Open Life (Open Skies #5) (17 page)

That was the last thing she remembered before a wave of blackness brutally crashed over her. She fell in to it, welcomed the oblivion it offered. Anything to avoid facing what she’d just done.

I killed him.

Chapter Nineteen

When Maria opened her eyes again, she was on the sofa in her apartment. She was naked and wrapped tightly in two blankets. Dillon was lying next to her fully-clothed, his arm curled around her waist, his eyes serious and watchful. The pain and worry that she saw in them told her that it hadn’t been a dream.

She turned on her side to face him. “It all happened?”

“It all happened.”

She took a deep breath. “You brought me here?”

“Yeah.” He touched her cheek. “After you passed out, I hustled you out of there before the cops arrived. Phil and Mattie will handle everything at that end and in the morning, we’ll go to the police station and make a statement, OK?”

She nodded. “OK.”

He ran his fingertip over her lips. “How are you doing now?”

“I don’t know.”

“You feel anything about it yet?”

She looked up at the ceiling, really listening to her own emotions. “I feel something, but I don’t know what it is. I know I don’t feel sorry… I feel –” She stopped, considered some more. “I feel like I made a choice and now I have to live with it and all of its consequences. I feel OK with that.”

Dillon was silent. He’d already made up his mind to not tell her that she hadn’t
had
to make the choice that she did. The call that Dillon had made after knocking the second asshole out had been to Phil for backup. He'd chosen Phil because he figured that something had to have happened to Dwayne – after all, how else did those fuckers manage to get past the functional cameras? Turns out he'd been right, of course: Dwayne had been knocked out by some kind of tranquilizing dart and he was still probably sleeping off its effects.

When Captain had shown up, Dillon hadn’t disconnected the cell before putting it down and Phil had been right there the whole time, on the patio, waiting for Captain and Maria to emerge. He’d told Dillon that he’d fully intended to shoot Captain in the leg to get him to release Maria – and Phil would have finished him off without hesitation if the other man had so much as moved his gun.

What Maria had done had been unnecessary, on the whole, but knowing that wasn’t going to help her in the slightest. Right now, Dillon saw no need to enlighten her about that. But there was a bigger issue, one that he
did
have to discuss with Maria.

“Baby?” he said. “Can we talk about the police statement?”

She looked up at him, her dark eyes still a bit dazed. “Sure.”

He reached for her, pulled her close. “I’m going to say that I killed both men.”

“You what?” she said, stunned. “No! Why?”

“Because I was there to do a job, I’m licensed to carry a weapon, I’m trained. If someone like me pulls the trigger to defend a client, the investigation goes a certain way. But when someone like you does? It – it changes everything. It gets way messier.”

“Messier?”

“Yeah. It starts up talk of self-defence and justifiable homicide.” He ran his fingers up and down her tense back, trying to soothe her. “You’d be put under the microscope in a way that I wouldn’t.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“I promise you it’s true.”

“Dillon.” Her voice was stronger now. “I’m not letting you take the blame for this… you could get charged with two counts of murder. I’m not letting you lie – and I’m not lying either.”

A pained look crossed his handsome face. “Maria…”

“No.” She sat up, pulled away from him. “
No
. I’m telling the truth and so are you.”

He sat up too. “Honey, please. Please let me do this for you. Let me take the heat.”

“No. You’re a man who values the truth and for you to lie is to – deny and belittle something that you hold dear.” She paused. “For you, the truth is almost sacred and you’re not going to betray it. Not for me.”

“You’re the only person in the world I’ll do it for and be OK with it.” He ran his fingers over her hand. “Just you, baby. I’ll do it for you.”

“No,” she said again. “No.”

He was silent, studying the look on her face. She wasn’t going to budge, he knew that as sure as he knew that he loved her.

“Maria… you do know what you’re going to potentially have to face, right?”

“I
should
have to face things,” she said. “I killed him. Yeah, I had my reasons and yeah, I’d do it again. He and his friends were going to hurt me badly, then I was going to end up dead. He and his buddies came in shooting and armed to the teeth and they’d have killed us both, given half a chance.” She bit her lip. “I made my choice and I have to stand by it with you, and the police, and myself. I can’t lie about what I did and I won’t let you do that, either.”

He shook his head, torn between admiration and exasperation. “Are you totally sure?”

“Yes.” She moved back in to his arms. “Totally.”

“OK.” He sighed. “I guess we went in to this whole thing together and we’ll come out of it the same way, huh?”

“Exactly.” Maria kissed him. “We face whatever it is together.”

“I can do that.” Dillon closed his eyes, already worried about what was coming, but trusting her decision. “I got your back.”

“I know. And I have yours.”

He thought about her stepping between him and Captain, about her pulling that trigger. “That is for goddamn sure, darlin’.”

**

Maria was woken up several hours later by Dillon’s voice. He was keeping it low and quiet, but she heard it anyway: something in it felt way wrong.

He said goodbye and set the cell phone down on the coffee table. He ran his hands over his face and sighed.

“What?” she said, her voice hoarse. “What is it?”

Dillon turned and looked at her. “That was Jax.”

“Yeah? You told him what happened here?”

“I did.” Dillon hesitated. “And he told me what happened there.”

“What?” Maria sat up fast, wincing a bit as the morning light hit her eyes full-on. “What happened there? Is Gabi OK?”

Dillon wrestled with himself, wanting so badly to lie to her to spare her the inevitable fear and pain. “Well, no. She’s not.”

“What happened? Tell me.”

“She’s been hurt.”

“Hurt?”

He held her eyes. “The Fallen Angels grabbed her from Aidan's place, baby, and they had her for a few hours. King and Aidan got her back and she’s at the hospital – but she’s not in great shape. She’s – she’s not talking. She’s in some kind of catatonic state.”

“Oh, God,” she whispered, waves of terror already washing over her. “Oh, no.”

“Yeah.”

“How did they get her?”

“They did what they did here – stormed where she was. Came in shooting.”

“When?”

“Last night, at the exact same time that they attacked us. It was obviously coordinated so nobody could warn anybody else.”

“Was anyone killed?” She held her breath, thinking about all these people she’d never even met: King, Jax, Aidan.

“No. Nobody was killed.” He saw no need to elaborate further about Aidan’s injuries. After all, she’d only asked if anybody had died.

She studied him. “How long have you known about all of this?”

He sighed. “Jax called when I was driving you over here last night and told me about them grabbing her. King called about four hours ago, told me that they knew where she was and they were going to get her. And now Jax just called to give me an update from the hospital.” He looked down. “I didn’t want to wake you up… not until I was sure you were OK yourself.”

“I’m not bad. I’m – better than I was. And we need to go to Denver.”

“You certain you want that?”

“Yes. I want to be there for her when she starts talking again.” Her dark eyes were steady as she already decided that it was all going to be OK; she refused to consider the alternative. “Can we go now?”

“Yeah. We leave in ten.”

She suddenly remembered. “But my police statement…”

“You can give it back in the city,” Dillon assured her. “The Denver PD will be working with the Clarity cops, anyway, I guarantee it. The Fallen Angels are local to the DPD and they’re known, believe me. I know several cops in the city who’ll be taking a very personal interest in all of this.”

“You think I can give my statement there for sure? No problems?”

“None.” He got to his feet now and carefully helped her stand. “Now, get dressed and go pack. We’re going to go and wait for your sister to come back to us. OK?”

“You’ll stay with me the whole time?”

Dillon caught her in his arms, trying to stop her shaking with his muscles, with his kisses. “I’m not leaving you, Maria. Not for one second and not for anything.”

“Promise?”

“On my life.”

Chapter Twenty

The closer they got to Denver, the more tense Dillon felt himself get. Maria didn’t have the first clue about the Fallen Angels, but more than that, she didn’t know Dillon away from Open Skies. He was full of doubts about how she’d react when she saw Dangerous Curves, saw the kinds of customers that he threw out of the place.

Also worryingly, how would she react to King, Jax, Aidan? They were all hard-as-nails motherfuckers and he was absolutely one of them. He clearly remembered how she’d reacted when she’d touched his gun by accident in the kitchen. Despite what she’d done to Captain, she wasn’t like him and the guys. Not in her core.

For the past three weeks, Dillon had been gentle with Maria, tender and careful – but that was over now. He’d shot a man in the head right in front of her without even batting an eyelash, savagely smashed another one from behind. There was more violence to come, he’d bet on it, and if he were being honest, he may well have to inflict some more of his own. If it meant getting back at the guys who’d hurt Gabi, he’d do it and no hesitation. But would it lose him Maria?

He glanced over at her now. She was looking blankly out the window, silent and unmoving. He wondered if she was still in shock and if he should have taken her to the hospital after she collapsed. She was making sense, though, and was surprisingly steady on her feet and in her speech. She was trying to make peace with what she’d done, he knew, and he carefully reached for her hand.

“Maria?”

She jumped.

“Baby, you doing alright?” He brought her cold fingers to his lips. “Talk to me, OK?”

“Not yet.” Her voice was broken in some way that he almost felt. “I can’t talk yet, Dillon.”

He nodded. “When you’re ready, you’ll let me know?”

“Yes.” She blinked and he saw her thoughts clear. “We almost there?”

“Yeah. Two minutes.” He paused. “Listen, Maria. The guys at the hospital? They’re… kind of scary-looking, OK, but they’re good people.”

She stared at him, surprised. “I know.”

“You do?”

“Of course I do, babe. I imagine they’re just like you, right?”

“I guess so.”

She smiled faintly at the confusion in his voice. “That first morning you came bursting in to Open Skies without any warning? In your leather jacket and motorcycle boots and with your no-bullshit face and scary-as-all-hell voice? You looked like the baddest bad-ass ever to walk the planet… but just a few hours later, you were holding me as I cried.”

He shifted, kept his eyes on the road. “Yeah.”

“I knew then that you were a good man, Dillon. Hard, rough, dangerous, sure. But you weren’t going to hurt
me
, not ever, and you weren’t going to let anyone else hurt me either.”

“No fucking way,” he growled, furious at the mere thought.

“And that’s how I picture King and Jax and Aidan and all the rest of the guys you’ve told me about, to be honest. Tough men, maybe even lethal men, but they’ve been protecting Gabi for weeks and that makes them
good
men, too.” She held his hand tighter. “I don’t care how scary they look, Dillon. All I care about is if they have good hearts.”

“They do.”

“Then it’ll all be fine.” She smiled again, a real smile this time. “
I’ll
be fine.”

“OK.” He felt some of the tension leave his upper back. “Well, we’re here.”

Maria looked up at the hospital. “Yeah, we are. Let’s go.”

**

They stepped off the elevator on the fifth floor, headed down to the waiting room and all Maria saw in front of her were mountains of tattooed muscle and hard faces and fierce eyes. She almost laughed aloud:
of
course
they looked like this. Was there ever any doubt?

The terrifying men stood up as one and fixed their eyes on her. Dillon was still holding her hand and she was glad for his steadiness and warmth; he led her over to the guys and one after the other, they extended large hands and carefully shook hers, taking her in the whole time.

When Aidan grinned at her, all shaggy blonde hair and golden eyes, she found herself grinning back. So
this
was the man Gabi was with. Her sister had gushed about him on the phone a tiny bit and Maria studied him intently. A bandage on the side of his neck caught her attention and she wondered if she should ask about it, decided not to. Not yet.

Jax, Dillon’s boss, was even more intimidating than Dillon was, with dark green eyes and dark hair. He had tattoos up and down both muscled arms, all the way to the wrists. Maria blinked when she saw the dragon on his forearm, recognizing it as the same as Phil’s. She bit her lip, decided to let
that
question slide for now, too.

And then there was King. In a room full of large men, he was by far the largest and she peered up at him, amazed at the genuine kindness in those gray eyes. When he spoke to her, it was like a rumble from the deepest, darkest part of the earth.

“How you doing, hon?” King asked her, still holding her hand. “After last night?”

“I – I’m not sure.” She thought about it. “I’m still not sorry.”

“Good,” Jax grunted. “None of us are happy you had to do that, but we
are
happy to have you two standing here.”

“That’s how I feel, I think,” Maria said. “I wish like hell that it hadn’t happened – but we’re alive. I’ll accept whatever comes my way, since it means we’re still breathing.”

The men nodded.

“How’s Gabi?” Maria said. “Is she doing OK?”

The men exchanged glances.

“How much did Dillon tell you, darlin’?” Aidan asked, his Texan drawl as warm and comforting as Eric’s. “About what happened?”

“Just that she was taken from your place and that they had her for a few hours.” She saw them look at each other again. “What did they do to her?”

A cavernous silence fell and she froze.

“OK, you know what?” Her voice didn’t even sound like hers. “Don’t tell me yet.”

“Why not?” Dillon said.

“Because I want to go and see her and I’m suddenly getting the sense that I won’t be able to keep it together for her if I know the whole story. Just tell me – was she badly beaten?”

“No.” Despite that good news, Jax still looked angry. “No, they didn’t do too much of that. You should also know, Maria, that they didn’t rape her.”

“Thank God.” She pushed her hair back with trembling hands. “So – which room is she in?”

“Five-oh-two, but they’re making it hard for us to see her,” Jax said. “This one doctor is a real prick and he keeps saying family only, which means that she's in there all alone.”

“OK, well. No problem there anymore.”

Just then, a doctor showed up in the waiting room and right away, Maria disliked him. He had a fussy, pursed-up expression on his face and he looked at the men like he was way above them in every single way. Maria narrowed her eyes at him, knowing how wrong he was about the guys, knowing that any one of them would lay down their own lives to save hers or Gabi's. She wouldn't bet on this doctor doing the same thing.

"How were the results from the x-ray?" Aidan asked the doctor politely. "Anything broken?"

The man gave Aidan a glare. "You know I won't be discussing any of that with
you
."

Before meeting Dillon, Maria would have deferred to the doctor without hesitation, she would have just sat the hell down and shut up. She'd have stayed in the corner and watched quietly, let everyone else handle things. If there had been any unpleasantness or tension, she'd have ducked out of the room and waited for it to pass. No way she'd have drawn attention to herself or made a fuss; no way she'd have challenged a man with a medical degree and a God-complex.

But she
had
met Dillon and she
had
found her voice. He'd shown her that she had the right to demand respect and commitment – that she was more than worthy of both of those things. And if Gabi had been traumatized in to silence by what those monsters had done to her, then it was even more important for Maria to speak up on her behalf and get to her. Less than twenty-four hours before, Maria had shot a man in the head to protect herself and the man she loved – there was
no fucking way
she was afraid of this little jerk in a white coat.

"Why not?" she said now.

All the men stared at her.

"Why not what?" the doctor said.

"Why not tell Aidan what's happening with his girlfriend?"

The doctor's lip curled. "Because we can only give patient information to family and people whom the patient has authorized us to speak to. Gabriela is not talking, so we have no way of being certain that she'd want any of these..." He glanced at the men with clear hostility "...
gentlemen
to know her private medical details."

Maria's eyes flashed. "Then tell me."

"And you are?" he said rudely.

She suddenly thought of Felicia Kramer treating her like an illegal immigrant, like some Mexican who wasn't good for much more than answering the phone in bad English. Maria was totally done with the whole damn thing and she glared at the snot-nosed doctor, ready to fight him every inch of the way, if that's what he wanted to do.

“I'm Gabi's sister, you supercilious little dickhead,” Maria said. “Tell me what the fuck is going on with her. And I mean
now
.”

**

Maria watched as Gabi’s eyes fluttered open. She looked blank, glazed, lost. Maria squeezed her hand, got no reaction.

“Gabi?” She kept her voice low. “Can you hear me?”

Slowly, so slowly, Gabi’s face turned to hers. She blinked twice, stared at Maria.

“Hi.” Maria heard the tears in her voice and she cleared her throat.

Gabi blinked again.

“So I met Aidan,” Maria said in a conversational tone. “Let me tell you, sis, he is something else, huh? All hot and gold like the sun – and that accent? God, it makes me melt a bit, you know?”

Gabi’s gaze was less fuzzy now and she looked a bit more alert.

“I know we talked about him, but you did
not
do the man anything close to justice. He’s sweeter and sexier than you said.”

Maria paused.

“And what I told you about Dillon? It’s about one-half of what I really feel for him. He’s – I love him. I mean, really
really
love him and I don't even care that I've known him less than a month. It's still true.” She touched Gabi’s cheek carefully, was gratified when Gabi didn’t flinch or move away. “You love Aidan?”

Gabi’s brow furrowed. Then slowly, she nodded.

Relieved to at least get a response, Maria carried on.

“So I was thinking about staying here for a while. In Denver. I want to be here with you and I want to figure some things out with Dillon and I need to – to get away from Open Skies.”

Maria hesitated, thinking about Captain’s blood and brains washing down the drain of the same shower where she and Dillon had made love so many times. The thought of even setting foot in that apartment ever again was horrifying. She wasn’t sure she could so much as stand at the Reception desk, knowing that the living room where she had killed a man was in the same building as her work station.

Gabi was still staring at her, so she pushed the grisly thoughts away.

“I need a break from work, you know?” She forced a cheery tone in to her words. “My boss gets back from her honeymoon today, so I’ll call her later and ask for a vacation. I think she’ll say yes and then I can come and see you every day, here and at home with Aidan.” She stopped, wondering if she was presuming too much. “I mean, if you want me to. Do you want me to?”

Gabi nodded again, more strongly.

“OK, so.” Maria exhaled. “I’ll stay.”

“How long?” Gabi’s voice was weak and rough at the same time and Maria was startled that she’d spoken at all. “How long will you stay?”

“As long as you need me.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to need you for a while.”

“That’s OK.”

“You won’t get fired?”

“No.” Maria was certain Julie wasn’t going to fire her for needing time away after shooting a man, for her sister needing her after something horrible happening. “No, I’ll be fine.”

Gabi’s eyes filled with tears. “It was bad.”

“What they did to you?”

Gabi nodded. “Do you know?”

“No. Do you want to tell me?”

“No. Not yet.” Gabi’s lips trembled. “Is that OK?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not ready.”

Maria remembered Dillon’s words to her when she'd said the exact same thing a few hours earlier. “Will you let me know when you are ready? Will you talk to me?”

Gabi nodded.

“OK, then.” Maria took her sister’s hand more securely in her own. “You want to be quiet now? Just breathe?”

Gabi nodded, looking more relaxed. “Just breathe.”

“Alright.” Maria kissed her fingers, gently pressed them to Gabi’s cheek, avoiding the small bruises there. “Whatever you need. I’m here.”

Maria turned on the TV now and the women settled down to watch. Or at least, their eyes were on the screen. Maria wasn’t paying much attention to the reality show in front of her. She was thinking about the fact that Open Skies was her home and that she had, in effect, just left it. She had left the only family she'd ever known. She couldn't say yet for how long she was going to be gone, but it was going to be a while. Probably months.

Briefly, she wondered if she could really do that; if she could walk away from her whole life, even temporarily. She thought about Jake and Julie and how badly she wanted to be there to meet their baby. She thought about Rob and Tammy, and Mattie and Vicky and Phil and Sonia… she knew that leaving the ranch for good wasn’t an option for her. But taking a break? Figuring things out with Dillon? Maybe those weren’t such bad things, considering everything.

First, I stay here for Gabi. Then I stay here for myself and Dillon. Then, to recover and heal from what I did. From what I
had
to do. Can I start again in Denver? Do I
want
to start again in Denver?