Adultery When We Were Married by DanielQSteele1

[Ramesh_Rocky]

But, goddammit, she thought, at some point you have to grow up. You couldn’t be a crusader going out to battle evil and not caring if you lost your life in the process. You could when you were single, but when you married, when you brought two lives into the world, you lost the freedom to throw your life away in grand gestures and it seemed like he’d never grown up enough to realize it.

She had only been halfway sarcastic when she referred to him as “Saint Bill,” to her mother and children. She had thought sometimes that it was like being married to a secular saint. Everybody looking in from the outside would ‘oooh’ and ‘aaahh’ about how wonderful it was to be married to such a noble creature.
But what it meant in reality was that she had never had more than a portion of him. No matter how much he swore he loved her and their children, actions proved more than words. When it came to the way he lived his life, for the last ten years he’d shown over and over again that he cared more for living up to the mythic legend of his father than he cared for the welfare of the people he said he loved the most.
She held him tight to her chest, cradling his head against her breasts, and she knew that if they hadn’t torn each other’s hearts out he’d have joked about the chance to feel her up making nearly dying worthwhile.
But they’d never joke like that again. She could still hold him against her and be glad that she wouldn’t have to call Kelly and BJ and tell them their father had died in her arms.
He was trying to twist in her arms and she tried to hold him still. She understood why the cops had been trying to hold him still. There could be other injuries, damage to the spine and the general rule was to keep victims as still as possible in such situations, but he kept twisting.
“Bill, try to stay still. Even if the bullets didn’t hit anything vital” - and here she couldn’t help smiling down at him “and if they only hit your brain they didn’t hit anything vital - you shouldn’t be moving. Stay still till rescue gets here.”
He returned a weak smile and managed to raise one trembling hand and wiped at the blood in his eyes.
“I feel....like shit....and I’m dizzy  but I’m not dying.”
She let him twist around and he saw the cops holding up the man they’d called Phil.
“Oh shit!” he said softly. “Phil! Phil!”

His voice was still weak but the big bald man helping to hold Phil up heard and pointed to Bill. Phil looked up, saw him and his eyes widened in surprise.

“I thought you were dead.” His voice whistled as he spoke and then he coughed up blood. He was gasping for air.

“What?”

The bald headed guy said, “One of Shawn’s bullets must have collapsed a lung. At least he didn’t hit his heart. He’ll make it. We all thought you’d bought it.”
Bill looked over at the black cop whose skin was starting to go a shade of pale gray while a current of blood kept gushing out around the white and black fingers trying to hold it back, now pushing hand towels against the growing tide of red.

“James?”

The black cop looked over at Bill and shook his head.

“You know you’re a real pain in the ass, don’t you Maitland? Or a pain in my gut, anyway.”

“...I’m sorry...”

James took a deep breath, then spit on the floor. “It’s all on him, and he paid for it.”

“What...”

The big bald cop glanced over the bleeding corpse on the floor, then at Bill.

“You’re alive because of Phil. I think his shot hit Shawn in the neck, enough anyway to where the bullet that was going to splatter your brains all over this room hit the back of your skull and skidded. But Shawn would not go down. He turned and hit Phil while I was pumping into him along with a half dozen others.
“He turned his gun on me and I thought I was dead when James hit him. We must have stopped firing because we didn’t hear anything until Shawn stuck his Glock into James’ fat gut and fired. When James fell back we unloaded and he finally went down. Son of a bitch. We had to put two into his brain to finally bring him down.”
The bald cop looked at the body leaking body and brain matter onto the floor and Debbie thought for a minute a hint of sadness flashed across his face.
“He was a tough son of a bitch. Stupid but tough. Anyway, that’s what I remember happening. Things were popping kind of quick.”
Bill turned his head slightly and looked up at Debbie. She had grabbed a couple of paper towels and was wiping the blood off his face. He swallowed hard.
“Damn...I’m dizzy, Babe.”
She made herself not respond. He was still in shock. ‘Babe’ didn’t mean what it once had.

“You’re going to be okay, Bill. You’ve got a hard head, but that bullet must have shaken you a lot.”

He closed his eyes and then they snapped open as he stared into her eyes. “What. what are you doing here, Deb?”

Her heart flipped in her chest. This was the question she feared. How could she answer it?

“I......Patrick Leary told me you were going to meet with the cops here tonight.”

“And?”

He was slipping back into that damned interrogator frame of mind. “Why are you here?”

He wouldn’t let it go.

“You remember I said you don’t have the sense to be afraid of things you should be afraid of. I guess. I just wanted to be close by.”
“And you were going to be my bodyguard?”
“No, you bastard. I. I was worried about you. You happy now? You got it out
of me. I was worried about you. You’ve got two children that love you and you don’t have sense enough to protect yourself for them.”
“So you were here for our kids?”
“Why do you have to be a prosecutor right now, Bill?”
“I’m just trying to understand. Why are you crying for someone you don’t love anymore?”
She closed her eyes and when she opened them the room was swarming with cops and rescue EMTS and firefighters and high level Sheriff’s Office officials. Two rescue types were leaning down and trying to separate her from Bill but she held him tightly.

“I said I didn’t love you that way anymore, Bill, not that I didn’t love you.” They were pulling him away from her and she had to get out the last words. “I came here tonight, Bill, because I know you. I know you better than

anyone else. You did what you always have done because you’re the kind of man you are. I just....forgot........................................ who you were. For a while.”

She released him, pulling her bloody hands away while two techs leaned him down on a rolled up blanket. She leaned over and kissed his bloody forehead.

“I’m sorry I forgot, Bill.”

He looked up at her and for once she couldn’t read him. “So am I, Debbie.”

Then the room descended into organized chaos as rescue personnel swarmed the three wounded men and tried to shoo away the men who’d been caring for them. Debbie stepped back and looked at her hands and dress. Jesus Christ she was a mess. In minutes she knew the television crews would be swarming


outside. She needed to call Kelly and BJ. If they heard the first reports that their father had been shot and she showed up on a newscast covered in blood it would not look good.