Reckless

Chapter 17 ; the clean up

Chapter 17 ;

My brain was playing tug-o-war with my heart as I pulled the laundry room door shut behind me. That woman was going to be the death of me if I can’t get myself straightened out. My heart wanted me to lock that door and protect her and only her, but the overwhelming reality of my situation pushed me out that door and up to my bedroom and get my gun. More shots fired out as I made my way down the back staircase and down the hall. I had to get myself in the right mindset or I was going to get myself shot. I pressed my back to the wall and took a deep breath, trying my best to push Sam to the back of my mind and regain control over the situation. I had to shut off that part of my brain. Who the hell was shooting up my house and what the hell is their reasoning?

With my gun ready, I moved slowly around the corner to the living room. My heart began to race in my chest when I saw the room scattered with victims and a gun pointed directly at the love of my life. Without hesitation or any sense of care I fired two shots into Trenton – both to the chest. My emotions were disparately trying to flip back on the switch but when her eyes met mine I quickly buried them somewhere deep. The reality was that I couldn’t handle dealing with this situation with any kind of emotion, I needed to take a page out of my father’s book and turn off my feeling. 

Lacy’s cries for help snapped me back to reality, I pulled my phone from my pocket and made a few calls – my gun still pointed at Trenton’s now lifeless body. I touched base with some of my contacts, a paramedic and a police officer. I would need them both to help keep everything under control. First, I moved over to Trenton, kicking his gun away and checking for a pulse. Nothing. He was gone.  He had betrayed me, and he got what he deserved – I thought as I moved across the room to check on Alex. “H-h-help him…” Lacy begged as I began to assess his wounds. He was unconscious – most likely from blood loss but he was still breathing. “Just keep pressure on the wounds. If his breathing changes let me know.” My voice came out rough – giving her no comfort that I know she was desperately looking for. She simply nodded and pressed against his blood-soaked shirt. I could hear sirens and I hoped to god it was my connections and not some overly zealous dimwit. I dug my keys out of my pocket and handed them to Sam. “Get in the car. I will text you an address.” She opened her mouth to say something but quickly changed her mind and simply nodded and rushed out the front door where my car was parked.

Before doing anything else I texted Sam the address of a safe house we have just in case. It was a small house about two towns over. The house was at the end of a road in the woods on the bank of a lake, there were no other houses around. The house was equipped with an expensive security systems and cameras, so I could watch her. I let her know the keycode that unlocked the front door and then I turned on the GPS for my car, so I could track her location. Once that was set up I moved back to the living room and began checking on those who had been shot.

The Sirens came to a stop and I knew it was my contacts. There was a short tap on the door before my favorite Sherriff walks in. Dan LeMaster was the king of ‘taking care’ of situations like this. “Alright, kid. Do we have any survivors?” He asked, as he moved around the living room. “Two. Alex here, he is one of my guys. He is in bad shape. There is a girl in the kitchen, she was just grazed on the leg. Not much blood. Id say wrap her up and have her sign the forms and send her on her way.” As I finished up my sentence there was another light tap on the door and in walked a paramedic. My body went ridged. I had called for Eric, the man who had worked for my family for years. This wasn’t Eric. I lifted my gun slowly and he followed suit by lifting his hands. “Eric sent me. I’m new. Contract is in my left pocket.” He motioned his head towards his pocket while keeping his hands held high. Even with a gun pointed at him he was still calm. This was the kind of guy I needed. I quickly pulled out the papers and lowered my gun. “Over here, he is the most severe. “I walked the new guy over to Alex. He timidity dropped his bag and began to work on him. I reached down and pulled Lacy up from the ground. He whole body was trembling, and she was covered in blood. Not only had her boyfriend been shot but I had just killed her brother in front of her.  “Listen, I need you to follow these directions.” She lifted her head to look up at me, her lip quivering as she spoke. “She saved me.” Her voice cracked, her eyes sad. “She was willing to take a bullet to save me. He would have killed me if she hadn’t…” Her voice cut out and she lowered her head. I knew she was talking about Sam. That explained why Sam was standing in harm’s way but what I didn’t understand was why Trenton would do all of this or why he would try to shoot his own sister. “Lacy why was your brother going to shoot you?” Tears poured down her cheeks as she shook her head. “I-I swear Liam I don’t know...”

I was never an emotional guy, to be honest I couldn’t give a flying fuck if anyone felt bad. But since I met Sam things were different. Now, seeing Lacy look completely broke seemed to pull at those emotional strings again. Sam had ruined me. I quickly did my best to compose myself. “Don’t worry we will figure this out. Right now, I need you to follow my instructions. You need to get in your car and go to the safe house by Collins lake. I have already sent Sam there. When you get there take off these clothes, throw them in the fireplace and burn them. There are of Alex’s clothes and my clothes. Take a shower, wash well then, I want you to dump bleach down the drain. Got it?” She simply nodded. I walked into the kitchen and grabbed one of Alex’s spare keys. “Take his car. Go straight there. Do not stop.” She nodded again, before her focus went back to Alex. The new guy had already gotten an IV started and was working on stopping the blood. “Don’t worry. I will take care of him.” Gently, I used my hand to scoot her towards the door and send her on her way.

Now with that taken care of it was time to talk to the sheriff to figure out what to do. I shared all the information with him about the shooter, the background and explained there was no known motive yet. The Sherriff made some calls and we worked out a cover up. The cover story was simple, Trenton was drugged up and shot up a party where his ex-girlfriend and her new love interest were. Trenton was turned into your basic lunatic and that was that. After we crossed our T’s and dotted the I’s I packed a bag and headed out of the house alongside our new paramedic friend and Alex. Alex had come around momentarily but he was in need of a blood transfusion. We were headed to the closest hospital. Sherriff had called ahead and explained that due to the investigation this needed to be handled discreetly.

The whole ride in the ambulance I watched my phone as I tracked both Sam and Lacy. I was happy to see my car pull up to the front of the house. My heart felt like it was being torn to shreds as Sam’s shaky fingers tried multiple times to type the code onto the keypad. One the fourth try the door beeped open and she slipped inside.  She was safe.

By the time we got to the hospital it was almost 3:00am and everything was beginning to blur. Now that Alex was being taken care of, Lacy was in route to the safe house, and Sam was safely locked inside I could focus on Trenton. I still couldn’t wrap my brain around why Trenton would do any of this. He had been friends with me for so long and Lacy was his sister for fucks sake. None of this made any sense. It was time to do some digging and I knew just wear to go.