Wes grabbed me by my waist with a firm grip and in one motion he pulled me behind him. "Stay behind me, Brookelyn!" He ordered, his voice somehow calm and strong. His body was tense in front of me, his posture that of a statue as he faced off against Jesse.
"I'd walk away right now if I were you, Walker." Jesse warned him as both men took a step closer to each other.
"Wes, no!" I cried, begging him not to get any closer. He didn't acknowledge me, keeping his focus trained on Jesse and the gun in his hand. The terror that encompassed me was greater than any amount of fear that I had ever felt in my life. I had never been so scared. Not when Jesse beat me that night almost one year ago. Not when he held me down and gripped my throat as he forced himself onto me. Not when I heard his voice over the phone instead of Elle's. Seeing Wes step closer to Jesse and the gun pointed at his face paralyzed me. I was crying but I couldn't feel the tears against my skin or taste the saltiness of them as they flowed down my lips. I was screaming but I couldn't hear anything except for my heart beating against my chest like it was about to burst through my skin at any moment and land on the hardwood floor in front of me.
And then, in a flash, Jesse moved the gun from Wes and pointed it in my face. Before I could register that I was about to die, Wes lunged at Jesse and they fell to the ground wrestling for control of the weapon. Elle was screaming behind the duct tape, her body thrashing uncontrollably as she attempted to free herself from her restraints. A deafening scream filled the apartment and I realized that it was my own. I fell to my knees and the knife fell from my grip as my screams tore from my body before turning into sobs. I could hear sirens faintly in the distance but they were still too far away. Elle got her hands free from behind her but her wrists were still tied together. Wes fought against Jesse, the sound of grunts and panting filling the room while each of them gripped the gun trying to rip it from the other's hands. I was still screaming and my throat was burning from the strain on my voice but I was unable to control myself. All I could focus on was Wes. I prayed aloud for his safety as Elle worked to free her legs from the cords wrapped around her ankles.
The sound of the sirens got closer and I thanked god just as a loud bang went through the apartment and the smell of gunpowder filled my senses.
"WES!" I screamed running towards the entangled bodies. The gun lay beside the two men and I picked it up without giving it a second thought.
"It's Wes, Brookelyn!" Elle screamed with her mouth no longer confined. I snapped my gaze to hers and saw the horror in her eyes as she scooted closer, the chair still fastened to her ankles. "He shot Wes, Brookelyn!"
I swung my gaze back down to Wes as Jesse panted, untangling himself from Wes's body. The blood pooling on the floor stained Jesse's shirt but it wasn't his blood. I couldn't breathe. Air left my body as I chanted, "no, no, no," over and over again, crawling closer to Wes. He coughed and gasped for breath, groaning against the pain of the bullet lodged into his shoulder. There was a bullet hole between his shoulder blades and everything went numb inside of me as I glanced over at Jesse. He was pulling himself up to his knees, eyeing the gun that I now held in my hands. I felt the metal against my fingers and all rational thoughts escaped me. Wes was lying in front of me, bleeding out, as Elle got to him and pulled his t-shirt up to press against his wound. He cried out in agony at the intense pain and I could see that he was fighting for consciousness from the blood loss. The sirens were right outside now, and I could hear the shouts of policemen and someone telling them that they had heard a gunshot.
I rose to my feet unsteadily, unable to focus any longer on anything other than Jesse, as he remained frozen on his knees in front of me. The malice left his features and his eyes widened as he held up his hands in surrender. I blocked out the sound of Wes's torture and Elle's voice calling out to me.
"You have taken everything," I croaked out slowly between clenched teeth, "from me."
I was no longer shaking. I had slipped into a numbness that completely overtook me. I refused to be afraid of him for one moment longer.
"You are a disgusting, pathetic excuse of a man," I spit out, "and a waste of a human life. You don't deserve to live."
Jesse's fearful expression was wiped from his face as a smirk took its place. "You won't kill me, Brookey Baby."
I stared into his eyes as I pulled back the safety and watched as his eyes widened at the sound of the click. I wouldn't shoot him, he was right about that. I wouldn't ruin my own life just to end his. He would get what he deserved someday, but not at the hands of myself.
Jesse reached behind him and revealed the knife that I had earlier held but dropped to the floor in my panic. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Jesse leaned forward in one swift motion and swiped the knife at me in one sharp thrust. Half a second before the knife stabbed into my chest, I lowered the gun and pulled the trigger. Jesse screamed in pain and the knife fell to the floor noisily. The policemen rushed into the apartment and screamed out orders.
"PUT YOUR WEAPON DOWN! NOW!" one of them shouted.
Two officers rushed to grab the gun from my grip and two others pinned my hands behind my back. Officers shouted into their radios for back up and EMTs rushed passed me into the apartment as I was led out by two armed policemen, my hands cuffed behind me. EMTs rushed for Wes, a man and a woman attending to his wound as two other men loaded him onto a gurney and rolled him out of the apartment. Three other medics tended to Jesse and there was an officer freeing Elle from her ties, another firing questions at her rapidly. The two officers guiding me pulled me around the other side of the building to ask me a few questions without the distraction of all of the officials and spectators crowded outside of my apartment. After I told them the gist of what had happened, they steered me back out front. Elle was sitting on the back of an ambulance with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders as she tried to keep herself collected. She recounted what had occurred to three different officers who each took notes while she spoke. Elle saw me being led out and rushed towards me, wrapping her arms around me as she wept. In that moment everything rushed back to me and I tried to reach a hand to mouth to suppress a sob before remembering that I was handcuffed. My cries escaped me as I leaned into her tight embrace.
The three police officers previously questioning Elle walked over to where I stood with her and the two other officers who were still gripping each of my arms. The three men who were speaking with Elle instructed the others to remove my cuffs and as soon as I was free I wrapped my arms around Elle and didn't let go.
"Please tell me he's alive," I asked her in a whisper, my voice breaking through my tears.
"He's alive," Elle told me, pulling back to look me in the eyes. "He's not in good shape, B, but he's alive."
"We need to ask you both some questions before we can let you go to the hospital and see Mr. Walker," one of the police officers told us. Elle assured me that she had called Colin and he and Reese were driving straight over to the hospital to be with Wes until we could get there. She also called my parents and they were on their way, planning to meet us at the hospital.
The police officers led us over to the steps leading to our apartment rather than bringing us back to the station and started asking us question after question after I handed them the restraining order that I kept in my purse with me. A female officer took pictures of my injuries and the red lines across Elle's wrists and ankles from where the ties had cut into her skin. The officers commended us when Elle recounted how she managed to make the phone call while I stalled Jesse. After two hours of questioning and the cops assuring Elle that I would not be getting in trouble since I had shot Jesse in self defense, we were finally allowed to head to the hospital to see Wes. If he didn't make it I would never forgive myself. I don't think I could recover from that.
TWENTY-FIVE
We were forced to sit in the waiting room for another two hours once we had finally made it to the hospital. Wes had to be rushed into surgery to remove the bullet and the doctors wouldn't allow anyone into the recovery room immediately after he was released from surgery. Time seemed to pass by slower than usual as we all waited for Wes to be transferred into another room where he would be allowed visitors. The doctors told us that he would need to be held for a couple of days after he woke up so that his progress could be monitored. They couldn't say for sure when he would wake up, only that it could take anywhere between a few hours to a few days due to the amount of blood loss he had suffered from the bullet wound. He would also have to participate in physical therapy for a few months after his release in order for his right shoulder to regain its strength and full usage.