All Through the Night (Liar's Web) (24 page)

“
Lenny was at the station earlier. He came by to give me some information he was holding on to about Andre's involvement in Ronnie's organization.” He let out deep sigh. “It seems Andre was his partner in crime the whole time. While he was there, he heard Bo give me the forensics information about Andre's prints being on the weapon used to kill Ronnie. I did everything I could to stop him from coming here, baby, but he clearly wanted to save you.”

She heard a loud buzzing noise in her ears, and she stumbled for a moment, stunned by what she'd just heard. Jake reached out to steady her, and she brusquely placed her hands on his arm, then pushed away from him. “I've got to ride along in the ambulance with Lenny. He needs me.”

She ran to the ambulance and jumped into the back, planting herself next to the gurney where she could hold vigil over her brother. As the ambulance roared away from her house, she looked back out the window and caught a glimpse of Jake standing in her front yard like a statue, his arms planted across his chest, his expression dark and inscrutable. A cold vice gripped her heart as she stared at the man she loved and watched him get smaller and smaller in the distance, until he became invisible.

Her heart lurched painfully as the harsh reality of her situation came into sharp focus. Lenny's breathing was labored and shallow. His face had been leached of its warm brown complexion, and his lips had a bluish tint. She knew by watching the frantic actions of the EMTs that he was barely clinging to life.

With trembling fingers, Darcel reached into her purse and dug out her cell phone, her hand shaking as she punched in their parents’ home number. As the phone began to ring, she wracked her brain, trying to find the words to break the news to them. She had to stay strong. Although it was her natural instinct to shelter the ones she loved from pain, she couldn't do it this time.

There was no point in sugar-coating the situation. Lenny hovered between life and death. It would be nothing more than cruel to allow her parents false hope. As Darcel heard her father's cheery voice on the other end of the line, she managed to stifle the sob rising in her throat.

Darcel couldn't believe how quickly life turned on a dime. A few hours ago her heart had been filled to overflowing with love for Jake. And now, that same heart was shattering in a million pieces because she knew she would never forgive Jake for placing her brother directly in harm's way.

Chapter Fourteen

Jake felt as if he was about to jump out of his skin. All hell had broken loose after he'd shot Andre. The paramedics had arrived to transport Lenny and Andre to the hospital. Andre had been pronounced dead in the ambulance, and although it killed him to have taken a life, he knew he'd had no other choice. Protecting Darcel had been utmost in his mind—then, now, always. He'd take down a hundred punks like Andre if it meant keeping his lady in one piece.

Darcel rode with Lenny in the ambulance, and Jake raced like hell to join her at the hospital after securing the crime scene and waiting for back up. When he saw Ed and Shirley in the waiting room, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that Lenny was still fighting for his life.

Shirley was dabbing at her eyes with a Kleenex while Ed appeared to be a shadow of the man he'd been mere days ago. Folks from the community had gathered to support them, Jake realized, as he looked around the waiting room and saw a dozen familiar faces. Pastors. Church ladies. Schoolteachers. Realtors. They had all come together to support the Dawkins family in their time of need.

Jake made his way over to the Dawkins, hating to bother them in their darkest hour, yet knowing he needed to find Darcel. The last time he'd seen her, she'd been at Lenny's side in the ambulance, her face full of dread and tears. Shirley jumped up when she saw him and threw her arms around his shoulders, showering him with praise for taking Andre down and giving Lenny CPR.

“
We'll never forget what you did for our family tonight,” Shirley said in a tear-filled voice.

“
I wish I could've done more, Mrs. Dawkins.”

She patted his hand and gave him a shaky smile. “Shirley. Please call me Shirley. You've surely earned the right to call me by my first name.”

“
Shirley,” he said as he glanced around the room, “I'm looking for Darcel. I haven't seen her anywhere.”

“
She went to the chapel to light a candle for her brother,” Ed explained. “The doc said it was touch and go, so we're all praying for a miracle.”

“
She won't be able to take it if something happens to that boy.” Shirley blotted her tears away with a tissue. “She's always been like a second mama to him, fretting and fussing over everything he says and does.”

Jake gripped Shirley's hands in his own and gazed straight into her eyes. “Your son is a fighter. He's not going anywhere.” He raised her hands to his lips and kissed them, his eyes filled with compassion and hope.

As he made his way to the hospital chapel, Jake started thinking about his own relationship with the man upstairs. He wasn't a very religious man, and although he hated to admit it, he tended to reach out only in times of dire need. Like today, when Darcel's life was on the line. He'd said more prayers in one hour than he'd uttered in a lifetime.

He had a lot to be thankful for. If things had gone just a little differently, he'd have lost the woman he loved. Never again, he vowed, would he withhold his feelings from Darcel. Starting today, he was going to let her know in a million different ways how much he loved her. Life was way too short to let fear stand in your way.

He paused in the chapel doorway so he could get a good look at Darcel before she saw him. Her face was drawn and tight. Her eyes were puffy and bloodshot, and she looked as if she were carrying the weight of the world on her thin shoulders. She looked weary, and he just wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss away her fears. He wanted to make everything all right, to pull out some magical wand that would turn this nightmare into a happy ending. But life didn't always end up happily ever after. Sometimes the bad guys did major damage along the way.

He strode toward her, wanting to help her in any way he could, even if it was merely being there as moral support. “Hey! How are you holding up?”

He reached out to place his arm around her, and she swatted his hand away, her face seething with rage.

“
How do you think I'm holding up, Sheriff Trueblood? My brother was shot twice in in the abdomen.” Her lips quivered as she spat out, “He's in the operating room fighting for his life, battling to make it through the surgery.” Darcel laughed bitterly, her beautiful face twisted in anger as she stared him down. “All because you filled him in on Andre's whereabouts. He never should have been at my house today. You gave him information that may have gotten him killed.

“
You're supposed to serve and protect. Isn't that your motto? Your creed? What about duty and honor? You throw around words like that all the time when it suits your purpose. Where was your honor when you placed my brother directly in the line of fire?”

Her words were like daggers, piercing his heart and leaving him bloody and wounded. He shook it off, determined to make his way through all the anger and show her the truth.

“
It wasn't like that. I would never have placed Lenny in harm's way.” He reached out for her, touching nothing more than air as she twisted her body to move away from him.

“
You hate him, don't you? You've always hated him. What was this? Payback for his run-ins with the law? Your twisted sense of justice?”

“
You're upset,” he said in a soothing voice. “You don't know what you're saying.”

“
Yes, I do,” she spoke through gritted teeth. “I know you're not the man I thought you were. I don't even think you're the man you thought you were.” A look of revulsion passed over her face, and she looked at him in disbelief. “I can't believe I thought I loved you.”

“
You do love me!” He stared at her fiercely, angrily, and he could feel the flush of rage flowing through him as her words registered in his brain. “You're not the type of woman who would say those three huge words if she didn't mean it. You can't take that back!”

She held up her hands to ward him off. “No! You cannot make me feel something I don't want to feel,” she screamed, shaking her head back and forth, denying him what he most wanted in the world. Reassurance. Comfort. The knowledge that she still loved him…deeply, sacredly, reverently. “I could never love a man who was responsible for killing my brother.”

He rushed toward her, his powerful arms encircling her in a tight bear hug. It was the only thing he knew how to do to bind her to him. She was slipping away from him, like every other decent thing he'd had in his life. He pinned her arms to her sides so he could look directly in her eyes, connect with her, let her see she wasn't in this thing alone.

He'd never seen her like this. She looked so frightened, so small, so incredibly vulnerable. He didn't know who this woman was. All he knew for sure was he'd walk through fire to get through to her, to show her with every word and deed that he loved her more than his own life.

“
I know you're scared. I know you're hurting, baby.” Tears misted in his eyes, and he felt moist drops trickle down his face. It was the first tear he'd shed since the day they buried his mother. The sensation felt so odd on his face, so foreign, but he didn't bother to wipe it away. It was a testament to everything he felt for this woman.

“
Don't touch me! Don't say my name! I never want to see you again. I never want to make love to you again.” She fought him like a wild woman, flailing against him. Punching. Grunting. Slapping. He bore it all, willing to withstand her wrath until she was spent. As far as he was concerned, it didn't matter how long it took. He was in this for the long haul. He knew her anger stemmed from fear.

Fear of losing a member of her family, a desperation rooted perhaps in the early years of her childhood that she couldn't remember. She broke into sobs and ripped herself from his grip, breaking into a run as she left the chapel.

Pain sliced through him with the force of a tsunami, holding him so tightly in its grip that he could no longer breathe. He was choking on it, drowning in it, engulfed by the sharpest pain he'd ever known. The pain brought him to his knees. He was lost. Despair swallowed him like quicksand. His only chance at love had just walked out the door.

Chapter Fifteen

Tumbleweeds was dead tonight, Case surmised as he entered the bar's dark interior and scanned the room for Jake. Only a handful of people had come out tonight, and they were scattered throughout the establishment, giving it an empty feeling. A love song by Toni Braxton rang out from the jukebox, filled with heartbreak and angst. Somebody wasn't loving somebody the way they used to, according to the lyrics.

It wasn't hard to spot Jake, since he was the only person sitting at the bar. His height and size served to increase the odds of finding him, considering he stuck out like a sore thumb. He was sitting hunched over his beer mug, guzzling it down as if it were going out of style. For the moment Jake was in his own little world, far removed from the harsh realities of life. Case watched from a distance for a few minutes before moving in for the kill.

“
What's up, brotha?” he greeted his old friend with a firm clap on the back.

“
What're you doing here?” Jake looked at him through bloodshot eyes.

“
I heard you were here crying in your beer,” Case sat down next to Jake on a barstool.

Jake glared at him and puffed out his chest. “Who the hell told you that?”

Case chuckled and signaled the waiter for a beer. “It doesn't matter who told me. The truth is you're pretty far gone.”

“
Haven't you ever heard of drowning your sorrows?”

“
Been there, done that,” Case said with a smirk. “If I remember correctly, you were sitting right next to me on this barstool when I was doing it.”

Jake snorted loudly. “Hmmph! I remember it like it was yesterday. You were bitching and moaning about the one that got away. Next thing you know, she walks in that door—” Jake gestured toward the door with his beer mug, cursing loudly as the amber liquid sloshed over the sides. “Boom. The rest is history.”

“
It wasn't as easy as all that, but we did get our happy ending,” Case said with a satisfied smile.

“
Well goody for you.” Jake scowled as he threw back a handful of peanuts. “Remind me to throw you a ticker tape parade.”

Case swept his gaze over the bar. “This is one hell of a pity party you've got going on.”

Jake shrugged and took another swig of his beer.

“
By the way, I heard Lenny's condition has stabilized. He's going to make it.”

Case watched as a look of relief washed over his friend's face. “That's a relief! At least I didn't kill the man.”

“
Of course you didn't kill him. From what I hear, he's flirting up a storm at the hospital and getting the digits of all the cute nurses. Stop blaming yourself for Lenny being shot. For once in his sorry life, he did the right thing. He got shot in the process. Darcel can't blame you for that.”