by Cora Brent
The trembling started from within and rapidly overtook me. My shoulders shook and I bawled into Derek Gentry’s broad chest. Instead of pushing me away he tightened his arms around me and eased me down to the floor where he cradled me in his lap and let me cry in the middle of all the blood and terror.
“It’ll be okay now,” he promised in a whisper, the same way I’d promised Noah.
I wondered if the child had believed me the same way I instantly believed Derek.
I hoped so.
Chapter Four
Derek
I decided not to take the painkillers they offered me at the hospital even though they would have helped me sleep. The pain wasn’t that bad and I didn’t need to get hooked on anything else. My dreams might have been less graphic if I’d just taken the pills. Instead, as soon as I landed on my pillow and shut my eyes my brain kept rearranging all of the night’s traumatic input. There were the screams and the blood and the red-eyed maniac who likely would have killed someone if he hadn’t been taken down. And at the center of the madness was the girl who cried in my arms and twisted something in my chest that I didn’t know existed.
She was the first thing on my mind when I woke up. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I knew something about her, though I couldn’t remember what it was. She’d been at the party so chances were high we ran in the same circles. I’d overheard her give her name to one of the cops. Paige Morrissey. No bells went off but then again I’d never been good with names. Kellan was the one with the unshakable memory. Mine was more malleable and pocked with many holes, kind of like Swiss cheese.
The second thing on my mind was the sting of the forty-six stitches required to close up the gash in my right arm, courtesy of the shit for brains junkie. I’d gotten off easy though. The clerk who’d been knifed in the abdomen had been rushed straight to surgery the last I heard. I hoped he was going to be all right. The hospital ran tests on the knife that had stabbed us both. The good news was I didn’t have to worry about catching anything but I still needed to take a hefty dose of antibiotics to protect against infection.
The knock on the front door was sharp and sudden. It reverberated throughout the apartment and I heard Kellan curse from his bedroom. Last night he’d been pissed that I hadn’t called him sooner. I held off until I was about to leave the hospital and then I made him swear not to tell our folks. They’d already been terrorized once by a late night phone call because of me so there was no reason to wake them up and send them into a tailspin. The morning would be a better time for explanations.
“Boys!” shouted the visitor. “You in there? Open up.”
“Fuck, it’s Uncle Cord,” Kellan muttered as he staggered past me in his underwear.
“What the hell is he doing here?” I stopped in the kitchen and glanced at the oven clock. “It’s eight a.m.”
Kellan sighed and headed for the door. “I guess we have no choice but to find out.”
Cord Gentry, one third of the Gentry triplets that included our father, pushed through the door as soon as Kellan unlocked it.
“You all right?” he demanded, sounding a little wild, which was totally unlike him. Uncle Cord tended to be a lot more laid back than his brothers. He glanced at Kellan, who scratched his balls and yawned. Cord then fixed his gaze on me.
“Derek,” he said in a voice of relief, like maybe he expected to find me chopped up in little pieces or something. “You’re okay?” He came closer to inspect me better, his eyes widening at the sight of the bandage on my arm.
“Did he get you bad?” Cord asked, looking me over for other signs of abuse.
“What?” I was confused. “No, I’m fine.”
Kellan stopped scratching his balls and asked the obvious question. “What the hell are you doing here so early, Uncle Cord?”
My uncle continued to scrutinize me. He resembled a heavily tattooed version of my father. My dad, Uncle Cord and the third triplet, Uncle Creed, had been extremely close from the day they were born. They were fraternal triplets born to an abusive father and an addict mother in a shit town called Emblem, where the Gentry name had always been a local joke. But that was a long time ago.
Now that he’d seen I was in one piece Uncle Cord was ready to explain. “I went into work this morning to check on a few things and while I was there one of my employees texted me a link,” he said. “Any idea what it contained?”
“A funny cat video?” Kellan guessed.
My uncle threw him a withering look. “Try again.”
Kel shrugged.
Cord sighed. “It was a clip from a local news report. Apparently late last night some lunatic went berserk in a local Super Q convenience store and started stabbing people.”
Shit.
“Is that right?” Kellan said as if this was all news to him.
“It sure is,” Cord said, tossing Kel a glare to let him know he wasn’t fooling anyone. “There might have been some deaths if it weren’t for the guy being dubbed as the Super Q Hero.” He raised a dramatic eyebrow. “A man identified as one Derby Gentry.”
Kellan pretended to think real hard, which just made him look constipated. “Derby Gentry?” He shrugged. “Never heard of him. What a douchebag name though.”
I cracked up. I couldn’t help it.
Cord ignored the both of us and pulled up something on his phone. “Obviously they fucked up the name but I damn well recognize my own nephew when I see him.”
He held the phone up and I squinted at a grainy black and white video on the screen. I saw myself using a handy whisky bottle to bludgeon the ugly motherfucker who’d stabbed the clerk, terrified the girl and sliced my arm open.
Cord lowered the phone. “I’m presuming you haven’t told your folks about your late night adventures yet.”
“No,” I admitted, feeling a sudden spasm of guilt. Or that might have been my freaking arm throbbing again.
“You better call them,” Cord ordered. Then he stared at me for a few quiet seconds before seizing me in a bear hug. “I’m glad you’re okay, buddy. It took guts, stepping into a situation like that. I’m proud of you.”
My uncle wouldn’t be so proud if he knew what I’d been planning to do with that whiskey bottle before I opted to use it as a bat. I caught Kellan’s eye over Cord’s shoulder and he gave me a slight smile. He hadn’t asked me what I’d been shopping for late last night at the Super Q but Kel knew me better than anyone.
“I’ve got to get over to the shop,” Cord said, letting me go. He was the owner of a famous tattoo parlor just a few miles from here. It was a family business run by Cord and his cousin, Uncle Deck. Cord’s daughter Cassie and her husband Curtis helped manage the place now too.
Before he left Cord extracted a promise that I’d call my parents immediately or else he would. I couldn’t refuse. After all, if the daring antics of Derby Gentry were all over the news it was only a matter of time before everyone in the family saw it.
“The Super Q Hero,” Kellan chuckled with a shake of his head once Cord was gone.
“Shut up,” I grumbled, searching around for my phone. I found it next to the sink and in desperate need of charging. As soon as I plugged it in the thing started blowing up with messages.
Kellan unpeeled a banana. “Seriously, I’m not fucking with you when I say I’m impressed. What you did took some balls. You could have just run out of there and left those people to their fate but you didn’t.”
I sank into a rickety chair, part of our mismatched kitchen set acquired from a thrift shop. I still hadn’t gotten my bearings after last night’s craziness and today had already turned weird. I’d rushed into the situation without thinking. I wasn’t sorry at all, not even sitting here with my arm on fire and faced with the task of explaining some unpleasant news to my long-suffering parents. But I sure as shit wasn’t anyone’s hero. The idea was fucking ridiculous. Anyone who knew me wouldn’t argue with that.
“Derek?” Kellan and his stupid banana sat down across from me.
“You all right, man? You look like you’re in pain.”
I looked at my bandage. “Nah. It’s just a scratch.”
He nodded and took a bite. “You should call Mom and Dad right now. Before Uncle Cord does it himself.”
“Where the hell did you get that banana?”
He gestured. “Freezer.”
“Why are you keeping bananas in the freezer?”
“Because I didn’t want you to eat them.”
I shook my head and reached for my phone, leaving it plugged in as I called my father’s cell. I’d forgotten it was Sunday morning, giving him a reason to sleep in instead of grading papers for one of his high school classes. He sounded like he was talking through a pillow when he answered the phone but when he heard my voice he was instantly alert.
“What is it?” he asked and the sudden anxiety in his voice freaking killed me.
He relaxed when I assured him that I was fine. Kel was fine. Everything was fine. But when I got to the forty-six stitches in my arm he started asking questions and I had to explain about last night and Super Q Hero. He was shocked and concerned and trying to relay information back to my mother who’d overheard the conversation and became upset. Once the shock wore off and they had a chance to search for the news coverage themselves they calmed down. But they wouldn’t let me off the hook until I promised we’d both come over for dinner tonight so they could see for themselves that I wasn’t missing any limbs.
“That sounded fun,” Kel commented when I finally managed to end the call. Now he was eating a bag of marshmallows. It seemed he’d produced the thing out of thin air. “Did I hear you promise we’d be over for dinner later?”
“Yeah. Mom’s breaking out the big guns, making a brisket.”
I scanned through the messages on my phone, all from people who were all “OMG IS THIS YOU?” I found one with a link to the news clip my uncle had shown us and this time I watched the thing in its entirety. The store’s security camera had captured the entire scene from start to finish. I wasn’t interested in seeing myself kicking ass again and I winced as the poor clerk got a knife to the gut twice. Then I paused the video and tried to enlarge the screen before passing it to Kellan.
“You know that girl?”
He peered at the phone. “The one with the kid?”
“No. The other one.”
He played the video and then watched it again. “I can’t get a good look at her face,” he said, passing the phone back to me. “She didn’t get hurt, did she?”
“No. The creep made a grab for her and scared her to death but she didn’t get cut up. I remembered seeing her at the party last night too.”
He was surprised. “No kidding?”
“I thought she looked familiar. I heard her say her name when one of the cops asked. Paige. Paige Morrissey.”
Kel popped another marshmallow into his mouth. He chewed and then snapped his fingers. “Shit, I know who she is. I remember her from high school.”
High school seemed like it had happened eight thousand years ago. “She went to Harper?” I asked.
He shook his head. “She went to Kensington. She was always hanging out with the Malik girls.”
“Who?”
“Dude, I realize you tend to keep your head up your ass but how could you have possibly missed noticing a pair of identical gorgeous girls? I must have known a dozen guys who were in love with them.”
Something clicked in my head and I remembered last night, the two striking girls in the kitchen with identical faces. “They were at the party too last night, weren’t they?”
“Yeah. They live around here somewhere. I’ve seen them at parties and the pool.”
“Does this Paige girl live around here too?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. Remember Todd Benedict? Major neckbeard, ran the speech and debate club.”
I didn’t care about Todd Benedict. I stole a marshmallow. “So what?”
“He had a thing with Paige. He always whined about what a bitch she was but then again I’d swear he’s got no soul so who knows what the truth is. I did hear she’s not the friendly type. There was something else about Paige. Todd said she left school for a while. She was sick I think.”
“What do you mean sick?”
“I don’t know. Todd made it sound like a head case thing but he’s not the most reliable source.”
I chewed on my marshmallow. “How the fuck do you remember all this shit?”
He grinned. “Because I got all the brains in the gene pool. Now don’t forget to take your antibiotic. I don’t want you to get your arm cut off because I’ll get stuck taking care of you.”
I had a message from some police detective that he’d appreciate it if I’d come down to the station today and give a more formal statement. That wasn’t a problem. Kellan asked to come along and I didn’t know if it was out of curiosity or because he wanted to keep an eye on me but I was glad to have my brother’s company.
Being inside a police station brought back some bad memories, although the circumstances were much different now than when I’d been arrested two years ago. Every officer I spoke to was downright gracious. A few even slapped me on the back in appreciation because they were happy to meet the so-called Super Q Hero. I was glad to learn that the clerk was expected to make a full recovery. I didn’t ask about the junkie. The whole time I was there I kept looking around and hoping to run into Paige but had no such luck.
After the police station Kellan wanted to get something to eat so we stopped for burgers. There were too many messages to deal with on my phone. Some were from various members of my extended family so I took the time to answer those and reassured them I was fine. The rest were ignored.
A pair of girls were sitting in an opposite booth and eyeing us while pretending to be absorbed with their phones. They were hot, probably college girls. I just wasn’t in the mood to smile back.
My brother wasn’t as irritable. He winked at them.
“You know my brother, Derek?” Kellan said. “He’s the Super Q Hero.”
The girls looked at us then looked at each other and giggled. They returned to their phones while continuing to cast sidelong glances in our direction. I kicked Kel under the table.
“Knock that off,” I muttered.
“Why?”
“Because it’s bullshit. All I did was take down some strung out old scumbag.”
Kellan squirted ketchup on his burger. “You stepped up, Derek. That’s not bullshit to the people you saved.”
I changed the subject. “Why didn’t you go anywhere on spring break? I’m sure you could have tagged along on someone’s trip to Lake Havasu.”
Kellan shrugged. “I’m afraid of boats.”
“Give me a break. And anyway there were other options besides Havasu.”
“I don’t like traveling. I’m really a homebody at heart.”
“Right. And I’m an astronaut.”
He grinned. “You trying to get rid of me?”
“No.” I wiped my mouth. “But you don’t need to hang around just to watch over me, Kel.”
His grin faded. He shifted in his seat and crumpled a napkin. The girls he’d been flirting with were making a big production out of getting their stuff together to leave. They kept looking at us and Kel was never one to let an opportunity with a pretty girl pass by so it was odd that he kept his mouth shut and watched them go.
“Something on your mind, little brother?” I asked him.
He looked me in the eye. “Were you hungry?”
“I was. Now that I’ve had two hamburgers and six handfuls of fries I’m not so hungry anymore. But I guess I shouldn’t eat anymore to save room for Mom’s brisket later.”
“I meant last night.” He swallowed and I realized this was a difficult thing for him to ask me. “Is that why you went to Super Q? Because we didn’t have much food at home?”
“Yeah,” I said. And I could have stopped there and let my brother feel some relief but I couldn’t li
e to him, especially after everything he’d been through because of me. Kellan had been in the passenger seat when I crashed, had suffered a fractured wrist and a concussion. He could have been killed. That haunted me, the fact that I could have killed my own brother. Instead I’d just killed someone else’s brother.
“I went shopping for some snacks,” I admitted, meeting his eye. “Among other things.”
His shoulders drooped but he couldn’t possibly be surprised. I wasn’t proud of myself. Every day I thought the inner struggle would somehow end and it never did. Maybe it never would.
After we gathered up our garbage and took off my thoughts wandered back to Paige. Since she hadn’t been injured she hadn’t gone to the hospital and I’d lost track of her when the cops started taking our statements. I wondered what she was doing now, if she kept replaying last night’s terror in her head. I wondered if she remembered the way she’d trembled in my arms as I promised her she was safe.
“Do you think she’s okay?” I asked Kellan as we drove back to our apartment.
He was confused. “Who?”
“Paige.”
He gave the idea some thought. “She’s probably not that hard to locate,” he said. “If you really want to find out.”
I mulled that over. Maybe she wouldn’t want to hear from the guy who had nothing to offer but memories of a terrifying ordeal.
“Maybe,” I said.
At home I felt jumpy, restless. I still had all these unanswered messages on my phone and I didn’t want to talk to any of them. There were hours left before we needed to be at our folks’ house for dinner. Kellan settled in to play video games and I searched for a nearby meeting I could go to but there weren’t any. I had mixed feelings about the meetings anyway. Sometimes I felt slightly better being in the company of people who understood how I felt. Other times I felt like even more of a failure for needing help. Other people could manage to put down the bottle and that would be that. But I just kept going back.
