish her.

“Fuck you very much, Nicky,” she growls. “You need me and I’m here. Careful not to piss me off. I’m packin’ and I’m not in the mood.”

“Noted.”

“Dad, we didn’t know what you—” Sawyer stops in his tracks at the sight of Shanny.

Jake, Dane and Cole smash into Sawyer and then each other like a train piling up. I laugh for the first time in twenty-seven hours.

“Holy shit,” Sawyer mutters staring at Shanny.

She’s wearing a plain white sweater and jeans and she’s fucking stunning. Always is. She has this effect on men, boys…even women. The woman is breathtaking, though Kat’s the one that steals my breath now. Shanny unleashes her megawatt smile and I see the boys tremble slightly in response. Kellerman looks at me and rolls his eyes. Shanny’s a handful.

“Hi, boys,” she coos as she stands up and walks toward the group that has unsmashed and spread into a semi-circle. “I’m Shannon.”

“Hey,” Cole squeaks out in a very unmasculine voice.

“Hi, Cole,” she says shocking the shit out of him. I sent Shanny pictures of the boys and she’s obviously committed them to memory. She wraps her arms around him and he turns scarlet red looking at me with huge blue eyes. I snicker along with Kellerman.

“Hi, Dane,” she continues and grabs him in a tight hold. He closes his eyes and soaks it in. He’ll be my trouble maker for sure.

“Sawyer, I’m gonna hug you gently so I don’t hurt your ribs, but it doesn’t mean I don’t wanna squish the hell outta you,” she informs him. I love that she didn’t want him to feel left out.

“Hey, Jake,” she purrs as she pulls him tightly to her. He holds her snugly with a small smile on his lips. Shanny’s the closest thing to Kat he’s had in more than a day.

“I hear you’ve got some game on the court,” Shanny inquires as she makes her way back to her chair.

“I do all right,” Jake lies.

“Liar,” she retorts.

“This is my fiancé Dylan Kellerman,” she introduces.

Kellerman climbs to his feet and the boys’ eyes widen at the sight of the massive man. He’s about six foot five and near two hundred and fifty pounds, it’s a lot to take in. He shakes all their hands without saying much. Kellerman’s a man of few words, super laid back.

“That’s your cousin Johnny,” Shanny says nodding toward the stroller.

I smile at that introduction. Shanny’s family to me, but I haven’t been confident where I fit in her life since everything that’s happened. I shouldn’t have questioned it. She doesn’t do half-assed. It’s all or nothing with Shannon Kelly.

The boys eye the baby with curiosity. Thinking what it will be like to have one of those soon.

“We didn’t know what you wanted so we got you a bottle of water,” Sawyer finishes his original sentence.

“Thanks, bud.”

The boys take the couch at the end of the room staring at Kat with gloomy eyes.

“She’s gonna be fine,” Shanny states assertively. “You boys just keep tellin’ her how much you love and miss her. She’ll come back.”

They nod in agreement.

“Now, where’s the cunt nugget that did this?” she growls at me. I look at Sawyer to see if my best friend’s colorful language bothers him, but his face is blank.

“At the end of the hall,” Jake responds for me.

“Armed guards?”

Shit. Shannon Kelly is planning an assassination.

“There’s local PD outside the room,” I inform her with a knowing gaze.

“Huh.”

“Shanny,” I warn.

“What?” she feigns innocence.

“Kellerman, help me out.”

“Kiddo, you know you’ve gotta keep your shit together. You’re pregnant,” he grumbles for me.

“I didn’t do anything. I’m just talkin’,” she lies.

“Liar,” Jakes retorts.

She turns her gaze to him and offers a smile promising mischief at a level none of us are prepared for.

“What’s she gonna do?” Cole asks wanting in on the secret.

“Nothing,” I groan.

“What’s she wanna do?” Dane pipes in.

“Inflict misery and torture at a level that I shouldn’t discuss in front of you,” Shanny answers honestly.

“What?” Sawyer asks shocked.

“I’m sorry, Sawyer. I shouldn’t have said that about your mother in front of you,” she says with regret.

“You’re holding my mother’s hand,” he growls.

Shanny’s face gets soft while something resembling relief washes across her features.

“Well, for your mother, your father and you boys I’d like to put a few bullets in that bitch and watch her bleed out for hours.”

“You’d do that?” Dane asks with some excitement in his features.

“Yes.”

Shanny holds the boys’ gaze intensely as she lets her words sink in. She’ll protect them no matter what. It doesn’t matter that she just met them for the first time. They’re her family now and she’ll do anything for them. I feel immense relief at this realization. Because these boys have lost everything other than us and some old ass crotchety grandparents that none of them have any type of relationships with. Shanny just gave them herself and all the family that comes with her.

“Dad says you’re crazy and you’ll boss us around and you’ll spoil the shit out of us,” Dane spouts causing a deep laugh to rattle in Kellerman’s chest.

“Nice,” she says to me, rolling her eyes before pushing Kellerman in the shoulder for laughing.

“I figured honesty was the best way to go.”

“I bet you did,” she snarks at me. “When you boys come to Kansas City you’ll see how I am. I’m not that crazy and I’m only bossy when necessary. I do spoil the shit out of my family so that you can believe.”

“When are we goin’ to Kansas City?” Jake asks with furrowed brow.

“Probably this summer when you’re outta school,” I answer in a shrug.

“You lookin’ at basketball camps for the summer?” Kellerman asks Jake.

“Yeah.”

“Coach said some college scouts are comin’ to the next game,” Cole builds on Jake’s one word answer.

“You thinkin’ about playin’ ball in college?”

I know Kellerman knows the details of this op, but he’s playing the dumb role well. I appreciate it in this moment. The boys could use the distraction.

“Haven’t thought about it. I’m only a sophomore. Feels kinda early,” Jake lies.

“Dude, you’re better than most high school point guards in the country already. Just wait until you’re a senior. Schools will be all over you,” Sawyer encourages his friend.

“What about you? You still thinkin’ about playin’ baseball in college?” Jake turns the tables.

“It depends on them,” Sawyer nods at me and Kat.

“What about us?” I ask completely confused.

“It depends on what you guys want me to do.”

“We want whatever you want. Whatever makes you happy.”

“What if I wanna be a crackhead?”

“Then I’ll kick your fuckin’ ass,” Shanny spouts without looking at him.

The boys snicker along with me.

“What she said,” Kat’s voice filters into the room.