Chapter Thirteen

AJ was silent as he drove back to his apartment. He let what happened between he and Gabby replay in his mind over and over again wondering how he could have missed it. She was a nerdy girl who clearly pretended to be a loner like himself just to trap him...or so he thought. He pulled into the back of the building he lived in and parked the car with a heavy sigh.

"I knew she was too good to be true...I should have just stayed away from her like I originally planned to..." he said before getting out of the truck.

Police men were stationed out front and inside as he came around to the entrance of the building. A few of them glanced in his direction but made no sudden movements to speak to him.

"I'll have to leave this place now that Karl is in town...why can't he just leave me alone..." he thought to himself as he hit the button to open the elevator doors. As he stepped inside someone came rushing out, nearly knocking him down.

"Damn it!" He yelled, "Watch where...Sandy?"

Sandy looked at him wide eyed for a brief moment. "Hey there AJ,"

He looked at the elevator for a moment and then back at her, "What are you doing here?"

She shrugged, "W-well I heard Gabby was shot earlier and I wanted to come check on her."

He raised an eyebrow at her, "How did you know she got shot? You don't exactly live in this building you know."

Her lips trembled slightly as she glanced around at the police officers. "I-I-"

"-Let's go," AJ snapped as he grabbed her arm and pulled her into the elevator. He hit the button for the third floor and watched as the door slowly closed. When the elevator moved up between the first and second floors, he hit the emergency stop button.

"Sandy...I want you to listen to me very closely...I'm a very dangerous man at this point in my life and I would really hate for you to be the first one to deal with my anger. With that being said...I'm going to ask you one more time...what in the hell are you doing here?"

Sandy glanced at him as her heart began to beat against her chest. "I had to get something out of Gabby's apartment...I was told to..."

"By whom?" he asked.

Sandy's eyes narrowed, "You should know...after all Gabby did lie for you..."

He turned his head towards her, "What are you talking about?"

"She lied to Karl for you...he came to her apartment earlier to ask if she knew you and she lied and told him she'd never heard of you. And that, my friend, is why he had his buddy put a bullet in her back..."

AJ felt his heart fill with absolute guilt. "Oh shit what have I done..." he thought to himself as he shoved Sandy against the wall.

"How do you know Karl?" he asked. "What did he send you to take from her apartment?"

Sandy laughed at his emotion, "I'm his wife, but of course you wouldn't know that because you were too busy doing time in prison for him."

"Oh you keep talking bitch...you forget...I've been to prison...therefore I'm not afraid of going back."

She pressed her lips together and reached in her pocket for a small magnet that had a hidden camera attached to it. She showed it to him with a smirk, "This is what I was sent to retrieve from her place...Leo did a great job planting it on her coat the night he followed her home. I must say she was the perfect spy...even though she wasn't aware of anything that was happening."

AJ wanted to snap her neck right then and there, but he knew he couldn't. He needed her...at least for now.

"Where is he?" he asked.

"That's for me to know and for you to find out." she said with a sly grin.

He shook his head, "That's too bad...I guess that means you're going to be my new house guest for awhile."

Her eyes widened in horror as AJ took the camera from her and shoved it into his pocket. He then hit the button on the elevator making it rise to his floor.

Gabby found it difficult to sleep that night. Aside from being in pain, she couldn't stop herself from sobbing.

"Oh AJ...if you get hurt I'll never forgive myself..." she cried.

"Hey Miss Pinson," the doctor said as he stepped into her room. "Are you alright?"

Gabby sniffled and sat up in her bed, "Uh, just in some pain."

He smiled at her, "Ok I can get you some stronger pain medications if you need them."

She shook her head, "No, it's not physical pain..."

"Ah...anything you wanna discuss? I'm a pretty good listener," he told her.

She smiled and wiped away her tears, "Just guy trouble...my friend thinks I set him up and that me getting shot was only part of it."

The doctor was appalled, "Well I don't know you that well but I can see that there's no way a small fragile woman like yourself could come up with something like that, let alone put yourself in harms way..."

Gabby laughed, "Yeah he was too angry to let me explain though."

"Awe don't worry, he'll cool down and give it some thought I'm sure. In the meantime you should really get some rest. You're going to need it of you want to get home faster."

She nodded, "Thank you."

The doctor nodded and left her in peace. As she laid her head back the events that led up to her shooting played over in her mind. She remembered how Karl randomly showed up to her apartment and wondered how he even found out she was living there. That would mean he had to know someone in her life that knew they were cousins. She rolled onto her side facing away from the door and began to think long and hard about this.

"Whoever told Karl where I lived had to know I knew AJ already too...they also had to know AJ lived next door to me..."

She then remembered her bartender, Leo. She told him about AJ and how he was her neighbor...She sat up with a gasp, "Leo followed me home for a reason...maybe he knew Karl!"

She looked down at her arm and gently pulled the IV from it. She then removed her heart monitor and tossed the covers from her legs. Slowly, she got herself out of bed and stumbled to the window. She could see the parking lot below and was in shock when she saw Leo's car just pulling in.

"Oh no," she said as she watched him get out of the driver seat and the tall man she ran into before get out of the passenger seat. "I have to get out of here!"

She backed away from the window and walked to her door. As she slowly opened it she saw a long hallway filled with doors to other patient's rooms. There was no one else there so she made a run for the elevator the was down the hall to her right. She hit the button to go up hoping she could get away in time... When it opened she ran inside and hit the button for the laundry room that was on the top floor. The ride up there felt long and torturous. She could see Leo and that man in her mind trying to hold her down and smother her with a pillow...

When she made it to the Laundry room, she looked around at all the huge basket carts, dryers, and washers. She had just decided to run to one of the baskets when an annoucment over the intercom startled her.

"ATTENTION EVERYONE WE HAVE A CODE BLUE! GABRIELLE PINSON IF YOU'RE IN THE AREA PLEASE COME BACK TO YOUR ROOM!"

"Shit," she cursed as she hoped into one on the clean laundry baskets and covered herself with the towels and blankets inside...