Evil Red (2 page)

“More like all bod, no brains.”

“Just the way you like them.”

Valerie and Babette burst out laughing. No argument
there.

Babs smacked Valerie a second later. “Some guy’s
checking you out at nine o’clock.”

“Who?”

“Man in the blue bandana.”

Valerie took the straightforward approach and stared
directly at Mr. Nine O’Clock. He had cold eyes and dark scruff on
his face. She estimated his age at around thirty. Old men weren’t
Val’s thing. Plus the blue bandana tied around his forehead was far
from fashionable.

Valerie snorted. “What is he, in a gang?”

“I think he’s hot.”

“Then why don’t you flash him your tits?”

“Maybe I will.”

Todd returned with the drinks, setting Babette’s piña
colada in front of Valerie and the Red Bull by Babette. Babette’s
brows rose when she looked across the table at Valerie. Like Val
said, all bod, no brains. She switched the drinks.

Todd leaned against the table and tapped his foot to
the music.

Valerie drank her Red Bull down quick. She didn’t
like sitting for too long.

“Let’
s
dance.
”

“
We just got
here,
” Todd said.

“Well, I want to dance.”

“I’ll dance with you,”
Babette said.

Todd planted his lazy ass on one of the stools.
“
Cool, I
’ll hold our
table.”

Who cared about a table? They could always get
another one or, better yet, dance the night away.

“Stay if you want,”
Valerie said.
“But I need to move my body.”

Babette followed closely behind her. They started out
dancing side by side then proceeded to rub against each other.
Valerie would show Todd exactly what he was missing. When she
started grinding against her friend, Babette giggled.

“Oh, you’re bad.”

“I wish I was a lesbian,”
Valerie said.
“Women are way more
adventurous than guys.”

Babette stuck her chin out and flexed her arms. “If I
had a cock I’
d do
you.
”

“I know you would, Babs.”

They danced until Babette announced she needed to use
the little girl’
s
room.

Valerie tossed her hand in Todd’s direction. “Look at
him still sitting there on his ass. I bet he sits there all
night.”

Babette looked over her shoulder. “
You coming?
”

“I need a smoke.”

“Okay, see you back at the table?”

“Sure.”

Valerie strode over to Todd and grabbed her purse off
the stool.

“Where are you going?” Todd asked.

Valerie didn’t stop to answer, calling out, “smoke,”
as she turned on her heel and headed to the club’s entrance. As she
passed tables, she noticed Bandana Man staring at her like he’d
never taken his eyes off her since her arrival. Valerie glared at
him. Creep. There was definitely something wrong with an older man
hanging out in an under twenty-one club. She pushed past a group of
guys by the front entrance.

The warm night air felt good on Valerie’s clammy
skin. Val lit a cigarette, inhaling and exhaling steadily as she
stared at the surrounding buildings.

She had to tell a couple of guys to get lost when
they attempted to hit on her. Smoking in peace in front of the
club’s entrance was nearly impossible.

Valerie moved to the far corner and lit up a second
cigarette. Turning her back to the street, she looked down one
sidewalk and then the other. The walkway to her left was deserted.
From that angle the cityscape looked even more striking. Valerie
loved being around buildings the way naturalists loved being around
trees.

The weight of the Smith and Wesson tugging at the
bottom of her purse made her feel invincible. She stepped around
the corner, taking it all in as she finished her smoke.

There it was—her nicotine rush. Val felt ready to
dance another three hours.

Valerie tossed the cigarette. The remaining ashes
burst into little orange sparks when it hit the pavement. Time to
drag Todd off his ass. He was little use to her sitting on the
sidelines and chicks might get the wrong idea that Todd was
available.

Before she could turn and head back to the club,
someone came at her from behind, slamming into her back. Valerie’s
purse slipped off her arm and fell to the ground. She would have
stumbled forward, too, if rough hands hadn’t grabbed her face.

Her scream was cut off by an iron tight grip over her
mouth. She couldn’t open her mouth enough to bite him.

Valerie struggled to free herself, but her assailant
tightened his grip.

Her arms and legs were free so she stomped on his
feet and beat back at his shoulders, which were pressed and pinched
against hers.

Since she couldn’t scream out loud, Valerie screamed
inside her head, hollering every obscenity in the English
language.

No way was this mother fucker raping her. If only she
could reach her purse, retrieve the gun, and blow his face off.

She threw her body against his, hoping he’d stumble
back, but he held his ground, as solid and unmoving as the
buildings that boxed her in. Valerie continued stomping her foot
down until hitting her mark: the man’s shoe.

His body shifted, but his hand remained affixed over
her mouth.

Valerie pushed back against him, following the body
slam with a steady bout of thrashing. She threw her arms and legs
into her counter assault and felt the first glimmer of hope when
his grip on her loosened.

Techno music drifted around the corner like a scent,
one that led to safety in numbers.

Valerie was close to freeing herself from the man’s
grasp when she felt a sharp pain below her shoulder blade.
Something cold and sharp had been thrust inside her body. It felt
worse coming out than it did going in, as though the blade were
pulling against her skin tissue.

Even if she could have screamed, she would have been
too shocked to utter a sound. At least not during the first
stabbing. It was too surreal.

I’ve been stabbed, she thought. Stabbed! How was that
possible? This couldn’t be real.

He released her mouth for a moment when he stabbed
her under the opposite shoulder. This time, Valerie was ready to
scream bloody murder, but her attacker covered her mouth before she
had a chance to yell. Muffled screams broke through his tight
fingers.

It wasn’t until he stabbed her a third time in the
back that Valerie realized she might actually die.

Her attacker removed his hand from her mouth, but
only so he could use both hands to squeeze her neck.

The club’s music throbbed from the walls, where
Babette and Todd, hundreds of occupants, and bouncers were going
about their business on the other side of that dark exterior
barrier. So close. But not close enough.

The more she struggled, the quicker the air left her
lungs.

Her last thought was
I never got to be a movie
star.

FADE OUT.

FADE IN:

INT. ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE—DAY

Everything was hazy when Valerie came to.

Her lashes fluttered. Her eyelids fought to open.
When they did, a white blinding light forced them to shut and retry
several times before opening fully.

There were two possible scenarios here. Either
Valerie had survived the attack or she was in heaven. It was
nothing short of a miracle either way.

“There she is. Right on schedule. Thank you, doctor.
You can leave us now,” a male voice said.

The ceiling came into focus as Valerie blinked. So,
still alive. She was lying on her back in bed, not floating toward
the pearly white gates. God that had been a close call.

Heavy footsteps approached her side, bringing back
the panic Valerie had felt in her last conscious moments. She sat
up straight and screamed, “Get away from me!”

A bland man in his late twenties, wearing a loose
suit, stopped in place. He smiled slowly. “Welcome back, Valerie. I
am Agent Melcher and this is Agent Crist.” He glanced at a woman
with flat hair on the opposite side of the room. She also wore a
suit and was around the same age.

“You’re in the hospital,” the woman said
matter-of-factly. “You’re safe now.”

“What happened?”

The man took a step forward, stopping when Valerie
tensed.

He bobbed his clean-shaven face and held his arms
open, palms facing up.

“You were found bleeding to death on a sidewalk in
downtown L.A.,” the man said. “Your local hospital thought it was
too late to save you. Luckily one of our recruiters was in the
area, heard about your condition, and was able to alert us. I
ordered our nearest doctor to do everything he could for you. He
was able to stabilize you and get you to our facility in time.”

“Where am I?”

“Anchorage.”

Valerie’s eyes were wide open now. “Anchorage…
Alaska?”

“That’
s
correct.
”

“What the hell am I doing in Alaska?”

“We’ll go over that once you’ve had a chance to clean
up and get dressed,” the man said.

With her mind back on full alert, Valerie began
taking stock of her situation. A horrid hospital gown covered her
body from neck to knees. Her hair felt frizzy, her skin reptilian,
and her lips chapped.

A needle poked out of her arm. It was attached to a
long clear tube that connected to a blood bag on a metal post
beside her bed.

The woman in the horrible navy suit stepped over and
pulled the needle out of Valerie’s arm. Valerie flinched as the
metal tip came out of her skin. The woman removed a Band-Aid from
its wrapper and pressed it over the puncture mark.

“We have one of the unit’s best medical labs here,”
she said. “You’re very lucky.”

The man backed up toward the door. “We’ll leave you
to get dressed.”

He’d introduced himself and his partner, but Valerie
hadn’t paid attention to their names. The moment the door clicked
shut behind them, she flung the hospital bed sheets aside and
lifted her gown.

Besides being in desperate need of lotion and a
shave, everything up front looked good.

She got out of bed and went to a bathroom in the far
corner. Inside was a toilet, sink, mirror, and small square shower.
Valerie gathered her hair over her shoulder, untied the strings on
the back of the gown, and let it fall to the floor. Turning her
back to the mirror, she craned her head around to get a look. Red
streaks like thunder zigzagged beneath both shoulder blades and
from the third wound on her lower back.

Her heart tightened inside her chest. Valerie tried
to convince herself the stitches were the only reason the wounds
looked so ugly. Once they were removed, her skin would go back to
looking silky smooth.

So why did it feel like Valerie’s heart was being
crushed inside her chest?

She threw her hair back suddenly, hiding her shoulder
blades with her long waves of red hair. There, that covered two of
the wounds.

Valerie had never been a weeper, but that didn’t mean
she felt any less bereft at the scars her body would bear for
life.

That asshole had left a lifelong reminder of what
he’d done to her. His attack was etched in her skin. Not only were
her once perfect features blemished, but Valerie had the telltale
signs of a victim.

The chances were slim to none that she’d ever
encounter her attacker again, but if she did, she’
d kill him. She
’d kill him in a
heartbeat and never think twice.

CUT TO:

Before showering, Valerie searched the room for her
purse. All she could find was a pair of blue jeans, a white
T-shirt, and tennis shoes stacked on the countertop. There wasn’t a
phone to be found inside the room.

Once showered and dressed, Valerie stepped into a
hallway despite feeling naked without her makeup. She expected to
see nurses and doctors with clipboards rushing along the corridor,
but the hall was relatively empty and the people she did see were
dressed in camouflage.

A woman with plain facial features and dull brown
hair pulled into a bun stood up from behind a desk. She walked
over, stopping three feet in front of Valerie.

“Miss Williams, I will escort you to Agent Melcher’s
office.”

Agent Melcher, Valerie repeated in her head. The man
in charge. The man who needed to explain what she was doing in
Alaska.

Valerie walked beside Plain Jane as the woman tromped
down the hall in beige boots as ugly as the rest of her military
garb. They turned a corner, walked down a hall and reached a door
that required the use of a keycard.

A set of desks appeared behind a bigger counter in
the open area beside this next corridor. A second Plain Jane
nodded. She picked up a phone and said, “Miss Williams is here.
Yes, sir.”

After setting the phone down, she looked at Valerie
and said, “You may go inside.”

Valerie gave the phone a longing look. Babette had to
be freaking out, wondering what happened to her.

Plain Jane number two walked her up to a door then
pivoted, retracing her steps back down the hall.

Well, no sense sitting on ceremony. Valerie wrapped
her fingers around the door handle and let herself in.

Agent Melcher and the woman from earlier stood in a
corner whispering. The moment they saw Valerie, they broke apart
and went to their separate desks.

“Hello, Valerie,”
Agent Melcher said.
“Please close the door behind
you.”

Valerie grumbled under her breath and closed the
door. Why did this feel like a trip to the principal’s office? She
folded her arms across her chest.

“Mind telling me what I’m doing here now?”

“Have a seat,”
Agent Melcher said.