“I think you’ve got him, son,” an older black cop said as he stood over him. “Let us deal with him now.”
Calvin glanced around and realized that Bella was sitting on the floor where she’d knocked Eddie to the ground. She was holding her left wrist and watching him with concern.
“He’s a murderer,” he told the cop. “He’s wanted by the police for five murders. His name is Eddie Simons.” He moved over to Bella. “Are you okay?” he asked, feeling his voice pitch.
“I think my arm is broken.” She touched his face with her right hand. “You’ve got blood.” She touched his lip and he felt the sting of where Eddie had gotten in a lucky punch to his lip.
“I’m okay,” he assured her, then he ran his eyes over her. “The gun went off.” He touched her face.
She glanced around and then motioned to one of the kiosks and laughed almost hysterically. “I think he only killed a machine this time.”
“My god.” He pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
He vaguely registered the claps and cheers of the bystanders as he held onto Bella. They sat on the airport floor and watched as the police handcuffed the unconscious Eddie. They had to wait for the ambulance to arrive, but he knew automatically that Bella’s arm was indeed broken.
Eddie was hauled away shortly after he gained consciousness and instantly began to spew curse words and lies to the police. Shortly after Eddie was hauled away, Captain Elizabeth Feller arrived, just as they loaded Bella into the back of the ambulance.
Bella wanted to go to the hospital in a taxi, but the captain convinced her to take the ride in the back of the ambulance instead.
“If you show up in a taxi, by the time you get there, every reporter will be waiting for you. The ambulance, with a police escort, will be there before the reporters get wind of what happened.”
The captain even convinced them to allow him to ride along and assured them that their luggage would be delivered back to her apartment before the end of the day. He’d handed her over the baggage claims and somehow knew that he would never see his underwear again.
Hell, as long as Bella was safe, he didn’t care.
The captain was wrong, though. When they rolled Bella out of the back of the ambulance, a string of paparazzi was already waiting for them.
“Damn,” he growled as he tried to shield Bella.
“It’s okay.” She rested her head back and smiled up at him. “It’s not me their taking pictures of. It’s you. You’re the hero that saved me.”
He glanced over and sure enough, the cameras were pointed in his direction as questions were shouted at him.
There were questions directed at Bella too, but most of them were about how he’d singlehandedly taken down a killer with a gun at the airport.
He wanted to laugh at the vague description, but then realized that’s exactly what had happened.
Bella was instantly moved into a private room. He was thankful for it, since he didn’t want to deal with the group of people trying to get a picture of them.
They waited in the room until she could be rolled in for an X-ray.
He called Ben and filled him in as she rested back, holding her arm close to her chest.
“Hey,” he said when Ben answered the phone.
“Hey, did you get on the plane yet?” Ben asked.
“No.” He sighed. “Something came up. You might want to turn on the TV.”
“Shit, what happened now?” Ben asked. Instantly, he heard Sarah in the background berate him about the language. “Sorry,” Ben said to his wife, and Calvin heard his friend turn on the television in the background. Then Ben was silent as he watched the news report of what had happened at the airport. “Shit, man, are you and Bella okay?”
“Yes, your sister is alive and well.”
“Hi, Ben,” Bella called out with a smile. “I’m fine.”
“We think she has a broken wrist. We’re waiting in line for an X-ray. Other than that,”
“Calvin has a fat lip,” Bella broke in.
“It’s nothing.” He frowned down at her.
“He took out a killer.” She smiled up at him and reached with her good hand for his. “And I love him.” She laughed.
“Okay, so they don’t have her on drugs yet, but I think it’s shock.” He frowned down at her as he joked.
“My god. Do you know how many gray hairs you two have given me in the past few weeks?” Ben said. “Wow, there’s footage of my sister tackling the ass—” Ben cleared his throat as Calvin heard Sarah complain again. “Sorry, the bastard down,” Ben said with a chuckle.
“There is?” Calvin flipped on the television set and changed it to a news station and hit the mute button.
Sure enough, they watched as Bella tackled Eddie.
“What were you thinking?” Calvin asked Bella with a frown.
“I was thinking… he had a gun and could have just shot me.” Her frown grew. “Or you.”
He took a deep breath as the scene changed and suddenly, he saw himself rush over and pull the man up to his feet and then plow his fist into the guy’s face.
“Okay,” Ben said into his ear. “You win. You punch way better than I do.”
Calvin couldn’t help it, he laughed as he watched Eddie fold under his fists.
“Shit,” he sighed as he watched himself lose control and continue to plow his fist into the unconscious man’s face.
“Yeah, intense,” Ben said in his ear. Then after a moment of silence Ben said, “Calvin?”
“Yeah?” He turned off the set and closed his eyes.
“Thanks for saving my sister.”
“Any time.” His eyes opened and landed on Bella, who was looking up at him like he was a superhero.
He waited almost an hour while her arm was x-rayed. A doctor confirmed it was broken at the wrist, and another nurse came in to put it in a cast.
He laughed at her when she picked pink as her cast color and watched the woman wrap the material around her entire arm to secure it.
Once it was done, he asked the nurse to borrow her pen. Leaning over Bella, he blocked her view as he worked on writing out his message to her.
“Marry me?” was spelled out in large letters so she could read it clearly.
When he finally let her see what he’d written, she laughed and nodded her head as she cried out, “Yes!” over and over again.
The nurse laughed and then relayed what had happened to several of her collogues.
Bella asked for the pen and wrote a large “YES” under his question.
Of course, at that point, word had gotten out that they had Bella Rothschild in the emergency room and requests for pictures ensued until they got her release papers.
He was slightly shocked that the nurses wanted his picture as well.
“You’re as famous as she is,” the older nurse had said. “After all, you’re the one who took out the madman and saved the woman you love.” She smiled up at him.
He felt a little foolish, but then he turned and saw the love in Bella’s eyes and any strange feelings disappeared. He had the most important thing, the thing that mattered most to him, and she’d promised to be his forever.