I sat in the hospital room. My jeans had been cut off and tossed into a ball near the trashcan. A doctor was stitching up my leg. Gabriel had just left. Lucas was sleeping off the sedative laced bullets plus the good drugs they had given him for his arm. Xavier was being tended to and Gabriel had a concussion. My mother was on her way up to look after Cassie while her brother and mother recovered. The doctors expected them to be out in a few days.
Malachi entered. His face was grim. He looked tired.
“How’s it look with Mark and Mitch?” I asked him.
“They’ll be ok. Good thing you got that stupid idea though. If they had been trapped in there another half hour or so, chances are, they wouldn’t be fairing as well.”
“Ah well,” I shrugged. It hurt. The shoulder had already been stitched.
“Aislinn, look...”
“If you apologize to me Malachi Blake, I’ll shoot you,” I told him, looking at the doctor.
“How’d you know?”
“I know you, better than you think sometimes, better than you know yourself.”
“I know that,” Malachi sat down and sighed.
“What’s up?”
“I can’t believe this came back to haunt us all.”
“It happens, Malachi. With the lives we lead, it happens more than we want to admit. Nothing to be done about it. I’m sorry our families were brought into it, but us...” I finally looked up at him. “With us, it’s an occupational hazard.”
“And a life hazard.” Malachi told me.
“And a life hazard,” I agreed.
“So you are definitely taking the job?”
“Oh, I thought about turning it down. I don’t like waiting for the crime scene techs and the specialists and sitting on my hands, but I also know that if I hadn’t been trapped in that bull, ten people would have died. Ten good people. Instead, only three bad guys died. I doubt we will ever be in that situation again, but I can think on my feet and keep my cool when I should be screaming and running for cover. Who knows, I might be good at this.”
“I think you will be and I know Xavier and Lucas have taken to you.”
“I think I’ve taken to them as well,” I smiled.
“A few more friends to add to your very short list.”
“It’s nice,” I admitted, “what was the deal with Al?”
“Oh, Jessica stole his identity and since he was trying to hide his past with her for obvious familial reasons, he wouldn’t report it. Gabriel is going to talk to some contacts and see if they can really get his social security number changed.”
“That would be good,” I sighed at him.
“What?”
“I was just thinking that you are starting to look old.”
Malachi Blake was six foot ten inches tall. He weighed roughly two hundred pounds dripping wet. All of it was solid muscle. His skin was tanned by the sun. He kept his head shaved so that no one would see the brown hair with a dusting of ginger color or the curls that start the moment it leaves his scalp. His eyes were a vibrant green, a rich color that reminded me of malachite, not emeralds.
Time, work and life were taking its toll. He had a five o’clock shadow that was quickly turning into a beard and mustache. Lines were starting to form at the corners of his eyes and the furrows of his brow were getting deeper. His mouth, once young and sensuous was starting to look thin and always seemed wearied. He didn’t smile easy, but he didn’t frown either. It was the only thing that kept the wrinkles from invading the corners of his mouth. A part of me was sure that if he did grow out his hair, it would be streaked with grey.
A few scars decorated his face, one jutting up from his cheek to his ear. One bisecting an eyebrow. Another on the lining of his bottom lip. I knew where all of them had come from. I knew there were actually hundreds more hidden behind long sleeves, jeans and cowboy hats. His body was bespeckled with gunshot wounds, jagged knife cuts, multiple surgical marks and anything else the human body could endure. He’d been set on fire once. The burn scar had melted away some of the previous scars that had been on his leg.
“I feel old,” he finally said.
“Me too,” I told him.
“Your hair is graying.”
“I know and I’ll have some new scars to list on my distinguished features portion.”
“I’m glad Lucas and Xavier found you.”
“Why?”
“They’ll help keep you alive, despite attempts by others or indifference for yourself when others are involved. Your survival instinct is strong, but you still aren’t willing to sacrifice those you love for it.”
“Said the psychopath to the sociopath,” I gave him a look and got a grin out of him.
“Aislinn Cain, you are the only person I would exchange my life for.”
“I know and you’ll exchange your life to keep me from being in pain or angry at you.”
“True.”
“It’s about as close to love as you’ll ever get Malachi. I know. I also know you’re glad I didn’t die today.”
“Yes indeed.” He stood up.
“Malachi,” I said, stopping him from leaving.
“Yeah?”
“I’m glad you care about me. If things were just a little bit different, I’d give it a go. Since we are who we are, we’ll both have to be content to live life as we do.”
“I know, Aislinn.”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For caring, for coming today, for being my friend and for being you.”
“Most people aren’t that enthusiastic about me being me.”
“Most people aren’t me.” I told him. He gave me another flash of a smile and disappeared from the room.
The doctor finished stitching me up as Xavier came into the room. He looked at the doctor and took the seat vacated a few minutes earlier by Malachi.
“Well?” He asked.
“Well what?” I asked in return.
“Think you’ll stick around?”
“Yeah, I can’t think of anything I’d be better at. A vigilante maybe, but it doesn’t pay well.”
“Jessica Thompson has spent the last couple of years plotting revenge and gaining a following of psychos to follow her. They didn’t seem to know anything about you or Nyleena or Malachi.”
“Pity they didn’t get a chance to meet Malachi.”
“If they thought we were brutal, they would have been in for a serious wake-up call.” Xavier smiled.
“Indeed.”
“I’m here to extend a formal invitation. We’ll be leaving Chicago in a couple of days. We have to wait on Lucas and you to heal. There’s a dinner being prepared for our return. It will be at Lucas’s. All you have to bring is yourself. We’ve invited Nyleena as well.”
Chapter 57