Alexander (24 page)

Alex was brought back to the present by a cuff to the head. The pain exploded in his head like he’d been shot. He looked up at Mik and felt the blood seep down his cheek. He glared at the man and refused to wipe it off.

“
I said come with me. And when I have you in the car with me, I’ll let your mommy go. Now get up.” Mik started moving toward the door with his mom.

Alex could see the Feds outside. “I don’t think so. You won’t be going anywhere. Why don’t you let my mom go and the officers outside will take you without hurting you. I swear it.” Alex stood and he could hear Heather whimper. “You’ll have safe passage to jail and nobody has to get hurt.”

Mik looked panicky for the first time. He held the gun tighter to his mom’s head and glared. Heather stepped forward and stopped, her eyes going wide.

“
No, don’t. Don’t do it, please.” She started forward again and Mik pointed the gun at her. Alex stopped.

“
You let my grandma go, mister. I’m going to shoot you if you don’t.” Alex looked in the door way to see Jack standing there with a nail gun. His entire world went tunnel vision.

“
What the fuck are you gonna do, kid, shoot me? I don’t think so. Not with that little thing.” Mik held Alex’s mom tighter to him. “You need to get your ass over here with the rest of the family. Alex, make your son list—”

“
I said to let my grandma go. I just got her and I don’t want anything to happen to her. And this gun can shoot one hundred pounds per square inch in less than a tenth of a second. How thick do you think your head is?”

Alex might have thought it was funny if the situation wasn’t so grave. The framing nailer looked so huge in Jack’s hand. Alex could see the police and other personnel behind him just out of sight. Alex wanted one of them to step up and grab his son and pull him out of the way. But he could see they were moving in position to do that.

“
Jack, put the gun down, son, and walk away. He’ll shoot you if he gets the chance. Please, honey, move back.” Heather was walking toward her son and right in front of Mik.

“
Heather, don’t—”

“
Fuck this shit. You’re all going to die.” Mik pressed the gun to his mom’s head and said, “Say good night Gracie,” and then stiffened.

His body jerked a second then a third time before he dropped the gun and staggered back, taking his mom with him. As Alex leapt forward to grab her, Heather pulled her away and the police opened fire.

~Chapter
24~

The police and the Feds poured in the house. Jack was scooped up by Jared and pulled out of the way. Alex grabbed his mom’s hand and held it while someone was talking. Finally, he had his chin jerked around and he looked at Heather. He couldn’t quite focus on what she was saying, but he could see her mouth moving. He was pushed to the floor and flat on his back when things started to come to him.

Sounds at first. There was someone shouting. Then he could hear sirens. Alex looked over at Heather who was still talking to him and he could hear her, but not well. He tried to concentrate and finally, with his head swimming, he could understand some of it. But not enough to know what was going on.

“…
okay. She’s going to be okay. I gave her an ice pack and the medic is looking at her now. Please, you’re scaring me, Alex. Talk to me. Tell me you’re going to be okay. Please? I love you. Please don’t die on me.”

“
Jack?” He knew something about Jack, something had happened. There had been gunshots, he remembered now. “Where is he? He okay too?”

“
Mr. Stone took him to the office. He shot him with that big thingy. He actually…I’m going to ground him but good for skipping school. He should have been at school.”

Alex tried to smile at her anger, but couldn’t quite manage it. “Jared. Not Mr. Stone. Jared. Why did Jack shoot Jared?” Alex tried to raise his head. “Hurts. Fuzzy. Mom? Is mom—”

“
She’s fine, the medic said. She has a nasty bump on her head, but she’s going to be fine. Your dad is with her now. Not Jared, the man holding the gun on us. Are you hurting? He shot you, you big dummy.” She smacked his arm. “They’re going to take you both to the hospital.”

Alex faded out for a while, he knew, because the next time he opened his eyes, he was strapped to a gurney and Heather was holding his hand crying. He squeezed it and she looked at him.

“
I don’t think this is going to be a good start to our marriage if this is the way things are going to go. I can’t take this kind of pressure.” He smiled at her. “I usually lead a very sedate life. Will you have sex with me when I get home? I need you.” Alex heard someone laugh, but couldn’t stay awake any longer.

When he woke again, he was in a bed, stationary this time. He looked around the room and realized he was in the hospital. When he tried to sit up, someone pushed him back down with a firm hand.

“
Stay there or they’ll try to tie you down again. I don’t know if they’ll survive your wife tearing into them again.” A soft chuckle then, “She’s got quite a temper on her, your wife.”

“
Dad?” It hurt to try and see. “What happened? I know that Mik was there and—Mom, is mom all right? He had a gun pointed at her head.”

“
She’s fine. She took Heather down to the cafeteria to get something to eat. Wills went with them. Jared has Jack at his house.” A light, very dim, came on as his dad continued. “He’s not too happy about it, but his mom told him to pick out a puppy and to make sure it was the one he wanted. He’s a bright boy. Told her right off that he knew it was to keep him busy and he didn’t appreciate her treating him like a baby.” After a brief pause, he asked, “How you feeling, son?”

Alex tried to remember what had happened. “He said he was going to shoot him if he didn’t let his new grandma go. Jack had a nailer. I remember thinking it looked so big in his hand.”

His dad nodded. “Tomas said that he shot Mik three times with it. Twice in the back, the third in the head. The pressure wasn’t very high or he might have killed him. As it was, the two officers that were still awake did it.”

“
Awake? I don’t understand. Why were they awake and how did Mik get past them?” Alex was starting to remember things more clearly now. He’d been shot. He looked down at his belly then away quickly. “They didn’t come. I thought they’d be all over the place when he showed up.”

“
He was in the house. He was already in the house by the time the agents and everyone showed up. He probably didn’t know they were agents, but he did drug everyone. Something in the water they used in the coffee maker. Lucky for us, Jared stopped drinking coffee when Wills got pregnant. He was able to roust a few of them and get them to the kitchen.” Edgar reached out and took his hand. “Your wife. She is something else. When your mom was laying there on the floor, Heather sounded like a drill sergeant getting people in place and getting the medics there. When your mom said she could get up and help, Heather tore into her like a mother protecting her cub. Candace laid back down right quick after that. You, however, she begged you to wake up. I think at one point she might have ordered you to get up.”

Alex smiled as he closed his eyes. He’d thought the same thing about her and Jack and how protective they were of each other. “She is something else. I love her very much.”

His dad cleared his throat. “You might want to tell her that a lot when she comes back. She’s a mite mad at you.”

“
Me?” he shouted, and then immediately lowered his voice when it felt like a knife was going through his head. “What the hell did I do? I’m shot, did she notice that?” He looked at his dad’s smile. “Oh, God, what did I do?”

“
Yeah, well, she seems to be mad about you telling the medic you wanted her to…well, you made some comments about…son, you’d better ask her. She was pretty pissed off when she—”

The door opened and the three women walked in. Alex could only see Heather. She looked beautiful to him. She had tears in her eyes when she took his other hand and kissed it.

“
It’s all right, honey. I’m fine. Head hurts a bit and I’m sure I have some pain in my gut. I guess there’s no real damage.”

“
No real damage. No real…do you have any idea what I’ve gone through because you have no real damage? You hard-headed, chauvinistic, pompous ass. You told that man you’d go with him. Go with him and leave me alone. He would have killed you.” Alex noticed that his family left the room and he thought they were all traitors. “Then you tell the ambulance driver and the medic, and oh let’s not forget the nurses that were taking care of you, that I was the best lay you’d ever had, that I was the most, and I quote, ‘wonderfulest wife you’ve ever known.’ And if that wasn’t enough, you—”

He pulled her down and kissed her. Her mouth was hard at first, but he pulled her down across him and she wrapped herself around him, careful of his wounds. He shifted her slightly and fit her in his arms even as his head pounded. When he finally lifted his head, he looked down into her teary face. “I’m so sorry that I scared you. But I couldn’t let him take you, or my mom. I didn’t want to lose either one of you.” He held her when she tried to get up. “No, I need to hold you. Please, baby, just let me hold you.”

Neither of them said anything for several minutes. Then she started talking softly. “Jack killed that man. I know they said he didn’t, but I saw those nails go into him. He said he’s all right with it because he was able to save us, but I don’t know.”

“
He’ll be fine. He’s a brilliant little boy.” Alex decided if he wasn’t okay later, he’d get him the best care in the world. Alex owed him a great deal.

“
Your dad, he was so mad at those men for leaving us there without help. I thought he was going to have a heart attack. Then when he found out they’d been drugged, he was so sorry. He’s…my mom wouldn’t have cared. But he did. He apologized to each and every one of them.”

“
Dad always told Wills and me that if you’re wrong, nothing will make you a bigger person than admitting it and telling the person you messed up. I’ve tried to live by that, and I think Wills does too.” He closed his eyes again and simply held her. He loved her and she did him. He was going to have to hear her say it again without tears in her eyes, he decided.

~~~

Jack sat quietly and watched his new dad sleep. The nurse had told Jack to wake him, but he just wanted to watch. Jack was actually sort of nervous. He knew he’d messed up by skipping school and didn’t want Alex to yell at him.

He startled when Alex said his name. Jack started crying, not because he’d scared him, but because he didn’t want to disappoint Alex. He hated crying, but just couldn’t seem to stop. He wanted to be adopted so badly.

“
I’m really sorry, sir. I couldn’t leave her all alone. She won’t tell me when she’s hurt or tired, and she and Grandpa Tom are all I got. Well, I have Vickie, but I don’t count her. But he was a bad man, really bad man. They found those two dead men at that house. Mom doesn’t know I know about them, but I can read. I used your computer and I didn’t ask, I know, but gran…Mr. James said I could. Then there was—”

“
Jack!” Jack shut up when Alex shouted his name. “Take a deep breath, buddy. Now, slow down. Let’s start from the top, okay?” Jack nodded. “I’m proud of you.”

“
You are?” Jack looked behind him to see if Alex might have been talking to someone else. “For real?”

His mom was always saying that to him, and his grandpa Tom. He’d had a teacher tell him once, but he didn’t think the man was very nice about it. Something about his tone had put Jack’s dander up, as his grandpa Tom called it.

Alex laughed. “Yes, for real. You saved your grandma. And probably the rest of the house.”

“
You’re not mad because I skipped school? Mom sure is. She said I’m grounded until I’m fifty. I thought that was a long time for just skipping school, but she had her foot going and I thought it best to shut up.”

“
You’re probably safer that way. Tell me, are you going to skip school ever again?”

Jack wanted to say no, never, but didn’t want to lie. Something may happen and he might have to. He looked at the man who he already loved more than he thought possible right in the eye. “Are you going to have stupid people come to your home and try to murder us all?” Jack could have bitten his tongue off and wished he could take it all back. But Alex laughed.

“
Good point. I’ll try not to invite mass murders to the house again and you try not to skip school. Deal?” Alex put out his hand and Jack took it, feeling very grown up. “Okay, you mentioned your grandda letting you use my computer. By the way, he’s your grandda just like I’m your dad. Computer usage…computer usage… I’m not sure about that one.”

Jack felt the disappointment throughout his whole body. He’d been having so much fun using the small laptop in Ale…Dad’s office. It was much faster and nicer than the ones they had at school.

“
You don’t get on any sites that would make your mom mad at me, do you? I mean like…you know…porn sites?”

Jack felt the flush heat his face he was so embarrassed. “No! Mom would skin me alive if I did that. And ewww. Naked people? No thanks. Gross. It’s bad enough when you kiss my mom.” Jack shuddered. “Gross.”

“
Okay, kid, I get it.” Alex laughed again. “The computer is fine. Use it when you want. Maybe we’ll see about getting one for your room. Smart as you are on mine, I may just have you as my partner in business. We’ll be James and Son Computers someday.”