Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Two

Cal had just parked and was walking toward Hill’s House when he heard a gunshot that was way too close to be anything other than trouble. They heard shots all the time from hunters while in the mountains, but this one wasn’t coming from the woods.

Then it came again.

And it was coming from inside Hill’s House.

Dropping the bag from Granny’s Burgers, he ran toward the front door at an all-out sprint. He hit the door hard and grabbed the knob, but it didn’t turn. Locked. He remembered then that Meg kept the house locked at all times for the safety of the residents.

He hit it hard with his fist but didn’t wait for someone to open it for him. He could hear people screaming inside. Whatever was happening was bad and extremely chaotic.

Running around the house, Cal prayed the kitchen door would be unlocked. He knew from what June had told him in the past that Margaret didn’t always lock the door because she liked to open it when she was cooking to air out the kitchen.

He vaguely noted a bag of trash lying on the ground near the garage but ignored it. Relieved when he saw the screen door, Cal wrenched it open and ran inside.

A man was lying on the kitchen floor with blood pouring out of his nose, and it looked like he was out cold. Meg was standing over him, pointing a gun at his head. Scott was standing beside the entry between the kitchen and the dining room, while Jeremy and Sofia were just inside the dining room, both holding what looked like lacrosse sticks and appearing more than ready to beat the crap out of the man on the ground if he so much as moved.

Banks was sitting in a chair at the dining room table looking shell shocked, his knuckles bleeding slightly. Brenda was on the phone, and Jara was on her knees on the floor next to Austin, who was kneeling over someone.

It took him a moment to understand what he was seeing.

Austin was hovering over June.

She was covered in blood. So much blood, it was obscene.

The floor under her was a puddle that was growing larger even as he stood there and watched. Her white blouse was awash in red.

Scenes from when he was in the Army flashed through his head. Of civilians who’d been shot and had bled out before help could arrive. Of servicemen and women who’d been caught in an IED blast and had limbs blown off.

For a moment he was frozen. Caught between the past and present.

“I’m calling JJ,” Brenda said. “The police and ambulance are on their way.”

Her words brought Cal back to the moment. He ran toward June, lying so still and pale on the floor. He slipped in her blood but didn’t even feel the pain as his knees hit the wooden planks beneath him.

Without thought, he stripped off his shirt, wadding it up and shoving Austin’s hands out of the way before pressing it to the wounds on June’s chest.

He heard a gasp of surprise from Jara and knew what it was about, but he ignored her. The last thing he was worried about right now was other people’s reactions to seeing his mangled flesh. All he cared about was the woman bleeding on the floor.

“June?!” he said in disbelief.

Her eyes opened, and Cal felt light headed with relief.

But it was short lived as Austin said, “Keep the pressure on or she’ll bleed out. I need to go get my medical bag. I’ll be right back.”

The thought of watching the woman he loved more than life die was too much to bear.

“Hi,” June said faintly as she stared up at him. Then her eyes closed once more.

“No!” he yelled in a panic. “Don’t close your eyes. Look at me, June. Right now!”

To his relief, she opened her eyes once more. Her lips moved, but he couldn’t hear what she said.

“What?” he asked, moving his head toward her lips so he could hear her better.

“Hurts,” she whispered.

“I know, princess. I’m so sorry. But help is coming. Hear me?”

She stared up at him with a blank look.

He was losing her.

Instinctively, Cal knew she was dying, and he’d never felt as much agonizing pain as he did now. Even when the arseholes were cutting him to ribbons, he hadn’t hurt half as much as he did at that moment.

“You know what Carlise told me today? I saw her before I left to get us lunch. She was there to see Chappy. She laughed and told me she was right, that she knew I’d find my Cinderella—and I did. I love you, June. You can’t leave me!”

“My prince,” she said, then coughed. Blood sprayed from her lips, and Cal winced. Her eyes went to her own chest, where he was still putting as much pressure as he dared on her wounds. “Scar . . .”

“We’ll get a plastic surgeon to fix it, so you’ll never know anything happened,” Cal told her. “I don’t care about a bloody scar. It doesn’t change anything between us.”

But she shook her head. “Now . . . now you . . . know . . . how I feel about you,” she managed to get out, her words labored.

It hit Cal like a freight train. Exactly how stupid he’d been—and not just with June. Of course, she didn’t care if she had a scar. Just as she didn’t care about his imperfections. Or his money. Or his title. She loved him exactly how he was.

But he’d fought with himself for so long. Kneeling here, with her life literally in his hands, he finally understood what June had always insisted. What his friends had tried to tell him for years. What his parents had told him. What the therapists he’d gone to had claimed.

The scars didn’t define who he was. They told a story about what he’d survived. That was it. No more, no less. And if someone treated him differently because of them, that was their issue, not his.

June’s eyes closed again, and his panic reared up once more. He leaned down and practically yelled in her face. “Open your eyes!”

They popped open immediately. Cal could see the pain there. The absolute agony. He literally saw her life slipping away, and his own eyes filled with tears. He hadn’t cried in years. Probably a decade or more, but he couldn’t stop himself from doing so right now if his life depended on it.

“You hang on, June. Hear me? Do not give up. I don’t care what kind of lights you see, you turn away. Come back to me. I can’t live without you! I just found you, and I can’t lose you now. Fight for me, princess, understand? No matter what, you fight. I did, and now you can as well.”

“Cal,” she said. It was more a movement of her lips than an actual sound, but he understood.

“I’ve waited my entire life for you. We have so much to live for. Marriage. Babies. Love. Do not leave me. Please, I need you so bloody much!”

She nodded once, then her eyes closed again.

“June!” Cal shouted. But her eyes didn’t open. “June! Wake up. Stay with me!”

“Move aside, sir,” a woman said as she knelt next to him. She forcibly moved his hands and peered under the bloody T-shirt balled up on June’s chest before pressing it back down again and turning to her partner. “Load and go,” she ordered. “Get the gurney over here.”

Cal hadn’t heard the EMTs arrive, but now that they had, the room seemed full of people. There was Chief Rutkey, some of his officers, and even all three of his friends.

JJ took his arm and pulled him to his feet, towing him off to the side. Cal fought him viciously for a moment before Chappy took hold of his other arm.

“Let them help her,” he said firmly.

Tears still rolled down Cal’s face as he watched the EMTs fasten restraints around June’s legs and hips before rushing her toward the front door.

He tried to follow, not wanting to let June out of his sight, but JJ and Chappy held on firmly.

“Let me go. I need to go with her!”

“You can’t. We’ll take you to the hospital. Calm down, Cal,” Bob ordered.

But he couldn’t. This might be the last time he saw June—he couldn’t let her go.

“I mean it,” Bob said more forcefully, getting up in his face. “You aren’t going to do her any good getting arrested. She’s in the best hands she can be in right now. Chill the hell out.”

Looking down, Cal saw his hands were covered in blood. June’s blood.

She couldn’t die. She was too big a force in his life. His light. He needed her. He was a better person with her.

Without her, he was nothing.

“What the hell happened?” JJ asked, keeping a firm grip on Cal.

“He just came in and shot her,” Brenda said, her voice trembling.

Turning, Cal saw she was as white as a sheet.

“Tim. We didn’t see it, we just heard the shots. He shot her in the kitchen. She stumbled in here and Banks . . . Lord love a duck, I didn’t believe him when he said he was a boxer! We all thought he was making it up. But he was faster than I’ve ever seen him move. Flew back into the kitchen from the yard and knocked Tim out with one punch!” Brenda’s hand shook violently as she placed it over her heart. “He fell right to the floor. Then Meg grabbed the gun in case he came to, and the others grabbed the lacrosse sticks we were going to use this afternoon for some game June was going to show us . . .”

Brenda started crying then, and Cal’s attention shifted to the police chief, who was handcuffing a groggy Tim.

He lunged in their direction, but once again his friends held him fast.

“No. June needs you. Alfred will deal with him. You need to concentrate on June, not on kicking his ass,” JJ said.

It was the hardest thing Cal had ever done. He wanted to kill the son of a bitch for hurting his woman, but JJ was right. June needed him.

“Let’s get to the hospital,” JJ said.

“They’re going to airlift her to Portland,” Austin interjected. He looked as pale as Brenda and was covered in just as much blood as Cal.

“Thank you,” he whispered. “If you weren’t here . . .”

“I didn’t do much. Not enough. Thank God Newton is so small and the EMTs got here so fast.”

Austin might not think he’d done much, but his fast action of putting pressure on the bullet holes in June’s chest could have potentially saved her life.

“Come on, we need to get to Portland,” Chappy said, pulling Cal toward the front door. He let himself be led like a child. At the moment, he couldn’t think. Couldn’t make any decisions. He felt numb. Lost.

He and his friends were well aware how deadly bullets could be. And June had been shot in the chest—twice. It would be a miracle if she survived. And Cal desperately needed that miracle.

“The Rolls,” he managed to say as his friends practically held him upright. “It’s the fastest.”

“I’m driving,” Bob said. “You guys get in the back with him.”

“We should stop and get him a shirt,” Chappy said. “Let him clean up.”

“No! We need to get to the hospital!” Cal swore, struggling anew in his friends’ grasp.

“All right, calm down, Cal. We’re going.”

Cal sagged again. He felt as if his head was in a fog. All he could think about was getting to June’s side.

Cal stared into space in the small private waiting room they’d been led to upon arriving at the level-one trauma center in Portland. It took way too long to get there, even with how fast Bob drove. He’d wanted to see June as soon as they arrived but was informed that she was already in surgery.

Someone had found a scrubs top for him to wear, and JJ marched him into the bathroom and made him wash his hands. As the red water swirled down the drain, Cal started crying again. He didn’t make a sound, but the tears fell unchecked.

He couldn’t fix this. No amount of money, no family connections, no royal edict . . . nothing he had to offer could make June whole again. He had to rely on the skills of the surgeons currently trying to put the love of his life back together.

Waiting was the worst part. The not knowing. All the what-ifs that ran through Cal’s head. What if he’d left work five minutes earlier? What if he’d skipped Granny’s Burgers and gone straight to Hill’s House?

What if, what if, what if . . .

Cal didn’t know how long he’d been in the waiting room when April sat beside him, holding out his phone. He stared at it, wondering where the hell she’d gotten it, why she even had it. Hell, he didn’t even know when she and Carlise had arrived.

He was surrounded by the best friends he’d ever had, and he still felt so damn alone.

“It’s your mom,” April said gently, as she nodded toward the cell.

The tears, which had finally dried up, started once more. He took the phone and brought it up to his ear. April didn’t leave his side, putting her hand on his knee and squeezing hard. Carlise sat on his other side, putting her arm around his shoulders.

“Mom . . . ,” he choked out when he could finally speak.

“Oh, son. I heard what happened. I’m so sorry. What do you need?”

“I need her to live,” Cal sobbed. “I love her so much, Mom. She’s the best thing that ever happened to me, and if she dies . . . I don’t know what I’ll do!”

“We’re on our way,” his mom told him, and fresh tears rolled down Cal’s face. “Your father has already called the pilot, and they’re readying the jet. We’ll be there as soon as we can. What else can we do?”

“The man who did this, Tim Dotson—I need to know why.” He closed his eyes briefly, his voice lower when he continued. “The police here are good, but if you can use any of your connections to figure this out . . . to make sure June isn’t in any more danger . . .”

“We’re already moving on that,” his mom reassured him.

“I can’t lose her,” Cal said again with a sob. “This hurts so much more than when I was tortured. I’d do anything to trade places. She shouldn’t have to go through this. She’s the light to my dark. She’s so good, Mom.”

“Oh, my love . . .”

He and his mom cried together for a long moment before she cleared her throat. “I’m coming, son. I can’t wait to meet her. Have faith, you hear me? If this woman loves you as much as you love her, she’s going to hang on. She’s going to pull through. I know it.”

“I hope so,” Cal told her.

“I know so. We’ll be there as soon as we can. I love you.”

“Love you too, Mom.”

He clicked off the phone and dropped his chin to his chest.

“Tim’s singing like a canary,” JJ said quietly as he entered the room.

Cal wiped his cheek with his shoulder as he looked up at his friend. It was almost weird how dissociated he felt. He wanted to know why this happened, why Tim had shot June, especially when she’d never been anything but nice to the man. But at the moment, all his energy was going toward praying for his woman. It’s why he’d asked his mom to look into things. His parents would do whatever it took to make sure June was safe from anyone who meant her harm.

“Claims he was acting on orders from her stepmother,” JJ said.

Cal shut his eyes.

Jesus. He’d fucked up. He hadn’t taken Carla’s obsession with marrying him seriously enough. Not nearly. Had assumed once they’d left town, she’d move on. Find another mark.

He should’ve known better.

“Not only that, but you were right about your suspicions. He’s claiming Elaine killed her second husband, June’s dad. Poisoned him. Says he has a recording of the conversation when she told him. She’s going down,” JJ said firmly. “No matter what I have to do, what markers I have to call in, she and that bitch daughter are both going down.”

Cal nodded. He was glad to have his friends at his back.

“Any word about June?” JJ asked.

“I’ll go ask again,” April said, patting Cal’s knee as she stood.

As more time passed, Cal tuned out everything around him. His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton. As if he was watching himself from high above.

Two hours later, the door to the waiting room opened, and six pairs of eyes lifted to the exhausted-looking surgeon standing in the doorway.

“Friends and family of Juniper Rose?” she asked.

Cal stood, swaying on his feet. He tried to read what the surgeon was about to tell them from her expression, but she’d clearly been doing this far too long to give away any hints to worried loved ones.

“How is she?” Cal almost shouted.

“She’s stable. It was touch and go for a while, and we lost her twice on the table, but she’s a fighter. She’s in the ICU, so you won’t be able to see her for at least twelve hours as we continue to monitor her progress. But in my professional opinion, she’s going to pull through.”

Cal’s knees gave out, and he landed hard in the seat behind him. He closed his eyes and lowered his head. No tears fell now—he was all cried out. But he’d never been so relieved to hear anything in all his life. Not even when he and his team realized the sounds they heard from their cell were their rescue party coming for them, mowing down anyone who stood in their way.

He vaguely heard the doctor explaining that the first bullet had gone straight through her right lung, and the second had missed her heart by less than a centimeter. Her heart had stopped twice while they were operating to repair the damage, but they’d been able to get it started again.

June had done what he’d begged her to do. She’d fought. Was still fighting. She hadn’t left him.

He’d never been so grateful that his woman was so tough. Cal wasn’t happy that he couldn’t see her for a long while yet, but for the first time in hours, he felt as if he could breathe.

He’d make sure a day never went by without June knowing how much he loved her. They’d had a way too close call today, and he was more appreciative than he could put into words that he had a second chance with her. To live. To love.