2 If It Bleeds, It Leads

by Amanda M. Lee

  “Jake doesn’t know her. He just remembers her from when we were kids. She was always hanging around and it annoyed him.” Mostly because she showed up when he wanted to have sex.

  “You’re older right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That sounds about right.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She didn’t have any sisters, right? Jake said she had three brothers. You were the closest thing she had to a sister and you were an only child who was older. She probably just wanted to keep up with you.”

  “When I’m 16 and she is 12, that creates problems.”

  “So you blame yourself?” Eliot was quickly starting to resemble a mental health therapist.

  “For what?”

  “Her growing up too fast.”

  “In some ways she grew up too fast,” I admitted. “In some ways, though, she’s never grown up at all.”

  Eliot seemed to be choosing his next words carefully. “You could force her to grow up, you know?”

  “How?’

  “Stop swooping in to save her.”

  “I don’t swoop in to save her – all the time.”

  “That’s not the way that Jake made it sound.” Jake must have been feeling pretty chatty lately.

  “Really? And when did Jake become a psychologist?”

  “I think he just has insight because he’s known you so long.”

  “And what did Jake say?”

  “He said that you and Derrick feel the need to protect her no matter what she does,” Eliot said matter-of-factly. “If you forced her to stand on her own two feet, it would probably be hard at first, but she’d be better for it in the long run.”

  “Everyone is a psychologist now, I see.”

  “I can see this is a sore spot with you.”

  It’s not a sore spot. It’s an abscess. Eliot didn’t want to upset me, but he also didn’t want to coddle me. He was stuck in a hard place right now – and I didn’t have any intention of letting him out of it. He didn’t know Lexie.

  When we got to my house, Eliot talked to the two officers that were outside. After they left, we went in the house. It was surprisingly clean. I looked at Eliot questioningly? When did he have time to do this?

  “I had a service come in and clean it for you.”

  “Why?”

  “It was pretty dirty.”

  I made my way into my study. They better not have moved anything. I had that ‘Star Wars’ stuff just how I wanted it. If they’d moved any ‘Star Wars’ stuff in with ‘Harry Potter’ stuff there was going to be hell to pay. Voldemort and Vader couldn’t possibly get along.

  Eliot smiled as he saw me inspecting my shelves to make sure everything was still there. “They didn’t steal anything.”

  “I know.” Just making sure. “I wanted to make sure that they didn’t move anything where it’s not supposed to be.”

  “They only moved it to dust it, and then they put it back where it belonged. I promise.”

  After a few minutes, I realized everything was still there, so I really had no reason to bitch. Since I was sore and cranky, I decided to manufacture one.

  “It doesn’t look the same.”

  “That’s because it’s clean.”

  “No, that’s not it.”

  I moved to one of the shelves and repositioned my Darth Vader cookie jar. “There, that’s better.”

  “That’s what you’re complaining about?”

  “What? He is supposed to be looking at me when I enter the room.”

  Eliot smiled knowingly. “You’re welcome.”

  We both went to bed with little fanfare. I don’t think either one of us had the energy to flirt. I was dead to the world within minutes of my head hitting the pillow. So, when my cell phone rang next to my head at around 3 a.m. I was understandably pissed off.

  “Hello.” My voice was thick with sleep – and anger.

  “Avery.”

  I bolted upright, my back screaming as I did so. “Lexie, where are you?”

  “I’m in trouble.”

  What else is new? “Where are you?”

  “She’s with me,” this was a new voice, one I couldn’t quite place but I knew I’d heard before. Suddenly, things started to click together. “Kevin Walker?”

  “Glad to see I’ve made such an impression.”

  “I wouldn’t get so puffed up, I’ve met a lot of dirt bags. They all make some sort of impression.”

  I probably shouldn’t have said that – especially since I heard Lexie whimper in the background as the clear sound of a hand hitting flesh echoed throughout the darkness. He’d hit her.

  “Go ahead. Be a smart ass,” Kevin Walker warned. “For every smart thing you say I’m going to take it out on your cousin.”

  “If you hurt her, I’ll kill you.” I wasn’t exaggerating. I would find a way to kill him – even if it involved running him down with a stolen semi.

  I could see a silhouette in the doorway of my bedroom. I had clearly woken Eliot up. He moved towards me and grabbed the phone from my hand, clicking the button so it was on speakerphone.

  “I’m not really scared of the Barbie doll set,” Kevin Walker answered smoothly. He clearly hadn’t heard much about my reputation. I’m a biter.

  “What do you want?”

  Eliot wasn’t speaking. He was just listening intently. He was standing still, but he looked like he was gearing up to spring into action. It was pretty impressive actually.

  “You know what I want. I want my flash drive back.”

  “What flash drive?” The lie came out smoothly. This is where my talent for falsehood comes to good use.

  “The one you took from the warehouse.”

  “I didn’t take a flash drive.”

  Lexie cried out in the background again. “Don’t lie to me. I know you took it.”

  “What if I did?”

  “Did you read it?”

  “No. It’s just a jumble of stuff. I think it’s defective.”

  “Well, then, you won’t mind giving it back.”

  “Of course not. As long as you give me Lexie back.”

  “I don’t want your stupid little cousin. She’s a bigger pain in the ass than you are. I just want my flash drive.”

  “Fine. Where do we do the trade?”

  “Tomorrow night at 10 p.m. you’re going to meet me on Belle Isle and we’ll do the switch then. You come alone. If I see a cop, she’ll die.”

  “No one likes cops.”

  “I better not see that muscle-bound moron from the pawnshop either.”

  Eliot didn’t react. He was still just taking it in.

  “I’ll come alone, but if Lexie isn’t there or she’s hurt I’ll destroy it and you’ll never get it back.”

  “Agreed.”

  After the phone call ended I looked to Eliot expectantly.

  “You handled that well,” he said. He seemed surprised.

  “Compared to what?”

  “Falling apart and telling him we know what’s on the flash drive.”

  “I didn’t think that was a smart move.”

  “For once, you were right.”

  For once? What is that supposed to mean?

  “If he knew you knew what was on the flash drive, he’d kill you for sure.”

  “So now he won’t kill me?”

  “No, he’ll probably still kill you.”

  “Well, that’s reassuring.”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t let that happen.”

  We went back to sleep after that, although I don’t think either one of us got that much rest. The next morning, I got up – after struggling for five minutes to make my muscles support my body weight – and went out into the dining room.

  Eliot had a full breakfast of pancakes waiting for me. They were made in the shape of Darth Vader’s head. I had bought the molds from Williams Sonoma months ago – but since I didn’t cook they hadn’t gotten any use.

  I gratefully sat down and in
haled my breakfast. Eliot laughed when he saw my appetite. “Hungry?”

  “Obviously.”

  After breakfast, I called in sick to work. There was no way I was going to be able to focus today anyway. Fish had seemed surprised I had bothered to call in. “We didn’t expect you to come in the day after you were almost blown up. If you feel bad tomorrow, don’t bother coming in. You could use a rest.” His silent admonition was the office could use a rest from me, too.

  After that, I decided to shower. I was in there a good half an hour, letting all the dirt and grime and worry wash over me for as long as the hot water held out. When I was finished, I dried my hair and put some makeup on. I may not be 100 percent better – but at least I didn’t look like an accident victim anymore.

  When I came back out in to the living room, I found Eliot watching ESPN on the couch.

  “So, what do we do today?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t have work. I can’t investigate anything. We can’t get Lexie until tonight? So what do we do?”

  “We sit here so you can rest.”

  “I can’t just sit here.”

  Eliot slid me a sly look. “What do you want to do?”

  “Not that.”

  “Having sex with a woman who can’t appreciate it isn’t exactly on the top of my list of things to do either.”

  I arched an eyebrow.

  “How about a movie?” Eliot and I both had a weakness for bad horror movies. That actually didn’t sound too bad to me.

  “What do you want to see?”

  We pulled up the movie listings on my laptop. There weren’t a lot of choices.

  “Paranormal Activity 4?”

  “Because the first three weren’t lame enough?”

  “Good point.”

  “Saw 8?”

  “Those stopped being good when they killed off Jigsaw.”

  “They really did.”

  “There’s one with one of those ‘Dawson’s Creek’ chicks.”

  There weren’t a lot of choices. Ultimately I agreed on that one because there was simply nothing else I wanted to see.

  When we got to the theater, Eliot bought the tickets and then we headed up to the concession stand. I ordered Sour Patch Kids and a medium pop (which was actually more like a two-liter) and Eliot ordered a bottle of water.

  “You’re not getting anything to eat?”

  “That’s not food; it’s junk.”

  “It’s mighty fine tasting junk.”

  “That stuff will kill you.”

  “I probably won’t survive the night. Might as well enjoy the candy.”

  Eliot looked like he wanted to argue the point, but he just let it go. “I’ll just have some of your . . . candy.”

  “Maybe I don’t want to share.” Come on, a little shameless flirting never hurt anyone. I couldn’t help Lexie until tonight anyway.

  “No one likes to share.” Eliot’s comment was pointed. I knew he was talking about Jake. I definitely wasn’t going to go there.

  “So, have you heard anything about this movie?”

  Eliot shook his head slightly. I couldn’t tell if he was irked because I’d ignored his comment or because he’d heard bad things about the movie.

  God, my life is complicated.

  Twenty-One

  After the movie (which sucked by the way), Eliot took me to Panera Bread for some soup and a big chocolate brownie. We were both starting to get antsy.

  “So what’s going to happen tonight?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, how is this going to go down?”

  “You’re going to go to Belle Isle and make the trade.” Eliot’s matter-of-fact response was fairly irritating.

  “And just hope he doesn’t kill me for the hell of it? I’ll just be another body they take a week to find there.” Belle Isle was known as picnic destination in the afternoons and a drug destination in evenings. There was a lot of partying and prostitution in the park after dark.

  “I told you I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.”

  “But you can’t go with me.”

  “Oh, I’m going with you.” Eliot’s response didn’t seem to offer room to argue – but that didn’t stop me.

  “They’ll kill her.”

  “I said I would go with you, not that they would see me.”

  “How are you going to manage that? What are you, Batman?”

  “I’m better than any lame super hero.”

  “Good to know you don’t have an overinflated sense of yourself.”

  “The only place I have super powers is in bed.”

  My mouth went dry and I gulped hard. I sipped my pop through my straw while trying to decide if I should even answer that. Eliot decided for me.

  “You’ll find that out eventually. We have other things to worry about right now.” He’s awful sure of himself. You’d think I was an easy mark or something. Wait; is he saying I’m easy?

  “You think?”

  “Listen, tonight we’re going to go to Belle Isle together. I’m going to be watching you, and they’re going to think you’re there alone. If they try anything . . . well, let’s just say they’ll wish they hadn’t.”

  I knew that Eliot and Jake had been in Special Forces together. I had a feeling some of that Special Forces training involved killing people. I couldn’t help but wonder if Eliot would kill Kevin Walker.

  “If it comes down to it, I’ll do whatever I have to.” Eliot seemed to be reading my mind.

  “I didn’t say anything.”

  “You were thinking it.”

  “We have to get Lexie.”

  “I won’t let anything happen to Lexie if I can help it, but you’re my primary concern.”

  “What if I want you to make Lexie your primary concern.” I didn’t really want that, but I didn’t want to abandon her either.

  “Well then we’re going to have a problem. I’m not going to enable her like you do.”

  “I don’t want you to enable her. I just don’t want you to let her die.”

  Eliot’s dark eyes met my gaze evenly. “I won’t let her die.”

  I nodded thankfully. I didn’t think he’d let me down, especially since we hadn’t slept together yet. If Lexie died, that would definitely be a mood dampener.

  After lunch, we went back to my house to wait out the rest of the evening. I took a stab at teaching Eliot Lego Harry Potter on my Xbox– but he got frustrated and threw the remote behind the couch and I couldn’t manipulate my body to climb back there and retrieve it.

  “Well, that was immature.”

  “Says the grown woman playing Harry Potter Lego.”

  “I’ll have you know, that’s a great game. Sorry I don’t have any of those ‘Call of Duty’ games, but I don’t like war games.”

  “Who says I play ‘Call of Duty’?”

  “Please, you’ve got war games written all over you.”

  After that, we tried to watch television together – but I had no interest in Sports Center and he had no interest in ‘General Hospital.’

  “I’m the injured one here.” I tried to make my voice sound pitiable.

  “So how does watching bad actors sleep around make you feel better?”

  “Because I can look at them and be thankful that I don’t have multiple personalities and have never slept with my brother. It’s all perspective.”

  Despite himself, Eliot looked interested. “Who slept with their brother?”

  “That’s not this soap. This one revolves around the mob.”

  “It’s called ‘General Hospital.’”

  “Where do you think all those mob victims have to go?”

  About a half an hour in, Eliot was still watching but he seemed confused. “So, wait, that little greasy one is supposed to be the mob boss but he doesn’t run drugs or prostitutes?”

  “Right.”

  “So how does he make money?” That’s actually a really good question. />
  “They never really say.”

  “So he’s a mob boss who got a super model to marry him?”

  “Yes.”

  “But she left him and now he’s dating a magazine editor?”

  “Yes.”

  “A magazine editor that he used to date but dumped for a mob moll?”

  “Yes.”

  “Talk about low self esteem.”

  “I know, right. That’s why she developed multiple personalities.”

  “What’s the deal with the other mob guy dating the stripper?”

  “That’s Jason. Sam isn’t a stripper, she’s a P.I.”

  “Not in those shoes she’s not.”

  “She’s not a good P.I. She used to be a salvage operator.”

  “This is stupid.”

  After the show had ended, Eliot looked nonplussed. “Well, that’s one hour of my life I’ll never get back.”

  “You’ll live.”

  The rest of the afternoon crawled by. Finally, it was 8:30 p.m. and Eliot said we had to go. I noticed he’d pulled the gun he helped me buy a few months ago out of my Darth Vader cookie jar and had loaded it.

  “Are you planning on shooting someone?”

  “You never know. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

  Can’t argue with that.

  I was nervous as we made the half-hour drive to Belle Isle. About half a mile outside of the park, Eliot stopped the car and turned to me.

  “I want you to wait here a half an hour, to give me time to get to the meeting place without anyone seeing me. Do not get out of this car until you see Lexie. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes.”

  “When you see her. Make him bring her to the car. Roll down the window and tell him to bring her to you. When she’s in the car, give him the flash drive and then get the hell out of here.”

  “What about you?”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’ll find my own way back.”

  I nodded. I figured he knew what he was talking about.

  I slid over to the driver’s seat, and Eliot closed the door. He leaned back in through the open window.

  “One more thing: If you get out of this car I’ll shoot you myself.” Eliot then kissed me quickly before disappearing into the darkness. My heart was racing. I couldn’t decide if it was because of the kiss or because of what I was about to do.

  The half-hour I was sitting in the car off to the side of the road was the longest of my life – and I sat through the movie ‘Glitter’ – so you know that’s saying something.