Saints and Assassins (The Sentinels) (2 page)

The smell of burned
flesh
and clothing
lingered in the air and
made his stomach churn.
Adam
could not
imagine that the man would live through the trauma of the burns.  Pausing at the water fountain,
he listened to the scurrying behind the triage room doors. The voices were muffled
and then a
scream tore through the pungent air.

“No!”
The woman’s scream came
followed by sobs sending
a chill up Adam’s spine.
The police officer ra
n into
the triage room. As the door swu
ng
open, he saw
Eve Nash slump to the floor crying.

Adam listened as t
he doctor explained to the officer that the victim had been Michael
Nash, her husband. A lump stu
ck
in Adam’s throat as he swallowed
hard.

Considering the circumstances, th
is probably wasn’t an accident, but they didn’t know that.
The job had just beco
me
more complicated on all levels
.

Suddenly, he felt
the weight of obligation blanket him.
His heart broke
fo
r her as he realized that she was
alone.

He had
to protect her.

****

Eve knew
that helping
someone in the E.R.
would have been next to impossible. The horror of Michael’s death left her devastated and every time she thought of those brief moments with him in the E.R. brought her to uncontrollable hysteria. 
As
she signed the last page of her leave of absence
packet, Eve let out a deep sigh. Her heart was broken. She couldn’t have felt more alone than she did right
then.

“This isn’t fair!” Eve shouted
and shove
d
all of the papers of
f the kitchen table. She watche
d
the pages fly in multiple directi
ons and as the last page float
ed
t
o the ground she
froze staring blankly at the mess. Her heart ached and she could
feel another stream of tears roll down her cheeks.
It ha
d
only be
en a
week since Michael’s death, and
she
didn’t want to feel this way anymore.

Michael had meant the world to her and now he was gone, but somehow she would have to push through this and live.
Her emotions had been on the
roller coaster to hell and back during the past week. One minute she’d cry the next would be uncontrollable laughter.

“No more tears
.
”
She
wiped the wetness from her cheeks and w
ith that, she bent
over, picked up the papers,
and neatly tucked them into their envelope
. As she walked out to the mailbox, she decided that she must shut her feelings down or she would spend every waking minute grieving.

For the next two
months,
she muted her pain. Sure, the occasional tear fell, but there weren’t any more outburst.

W
ell, u
ntil a knock on her door.

Eve open
ed
the door to find one of Michael’s friends
standing there.

“Greg.” She stated and nodded.
Michael and Greg roomed together at college for a couple years. He had become a lawyer and they would see him occasionally. S
he
could not
imagine what he would be doing there.

“Hello Eve,
” Greg stated. “I hope you’re doing
all right
.”

“I’m fine I suppose. What can I do for you?” Eve noticed something in Greg’s hand.

“I have something for you
. It’s from Michael.”
His voice quivered slightly.
Greg held out
a
white envelope with Eve’s
n
ame written on the front of it.

It was
Michael’s handwriting.

E
ve looked
up at Greg and swallo
wed
hard.
Her hand shook as she accepted
the envelope.

“He had this made up in case something
happened to him and he wanted me
to hand deliver it to you. I think you’ll want to open it in
private so I’ll leave you alone
, but if you need anything from me please don’t hesitate to
call
.”

“Thank you.
”
Her voice sounded weak, she noticed,
and her throat felt dry.

As she closed the door
,
a rush of emotion welled u
p inside
of
her. Her heart raced and her stomach churned. She had no idea that Michael had drawn up any type of will.
Still standing in the open doorway, Eve slowly opened the envelope.

Pulling out several sheets of paper, she found the
first of the
contents to be a letter from Michael.

My dear Eve,

I won’t start this letter too cliché, but obviously if you’ve received this then I’ve unforgivably left you alone. I’m sorry. I’m sorry that however I might have left his world that I left you behind, alone. You have meant everything to me and I hope that I loved you as you
deserved.

I’ve always loved how you are so giving and caring of others, especially to me. I know this may not be much comfort but I hope it helps. Enclosed is a check that is just for you. It was my only way of ensuring that you were taken care of forever.

             
             
             
             
             
             
I love you,

             
             
             
             
             
             
Michael

Eve pull
ed
out
the second piece of paper to find a check made out to her
for
two million dollars.
She
could not
comprehend the amount of money that she now held in her hand, but what troubled her more was that Michael had thought to do something like this.
A stabbing pain tore through her hear
t as if it were a wound being reo
pened.
Either the shock of the situation or the amount of the check had her
paralyzed
, but as she gasped for a breath of air, she realized it was time to change.

E
ven
though she had no idea what her purpose in life might be, she knew she had to do something
.
So
,
while
she listed her house for sale,
Eve found a small apartment that was just blocks from the
lake. She could walk everywhere.
When the movers came to pick up her furniture she had them deliver everything that
she didn’t need
to a women’s shelter
.

Eve took a deep breath as she forc
ed herself to get up.
The curtains to the many windows o
f the apartment were drawn shut and she needed light on a day like today to get motivated. Grasping the heavy fabric
,
she
pulled them back. The sun beamed into the room giving it some s
emblance of color and life. Eve
immediately turned and walked toward the bathroom, passing
the bed and small sofa on her way there.

Eve showered quickly as usual and dried
her hair.
The drying process took
about twenty
minutes
since she hadn’t cut it
in about a year. It was longer than ever, the golden
brown strands almost reached her
waist so she usually pulled it back into a loose ponytail. By the time she dressed
,
her coffee was ready. Out of habit
,
she had set the timer
on the coffee maker
the night before.
If she ever had a problem getting up
,
the aroma of the coffee would usually c
onvince her.

She poured the coff
ee into her travel cup
and left. Her destination for today had yet to be determined.  She had spent time at the
Chicago
museums, aquariums, zoos and libraries not including all of the small shops she had also explored during the last few months. Her favorite place though was the children’s wing at the hospital.

While she still
couldn’t diges
t the idea of going back to her normal job
, she
decided to volunteer
th
ree days a week
working with the children. She read books, played games and sometimes just held
the little ones that needed extra attention
. The time she spent with the kids help
ed her cope with the loneliness.

She wasn
’t scheduled
at the hospital
today
and
thought about what she
w
ould do
a
s the elevator
slowly
descended to the ground floor
. It came to a stop and she snapped out of her tempor
ary daze and exited. As she did
, a man passed by her and entered the ca
r
of the elevator.

With a quick glance she
noticed that he wore black pants, polished black sho
es and a black pea coat
buttoned
up halfway. Her heart beat wildly as she took
at
his handsome features.
 
His
clean-shaven skin begged
to be touched
and
then there was his hair.
The soft kind of hair that she could run her fingers through for hours.
Being
captivated by his looks,
she
turned back to see him again as he turned around in the elevator.  He sta
red back at her
as
the doors closed
.

The moment had caught her off guard and if she had been near a mirror she was sure her cheeks were red as she felt them warm.
She couldn’t remember the last time that a man’s looks had demanded her attention like his did.

Shaking off the brief
encounter Eve crossed the lobby and
continu
ed toward the front entrance. She knew
that she had never seen him before.  Not that it meant anything
because there were hundreds of
other tenants
let alone the
visitors and of course people did move in and out occasionally.

“Hello Ms. Nash,” said the security guard at the desk. She had told him a hundred times to call her by her first name, but he insisted on the professional address.

“Good morning Phil and how are you today?”
Phil was one of the many security guards that
worked in rotating shifts, covering it 24 hours a day.  Phil was by far
her favorite as he acted genuinely glad to see her
and always had a smile.   

“I’m great, and where are you off to today?”
He quizzed her daily as a parent would ask their child.
It gave her a sense of normalcy and she enjoyed it.

“Not sure yet, but I get the feeling that an adventure lies ahead
,
” she replied
.
  Eve
sai
d this occasionally
, hoping that an adventure would find her
. S
omething to add meaning to her life.

“Have you changed your mind about marrying me yet?” Phil asked sarcastically. He teased her frequently with this question since he was thirty years her senior
and
married
.

“Now what will Caryn say about that? I think she’d be a little upset if her husband of how many years up and left?” Eve chuckled as Phil faked a grimace when his wife’s name was mentioned. They
ha
d been married for thirty years and
couldn’t have been happier.