Taking Chase (28 page)
“That’s him.”
Shane stood next to her as she flipped it open and answered it. “Hello, Terry. Don’t you have anything better to do than ruin my Saturday evening?”
“You think you’re so clever, don’t you? I hear music in the background. You’re whoring it up with some man? You’re mine, Carly. I made you! Don’t ever forget that. You’d be nothing without me.”
“I was nothing with you, Terry. Move on. You have your freedom, why don’t you get the hell out of my life and make your own better?” “You and I have unfinished business, Carly.” The talking and laughing in the background began to die down bit by bit as people began to realize what was going on.
“We have nothing, Terry. You’re nothing to me but a horrible period in my life. You tried to kill me and you sucked in bed so you had to rape me. Fuck off.” She clicked the phone shut and Shane looked at her, surprise on his face.
“Bet that felt good.” She appreciated his simple response. “Yeah.” He pulled her into his arms.
This time the warrant came more quickly because he bought the disposable cell phone from the same company. He was in St. Louis. Again police went out to the general location, the area around Washington University. They found nothing.
Chapter Eighteen
The anniversary of Cassie and Shane’s first date came and went without any further calls from Terry. Homecoming arrived and Cassie cheered on Petal at the game like she was a lifelong fan.
She’d looked into medical school again, she’d found out she had to go back and get more training to change specialties and there was still worry about her hand. And she would have to deal with her name change no matter what. Laws that allowed patients to know who their doctors were and to be able to file complaints were important, she realized that, but they also held her back. But she’d been discussing some possible avenues with her therapist and was really excited about one of them in particular.
In the mean time, Penny came to her with an offer.
Waltzing into the shop on a Monday morning, she put a cup of coffee in front of Cassie and said without preamble, “Ryan’s asked me to marry him and I’ve accepted.”
Cassie looked up from the inventory screen and laughed. “Oh my lands. What wonderful news. I’m so happy for you!” Moving around the desk she hugged Penny tight. “Congratulations. When’s the date?”
“He’d like to do it as soon as possible. I’d be fine with living together but his family wouldn’t be pleased and he loves me and wants to start a family soon. We’re thinking November fifteenth.”
“Wow, honey, that’s a month away. Okay, it’s doable. Let’s get to work. What can I do? Obviously I can be here at the shop for you so you can take more time off. But I can help with other things, call around, make reservations, that kind of thing.”
“You’re such a good friend to me. You know, I always thought the idea of an adult woman having a best friend was sort of silly, the thing you only saw in books. But you’re that to me. And I want you to be my maid of honor, or matron or whatever the hell, your marriage to Terry does not count.” Tears ran down Penny’s face as she laughed. “I never thought I’d feel this way after Ben. He was the great love of my life. This second chance is so special.”
“It is, Penny. Ryan’s loves you so much. I’m so happy for you and of course I’ll be your maid doodad.”
“Doodad sounds just fine and I promise I won’t make you wear anything with tulle or a bow on the ass. It’ll be simple, we want it that way.”
“Fine, sweetie. It’s your day. Where are you going to have it?”
“We just bought a house yesterday. It’s an hour and a half from here. It has this grand stairway that leads into a formal living room with floor to ceiling windows. I want it there.”
“Well, you’re full of good news aren’t you?”
“It’s a wonderful house. As much as I love my house here, it’ll always hold my life with Ben. I have to let go of that now. Take the memories with me as I build my new life. Which leads to my next thing. You interested in a bookstore?”
“What? You’re selling this place?”
“Not all of it unless I have to. But I can’t be here every day like I am now. I’ll live far enough away that more than two days a week would be a pain to drive. I was thinking of breaking it down fairly, like seventy five percent yours, twenty five percent mine? We can talk to Edward about it and have him draw up the sales agreement. That is if you’re interested.
“I know you want to practice medicine again but I also know it’ll be a while before you can if you can at all. I’d like this place to belong to someone who loves it as much as I do.”
“I’ll need to talk to Shane and my brother but I can tell you I’m very interested. Truly, I don’t think I can go back into medicine the way I was before. I was thinking about going into victim’s advocacy. My therapist and I were talking about the difficulties in going back into medicine with my hand being so messed up and the name issue and what I want to do is help people heal. I can do that in other ways. She works with a doctor in Shackleton and has suggested that I speak with Doctor Wallace here in town to see what he’d think about me working with him on a volunteer basis. I’d need training obviously. But it solves some problems for me and gives me a way to help people.”
“Oh my, Cassie, that’s a wonderful idea. You’d be so good at it.”
“Thanks. Okay, let me talk to Shane tonight and see what he thinks. I don’t need his permission or anything but I want to run it by him. Brian is the person who deals with my trust and he’ll need to handle payment. I suppose we’ll have to get the store appraised too.”
“I’ll get on that today and talk to Edward as well.”
Cassie left the shop with a bounce in her step, things were going well. The more she thought about victim’s advocacy and counseling, the more she liked the idea. She could use the bad stuff she’d survived to help other people. And she loved the bookstore, it would be hers, something to hold her to town in another way.
At home, Shane was delighted with all her good news. They cooked dinner, Polly was giving her cooking lessons and she’d achieved at least a basic level of competency.
Of course, as it happened from time to time, Shane got a call after nine and had to run out. With a sigh, she accepted his kiss and went into her workroom to finish up some jewelry. As the holidays fast approached, she wanted to build up her inventory.
She’d lost track of time when she heard Shane come in. “I’m in the back here, honey. I’ll be out in a sec.” Putting away her equipment, she turned to leave the room and saw not Shane standing in the doorway, but Terry.
Sick dread hit her, replaced by fear and then by fury. “What the hell are you doing here?” Backing up a bit, she reached behind her and hit the 911 button on the phone.
“Oh Carly, or should I say Cassie, why ask questions you know the answer to?” “How did you find me?”
He laughed and it crawled over her skin like an insect. “The second time I called I heard someone say Chase. And the last time I heard someone yell out Polly and then Shane. What do you know? When I did a search for Polly Chase I saw a newspaper clipping and a picture of an event in small town Petal, Georgia. A drive for the local food bank and what did I see in the background but my faithless wife. Only her name was not Carly Sunderland anymore, it was Cassie Gambol. So unimaginative.” He waved around. “I take it this is where you and Shane live? Nice. Not as nice as our house in the hills but for a small town backwater like this one, I expected shacks and hound dogs on the porch.”
“Go away, Terry. I don’t want you anymore!” In her pocket, she realized she’d dropped a pair of needle nosed pliers she used to tie off findings on a necklace she’d been working on. She slipped her hand inside and held on.
“It’s not what you want, bitch! You fucked my life up. I gave you everything and you threw it back at me. You took my reputation and dragged it through the mud. I can’t practice medicine anymore and it’s all your fault.” He came toward her and she stabbed at him with the pliers, felt them dig into the flesh just below his shoulder.
He bellowed in pain and rage and she ran past him, hoping the call had gone through, hoping the security guard would drive past and see something amiss, hoping Shane would come home. For that moment though, she was on her own and she needed to get to the table next to the couch to get her gun.
A hand, slick with blood but with a sure grip, closed around her upper arm and the weight of him rode her body to the ground. She tasted blood as her lip split open when he punched her in the face.
“You bitch! You won’t make it this time. I’ll make sure you’re not breathing when I walk away.” His fingers moved her to her throat and began to squeeze.
The world began to narrow as she lost oxygen. Desperately, she reached with both hands, trying to find something, anything to hit him with. Shane’s coffee mug! Grabbing it with the tip of her fingers she put all her remaining strength into it and hit Terry up side the head as hard as she could.
Air rushed into her lungs as she coughed when he fell to the side, losing his grip on her.
She began to scream over and over as she scrambled around the coffee table and got to the drawer where her gun was. Fumbling, she heard him right behind her as her fingers touched the cool metal and pulled it toward her.
Her head yanked back as she continued to scream. She couldn’t get to the safety to turn it off! Pain seared her as he bent one arm back so hard she felt the shoulder dislocate which probably numbed her enough not to feel the full impact when he broke her wrist. All she could think was thank goodness she knew enough to learn to shoot with her left hand. He hadn’t seen the gun she’d been holding in it just yet.
“You can’t have my life you bastard. You got enough from me!” she screamed.
“I’m going to fuck you one last time, you whore, and then I’m going to kill you. Leave you for your loverboy to find.” His voice was in her ear, right behind her and she pulled her head forward and threw it back as hard as she could, hearing the crunch of his nose.
His pain-filled scream gurgled as she realized she’d broken his nose. Time slowed as she rolled, flicking off the safety and pointing the gun, steadying herself as best she could one handed.
She came to peace with the fact that she was ready to take his life, breathing out as her finger squeezed. Just before her arm took the brunt of the shot, a red bloom covered his chest.
Confused, she watched as he hit the floor, her ears ringing as the shot deafened her. Blinking back the sweat, she saw Shane running toward her and one of his officers going to Terry’s slumped over body, checking for a pulse.
“Honey? Oh God, are you all right?” Cassie watched his lips more than heard him ask. Her hearing was still gone as Shane gently took the gun from her hand, wincing as he saw her other arm hanging at an odd angle.
“He’s dead?” “He can’t hurt you ever again, Cassie. He’s dead,” the other officer told her as he stood up. “Good. God damn it, good. My arm hurts now, Shane, I need to go to the hospital.” Cassie related it in a matter-of-fact voice right before she passed out in his arms.
Hours later, at the hospital, he paced back and forth through the waiting room. Another officer came in and took over the investigation. Obviously Shane did not have the ability to judge the situation without bias. Looking at her history and Terry’s past and that they’d come in as he was attacking Cassie, Shane was sure his shooting would be justified. Still, he was placed on administrative leave while the shooting was investigated and that was all right with him.
Cassie’s weapon was discharged but had missed. They found the bullet in the wall behind where Terry had been standing. She would have hit him in the chest if he hadn’t begun to fall after Shane shot him. There wasn’t any reason to do anything but see her as a victim in the situation. Another officer was questioning her as they patched up her arm. Shane wanted to be there but as he was the person who shot the suspect he couldn’t. So one of his father’s law partners was in with her and her therapist was on the way.
Chapter Nineteen
The months passed. Shane was cleared and came back to work right before Penny and Ryan’s wedding. Cassie bought a three quarters share in Paperbacks and More and began to take classes to pursue becoming a victim’s advocate.
Penny announced a week before Christmas that she was pregnant. “Wow, you said you wanted to start on a family right away, you weren’t kidding.” Cassie laughed as she hugged her friend.
“We started a while before the wedding, don’t tell his mother. Anyway, it’s still new so don’t tell anyone just yet, okay? I had to tell someone and I couldn’t tell you over the phone.”
“I can’t wait to shop for baby clothes with you. Ryan must be over the moon.” “He is. He’s already looking for a crib and I swear has a college fund started. I’m so happy, Cassie.” “Oh, honey, you deserve it. I’m happy for you too.”
They agreed that Penny would tell everyone in Petal after New Years when the first trimester had safely passed. It was a delicious little gift for Cassie though, knowing that life continued even in the shadow of such ugliness.
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