To Love a Soldier Page 13

  I darted towards the front door and grabbed hold of the handle. I felt Mike grab me from behind and tug me. I tried to not let go, but he was too strong. I managed to turn the handle and the door opened slightly, but not enough. My hand slipped off the knob, and my body was being tossed into the air. I landed face down on the couch. Mike’s weight bore down on me right after landing. He shoved my face into the cushion and he slid the blade between my hip and pants.

  “Make another sound. Make another move. Go ahead, bitch. Do anything other than what I tell you and my dick isn’t the only thing that’s going to stick you,” he whispered, close enough that I could feel the heat of his disgusting breath on my ear. He cut my pants down the side and I felt a sting down my leg. I couldn’t do anything but lie there, or I knew I was dead.

  He grabbed my pants, tearing them the rest of the way. He groped my ass, and it took every ounce of strength not to vomit. I heard the sound of his pants falling down, and I knew it was coming. I closed my eyes as tight as I could with tears running out and I clenched my teeth. I was about to know what Hell was like.

  “You’re about to enjoy a ride on the Mikey train,” he groaned.

  “The fuck she is!” I heard a man’s voice yell. I felt the weight of Mike’s body lift off me. I turned immediately to escape and saw Officer Joe Reed hurling Mike across the room. Mike’s body tumbled across the floor and stopped at the bottom of the stairs. His knife was lying at Joe’s feet.

  Joe looked at me with steely eyes and then over to Brady. Then he looked up and over to Mike, who was trying to gather himself, probably not knowing what just happened.

  “You forgot your knife,” Joe said, kicking it over to him. Mike looked confused. Joe un-holstered his gun and yelled, “Police officer. Drop your weapon. Drop your weapon now!”

  Mike’s face filled with fear. Joe raised his gun and told me to close my eyes. I knew what he was about to do. I wanted him to do it. I would never be safe with Mike alive and, for all I knew, Brady was dead as well. I didn’t want to watch anyone get shot, but I couldn’t make myself close my eyes. I wanted to witness his end. In my eyes, if anyone deserved it, it was Mike.

  BOOM! A shot rang out and Mike toppled back down to the floor. Officer Reed immediately called for backup and fire rescue. He holstered his gun and dropped to the floor to evaluate Brady. “Liz, are you all right? Did he stab you?”

  “No, I’m fine,” I said in a panic. I quickly said my first prayer in what had to be 20 something years. God, please, God, let him be alive. “Is Brady alive?” I asked Joe.

  He put on a pair of medical gloves and began field dressing the stab wound. “He has a pulse, but he needs help quick.”

  Just then, my mom came running down the stairs in her bathroom, toting my handgun. “What the fuck is going on?” she yelled, looking down at Mike’s dead body. “I heard a gunshot.”

  “Ma’am, it’s me. Joe Reed,” Joe said. “Please put the gun away.”

  She slipped the gun in a drawer of her china cabinet and ran to me, grabbing me into her arms. I felt like I was being bear hugged by John.

  “Are you okay, Liz?” She was frantic. “Oh no, he didn’t.” She paused. “Did he?”

  “No, Mom. I’m okay now. He didn’t get the chance to.”

  “Oh, thank God. Are you hurt? I see blood.”

  “I just got cut by his knife. I’m fine. You need to help Brady. He was stabbed,” I said, starting to sob. No sooner than I got the words out, she pushed Joe out of the way.

  “Mrs. Kane, I got this. I was a combat medic for a year,” he said.

  “Well, I’ve been a nurse for 23 years. Now move,” she spat.

  Joe held the stab wound while my mom got in place and began checking his vitals. “This isn’t good,” she said in a low voice. “We need to get him to the hospital now. We can’t wait.”

  “They’re here,” Joe said. “The ambulance just pulled up.” He got up and took me out of the room. “You need to stay out of the way, Liz. I know it’s hard, but there’s nothing you can do for him right now. Let the professionals do their jobs.”

  Tears poured out of my eyes. Brady had been there to protect me and he might have given his life to do just that. I wiggled past Officer Reed and yelled into the living room to my mother. “Mom. Please,” I cried out and had to control myself before breaking down again. “Please don’t let him die.”

  We just looked at each other. She had a look of confidence, while I was completely and utterly terrified. I immediately felt guilty. I shouldn’t have put that kind of burden on her.

  I watched as the medics rushed in and strapped Brady to a board. I fell to pieces and had to sit down. Joe went back in and met up with other officers who had arrived as backup. They were talking and writing their reports. One taped the entire perimeter of the property.

  After the chaos subsided a little, Joe came back in to talk to me. “Okay Liz, I need you to listen to me,” he said sternly. “I know this is hard on you. I can’t image how traumatizing it all must be, but I need you to stay focused for me.”

  I wiped the tears off my face and sucked the rest back in. I looked up at him, “okay.”

  “Good. So here’s what’s going to happen. Officers are going to secure the crime scene, which now happens to be your entire property since we’ve found multiple footprints along the side and in the backyard. We can’t touch the body until the coroner comes and investigates. After that, they’ll remove him and send in a professional cleaning company to remove everything. A detective is going to come and take my report. After that, he’s going to want to talk to you and your mother. Brady will pull through this, so they’ll be talking to him, too. Your mother didn’t see anything and Brady saw what he did before I arrived. You need to tell him what happened prior to me coming, and then you can tell him how you saw the perpetrator not listen to my commands and advance with his weapon before being fired upon. Can you do that, Liz?”

  “Without a doubt. Yes,” I answered him. “How did you know to come here? I didn’t think anyone heard me screaming.”

  “I didn’t,” he said. “I’ve been keeping an eye on you and your house for some time now.” He smiled.

  “John?” I asked.

  “He’s my brother too, Liz. We watch out for each other and our families.”

  I stood up and wrapped my arms around him. I hugged him so tight. “Thank you so much. You honestly saved my life.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said humbly and walked out.

  I waited around, not moving from the dining room chair. Everything happened as Joe had said it would. I gave my story, and I believed what I said. Even if Mike didn’t have the knife in his hand when he was shot, I knew that if he had, things would’ve gone down the same way. I had no doubt. Even though I finally felt safe, I couldn’t feel relief until I knew how Brady was doing.

  Finding the closest officer, I got his attention. “Excuse me.”

  “Yes?” He asked.

  “Can I please go get my phone? It’s upstairs in my room. I’d like to call my Mom.”

  Surveying the scene, “Go ahead and make sure you don’t disturb any of the evidence and don’t change your clothes. The detectives are going to want pictures.”

  I nodded in understanding and carefully moved around the caution tape making my way upstairs to get my phone. Even though I couldn’t change yet, I grabbed a pair of yoga pants to put on as soon as I could. I needed to call my mom to see how Brady was doing. I also needed to call Mandy and make sure she was okay. For all I knew, he could have gone there first. And I had to call John. He needed to hear it from me, even if it was over a voicemail if he still wasn’t able to get a call. Scrolling through my contacts, I called my mom first and she answered on the second ring.

  “Honey, I’m just walking out of the ER now,” she said.

  “Mom, is he…” I paused. I couldn’t say it. I didn’t think I really wanted to hear it if he was dead.

  “No, he’s not,” she said so
ftly. “They have the bleeding under control. He’s lost a lot, so he needs a transfusion.”

  “So he’ll be okay?” I asked.

  “I can’t answer that yet. They’re taking him to the OR right now because the knife lacerated his lung and,” she stopped. “Listen, Liz. They’re going to fix him up. He’s going to be fine.” Only her voice didn’t have the same confidence.

  “Mom, I’m scared.” I began to cry.

  “I’ll stay here until he comes out, sweetie. Then I’ll stay with him, until you can get here. I have to go; there’s a detective here who wants to ask me some questions. If there’s any update before you get here, I’ll call you. Okay? I love you.”

  “Thanks, Mom. I love you, too.” I hung up the phone and quickly called Mandy. Pick up. Pick up.

  “Hey Lizzy, what’s up?” she answered.

  I couldn’t even talk. Instead, I began bawling my eyes out.

  “Liz, what the fuck? What’s wrong?”

  “Br. Bra…” I couldn’t get his name out. I took a deep cleansing breath and tried again. “Brady!”

  “Oh, what happened? Did you guys get in a bad fight or something?” she asked.

  “Mike,” I managed to stutter.

  “Mike? What the fuck! Are you okay? What happened?”

  “Brady was stabbed. He’s not doing well.” I put the phone away from my ear and let the river flow again. I could hear her yelling through the phone.

  “Liz. Are you home? Liz? Are you there?” she kept asking. “Fuck this, I’m on my way!”

  The call ended and my phone returned to my contacts screen. I scrolled back up to John. I touched his name and took a deep breath again. This was going to be hard.

  It went straight to voicemail. I didn’t want to tell him by message, but I also wanted him to hear my voice first so I could assure him I was okay. I explained as quickly as I could what went down before the message could cut me off. I couldn’t finish everything, but I was able to assure him twice that I was physically all right.

  I went back downstairs to wait for Mandy. I knew she’d be freaking out at the sight of all the cops and tape. The coroner was already there now and I really hoped he would be done and get Mike’s body out of my house before she came. I didn’t know what she’d feel or do if she saw that.

  Out front, I paced the front porch. There were a few cops still outside searching and several standing around, talking. They kept looking at me while I paced. I saw headlights speeding down my street and I knew it had to be her. The car got closer and barely slowed down. It got the attention of several cops, who began to look concerned. I was quick to let them know that it was my friend coming, because I didn’t want them to think she was a threat if she came running up all wild and have to take her to the ground. They acknowledged and stood back.

  The car came to a screeching halt and the door flew open. She left the engine on and came running up the driveway, straight to me. Her obvious care and compassion for me overwhelmed me, and I couldn’t help but start another session of hysterical crying. Without saying anything, she held me in her arms and began rocking me. It took quite a few minutes to regain my composure and then, I began to tell her what happened. She held me up by my shoulders the whole time. Anger overtook her face as I got to the Mike part.

  “I’m so sorry, Liz. I don’t even know what to say.”

  “It’s okay,” I cried.

  Just then the door opened and another cop came out. He left the door open and Mandy turned her head to look in. Her eyes widened. She clearly saw Mike’s dead body lying on the floor. She let go of my shoulders and walked inside. It almost seemed like she was in a trance. She walked towards his body. The coroner hadn’t noticed and stepped away from the body to write notes. Mandy walked over and stood above Mike. I went in, and I put my arm around her.

  “We’re both safe now, Mandy.” I wanted to give her comfort back.

  I watched as a couple of tears ran down her cheeks. Her face became angry again. She looked over to the coroner, who still wasn’t paying attention, and then back down at the body. She spat on it.

  “Mandy!” I was shocked.

  An officer rushed over and pushed us both back. “You can’t do that,” he said. “Go back outside. I’m not going to do anything about it.”

  “That son of a bitch finally got what he deserved!” Mandy looked at me and smiled.

  I felt a little weird about her behavior, but I wasn’t going to judge. After almost being raped twice by that animal was traumatic enough, without him actually completely violating me like he did with Mandy. We went back out and talked some more to the police.

  “Can we please leave?” I begged.

  “Ma’am, we need you here for questioning.” One of the officers said.

  “Please,” I tried again. “My boyfriend is in surgery, and I want to be there when he wakes up.” I just had to pray that he would.

  Another officer approached. “As long as you promise not to go anywhere other than the hospital you can go. We’ll send the lead investigator there. I mean it though, do not even stop for gas.”

  The first cop seemed a little peeved to be undermined, but stepped back.

  “Thank you,” I cried. “You have our word.”

  Taking Mandy’s hand, we walked to her car and got the hell out of there.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Give Me Strength

  Mandy

  Speeding through town, we made our way to the interstate. My heart was racing. I couldn’t believe what had just happened to the Kane family. And I couldn’t believe what had happened to poor Brady. Liz was quiet and just stared out the window. It was hard to imagine what was running through her head at the moment, as I said a silent prayer that Brady would pull through.

  The streetlights were a blur as we sped by. My mind drifted to John. I kept thinking of how he was going to handle the news. He had just gotten back from leave because of what had happened to his sister and now this. All I knew was that I needed to stay strong and get to the hospital.

  Occasionally, I reached over and rubbed her leg. I guess it was my way of saying it’s going to be okay without actually saying it. I hadn’t been feeling well the past two days. My nerves were shot with John leaving. Now to add this on top of everything, I was having trouble keeping it together. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to cry. I wanted to run from all of it and hide. I was constantly bombarded by these mixed emotions, and they were surfacing out of nowhere.

  I kept repeating to myself over and over, give me strength. I needed it. I wanted to be strong for Liz. I needed to be. Her rock - and mine - was now overseas, wherever he might be. And Brady was her other security, and he was possibly dying in a hospital because of some piece of shit.

  “Mandy, slow down,” Liz spit out. “You’re going to miss the exit.”

  Holy shit. My mind has been racing so much that not only did I not realize I got on the interstate, but we are already at the hospital’s exit. “I got this, don’t worry.”

  Liz grabbed the “oh, shit” handle and I sped down the exit ramp and came to a stop. I pulled out right and cut a car off. Fuck him. I really don’t care right now. We sped down the road and pulled into the hospital’s parking lot. Luckily, I found a close visitor’s spot and we jumped out and ran inside.

  Liz seemed familiar with where we were going; I guessed it was from visiting her mom at work over the years. She led us a good distance before we got to a desk that sat outside double doors with the dreaded ‘Operating Room’ sign hanging above it. A stern looking nurse sat behind the desk at a computer screen. Liz walked over and started talking to her, while I hung back by a row of chairs against a window.

  Through all of this, I hadn’t had time to try to get ahold of John. I checked my phone for messages or an email from him, and there was nothing. I was about to open my Skype app and try calling him that way when Lisa came out of another set of doors and headed towards Liz. She started talking to her. My heart froze. I didn’t know w
hat they were saying. I watched their body language, trying to read if this was going to be a happy or sad ending. Liz began to cry and jumped into her mother’s arms. Oh shit. Her mother hugged her and stroked her hair. She kept talking into Liz’s ear. My whole life I had been good at handling things. I didn’t have a choice in a lot of ways. My mom was seventeen when I was born and left me to be raised by my grandparents. Since they were older, I was left to figure out a lot on my own. They were good to me and gave me morals and values, but at the end of the day they taught me to depend on myself. I never really needed to be there for someone, at least not in this capacity. Suddenly, I found myself doubting not knowing what to do.

  Taking a deep breath, I slowly walked over to them and placed my hand on Liz’s back and started rubbing. Looking up to Lisa, she gave me a small smile, nodding. What does that even mean? Is he dead and she’s saying she’ll get through it? Is that her saying he’ll be okay? I didn’t want to say anything without knowing. I just held out until Liz was ready to talk. It wasn’t long before she separated herself from Lisa and turned to me. She was mopping up her tears with her coat sleeve.

  “Liz,” I said gently.

  She reached her arms around me and pulled me in. I returned her hug and was thinking the worst at this point.

  “They think he’s going to pull through.”

  “Oh, thank God.” Squeezing her even tighter, I wasn’t even ready to imagine how difficult this would have been on her. John had only been gone a day and it was already wearing on me. The prospect of never being able to talk to him again like Liz just faced with Brady was unimaginable. “Fuck this, go see him. Then we’re going to get ice cream, and maybe some booze.”

  Liz pulled away and smiled. “Mom, when can we see him?” she asked.

  “They won’t let you in. They wouldn’t even let me in, so there’s no way you’re getting in. It won’t be until at least tomorrow at some point that they’ll allow visitors. You girls go home and rest. I’m still waiting for one of my friends to come out and fill me in once they have more details. You’ll know if there’s any change as soon as I do. But don’t worry. It’s going to be fine.” She reassured.