Chapter 43-1

The harsh bleating of police sirens blocked out Nathan's pained cries as his red blood gushed out onto the floor beneath him mixing with the old fish guts and filthy standing water of the abandoned sea food restaurant. "Look what you did to me!  You're never going to get away with this,"  his ragged voice cried out from his spot on the ground, and then I realized how that situation might have looked to the police. I was holding a man at gunpoint whom I had just shot in the leg who was writhing on the ground in pain while I was doing nothing to get him help. I flung the gun as far as I could to the side and jumped in panic as the clatter of metal skittered across the floor forcing goosebumps to shoot up and down the circumference of my body. "I have the threats you sent me, the knife, the notes, everything.  I have the scars on my body and the police report I filed in New York about a mugging that went wrong but now I can finally come forward and tell them your name.  I have all of the other girls who you did this to that can corroborate my story, Marley especially.  You're not going to get away with this!" "I can get away with anything I want.  I made sure those girls that I hurt in New York were so scared shitless they wouldn't think twice about staying silent, not to mention the money I funneled to them through my dad's bank account.  Why would anyone believe what you said anyway?  You said it was a random mugging and I am an upstanding citizen and my dad has more money than he knows what to do with.  There's nothing I can't get away with.  I hope you see those scars in the mirror every day and remind yourself of how lucky you were to be touched by me even once, no matter how much it hurt.  But you liked it, didn't you Caroline?" His breath became labored and he began to wheeze.  I was beginning to wonder if he was aspirating from internal bleeding somehow but then I realized that he was just using too much energy for his hate. "I carved you up that night like a Thanksgiving turkey, it's what you deserved after trying to pull that knife on me!  All for what?  I still found you, I still made your life miserable while you could.  How did you enjoy always looking over your shoulder, never knowing when I was coming for you and knowing there was nothing you could do about it?  And there's still nothing you can do about it, not even while I'm shot in the leg and you think you have all the power, you'll always be powerless to me." "Actually, that's where you're wrong.  That was definitely enough for a confession, don't you think so Caroline?" I whirled my head around in surprise at the sound of the familiar rumble of Kieran's voice and my eyes widened to the size of saucers in my head as my eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness of a flashlight beam shining in my face. The adrenaline that had been coursing through my body that entire time suddenly left me in a rush, deflating my energy and sapping myself of my strength at the sound of Kieran's voice, the person who made me feel safe just with his presence. "What are you talking about?" Nathan's incessant comments were all but blocked out in my mind as I ran to the source of the voice that always made me feel secure and his strong arms held me carefully, gently, as if he were afraid that I would break. "How are you here?" The ample light that the flashlight provided allowed me to follow his gaze that scoured every inch of my body as Kieran held me out, possibly inspecting me for any injuries though I only had a few, and only when he seemed pleased that they were only superficial bruises did he respond. "Your parents had a tracking app put on your phone not too long ago and they sent me your location since I was the first person to take off after you, I knew something wasn't right when you took off after dinner like that, I couldn't think about anything else but going after you." His voice held a husky quality and his bloodshot eyes scanned my face once more, relaxing only when I placed both hands on the sides of his face and forced him to look into my eyes. "I'm okay, I won," I told him triumphantly, although it didn't necessarily feel as if I'd won anything, especially not since I would probably go to jail for shooting Nathan even if it was self defense.  I had hardly any evidence against him, and it was his word against mine, and his father's exorbitant money accounts. Kieran's eyes flickered over to the pathetic writhing mess of pain that was Nathan McCormick on the floor behind us and a grimace pulled at Kieran's beautiful features. "Yeah, and what I recorded on my phone when I got here should take care of his confession too." "You recorded what he said?" "Well, when I pulled up and heard the gunshot, I was about to go in guns blazing, but then I heard you shout about how he wouldn't get away with it and when he started bragging about how easily he could get away with whatever he wanted, I pulled out my phone and hit record.  There's no way he's getting out of it now, no matter how many fancy lawyers he has his dad hire for him." I launched myself into his arms once more and that was when the police finally decided to make their grand entrance, and I was sure they were baffled at what they saw before them. More flashlight beams flooded the abandoned building and I could finally see the effect that the bullet had taken on Nathan, his gaunt cheeks making him resemble more of a corpse than a human being, the foggy egg whites of his eyes taking in the scene before him with a sickened fear reflected in them. There was a chorus of "Put your hands in the air!" and "Freeze!" so of course we obliged, a strike of panic overtaking me as I felt the cold metal slap across my wrists behind my back as one of the officers came to handcuff me preliminarily. Blue and red, blue and red, blinding lights echoing through the building like voices.  I hated to be separated from Kieran but they took him away from me despite my protests. The lights were blinding, but I was still able to see everything else happening around me, almost as if I were in a fog that I couldn't find my way out of.