-Text from Carmichael to Croft
CARMICHAEL
“All right, y’all! Good class! We’ll see you tomorrow!”
People rolled off the floor and started to walk toward the side tables where they’d left their belongings.
I used that few moments between classes to clean up all the barbells we’d used today, wiping them all down with Lysol wipes and doing a quick sweep and mop of the floor to clean up all the puddles of sweat and sweaty body imprints.
“You’re the devil,” Schultz grumbled. “Swear to fucking God.”
I laughed as he lurched his way toward his bag and snagged it before walking toward the bathroom.
He came to a sudden, bone jarring halt when he read something on his phone.
He whipped around and his eyes locked on mine.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Where’s Flint?” he asked.
I looked around, only then realizing that my brother hadn’t arrived yet.
He should’ve been here over twenty minutes ago to get started for the next class.
“I don’t know,” I said as I walked toward my bag where I kept my phone during class. “Let me…”
“Croft has been shot,” Schultz said as he came toward me.
Everything, and I do mean everything, traveled south.
My body swayed with horror and dismay at his words, and I had to grab on to the counter to keep myself from passing out.
“What?” I gasped.
He turned his phone around and showed me.
It was a text from someone named Ruger.
Ruger: Local lawyer shot today outside office. Think you might know him. Name Crusie ring any bells?
Bile rose in my throat, and I had to swallow convulsively to keep it down.
I blindly reached for my phone in my bag, coming up with it and glancing at the screen at the same time.
Flint had messaged me over forty times. And I’d missed fifteen phone calls.
I blindly pressed his name and hit speaker so that Schultz could hear what was being said.
“Where the fuck have you been, Mikey?” Flint growled the moment that I answered the phone.
“At work,” I sounded devastated. Just like I felt. “What happened?”
“Croft was shot in the shoulder. Through and through. He should be just fine. The gun was dropped at the scene when it happened, and they picked up the same fingerprints on the gun that were on the windowsill of your living room from yesterday. Don’t leave without someone there with you,” he ordered.
I felt a wave of dizziness wash over me, and Schultz’s hand shot out and caught me around the upper arm before I could tip over.
“What do you mean that they were the same?” I asked in a short gasp, nearly dropping my phone.
“I got it,” Schultz said as he took it from me. “We’ll meet you at the hospital.”
Flint said something and then hung up, leaving me staring at Schultz.
“All right,” he said as he let my arm go once he knew I was steady. “Everyone that doesn’t work here, time to get out! We have an emergency and we’re closing!”
People all started to gather their things, and the ones closest to us had heard what was happening and started to explain as they all walked out the door.
Five minutes later I was in Schultz’s truck and heading to the hospital. His nieces were with his mom tonight, thank God, leaving him the ability to watch over me, because apparently, I had an attempted murderer after me.
“What do you think happened?” I asked curiously.
Schultz put one finger in the air and then called the man that was known as Ruger in his phone.
“Yo,” the Ruger guy said two rings later. “Just now getting my message?”
“Yeah,” Schultz confirmed. “What happened?”
“Far as we can tell, the lawyer was walking out to his truck. Got about halfway there when a person started shooting. Took a bullet to the shoulder before he hid underneath a parked car. That car looks like fucking swiss cheese now. Man was fucking lucky, that was for sure.” Ruger sounded like a British man. His accent would’ve been interesting to me had he not been talking about Croft. “Anyway, lawyer’s at the hospital being treated. Some chick jumped into the ambulance with him on the way to the hospital and I swear to God. I’ve never seen a man almost push a chick as hot as her out of his face before like he did. I wonder what’s going on there.”
Karen.
He had to be talking about Karen.
I kind of hoped that he had accidentally pushed her out.
Luck was not on my side.
When we got to the hospital and Schultz used his powers to get us right back, I found my brother standing in the parted curtain entrance of a room at the far end of the ER, and he did not look happy.
As I walked in, I was bummed to the nth degree to find that Karen hadn’t accidentally fallen out of the ambulance.
Nor was she kicked out of the room.
But it was upon seeing the man that I had a huge crush on that made the decision for me.
The very last thing I wanted to do was go into that room with Karen hanging all over Croft, but I felt like a terrible person. Especially since he’d come waltzing into my house yesterday to protect me.
The least I could do was suck up my annoyance at seeing that bitch all over Croft and make sure that he was all right.
I elbowed past my brother and took two steps into the room.
“Croft?” I said softly.
Croft’s eyes opened and he blinked at me curiously.
Then his mouth tipped up into a smile.
“Mikey!” he called out. “Come over here and give me a kiss.”
It was the slurring of his words that had me moving toward him despite Karen’s obvious annoyance at either me being there, or Croft’s words.
I wasn’t sure which at this point.
“Croft, honey,” Karen said softly. “Do you want another drink?”
He blinked in confusion then turned so that he was staring at Karen.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, lifting his elbow as if he could knock her off with the movement. “Stop touching me.”
He then bodily shoved her hand away from his forearm when she didn’t let go, causing his entire face to whiten as he rocked the wound at his shoulder.
Karen dropped her hand from his arm and stepped back, looking shocked.
“Don’t know what it’s going to take,” Croft continued to mutter, sounding tired and a little bit drunk. “I seriously have done everything in my power to let you know that I’m not interested. And you ruined what I had with Mikey. I have you to thank for that.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
Surely this was a dream, right?
“You don’t mean that, do you, Croft?” Karen asked. “You’re just confused.”
“I’m not confused,” he grumbled as he turned back to me. “I was shot.”
My lips twitched. “I know.”
“It hurt.”
“I thought you were shot before?” I asked.
“I was younger then,” he countered, his eyes staying on me despite the girl beside him that thought it would be a great idea to take off her jacket and reveal her tits. “Things didn’t hurt nearly as bad. Now all I have to do is get out of the bed and things hurt.”