Chapter Eleven

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Callow

Sabrina was in shock.

She was practically catatonic in front of me in the kayak as I paddled as hard and fast as my body would allow back across the bay.

I only got snippets of what was happening.

But there were men involved.

Ones with guns.

Who were actively shooting at Sabrina's teenage daughter.

That was enough to make any parent's heart fucking stop.

We hit the sand on the bay with a jolt, and I rushed out of the kayak, grabbing Sabrina and dragging her out.

I didn't get shit but her purse out of it.

I didn't grab the kayak itself.

I could send someone else to deal with that shit when we knew Daphne was okay.

I grabbed Sabrina's hand and then we were running, kicking sand all over us. It clung to her wet body, falling off in clumps as we darted across the street toward the parking lot.

"She's going to be alright," I assured her as we got into the car and I peeled out of the lot. "The police station is three minutes from your apartment building. They probably already have Daphne."

Sabrina showed no signs of hearing me as she sat there, shaking violently. I knew the bulk of it was likely her terror, but I reached over and threw the heat on full-blast before turning on her seat warmer. I didn't want her getting fucking hypothermia or some shit from falling into that frigid water.

I'd only paid off the one cop and the highway was always packed with speed traps, but I put the pedal to the floor on our way back to town, running red lights, completely ignoring stop signs.

It wasn't until I was pulling into the parking lot of Sabrina's apartment building and saw no fewer than five cop cars that I slowed.

Before the car even pulled to a stop, Sabrina was throwing open her door and stumbling out, heading right for the ambulance sitting near the cop cars.

I parked and flew out as well, making it up to the crowd just seconds after Sabrina.

"Mom!" Daphne shrieked, making me whip around to find her strapped to a gurney in the back of the ambulance.

Battered to fucking shit. Blood stained her shirt, dripped from her lip. Her face was a mess of scratches. And judging by the way the paramedics were fussing over it, she'd fucked up her arm.

But she was alive .

Sabrina flew up into the ambulance, half wrapping herself around her daughter's head as they both cried.

"Did you get them?" I asked, turning to the cops, finding a familiar face, and waiting for him to answer.

His head shook.

"They took off before we got in there," he admitted. "Must have heard us coming."

"What happened to her?" I asked, nodding over toward the ambulance.

"Seems like she was trapped on the balcony. And when the guys were getting through, she tried to climb down to the balcony below hers, lost her grip, and fell. Landed in the bushes, which probably was the only thing that stopped her from doing more than breaking her arm, but scratched her all to shit."

"We have to go," one of the paramedics said, making me turn to find Sabrina's gaze lift to look at me.

"I'll meet you at the hospital," I told her just before the doors slammed.

With that, having no reason to talk to the cops, I rushed back to the SUV, driving it back to the clubhouse, but leaving it running in the driveway as I ran inside.

"Uh-oh, that's not a good sig—" Sully started, grinning at me with his arms around two girls in the living room. Until he saw my face. "What happened?"

"Sabrina's daughter was home alone. Someone broke in. Tried to get to her. Shot at her. She fell off the balcony. On the way to the hospital," I said as I walked across the common room, making a beeline for the basement where I knew I would find a stash of clean, new women's clothing.

The club kept a stash of clothes, food, water, and medical supplies in the basement in case we ever needed to go into lockdown.

Sabrina needed a change of clothes.

"What do you need from me?" Sully asked, following me down the stairs.

"I left the kayak at the bay," I told him.

"I'll handle it," he said.

"I'm gonna take Sabrina's car to the hospital," I told him as I rummaged around in the plastic storage bins until I found something that would fit Sabrina and would be warm. "The keys to the SUV are in the ignition," I added, turning and running back up the stairs.

"Anything else you need?" he asked.

"Nothing I can think of yet," I said, rushing back out front to grab Sabrina's purse and phone out of the club's SUV, finding her keys, and getting into her SUV instead.

Then I flew the fuck back out of there, making a beeline to the closest hospital, anxiety coiled in my stomach, even though I knew, technically, that Daphne was going to be okay.

By the time I made it into the emergency room, Daphne had already been brought down to get a scan of her arm, leaving Daphne standing numbly in the room, shaking violently, dripping water onto the floor.

"Hey," I said, watching her gaze shoot up, tears flooding her eyes.

"She's got a broken arm," she said, sniffling hard as I pulled the curtain for privacy.

"I know," I said, putting the clothes down on the chair at her side. "She's gonna be alright, babe. The police said she hit the bushes, which broke her fall," I added, reaching out for her jacket, and peeling it off.

After that, off came her sweater, then the long-sleeved shirt beneath. Leaving her in nothing but a simple black bra.

I tried not to look, not when she was so fucking traumatized, as I grabbed the light pink sweatshirt I'd grabbed, and pulling it down over her head. She lifted each arm obediently to slip her arm in, but said nothing. Her face was frozen in the same mask of terror it had been back when she first lost contact with Daphne.

"What's going on here?" a voice asked as I reached under Sabrina's skirt to start to pull down her thick, skintight leggings.

"She's soaked," I explained. "Trying to get her changed before she gets a chill."

The nurse looked at me, then Sabrina, and the pile of soggy clothes on the ground already.

"Okay," she agreed, nodding, before moving out again.

With that, I got her out of her leggings, slipped on the sweatpants I'd grabbed, then removed her skirt.

"Why don't you sit?" I said, gently pressing her into the seat.

"I shouldn't have left her," Sabrina said, seemingly speaking to herself, but the words were an unintentional knife to the gut.

Because the only reason she wasn't with her kid was because of me. She regretted going out with me. And not to be selfish, but I felt like it meant she would never be willing to leave Daphne to be with me again.

"She's going to be alright, babe," I assured her as I rubbed one of her shoulders.

"She has a broken arm. She had to jump off of a balcony," she added, sniffling hard.

"She fell," I clarified. "She was trying to scale down." I wasn't sure if that was any comfort, but I always found facts reassuring.

"Why would they be shooting at her?" she asked, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her thighs and bury her face in her hands.

That I had no good answer for.

"Some people are just fucked up," I said. I mean the news was full of people doing shit for no reason other than they were fucking nut jobs.

"What if she needs surgery?" Sabrina asked, spiraling.

"Hey," I said, moving in front of her and squatting down. "Look at me," I demanded softly, waiting for her to release her face from her hands. "If she needs surgery, she will have surgery and we will wait right outside in the waiting room for her. But I don't think she's going to need it," I told her, having a little experience with broken bones myself.

"Her face…"

"A few scratches. They will heal. And if you're worried, there are creams and shit to put on them to make sure they don't scar. But they're little scratches. And her lip is probably already starting to heal," I went on, knowing she was going to fret about that next. "She might not be wearing lipstick or kissing boys anytime soon, thank fuck, but she'll be just fine."

"I should have been there with her. I could have…"

"Daphne had done things right," I reminded her. "She heard them coming. She got out of there. She called for help. She was cool under pressure. You raised a smart, capable kid." Who, I imagined, was going to be hitting the martial arts classes even harder once she was healed up.

As much as I didn't want to worry Sabrina any more than she was, I was less concerned about Daphne's physical condition and more so about her mental and emotional reaction to the event. That might not even sink in for a few hours or even days.

But self-defense classes would help her gain her power back. Would make her feel more capable and strong. I was glad I'd suggested she start going, even if she now had several weeks of recovery ahead of her where she would be feeling especially vulnerable.

Sabrina spent the next couple of minutes trying to pull herself together for Daphne. So that by the time her daughter came back into the room, she no longer looked seconds away from bursting into tears.

"Hey, Callow," Daphne said, giving me a tired, pained smile.

"Good news, Mom," the doctor said, coming back in. "She doesn't need surgery. Just a cast for six to eight weeks and some physical therapy after. Start thinking of what color you want," he added, looking at Daphne. "We have them all."

I rubbed a hand down Sabrina's back, her relief palpable as she smiled at Daphne and debated light blue or light pink.

"I'll step out," I said when the nurse came back to treat Daphne's scrapes that were not only on her face but her arms, hands, and legs, since she'd been wearing pajama shorts when she'd fallen off the balcony.

Alone, I called Sully.

"Kayak is taken care of. What else do you need?"

"Any stores open this late?" I asked.

"Yeah, one or two. What do you need picked up?"

"Locks. Door alarms. A fire escape ladder. Pepper spray. Taser… anything that would help a single mom and her teen daughter feel safer in their apartment."

The protective instinct in me wanted to grab the two of them, usher them into the SUV, then drive them to the clubhouse to keep them locked up where I knew they would be safe. But that didn't exactly feel like a plausible idea. So I was going to do whatever it took to shore up their place.

"I mean, we have other things that could help them feel safe…" he said. "Whole safe of ‘em, in fact."

"I can ask. Maybe bring an extra. But I have a feeling that isn't going to be the solution Sabrina wants."

"Okay. I'll get the shit. Just tell me where and when to bring it."

"Thanks, man," I said, feeling a little of the weight fall off of my shoulders.

"You owe me breakfast," he said.

"That'll probably be when I get in at this rate," I said, knowing things tended to move at a glacial pace at the hospital. I wasn't sure I'd ever been out of one in under six hours.

"Lemme know if you or Sabrina need anything else," he said before hanging up.

I took a moment to go down the hall to grab two coffees and a hot chocolate out of the machine, bringing them in to the girls as soon as the curtain was pulled back to show they were done with any sort of private treatments.

"How ya feeling, kid?" I asked as Daphne automatically reached for the cup with her wrong hand, then winced as she lowered it back down.

"Okay," she said, nodding. "Tired."

"It's because all the adrenaline is spent," I told her. "You'll feel more like yourself after some sleep. But don't count on them being done with your arm for another hour or two."

"Ugh," Daph grumbled as she took a sip of her hot chocolate.

"And you're probably going to be seeing a detective either here tonight or they will be in touch tomorrow," I said, but focused on Sabrina.

"I talked to the police."

"Yeah," I agreed. "But they are going to want to follow up, make sure you didn't remember anything else. That sort of thing. It's no pressure. They just want the best chance they got to catch these fuc—guys."

"You can say ‘fucks,'" Sabrina said, shooting me a small smile before sipping her coffee.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure no curse you can come up with is as inventive as the ones Mom used when the hot water cut out in the middle of her shower last week."

"In my defense, it didn't slowly go cool. It went from the scalding hot I like to ice water in a second. And I was all soapy still."

It was not a good time to be picturing Sabrina naked in the shower all sudsy, her nipples tightened into peaks from the cold water…

Christ.

"If it's alright with you, can I talk to your mom for just a second?" I asked.

"Yeah," Daph said, giving me a small smile.

Sabrina followed me a few feet away. "Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine. I just wanted to ask you if it would be alright if I head back to your place with you so I can set some new locks up? And a door alarm. I also may or may not have pepper spray and a taser waiting for you."

Sabrina looked up at me for a long moment, her eyes round and a little watery. Before, suddenly, she was throwing an arm around me, and sinking into my chest.

"Thank you," she said, voice muffled by how she was pressing her face into me. "I didn't even know where to start."

"I can also offer you something decidedly more… deadly for protection," I told her. "If you want it."

"Not yet," she said, sucking in a deep breath, but not moving away. "Maybe. But not yet. I don't want to make decisions like that right now."

"I understand. And you can always go the legal route for that if you want. A buddy of mine owns the shooting range in town where you could go and get a feel for one before you decide to own one."

"That's a good idea," she decided, pulling away, but doing it so slowly that I knew she didn't want to. "After Daphne is… better. I think I might have Britney take her home after school for a while. Just for my peace of mind."

"That's probably a good idea."

"I don't want her to be afraid to be home alone. But… I mean… who can blame her right now?"

"Mom?" Daphne called as a nurse moved back into her exam room, making Sabrina rush away again.

I'd been right about it being several hours later before anyone was even drawing up the discharge papers.

Daphne was sitting off the side of the bed with her new light pink cast, her legs dangling, bare feet swinging impatiently.

"Gonna see if I can get you some slipper socks," I told her.

By the time I came back with them, the girls were ready to get going, clearly sick of being in the hospital.

"Do you want to drive?" Sabrina asked.

"Sure," I agreed, still having the keys in my pocket anyway.

I stored the wet clothes in the floorboard of the passenger seat as Sabrina climbed in the back with Daphne.

The tension grew in the car the closer I drove to their apartment building.

In the lot, I found that Sully had someone else come and pick him up, leaving the club's SUV for me.

"You went kayaking?" Daphne asked, looking at the roof.

"In the bay," Sabrina confirmed. "Then had a picnic on a small private little island."

The look on Daphne's face said she was sorry to have interrupted. As if that shit was her fault.

I got out first, going into the SUV to find a big plastic container full of the supplies I'd asked for. And then some. As well as the SUV's keys.

With that, we moved in a unit into the building, both the girls tense until we got into the apartment.

"Is that fingerprint powder all over?" Sabrina whispered to me after she got Daphne all set up in her room.

"Yeah. They don't clean up their mess."

"Do you think they will find them?"

"If they are any sort of lifetime criminals, leaving fingerprints would be amateur," I told her. "But anything is possible. The ballistics on the spent bullets might come up with something too," I said, wanting to give her hope.

"What am I supposed to do about the glass?" she asked, looking at the doors to the balcony where two small holes were now shot through the panes.

"For tonight, I can slap some packing tape on it. But I will call someone to come in and replace it as soon as possible. You okay?" I asked when she just stared at me.

"I… yeah," he said, clearly wanting to keep her thoughts to herself. "Do you need any help?" she asked, nodding toward my pile of supplies.

"Nah. I got this. Wouldn't mind a cup of coffee, though," I said, looking out the window. Dawn hadn't snaked across the sky yet, but it was only maybe an hour or so away.

"Me too," she agreed, looking at the clock.

"What time do you have to leave?"

"I'm going to call in late. See if I can get in touch with Britney first. Have Daph spend a mental health day at their house. She can go back to school on Monday."

I would have offered to watch her myself, but from the way it sounded, that Britney woman would definitely do it. And Daph would likely be more comfortable there.

So I got to work on the new locks on the door.

By the time I had a deadbolt and a chain attached, a door alarm set, a camera installed outside of the door, the ladder set up in a case on the balcony for easy access, and had given Sabrina a crash course in how to use the pepper spray and taser, the sun was bright in the sky and Sabrina's friend was calling her back.

"All set?" I asked when she finished talking.

"She and Sam are both on their way over. They will sit with Daphne until she wakes up then take her to their place for me."

"Sounds like a good plan," I agreed.

"Callow… I don't know how to than—"

"Don't have shit to thank me for," I cut her off.

"I'll pay you back for—"

"The fuck you will," I said, making a strangle little tinkering laugh escape her.

"Okay then," she agreed. "Maybe we can bake you some cookies as thanks," she said.

"I won't turn down cookies," I said, getting a smile out of her as she walked toward me, wrapping her arms around me with the ease that came surprisingly naturally to her.

The way my arms went right around her too? Yeah, that felt natural as fuck too.

We stood there just like that until there was a knock at the door that had us breaking apart.

"That's them," Sabrina said, slowly pulling away from me to go open the door for them, remembering just in time to turn off the alarm first.

Two women moved into the apartment. One was on the shorter side, thin, with blonde hair. Britney, I figured. The other was taller and a bit stockier. She was masc-presenting with short dark hair, loose jeans, and a flannel shirt over a white tee.

"Britney, Sam, this is Callow," Sabrina introduced us. "He helped get us all set up with new locks," she said as Britney looked between the two of us with bright eyes and a barely-contained smile.

"Nice to meet you," Sam said, extending her hand to shake mine. "Thanks for taking care of them."

I gave Sam a nod as her gaze slid over to the pepper spray and taser on the table.

"I can show you how they work," Sabrina offered. "For while you're here."

"No need," Britney said, giving her partner a smile. "Sam, ah, brought something of her own. For, you know, protection."

"Oh. Oh . Okay that's good."

"I'll get out of you guys' way," I said, reaching out to give Sabrina's upper arm a little squeeze. "You know where to find me if you need anything," I said before making my way to the door.

I was still closing it when I heard Britney's excited voice drifting through it to me.

"You didn't say he was that hot."

Not wanting to be a creep and linger, I walked off before I could hear Sabrina's response.

I expected to crash the fuck out after picking up breakfast for the club.

But after dropping into bed, all I did was stare at the ceiling, worrying myself to a stomachache about Sabrina and Daphne.

It was right about then that I realized how fucked I was.

And all I could do was hope that Sabrina was feeling the same way.