Devil’s in the Details (2 page)

I didn't think, I just acted after that. I didn't have sympathy for men like them.

I tightly gripped the rolled up magazine in my right hand and started walking quickly towards the group. As I moved closer the train arrived and stopped and when the doors opened I walked behind the intern, shoving him into the car, I heard him grunt as he fell onto his ass. Scattering the papers that escaped from his overflowing briefcase around the platform and train car.

When he was out of the way, I rushed towards the first man who flipped me off. Grabbing him by the shoulder, I spun him around. By the time he faced me to utter whatever nonsense, the heel of my palm met his nose with deadly force. Smashing the cartilage into the nasal bone, driving both into his brain. Killing him instantly.

Throwing his lifeless body out of my way, I grabbed the owner of the hand that slapped the brunette. Wrapping my fingers around his, I yanked and twisted. Hearing the delightful snap of his wrist, he screamed and went to hit me while shouting for his friends to help him. I glanced at his hand in mine and swung the tightly rolled up magazine against the inside of his forearm, shattering the bone in two. The sharp edges pierced through his skin, he fell to his knees screaming at the sight of his bones poking out. This offered me a clear shot to swing the magazine at his throat, shattering the hyoid bone with enough power, the bone shards sliced through his carotid artery.

He would be dead in seconds.

I turned to the third man, ignoring the gurgling sounds of the second choking on his own blood. This shithead still held onto the brunette, his face sheet white as he witnessed what I had done to his friend. He dropped the unconscious brunette, raising his hands up in surrender as her limp body hit the floor with a slap and a thud.

"Hey man, I ain't got no fight with you!" He stumbled back to run from me. I pushed my hood back, revealing my long pale blonde hair in a ponytail and hissed at him, "I am no man. And you need to learn that you never lay a hand on a woman."

His eyes widened and he turned to run. He only took a few steps before I snatched the red fire extinguisher from the wall next to us. Throwing it with deadly accuracy at the back of his head, I smirked when I heard the crack of his skull breaking open from the impact of the heavy metal can. I watched as he fell face first, hitting the floor with another crack. Breaking his own nose on impact and ending his misery like his other friend.

Looking down at the beaten brunette, I spotted the ring leader trying to get up and run from me. Clutching between his legs from the pain, I took a deep breath. My heart was still beating at slow, normal rate just as if I was back sitting on that bench and reading my magazine.

The train had left the station the second I pushed the intern in it, leaving me and the ring leader in stale silence. I walked up to him, kicking the back of his Achilles tendon hard. Dropping him back to the floor with a shriek, I crouched down to him. Tucking my aviators away and pulling off my hat, I set it on the floor next to him and away from the small pools of blood growing around us.

Staring at the piece of shit, I already knew what I was going to do. I stood back up, walking over to the trash can, I bent down and pick up the small can of pepper spray. Looking it over to see that it was police grade, I smiled. I then moved to stand on the side of the groaning man who was now crying as he looked around at all of his dead friends, "Please, man, please! You gotta let me go, I’m sorry! I won't tell no one about this!"

I sucked in a deep breath, the stink of blood heavy in the air starting to mix with the smell of death. A scent that was oddly calming when I was surrounded by it. Only for the reason that it was the one constant in my life I had known the longest. Bending down to the man I looked him dead in the eyes, watching his widened as he saw that I was a woman. "You're a girl? Holy shit...what are you? A soldier of fortune?"

I clenched my jaw, flicking the safety cap off the pepper spray, "I wish I could tell you that this is a lesson learned for you, but you won't be alive in the next five minutes to learn anything from it."

Aiming the tiny nozzle right at his eye line, I pressed the red button and emptied the canister in his face. I barely heard his screams, I had learned to tune them out a few years ago so I could focus on what came next. I grabbed his arms, twisting his wrists until they snapped, for no other reason than it made me feel better. I then dragged the screaming man to the edge of the platform.

Not bothering to look twice, I rolled his body onto the track, looking up to see the quick flicker of the next train's light on the tunnel walls. I stepped back, picking up my USN hat and tucking it in my back pocket before bending down to the brunette. When I went to check her for a pulse, I glanced up to see the black domed security cameras at each end of the platform. "Dammit."

Digging out my cell phone, I pressed my third contact as I checked to see if the brunette still had a pulse. She had one, it was light and thready, but there was one. Reaching up to brush her hair away, I cringed when I saw the purple marks forming around her eyes and cheeks. My stomach churning at the sight confused me. I never had a reaction to anything like I was now, looking down at this woman.

"What's what Victoria?" The hyper female voice helped to drown out the muted groans from the tracks.

"Platform 3 at the Federal Triangle station. I need you to wipe the security footage then run a protocol echo with the police." I waited until it was confirmed and clicked the phone to the Bluetooth settings, pressing the small headphone into my ear, "I also need a car sent to this location on the surface a half a block away." I scooped up the brunette in my arms, hearing her whimper as her head rolled to settle against my chest. "No driver, just leave the keys in the visor."

"You got it Victoria." The voice paused, filling the air with the clicks of a keyboard. "Do I want to know why I am doing all of this?"

I clenched my jaw, shifting my arms to get a better hold on the brunette, hating the way she felt cool and clammy in my arms, telling me she was going into shock and I would have to take her to a hospital and not just drop her off outside the ER. "I got involved in something I shouldn't have, Dani." I climbed the stairs quickly, turning to the right just as I heard the train bellow through the platform and end the groans with a rush of wind.

The night was still cool and I welcomed the fresh air. I glanced down at the brunette, the small beads of sweat forming on her forehead made me rush towards the black sedan pulling up under a distant street light. The headlights flicked twice and the driver got out, disappearing down the street under the guise of a late night jogger. I too started jogging towards the car, wanting to get this woman to a hospital before she grew worse and fell deeper into shock.

Setting her gently in the driver’s seat, I reached across to buckle her in when I heard a struggled whisper, "Who are you? What happened?"

I cursed under my breath and leaned back to face the hazy, half opened eyes staring directly at me. Reaching up, I brushed some of her hair away, smiling even though I knew she could see my entire face since I had left my hat and aviators off, "You're going to be okay. I am taking you to the hospital now." I pressed my palm against her cheek, "You're safe now."

The dark blue eyes held mine for a moment before she nodded painfully, tears gliding down her bloodied and bruised cheeks. "Okay." Her voice trembled and I saw that she was still scared but, for whatever reason, she trusted my words.

I let out a breath, standing up and closing the door I rushed to the driver’s side as I heard the distant sirens coming towards us. Dani popped in my ear again. "The cops are on their way, Victoria. All of them are familiar with protocol echo, you won't have a problem." She blew out a breath, "I ran the faces through facial recognition. You didn't kill four innocents, that's for sure." She had an indignant tone in her voice, as if she was trying to find some justification for what I had just done.

I cut her off, "Dani, I don't care. You know that. I never care about who they are or what they've done right or wrong. Just clean it up and leave it alone." I clicked off the Bluetooth and started the black sedan, squealing off in the opposite direction of the flashing red and blue lights.

Why the hell did I get involved, especially when I had a morning class to teach in less than five hours.

"Oh, Alex, I feel terrible for not telling you I left early." Stacy sat next to my bed, picking at the standard issue white thermal blanket covering me. "I was going to text you, but my mom called and I was stuck listening to her ramble on about her new crochet class." She looked up at me, her eyes running over the bruises and cuts on my face. "I should have come back for you."

I smiled weakly, feeling the corners of my mouth tug at my still swollen cheek, "It's okay, Stacy. I should have taken a cab or gotten one of the guys to help me with the mini." I sat back against the stiff pillows. Every inch of my body was sore and felt like it was broken, but nothing was broken. I was just bruised, scraped and full of muscle strains. I rolled my head towards the television playing the afternoon soap operas with the volume muted. "Do you think Dr. Owens will sign off on letting me out today?"

"I overheard him talking to the X-ray tech, he just needs you to answer the call of nature to make sure there is no internal damage and he will cut you loose." Stacy grabbed my forearm, "Alex, you should at least stay overnight. You had a rough night." Her voice faded off near the end.

I kept my eyes on the television, "I know, but I'd rather be at home in my own bed." I turned to look at her, "When did you say the detective will be in to talk to me?" I bit the inside of my mouth. I really wanted to go home so I could cry in peace. I had held it together from the moment I woke up in the emergency room with all of my co-workers rushing around my gurney asking a thousand different questions with fearful looks in their eyes.

Stacy leaned back in her chair, "In a half hour. I guess the other officers who hounded you while Kathy stitched you up was not good enough." She shook her head, "I swear to god, I hope they find those bastards and throw them in cells with big angry convicts that hate men who beat up women."

I gave her a small smile at her frustration. Stacy was my closest friend at the hospital, we connected within minutes of my first shift and she was a huge help as I readjusted to living in D.C. again. "I'm sure they’ll get theirs."

A soft tap on the doorframe made Stacy and I both look up at the tall woman with brown hair wearing a bland grey pantsuit, standing half in and half out of my room. "Excuse me, Ms. Ivers? I'm Detective Jennifer Scarlett. Is this a good time to ask some follow up questions about last night?" She had a polite smile on her face trying to make it feel like her presence wasn’t so much of an unwelcomed intrusion.

I nodded, "Sure."

The detective ushered into the room, setting a thick black binder on my tray, glancing at Stacy as she dug out a pen, "Do you mind if I speak to Ms. Ivers alone?" She smiled tightly as Stacy stood, whispering that she would be back to check on me in a five minutes to chase the stiff detective out of the room, we both hated when cops did this and Stacy was in protective best friend mode. She winked at me, shot the detective a mean stink eye and left the room, leaving the door open a crack.

When we were alone, the detective sat in the now vacant chair, pulling out notes and a few photographs from her binder. "I apologize for bothering you while you are still recovering, but the more information I can collect the faster I can close this case." She clicked her pen, "Can you start from the beginning? I know you told the boys yesterday everything you remembered, but if I could hear it again, it would help."

I scooted further up in the bed, already irritated by the lack of overall care most police detectives exhibited when they did hospital visits. Not really caring about the injured person on the bed, the physical and emotional pain they were in, just if they could offer up clues and statements to speed up the case.

I always hated it and would always keep the cops out of the rooms as long as I could. I motioned to the bottle of water Stacy left on my tray, "Can you hand me that?"

Detective Scarlett nodded, handing me the bottle then stared at me, waiting.

I blew out a breath, fidgeting with the bottle cap. "All I remember is going down to platform 3 at Federal Square to wait for the metro. There were two other people besides the group of men over by the bathroom." I furrowed my brow as my memory slowly replayed last night. "I did nothing to provoke the group. I stood next to a kid that looked like he was an intern." I paused trying to control my emotions that were begging me to cry as I shifted and felt pain in every inch of my body.