Blood Haze (10 page)

“One
thing, while I’m thinking about it. Please find out how much I owe Lynx for
getting my car repaired the other night. Tell him, thank you, for me.”

“He
won’t take your money,” Karmyl replied.

Arabella
sighed. “I can’t… I need to pay him. I don’t want to be indebted to him.”

“Don’t
worry about it, for now. Just take care of this. We’ll deal with the other
stuff later. How’s ole’ Drew doing?” Karmyl asked.

“He’s
pretty banged up. But I think he’s getting better, barring any setbacks. I’m
just scared to leave the hospital because they won’t call me if anything
happens to him. Hipaa-laws and all.”

Karmyl
studied for a long moment. “Let me try. You stay here and I’ll be right back.”

“I
don’t think…”

“You
sit here and I’ll be right back,” she said again.

Arabella
sat for only five minutes before Karmyl returned, beaming from ear to ear.
“There! That was easy as pie,” she said.

“What?”

The
lovely doctor on call… Todd, I think his name was, is going to call your cell
if there is a change with lover-boy.”

“Really?”

Karmyl’s
eyebrow lifted in disbelief at the question. “You doubt me?”

Arabella
gave the first smile she’d given in what felt like days. “Thanks.” The smile
made her think of Langston in the morgue and goosebumps rose up on her skin,
making her shiver.

“Let’s
get out of here. Hospitals give me the creeps,” Karmyl said linking her arm
through Arabella’s.

They
were seated at a cute, little bistro table, at an outside café. They’d both
declined food, but had settled on Bloody-Marys. Karmyl was babbling to cover
the silence. Arabella smiled and nodded her head, but wasn’t really listening.

“…
and so I told Ramon that he’d better quit hitting on all the waitresses or he’d
have to, not only make the drinks, but serve them as well…” When she realized
Arabella wasn’t really listening, she waved her hand in front of her face.
“Hello! Are you listening to me? If I wanted to be ignored, I’d have stayed at
home.”

Arabella
gave her a small smile. “I’m sorry. I know I’m not very good company.”

“No,
I get it. I’m supposed to be making you feel better.”

Arabella
gave her another small smile as she twirled the celery in the thick red drink,
thoughtfully. “Why do you think Maggie was in the car with them?”

Karmyl
blinked slowly as she considered the question. “Did you know her?”

She
shook her head. “Not really. I’d just met her the other night at the Night Owl.
Drew had invited her to come hear me sing… or so he said.”

“Could
she have been with Ian?”

Arabella
gave a small shrug of her shoulders. “Maybe. I just have a really bad feeling
about it. It’s like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.” She blinked
rapidly before lifting her eyes once more to Karmyl’s, pain burning her chest.
“He broke up with me,” she whispered.

Karmyl’s
brows drew together. “What? Who? Drew?”

“Maybe
to be with her?”

“Son-of-a-bitch!
I told you…” Karmyl began before catching herself.

Arabella
exhaled on a shuddering breath and lifted her sad eyes. “I should have
protected Ian better. He was my baby brother. I had a feeling bad things were
going to happen and I didn’t try to stop him.”

Karmyl
laid a hand over one of Arabella’s clenched hands. “This wasn’t your fault.
There’s nothing you could have done. Ian was a grown man and made his own
decision… both good and bad. Don’t torture yourself like this. And while I may have
always thought you could do better than Drew, I’ve always believed he loved
you.”

Arabella
stared intently down into the drink she’d barely touched, other than to stir it
around. She gave a small nod to the other woman’s words. “I know he does. Even
if it’s not the way I’d like it to be.” Lifting her blue eyes to meet dark
ones, she said, “I’m worried about him.”

“Drew
will be fine. Just give it time.”

“I
think there are bad things that go on in that hospital,” Arabella said quietly.

Karmyl
stilled immediately and her smooth brows drew together. “What do you mean? Bad
things?”

“I
think the guy that works in the morgue… hurts people,” she responded
hesitantly.

“Hurts
people? Hurts people, how?”

“I’m
not sure. I… I just… got a bad feeling about him,” Arabella said with a nervous
smile. There was no way she’d ever admit to anyone else about her glimpsings.
Now that Ian was dead, there was only one other person who knew she had them,
and that was Drew. She’d seen how people had responded to her mother’s visions.
She wouldn’t live that way.

Karmyl
threw back her head and laughed in such a way, that it reminded Arabella once
more about the other woman’s connection to Lynx. That’s how he’d laughed. “Oh,
sweetie! Of course, you got a bad feeling about him. He works in the morgue,
for goodness’ sakes.”

Arabella
jumped when her cellphone vibrated against the intricate, ironwork of their
round table. She snatched it up immediately. “Hello?... Yes, it is… I don’t
understand, why do you want to see me?... Umm, I can meet you there in about
thirty minutes.” Glancing at her watch, she said, “Let’s say three o’clock?...
Okay, I’ll see you then,” she said before she slowly clicked off the phone and
with deliberate care, sat it back on the table.

“Who
was that?”

“The
police. They want to meet with me at Ian’s,” Arabella replied.

“Why?”

With
a small shake of her head, she said, “I don’t know, unless they were in Ian’s
car or something.”

“Could
he have been driving?” Karmyl asked.

“No,”
she said with a smirk. “Drew would never let Ian drive - ever… and especially
if there’d been drinking involved.”

“Do
you want me to come with you?”

“No,
you and Lynx have already done so much.”

With
a wave to the waiter to get their tab, Karmyl said, “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m
coming with you and that’s final.”

With
a sigh of relief, Arabella said, “Are you sure? I didn’t really want to go by
myself, but I didn’t want to ask.”

Chapter 5

After
meeting with the police at Ian’s apartment and arriving home, Arabella had just
dumped her purse on the dining room table when her cellphone vibrated against
her hip. Seeing the hospital’s number flash on the screen, she heaved an
exhausted sigh. “Hello?”

“Ms.
Marks?”

“Yes.”

“This
is Lottie from the hospital. Dr. Marksman asked that I call and let you know
Mr. Larkin has been upgraded and is currently being moved into a private room.
He’s been asking for you.”

Arabella
stood silently with the phone pressed against her ear. Finally, emotionlessly,
she said, “I’m on my way.”

Drew
was asleep when she slipped into his room. She walked to his bed and was
relieved to see all the tubes finally removed from his body. However, without
them, she could now see the full extent of his injuries. His face was cut,
swollen, and bruised. She sat down heavily in the recliner positioned next to
his bed.

Leaning
back, she stared at the battered man she’d spent more than half her life with.
The man, she thought she’d known. Now, she felt she’d not known him at all. She
thought of the tricycle once again. She certainly did feel like she was
coasting along alone, on one wheel now. She felt wobbly on the inside… wobbly,
confused, and broken.

She
must have drifted off, although she wasn’t sure how she could have ever relaxed
enough to sleep. Stress was like that sometimes, she guessed. A terrible
rasping woke her and she was disoriented for an instant. When the events of the
past few hours slammed into her, she wished she could have stayed disoriented.
It was an easier place to survive in.

“Ara,”
came the soft, raspy sound again.

“How
are you feeling, Drew?” she asked.

“Rough.
How is… how is Ian?”

Her
anger flitted away at how the news was going to devastate him. No matter what,
they’d all been together a long time. “Drew… I… he….didn’t make it.”

She
heard him inhale sharply. “Oh, God!” he rasped.

“I’m
sorry,” she said, the hole in her chest widening as her losses began to add up.

Turning
his eyes away from her, he whispered, “Maggie?”

Slowly,
she shook her head, “No.”

“No,”
he rasped on a heaving sob.

Anger,
hurt, and disillusionment poured over her. She wanted to lash out at him.
Wanted to hurt him… make him pay for her own pain. It took everything in her to
rein it in and bite her tongue. She sat silently while he struggled to control
his emotions. But when he shifted his wounded eyes back to hers, seeking…
understanding, she guessed, she was done.

Pressing
her fingertips against her stinging eyes, her own voice growing raspy, she said,
“Tell me what happened. Tell me why you were in the backseat with another woman
with my brother in the car. Tell me why you would let Ian drive, even knowing
how drunk he was.”

Drew
lifted his redden eyes to hers. Struggling to speak through his emotion-clogged
voice, he said, “Ara, you have to believe me… it… she… it was nothing. I love
you… I’ve always loved you.”

His
words slid over her skin with the pain of a brillo-pad. Clearing her throat,
she said, “Tell me what happened. That’s all I want to know. I want to know why
my brother died… why you allowed him to be killed.”

Tears
spurted from his eyes and he whimpered at her words. “God, Ara, please don’t
say that! I loved Ian, like my own brother.”

“Then
why would you let him drive? I told you to watch out for him. You know how he
is. You knew he’d drink too much. What? Where you just too busy with the cute
blonde that you were willing to let Ian kill himself? Kill all of you?” she
said cruelly, as pain sliced through her.

“Ara!
It wasn’t like that. I never intended… I never meant… he wasn’t supposed to be
there… in the car,” he finished on a heaving sob.

She
shook her head as she tried to absorb his words. “I don’t understand,” she
whimpered.

Exhaling
and looking away from her to stare up at the ceiling, he took several deep
breaths to gather his control. “She just showed up. We were talking at work
about our weekend plans.” He shifted his pleading eyes back to hers, “You have
to believe me, I didn’t plan to meet her there. She just showed up… and we were
drinking… and she was coming on to me… and it was easy… so very easy… to just,
like, talk to her. She thought I was charming and wonderful.”

His
words cut her deep. “I asked you! I asked you if it was just too much. You told
me no!” With her chest heaving she railed at him, “Now, how do you go from
being in the bar to being in the backseat with her while my brother is driving
while drunk?”

His
chest shook as he strove to contain his sob. He lifted his hand and pinched the
bridge of his nose. “Oh, God, Ara! I felt guilty, okay! I felt guilty because I
knew I’d hurt you. I’ve never wanted to hurt you. Then Maggie showed up and she
made me feel like I was something wonderful and I liked the attention. I knew I
was wrong, I drank too much and before I knew it, I was in the backseat of the
car with her. I didn’t even know at first that Ian had gotten into the car. I
was just so hammered. Oh, God! You’re right. I killed them. They both died
because of me. I’m so sorry. You have to believe me. I’m so sorry, Ara,” he
sobbed.

Her
heart twisted in her chest at his ultimate betrayal. Rising to her feet, she
scooped up her purse.

“I’ll
see you tomorrow,” she said quietly, before moving rapidly to the door, all the
while, her name scraped up from his throat, calling her back.

She
scrambled to the elevator and fell heavily against its wall trying to suck much
needed oxygen into her lungs. Devastation fell heavy upon her shoulders and she
struggled to remain upright. She felt betrayed and cut loose. She desperately
needed a friend. Sadly, the only friend she’d ever depended on had just
destroyed her.

Karmyl
was the only one she could think of. When the elevator doors opened, she
stepped out and dug her cellphone out of her pocket. She scrolled through her
contact list and found Karmyl’s number. She selected it and pressed the connect
button, only to immediately disconnect. She didn’t want to talk about this just
yet… she
couldn’t
talk about this
just yet. With the pain of something more fierce than a broken heart, she
turned and hurried out of the hospital.

So
absorbed in her pain, Arabella failed to notice the man standing in the shadows
of the hospital’s entrance with a lit cigarette in his hand. He watched her
flee from the entrance, a grin lifting his lips. With one last drag, he flicked
the cigarette away and moved swiftly to the parking lot. He waited until she
pulled out onto the street before following.