Learning to Stand (53 page)

“
If the token doesn’t work,
Cee Cee will kill you,” Alex said.

The woman’s face flushed at the mention of
Cee Cee Joiner’s name. This woman was in love with Cee Cee Joiner.
Anxious to prove herself, she was very dangerous.

“
Haven’t been doing this
long have you?”

“
I worked for my father,”
she said. “I’ve been on my own since you killed him.”

“
Your father was a lot
better than you are,” Alex said.

Alex swept the plastic pieces, key, lighter
and memory card off the edge of the table with her cast. Bending
her head over her right hand, she used her left hand to pick up the
plastic pieces from her right hand. One at a time, she held each
black plastic piece near her eyes then set it on the table.

Retrieving the lighter, her right hand
closed over the brass key and the memory card. Under the table, she
slipped off her right shoe. While her right hand held the lighter
to her eyes, her left hand let the key and memory card fall into
her shoe. Slipping on her shoe, Alex felt them against her toes.
She set the lighter on the table.

“
There’s a computer board
and a battery inside the lighter. I need a little screwdriver to
take the lighter apart,” Alex said. She shrugged. “I have one in my
case. Would you mind if I...?”

“
Don’t move.”

Jesse appeared in front of her.

“
She stabbed Troy. Assassin
cut to the femoral artery. He’s fighting to get to you and to
survive. Alex, he’s dying.”

“
Save Troy,” Alex
said.

“
What?” The woman looked
around the room. “What are you talking about?”

Unsure of what to do, Jesse hovered for a
moment. He knew Alex would refuse help until Troy was safe. He
disappeared.

“
Talking to myself,” Alex
said. “I want to save Troy.”

The woman snorted a laugh.

“
The screw driver is in the
front pocket. Why don’t you get it for me?”

Keeping the gun trained on Alex, the woman
felt around the front pouch of her laptop. She pulled out a long
screwdriver.

“
Perfect for computers,”
Alex said.

Taking the screwdriver from the woman, she
opened her Zippo lighter. Tucked under the metal cover was a small
electronic computer board. Alex leaned forward to look at the back
of the plastic piece on the table. With her face next to the
plastic, she tried to determine if the plastic was large enough to
hold the computer board. She sat back against the chair.

“
What is it?”

“
I don’t think these pieces
go together.”

There was a sound near the front of the
carriage house. The girl jumped to her feet.

“
Get up,” she said. “You’re
stalling for time.”

“
No,” Alex said. “Your
father would tell you that I‘d never lie about something like this.
They will kill you either way.”

“
Who do you think you’re
dealing with? I’m no amateur fool!”

The woman raised her gun.

“
Cee Cee loves me. He will
never kill me.”

The woman fired two shots into Alex’s
heart.

The force of the shots sent Alex flying
backward. She slammed into the wall behind her. Gasping for breath,
Alex’s hands pressed against her chest. Her brown eyes followed the
woman’s movements.

“
I killed the Fey!” The
woman hooted with joy.

Proud of her accomplishment, the woman
sauntered over to Alex. She wrapped her fingers in Alex’s inch long
hair and lifted Alex off the ground. To finish the job, she pressed
the gun against the top of Alex’s head.

Something flew across the room and hit the
woman in the throat. The woman’s throat erupted with blood. She
dropped Alex to grab at her throat.

Another object streaked through the air
striking the woman in the eye. The woman fell backward. She bounced
against the wall and fell forward. She was dead before she hit the
floor.

Alex worked to stand.

“
Stay there, love,” John
said.

Barefoot, he ran into the room. He kneeled
down in front of Alex.

“
She ruined your favorite
fleece,” Alex said. Putting her fingers through the holes, she
added, “I’m sorry.”

John sliced through the fabric with the
razor sharp knife in his hand. Pulling her T-shirt aside, he saw
body armor.

Alex was wearing body armor.

He clutched her to him. Letting her go, his
doctor trained hands moved behind the body armor. Her sternum was
cracked but not broken. She may have broken a rib or two. She had a
concussion. Alex grunted when he touched the forming bruise on her
sternum.

“
Are you going to kiss me or
just fondle my breasts?”

Laughing, he kissed her.

“
I’ve always known you could
do that,” Alex whispered.

Their eyes held for a moment. Max ran into
the room followed by James and Trece. Max dropped to Alex’s side.
The twins hugged.

“
Call 911,” John
said.

“
Now there’s my Johnny,”
James said. He kneeled to check the woman’s pulse. “Still have the
old knack?”

Trece peered at the body.

“
Damn Drayson, you did
this?” Trece said. “I knew you were good with a scalpel but who
knew you could throw them? They teach you this in medical
school?”

“
Troy… you have to help
Troy,” Alex said.

“
Don’t worry little miss,”
Trece said. “Mattie sent us in here. But Drayson, you need to get
out there. Troy’s hurt pretty bad.”

John jumped to his feet. He looked at Alex
and she nodded.

“
Don’t let her get up,” John
commanded as he ran out the door.

“
He’s in the kitchen,” Trece
yelled after John.

“
Police?”

“
I’ve got them on the line,”
James said. “They are on their way with medics.”

Max plopped down next to Alex. She rested
her head against his shoulder.

“
It hurts me more than you,”
he said.

“
You always say
that.”

F

CHAPTER FORTY-Four

Wednesday early-morning

April 2
–
3:55 A.M. MDT

Denver, CO

“
You stupid fucker Homer.”
Troy yelled at himself.

He had his eye on another girl at the bar.
Before he could make a move, this buxom brunette was on him. When
he smiled at her, she unzipped his pants. She gave him a hand job
right there at the bar. He knew something wasn’t right, but his
other head, the one tortured by Dahlia a few hours before, didn’t
care.

She was more than willing. He’d never met a
woman as eager to please. She wanted to do anything he wanted. And
they did everything.

And she was easy to please. She came easily,
with almost no effort, hard and fast. She made a big moaning show
of her orgasms. She acted as if he was the best lover in the entire
world. The paranoid soldier in his mind tried to tell him something
was wrong.

Did the brilliant Homer Troy Olivas Jasper
listen to those voices?

No.

Instead, he worried he didn’t have enough
condoms.

When she moved on top of him for the sixth
or seventh time he lay back to receive. She rubbed with her hands,
sucked with her mouth, until she stroked him with her lips.

In one second, she flicked the blade through
his skin and into his right leg. If he hadn’t knocked her off the
bed with his left knee, she would have cut his genitals off. He
felt the pain but could not comprehend the severity of the knick in
his leg. When he jumped after her, his femoral artery ripped.
Slipping on his own blood, he fell to the floor among the discarded
pillows and clothing.

She laughed at his efforts.

Watching her laugh, his mind finally clicked
in.

This was an assassin’s cut.

The more he moved, the worse his artery
would tear.

Grabbing a pillow, he slid under the bed and
moved to the middle of the bed. Pulling the pillow from the case,
he tied the pillowcase around his leg as a tourniquet. He pressed
the pillow against the wound. He remembered something about packing
the wound. Clamping the pillow in his mouth, he pounded the pillow
case fabric into his wound.

She talked the entire time she dressed. She
was going to kill the Fey. It would be her. After all this time and
all this effort, she would be the one who put a bullet in the Fey’s
brain. The woman laughed. She was happy, almost excited and very
proud.

When she moved to the door, he played dead.
Bending down to look at him under the bed, she laughed.

“
You were fun.” She blew him
a kiss.

He moved the moment the door closed. Pulling
with his arms, he slid from under the bed. Out of habit, he tried
to stand with his injured right leg. The pillow case fabric dropped
and blood spurt from the wound. He fell forward to the floor.

“
God damn it! Fuck. Fuck.
Fuck.”

Rolling onto his stomach, he dragged himself
to his duffle bag. He always carried a med kit. His hand patted
around his duffle bag until he found his kit. His fingers closed on
the packet of Celox. Rolling over, he poured the powder coagulant
onto his wound.

The Celox worked!

The powder and blood formed a clot!

Troy laughed. Grabbing his jeans, he pulled
his Leatherman Mini Tool from his pocket. Cutting into the pillow,
he took the cotton batting and pressed it into his wound. He tied
more batting over the wound with his T-shirt then tightened the
tourniquet.

Jesse appeared in front of him.

“
Get to Alex, Jesse. The
bitch is going to kill her.”

Jesse nodded and disappeared.

Troy rolled over to his stomach and pressed
to all fours. Crawling, sliding in his own blood, he made it to the
door.

“
One, two,
three.”

He pushed himself to his knees. His hands,
wet with blood, slipped on the doorknob. Wiping his right hand on
his naked behind, he turned the knob. One crawl back. A second
crawl backward. He pulled the door open. Falling to his hands, he
worked to catch his breath.

Moving his hand forward, he slipped on his
own blood and fell face first to the floor. His nose broke with a
painful pop. The wound began to seep. Panting, he worked to gain
his energy.

Pressing to all fours again, he managed to
crawl to the bottom of the basement stairs. One step. Two steps.
Moving up the steps didn’t stretch the artery. He said a silent
prayer of gratitude at the basement door. His lover had left the
door ajar.

He continued his slow crawl to the kitchen.
His right knee caught on a cabinet and the wound opened. Blood
spurt from his artery. Slipping on his own blood, he lay face down
on the kitchen floor. Little Maggie barked and threw herself
against her crate door.

Unable to get on his knees, he pulled
himself to the back door with his arms.

“
Oh me God,” Eoin yelled in
Irish Gaelic. “Stay right there. HELP!! We need HELP!!”

“
English,” Troy
mumbled.

“
What?” Eoin
said.

“
Speak English.” Troy passed
out.

“
Oh right.” In English this
time, Eoin screamed, “HELP! We need HELP!”

“
Jesse woke us. What’s going
on…?” Matthew said to Eoin. “Erin, get John and Emily.
NOW!”

Erin ran toward the basement. She met Max
coming through the dining room from his side of the rooming
house.

“
Jesse says she’s in the
carriage house,” Erin said. “Where’s John?”

“
With Alex,” Max
said.

James ran up from the basement.

“
We have to move him,” Max
said. “We can’t get out the door.”

Trece appeared from the basement. He rolled
Troy over creating enough space for Max and James to squeeze out
the back door.

“
Don’t move him!” Emily came
running through the kitchen in her pajamas.

“
Trece, protect Alex,”
Matthew ordered. “GO!”

Trece slipped out the door. Emily dropped to
look at Troy’s wound. Her small hands picked at his makeshift
bandage.

“
I can’t even begin to fix
this kind of deep penetrating wound. And we can’t move him like
this,” Emily said. “Only a specialist… a vascular surgeon… like
John… can fix something like this. I can only stop the superficial
bleeding. But any movement, any at all, and his artery will tear…
more. This swelling and bruising is from the artery bleeding under
the skin.”

Troy awoke with a gasp. He threw Emily off
him and moved toward the back door.

“
White Boy!” Matthew
screamed.

Naked, White Boy flew from the basement. All
mass and muscle, he ran through the kitchen. He held Troy in the
kitchen then cradled Troy’s head in his lap.

Troy was hysterical. Crying and cursing, he
told them he killed Alex. He jerked his leg. He would rather die
than live knowing he killed Alex.

“
Well then,” John said. He
grabbed Troy’s wounded leg. Pulling off Troy’s makeshift bandage,
John pressed the swelling around Troy’s wound. “I guess you’re
going to have to work at living. Is this Celox?”

“
I’m so sorry John,” Troy
said. “I killed our beloved Alex.”

“
Troy! Is this Celox?” John
asked again.