He sighed again and went back to laying his head against my chest. After a while, we got ready for bed with t-shirts and pajama pants.
I turned the overhead light off and crawled into bed beside him, the light from the bathroom giving me just enough illumination to make my way to the bed without falling over something, for once.
As I slid in next to him, I felt him shiver, so I pulled the sheets and blanket up and over both of us. I was pretty sure it wasn’t really the temperature of the room that made him shiver, but I was taking no chances. Mason was a side sleeper, so I scooted in behind him, spooning him. I felt him tense first as I moved in, then slowly he relaxed as I wrapped my arm protectively over him and held him tightly to me, mentally cursing whoever it was who set this thing up tonight. It was obviously an ambush of some kind. I couldn’t believe that a church would do this kind of thing. What happened to preaching about love, for God’s sake?
Mason’s breathing and heart rate evened out quickly as he fell intoan exhausted sleep. I held him close to me for a long time afterward, trying to figure out what the hell I was doing.
Could Mason have an arrest record? Could that be why he didn’t want to go to the police? I hoped it wasn’t due to being ashamed of what had happened to him, the things he’d had to do to survive, though I figured that was probably the case.
I knew it hadn’t been his choice, but sometimes abuse messed with your thinking. Abusers liked to twist it around so their victims felt responsible for everything that happened to them. I’d seen it happen so many times to some of the people who came into the dojo. It also seemed apparent that Mason still feared Dreyven or one of his people showing up.
I was still pondering the problem, trying to figure out what I could do to help him when sleep snuck up on me.
In that strange way of all dreams, I knew where I was. I was back in Afghanistan. It was dark outside, and the single house we had taken cover behind had become a maze. My team was moving through the maze with purpose, but suddenly I saw each of them disappear from behind me.
I looked around in terror, trying to find an enemy I could fight, something I could do! In the distance I heard screaming and I was sure it was my team, each of them screaming in terror only to be cut short.
I ran through the maze, my breath dragging in and out of my chest, the air sharp as razor blades. My feet flew over concrete, broken rocks, dragged through quicksand and across gravel. I pulled myself up and through, finally reaching each of my team in turn, only to find them, broken and dying, bleeding their life blood out onto the dark ground. Too late… I was always too late.
There was a strange dichotomy in my brain. A part of me knew this was a dream. It wasn’t real, but still I ran, pushing myself harder than I ever pushed, trying desperately to save them, saveanyof them. Sudden pain in my side made me look down, and I realized I’d taken a shot to the side, and blood was pouring from my hip. Despite the pain, I kept going, limping, but working through the pain as I ran along,because I knew Mack was up ahead. I knew he was alive, but in horrible danger. If I didn’t get to him in time…
I rounded a corner, the darkness flashing crazily with bright red light and lightning strikes. I saw him up in front of me. He was turned away from me, but he was wearing his desert fatigues and held his M-16 in his hands. I didn’t need to see his face to know who it was. I’d recognize that man anywhere. I sighed in relief. I’d made it in time. I’d kept him safe. Nothing would happen to him while I was there. He’d be safe now. He turned to look at me, his hands drawn up in front of him, his body silhouetted against the lightning.
I realized with confusion that he wasn’t carrying his weapon anymore and some objective part of my brain realized that wasn’t right. Mack wouldneverlay his weapon down in a combat situation. He turned toward me and the lightning flashed again.
“Mack,no…” I moaned in denial. The light flickered on the red, red blood pouring out from between his fingers that were clutched to his chest. I screamed and ran for him as he collapsed forward, turning him over, my hands desperately trying to stem the blood flowing from a wound I couldn’t find. I could hear his voice saying my name.
“Lee… Leee…” he whispered, his voice trailing off.
“I’mherebaby! I’mhere!” I said, desperately. A final breath escaped his lips, and I screamed as I looked into his face, because it wasn’t Mack anymore, it was Mason.
I sat bolt upright in the bed, gasping, sweat pouring from my body, the jangling sound of my phone ringing on the bedside table. Mason sat up next to me, one arm around me as the other cupped my face, his eyes boring into mine as he called my name over and over.
“Lee!Lee!” He repeated, his voice slightly higher as my eyes finally locked with his. I could tell from the look on his face he’d seen me in the throes of my nightmare, and it had scared him. The phone rang again, and I fumbled for it automatically, trying to see outside to find out what time it was. There was just the hint of sunrise outside. I grabbed the phone and saw it was Mama D. My heart sank. She would never call me at this time of night unless it was an emergency.
“Mom?” I asked, my voice hoarse with fear.
“…Lee?” I heard her say my name, her voice hoarse and sounding wide awake. “Lee…it’s the twins. There was an accident…” she started crying.
“Mom…Mom! Where are you? Where are they?” I demanded.
“We’re at City Hospital,” she managed to get out. “They’re taking Sonny to surgery in just a minute. Hicks is already in with the surgeons…” she began crying in earnest now.
“Mom, we’re on our way,” I said.
26
Mason
It was all my fault.Just like Dreyven had said.
I saw the Devereaux family collecting in the Emergency Department waiting area in the early morning hours, and I knew they were there because of me.
While I’d told Lee part of what happened at the Community Center last night, I hadn’t—couldn’t have—told him everything. Maybe if I had, his brothers wouldn’t be fighting for their lives right now.
The night had started out okay. When Lee dropped me off, I’d entered the building. It looked like new construction, but I realized the building had once been a school that had an addition added. Most of the building still had that sweaty child smell that all schools seemed to develop over time. I wandered the halls until I heard people talking nearby. As I rounded the corner, I spotted two men standing together chatting in the hallway.
“Um, hi?” I said as I approached them.
