Page 3 of Dallas

“Dad, I’m so sorry.” He told him that he was telling the wrong person. “I’ll talk to her. I swear that I’ll come clean with everything. Tell her that…I don’t know what I’ll say to her, but I’ll make this right. I’ve never had a mate before, and I know that I messed up. You don’t have to go. I’ll do it, and I swear I will make this right.”

“You’d better. You only get one chance at having your other half, and it’s hard enough for our kind since we’re gorillas.” He decided to change into something nicer and drove himself to his apartment to do that. While there, he also took a shower and shaved. He was going to make this right.

If he was honest with himself, he didn’t think it was that big of a deal. Sure, he’d not told her what he was to her. But the other stuff, that was just all in a day’s work for him. Amy had done them all a good thing by talking to Cuco. After she’d left, he thought that the only reason she’d been able to get the primate to cooperate was because of her being his mate. But he decided not to mention that part. He was going to be in enough trouble as it was, he thought, by just showing up at her home.

As he drove down her street, Dallas wasn’t keen on the idea of where she was living. The houses at the start of her street were all right, but the deeper down her street he got, the worse they looked. The house next to the one she lived in had grass high enough that a person could easily hide out and attack someone if they wanted. Even the house across the street from her looked like a house where drugs were being sold out of. As he sat in her driveway, wondering if he should have come with back up, he saw three people coming out of the house next to hers that looked like they were higher than a kite.

Staggering around the yard, falling into the tall grasses, he nearly got out and checked on the man who had come out of the weeds with blood on his face. But all he did was dance; he supposed it was him dancing to his car and drove off. This was not a neighborhood that he’d ever feel safe in, and he was a large gorilla.

Finally, after the two cars were gone across the street, Dallas got out of his car, and he made his way to her front porch. He was almost afraid to step on it as it looked weak and rotten. But clean. A good deal cleaner than any of the houses surrounding her home. Knocking on her door, he watched the glass in the window next to it shimmer. Like it was only seconds from shattering out of the pane. He nearly missed her opening the front door.

“What do you want? I think I made it perfectly clear that I never wanted to see you again.” He asked her if she was safe to live here. They both looked to the house across the street when something like gunfire sounded. “It happens. But this is my home, and it’s paid for. Fuck off.”

When she started to shut the door in his face, he put out his hand. Dallas didn’t even touch the door nor the frame when he heard the sound of shattering glass. Not only did the door fall on top of him, but the glass shattered all over his chest and face. As he was falling back, the boards under his feet gave, and he fell backward onto the porch and hit his head on the railing behind him.

He must have been out for only a few seconds because when he opened his eyes, Amy was still standing in the doorway. Trying to sit up, he reached for something to hold onto and nearly fell through the floor again when the chair that was near the door fell over. He could feel the cuts in his hand then and knew that he was going to be in big trouble when his parents saw him again.

“Don’t move.” He said that his leg was hurting. “Okay, but don’t touch anything else. Okay? I’m going to call an ambulance. Don’t speak either. I’m freaking the fuck out right now, and I don’t want you to make it worse.”

“All right. Are you all right?” That was when he noticed that she had her hand over her belly and blood was staining the shirt she had on. “Amy, what happened, honey? Did the glass cut you? Where are you hurt?”

“I was shot, I think.” She didn’t just sit down but dropped to the doorway like her feet had been cut from under her. “The police will take hours to get here. And an ambulance won’t come until they’re here. Do you have a cell phone, by any chance? I can call a friend of mine to come and get us, but that would only work if she’s someplace close.”

“I’m going to call my parents.” She nodded, and he knew then that she was hurting. “Amy, I want you to lay down and close your eyes for me. You’re looking very pale, and I don’t want you to pass out on me.”

“I’m all right. You’ve been cut up badly. See if your parents will come and get you to take you to the hospital. Not the one closest to us. When they find out you’ve been cut up at this address, just this street, really, they’ll set you in the lobby and let you die. Just tell them that you were…I think I’m going to be sick here.”

He started to move toward her but stopped when the door frame, devoid of the glass, knocked into her body. Taking out his cell phone, trying his best to be as calm as he could, he dialed his parents. He was never so happy to hear his mom’s voice as he did at that moment.

“Mom, I need you to bring the truck to Amy’s house. She’s been shot, and I’ve been hurt. Nothing a shift won’t fix, but she’s bleeding.” She, always the calm one when any of them had been hurt, asked him if she was going to live. “Yes. Even if I have to remove the bullet myself. If you could bring a couple of my brothers, I’d appreciate it. They’ll have to help me up from her porch.”

Mom didn’t ask questions that could be answered later. She told him that they were all there and they’d all want to come. After telling her not to let Dad drive, she agreed with him, and she said they were on their way. For him to keep Amy awake and talking. Knowing that there was little he could do from his position in the floorboards, he talked to Amy while she laid on the floor of her home.

“I’m sorry about today.” He told her all about his family giving him a hard time for the way he acted and that he was sorry too. “I should have been upfront with you from the start. Not acting all macho and teasing you with the information. I’m so sorry about that.”

“Are you really the silverback?” He said that he was simply because his father didn’t want to do it anymore. “You have a big group…I think it’s called a troop, right?”

“Yes. It can also be called a whoop or a band. Dad told me once it would be hard to see a large group of gorillas and think of them as a whoop. And a band? Well, that made him think that they’d need record covers or something.” She laughed a little, and for that, he was glad. “Cuco, she is raising the baby like her own. When I left work, she was watching over her like she would have her own child. You saved both their lives today. I should have told you that, too.”

“Why? Would you have killed her if she didn’t take to the child?” He deserved that, but let it go. He told her what he’d meant. “I could see that she was depressed. I think she might well have given up without the child. What happened to the other baby’s mother?”

“The male killed her.” He heard the crunch of gravel and turned as best he could to see who it was. All he could see was flashing lights, and he knew in some way that his parents had gotten them to come out there. If he were a police officer, he didn’t think he’d want to come to this area either. It was a good place to end up dead. He also doubted that anyone would care either. “Mom is very good at getting things done. How are you doing, Amy?”

“Just peachy.” He didn’t know her well enough yet to understand her, but he was sure that she was being sarcastic. “I’m sick with pain, and I’ve been shot. How the hell do you think I feel?”

He couldn’t help it. He laughed. Dallas was going to have to pay for that, he was sure, but he was glad to know that she’d not lost her sense of humor. It might well keep him on his toes for a long time. If she could find her way to forgiving him for his first meeting.

Chapter 2

She knew where she was the moment that she opened her eyes. Hospital. However, she was not in the emergency department like she thought she’d be. Looking around, she saw Dr. Dixon there, and he was in a wheelchair with his leg propped up.

“I thought you could just shift and take care of that.” He told her what he’d been told by the police. “I guess you have to make it look good for trial. If there is one. It’s been my experience since living there all my life that they usually are out of jail before the person who is hurt has recovered. Or sometimes buried. You’re right; it’s not a good place to live, but it’s mine, and I was there first.”

“My parents called in some favors.” Since he didn’t say anymore, she didn’t question them. “How do you like your news? All at once? Rip the band-aid off? Or some bad with a sprinkling of good so as not to overwhelm you? I’m good either way. But there are a few things that you need to be aware of.”

“Start with the worst. Or whatever you think that I’ll think of the worst.” He nodded and then told her what he’d done in order to save her life. “I don’t know what that means. You claimed me? We didn’t have sex while I was out, did we? I’m going to be super pissed off if you got your rocks off and I just laid there.”

“No.” She thought it was funny that his face turned a bright red. “No, no sex. Claiming you as in acknowledging that you’re my mate and that I’m your mate. By doing that, you got some magic that I have. More, I think, than I thought, but it’s hard to tell with you being laid up right now. It stopped you from bleeding out, and for that, everyone is grateful.”

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