Reckless (Wrecked) (38 page)

“He wanted to talk to me about what happened to Sarah.”

Candi stood and went back to her seat on the other side of Kevin.  “What’d he say?” she whispered.

“He told me he wanted to help.”

“Help with what?” asked Jonathan.  He couldn’t imagine how anyone but the surgeons could help them now.  Everyone else was just going to get them killed.

“Help with the gun safety issue we’re having.”

“That’s an interesting way to put our problem,” said Candi, sarcastically.

“He assumed she was hurt by someone playing with guns.  I guess we don’t look like the type of people that get shot by criminals.  Whatever.  I told him we were too upset to worry about it right now and that I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“He gave you something,” said Jonathan.

“Yeah.  His card.”  Kevin pulled it out of his back pocket and held it in front of him so they could all see it.  “He was a nice guy.  I think he really cared and wanted to help.  He told me about his younger brother who got killed when he was goofing around with a gun.”

“That’s terrible.  I mean, that his brother was killed,” said Candi.

Jonathan’s heart spasmed, thinking about someone young being killed with a gun.  Maybe that would be Sarah.  He felt the tears coming again and turned away from the others, standing when it wasn’t enough to keep them from spilling over.  “I’m going to take a walk outside.  I’ll be back in a couple minutes.”

“Want me to go with you?” asked Candi.

“No.  I need to be alone for a little while.  Just … I’ll be right back.”  He left without another word, needing to put some space between himself and the people he loved.  It was too much, all this emotion and pain and worry.  It was closing in on him, making him feel powerless and suffocated and overwhelmed.  All he needed was some fresh air to help him gain his perspective again.  At least, that’s what he hoped would happen.

His shoes made squeaking sounds on the hospital’s acrylic flooring with every step. 
Squeak, squeak, squeak,
he went down the hallways, turning the last corner that would lead him out the doors of the emergency room.

He stopped short when he saw the police cars outside.  There were three of them and a tow truck in the middle.  It was hooking up their Camry and loading it to be taken away.

Jonathan’s brain went into overdrive. 
Why are they towing the car?  It’s not in a tow zone.  It was in a legally designated space.  Someone must have run the plates.  It’s the only explanation.  Now they know the thief is probably in the building.
  He made a u-turn and walked as fast as he could back to the surgery waiting area. 
Squeak-squeak-squeak-squeak! 
He ran when he thought no one would see him.

He got to the waiting area and made a beeline right for Candi and Kevin, sitting down next to Candi which put her in the middle.  He spoke in hushed tones.  “We have to leave!”

Kevin looked at him like he was crazy.  “Leave?  What are you talking about?  We can’t leave.  Why would you say that?”

“There are three police cars outside, and they’re towing our car away.  They’ll know the thief is in here!”

Candi looked around, fear etching lines into her forehead.  “How will they know it’s us?”

“Yeah, this hospital is huge,” agreed Kevin.  “There have to be hundreds of people here.”

“Yes, but who comes to the hospital and parks in the emergency room parking lot?  People who just had emergencies, that’s who.  All they have to do is talk to the nurses at the intake window and they’ll be able to describe all of us perfectly.   And Sarah’s a virtual captive in there right now.”

Candi grabbed each of their arms, squeezing until it made Jonathan catch his breath with the pain; but he didn’t tell her to stop.  He understood her panic, and the sensation she was giving him was waking him up out of the numbing fog his brain had been in.

“Babe, I’d like to keep the skin
on
my arm,” said Kevin peeling her hand off and putting it onto his leg instead.  “Come on, we just need to come up with a plan.  We’ve made it this far, I’m not going to give up and just get arrested for stealing a car at this point.”

Jonathan pushed his fingers against his temples, trying to block out the extraneous sounds and emotions that roiled around inside him and distracted his mind from being able to analyze the situation.  “I just need to think!” he said, frustrated.

Someone patted his back, but his eyes were closed so he couldn’t see who. 
Probably Candi.  Small hand.
  Even this was too distracting.  He dropped his hands to his lap and sighed.  “I’m too stressed to think straight.  I’m sorry, you guys.  I’m falling apart under the pressure.”  He lowered his head.  “I’m so disappointed in myself.  I don’t know why I thought I’d be a good father.”  Tears came to his eyes once more.  He smiled bitterly at how easy they were flowing today. 
I’m such a coward.

Kevin stood all of a sudden, grabbing Jonathan by the shirt and hauling him to his feet.  “Dude, say that one more time and I’m going to just punch you right in the face.”

Jonathan’s jaw dropped open as he stared at Kevin’s serious expression.  “Why?”

“What do you mean,
why?
  You’re my sister’s boyfriend and the father of her kid!  If you want that privilege you need to man the hell up!  Sarah doesn’t need a fucking wuss for a man in her life.  She needs a
real
man.  A fucking cowboy who doesn’t fall apart when the shit gets difficult.  I thought you were the guy for the job, but maybe I was wrong.”

Jonathan smiled sheepishly, warmed to his soul that Kevin would care enough about his sister to feel so protective.  It was exactly how he felt about her.  Seeing Kevin being so strong inspired him.  “I guess I should cowboy-up, then.”

“Yeah.  Whatever.  Just grow some balls before I have to get ugly on your ass.”

Candi stood and slapped Kevin’s hands off her brother’s shirt.  “Okay, now that we have the testosterone show out of the way … what’s our plan?”

Jonathan shrugged, pulling his shirt back down.  “I’m open to suggestions.  I think my brain-computer is rebooting right now. 
Analysis function not available
, it’s telling me.”  He smiled at his own amazing tech-humor.  He was the only one, though.  He contented himself with the knowledge that Sarah would have smiled at his joke, and he refused to let that make him sad. 
Time to cowboy-up. 
Sarah was going to be fine, and the most difficult thing he was going to have to manage later would be convincing her that the scar didn’t make her hideous, which is exactly what she’d been moaning about as they’d wheeled her away to surgery hours earlier.

Kevin pulled the business card out of his back pocket.  “I say we call this guy.  Maybe he can help.”

“What’s the difference between talking to him and being arrested by cops we haven’t met?” asked Candi.  “Either way, we’re going to jail and then we’ll be dead.  Game over.”

“Maybe not.  Maybe this guy has other ideas that might work for us.  I really got a good vibe from him.  I think he’s the real deal … like a good cop.”

“But like Jonathan said … the FBI has jurisdiction,” countered Candi.  “He’ll just turn us over to them.”

“I know, but maybe there’s something else he can do.  If they know our story and they know about the mole, maybe there’s something
someone
can do.  It’s not like everyone in the FBI is bad.  There’s just a couple.  We just need to hook up with the good ones.”

“The problem is, we don’t know who’s good and who’s not.  How would anyone know?” asked Jonathan.

“I don’t know!” said Kevin, clearly frustrated.  “But I just don’t see how we’re going to get out of this!  That cop who had Candi cornered at the grocery store knows that car.  He was watching to see who was in it, and he followed it.  I’m sure he put a report out on it, and that’s how they found it so easily.  Everyone in the damn force is probably looking for it … and now us!  We have to be proactive.”

“By now they know the car is from our town,” added Jonathan, his mind finally kicking into gear.

“Exactly.  That’s what I’m trying to say here.  That car is a direct line to us.  It’s not going to take an investigative genius to put the pieces together.”  He looked around and dropped his voice to a whisper.  “We’re sitting ducks.”

Jonathan stood.  “Come on.  Let’s go hide.”

Candi jumped up next to him.  “Where?”  She grabbed his arm, squeezing it again.

“Follow me,” said Kevin, leading them over to the hallway where he’d stood with Officer Baker.  He pulled open a door a little farther down from where they’d stood, revealing a storage room of some sort.  “Wait here.”  He pushed Jonathan and Candi in.

“Where are you going?” asked Candi, freaking out.

“To a phone.  I have to call this guy and tell him to meet us over here.”

No one said anything for a few seconds.  They just stared at each other, all of them near the edge of hysteria in their own way.  Kevin was in bulldozer mode, ready to tackle anything that moved or disagreed with him.  Candi was scared and using her nails on any available skin surface.  Jonathan knew he himself was pale and losing his train of thought way too easily.  “Okay,” he said, finally.  “We’ll wait here for ten minutes, no longer.  After that, we’re leaving and hiding somewhere else, far from this area of the hospital.  And if we can’t get in to see Sarah, we’ll just go back to the cabin on foot.”

“That’ll take a whole day!” said Candi.

“We have to do whatever it takes to survive,” argued Jonathan, not unkindly.  “I want to see Sarah, but she’ll be safe here without us around to alert anyone coming through the waiting areas to our presence.  And we all agreed that if one of us got caught, the rest would let him or her go.  Sarah can’t move for days after a surgery like this, probably more.  She’s not going back to that cabin anytime soon, if ever.”  Jonathan forced the tears away. 
Cowboy-up.  You can fall apart emotionally later when no one’s around and no one’s counting on you.

“I agree.  I’ll see you in less than ten,” said Kevin, kissing Candi quickly on the lips once before leaving them alone in the closet.

It was suddenly quiet as the door clicked closed.  Jonathan turned his back to it and leaned against the fake wood, sliding down to rest on his rear end.

Candi slowly lowered herself to a sitting position in front of him.  She stared at him for a long time before finally speaking.  “Are you scared?”  Her voice came out flat, no room in the small space for any echoes.

“Yes.  Very much.”

“Me too.”

“It’s normal … to be frightened at a time like this. I’d be worried about our mental health if we weren’t.”

“But we’ve lived through so much, with the lifeboat and the island and everything.  Shouldn’t we be more calm and collected?”

“We’ve dealt with plenty of adversity before, but that doesn’t make us immune.  When our lives are threatened, which they are right now, chemicals in our bodies are manufactured and released into our systems to help us survive.  It’s a real miracle of science.  I wish I had more time to think about it and study it right now, actually.”

“Yeah.  Not the time for TMI, though.  Stay with me, okay?”

Jonathan frowned, confused.  “I’m not going anywhere.  We stick together.”

“I don’t mean physically.  I’m talking mentally.”

Jonathan nodded.  “Yeah, I’ll stay here with you.  Sorry about earlier.  The stress of worrying about Sarah and … Peanut … was getting to me.”

Candi patted his knee.  “I know.  It’s natural.  But I’m a wimp, and I need you to keep me from freaking too hard.”

“You’re not weak; you’re strong.  I admire your ability to stay calm and be able to make well-reasoned decisions when dealing with these conflicts.  I could learn a lot from you.”

Candi laughed.  “Oh, Jonathan … you are so funny sometimes.”

“What?  What’d I say?”

Candi didn’t have time to answer before someone was pushing on the door, trying to get in.  Jonathan was ready to force it closed when Kevin’s voice came through the crack.

“Let me in.  It’s me.”

***

Candi scrambled to her feet, her eyes widening in fear as the door opened wider.  Kevin was standing next to a police officer with a very serious expression on his face.  Candi’s heart sank.  This man did not look ready to help them; he looked fully prepared to hand them over to the people who wanted to end their lives.  She felt judged before she’d even been able to open her mouth and give her side of the story.

“Come on,” said Kevin.  “We need to get out of here.”

Jonathan stepped out without a word.

Candi hesitated, not so willing to just walk into certain death.

“He’s cool, Candi.  Let’s go.”  Kevin reached in and took her by the hand, pulling her out.  The warmth of his skin and sure attitude calmed her considerably.  She knew he’d fight as long and as hard as he could to keep her safe.  It gave her courage to face what was coming.

“Follow me,” said the man, walking away.  “There’s a place we can talk without being interrupted.”

He led them through a maze of hallways and doors, passing nurses’ desks, administrative offices and room after room of patients, equipment, and supplies.  He finally stopped at a nondescript door with a blank nameplate outside it on the wall.  He turned the handle and pushed the heavy-looking door open, gesturing for them to go in ahead of him.

Kevin put his arm out to keep any of them from entering.  “After you, Officer,” he said.

The police officer lifted an eyebrow in question, but went in without arguing.  Kevin followed, waiting for the others to get inside before shutting the door and turning the lock.

“Please, have a seat,” said Officer Baker, pointing to the chairs that circled a conference table.  There was a whiteboard at one end of the small room and a small table with a coffee machine on it at the other.  Cups, spoons, sugar and powdered creamer sat next to the machine.  A water dispenser stood on the floor just beside the cups.

Candi walked over and got some water for herself, Jonathan, and Kevin before finding a chair on the opposite side of the table from the man.  Kevin and Jonathan were already seated, leaving her a spot between them.  She sat down, feeling only a small amount of security over being in this room next to her two guys.  It was too much like a trap to feel comfortable in.