Unlovable

by Sherry Gammon

  “Wh-What are you doing here?”

  Before he could answer me, Seth flew through the window on the back of our trailer, and in his hands was a huge black gun.

  “MET! FREEZE!” he shouted, running toward me.

  My new friend grabbed a clump of my hair and spun me around so my back pressed against his chest. The guy’s body odor was enough to stop a truck. It didn’t help my queasy stomach.

  “Your boyfriend’s MET?” he hissed banefully in my ear.

  “No, he’s a senior at Port Fare High,” I said, doubting my own words. Seth was a cop? No, he couldn’t be!

  “What’s your name, scum?” he asked Seth.

  He answered slowly. “Detective Seth Prescott.”

  “Detective? What?” I was sickened clear through my soul. The hand in my hair tightened, and I let out a sob of pain.

  Seth started toward me. “Come one step closer, she dies.” As the man spoke, I felt something cold and hard glide across my neck. A knife, an incredibly sharp knife. He was barely applying any pressure, yet its keen edge nipped at my skin.

  Seth threw his hands up in the air, his huge gun now pointing at the ceiling. “You hurt her, it will be the last thing you ever do,” Seth vowed.

  “Do you have any idea who I am?” The creep’s voice had gone from playful to rancorous. Seth answered him with a shake of his head.

  “Alan, and this is my brother, Bill.”

  Seth looked bemused. Clearly, the names meant nothing to him.

  “No? How about Dreser? Does that name ring any bells?” he asked, spit flying from his mouth.

  Seth’s eyes widened. “Yeah, thought so,” said Bill smugly. “And I’m willing to bet you remember killing our brother, Jeffery?” Again, Seth shook his head. Bill groaned loudly. “You killed him over in Syracuse, at Chuckey’s Billiards! Does that–” Bill paused and smiled as Seth’s face now registered fear. “Oh, yeah. You do remember, all too well.”

  Stay calm, Maggie, I instructed myself. It felt as if I were in a dream, a very bad dream, and any minute now I’d wake up alone in my bed. Seth was a high school senior, like me, not an MET… cop… agent…whatever you called them.

  I ripped my eyes from Seth, looking over to my mother. Her breathing was shallow and irregular, I desperately wanted to see if she was hurt.

  “Let her go, then we’ll talk,” Seth said. I turned my attention back to the three men. Seth’s gun was now pointed at Bill’s head, but he was watching Alan's every move.

  “I don’t think so, scum.” Alan let go of my hair and aligned my body more fully in front of his. There was no way Seth could take a shot and not hit me, assuming he even knew how to shoot the dumb thing.

  “Your brother was dealing heroin to 11 and 12 year-olds,” Seth said, his jaw clamped tight.

  “It’s a free country,” Alan flipped. Seth’s face tightened. “So you on some undercover assignment at the high school?” Alan pressed.

  Murder? Drugs? Undercover? Seth looked at me, saying nothing, just looking.

  “Answer me, scum!” Alan pressed the knife more firmly against my throat, a warm trickle of blood began running down my neck.

  “Yes!” Seth bit out.

  No! He was just Seth, hottest guy at Port Fare High. He ran a charity. He was a great cook. He was kind and giving and he… loved… me…?

  “Let me guess, you were assigned to keep an eye on little girlie here and her complete waste of a mother.” Alan rubbed his cheek against mine and laughed. “And I bet she thinks you’re really in love with her.” Both the creeps laughed, and Alan hissed in my ear, “My bet is you’ve been duped, girlie.”

  My bet is the creep was right.

  I began trembling. I was an assignment? That was it? Yet, it made sense. Of course, I was an assignment, to think I meant anything more to him was ridiculous. He could have any girl he wanted, isn’t that what Zack said, so why would he pick me… unless he had to. Trailer Girl was purely an assignment. I’d fallen in love with an undercover cop who was only doing his job. I meant nothing to him.

  “Maggie, don’t listen to them. They are playing with your head. They’re drug dealers, and their dad is a notorious smuggler,” Seth pleaded. But it was too late. I knew the truth and was disgusted with myself. What a stupid, stupid girl I truly am.

  My knees gave out, and I started to drop. Alan cinched his arm around my stomach tighter, so tight I had to fight to breath.

  “Let her go, and we can work out a deal,” Seth bargained.

  “Put the gun down, kick it away,” Alan said, his hot breath licking at my ear. It was clear he wasn’t taking any deal. Seth slowly set the gun down and kicked it down the hall, away from the men.

  “Not a smart move, cop.” Bill, whose brow was damp with sweat, now had a small silver gun pointed directly at Seth. “You and your scumbag friends are–” His rebuke was cut off by the sound of sirens, several sirens.

  “Leave her, and let’s get out of here!” he said to Alan.

  “Not without the girl! I’ve waited—”

  “We leave now, without the girl, Alan! We won’t be able to escape if we have her weighing us down.”

  “What about him? Are we just going to let him live? No way!”

  “Yes, he hasn’t paid for what he’s done yet. We stick with the plan!”

  “Do you honestly think I’m going to let you leave with her?” Seth interrupted. “There’ll be ten cop cars here within seconds. You have no choice. Let her go.”

  “If we let her go, he’ll only follow us. We should bring her with us as a hostage,” Alan said. He lowered his head again, running his cold nose along my neck and inhaling. My stomach heaved.

  “I have a better idea. We need a diversion, and I got the perfect one,” Bill said. It was the last thing I heard. Regrettably, it wasn’t the last thing I felt as my head was slammed into the doorframe. My world spun away.

  ***

  “Maggie, wake up, please.” Seth’s voiced reached into the deep dark hole I was in and pulled me out. I felt his lips pressing against my forehead before realizing I was on the floor. What in the world was I doing on the floor? I forced my eyes open as I sat up. “Maggie! Are you okay?”

  It all came back to me in one huge wave, a tsunami. Seth was a cop or MET or something. “You lied to me,” was all I could think to say.

  “Can we talk about this later? You need to be examined. There’s a huge lump on your head.” I reached up, cautiously touching my sore head. Not only was the lump huge, it was also very tender.

  “Where are those men?”

  “They took off.” Sensing my agitation, he moved away from me. “They won’t get far. Half the force is after them as we speak.”

  Half the… No more. No! More! I stumbled over to my mom. Her breathing was coming out in short puffs.

  “I didn’t find any injuries on her. She may have gotten some bad stuff.”

  “Stuff?”

  “Ah… Drugs. Heroin, I’m guessing.” He kicked at a loose piece of linoleum as he spoke, never looking my way. “It could be alcohol, Maggie, but like I said before, those two are drug dealers.”

  So that was why a scrawny girl and an alcoholic mother merited their own personal cop. They thought my mom was doing drugs! Seth was posing as my friend so he could… What? Arrest her? No. That wasn’t it. He would have done that by now. Why hadn’t he questioned her, or even tried to search my house for drugs?

  Then it hit me. Because my mom was simply the bait. He was using her.

  “And where exactly do you think she’s getting the money for drugs?” I jumped up too quickly, becoming dizzy. Seth reached out to steady me.

  “Don’t touch me! You lied. Tell me the truth. Who are you, and what do you want with us?”

  “I’m undercover MET, it stands for Mobile Enforcement Team. Booker and I are on the drug task force. I’ve been assigned to Port Fare High to try and find out where the influx of heroin is coming from.”

  It poured off his t
ongue so fluidly it had to be the truth. That was why he and Booker seem like such good friends, they’re cops together.

  “Over the past eight to ten months, heroin use has skyrocketed in Port Fare.” Seth’s eyes searched my face, trying to judge my reaction. I held myself still, not giving in to my desire to fly into a rage.

  “You think my mother is what, a dealer? A user?” My incredulous tone caused him to wince. Good.

  “We feel she is somehow involved, though we don’t know how yet. But we’re not after small time dealers at the moment, Maggie, what we really want is the supplier.”

  What in that statement was supposed to comfort me? This was not happening. The police were using my mother for bait, but why was I befriended?

  The next thought hit me like an eighty-pound anvil to my chest. “You think I’m involved somehow, don’t you?”

  His silence was deafening. Finally, he spoke. “At first, maybe a little, but I don’t anymore.”

  “Oh, well, thanks. It’s nice to know my boyfriend’s pretty sure I’m not a druggie.” I sat down next to my mom, burying my face in my hands.

  “Maggie, my feelings for you have nothing to do with the case.”

  I shook my head, wondering if what he was saying was just another lie. “You know how important trust is to me, yet you’ve done nothing but deceive me.”

  “I couldn’t tell you, Maggie. I was undercover, you’re involved, albeit indirectly. I had to keep you in the dark. You were part of my… assignment.”

  It was at that moment my heart broke completely. I should have known something was up the moment he started talking to me. Of course, this beautiful man could never really love the unlovable nothing. He was only utilizing me to get to my mother, I was merely a pawn.

  “Go away.” My voice sounded strange to me, as if someone else was speaking. “Get out and go away. Leave me, leave us, alone.”

  “Maggie. You’re overreacting. Calm down. After your mother’s settled at the hospital, and you’re checked out, we’ll go back to my place. You need some time to let your mind catch up with all of this. I’ll answer all your questions, well, the ones I’m allowed–”

  “GET OUT NOW!” I sounded pretty brave for a small girl up against a guy with a big black gun. The arrival of the EMT’s cut off my rant. They rushed in, rattling off questions as they started an IV on my mom. Seth told them he believed she might be under the influence of some kind of illegal drug. I didn’t argue, I was in way over my head.

  “Miss Brown, would you like to ride along with us?” the EMT driver asked, after loading her in the ambulance.

  “Maggie, I’ll take you,” Seth said quietly.

  I turned to the medic, “Please get me out of here.” I peered out the back window of the ambulance at Seth’s face as we drove away. He looked devastated, and why shouldn’t he be, his cover was blown and he’d have to start all over again with some other stupid unsuspecting girl. Booker pulled up and got out of his car as we pulled away.

  I was beyond distraught and couldn’t hold back the tears any longer.

  22

  Seth

  While Maggie lay unconscious in my arms, I’d called in the ID on the two men and the manhunt had begun straightaway, although I wasn’t holding my breath. If they were anything like their father, they’d be hard to catch. The man was a chameleon.

  Booker was the first to arrive and immediately left again to coordinate the search. He was now returning, probably to check on Maggie and to find out exactly what had happened.

  “Are you positive they were the Dreser boys?”

  I nodded soberly as I watched the ambulance drive away. Never in my life will I forget the look of betrayal in Maggie’s eyes. Never.

  “I heard they’d run into some money troubles in Arizona, I just never imagined they’d come this far north, of course, Harry Dreser’s known for doing the unexpected. This is big, bigger than I originally thought.” Booker was like a walking encyclopedia when it came to drug smugglers. He knew of each one, and he knew their territories.

  “So Jeffery was the dealer killed in Syracuse.” He shook his head in disgust. “The whole family’s scum. That would explain why nothing came up when we tried to ID the body. Daddy Dearest probably paid someone to erase Jeffery’s file, not even his dental records were a match. Big time smugglers like Dreser have an endless supply of money, and more than enough stooges to help cover their tracks.” He looked at me. “Are you okay? They didn’t hurt you did they?”

  “She knows,” I said, shoving my hands through my hair. “The Dreser’s were in the house when we arrived. I pulled out my gun and ordered them to freeze.” In my mind I could still see the knife at her throat, with a thin trickle of ruby-red blood racing down it. The cut was superficial, but it still made me sick.

  “I’m guessing she didn’t take it so well,” Booker said quietly.

  “She freaked. She thinks I used her, just like Zack, only I wasn’t trying to sleep with her, I just wanted to toss her and her mother into jail, that’s all.”

  “Seth, that’s not what we’re doing here and you know it. Everything will be okay, give her some time.”

  “Everything will be okay? Like it was with Lisa or Heather? Or how about Nikkolynn?” To bring up Booker’s past was a low blow. I felt horrible as soon as the words left my mouth. “I’m sorry, man. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “Come on. Mags is nothing like Lisa or Heather, and she’s definitely not like Nikkolynn,” he said casually, as if those women hadn’t torn his heart into a million pieces. “You don’t think she’ll blow your cover at the high school, do you? Never mind, stupid question, of course she won’t.”

  “Nope, she won’t. I should have come clean sooner, you were right. I—” Booker’s police radio interrupted us.

  “Captain Gatto, Officer Whelks here.” Her voice crackled with static. “I’m sorry, sir, they got away.”

  I don’t know who yelled at poor Whelks more, Booker or me. By the time we were through, she was in tears. Great, something more to feel guilty about.

  “If you two men are finished abusing my officer,” interrupted the chief over the radio, “I’d like to send her home. She’s been on duty for 15 hours straight.” The chief wasn’t a woman to mess with. She protected her officers like a mother bear protected her cubs.

  Booker walked me over to my car after we apologized. He’d ordered a search warrant for Maggie’s place and knew I didn’t want to be here when it came through.

  “I’ll call and have Jeffery’s body exhumed tomorrow. I want it checked out, just to be sure.”

  I was barely listening now, my mind was wrapped up in Maggie. If I’d blown it with her…

  “Go home. I’ll call you if anything turns up.” He gave my left shoulder a squeeze. “She needs time, Seth. This is a lot to take in, it’s going to be alright, trust me.”

  No, it wouldn’t be alright. Not this time.

  23

  Maggie

  Once at the hospital, an aide escorted me to a private waiting area where I fought to compose myself. When I wasn’t wondering what was going on with my mother, I could still see Seth in my mind, standing in my living room with his huge gun. He was a liar, and he was using me. He was no better than Zack. At least with Zack I knew from the get-go his true nature.

  Dr. Colter came into the waiting room, saving me from another meltdown. “Hello, Maggie. Please, sit down.” I took a seat on the edge of a green chair. “Can you explain what happened exactly?”

  I gave him a quick rundown of what went on in the trailer, leaving out the whole undercover cop thing. I wasn’t going to expose Seth, even if he did use me. When I got to the part about having my head used as a battering ram, my hands were shaking. I stuffed them between my knees to steady them.

  “How long were you unconscious?” Before I could answer, he pulled a small pen light out of the breast pocket of his scrubs and began checking my eyes. “I want you to have a CAT scan. Are you experiencin
g any dizziness or nausea?”

  “No, I’m fine,” Aside from a killer headache, “I don’t need a CAT scan.”

  “Maggie, I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist,” he said, lifting my chin and examining the cut on my neck.

  “This wound’s superficial. I’ll have the nurse clean you it and put some ointment on it. When was your last tetanus shot?” I shrugged. Had I ever had one? “We’d better give you one just to be safe,” he said, making notes on the palm of his hand.

  “Now, back to your mom. There doesn’t seem to be any blunt trauma to her body. When was the last time you saw her awake and coherent?”

  I had to think for a minute. “She wasn’t awake when I left for school yesterday. However, there were three empty bottles of alcohol lying on the floor when I arrived home. She must have been awake sometime during the day.”

  “Three empty bottles? Can she drink that much?”

  I shrugged. “I’ve never known her to. She may have had the neighbor, Mr. Hoffman, over.”

  “Maggie, your mother is in a coma, which I believe was brought on by her alcohol abuse. With her unstable health, it wouldn’t take much. Her blood count is still good, and I’m running some tests on her liver and pancreas to check a few things, as well as a brain scan.”

  Brain scan?

  “I’d also like to do a drug screen to make sure we’re not dealing with any other substances.”

  “My mom’s not on any medications. I told the nurse that when I filled out all the paper work.”

  “Maggie, it is not uncommon for those with addictions to have more than one. I just want to rule everything else out. That way we can give her the best possible care,” he explained gently.

  Why all of the sudden did everyone think my mom was a drug addict? This was getting ridiculous!

  “I’m afraid she is going to be here for a while. You should go home and try to get some sleep. We still have your cell phone number, correct?”

  “Yes,” I said weakly.