Impressions of Me (Impressions Series Book 2)

by Christopher Harlan

  The next sixty seconds plays out in slow motion; like I’m watching a film about the events that are happening right in front of me. I didn’t see him at first, but from my peripheral vision I see a figure rushing in Derrick’s direction. It’s Kane! Derrick is too tied up with a Rottweiler eating his arm to notice, but Kane is rushing towards him, and just as Derrick turns the gun on Jordan, Kane’s on him, tackling him with all the force of a football player. The gun goes off anyhow and I hear Jordan yelp in pain and let go of Derrick. “Jord” I yell out. I’m still dazed, but I get my wits about me when I hear that gun go off. I drag myself over to where Jordan’s laying down as Kane deals with Derrick. “Hold on, baby, I’ve got you.” I know it’s a weird thing to do in that moment, but I start to check her whole body for a wound, running my hands over her whole body frantically. I see where the blood is coming from – he hit her in her front leg. Thank God, it could have been worse!

  As soon as I see that she’s going to be okay I turn around, and when I do I see a bloody and bruised Kane (Jesus, what did he do to him?) on top of an even more bloody and wounded Derrick. The gun’s fallen next to them, and as they’re fighting I get over there as fast as I can and get the gun away. Kane’s reigning down punches and landing every one of them on Derrick’s face, and the blood is literally spattering all around them. I see Derrick go limp like he’s unconscious, but Kane just keeps hitting him, over and over again, so I run over to stop him. “Kane, stop it, you’ll kill him.”

  “That’s what he fucking deserves. He deserves to die right here on my floor.” He looks crazed also, but in a different way than Derrick was. He looks like a man out for revenge, and each fist against Derrick’s skull takes him a little bit closer to that goal.

  “I know, I know he does.” I grab Kane’s arm and he stops. He’s breathing like he just ran a marathon, and his face is all bruised up where Derrick must have hit him. “But he’s unconscious and if you keep hitting him it’s murder, not self-defense. He belongs in a cell, not you. I’m okay. You need to stop now.”

  I let go and Kane lowers his arm. Derrick is knocked out on the floor, and I’m sitting with Jordan, trying to stop the bleeding on her leg. “Is she okay?” Kane asks.

  “About as good as any of us. She’ll live, but we need to get her to a vet. What happened to you?”

  “He attacked me in the shower. I thought it was you knocking, so when I opened the door he hit me with something, then kicked me in the face and knocked me out for a few.”

  “You need a doctor, you might have a concussion.”

  “We all need a doctor, Rottweiler’s most certainly included.”

  It’s faint, but I can hear the sound of police sirens in the distance. I go back into the kitchen where I most likely dropped my phone. It’s sitting on the flood, face down, and when I pick it up I see a text from Kevin.

  Kevin: Holy shit – done, what’s going on there?

  I have a lot of explaining to do, but first I need to attend to everyone here. I text him back that everything’s okay, and then go back into the living room. It looks like the scene from a bad horror movie: one guys in unconscious in a pool of his own blood; my dog is shot and whining next to him; my boyfriend is bloodied up and experiencing an adrenaline dump after just having saved my life, and my nose is definitely broken. Holy shit. I walk over to Kane, who’s still slumped on the ground over Derrick’s limp body, and wrap my arms around him. “You saved my life,” I say to him, and the tears start to flow down my face. “It’s over now.” We hug as the raging of the sirens gets louder and louder.

  “It’s over.” Kane says.

  Chapter 24

  The next few hours are a blur of events: police taking statements, paramedics taking care of everyone, officers handcuffing Derrick and taking him away. “Don’t worry Ma’am,” the older detective says to me, “he’ll never get out again after this. Plus we’ve been cooperating with PD’s in different states to coordinate the evidence that points to him in those other crimes. He’ll be spending the rest of his life in a jail cell, at the least.” I feel stupid, but I wrap Jordan’s leg up in a towel from the kitchen and insist that one of cops take her to an emergency vet for me, and one of them were nice enough to agree. I guess when you’re almost the half of the victims in a double homicide (not to mention a doggie-cide, if that’s a thing), you can get the police to do you a few favors.

  They’ve been great, but I’m exhausted, and I’m the least harmed of anyone here. Kane’s speaking to the other detectives, and there are all sorts of technicians collecting evidence and taking photos of the house, which I guess is technically a crime scene for now. Eventually everyone leaves, including Kane and I, and we’re told that it’ll be at least a week of ballistics and evidence gathering before we can come back here. Its fine, I’m good with a change of scenery anyhow.

  My first call is to Mia, and I tell her to get Kevin and meet us at the hospital the paramedics are taking us to. She sounds panicked as can be, and I don’t blame her, but I try to tell her that everything’s okay, and that I’ll fill her in at the hospital once I can have visitors. As we’re headed to the ambulance I look to Kane. “Is it weird that I feel really good right now?”

  “No,” he says without hesitation, “I feel the same way, despite how we both look.” He tries to smile but immediately grimaces. “Well, I guess there’ll be no smiling for a while. Please don’t make me laugh for at least a few weeks, okay?”

  “I make no promises.” He smiles and winces again, “I’ll see you at the hospital.”

  “It’s a date.”

  A few hours later, after a cool ride in an ambulance and some high grade painkillers, we’re each seen by doctors. I have a broken nose like I though, and some bruising; Kane also has a broken nose, and a black eye, but we’re both going to be just fine. They’re making us stay a day for testing and observation, so we get cozied up in a couple of rooms and try to make the best of it. Mia, Kevin and Wesley all visit after a while, and I spend my last bit of energy explaining everything that I remember about what happened. My first thought is actually of Jordan, so I put Kevin on the job. I ask him to get the name of the emergency vet center she was taken to, and to find out when she’d be able to leave. After that they leave me in my room to rest. Tomorrow is another day.

  <><><>

  I shouldn’t be surprised when Kane meets me outside of the hospital after we’re both discharged with a fancy car ready to take us wherever we want to go. I don’t recognize the driver, it isn’t John - he still has a lot of recovering to do, but he’ll be back to normal eventually. We all will. After I fill out all the discharge papers the orderly wheels my fat butt out to the drop off area, and Kane’s standing just outside the car, waiting for me with a semi-smile on his face. “My lady.” He jokes. I stand get out of the wheelchair (why do they need to do that?) and walk to the open car door and get in.

  “So where are we going? We can’t go back to your place for a while.”

  “It’s a surprise. And no, we can’t go back for a while. I was talking to the detectives again and they still have teams cleaning up the blood and taking enough evidence to convict Derrick. The cops are pretty sure that he’ll get life.”

  “Pretty sure?”

  “That’s the least he’ll get,” Kane reassures, “the death penalty might be on the table, depending on how the prosecuting attorney handles it. Not for us, but if they can link him to those crimes in the other states then he’s done for. The police were telling me a little bit about it –as much as they can, anyhow – it’s gruesome stuff, Dacia. You may not feel it at all, but trust me, you were lucky. Some of the girls who’ve met Derrick were never seen again.” I actually do feel lucky, as well as feeling horrible for those other girls and their families. Why do men like Derrick exist? Where do they come from? I’m not a psychologist, so I can’t even answer my own question, even though I’ve always been really interested in psychology. Oh well, maybe in another life.

  The
drive isn’t long, but I can see the hotel from pretty far away. I’ve passed this place all the time driving through town, but I’ve never had the money to stay here, it’s a little fancy. “Oh wow,” I say, seeing the height of the building from some distance, “I’ve never been inside.”

  “That’s the last time you’ll be able to say that, isn’t it?”

  “I guess so.” I’m grinning ear to ear. I really don’t care about money and fancy things, in general, but every now and then getting to experience this sort of thing just makes me happy. I’d love Kane if he were a janitor, but there are some nice benefits to being a billionaire! As we check in I realize that we’re missing something. “Where’s our stuff?” I ask.

  “Don’t worry, I’m having it sent for, we’ll be here a while.” I’ve never had anything ‘sent for’ in my entire life. I guess there’s a first time for everything.

  “Okay, but tell whoever is getting our stuff to get the cute dress from the closet in case we go out somewhere.”

  “Got it. I’ll tell him to get all things he designates as cute, okay?”

  “Perfect.” We laugh, and the concierge hands Kane his key, and tells him to put it into the elevator to take us to the suite. A quick elevator ride later and the doors open up to the largest hotel room (excuse me, suite) that I’ve ever seen in person. It feels like a small apartment, with a great view of town, a full kitchen, and a bathroom that’s way bigger than mine. I stare around the room like I’ve never seen a hotel before, but I can’t help it. Kane laughs at me standing there, just outside the elevator door, not really moving much except my head, back and forth around the room.

  “Here we are,” he says, “This is home for a while.”

  Home. That word has had so many different meanings for me over the years. When I was a kid it wasn’t a good word – it was the place where my crazy mom lived; where she’d lash out and hit me, or disappear for days strung out on God-knows-what drug. Later that word became happier when I was adopted by a nice family that did their best to raise a messed up, rebellious girl. It’s interesting how the same word can inspire so many different emotions and mean so cause so many different images to appear in my mind. And now I guess ‘home’ is going to include a huge suite at this hotel for at least the next seven days. That’s just fine by me.

  A few hours later our things arrive in a bunch of well packed suitcases that make it look like we’re going on a two week vacation. Kane tips all the employees who were nice enough to make a few trips up and down to our room to bring us all of our things, and we spend the next hour unpacking it like we just moved in. “I’m exhausted!” Kane comes over and gives me a hug.

  “Me too. And I think it’s just about time for some of those pain pills the doctor said we can take, my face is killing me”

  “I know what you mean; your face is killing me too.”

  “Haha,” he says back, “but seriously, I have a cure for your exhaustion”

  “Oh yeah?” I say skeptically, “What did you have in mind?”

  “It’ll involve that cute dress you asked for, let’s leave it at that. But for now, how about a nap.”

  “Sexy,” I joke.

  “Who invited you? I was talking about me taking a nap, alone.”

  “Wow. Okay. See if I care.”

  He turns around towards the bed, pretending not to care, and I run up and grab him from behind. He spins around and kisses me, and although I’d love to take things even further I’m as exhausted as he is, and there’s always time for that later on. We walk over to the bed and pass out for a while.

  Chapter 26

  It’s pretty disorienting to fall asleep in the daylight and wake up in the darkness. For a second it doesn’t even register where I am, or what I’m doing there, but then I look next to me and see an empty side of the bed. “I think you were more tired than me,” Kane says. I look over and see him getting dressed, putting on a white button-down shirt and pants, and I rub my eyes to try to wake up.

  “What time is it?” I ask.

  “It’s eight o’clock,” he answers as he stops buttoning at his second-to-last button, “but who’s keeping track.”

  “You let me sleep until eight!”

  “Of course I did,” he says, “it’s not like we’re late for something, and you needed the rest. How did you sleep?”

  “Good, I think. I’m still waking up, so I’ll let you know. How long have you been up?”

  “Not long. Only about two hours or so.”

  “Two hours! That’s a pretty long time. What have you been doing that whole time?”

  “Staring at you, mostly.”

  “Creepy much?”

  “It’s not creepy if you’re in love with the person.”

  “No, sorry, still creepy.”

  “Yeah it kind of is. But that’s not all I was doing.”

  “What else?” I ask.

  “Well I spoke to the detective on your case.” I’m not expecting that, even though at this point I probably should be. Both brothers have shown their willingness to use their money and influence to help out the women they love. I shouldn’t be surprised that Kane has access to the detective – I’m sure he’s found out more than he’s supposed to know. But, then again, Derrick did try to kill both of us, so I guess flexing a little muscle to get information is fair game.

  “What did he tell you?”

  “Not much,” Kane says, “Just that they’re processing Derrick and already speaking to the cops in other states

  Chapter 25

  We need to get the hell out of here for the afternoon.

  I love this place, but it’s been my gilded prison for the last few days, and both me and the man I love were almost killed here a few hours ago. Yeah, I’d say that warrants an afternoon out of the house.

  Epilogue

  September

  So this is what a college classroom looks like, huh?

  Extras

  The two stories that follow, “We Met in the Dark” and “Ghost” are little mental breaks that I took from the writing of Impressions of Me. Instead of taking time off from writing entirely, I instead took a mental break from this particular plot and characters, in order to write a few shorts, here and there. At the time I made them available for free on my website , as well as my social media. I also took time here and there to write a few blog posts on whatever I was thinking/feeling during the writing process. I’ve made both of those stories, as well as the blog posts, available as extras as part of your purchase of this book. I hope you enjoy them – more to come soon!

  We Met in the Dark

  “Normal people have no idea how beautiful the darkness is.”

  ---source unknown

  I've never understood why so many people are afraid of the dark. If we're being honest, the dark has its advantages when you're meeting another person. It isn't the dark, per say, but the absence of light that allows otherwise failed interactions to be resurrected; where otherwise unhavable moments can take place. In the dark we can be the version of our self that we normally keep secret from the world; where the truer version of ourselves can be given voice to speak in words too vulgar for proper society.

  Like tonight.

  Tonight, in this place, in this darkness, I had one of those moments with him.

  We met in that room where everyone gathers to forget who they are when they're not in that room. You know the place well, don't you? The music so loud as to drown out the thoughts that would caution you against your own poor decisions; the floor literally vibrating with a bass created to make you feel the energy of the room. The man (or woman) along the wall has everyone's favorite poison at his (or her) fingertips, awaiting request, and served in the fanciest chilled glass. On the open floor bodies smash together, and move in such synchronicity as to make us all tribespeople of the first order; we worship the gods of flashing neon lights, and our holy water burns on its way down our throats.

  That's the place where I met him; the dark man with th
e light eyes, his face a perfect balance of all those features that remind you, with no uncertainty, that you were fated to be born a woman. He saw me, miraculously, from across the crowded floor. And maybe even more miraculously I saw him see me, and I returned his gaze with all the darkest thoughts that had traveled so rapidly from the throbbing between my legs, up to my brain. I sent those thoughts to him like a laser beam, cutting through the violent dancing of intoxicated bodies. He knew that I saw him there, and suddenly we were somehow alone; the only two bodies in this house of worship, and worship we would.

  He approached me, of course, walking across the room to the place I stood waiting; the prey anticipating the hunt more than the hunter. When he found me I didn't even look at him, I played the role of resistant, unwanting woman perfectly. We did the choreographed mating dance; the requisite words and desirable gazes, the exaggerated giggles and touching of shoulders. We did it all, and we did it well. What happened next was all but expected at that point. He took me in his car before he took me in his bed, a quick ride only a few blocks away; the cool summer breeze blowing against my face as we drove too fast, the excitement of what we knew was coming dominating our every thought.

  Inside we wasted no time at all. It was as if we were fated to end up in that room, at that exact moment, with not a word spoken. It wasn't like what you see in movies or read in books. No corny dialogue, no telling each other what we wanted the other to do, no Hollywood fiction. There was only the flow; the effortless rhythm of form; our bodies dancing together as if we'd practiced these particular movements for decades; but in reality we had only just met an hour ago.