Authors: Ann Vaughn
“You
preparing for a war, Gib?” she asked when he handed the vest to her.
“I
stocked up when Bruce called me about their escape,” he explained.
“Smart
man...look, there are a dozen or so caves, and they all go pretty far back
under the cliffs. Shane is losing blood fast, we are going to have to
split up.”
“Agreed,
but you listen to me...you find him, you let out the loudest whistle you can,
and I’ll do the same.”
She
nodded while strapping weapons on. Armed, they got back into
the truck and drove the last two miles, finding Shane’s truck and the Heltons
abandoned sedan. Both vehicles were bloodied on the inside.
“They
have to be in one of the first two caves,” Gib surmised, “he could not have
transported two injured men very far.”
“There’s
a blood trail...Gib, you’ll have to hold back. He told me to come
alone. He’s got to know I won’t, but he can’t see you.”
“You
go in, I’ve got your back.”
Tessa
took a deep breath and followed the bloody trail to the mouth of the second
cave, gun drawn and ready. With each step she took, she felt her anxiety
begin to lesson and an eerie calm settle over her. She was on her way to
her destiny, pass or fail, whatever happened in the next few moments would
change her world forever.
“Nathaniel?
I’m here,” she called, slowly rounding the corner toward the flickering light
of a fire. She saw Nathaniel leaning against the far wall, Shane held in
front of him, gun to his temple, and Paul’s body lying next to the fire.
The entire right side of Shane’s body was covered in blood, and what she could
see of his face didn’t look good. His color was gone, his skin almost
grey. He was on his feet but she suspected he wouldn’t last much longer.
“That’s
far enough,” Nathaniel warned her, yanking Shane’s head back by the hair.
“Put that gun down or I’ll blow his head off. Don’t think I’m going to
fall for that “shoot the hostage” ploy, either. He’s lost so much blood,
you give him another injury and he’ll be dead before his body hits the
ground.” Tessa could see that Nathaniel was right but there was no way
she was giving up her weapon. “I’ll do it, you know I will. Put the
gun down.”
“I
can’t do that, Nathaniel,” she told him.
“You
better. He’s not going to make it much longer. Only way to help him
is to do what I say.”
“Not
going to happen. I put the gun down you’ll just kill us both
anyway. What do you want, Nathaniel? You’ve already lost your
brother. What do you hope to gain from all this?”
“Your
suffering. My end game is all about taking everything you hold dear from
you. You came into my world and deceived me. You made me love you
and then you took everything away from me. Now, I’m going to take
everything from you. Starting with him.”
“You
loved me? Really, Nathaniel? You loved me so much, you beat and
raped me, you allowed Paul to use a whip on me and rape me and then you let
four of your Elders rape me. That’s how you show your love?”
“Discipline
is necessary to ensure obedience.”
“You’re
sick, and you’ve wasted enough of my time. Surrender now. Shane’s
deputies will be here soon. It’s over for you, so unless you want to join
your brother, let Shane go and have your day in court.”
“I’ll
have my day now!” he roared.
She
watched the next few moments unfold as if in slow-motion. With what had
to have been a rush of adrenaline, Shane reared back and gave Nathaniel a
reverse head butt, slamming the back of his head into Nathaniel’s face.
Nathaniel’s gun fired, Shane fell to the ground, and both Tessa and Gib, who
had been hiding behind her in the shadows, unloaded their guns into Nathaniel.
Tessa
rushed to Shane as Gib charged Nathaniel’s shredded body, kicking the gun
away. She slid to her knees and gathered Shane to her, ripping his shirt
open to try to get her hands on his injuries.
“Shane!
Come on, baby, stay with me! Gib! Oh God, Gib, I can’t feel a
pulse!”
Gib
rushed to her, yanking his Kevlar over his head and then ripping his shirt off
to press to the worst of the wounds.
“Come
on, McCanton, stay with us,” Gib growled. In the distance they heard
sirens approaching but they knew time was running out.
“God,
please,” Tessa cried, caressing Shane’s waxy face. “Please don’t take
him. Shane, please!” she sobbed.
“Tess,”
Gib said, low, placing his hand on her shoulder. “Tessa...he’s gone.”
“NO!!!!!”
she screamed, her arms tightening on Shane’s shoulders, cradling him to her and
rocking him with her sobs. “NO!! Shane!!! Come back! I
can’t do this without you! Shane!”
When
the other deputies and the medics came in, Gib had to force her to release
Shane’s body so they could take care of him. He accepted a solar blanket
from one of the deputies and wrapped her up and lifted her into his arms,
carrying her out to his truck. He sat with her in his lap, rocking her as
he would a child, his heart breaking for the girl he’d considered his daughter
for the last dozen years.
“We
were going to get married today,” she whispered.
“I
know. I’m so sorry,” Gib soothed.
She
looked up when two carts bearing two body bags came out of the cave and her
stomach clenched that she didn’t know which was Shane. As she pushed out
of Gib’s lap to approach the gurneys, however, a third came out of the cave,
with medics huddled around and an IV bag being held high. She took off at
a sprint when she saw Shane’s dark head.
“Shane?”
“We’ve
got a pulse but it’s extremely weak,” a medic told her.
“Let
me ride with him,” she demanded and none dared deny her.
She
climbed up in the ambulance with him and took his hand in hers, then leaned
down to speak into his ear.
“I
love you so much. You’re my Dragon Slayer. You hang on and you
fight, do you hear me, Shane McCanton? You fight and you come back to
me.”
His
hand tightened on hers, and then his grip relaxed and lost its hold on her
altogether. She didn’t have to be told that time. She knew he was
gone.
“Gib!!!!
Mama!!!!” Tessa cried, pain like she’d never known ripping through her.
Lights
came on and she heard two sets of footsteps on the stairs.
“Tessa?
Honey?” Mary called, flipping on the light and rushing to her bedside.
“Oh,
whoa,” Gib said, sliding to a halt just inside her bedroom door. “I’ll
bring the truck around.”
“Something’s
wrong, Mama,” Tessa groaned.
“You’re
going to be fine. The doctor said the pain would be more intense for you
because of your injuries.”
“I
need Shane,” Tessa sobbed.
Mary
rubbed the small of her daughter’s back. “I know, baby.”
“I
can’t do this alone, Mama. Shane should be here,” Tessa cried, clutching her
stomach.
“You
can do this, baby, you can do anything.”
“Truck’s
out front. Ready to go?” Gib said, coming to help her out of bed.
As
soon as she stood, a gush of fluid covered her.
“It’s
coming fast,” Mary said, looking anxiously up at her husband.
“We’ll
make it,” Gib assured her.
“Mama,
help me change, I can’t...whoa!”
“Honey,
you don’t have time to change, we’ve got to go.”
Tessa
doubled over again when a strong contraction hit and found herself scooped up
in Gib’s arms. In spite of all the doctors had initially said, a month
after the shooting, she learned she was pregnant with Shane’s baby and even
though there had been a few scary moments around the six month mark, she’d been
able to carry almost the full 9 months. It was a bittersweet moment now,
rushing to the hospital with her mother and stepfather.
She’d
barely made it to the ER before the need to push was overwhelming. She
kept pining for Shane, missing him more in that moment than ever before.
He needed to be there. Their son was going to be born at any moment, he
needed...
“Hey,
hey, you didn’t think you were going to do this without me, did you?” she
heard, and then she saw a flash of blue eyes and Shane was there, just as an
intense contraction hit and the doctor told her to push.
“How...?”
she asked even as she began to push.
“Ivy
sent Reese’s friend with a helicopter after me when your mom said that you’d
been having contractions before you went to bed. Push, baby, that’s it.”
She
pushed as hard as she could and when she felt her son slip free, she collapsed
back against the bed, her mind drifting to that moment in the ambulance nine
months ago when she thought she’d lost Shane forever...
...
“Shane?”
she cried, leaning down to his ear. “Come back to me now. You’ve
got to fight. You’ve never failed at anything ever in your life, you can’t
fail me now. Come back!”
The
medics shocked his heart twice and then he was back. He took a deep,
gasping breath and Tessa thought she’d never heard a more beautiful sound in
all her life. His recovery hadn’t been easy. He’d lost a lot of
blood and his femur had been shattered by a bullet, but after they got his
heart started that second time, he’d never had another sketchy moment.
He’d
been in Austin for the last few days, testifying in the trial of the remaining
Elders from the Naturalists. Tessa, being so close to her due date, had
been allowed to testify via satellite, but Shane had insisted on being there in
person.
“Here’s
our son, Tess,” Shane’s voice broke through to her, placing their crying, dark
haired son in her arms for the first time.
She
smiled, all pain forgotten. As soon as she brought him close, the baby
stopped crying and looked directly into her face.
“Hello,
Gabriel,” she cooed at him, “I love you so much!”
Shane
kissed her brow and looked down at his wife and son. Gabriel Shane
McCanton, the son Tessa thought she would never be able to give him. He
knew in that moment, he was the luckiest man on Earth.
Tessa
kissed her son’s tiny fist, then looked up and met Shane’s gaze. All
those years ago, when she barely even knew him and was just a baby herself,
she’d had a premonition that one day she would be right here, her son in her
arms, Shane by her side. She may have taken the long way home, but in
that moment, she knew that Home was exactly where she was.
Six years later…
Gabriel McCanton did not want to be
here. He could think of a million things he’d rather be doing than
following his parents into the school. He wanted to stay home and play
and even help watch over his baby sister, Jessica. Going to school was messing
everything up.
His mom, carrying Jessica, walked into
his classroom but Gabe stopped just outside the door. His dad noticed and
squatted down so that they were eye to eye.
“Gabe? What’s wrong?”
Gabe shrugged, looking down at his
feet.
“Don’t wanna go in.”
“Scared?” his dad asked.
Gabe’s head shot up and he met his dad’s
gaze.
“I’m not scared. I just don’t see
what’s so great about going to school.”
His dad nodded. “Kind of gets in
the way of what you really want to do, doesn’t it?” Gabe nodded.
“But, then again, if you want to be Sheriff someday, you have to go to school
so you can learn the things you need to know that will help you.
Understand?”
Gabe sighed dramatically. “I guess.
But, Kindergarten is stupid. I don’t want to color and do all that dumb
stuff.”
“It’s not all about coloring.
You’ll learn all kinds of new stuff and all of it will help you on your way to
becoming Sheriff one day.”
“If you say so.”
His dad stood up and ruffled his
hair. “Trust me, kid. When have I ever steered you wrong?”
Gabe nodded and reluctantly followed his
dad into the room. His mom introduced him to his teacher and showed him
where he was supposed to sit…right next to his friend, Lily Reese.
“Hey, Gabe!” Lily greeted him, her blonde
hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was entirely too happy about being
there, Gabe thought.
“Hey,” he mumbled, settling into his
seat.
“I had the weirdest dream last night,”
Lily told him. “I dreamt that we were big…and that we got
married
!”
Behind the table, Shane and Tessa
exchanged knowing glances when they overheard Lily’s statement to their
son. Humor danced through their eyes and each could tell the other was
remembering a similar statement from another blonde haired girl to a reluctant
McCanton boy. Shane reached for Tessa’s hand and lifted her knuckles to
his lips. Life had come full circle. He could only hope that his
son would be as fortunate as he had been with his own blonde haired girl.
The End