“No problem. I didn’t know… shit… sorry.”
The bullet wound in his leg had bled out more. His jeans were matted in blood and his face, pale.
“Are you okay? How are you feeling?” she asked.
“Yeah. I’m good. They’re gone and you’re here, so yeah, I’m good.”
“We have to get you to that ambulance. Those paramedics can help-”
“No,” he cut her off. “Just get me out of here. Take me to the Trillium Health Center. It’s on the West Mall. I’ll show you. I just need to get out of here. Who knows who’ll pop up next with a gun and a desire to murder us?”
She looked at him for a second longer and then nodded. “You got it. Get in.”
Sarah helped him to the passenger side and after he was settled in, she ran around to the driver’s side of Ferenci’s car, jumped in and edged out into traffic.
Drake grabbed a blanket from the backseat and covered his blood-covered jeans, then lay his head back and closed his eyes.
“You know, Sarah,” he said. “You’ve saved my life twice now. That means I’m yours forever. I owe you my life. I know this may sound corny, but seriously, I’d be dead without you. I don’t have a death wish, but I know now that I will die in your place if it ever comes down to it.”
Sarah didn’t respond. She couldn’t. It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her before. No one had ever said they would die for her, and she believed him.
The traffic slowed. Up ahead, four police cruisers blocked the road, leaving a narrow path where vehicles were allowed to go through once they were cleared.
There were two cars left and then an officer would ask questions neither one of them would be able to answer. She didn’t know where the papers were. For all she knew, Ferenci could’ve stolen the car and now she was driving it after stealing it from him.
Fuck. Now what?
“Don’t panic,” she said. “We’ll get through this. Follow my lead. And remember, we’ve done nothing wrong. I’m just getting us out of the area before someone picks us off.”
A Toronto police officer walked up to her window and asked her to roll it down.
“Evening officer,” Sarah said, a wide, innocent smile creasing her face. “What seems to be the trouble?”
“Where are you two headed?” he asked as he looked in at Drake.
“To our uncle’s place for dinner.”
“Really? Were you anywhere near the explosion on Queen Street?”
“There was an explosion on Queen Street? Wow… what blew up?” Sarah asked in her most dumb-blonde voice. She wondered if she poured it on too thick as her voice squeaked with the higher pitch.
The officer eyed her too long. He looked in at Drake again. “You okay over there? You look a little pale.”
Drake nodded. “Yeah, just seriously hungry and her uncle cooks up a mean lasagna.”
The cop looked at Sarah and pointed at Drake. “He your boyfriend?”
Sarah glanced at Drake and then said, “Yes.”
What the fuck? Too soon. It came out too quick. Shit, what will Drake think now?
“Okay,” the officer said and stood to his full height. He adjusted his belt and stared at Sarah with what she thought was anger.
He’s going to fucking call us on our bullshit.
“A moment ago, you said our uncle and then your boyfriend said your uncle. So which is it, because I’m starting to wonder about you two.”
Now what?
Another cop walked up behind the one talking to them. “Everything okay here, Officer Jones?”
He turned around, “Yeah, I got this. Just give me another second.”
“Okay, I’m going to make you pull over there so I can grill you and take you downtown and make things very difficult for as long as I can because I’m an asshole like that, and because I think you’re lying to me. But if you’re both just running away from mommy and you’re wasting my time by lying to me, then I need you out of my face. So here’s how it’s going to go.” He bent and placed his forearm along the door getting his face low enough to look in at Drake too. “Tell me the name of your uncle at the same time at the count of three. If you can do that, I’ll assume the story isn’t made up and you’re on the level. Deal?”
Sarah nodded, gritting her teeth.
He lifted his sleeve to look at his watch. “One. Two. Three.”
Please, say the same one as me.
“Uncle Rod,” they both said in perfect harmony.
The officer stood to his full height and knocked on the roof of their car to motion them through.
Sarah drove between the two cruisers and onto open road. They looked at each other and started breathing again.
They’d made it. Her heart beat in anticipation of what her life was about to become. They’d made it. They were out. But now she seemed even more afraid because of the man in the seat beside her. He could hurt her more than the bullets, bruises and fights she’d endured over the last five years.
Drake had a weapon that cut her on the inside.
If they began a relationship, she’d voluntarily walk into it and willingly make herself a target. That was something altogether foreign for her. She had no idea what to do.
Her hands shook on the wheel of Ferenci’s car. She wondered if Drake would notice. Her face felt flush.
What the hell is wrong with me? Do I or don’t I? Would I or won’t I?
But she had no choice now.
“That was close,” Drake said.
“Very,” Sarah said.
She focused on her driving as the afternoon sun beat down on the windshield.
Chapter 37
One Month Later…
The waiter directed them to a quiet table by an old train car near the center of the restaurant. Sarah gawked at the sight of the train car, having come to love the uniqueness of Toronto.
Sarah pulled out her own chair and sat. It had been a month since Ferenci had tried to kill Drake at the baseball game. In that time she had set a few rules down for the romantic Drake. One of those had been that she would pull out all her own chairs. Wooing was nice, even pleasant at times, but she needed to go slow as a relationship violated her independence to the core. She told him she was willing to try, but it had to be friends first — spend time together — get to know one another. Then work from there.
Every event wasn’t a date and every date wasn’t an invitation or an expectation.
Drake had agreed without pause.
He sat across from her and smiled. “I just can’t believe it,” he said. “It’s finally over. Ferenci is dead. His hired muscle is in jail and Elmore is dead. I don’t know how we did it, but we’re the ones walking away.” He looked into her eyes. “Sometimes, I still can’t believe it. I never thought I would be happy that another human being was dead, but some people don’t deserve life.”
“They might want to think about banning police scanners too. I mean, Ferenci heard the call for all officers to respond to Elmore’s studio and beat the cops there by five full minutes. Because of that scanner, you could have been killed before anyone got there.”
Drake picked up the menu. “I know. I shudder when I think about it. When Ferenci opened Elmore’s trunk, I thought he’d shoot me on the spot. Using those fake cops to get to you almost worked.”
Sarah looked at the name on the menu. “The Old Spaghetti Factory. What made you pick this place for dinner? Is it good?”
“Sure. It’s one of the best in Toronto. Anyone who has been in this city for more than a decade has come here at least once.” Drake dropped his menu back to the table. “Sarah, what do you think of Toronto so far?”
