Deadly Past (Deadly Series Book 3) Page 22

  Fuck, the guys didn’t lie when they told me that getting shot was painful, I just thought if I was to be shot, that it would be while working, not in my own home by my boyfriend’s crazy as fuck ex.

  I somehow manage to get to my feet, my arm is drooping down at my side, and I know that it’s really badly damaged, how bad, only time will tell. The adrenaline has kicked in, and I’m up and about, it’s numbing the pain, but I’m breathing hard. I run to my bedroom to get my gun, I see that Alex is also on the floor, the gun is still in her hand. It’s easy to see that this was the first time she fired a gun. The recoil knocked her on her ass, thank god for small mercies.

  It’s giving me time to run to my bedroom and get my gun. I should have listened to my gut when I thought I heard something. I should have kept my gun with me. I shouldn’t have let this bitch sneak up on me. Now isn’t the time to be having an internal debate on what I should and shouldn’t have done.

  I’m standing beside my bed with my left hand on the gun, and I hear her, and I know that she’s standing behind me.

  “You’re lucky that I only hit your shoulder. Next time you won’t be so lucky.” She lifts her gun up to fire again.

  I dive in time, and the bullet goes whizzing past me and into the wall. I grunt as I hit the ground, smashing my head off the corner of the bed with a sickening thud, luckily I landed on my left side. She’s enraged, and I know that she’s going to kill me.

  I turn onto my back while lying on the floor. The gun in my left hand, I extend my arms as best as I can. The pain causing me to whimper as I move my right arm. I quickly move the gun into my right hand and use my left, non-dominant hand to steady my weapon. My fingers wrap around the butt of the gun, steadying it, my right index finger on the trigger. I take a deep breath, aim, and fire.

  As I pull the trigger, my hands and shoulders jolt from the impact of the recoil, I can’t help but scream out in pain, my eyes are starting to blur, but I shake my head trying to gain some sort of vision. I see that she’s still standing, I hit her in her arm.

  Damn, I really need to go to the range and practice more with my left hand.

  She lifts her gun and reshoots again; I feel the searing pain in my arm.

  Fuck, the bitch hit me in the same arm again.

  The pain is getting too much, and I know that I’ll only have one chance to get a shot off and stop her. The room is spinning, and I know that I haven’t got much longer before I either pass out from the pain, or she kills me, either way I won’t be feeling this pain again.

  I force my right arm up and try not to look at the blood that is running down my arm, the weight of the gun is too heavy for my hand, and I almost drop it. Thankfully I straighten it up with my left, I need to do this. I force my arm out straight and line up the shot. My head is too messed up to see if I’m shooting right, but I can make out that she too is lining up a shot. This is it - I fire.

  The recoil is too much this time, and I drop the gun, blacking out as I do.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Luke

  “Get up you lazy fool.” I kick his foot as I take a look around my apartment, it looks disgusting. I doubt Scott has cleaned it in days.

  “What, I’m trying to sleep here thank you very much. It’s too early, what are you doing here? Morgan finally come to her senses and has had enough of you?” He slurs at me.

  “Oh, for Pete’s sake. Get the hell up, go have a shower you stink of booze.” I shake him, and he finally gets up. He mumbles something under his breath that I don’t catch.

  While he’s in the shower, I start to tidy this place up. It’s filthy, I mean in the kitchen there isn’t a surface that doesn’t have dirty dishes on it.

  What the hell has he been doing?

  I clean the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee. Once I’ve done that I tackle the sitting room. Scott comes out of the shower and starts helping, not saying a word as we clean.

  Once that is done, I don’t bother cleaning anything else. I need coffee, and he needs a talking to. I make coffee, and he’s sitting up, at least he doesn’t smell anymore.

  “So, last night wasn’t exactly your best night now, was it?” I’m joking with him, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone to have three women shout at them in the space of ten minutes.”

  He chuckles, “That Sabine, sure is a scary lady! Dwayne is fucked.” We both laugh at that.

  “I can’t believe how much I screwed up last night.”

  “It’s not as bad as Ryder’s screwed up, but it’s bad enough. You broke her heart, Scott.” I’m not here to sugarcoat anything. He needs the truth, and he needs advice.

  “I know, that’s all I’ve been thinking about all night. Is this how you felt when you did it to Morgan?” He rubs his chest, and I know exactly what he’s talking about.

  “You mean did I feel burning in my heart? Yeah, I got that along with feeling like an ass for letting the best thing walk out of my life. Difference between us, I didn’t promise Morgan anything, whereas that kiss, it promised her the world. Last night you pulled that world from her grasp.” I watch him wince as I say it.

  “You did. You sold her on a story with one kiss. She thought you’d be hers forever.”

  “I thought you were here to help? Geez, you're making me feel worse.” He stares at me.

  “Where the hell did you get that I’d be her Mr. Forever? Morgan? You two have fun talking about me?”

  “Listen asshole. We discussed this the day you kissed her. This morning she told me she felt bad for shouting at you. That you didn’t know that Hailey wanted to be with you. Don’t disrespect Morgan, like you did last night.” I raise my eyebrow at him, daring him to say he didn’t.

  “I know, and I’m the one that owes her an apology. Where is she anyway? I thought she would have been here with you.” He has a weird look on his face.

  “No, I thought you had enough of the women last night, so what is your plan of action?” I ask him, hoping that he has some idea as to what to do next, he works with the girl.

  “I don’t know Luke, I was sort of hoping either you or Dad would have some ideas for me. What did you do to win Morgan back?” He sounds hopeful like I’ll have the answer for him.

  “I just told her I loved her and the truth about Alex. Now, what are you going to do?” I smirk at him, the ass thought I’d tell him how to fix this.

  “Scott, only you know how to get her, I was about to say back, but you’ve never actually had her. You owe her a lot. She’s been in love with you since she was what? Fourteen? Fifteen?”

  “Yes, I know, and I think I’m going to try and talk to her. Honesty is the best policy and all that.” He thinks he’s funny, but he’s not.

  “I’m just going to tell her that I made a mistake, that I got the wrong end of the stick. Hopefully, she’ll forgive me.”

  “I don’t know, it may work. Just don’t make it out to be her fault. I’m going to call Morgan and tell her I’ll be a bit late.” I pull out my cell and call her, she doesn’t answer straight away. I get a weird feeling, and it’s not a good one.

  “Hello?” she sounds weird, but maybe it’s because she’s just woken up.

  “Hey baby, I’m going to be a bit later than I thought. Scott’s a fucking mess.” I tell her and see that Scott is on his phone texting away.

  My world stops at her next words. “Luke, if you’re at your house, then someone is in mine.”

  My heart’s in my chest, and I shout at her down the phone. “Morgan! Get the fuck out of there now!”

  “I warned you to leave him alone.” I hear Alex’s voice in the background, and I feel like a fool. I shouldn’t have left her alone.

  “Alex, what the hell are you doing here?” The shock and terror I hear in Morgan’s voice is something I don’t think I’ll ever forget.

  “Luke, what the hell is going on?” Scott’s up beside me, looking as frantic as I feel.

  “Alex is in
Morgan’s house.” I still have my cell to my ear, and I can hear Morgan’s conversation.

  “Come on, we're going. I’ll call Dad and Asher, and I’ll get Dad to call Ryder. Hopefully, one of them is closer to her than we are.” Scott tells me as we are running towards my car.

  I stop at the next sentence I hear coming from my cell “Alex, put the gun down.”

  Oh, fuck!

  “Scott, Alex has a gun.” It’s a hoarse whisper, I literally can’t move. I’m stuck listening to the horror that is playing out in my ear. I can’t believe this is happening.

  “Luke, get into the car. We’ve got to get to her!” Scott’s shouting jolts me from this stupor. I run to the car and start it up, Scott’s on the phone, and I don’t even listen in on what is being said, all I’m concentrating on is the call I’m on. I’m praying I don’t lose connection.

  “Now, are you going to leave Luke alone?” Alex demands, and I’m begging her to say yes just so she will leave her alone.

  “Yes, I’ll leave Luke alone.” Is Morgan’s feeble reply. She sounds so lost and alone, and I’m such a fucker for leaving her alone. This wouldn’t have happened if she were with me.

  “No! You’re lying, I know you are. You’re just saying that to make me go away. Aren’t you?” Alex is shouting at her, she has seriously lost the plot altogether.

  How the hell did we let her get to Morgan, she should have been found a long time ago.

  “No, I’m not! I can’t deal with this shit anymore.” Morgan sounds resigned, almost as if she believes it. We’re about five minutes away from her house, I have broken every speed limit known to man, and we’re still not there. I hear the sound of a gun firing and Morgan cry out in pain and the call goes silent.

  Fuck!

  My foot hits the gas harder, and Scott looks over at me, “Bro, we’ll get to her in time. Alex isn’t stupid.” I know he’s trying to help, but it isn’t the time.

  “Yeah, say that to Morgan, I just heard her cry out in pain after there was a gunshot, so don’t tell me we’ll get to her in time. We shouldn’t have to get to her. She should be here with us.” I’m barely hanging onto my control, I turn the corner to Morgan’s house, and I don’t bother turning off the ignition, I jump out of the car as does Scott as we get to the front door.

  I see that Scott has his gun drawn. Just as we make it into the house, I hear two gunshots come from her bedroom and then silence.

  We rush into her bedroom, and it’s like a scene from a horror movie, my worst nightmare. There is blood everywhere, it’s like it’s decorated the walls. I see Morgan, pale and lifeless; I rush over to her, jumping over Alex as I do. I hear talking behind me but don’t look back. All I can see is Morgan covered in blood. I can’t see her chest moving or hear her breathing.

  I crouch down beside her and place my head on her chest. It’s faint, but I hear it.

  “Where the hell is the ambulance?” I brush her hair from her face and kiss her lips, they’re cold, and I hate it.

  How on earth did this happen? How did we let this happen?

  “Morgan, please open those gorgeous eyes. I need you, Morgan, you can’t leave me okay! I’ve finally got my head out of my ass. You have to pull through. I can’t lose you.” I’m begging her, and I know that she can’t hear me. I don’t know what I’ll do if she doesn’t pull through this.

  It doesn’t take long before I’m pushed aside, and the EMT’s are working on her, they rush her from the room and towards the front door. I walk past Alex’s lifeless body, noticing the bullet hole between her eyes.

  Damn, don’t mess with my girl.

  Dad is waiting for me outside the bedroom and ushers me to his car, I don’t complain, all I want is to get to the Hospital.

  ***

  I’m sitting at Morgan’s bedside in the hospital. She scared the ever-loving shit out of me. Luckily Alex had a shit aim and didn’t really cause that much damage, they said Morgan will recover after some rehabilitation. It’ll be a painful path back to who she was but I know my girl is determined, and she’ll do it. She’s still asleep, and they said it’ll take a while before she wakes up fully and be herself.

  I kiss her forehead and walk out to the waiting room, and I’m not surprised to see everyone except Skye here. Dad, Scott, Soph, Nathan, Oscar, Ryder, Hailey, Asher, Dwayne, Sabine, Sam, and Winter. Our family.

  As soon as Sabine sees me, she’s out of her seat and in my arms in a matter of seconds.

  “Is she going to be okay?” She has huge fat tears rolling down her face and onto her cheeks, I brush them aside.

  “Did they say when she’ll wake up?” She’s still the pitbull we’ve all come to love.

  “Yes, they said she’ll need rehabilitation, but she’ll be fine. She’ll wake up in a few hours. You want to go and sit with her?” She nods and walks over to Hailey and brings her into Morgan’s room with her.

  “I’m so glad that she’s okay, but how the hell did this even happen? I mean when did Alex get back and why did none of you tell me?” Sophia asks, her voice full of hurt.

  “She’s been back for a few months, and she started stalking Morgan, and before you say why weren’t you told, it was because you were stressed enough with organizing your wedding. We didn’t think Alex would hurt her. That is my mistake.”

  One that I will live with for the rest of my life.

  “She’ll be asleep for awhile, and even when she does wake up, she’ll still be groggy from the anesthesia, go home and get some rest. Come back in the morning.” I don’t give them an option; I don’t want them all waiting here. There’s no point, Morgan is going to be okay.

  They all do as I ask except for Dwayne, who is waiting for Sabine. I take a seat next to him, the poor kid looks shell shocked.

  “You okay?” I ask quietly.

  “Yeah, but these women need to stop ending up in this damn hospital. I fucking hate it.” He says not looking at me.

  “I honestly thought she was dead when they brought her in from the ambulance. I couldn’t even imagine what was going through your mind. We’ve lost so many already. We can’t lose anyone else.” He’s thinking of the four men who died when P.I.G.S was bombed, a few years ago, but it’s the fresh death that’s playing on his mind. Connor died while trying to protect Winter.

  “No-one else is going to die. We’ve all been through enough. When Sabine comes out, take her home and make sure she knows how much you love her.” I’m sounding like a girl but fuck it, I almost lost Morgan, and I’m lucky that she’s alive, but she knows how I feel about her.

  “I will, you should go and get changed and cleaned up. You’re covered in blood, and I don’t think Morgan will want to see that when she wakes up.” Dwayne tells me, and I didn’t even know that I had blood on me.

  I walk into the toilet and see what Dwayne was talking about, I’m covered in blood, and some of it has dried in, others still fresh, as it glistens in the light. I look like I walked straight out of a horror movie.

  I wash it off as best as I can, but there’s still some left and only having a shower is going to take it off, there’s no way I’m leaving here! Not until I know that Morgan’s okay and awake.

  I hear the door open and turn to see Scott standing in the doorway, holding a bag.

  “I drove your car home and picked up some clean clothes for you. I knew you wouldn’t leave here, but you can’t walk around like that, you’ll scare the kids.” He walks over to me, dropping the bag at my feet and pats me on my back.

  “Thanks, Scott.” My voice cracks and I cough to cover it up. I can’t break now. She’s going to be okay, and she needs me.

  “I’ll get cleaned up, and I’ll be out in a minute.” My voice is hoarse from trying to cover up the fact that I’m close to breaking.

  “There’s no shame in crying Luke, you’ve just seen the love of your life shot. I honestly don’t know how the hell your holding it together? If it happened to Hailey. Hell, I’d be a wreck by now.” He shakes his hea
d, just thinking about it happening his face darkens.

  He leaves, leaving me alone in the toilet, I pick up the bag and wonder what the hell he packed, it’s heavier than I expected. I open it as soon as I’m in the cubicle and sitting on the toilet, he brought me new shoes too. I look down at the ones that I’m wearing, and that’s when I finally break. My shoulders shaking as the tears coming thick and fast, I do nothing to stop them.

  I don’t know how long I sat here, but I wait for the tears to subside before I finally get changed and leave the toilet.

  ***

  Morgan slept through most of the night, she woke up once screaming in pain. The pain killers had worn off and hearing her scream reminded me of listening to her scream after she got shot. I held her hand until the nurse came, kissing her forehead as I remember her saying they made her feel safe.

  “What are you thinking so hard about over there?” Morgan pulls me from my thoughts.

  “Whatever it was, it wasn’t great. You had a weird look on your face.”

  “Yeah, let’s not talk about it. How are you feeling? You look like you want to get out of here.” She’s already up and about. First thing this morning, she had the catheter removed and was up and walking to the toilet and up and down the hall.

  “Yep, I hate hospitals, the longer I’m in here, the longer I’m on desk duty. That is one thing I hate, but not as much as being laid up in a goddamn hospital.” She tells me while sitting up in bed.

  “You’ve just been shot, and had surgery! Now fucking chill out and recuperate.” I bite out. Seeing her in pain kills me, and she’s not doing herself any favors by trying to quicken the process.

  “It must be a woman thing. Soph did it, and Winter did it too. They never listen so there’s no point in wasting your breath. They know best, and there isn’t a thing you can say that will make them change.” Sam says as he enters the room.

  “You love us for it. We weren’t eavesdropping, by the way, we just overheard what you said.” Winter says as she walks to Morgan and leans over the bed to give her a hug.