Page 114 of Love Undecided
Chapter 52
Kat
Gil still has the gun pointed at me. His eyes flit back and forth trying to see everything around us at once. I can see Brad through the car window, just over Gil’s shoulder, pacing. Which does nothing to help calm Gil. So I try to distract him.
“How was I going to save you?” I ask.
He stares at me, for a long time. So long, that I’m afraid I’ve turned him off with my question.
“You spoke to me. When you were interviewed on the news. You spoke to me through the TV screen and your words went straight to my soul.”
“What did I say?” I ask, not remembering what he is referring to.
“That I deserve a second chance. And that one false step doesn't have to detonate the landmine that is my life. You said I could be turned around, rehabilitated, and redeemed,” he pauses. “But you were wrong.”
“How was I—”
“GIL IVERSON.”
Sherman’s voice booms through the police bull horn, making us both jump. Gil turns back and forth trying to see where the voice is coming from, the gun twisting back and forth with him. I try to lean away from it each time it points at me.
“Uh, can you give us a minute?” I yell toward the car window.
Kendall begins to stir in the back seat. “Mommy?” she asks, her voice groggy.
“It’s okay, Kendall,” I tell her.
“Don’t tell her that!” Gil says.
“I don’t know you,” she says to me.
She turns toward Gil, “I don’t know you.”
She looks around. “Why are the policemen here?”
Then she starts to scream. Loudly.
Gil covers his ears, rocking his head back and forth. “Make her stop! Make her stop!”
The gun goes off, shooting through the roof of the car. The noise is deafening.
Kendall screams louder.
I shake my head trying to get the ringing in my ears to stop.
Next thing I know, I’m out of the car and in Brad’s arms, Gil is on the ground and being handcuffed by Bauer, and Kendall is being carried by Ethan to a stretcher.
“Kat, are you hurt?” Brad asks, running his hands over my body searching for injuries.
“I’m fine,” I tell him.
He leads me off to the side of the chaos and pulls me tight against him.
“My God, baby, how could you get in that car? Do you have a fucking death wish? What were you thinking?” he says to the top of my head, his voice muffled by my hair. I can feel that he’s shaking.
“I’m okay,” I say. “And I was thinking there was a little girl in the car. I couldn’t leave her in there.”
“That’s what the fucking police are for, Kat. Not you. You won’t be working with Sherman and Bauer again. Period.” He sighs loudly, his body seeming to relax a degree. “God, baby. Promise me you won’t put yourself in a situation like that again?”
