“Everything about this in here is demonic.” He points to the bedroom through the doorway. “But that’s not uncommon with what he gave you. It’s called a date rape drug and events, even people will be unclear—if you remember at all.”
He steers me away from the putrid-smelling bedroom and starts out of Brody’s office. Abruptly, he returns to the desk.
“I’ll call 911.” He presses three buttons and sets the phone on the floor next to Brody.
Hayden takes my hand and leads me down the hall. When I get to the stairs, I have a little trouble, but he slips his arm around me and supports me down and out through the back door of the building. We cut through landscaping and another parking lot, zig-zagging until we reach his truck which is parked down the street from the TorchLight.
“I won’t go back to the hospital.” For as much fear as I feel, I’m surprised at the mellow reaction in my body. “I won’t go to the cops, either. Don’t you see? A cop brought me to Brody. And the detective was there.”
“Which detective?”
“The one who interviewed me at the hospital. Hayden! Brody gave them Thom’s address. He was headed to my apartment and Thom’s. To look for me.”
Hayden pulls out his cell phone and starts dialing. “Thom.”
My brother’s voice pipes up like they talk all the time. Hayden’s interrupts. “Get Lorna and leave as quick as you can. Sorry. I need you to trust me. Yeah. Meet me at my place.”
What has happened in the last six weeks? Hayden’s best friends with my half brother and his flute-stealing wife?
“I need to get something at my apartment.”
“You don’t want to go to the hospital. You don’t want cops. Now you think we need to go to your place?” Hayden keeps his eyes forward as he drives.
“I don’t just think. I’ll go without you,” I say. His knuckles grip the steering wheel tighter. The tension in the car is miserable. I don’t want him mad at me. “Turn here.” I tell him.
He does.
“Oh, Hayden.”
“Not now.”
“I know why you’re mad. Last time I saw you, you asked me not to work…there.”
“It doesn’t matter now.”
“Thank you.”
He turns and looks at me.
“Pull in there.” I direct him to the parking space reserved for me. He drives past it slowly. “Where are you going?”
“I just want to look around before we stop.”
“Are you looking for something?”
“Anything suspicious, the best way out of here…” We circle around the building that contains my unit and park in a guest spot behind my apartment. I pull my house key from my backpack and zip it shut. Hayden locks his door then mine, and I lead the way.
“These are really nice.”
I hate that he comments this, so I don’t acknowledge him. It was Brody’s doing, all part of the master plan. Imagine if I had followed through with getting a car payment and a cell phone. I’d be even deeper.
Hayden follows me up the stairs. When I insert the key and turn it, there isn’t any resistance.
“Unlocked?”
Hayden doesn’t wait for an answer. He steps in front of me, shielding and moving me at the same time. A gun is in his hands, held nearly at eye level. He uses it to press the door open and everywhere he looks, the gun aims. He slides into the room and points the gun in every corner as he walks, hunched, tight. He takes sure, even steps over clothes and books, stuff I’ve left scattered. Hayden goes to the bathroom and kicks the door open, flinching slightly with the trigger half-squeezed.
“Empty.” He shoves the gun back into a holster under his T-shirt and even though I know it’s there now, I can’t see it.
Hayden brushes past me, locks the door and slides the chain in. I thought he was trying to kill Brody back at the TorchLight, but if he had a gun and didn’t use it—that couldn’t have been his intention.
“What happened here?” He kicks a pair of my jeans aside, so he can stand on the carpet.
“I was in a rush.” My explanation falters, but he doesn’t seem to notice. First, I grab my flute from the table. “Hold this.”
Hayden takes it, and I sit on the floor to put on my shoes. I didn’t bother to untie them, so I have to work the knot loose.
“Hurry.” He’s right, I feel urgency too. Hayden turns and goes to my bookshelf. “For someone who doesn’t believe in love, you sure read a lot about it.”
I have no answer for him. My shoes are on and tied, and we stand there looking at each other. I don’t believe in love—only the thrill of attraction. I go to my small dresser and open the top drawer filled with bras and panties. Out of the corner of my eye, I see that he turns away from me. I think I’ll dress right in front of him to prove it. I unbutton my jeans.
A knock at the door.
Hayden and I stare at each other. I button my jeans, shove my underwear in my pocket and look through the peep hole.
The rhino detective.
“It’s him.”
Hayden puts his hand over my mouth. He has his gun out again, and I pick my flute up from where he dropped it. Instead of another knock, there is a tiny prick, a scraping metal noise and the door handle wiggles. Hayden turns the bookshelf on its side in front of the door. How did he move it so fast while it was full of books?
He points to the window and I cross the room to open it. The man at the door isn’t quiet anymore. He’s banging the partially opened door against the chain and the shelf. He will make it inside.
Hayden doesn’t even look out the window. He just pushes out the screen, perches on the edge and jumps two floors. It looks like his legs crumple under him, but then he rolls and stands as though it had been on purpose. I can’t move. I can’t do it.
“Me or him, Sparrow.”
It’s all I need to hear. I choose Hayden. And I leap.
We hobble to his truck. Me, because my knee is throbbing—Hayden, because he took most of the shock of my fall and it knocked him on his butt. I think I struck him in the face with my flute, too, because he keeps rubbing the left side of his forehead.
He peals out of the parking lot. The detective comes into view, sprinting behind us. Hayden’s bulbous, purple truck isn’t the best getaway car. Loud and obvious, it would be better suited for a parade. We leave the apartment complex, whipping through side streets.
“Okay. We’ll meet Thom at my house. Then we call Malcolm.” He keeps muttering, tallying things I already know like where Brody is, that there are two other men. His phone rings. Thom’s name is on the screen, so I take it from his hand.
“Hello, Thom.”
“Sparrow. Thank God.” I’ve never heard him curse the name, much less thank it. “I haven’t heard from you. I hoped Hayden was bringing you for a surprise, but, is Hayden there? I think something is wrong.”
“Why?”
“A guy in a white van is following us. Man, I have wanted to talk to you, Sparrow. Lorna and I want you to come back home. Here’s Hayden’s place.”
He wants me back home? Then everything he said registers. “Wait. A white van is following you? Don’t go to Hayden’s.”
“We just pulled into the driveway.”
“Leave. Leave!”
Lorna’s voice sounds through, but muffled. “He has a gun.” There is a thud, a gunshot, terrorized voices and screeching tires.
“He’s shooting them.”
Hayden grabs the phone from me and drives with one hand.
He yells into it a dozen times. “Pick up the phone.”
Finally, I hear Thom’s muffled voice.
“Are you sure you’re both okay?”
I keep looking behind us to see if we are being followed. I can’t discern the conversation between Hayden and Thom.
“I need you to pull it together, Sparrow.”
I nod but the panic is pulling me under.
“Sparrow.” The tone demands so much of me. I never hated Lorna enough f
or her to get shot at. I don’t want them hurt. I wish I could throw up again. How can I expel this curse from me?
Go to the one who started it.
The external presence—the demon I have felt off and on all morning—flinches.
I’ve had very few epiphanies, but the tingling realization that comes now proves my thoughts. That’s what this is all about—my curse. I hold my flute in front of me.
I want to be free. Sliding fingers over the holes in the pattern of my dad’s song is like wrapping a blanket around my shivers. Music sends the fear away—but I want permanent freedom. Sovereignty.
“The only way to stop this is to go to my grandfather.”
“What?”
Hayden isn’t aimless, he’s driving us somewhere. I turn my body to him and enunciate. “I don’t want to go where you are taking me. I need to go to the Humboldt Colony.”
“You don’t know where I’m taking you.” But then he maneuvers his purple beast into the Reno Police Department parking lot.
“The cops are in on it.” I call him a dirty word.
His look chides me. Doesn’t he understand why I’m so angry? I flail my arms to strike him before he parks. He brakes while taking my feeble blows. With his right hand, he pinches both of my wrists together. With his left hand, he turns into a parking spot. Curse this drug. Curse Hayden. Curse his God.
My flute rolls off my lap. No. I can’t curse his God. I’m too weak. His God led me to my flute. His Jesus knew where I was when Brody drugged me. At least that’s what the rose couple said. He brought Hayden to help me.
A Great Spirit. There must be a balance to the evil I met in my apartment—if there wasn’t, the world would already be consumed. And if there is something good to equal the bad…
“There is hope.”
“There’s always hope.” Hayden answers immediately. I reach for my backpack, and he lets me go. Once I have the stolen pictures, I start shuffling slowly.
“Brody’s been spying on me.” I pause on one where I’m completely naked. Hayden’s jaw flexes and the scar over his lip turns red-violet. His hand clenches into a pale fist and a little cut on his knuckle opens, trickling blood.
“You’re washing off in a bathroom?”
Only Hayden would see the foul bathroom soap smeared over me as I try to scrub away the humiliation, instead of my nudity. He places a hand over mine, and his warmth soaks through my skin. I look down. His battered hand covers the pictures. He covers me.
“Cori left a note.” My breath rattles like I’ve been crying, but I press on because if we enter the police department—I’ll never leave under my own free will. I know it like I know I need to go to my grandfather. “Cori was helping Brody do something, trick girls somehow.” He takes the note from me and his lips move silently. “When those two guys came in with Brody, they said he ‘wouldn’t get paid unless they found me.’ And…”
“More?”
I pull out the disk. My hands shake so bad he steadies them for me. “I have no idea what this is. But I know it’s important because it was taped flat, under Brody’s desk. Hidden.” Now Hayden knows everything, almost. He doesn’t know about the curse.
In the distance behind Hayden, Clint stands near the door to the building. I’ve been watching the spot, expecting him there. I switch places with my backpack and kneel on the floor. “That’s the cop that hangs out at the TorchLight. He works with Brody.” That is, if Clint’s real. There’s no way I’ll tell Hayden about the spirits. If I ever get weak and want him to know, all I’ll have to do is remember Cori’s reaction. Cori’s rejection hurt, but Hayden’s would destroy.
“Thom and Lorna are headed here.” He stares down at the disk in his hands and then searches the area. “I figured it was the safest place for them, but if you know a cop is involved…”
“And a detective. Don’t forget the one who interviewed me at the hospital.”
“Yeah, I better stop them. Have them meet Malcolm.”
Hayden’s friend who hates me. “I don’t trust Malcolm.”
“I do.” He looks down at me, cowering on the floor. “With my life.”
And I trust Hayden. “Okay. But there is something more.” Hayden hands back the disk, and I work it into the backpack then replace my flute. “My grandfather has the key to all of this.”
“He’s involved?”
“Yes, and they won’t stop coming after me until he stops it.”
“Sparrow, we can’t, we need to…”
“If you love me, you will take me to Humboldt.” It didn’t sound so manipulating in my mind. I hate myself.
He sucks air like I slapped him. “You believe in love now?”
Sex? Yes.
Need? Definitely.
Trust? Maybe.
Love?
“You do.” It’s the only answer I can give. Silence accompanies us while he waits for me to explain more. I won’t lie to him. “I think there’s a deep emotion that obligates one person to another.” I’m just not willing to give over that control—be obligated. “But love,” I shake my head. “It’s as elusive as the happy ending.”
“So you aren’t asking me to take you out of love?”
It feels like my lungs or heart spin out of control and crash into my ribs. So much more powerful than fear is this sensation. I want to cry at the thought of him loving me.
I shake my head.
He picks up his phone and calls Thom. How foreign that their relationship is where he can call them a second time in the same day and send them scurrying to a new location. Of course getting shot at could make them believe anything. Next, he calls Malcolm. He is brief and vague. Hayden promises to email something, “A.S.A.P.”
“I don’t want him to see the pictures of me,” I say when he hangs up.
“I was talking about the disk and the note. But Sparrow, you do realize those aren’t the only copies.”
“Yeah.” And I picture Brody joking with the billboard designer about having me on their computers. So much for control.
“Will you help me end this?”
“Yes.” But he opens the truck door and gets out.
“Where are you going?” If he thinks I’ll follow him into the police station, I’ll run as far as my drugged legs take me.
“We can’t hide in this thing.” He smacks the truck’s seat, opens the truck door wider and points to a motorcycle parked next to us. “Malcolm said I could borrow his bike.”
Thrill and fear have a symbiotic relationship sometimes. “Is Clint gone?”
Hayden makes a stretch and turns 360 degrees. “I see no one.”
Clint is “no one,” but I slide out of the truck and crouch-walk around the front. Hayden holds a helmet out to me. He also wears one with a visor pushed up. “Hide your hair too.”
Still squatting, I pull my hair around the side and braid it. I don’t have any way to bind it, but it should stay tucked into my shirt.
“Even though it’s summer, you’ll get cold. Wear this.” Hayden lifts a huge, flock-lined flannel jacket from under the driver’s seat but changes his mind and hands me my backpack. I put that on first, still squatting. Then he holds the coat and I walk backward into it. I feel hidden in the helmet and oversized coat. I’ll just be a nondescript hunchback to anyone we pass. Hayden straddles the bike.
He jumps up and presses down on a foot lever at the same moment I step forward. The heat and roar cause me to stumble back. Hayden turns and holds out a hand. A last glance around tells me Hayden was right, there isn’t anyone waiting in front of the police station. We are not alone, though. Cars zip in and out, parking and searching for spots.
A motorcycle? I don’t even know how to ride a regular bike. Through the full-face visor, Hayden’s eyebrows lift. He looks like he did when he came to the TorchLight and asked me not to work there. When I didn’t listen to him. When he left me.
I throw a leg over the seat.
Chapter 23
It isn’t too bad leaving the pa
rking lot, the rumble under me, Hayden in front. I hold myself rigid, afraid I’ll throw the precarious balance off.
We stop at the exit to the parking lot. “Relax, lean into me.” Hayden calls over his left shoulder.
I slide my arms around his middle. Hayden rewards me by placing his hand over mine and squeezing. On my right, I see Clint scan the area, his back against the building’s side. He doesn’t see me. I try to look away casually and lay my helmet between Hayden’s shoulders. Hayden pulls out of the parking lot and the bike tips. I jerk, trying to keep it right. “Lean with me,” he yells. “Follow my body.”
I look away from the police department and press harder to Hayden. He turns back and forth on the street, calling instruction. He’s taking time for a lesson? “Move where I move. Yeah, like that.”
It helps when I don’t watch where we are going. I just hold Hayden and sync my body with his. After a while, he relaxes and increases speed. There isn’t any possibility for conversation. The hum of the engine and rubber against pavement become white noise as we move together. My hands are chilled, but the sun beats down on my back, and I don’t really need the jacket. The warmth feels good, though. We are leaving Reno. I want him to drive so fast that no spirits can follow.
We weave through dry hills and rock ridges. The scenery is simple, but attractive. After the city has been behind us awhile, I start to notice signs for The Mustang Ranch, a famous Nevada brothel. I wonder where Brody’s brothel is. Will Brody live? Will he come after me? Another sign says, “Would you like a pretty lady to sit on your lap? Truckers Welcome.” My stomach stirs like it’s digesting bad fish. Have I made a mistake? Are we heading to a darker place?
I want it all to go away to just match the movement of my body to Hayden’s and close my eyes to the world. We could drive forever. The warm sun. The white dashes in the center of the road— all running together as one.
Sovereign Ground (Breaking Bonds) Page 18
