Guarding Forever

“I’ll scream, and they’ll come for you,” she challenged.

“I don’t care about me. I want Gibson to suffer.”

“Why? What did he do to you?” she asked. She wondered if he lost a case against Gage or maybe more than one.

“His father killed my mother. He raped and killed her. I’ve worked my entire life to get revenge on the bastard and yet he continued to go unscathed.”

She remained composed, trying to talk him down. “So this is what it’s all about? Do you have kids?”

“Yes. One, but he lives with my mistress.”

“So one day you want my son to go after him? You’re no better than Gage’s father, the man Gage hated more than anyone else until my father.”

“Don’t try to make me feel guilty. He deserves this and so do you.” He sneered at her. Rage built inside him as he thought about how happy Gage was with Hope. The bastard didn’t deserve it.

“Why?”

He loaded the chamber and with a finality in his voice, he answered, “Fraternizing with the enemy.”

Gage hadn’t made it to the parking lot when he realized that this was all just a setup. He called in a favor and planned the whole takedown of Sparks, but this time he wanted it well recorded. The gun had been given to Sparks by a detective posing as a gang member. It had blanks and had been rigged to misfire into the shooter’s hand.

Gage wasn’t a fool. He’d hired Sean’s security firm to do an investigation on Sparks. The news came this morning that his father’s ghost was still trying to ruin his life. When he learned the connection, Gage knew it wouldn’t be over until Sparks had gotten the revenge he sought.

The second Sparks entered the building, he had been tracked on the hospital cameras. He dodged several guards, who were intentionally letting him slip by. At one point the smirk on Sparks’s face actually made Gage crack up. He thought he was getting the best of the security, but he had been the one fooled.

Listening in, Gage and the team of officers waited for their moment to jump in. They wanted her to keep him talking and he did just that.

They all heard the metal click. “Fraternizing with the enemy.”

Gage rushed out of the closet, coming up behind Sparks with his gun pressed to the back of Sparks’s head. “You’re an idiot. The piece of shit that was my father was also yours. He didn’t rape her, they were lovers. We could have gotten to know each other as family, but I guess you inherited too much from the old bastard.” He slammed Sparks’s body over the foot of the bed, sending the prop gun flying.

“Hope, love. Did you get all of that?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Great work, you two.”

“This time, make sure the tapes don’t disappear. In fact, we’ll be needing a copy.”

The cop came up to handle the cuffing when Sparks wrapped one of the cords from Hope’s machines around his neck.

“Let him go, Sparks.”

“No way.”

Gage had had enough. He pulled out his gun and shot Sparks in the arm.

“God, thank you,” the officer gasped.

“You can’t underestimate the crazy.” Just as he said that, Sparks tried to come at them and another officer shot him on the spot, sending Sparks’s lifeless body crumbling to the ground.

“You could say that again. Let’s get this mess cleaned up,” Dax ordered.

Hope unwrapped the recording device and took off the protective vest they put on her before Sparks showed up and then the nurse walked in, pushing a wheelchair with their new baby strapped into his car seat. “I’m ready to go home.”

“Come on, Mrs. Gibson.” Gage kissed her lips and then helped her into the chair.

Three hours later, Gage, Hope, Johnny, and the baby rested in their own bed at home. “It’s all over,” he whispered, laying Johnny on his chest. He leaned down and kissed Hope’s temple as she cradled their new addition to the family, Dax Gibson.