Bounty (18 page)

B
efore anything else can happen
, before my dad can react or move, I shoot the gun out of his hand. It was a good shot, but not completely clean – I’ve mangled his fingers, but hopefully saved his life. But unfortunately, as soon as I fire, it sets off a storm of bullets from the other mobsters, and Liam immediately dives out to knock me to the ground and drag me to safety. The Russians might want to shoot at us, but they’re pretty tied up with my dad’s men. And my dad’s men don’t want to shoot at Liam for fear of hitting me.

And I shot my father.

I watch him stumble back against the wall in shock. As he does, he jerks again, hand going to his leg. He’s been shot again.

I can’t help it, I wrench free from Liam and sprint towards dad.

He needs to be brought to justice, that’s the only way this ends, for all of us. I don’t want him to die.

Not only because I don’t want to lose another parent, but because I still need answers.

Tears spring to my eyes as I grab my father and help him get to the floor. Liam is soon hovering behind me, trying to convince me to leave, but I can’t quite hear him.

“April —”

“Just stay down, dad,” I say, holding my gun to him. “Please don’t make me shoot you again.”

“Helluva shot, though, lass.”

“The cops are on their way,” is all I can respond with. It’s tearing me up inside, feeling shame for what kind of a person he is, but still not wanting to lose him completely.

I imagine it’ll be something I struggle with for the rest of my life.

Liam finally seems to understand, because he stops yelling at me to leave and instead just lays down more suppressive fire, making sure my father is positioned between us and anyone who might want to shoot us.

I finally hear sirens. Thank God.

“April,” my dad’s voice is getting weaker.

“He’s bleeding from his leg a lot,” I say to Liam.

“Paramedics are on their way,” he says. “Tie this above the wound.” He removes his belt for me to use as a tourniquet.

“I can’t believe… mine own daughter.”

“Yes, well…” I say. “You should probably go to jail, dad.”

“I did all this for you. It was all for you,” he whispers.

“No, it wasn’t.” I shake my head slowly. “You did this for you. For your ego. All
I
ever needed was for you to be my dad.”

“I
am
your father. I love you, sweet pea.”

“Well, this isn’t the right way to do it,” I say. “I would have much rather had a dad that was around, especially after mom…”

“Fuck,” my dad groans. “I fucked up.”

“Yeah. Either that, or you didn’t work hard enough to indoctrinate me,” I whisper.

While Liam once again single-handedly fights off gangsters for me, I continue tying the belt around my father’s leg until the police arrive.

There is significantly less gunfire after that. Liam is leaning against a wall, recovering from… no.

No!

Liam is not okay. Really not okay. There is a lot of blood gushing over a spot on his torso where he has his hand pressed.

As soon as I notice that, I drop my dad. Literally. One moment I’m helping him to his feet, and the next I’m letting him fall back to the floor as I rush over to Liam. Dad is okay now, but Liam needs me.

I sprint to Liam and ease him down, in almost a comic parody of what just happened.

I lift his jacket away from his torso and see only red.

“Oh my god,” I say. “You got shot.” While I was sitting there, chatting with my criminal fire, Liam was covering us both and got caught by a stray bullet.

“You got shot for me,” I correct, feeling light-headed.

“Well, I love you,” Liam says, but now there’s blood on his lips, and…

“Can I get some fucking help here?” I shriek desperately.

I lay him down and apply pressure over the wound. That’s all I know to do. And I yell at him. I scream that he’s not allowed to die. That I need him.

He isn’t passed out, not yet. I can see the deep ocean-moss of his eyes, but he can’t talk.

“EMTs! EMTs! Help!” I keep screaming, like a siren. Finally, there’s a woman there, pushing me aside. Then another, with tools. Then a gurney appears.

“Wait,” I say. “Bring me with you. Please.”

“Are you injured?” It’s a fireman, I think.

“No, you have to take me with you,” and suddenly I’m sobbing. “I can’t leave him.”

They let me ride with him to the hospital. I hear snippets of information. Blood loss. Old concussion. Acute stress response.

Going into shock.

Oh wait. Maybe that’s me.

W
hen I come to
, April’s face is the first thing I see. Radiant. Golden.

Her smile washes over me, and for a few moments I don’t know and I don’t care if I ‘m dead or alive. Gazing at her makes me happy.

Then I realize she’s trying to talk to me.

“Mmmm,” is the only sound I can make come out of my mouth. It’s very tiring, so I go back to sleep.

W
hen I come
to the second time, I’m much more myself. April is asleep next to me, crammed into the small space of the hospital bed. One of her smaller clocks is on the bedside table.

Ah, so it’s been a while.

Her form pressing against me feels warm and good. I have bandages all over, but I’m feeling surprisingly okay.

“Am I on drugs?” I ask her. My mouth and brain feel sluggish. “No wait. Don’t answer that. First, how are you?”

She smiles into my shoulder.

“I’m fine. How are you?”

“On drugs.”

We giggle.

“How’s your father?”

“Pissed off. In custody. But alive.” She lifts her eyes so she can gaze at me. “He might lose part of the leg.”

“I’m so sorry, April. I never meant for anyone to get hurt, you have to know that. I just bring people in. I don’t shoot people.” I stop. “Well, unless I’m forced to.”

“I know, Liam. I talked to Vicente while you were out. Learned a bit more about the bounty hunting business.”

“I’m sorry about your father.”

“Well, I’m the one that shot him in the hand.” She shrugs. “And he brought this on himself when he decided that making money was more important than being a good person.”

“You’re a good person,” I say.

“So are you,” she points out.

“I almost took the money, instead of doing the right thing,” I say. “I have be honest with you. The night I went to meet up with you… I wasn’t sure what I was going to do until the last second. Until I told you I had to tell you something. I wasn’t sure if I was going to sick the Feds on you and your family or not.”

“Honestly,” she picks at the threads of my shirt. “I love you for what you chose. You chose me. But I think taking down my dad, that was also the right decision.”

I nod. “Even with the bounty?”

“Funny thing about that,” she says, a little smile curling up along her lips. “With you out cold, it was actually me who handed my dad over to the FBI.”

“You’re taking my bounty?” I ask, both boggled and impressed.

Her face takes on a serious look for a moment. “It was Vicente who pointed that technicality out, actually.” She pauses, but then can’t hold back her smile and laugh any longer. “I told him we did it together. So it can be ours.”

“That sounds like a good deal,” I nod. I can’t think of a better way to ensure that April sticks with me. Besides, it was far more money than I needed.

“But more importantly, the FBI are far more concerned with using the information my dad has, and I’ve convinced him to share, to cut a deal, maybe get out of prison before he dies of old age. He can help dismantle his entire empire, maybe deal a blow to some of the others. Get a lot of weapons and drugs off the streets. Keep even more people from getting hurt.”

“Essentially completely destroying what your father built,” I say. “Aren’t you afraid of retaliation?”

She only shrugs. “It feels like the right way to make amends, he’s brought this on himself.”

“Okay, but I was more talking about you. Plenty of his people know you are his daughter, and obviously others do as well, like the Russians. We need to get you a security detail,” I say.

She ignores this. “I lived with my head in the sand for so long, benefitting from his exploitation of others.”

“You really are an amazing human, April Fitzpatrick.”

She winces and shrugs again. “Speaking of the Russians, I got the full story about them, too.”

“Don’t tell me —“

“No, he didn’t order them to attack me or anything like that. Apparently their two gangs were in the midst of some heated negotiations and some of their crew thought they’d think outside the box, so to speak. You know, add some pressure on him in order to get the terms they wanted. Of course, when he found out about it, he was furious and threatened all out war. The Russians decided to instead meet his demands in the negotiations, as way of making up for it. In turn, he agreed not to retaliate against those responsible.”

“So…” I don’t really want to say it, but she finishes it for me.

“Yeah, so he basically forgave them in order to get a better deal. Everyone has their own priorities, right?” I can see tears welling in her eyes, but she holds them back.

“It’s okay darling. It’s okay.” I stroke her hair, and we just rock together for a while.

“At least it’s all over now,” I say.

“You still want to be with me? Even after you got attacked and then shot? Even after I sold you out?”

“You still want to be with me? Even after I lied to you and took advantage of you?”

We lock eyes, my breaths coming low and shallow.

And then she nods, and I nod, and she swoops in for a kiss, and no amount of blood loss or drugs could keep me from feeling that thrill of arousal when her lips are on mine.

“I can’t wait to make you mine,” I say.

“And I can’t wait to let you,” she says. “And I promise this time we’ll go on a normal date. No guns, no knives, no airplanes or gangsters.”

“Maybe some clocks?”

“Maybe,” she allows, and then she’s giggling, and I’m laughing too, and I know that as long as April is by my side, I have more to look forward to in the future than I ever have before.