Blind side, p.1
Blind Side, page 1
Blind Side
Olivia Gaines
Davonshire House Publishing
PO Box 5027
Augusta, GA 30916
THIS BOOK IS A WORK of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s vivid imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely a coincidence.
© 2022 Olivia Gaines, Cheryl Aaron Corbin
Copy Editor: Teri Thompson Blackwell
Cover: Corbin Media
Olivia Gaines Make Up and Photograph by Latasla Gardner Photography
ASIN: 0B7LRJV5R
ISBN: 9798201944445
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means whatsoever. For information address, Davonshire House Publishing, PO Box 9716, Augusta, GA 30916.
Printed in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 9 8
First Davonshire House Publishing September 2022
Also by Olivia Gaines
The Blakemore Files
The Delgado Series
Killers
Yunior
Becoming the Czar
The Technicians Series
Blind Date
Blind Hope
Blind Luck
Blind Fate
Blind Copy
Blind Turn
Blind Seed
Blind Side
Blind Spot (Coming Winter 2022)
Love Thy Neighbor Series
Walking the Dawg: A Novella
Through the Woods: A Novella
Life of the Party: A Novella
A Blue Christmas: A Novella
Modern Mail-Order Brides
North to Alaska
Montana
Oregon Trails
Wyoming Nights
On a Rainy Night in Georgia
Bleu, Grass, Bourbon
Buckeye and the Babe
The Tennessee Mountain Man
Stranded in Arizona
Maple Sundaes and Cider Donuts
Moonlight in Vermont
Sunflowers and Honey
Katherine Moves to Kansas
The Zelda Diaries
It Happened Last Wednesday
A Frickin' Fantastic Friday
A Tantalizing Tuesday
A Marvelous Monday
A Saucy Sunday
A Sensual Saturday
My Thursday Throwback
Slivers of Love Series
The Deal Breaker
Naima's Melody
Santa's Big Helper
The Christmas Quilts
Friends with Benefits
The Cost to Play
A Menu for Loving
Thursdays in Savannah
DEDICATION
For all of my Lizzies. You are not too broken to love.
“Easy reading is damn hard writing.”
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To all the fans, friends, and supporters of the dream, as well as the Facebook community of writers who keep me focused, inspired, and moving forward.
Write On!
Table of Contents
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Chapter One – Blind Sided
Chapter Two- Boundary
Chapter Three- Edge
Chapter Four- Border
Chapter Five – Fringe
Chapter Six- Perimeter
Chapter Seven- Circumference
Chapter Eight- Extremity
Chapter Nine- Brim
Chapter Ten- Periphery
Epilogue
- Meet Olivia Gaines
Silent Nights- Chapter One- Speechless
Kisses in the Snow- Chapter One – Smackeroo
Chapter One – Blind Sided
The weekly discussion group meeting hosted by Karli Hoyt was called to order, and Karli opened the discourse on a boy wizard who was consistently failed by the adults in his life. Present at this week’s discussion was Jamal Bergen, the son of a prominent heart surgeon who, by all intents and purposes, found himself completely enamored of the girl. He listened with interest to her argument on the jealous aunt of the young wizard who took out her resentment of her sister’s success on the child. In the middle of a sentence discussing the potbellied, ruddy-faced uncle, Karli stopped speaking. A crinkle appeared on her forehead as she stared out the sliding glass door at the water.
“Karli Girl, what’s wrong?” Jamal asked, knowing she was experiencing one of her “moments.” Over the past year, he’d learned to read her reactions to situations, but there were moments like this when something more was needed. “I’ll get your Dad.”
He took off at breakneck speed to where he knew Mr. Exit worked and tapped lightly on the door. “Sir, it’s Karli. She’s having one of her moments.”
Exit was on his feet and moving. He rounded the corner to find his daughter on the floor, crumpled, her small hand clutching her side. Her angelic face exhibited horrific pain as he dropped to his knees, cradling her in his arms.
“Karli. Karli, talk to Daddy,” he encouraged, “tell me where it’s hurting.”
“Not me. Her.”
“Her?”
“Yes, her. Phone. I need your phone,” she said, curling into a tight ball. “Phone. Call him. Call him now. Not much time.”
Exit pointed for Jamal to run to his office and retrieve the black phone on his desk. The boy knew which phone because Karli had told him once it was a special phone to call the CIA. At least that’s what she told him her father did for a living; she said he worked for a covert arm of the CIA, which swore Jamal to secrecy. He returned with the phone, not knowing what to expect next. Exit punched the number one, and a voice came on the line. Karli reached for the phone.
“Unicorn One here,” she said, trying to catch her breath.
“Is everything okay?” the voice on the other line asked.
“No. She’s down,” Karli said. “It’s bad. The job went sideways in a handbasket, and she’s run low on handouts. I hope you know what that means. That’s all she sent me.”
“Did she give you anything else?”
Karli closed her eyes, inhaling deeply to slow her breathing. Her eyes misted from the intense pain as an image of a truck stop flashed, a green sign with a number, and a license plate. She knew what to tell the voice on the phone.
“The truck stop at Exit 261 outside of Louisville,” she told him. “Archangel, it’s bad. It’s really bad.”
“Thank you, Unicorn One; anything else?”
Karli twitched and her body went limp. Exit slipped his hand into hers, watching her eyes as they fluttered open. She sat up, and into the phone, she stated, “Time is almost up for her. Please get there quickly.”
The Archangel ended the call and made another. The closest technician to Hump was Mr. Slow, who moved quickly after he got the call from the Archangel, arriving within 15 minutes to find the woman behind the dumpster, bleeding from a gut wound. He tied off as much as he could, applying a pressured bandage, and got the lady in the car. It took him 15 minutes to get to her and it would be another 15 to get her to his place, but he was moving as fast as he could go without getting pulled over.
“Hang in there, Hump,” he encouraged as he arrived home to find The Doctor waiting for them both. “It’s bad. She’s lost a lot of blood.”
“Bring her inside and let me try,” The Doctor said, noticing the paleness of the skin and the blue tinge around her lips. It would be a long night and an even longer couple of days to get the femme fatale over the hump. “I’ll do everything I can to save her.”
Dr. Elden Thomas, The Doctor, specialized in this type of work. He was contracted by the Southeast Construction Crew as their doctor on call. Luckily for the lady, he lived close by. He was also hanging close in the area, hoping to get lucky with Ms. Hump once she finished her assignment for the night. They’d met previously at the funeral services for the technician One Way’s mother. Several times over the past couple of months, he’d called Hump to check on her and say hi. Finally, he’d gotten up his courage to ask the woman to dinner, and she’d said yes, once she ended her shift.
Her shift would end permanently if he couldn’t stop the bleeding and pump in a pint or two of O-neg along with a hearty dose of antibiotics. He pulled back the compress applied by Mr. Slow and spotted the large gaping hole in Hump’s gut. The lady had not only been shot but also stabbed.
“Merciful God in Heaven,” Elden whispered, trying to focus and save a life. Her journey to wellness would be long, arduous, and touch and go, but he didn’t plan to give up on her, not tonight, not ever. “I’m going to put in the work, Ms. Hump, but I need you to meet me halfway.”
An hour later, the bleed was cauterized, and Mr. Slow carried her to the spare bedroom for Lizzie to rest. He wasn’t certain what had happened. He wasn’t certain he was okay with her being in his home. He also wasn’t certain she would live through the night. His face showed as much.
“My place is nearby,” Elden said. “Once she’s able to travel, I’ll take her to my home.”
“No, you won’t,” Slow said. “Once she’s coherent and able to hold a gun and aim it at your fucking head, then I’ll let you transport her elsewhere, but until then, she stays under my watchful eye.”
“I’m a doctor. I am sworn to do no harm,” Elden said, offended at the inference Slow was making about his character.
“And I’m an ethical hacker hired to b reak into people’s computers, and in my free time, I break into people’s homes and kill them slowly,” he told The Doctor, “but that doesn’t mean I am going to leave you alone with a woman I’ve seen you drool over while she is in this physical state.”
“Why should I believe that you, of all people, can be trusted with her safety, and not me?”
“Because I have no interest in fucking her, not when she’s well and sure as shit not when she’s got a bullet wound in her gut,” he told him. “Let’s get her through the night, make sure she lives, and then when she’s coherent, we ask her what she wants.”
“Maybe I should leave,” Elden said.
“No, you need to stay, in case there is an issue during the night,” Slow said. “I made chili. More than likely, my gastronomic delight is going to come out looking like it did when it went in, so there’s that, but it’s good.”
“Yeah, and that is a no from me,” he told Slow, looking at Ms. Hump’s face. He was running a pint of blood to her, and the color was slowly starting to return to her face, but Slow was right, they had to get her through the night. “Hang in there, Elizabeth. Hang in there, dear lady.”
ELIZABETH PERKINS WAS no stranger to pain. Her entire life had been a run-on sentence of disappointment and failure to connect with another human. She followed the trail. She figured out the clues. Then, she found him, but she didn’t expect to find anything else. All she could feel was the pain. If tonight was her last night on the planet, so be it. Suddenly, her eyes popped open. Unfocused, searching, she looked about the room and spotted two faces. One she immediately knew, the other, familiar, yet distant.
“Slow,” she whispered, her throat dry. Lizzie held up her hand, reaching for him as he came to the side of the bed. His strong hand laced into hers, squeezing it and staring into the eyes. “Dumpster. It’s in the dumpster. Hurry. Please. The dumpster.”
He didn’t know what it meant. She had put something in the dumpster and he had to hurry to get there. He assumed it was the dumpster where she was found. He pointed his finger at The Doctor, silently threatening him before grabbing his keys and heading out. He drove fast, arriving at the truck stop as a dump truck rounded the building. The forks were down on the truck as it headed to the dumpster to lift and dump the contents.
Slow pressed hard on the gas, swerving in front of the truck, giving it braking room so it didn’t knock the ass completely off his Ford F-150. He held up his hands as the driver swore profanities at him. His hands were up in surrender as he climbed out of the Ford, ran to the dumpster, and flipped open the lid. The smell nearly made him close it back, but Hump had said the dumpster. Using the penlight on his keychain, he climbed onto the rim of the canister, shining the light inside.
“I hope whatever I’m looking for is easy to spot,” he said, aiming the light into the dark, smelly hole.
He scanned the contents, seeing nothing that immediately jumped out. Reluctant to climb inside to search for the magical item Hump had secured in the can, he growled loudly. Movement in the back corner of the can caught his eye and he flashed the light in that direction. Slow nearly jumped when a pair of eyes stared back at him, not afraid of the light, but watching. He wiggled his fingers at whatever it was, hoping, it was a rare breed of puppy.
“Come to me. You’re safe. She sent me to get you,” he told the small form which moved forward. It was not a puppy, but a child.
Little legs climbed over the refuse, making their way to the man. The tiny arms reached up, and Slow bent, leaning down to lift the child into his arms. The poor thing smelled like the dumpster but clung around Slow’s neck, squeezing tightly.
“I have you, kid,” he said, waving at the man in the garbage truck. “Sorry.”
The guy rolled down his window, leaning out to ask, “Did somebody throw away a kid?”
“Happens more often than you know,” Slow replied, climbing down while cradling the child to his chest.
“Hey! Hey! Wait a minute,” the guy screamed. “How do I know that kid ain’t trafficked and you’re not one of them radicalized nutjobs taking that child to your sex party? How did you know the kid was in there?”
Slow reached into his back pocket and pulled out his credentials, flashing them at the man. “I’m Homeland Security,” he told the driver. “Unless you want me to dig into your life and tear it apart, you saw nothing tonight as you picked up that dumpster of trash. You understand me?”
“You can’t threaten me. I want your badge number, and I plan to follow up with Homeland to make sure that child is safe,” the driver said.
Slow couldn’t fault a citizen wanting to make sure all was well, but he didn’t have time for it. He provided the man a business card, then carried the stinking ball to the truck, placed it on the cab seat and secured the small child in the back seat, and aimed the vehicle for his home.
“And now this shit! First Cherry, then Hump, plus the damned doctor looking at Hump like a lovesick puppy and Pigpen in the back seat; this fucking sucks,” he said, looking in the rearview and the child. “Yeah, first things first, Pigpen; you need a bath.”
The child nodded and stared ahead. He couldn’t be any older than six and it was odd that Hump had placed the child there, a riddle that was yet to unfold. Maybe in a day or two when she was more lucid, Hump would answer some questions, but for the next couple of days, Slow would stand watch.
HILTON HEAD, SC
Exit waited by the phone while the weekly book discussion group of Karli and her little guy friend ended, and Jamal left for home. Jamal provided an almost hug to Karli, before flashing her a 14-year-old smile, too practiced and too smooth for the kid. In a couple of years, the boy would be an issue. Right now, it didn’t feel as if he were grooming Karli, but more like Karli was grooming him. Each day with the child in his life, Exit felt less and less in control.
She came around the corner to find him sitting behind his desk, staring at her. These were the days and conversations she hated to have with her father because she didn’t have any answers, and she didn’t fully understand herself. Maybe in a year or so it would all go away, but for the time being, she planned to use everything she was given to help in any way she could.
“Did they find the second item?” she asked her father.
“Second item?”
“It was close by, but I couldn’t see it,” she said. “The woman was protecting it. She told it to stay small and wait. Daddy, do you know if they found it?”
“I don’t know,” he told her, truly concerned that Karli hadn’t asked about the woman. Now he worried that Hump may not have made it. “Let me call and see how she and...it, are doing.”
He pressed one on his phone, and this time, there was no immediate answer. It was the first time that had ever happened, and his worry and concern started to grow. In his hand, the phone continued to ring until finally, a click happened after the seventh ring.
“Unicorn One says there was a second item. Do you know if it was found?” Exit asked the Archangel.
“A second item? Wait for one minute,” he said, placing Exit on hold. No music played as he waited for the Archangel to return to the line. He set his watch timer to see how long it would take to find out whether his daughter was correct. Clicks on the phone sounded and then the voice was back.
“The second item was found,” the Archangel said. “How does she know so much? Did she and Hump connect when we were at One Way’s?”
“I honestly have no earthly idea,” Exit said, looking at the little girl. “She told me not to ask, and I don’t. She hasn’t been wrong thus far, so Archangel, I am just doing what I can.”
“I think we are all in the same spot here,” the Archangel said, taking a breath. “It is going to be a long night for everyone. Hump has a battle ahead of her. Maybe the second item located can be a grounding force.”
“Stop meddling,” Exit said and ended the call. His eyes went to Karli, who waited patiently in the large chair. In her hand, she held the Prisoner of Azkaban book, the one he hadn’t read. Her face was stoic as she looked at him for answers.
“The item was found, and so was she. They are both resting and being taken care of tonight,” he said.
