Defenseless

by Adrianne Byrd

  Dwayne wanted to give in to his daughter, but he knew he had to hold his ground. Besides, Bridget probably had no intention of going to Sylvia’s house. “No, Bridget.”

  She let out an exaggerated sigh. “Well, how long am I on restriction?” she asked, her annoyance evident in her voice.

  “Until I say you’re off,” Dwayne answered sternly.

  “Then can I have company come over?”

  “Bridget, you know the rules. No company. I’m on my way home. Maybe I can keep you company,” he teased.

  “I can hardly wait,” she groaned.

  Dwayne laughed. “Bye, Bridget. I’ll see you in a little while.” He hung up the phone, still smiling.

  “Important call?” James asked when he returned to the table.

  “No, it was just Bridget wanting to go over to a friend’s house.”

  James shook his head. “You have your hands full with that one.”

  “Yes, but she’s well worth it. I think I’d better cut the evening short and get back home. For all I know, there could be a party going on at the house.”

  James laughed. “I see a lot of you in her. You know you weren’t always on the right side of the law.”

  Dwayne’s eyes twinkled. “I know. That’s why I’m going home, to make sure she doesn’t follow in my footsteps.” James roared with laughter as he watched Dwayne’s departing figure.

  An overly made-up woman threw her hands around Dwayne’s neck and smiled seductively at him. “Want to dance, stranger?”

  Dwayne shook his head politely. “I was just leaving.”

  “Ooh, that sounds like a great idea. Mind if I tag along?”

  Dwayne lifted an amused brow. “Thanks, but I’ll have to take a rain check.”

  She shrugged her shoulders as if it made no difference to her. “Maybe next time, sexy.”

  Dwayne smiled and gently pushed past her and through the growing crowd. The party scene was no longer his thing. It faded out of his mind when he met his wife. She had waitressed at a local club where he and James hung out in college. He made it to his car in the parking deck, relieved to be heading home.

  Sonya heard the light footsteps stop in front of the desk. She felt Sharon’s hand tremble in hers, yet neither made a sound. She wished that she could at least see who their attacker was but didn’t risk it. Moments later, the footsteps walked in the opposite direction. Sonya relaxed against the desk. “Who is that?” Sharon whispered.

  Sonya placed her hand over Sharon’s mouth. She didn’t want to get too comfortable until they could get out of the building. She crawled from under the desk and tried to look around. Sharon crawled out beside her. “Is he gone?”

  “Shh.” Sonya reached for the phone on the desk. It was dead. “Damn!” she whispered.

  “What’s wrong?” Sharon inquired, looking over her shoulder.

  “It’s dead—come on,” Sonya instructed, crawling farther down the aisles. Each phone she checked gave her the same results. “We are going to have to get back to the stairwell—we have no other choice.” She made out Sharon’s figure in the darkness and saw that she nodded her head in agreement. “Are you ready?” Sharon nodded again. “Let’s go!”

  The women headed back toward the stairwell. Sonya cautioned Sharon to be as quiet as possible. They were still unsure exactly where their predator was. They made it without an incident. Sharon lost a shoe as she struggled to keep up with Sonya.

  Silently, the women headed down the stairs. This time, they stopped every once in a while whenever they thought they heard something or someone following them. Sonya didn’t realize how loud her breathing was until now. She heard everything, it seemed, intensified a thousand times. She was able to make out the number three imprinted on the next stair level. Only a couple more to go.

  A door crashed open above them, and the women quickly picked up speed. “Go, go, go!” Sonya whispered behind Sharon. The run was awkward for Sharon, who ran with only one shoe on. Level two, then one, quickly came into view. The women stormed out of the stairwell and down the lobby. Sonya’s bare feet made no sound as she dashed across the hard marble floor, while Sharon’s one sneaker made a clapping sound as she followed.

  Sonya passed the security desk and noticed the officer slumped over his chair. Sharon let out a startled scream when she noticed the body. Sonya looked sharply at her. Sharon gave an apologetic expression as she realized what she’d done. The stairwell’s door burst open, and the women continued running toward the front door.

  A brief sense of freedom engulfed Sonya as they made it to one of the glass doors. Sharon screamed just as she was able to make it through the door behind Sonya. At that exact moment, the glass door beside her shattered into a million pieces. Their stalker was shooting again.

  Sharon’s car was parked in front but had four flat tires.

  “Damn!” This meant they would have to go to the fifth-level parking deck to make it to her car. Sonya ignored the small pebbles and sharp objects that continued to poke at her toes through her thin nylon stockings.

  There was no one at the security booth at the parking deck, and Sonya’s fear escalated. “We’re going to have to find a place we can use a phone. Come on,” Sonya said, heading toward the street.

  “I thought we were going to your car?” Sharon complained, following Sonya.

  “There was no security guard. I have a feeling my car probably has four slashed tires, too,” she reasoned, jogging down the dark street. Sharon clutched her side as she struggled to catch up with Sonya.

  It wasn’t long before a car screeched behind them, flaring its bright headlights, chasing the women down the darkened street.

  Sonya ran harder. Dear God, save us.

  Chapter 13

  What started as drizzle soon became a downpour. Dwayne turned on his windshield wipers and squinted at the road. He switched on the defroster and waited for the fog to clear. The car phone rang, and Dwayne picked it up.

  “Hello?”

  “Dwayne?” came a shaky voice.

  “Sharon? Sharon, is that you?” Dwayne asked with instant concern.

  “Dwayne, we need you to come and pick us up,” she said, sounding out of breath.

  “Where are you?”

  “I don’t know. Sonya, where are we?” Sharon asked.

  Dwayne’s heart picked up its pace.

  “Dwayne?” Sonya’s voice came on the line.

  “Yes. What’s going on? Where are you?”

  “We’re at a place called Ray’s Barbecue. It’s on the corner of Hope Street, downtown. Do you know where that is?”

  Dwayne exited off I-285 to turn around. “Yes, I know where it is. What are you doing there? What’s going on?”

  “We’ll tell you when you get here. Please, hurry. We need you.” The line went dead.

  Dwayne floored the accelerator. In record time, he was back downtown. Why on earth were they in that section of town? Ray’s Barbecue had been closed for years. He turned down Hope Street and searched for the two women.

  When he pulled up to the old, deserted building, he was even more puzzled. He turned off the engine and stepped out of the car. His clothes molded against him as the rain descended heavily. “Sharon? Sonya? Are you in there?”

  He walked up to the door and tried to enter. It was locked. He went to the window and peered through the boarded frame. This doesn’t make any sense. He walked to the back of the building to see if he could see anything. He called their names again.

  “Dwayne?” Sharon asked, looking around the corner of the building.

  “Sharon!”

  Sharon ran to him with outstretched arms. She allowed him to crush her body to his. She trembled violently as Dwayne hugged her in a protective embrace.

  “Are you all right?”

  Sharon nodded as her tears mingled with the rain. Dwayne sighed in relief. He looked around, half expecting Sonya to appear. After a moment, he eased Sharon from his arms to stare down at her. “Where’s Sonya?�
��

  “I forgot. She’s around here. Help me. She’s hurt.”

  “Hurt?” Dwayne said, following close behind her.

  There, behind a thick bush, Sonya sat clutching her ankle. “I thought you forgot all about me,” she said, looking at Sharon.

  “Let me help you to the car,” Dwayne offered, bending to pick her up.

  Sonya waved off his hands as she attempted to stand on her bad ankle. “I can walk on my own.” She winced in pain.

  So she was still playing the tough role. “You couldn’t last night,” he retaliated low enough for only her to hear.

  “Come on, I’d like to get to my husband tonight,” Sharon said, looking around the area.

  Dwayne watched Sonya limp to the car. She looked like a drowned rat. Her torn peach-colored dress left little to the imagination. Yet in her ragged state, she still walked with her head held high and her shoulders thrust back. He knew she wasn’t going to ask for help. Stubborn woman.

  The threesome squeezed into the two-seater Porsche with Sharon crammed in the middle. Dwayne started up the car. He cursed at the fierce rain that attacked his windshield. “Will someone please tell me what is going on?” Dwayne said after neither woman spoke.

  “I’m still not sure what happened,” Sharon answered. “It seemed like it was all part of some terrible dream.”

  “A nightmare,” Sonya said softly.

  “What happened?” Dwayne asked, anxious to get a satisfying answer.

  Sonya took a deep breath and told Dwayne everything that took place at her office. Sharon cut in every once in a while to correct whenever she felt Sonya wasn’t adding enough suspense.

  Dwayne’s eyes grew wide in horror. When they finished, it was a moment before Dwayne spoke.

  “Are you both all right?”

  Both women nodded.

  “We’re going to the police,” he decided.

  The police station felt crowded to Sonya as she sat in a tiny chair outside Sergeant Freeman’s office. Their statements had been taken hours ago, and now they waited for Freeman and his men to return from the crime scene. Dwayne stayed with the women after they both threatened his very life if he left them alone.

  James sat holding Sharon as she still trembled from the night’s events. A few times the women gave each other encouraging smiles.

  Dwayne returned from using the phone. He called home a lot, Sonya observed. Probably to check on his girlfriend, she thought. She was jealous. It was a feeling that disturbed her, no matter how hard she tried to deny it.

  “Are you all right?” Dwayne asked, coming to sit beside her.

  Sonya didn’t trust herself to speak, so she nodded her head. It wasn’t the truth. She felt cold and frightened. Someone tried to kill her tonight. How could she possibly be all right?

  “Here, put this on,” Dwayne said, taking off his jacket.

  As much as Sonya didn’t want to accept his help, she took the jacket. There was no reason for her to freeze to death. “Thank you,” she managed to whisper.

  Dwayne’s eyes softened. “You’re welcome.”

  Was it his voice that caused her to shiver, or was she still cold? Their last conversation came to mind and Sonya felt herself wanting to apologize. Dwayne had shown her nothing but kindness and she…well, she had been unfair to him since the beginning. She opened her mouth to say something when Freeman came storming down the hallway.

  “Mrs. Ellis and Miss Walters, will you please come into my office? You’re welcome to come, Mr. Hamilton.”

  “I’m coming, too,” James said, walking beside his wife. Everyone found a seat in the tiny office. James and Sharon sat together, Sonya and Dwayne sat side by side. When Dwayne reached out to take her hand, Sonya smiled. She needed his comfort now.

  “It’s been a long day, Miss Walters—forgive my brusqueness. My men and I’ve gone over the crime scene and we are going to treat this case with as much discretion as possible. It seems that I owe you an apology, Miss Walters. There were two unconscious people found at the scene.”

  “Two?” Sonya and Sharon asked in unison.

  “We found the security guard in the lobby, just like you said. There was also a guard in the parking deck.”

  Sonya remembered her decision not to go to her car and breathed a sigh of relief.

  “I can offer you police protection, if you’d like.”

  Sonya looked at Dwayne.

  “How much protection and for how long?” Dwayne asked the sergeant.

  “I can put one officer with her. I can’t spare more than that.”

  Dwayne shook his head. “Only one man? Her sister is missing, and now someone is trying to kill her. It could be the same people who got to Curtis.”

  Freeman held up his hand. “I understand where you’re coming from, Mr. Hamilton, but I don’t do magic tricks. I can’t get you something I don’t have. And as far as this being related to Mr. Durden’s case, I’m not ready to draw those same conclusions.”

  Sonya shook her head disbelievingly at the sergeant. “And why not? Can’t you see that there’s more here than meets the eye?”

  “And what is that, Miss Walters? I don’t see the connection at all. Your sister kills her husband in a domestic violence case, then she skips town—case closed. As far as someone trying to kill you, maybe it’s from something you did. Lord knows, you don’t exactly rain sunshine on anyone.”

  “Sergeant Freeman, I suggest you stick to the facts and keep your personal opinion to yourself,” Dwayne said, coming to her defense.

  “I don’t want to fight about this. I’m just trying to say that this doesn’t prove there is a connection. Now do you want police protection or not?”

  “No, thanks. From what I’ve seen, I can’t tell the police from the criminals,” Sonya answered.

  “Suit yourself. I do, however, suggest that you keep a low profile.”

  Sonya stood. “Can we leave now?”

  Freeman tilted his head toward the door, and everyone filed out of the office.

  “What a jerk!” Sharon said once they were back in the hallway.

  “You’re being too nice,” Sonya said, coming up beside her.

  “Are you ready to go home?” James asked Sharon.

  Sharon nodded her head, then turned to Dwayne and Sonya.

  “I’ll talk to you when I get back. Dwayne, you look after her. If she won’t accept police protection, then you watch out for her.”

  Dwayne winked at Sharon, then leaned in to place a kiss on her forehead. “I’ll call you when I get home.”

  James took his wife’s arm and led her out of the police station.

  “Are you ready?” Dwayne asked, looking at Sonya.

  Another cold shiver raced down Sonya’s spine as she nodded. The sooner she could get out of this place, the better, she thought.

  Sonya stepped outside with Dwayne close behind her. The rain had stopped, but the air felt cool. She continued to limp as her ankle still pained her.

  “Do you want to go to the hospital and have a doctor take a look at your ankle?”

  “No. Right now I would kill for a warm bath and a soft bed. I can see a doctor tomorrow.”

  Dwayne opened the car door for her. She got in and waited for him.

  When Dwayne took his seat, he didn’t start the car. “I don’t think it’s a good idea that you go home tonight. I don’t think you’ll be safe.”

  Sonya was relieved and afraid when he mentioned this. “I could stay at a hotel tonight. I’d be safe there.”

  “I think you would be safer at my place.”

  Sonya digested his statement. Stay with him and his girlfriend? She didn’t like the idea, but she couldn’t think of a better one. She really didn’t know how safe she would be in a hotel, either.

  “Look, Sonya, I have to tell you. Nothing happened between us last night. You were having a bad dream, and I just came in to comfort you. I mean, I just calmed you down.”

  “I know nothing happened,” Sonya
answered.

  “I just want you to trust me. You’ll be safe at my place.”

  Sonya was unable to suppress a smile. “Okay, I’ll stay at your place tonight.”

  Dwayne smiled and started the engine. He tuned the radio to a soothing jazz station, and Sonya let herself relax. Every bone in her body ached as she tried to massage her neck muscles.

  “You’re sure you don’t want to go to the hospital?” Dwayne asked again.

  “Yeah, I’m just tired, that’s all.” Sonya leaned her head back and stared at the ceiling of the car and tried to rest. She touched her neck and realized that it was bare. Just then a car behind them banged into Dwayne’s back bumper. Dwayne switched lanes but not without the car behind him following.

  “What the hell?” Dwayne cursed.

  “I don’t believe this!” Sonya cried, locking her seat belt into place.

  Dwayne turned onto Highway 316, trying to outrun a Calloway Corvette from behind them. But the car was just as fast. Suddenly the car appeared beside them and tried to sideswipe him.

  “Dwayne!” Sonya screamed.

  The mysterious car smashed into the driver’s side, pushing Dwayne into the opposite lane. Sonya held on to the dashboard as she heard Dwayne curse violently. A loud bang rang out, and Sonya watched Dwayne’s window shatter into a shower of broken glass.

  “Get down!” Dwayne commanded.

  Sonya unbuckled her seat belt and squeezed herself down on the floor. Another shot rang out, and more glass covered the passenger seat.

  Dwayne was having trouble with the gears. Sonya’s heart pounded wildly against her chest. She heard another curse from Dwayne as the car was forced off the road. Pain spread throughout her body as she felt something crush her.

  The black Porsche crashed into the trees off the side of Highway 316. The horn blared into the night air as Dwayne’s heavy body slumped against the steering wheel.

  Chapter 14

  Sonya heard footsteps approaching outside the car. The mere thought of moving caused pain to shoot across her body. Both doors of the car flew open, and Sonya felt rough hands search her body.