With the Spin of a Bottle

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Leena P.O.V.

I hated wearing black. It was so depressing and reminded me of funerals, which is where I was going today. I felt tears welling up in my eyes again and couldn't help it. He'd been in a coma for months, after being shot, but in the end, they just couldn't save him. I felt for his family and I'd always remember him as the good man he was. He was a natural protector and I couldn't believe he was gone.

"Sweets..."

I turned away from where I'd been looking in the mirror to face Reed. I smiled and took in his attire. He wore a black suit with a charcoal colored tie. He looked good enough to eat and I had to remind myself that now wasn't the time. I crossed to him and kissed his cheek. He was mostly recovered, at least physically, from the incident with Paul, but I know emotionally he was still struggling some days. Having barely gotten over Chase abducting me, having Paul abduct his sister and nephew, then basically watching Paul commit suicide. That was enough to make anyone question their sanity. I'm just so thankful that he survived. It had been tough for a while because he'd lost so much blood. The bullet had went all the way through his left shoulder, but had nicked an artery causing high blood loss. They'd even lost him once, but had managed to bring him back quickly. He was still attending physical therapy, trying to get full mobility back in his left arm, but he was progressing well.

Reina and Rink, whom I absolutely loved upon our first meeting, weren't suffering any lingering effects from their abduction. Paul hadn't hurt them physically, just scared them when he'd broken into their house. He'd ushered them into an upstairs bedroom, which just so happened to be Rink's room, and locked them in before calling Reed with his demands. Reina had kept Rink calm by allowing him to watch DVD's, while she tried to figure out what to do. When she'd heard the gun shot, which had been Paul shooting Reed, she'd known that she couldn't just sit and wait any more. So Reina had gone to work, breaking the door down. Thankfully Rink had been sleeping and he was a heavy sleeper, because when Reina had discovered that her brother had been shot, she completely lost it. There was a lot of love between brother and sister. It made me happy to know that Reed had her, growing up.

Northwestern had allowed him to make up the school work he missed during the last two weeks of his freshman year, so he could begin his sophomore year. The summer had flown by and we'd be back to school next week already. In a way, I couldn't wait to return. Reed and I would have way more privacy once we'd returned to school. My brother's hadn't let up much on their guard duty and they were constantly blocking any alone time. At the same time, I was sad to be leaving my home town again and leaving my dad behind. Dad was really suffering over the loss of his friend and I know seeing Chief Gallows buried today wasn't going to be easy.

Months ago, as soon as I'd heard about what happened to Reed, I'd hurried home. Only when he was awake, stable, and stubbornly pushing me to go back to school, did I leave him. I finished out my semester and then hightailed it back to him. By that time, he'd been released and was home, but home had been kind of up in the air for them. Reina had put their house on the market and they'd temporarily moved into a ratty apartment. I hated that Reed was having to recover in such poor conditions, but I understood them wanting to unload the house. I knew that it held bad memories for them from the time with their parents and then Paul.

I still couldn't believe that the chief was gone. He'd done so much good for us and I hated what happened to him. He'd saw to it that Chase got the highest possible sentencing and Chase's father had been under investigation. Frank apparently had more rapes on his rap sheet than Chase did. Chief Gallows made sure that Frank was arrested and the charges stuck. After tackling that, he'd went to see Paul's father. Reed had told us what Paul had revealed about his father's opinion of him. I could tell that the Chief was angry on Paul's behalf. Between Paul and Chase, that was two cases where a father had unwittingly molded their children into monsters. It turns out that Paul's father, George, was a murderer. When the chief showed up to have a little chat with George about how he treated people, his son especially, George shot and killed him, before turning the gun on himself. It was an insane series of events and my heart ached for the good Chief Gallows was always trying to do.