by Kristie Cook
“Help!” I yelled. “Help me! Call the po—”
Arms came around me. A fist pounded up into my chin, slamming my jaw shut. Knowing I couldn’t bite him again, he covered my mouth before I could open it. His arms squeezed me, lifted me up. I kicked at him as he half-carried, half-dragged me into the master bedroom and then into the walk-in closet. The pounding on the door continued.
“You say one word, and I will kill you. And Sissy, too. Ty … all of them. Dead.” He shook his finger at me. “If you be quiet, though, and let me get rid of this nosy, asshole neighbor, we can talk. You’ll see that everything will be okay. I’ll take good care of you, Bex, and everyone you love. Just be quiet for one minute, okay?”
Wide-eyed, my heart hammering against my ribs, all I could do was nod. He backed out of the closet and closed the door. Something scraped loudly over the tile toward the closet, and then his footsteps retreated. I sprang for the door, but it wouldn’t budge. He’d pushed the dresser in front of it.
I backed up as far as I could go, until I pressed against the rear wall of the closet. I slid down to my butt, staring at the closet door, not knowing what I would do when it opened again. Mason had me trapped in every which way possible. Physically. Financially. Emotionally. Although he was a monster, would he really kill Sissy and Ty? I didn’t know if he’d go that far, but I was pretty sure he wouldn’t kill me. What would be the point of all this? No, he wanted me as his toy. His pet. He’d set it all up and snared me like a small animal.
Tears streamed down my face, and when I wiped at them, my hands came away red and watery. Adrenaline must have still raced through my veins because I felt only a little pain. The longer I sat there, though, shaking like a dog shitting razor blades, the more I began to feel. The more I felt, the more my heart broke, and the more I cried. I almost didn’t hear the strange female voice.
“Hello? Anyone in here?”
“Me,” I rasped out, even though she probably couldn’t hear me.
“Oh, shit. Dude, look at this.”
A minute later, the sound of more furniture scraping across the floor. Light seeped in from under the door, then filled the space as it flew open. I cringed against the wall, afraid to see Mason.
“Oh, sweetheart, what the hell’s happened to you?”
Two uniformed officers stood in the closet doorway, a man and a woman, gaping at me. The woman, who was closest, slowly stepped inside, hesitating, as though I were a trapped, wild animal. She reached out a hand toward me. I lunged at her, and she caught me in her arms. Sobs wracked through me.
Chapter 23
“Oh, no,” Leni gasped from across the motel room, where she sat at the table in front of the window. She picked up her tablet and crawled across the bed to me, where I’d been flipping through TV channels. I didn’t fully understand why we were still in Orlando, in this crappy motel room that was even smaller than Leni’s camper, but she’d insisted we stay another night or two. She felt the need to on behalf of Bex, and after our trip to Alaska, I tried my best to show that I believed in her. Brock and Asia didn’t quite buy into Leni’s instinct yet and had headed back to Lake Haven in case Bex wasn’t the Lakari’s prey, or at least, their only prey. “Look at this, Jeric.”
She held the screen for me to see a headline dated a couple of weeks ago: “Orlando Doctor Attacks Colleague and Patient.” Her finger tapped a Play icon, and a video newscast began.
“Damn,” I said when the video finished. “Does Bex know?”
“I don’t think so.” She looked up at me with worry darkening her green eyes. “Jeric, she could be in danger.”
She sprang from the bed, her sudden agitation rolling over me.
“We don’t know the whole story,” I said. “The media isn’t exactly reliable.”
She turned toward the table, grabbed her purse and shoved her feet into her shoes. “Come on. We need to check on her. She at least needs to know about this. And I … I feel something. Something’s wrong, I think.”
“Leni—”
“I’m going, Jeric.” Her hand grasped the doorknob. “Are you coming or not?”
Of course I wasn’t letting her go alone, and she knew that. I jumped up and ran out the door after her.
“Do you even know where she lives?” I asked as Leni turned onto the main road. I knew Bex couldn’t live too far away—Leni had picked the motel for a reason.
“I know the condo complex. It’s across the street from the coffee shop we met at. I don’t know the apartment number, though. We’ll just have to look for her car and go from there.”
That’ll be a crap shoot in the dark, I thought, but kept to myself. I indulged my girl, proving to her that I’d always be by her side as she showed the way.
Surprisingly, we had no trouble finding Mason’s place. We followed the blue flashing lights of cop cars sitting in front of one of the stairwells. Bex’s car sat in a space nearby. Leni didn’t even pull into a parking space. She threw the truck into park and jumped out. With a groan, I followed. She ran up to the first person she saw—a guy wearing a t-shirt and shorts with bare feet. Definitely not a cop. Although their cars were all lit up, they were apparently on the third floor in a condo with the front door open.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Don’t know,” the guy answered.
“Have you seen a girl, about my age, red hair?”
“Yeah, I’ve seen her,” the guy said, the blue glow of the cop cars lighting up a smirk I didn’t like. “A hot little thing. I’ve seen her go up to that place where the cops are. Might be who went to the hospital.”
“Yeah, it was that girl,” his friend said. “She didn’t look too good. I think the dude she was with beat her up bad.”
Leni gasped and looked at me with wide eyes full of fear.
“Come on,” I said, taking her hand. I walked her to the passenger side of her truck, and once she was in, I went around to the driver’s side. A pit of anger began to take form in my stomach, but I tried to remain cool. For Leni’s sake, if nothing else. “You think she’s at the one with the sign we always pass down the road? The one by the mall?”
“That’s where her mama is. And it’s the closest hospital.”
Neither of us said anything else the rest of the way. My jaw ached from clenching it so hard, and if I didn’t loosen my grip on the steering wheel, my new superpower strength might destroy it.
“Oh, shit,” Leni whispered when we turned onto the side street that led to the hospital. She leaned forward, her head tilted up as she stared through the windshield at the dark sky. I glanced up quickly and automatically slowed. Dark souls floated and swirled in the sky above the hospital. Dozens of them.
“It’s a hospital,” I said as I eased down the road, my eyes darting everywhere, my body on full alert. “I’m sure they’re here all the time, sucking on dying souls and waiting for new recruits.”
A few dropped down into the shadows of an indent of the building. Out strode three figures dressed in black.
“Or they’re here for Bex,” Leni said, and before I could react, she threw her door open and jumped out. The truck was still fucking moving.
“Damn it, Leni.” I slammed on the brake and threw open my door while jamming the gear stick in park.
Leni was already on the attack, her body springing into the air, one foot out, aiming for a Shadowman’s head. Even before he disintegrated, though, more Lakari dropped from the sky and materialized into human shapes. I charged at them, fists swinging. We managed to destroy them all, except two that we saw running into a side door of the hospital. We chased after them. If they were after Bex, they’d lead us right to her. But when the narrow corridor we ran down dumped us into a wider hallway, the Shadowmen were nowhere to be seen. Leni and I both spun in circles looking for any trace of them.
“Bex!” Leni gasped, and she jogged down the hall toward the sign for the ER where Bex and Sissy stood at a reception desk. At least she was in her right mind this time to pay attention to her speed. I strode after, my gaze still swinging everywhere, watching for the Lakari. If they were after Bex, they weren’t getting her tonight.
“Mason?” Leni asked as I strode up.
Bex nodded, and my eyes scanned over her for the first time. Came back to her face. And I nearly exploded. My fists clenched and every muscle in my body tensed. Images of my sister looking the same way—battered and bruised, and the haunted look in her eyes showing that her soul was more damaged than anything—passed through my mind. I strode out the Emergency Room double-doors before I punched something. That was the last thing Bex needed.
I stalked out to Leni’s truck parked in the middle of the street and moved it to the parking area for the ER. Anger still coursed through my veins, though, and I couldn’t go inside yet, so I paced several times up and down the sidewalk in front of the ER’s entrance, trying to cool down. But I couldn’t get the images of Bex and my sister out of my mind. My heart raced as I wished for one minute with the fucker. After a while, Leni walked out, looking for me.
“I’ll fucking kill him,” I said through clenched teeth.
She nodded, but placed her hands on my tight biceps pumped with adrenaline. “I want to, too, but you need to calm down. We’re taking her home, and she doesn’t need to see you like this right now.”
Her touch and her soothing voice soaked into me like the cooling gels we used after fights. My core temperature dropped. The anger subsided. After a long moment, I nodded. We went back inside to get Bex and escorted her to the truck, leaving Sissy behind to take care of something that had come up with their mother. Bex slid in through the passenger door first and scooted to the middle, her face twisting as she did. My jaw clenched again. Leni climbed in after her, and I returned to the driver’s side.
“We’re taking her to Mason’s to—”
“The hell we are,” I said.
“She needs some clothes and things,” Leni said.
“I’m right here,” Bex reminded us. “And yes, I need some damn clothes. And my car.”
“And then where?” I asked, trying to stay calm. I didn’t have to be the girl’s Twin Flame to feel the fear rolling off of her.
“We’ll get our things from the motel, and you’ll drive Bex back to Lake Haven in here, and I’ll drive her car,” Leni said.
“And if the fu—if he’s there?” I asked.
“He won’t be,” Bex said quietly. “They arrested him. Apparently his second offense in two weeks, and he was out on bail already. Hopefully, he won’t be out for a while.”
“I’m so sorry, hun,” Leni said. She slid her arm over Bex’s shoulder and pulled the other girl to her.
“You’re a better sister than Sissy,” Bex said as she leaned her head on Leni’s shoulder. My eyes cut sideways at them. Bex’s battered face was wet with tears.
I almost wished the asshole wasn’t in jail. I so wanted to kill him.
“She’s being a good sister by dealing with whatever’s happening with your mama so you don’t have to,” Leni said.
Bex sighed. “Yeah, I guess.”
The way she said it, there seemed to be more to the story, but she didn’t share it.
When we pulled back up to the condo building, only one cop car remained, its lights dark now. I parked in a space this time, right next to Bex’s car, and escorted the girls up the stairs.
“Can I get some of my things?” Bex asked the officer at the top of the stairs, an older, balding guy whose stomach seemed too big for a cop.
“Sure can, little lady,” he said with a surprising kindness as he pushed the door open for her. “They’ve collected all the evidence they need. Finding you barricaded in the closet looking like you did makes it a pretty cut and dry case.”
My gaze shot to the cop’s. He looked back at me and nodded. We didn’t say a word to each other, but an exchange passed. The police and I usually didn’t get along too well, but this guy and I agreed on one thing. I saw in his eyes what I knew he saw in mine: the bastard deserved to die a long, torturous death.
Leni and Bex disappeared inside as the cop and I stood silently at the door. I wondered if he wished, like I did, that Mason managed to get out of jail already and showed up.
“Is she okay?” the cop finally asked. “Physically, I mean. I know mentally …”
“Some cuts and bruises. A couple stitches, but nothing broken,” I said without tearing away my watch over the parking lot.
“I guess that’s good.”
“It doesn’t mean she’s okay.”
The cop grunted. “Believe me, I know. You’re going to stay with her, just in case, right? She needs someone big like you around. She needs to feel safe.”
“Damn right,” I said.
The girls’ voices came closer, and I turned toward where they stood in the hallway. Bex had changed out of her bloodied clothes, and both girls carried overnight bags.
“Oh, here, you dropped this in my car,” Bex said, shoving a book at Leni. The Book.
Leni’s eyes sparked as her hands closed over the Book of Phoenix, and she glanced at me, but said nothing except, “Thanks. I was wondering what happened to this.”
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Bex said.
I took Bex’s bags from her and Leni, and we left the cop at his post—why he remained, I didn’t know. Maybe he was hoping Mason managed to come home. I tossed the overstuffed bags in the back of the truck at the same time Leni’s phone rang.
“Sissy,” she said, handing the phone to Bex before turning to me, gnawing on her bottom lip.
After only a few moments of silence on this end, Bex’s face blanched at whatever Sissy had to say, making every cut and bruise stand out. She closed her eyes and nodded.
“Alrighty then,” she said. “See you in a few.” She held the phone out to Leni. “Well, doesn’t that figure? This day is goin’ down in the history books for the longest and shittiest day ever. I gotta go back to the hospital.”
“Everything okay?” Leni asked.
Bex’s lower lip quivered, but she shrugged. “My mama just died.”
The words hung in the air for a long moment, and then fell flat to the pavement. Leni wrapped her arms around Bex while looking at me. I pushed my hand through my hair and nodded.
“It’s alright,” Bex said, shrugging Leni off. “I just need to get this done with so I can go home.”
She didn’t say anything else as she climbed into the truck, and we returned to the hospital with Leni in front of us, driving Bex’s car. This time when we approached the building, no Lakari swarmed overhead. If they’d been after Bex tonight, they must have given up. Just in case, though, Leni and I followed the sisters from floor to floor as hospital personnel sent them to every place that needed a signature on some form or another. Neither girl cried the whole time.
The sun had already begun lightening the eastern sky by the time we headed back to Lake Haven. Bex slept almost the whole way. Or at least pretended to. I didn’t know how she could really get comfortable, though, between Leni’s hard seats and all the cuts and bruises on her body.
“I can’t believe how stupid I am,” she murmured when we were about fifteen minutes from Lake Haven. “Falling for some rich guy asshole with a history of violence. Did you know Mason Hayes is only one of his names? I had no idea. God, I’m fucking stupid.”
I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye. Her head leaned against the window, her gaze staring out beyond, but she probably didn’t see the landscape passing by in the gray morning light. She would relive the scene with Mason over and over again, just as I relived the scene of the accident with my parents and sist
er.
“Don’t,” I said, keeping my voice as soft as I could, but she still cringed into the door at the sound of it. I lowered it even more. “Don’t blame yourself, Bex. This is nobody’s fault but his.”
“I made choices,” she said. “I chose to move in with him when I really didn’t know him all that well. I chose to ignore any signs that things were off with him. I—”
“Did his business card say Doctor and Cowardly Woman Beating Asshole, and you chose to be with him anyway? Did he hand you a police record that you chose to ignore? Even if you’d known about what he did at the hospital or his past, he would have found a way to explain it away. He’s that kind of person. You didn’t choose any of this, Bex.”
“But I shoulda—”
“Shoulda, woulda, coulda … We all have those. If you go down that road, I should have known about the asshole who dated my sister—and beat her. I’d known him since we were six years old. If nobody saw the signs in him for over eight years, no way could you have known about Mason.”
Her head turned slightly toward me. “Your sister?”
I swallowed, my throat dry. Until Leni, I hadn’t talked about this with anyone since it happened. But if anyone needed to hear the story, Bex did.
“Yeah. The guy she dated in high school—the damn quarterback football star who everyone loved—he abused her. Repeatedly. I hadn’t known for months, until she finally told me. She died on the side of the highway when I was trying to get her away from him.” My white knuckles caught my eye, and I loosened my grip on the steering wheel.
“I’m so sorry,” Bex whispered.
“And I’m sorry you had to go through this, too. Bex, these fuckers …” I shook my head and rolled my shoulder. “They know how to pretend like they’re the greatest people you could ever meet. That’s how they do it. Otherwise, they’d never reel anyone in. So don’t blame yourself. Please don’t blame yourself. Nobody deserves this, and that includes you.”
