LEIF (Blake Security Book 3) (11 page)

PRESENT DAY

LEIF

              At eleven, I ate my sandwich and drank the rest of my Gatorade. I was just about to get out of the car to stretch my legs when I saw the man. He was nearly six feet tall and his skin was dark like maybe he was Mexican or Columbian. That was what first caught my attention. He was dressed in a pair of black cotton shorts that came down past his knees, a white A-line tank, and a pair of black and white Chucks on his feet. His arms and shoulders were huge, the kind of muscle that a guy might get from years of working out on the prison yard. In all fairness, he could have gotten them at a gym, but these arms were also covered in black and green tattoos…the kind a guy might get in prison. He was leaned up against his sleek, black car with his arms folded and staring up at the church. He probably wasn’t even interested in the school, and he was probably not here to snatch Hunter, but probabilities weren’t good enough for me at that moment. I waited and held my breath for just a few minutes when I saw them, a young teacher and a line of about twenty students at the gate. The teacher was affixing sticky nametags to the front of each one of their shirts. From where I sat, I couldn’t see if Hunter was in the line, but I did see that the big guy was on the move. I grabbed my gun off the seat next to me, and as I stepped out of the car, I tucked it into the back of my belt. I was moving as I was tucking it, crossing the street as the man walked up to the still-closed gate and said something to the teacher. I saw her startle slightly and then turn and smile at him.

              She glanced at me, and I slowed my movements. When I got to the sidewalk, I turned toward the church instead of the school. I walked away from them, but slowly. I could hear them talking but not what they were saying. It almost sounded like another language. I glanced over my shoulder every so often to make sure she hadn’t opened the gate. When I watched yesterday, I saw that the teachers wore name badges that worked on the gates like hotel keys. They tapped part of the tag against the lock on the gate and it would click open. So far I hadn’t seen one of them open one without a security officer standing there.

              I made it up to the steps of the church and went high enough so that I could see the school. The teacher was still smiling and flirting with the man—and the kids were beginning to become unruly. That went on for a few minutes until a security officer came out of the building and approached them. The man stepped back from the gate and headed toward his car. I kept watching him. He got into the car and started it, but he didn’t leave. The teacher was now talking to the officer, and in the next few minutes, everything happened so fast that some of it I’d even have a hard time remembering later on. The security officer slid his key in the gate, just as the man got back out of the car. The teacher was still talking to the officer and he had his back to the now unlocked gate. The big dark man wasn’t walking toward them anymore…he was jogging. I started jogging from my side, and I hit the sidewalk just as the big man threw his weight into the gate, knocking the security officer back about three feet.

Some of the children screamed and the young teacher yelled at the man, “Miguel what are you doing?” She took a step toward him, and he pushed her out of the way, and in almost one motion, he scooped Hunter up in one of his big arms. I could hear Hunter yelling and the sound of his little voice went right through me as I pulled the gun out of my waistband.

              “Put him down,” I said, as I took aim at the back of the man’s head. He turned around to face me then, still moving backwards with his big, beefy arm around Hunter’s little neck now. The security officer was on his feet now and talking on his radio. The teacher was ushering the kids back inside.

              “Leif…” Hunter gasped out. His big blue eyes were as wide as saucers and filled with tears. I wanted to put a bullet in this guy just for scaring him.

              “It’s okay, little buddy, just hold still for a minute. It’s going to be okay.”

              The big man smiled as he reached into his pocket with his free hand…and pulled out his own gun. My stomach tied itself into knots, as he pressed it into Hunter’s temple. The little boy had tears running freely down his cheeks, and my heart felt like it was breaking. I’d never been so scared in my life, not even in the Middle East under sniper fire. In a strong Spanish accent, the man said, “Put the gun down.” I could hear sirens in the distance. I was trying to calculate how far away they were and how far he’d get with Hunter before they caught up with him. Damn it! I couldn’t let him put Hunter in that car.

              “You’re not going to shoot him,” I said. I was surprised that the shakiness I felt in the rest of my body didn’t come through in my voice. The man gritted his teeth and shoved the barrel of the gun harder against Hunter’s head, and I saw the muscles in the arm he was holding around his neck flex. Hunter gasped and choked. “Okay! Okay, I’m putting it down. Don’t hurt him.”

              I moved slowly, as I bent down to put the gun on the ground while still keeping my eyes on the man and Hunter. I sat the gun down on the sidewalk and he said, “Now kick it over here.” Feeling sicker to my stomach than I’d ever felt in my life, I did as he told me. The gun slid toward him, and when it reached his feet, he kicked it into the gutter. “Now lay face down on the sidewalk and put your hands on top of your head.” The sirens were getting louder and I tried to calm myself down by telling myself that help was on the way. I lifted my head slightly and saw the man lower the hand he was holding the gun in to open the door. I knew if he got into that car Hunter’s chances of ever going back home to his mother were slim to none. I waited for him to close the car door, and I jumped up and charged the man. He brought his gun up as I dove toward him. I heard the explosion and felt a searing hot pain in my shoulder as I landed against the man’s chest. It was as hard as a rock, all of him was. The impact of my body did cause him to lose his grip on the gun and it went skittering across the sidewalk. We were both reaching for it as we wrestled on the sidewalk when I remembered mine. I let go of his arm, and he moved it to reach for the gun. At the same time, I reached down underneath the car and got ahold of mine. We turned and both took a shot at the same time.

********

              I was dreaming about Karli. That was nothing new. I dreamed about her several times a week. What was new about this one was the sound of Tyler’s gravelly voice in the background. What the hell is Tyler doing in my dream? “Come on and open your eyes, man. I look pretty today; you don’t want to miss it.”

              Slowly, and with a lot of difficulty, I pulled open my eyelids. The sight that greeted me was my friend’s grizzly face just a few inches above mine. “Are you going to kiss me?” I croaked out.

              “You should be so lucky,” he said with a chuckle.

              “Why are you in my bedroom?”

              “You’re in the hospital, bud. Do you remember anything?”

              I closed my eyes again and grasped at my memories. My head was pounding like a drum, but suddenly it started coming back to me, and my heart began to race. I opened my eyes to the sounds of a loudly beeping monitor that time. “Where is Hunter?”

              “Calm down, man. He’s okay.”

              “Where is he?”

              “He’s home with his mother, I assume. You’ve been here for almost two days already.”

              “What the hell? Two days?” I tried to push myself up out of the bed. As soon as I moved, my shoulder screamed out in pain and my chest suddenly felt like it was on fire. The monitor beeping was getting louder, and all of the noise made my head feel like it might explode.

              “Hey, man, calm down.” Tyler was trying to push me back down onto the bed when I heard Blake’s voice.

              “What are you doing? Lay back down. You just had major surgery.”

I was out of breath by that time, and my words came out in a whisper as I said, “Is he really okay?”

              “Hunter?” Blake said, and then, “Yeah, he’s really okay. You saved him, kid. Now relax.”

              I think I did more than relax. I only remember closing my eyes and hearing the scuffle of shoes and whispered voices all around me. When I woke up again, the bright light coming in the window had been replaced by the soft light of the moon, and the room was almost deathly quiet. I tried to turn over, but once again my shoulder and chest began to ache horribly. I groaned and then startled at the sound of a voice…Karli’s voice. “Do you need me to call the nurse?”

              I turned just my head toward the sweet sound of her voice. “Is Hunter okay?”

              She stepped closer to the bed and stood with her hands on the rail looking down at me. The small amount of light coming through the blinds actually shone around her head and made her look like an angel…or maybe I was just on a lot of pain meds. She smiled down at me, and I decided that either way I didn’t care. I loved looking at her. “Hunter is good. He’s good because of you. Thank you, Leif.” She was still smiling at me, but a tear began to roll slowly down her pretty face.

              “Don’t cry. I’m sorry.”

              She laughed through her tears and said, “You don’t have anything to be sorry for. They’re happy tears. Thank you, Leif…I have no idea how I’ll ever thank you. My baby could be…” She choked on a sob, and I tried to move again. I wanted to take her in my arms and let her cry into my chest. I wanted to hold her until everything was okay again. I was hooked up to an IV and wires ran across my arms and were stuck to my chest. Something heavy was on top of my right shoulder, and every time I moved or breathed, a sharp, burning pain shot through my upper back.

              “It’s okay, Karli. You said he’s okay, right? Please don’t cry.”

              “I’m so sorry.”

              “You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”

              “Yes, I do,” she said. “So many things. I was so mean to you.”

              I scoffed at that. “Are you kidding? Any other woman would have had me locked up years ago. None of that matters now anyways, Karli. All that matters is that Hunter is okay.”

              She nodded and wiped at the tears on her face with her fingers. “I keep telling myself that, but I can’t stop thinking about what might have happened if you weren’t there. I can’t bear to think about someone hurting him.”

              “Nobody’s going to hurt him, Karli—not ever. As long as I have a breath in my body…nobody is going to hurt either of you.”

KARLI

              I’d been sitting at Leif’s bedside watching him sleep for almost two hours before he woke up and I turned into a blubbering idiot. I just couldn’t stop thinking about what could have happened if Leif hadn’t been there. I thought about all of the times I yelled at him and told him to go away. I thought about how rude I was the last time we talked and how I insisted that I could take care of my son and myself. I basically told him that I didn’t need him—and my arrogance expanded on that to include anyone…I didn’t need anyone, only I did.

              The police called me at work, and the officer was really nice and assured me over and over that Hunter was okay. All the way to the station, I felt like I was having a heart attack. Without Hunter, my heart would just be a pointless organ anyways. When I got to the station, I found him playing video games on one of the detective’s computers and eating candy and drinking soda from the vending machine. As soon as he saw me, he stopped what he was doing and ran into my arms. I held him and squeezed him and loved on him until he finally squirmed out of my grasp. I thought about how terrified he must have been; he hardly ever lets me hold him like that anymore. That made me start crying again and the sweet little boy gave me another hug.

He was the one that whispered to me, “It’s okay, Mama. I’m okay. Leif saved me from the bad man.” That only made me cry harder. It was a good half an hour before I could calm down enough for one of the detectives to take me in the other room and tell me what happened. I was reluctant to let Hunter out of my sight, but Mom was there by then and she was running her hand over his hair and back as he continued his video game. I left him with her and went into the conference room.

              “What exactly happened?” I asked the detective after he had introduced himself and offered me something to drink.

              “A man named Miguel Perez showed up at your son’s school today. He was seen talking to the teacher at the gate while she lined them up for their little walking field trip. When security came out, he pulled back. He waited for the gate to be opened and security to be distracted and he grabbed your son. Apparently, Leif Thompson came out of nowhere…according to the security officer. He tried to talk the man down and ended up taking a bullet in his shoulder. He was already wounded and bleeding when the man tried to put your son in the car and leave. He went after him again—and so far it looks like Mr. Thompson and Mr. Perez both took a shot at the same time. Mr. Thompson ended up with one in his chest, and Mr. Perez took a fatal shot to his heart.”

              “Oh my God. Do you know if Leif is okay?” My stomach was twisting itself into knots, and I still felt like I couldn’t breathe.

              “Last I heard he was in surgery, ma’am. I don’t know any more than that.”

              “Is someone with him? Is he alone?” I could feel hot tears spilling out of my eyes again. The thought of him being there alone felt like it was crushing my chest.

              “I know Blake Donovan well. I called him as soon as I got to the scene. He was going straight to the hospital. He’s not alone.”

I nodded and asked, “Who was this man Miguel?”

              “We have his girlfriend, your son’s teacher, in the other room and we’re trying to find that out.”

              “Does he work for Esparza’s crew?”

              The detective shook his head. “We don’t know yet. As soon as the ME gets a chance to look over his tattoos, and he had a lot of them, we’ll know more about his affiliations.” The detective questioned me for a while, finally taking pity on how badly I wanted to get back to Hunter. Mom took us home to her house where the police presence was back out front, and for the first day and a half, I kept my eyes on Hunter at all times, even when he was sleeping.

I’d been keeping in touch with Blake about how Leif was doing and late that afternoon before we hung up he said,

              “I’ll bet he’d love to wake up to you at his bedside, Karli.” I hesitated, and he must have thought that it was about our history because he said, “Believe me, I know how annoying this kid can get, but he’s just got so damned much heart that even I can’t hate him and I hate everyone.”

              I actually laughed. When I sobered again, I said, “I don’t hate him, not even close. It’s just so hard for me to let Hunter out of my sight.”

              “Oh, I understand. You take care of that boy.”

              “Thank you, Blake.”

              “No thanks needed for me. I’ll keep you posted about Leif.”

              I watched TV with Hunter for a while after that, and we played a game on his X-Box and had dinner. After dinner, he spent some time in his room coloring. I sat across the hallway in my room, trying to give him some space but still unable to let him out of my sight. He hollered over once and asked me how to spell “thank you” and “hero.” I was pretty sure he was making something for Leif. A little later, when I was helping him get ready for bed, he said, “Mom, when can I see Leif?”

              “I’m not sure, baby. He might be in the hospital for a while. He’s in a part of the hospital right now where they don’t allow children to visit.”

              “Oh, I wanted to tell him thank you. I was so scared Mama.” I instantly pulled him into me and hugged him tight.

              “I know, baby. I’m so sorry.”

              He wiggled away from me. “It’s okay, Mama. Please don’t cry again.” I sucked back the tears and he went on, “I made a card for Leif. Can you take it for me?”

              “Oh, well maybe we can wait until he’s in a place where you can see him and we can go together. I just don’t want to leave you right now.”

              “Grandma’s here.”

              “I know but…”

              “Please, Mama.”

              His blue eyes were pleading with me and I couldn’t say “no.” I kissed him goodnight and promised I’d take the card to Leif, then I found my mother, and an hour later I was sitting and watching him sleep. I had no idea how I’d ever thank him for what he did. He didn’t just save Hunter’s life, he saved mine. Now as I stood at the edge of the bed and listened to him apologize to me in one sweet breath and promise me that no one would ever hurt Hunter and me in a low growl that I completely believed, I realized Blake was right. This “kid” had way too much heart. It explained so much about him, and I wondered why I hadn’t seen it before.

              I took a deep breath and said, “Hunter made something he wanted me to give you. Is it okay if I switch on the light?”

              I saw him grin. “The better to see you with, my dear,” he said with a low chuckle.

              I laughed, as I reached up to turn on the light. “Man, they have you on some good drugs, don’t they?” He laughed again until he saw the card in my hands, and then suddenly he looked like he might cry. He tried to pick up his arm and reach for the card, but one was weighted down with bandages and ice packs from where he’d gotten shot and the other one had not one but two IV lines running into it. “I’ll open it for you,” I told him. “Are you finished with the front?”

              “Is that me?” I looked down at the card. Hunter had drawn two stick figures on the front of it. One was a lot taller than the other and his long, stick arms had circles drawn where the biceps should be. I smiled.

              “Yeah, it’s you and him.”

              “I like it. It looks just like us.” I opened up the card, and once again, his pretty green eyes filled with tears. Across the top, he’d written “Thank you.” In the middle, he’d drawn the stick figure again of the man with the muscles and under it he’d written “Hero” and “Leif.” At the bottom he’d signed it, “Your friend, Hunter.” He’d asked me to help him spell each word, but this was the first time I’d read the card. I had tears in my eyes as well. I looked back at Leif and a big tear was sliding down his cheek. “Nobody ever made anything for me before.”

              I smiled. “You saved his life. You deserve it.”

              “No, that’s not true.”

              “It’s not?”

              “No, Karli. You saved my life all those years ago, you and Hunter.”

              “But I was so mean…”

              “You weren’t mean. Hell, I was stalking you practically. Mean might have been having me locked up…maybe, or maybe that’s what I deserved. Anyways, even when I didn’t see you two, it kept my thoughts from turning to dark places because as long as there was even a chance that I’d run into you again, there was hope in my heart. It kept me going. It got me out of bed every single day. So what I did for Hunter was just returning the favor.” My tears were flowing freely now, as he went on to say, “Is he really okay, Karli? I was never as scared in my life as I was when I saw that man grab him.”

              I put my hand inside his. He looked down at it and back up at me. It was the hand with his missing fingers. I curled my fingers around his and felt him tighten his around mine at last. “He’s going to be just fine,” I told him, “But you need to hurry and get better because he wants to see you really bad. You’re his hero, just like the card says.”

              “I don’t even possess the words that would describe what that means to me,” he said. He tightened his grip on my hand, and after a few seconds, I felt him relax and his breaths began to slow. I sat back down in the chair, and once again, I watched him sleep. I finally had no doubts whatsoever at all that fate was what brought Leif and me together if for no other reason than my little boy needed a hero. God knows the man that created him was never going to be anything close to that.