Rock Chick 07 Regret (4 page)

I had no idea how I got there, maybe a mixture of luck and adrenalin.

I had no idea why I even
went
there except it was close to my apartment. Not to mention, I was together enough to know I couldn’t go to the police. Also not to mention, it was in my mind since I’d been there that very afternoon.

But really, who cared? I was there. It was as good a place as any.

My car was a mess, I’d hit a couple of things on the way, I didn’t know what. I felt the bumps, heard the crunching and scrapes but I just kept going.

I didn’t park. I stopped on a screech of tires when I saw the door leading to the stairs. I couldn’t wait for the elevator, Ricky could be right behind me not to mention, I wasn’t sure I could stand.

I threw open my car door and just that took a lot out of me. So much that when I tried to get out, I fell forward on all fours (or all threes, as that was all the extremities I had working for me at that moment) to the concrete floor.

This took a lot out of me too. So much that I threw up right there. I couldn’t see much, the sweat and blood were stinging my swelling eyes but I could see there was blood mixed with the bile on the pavement. I could also see my manicure was ruined which pretty much stunk but at that moment it was the least of my worries.

I pulled myself up using the car door and my one good hand. My other hand and arm were useless to me. Actually, my body was pretty useless considering that every inch of it screamed out in pain but I tried to ignore that. I wasn’t really certain that continuing to breathe was a good goal but my body for some reason wasn’t letting me give up.

I got to my feet and lurched forward.

I was in my nightgown or what was left of it. I knew I had no underwear on. I had no idea if the remains of my nightgown were covering me, if I was decent.

I’d deal with that new humiliation later (if I got the chance).

I staggered to the door with the stenciled sign that read “STAIRS”. It took me two tries but I got it open and I pushed myself through.

* * * * *

Jack

Jack Tatum stared at the screens in the Nightingale Investigations surveillance room.

Jack took night duty four or five times a week. The men thought he was crazy but he liked it.

Since he was a kid, he had a weird sleeping pattern. It drove his Mom nuts. He slept in the late afternoon and evening, was up all night and morning. His Mom couldn’t break him of it, the doctors couldn’t, no one could.

Throughout his adulthood, to fit his life around it, he’d taken a number of night jobs (mostly security) but they sucked. This job was the perfect fit.

It was boring a lot of time but when it wasn’t boring, it was
really
not boring.

Jack liked the anticipation, he fed off it. Because when something happened, he had to be on his game.

Days, weeks, months of nothing happening could weaken most men’s instincts.

But Jack was born to be sharp and alert at three o’clock in the morning. If something happened, he’d never let the team down.

That was why, when he saw on the monitors the
Merc
screeching to a halt in the garage, Jack was ready.

He reached out to the phone, hit the speaker button then number two and listened to it ring.

Luke and Hector had called in five minutes ago saying they’d be back in five. The car phone in their Ford Explorer was number two on speed dial.

Then Jack watched the woman fall out of the car. Her head fell down like she couldn’t hold it up. One arm was dangling uselessly on the ground. She was wearing a silky, lacy nightgown but it was ripped and torn.

He was rising out of his chair when he heard Luke’s voice answer the phone.

“Stark.”

“Fuck,” Jack swore.

“Jack?”

“Get here, now. There’s a woman –” Jack stopped as he watched her pull herself up using the car door.

For a second, he froze. She had clearly been beaten badly and was covered in blood.

“Jack. Status,” Luke barked into the phone.

“Call an ambulance. I’m leaving the room,” Jack responded.

“Jack –” Stark said but Jack didn’t reply, he didn’t even disconnect, he was gone.

* * * * *

Sadie

I made it up three stairs then fell. My bloody hand slipped on the stair and I couldn’t break my fall so I banged my head.

It hurt.

Since I hurt, like, loads, like,
everywhere
, I thought that was a good time to give up.

So Ricky found me. So he finished what he started. I’d be unconscious during the rest of it then I’d be dead.

Dead seemed a good option at that point. It meant no more pain and that was good. I was hoping for doves and angels and fluffy clouds but I’d take there being no more pain.

I heard footsteps and panicked.

Ricky.

Maybe I wasn’t ready for Ricky to find me just in case I didn’t go unconscious which didn’t, unfortunately, seem to be happening for me.

I pulled myself up to try and escape, lost my footing and I threw my arm out. Luckily, it caught on the handrail. My arm slid around it, holding on, my torso fell over because I couldn’t hold it up, my head hung down because I couldn’t hold that up either.

The rapid footsteps stopped and I felt hands on me.

“
No!
” I screamed and jerked away from the hands.

“It’s okay. It’s okay. You’re okay.”

The voice was a man’s, not Ricky’s. I couldn’t see him, I couldn’t hold my head up but he scared me all the same.

The hands came back.

“
No!
” I screamed again, leaned over and hanging onto the handrail like my life depended on it (which, in that instant, I had convinced myself it did) and pressing myself against the wall. “Don’t touch me. Don’t –”

“You’re safe. An ambulance is coming,” the man said, his hands gentle and trying to pull me away from the handrail.

“No. No ambulance. Nothing. Go away. Just leave me here.”

I wasn’t making any sense and I didn’t care. I just wanted to be alone. I’d been alone my whole life, alone
and
lonely. It was a place I understood. It was a place I could be safe.

I heard a door open and I tensed.

“Fuck,” another man’s voice said as the strength in my arm at the handrail gave out. I let go and slid down, my knees banged against a concrete stair right before my face smashed into another one. My useless arm again didn’t break my fall.

That hurt too.

I didn’t try to get up. I had nothing left in me.

“Pull the Explorer around,” I heard a new voice say right before I was turned gently then lifted.

“Hector –” another voice said.

“
Do it!
” This was sharp and loud but I didn’t have the energy to wince.

I was being moved quickly, being held against something immensely warm.

“Sadie, you with me?” I heard a weirdly familiar voice say.

“I think so,” I answered.

“Stay with me,” the weirdly familiar voice ordered.

“I’ll try,” I replied but felt myself slipping away.

Before the darkness could overwhelm me, I was jostled, the pain shot through me with renewed vigor, my eyes opened and I made a low, feral noise filled with agony that sounded scary, even to my own ears.

Then I could swear I saw Hector, he was contorting, going in and out of focus.

Then I was settled in his lap but I felt his arm slide up my back and his hand positioned my head on his shoulder, my face in his neck. It was then I closed my eyes again.

“
Mamita
, staying with me means talking to me.” Now I was thinking it was Hector who was the weirdly familiar voice.

Now, how bizarre was
that?

We were still moving but not like before, it was smoother and it hurt a whole lot less.

“I need to go to sleep,” I told him.

“Hang on for awhile, don’t go to sleep.”

“I think, if I go to sleep, it’ll stop hurting. I need it to stop hurting.”

After I said that, it felt like the knuckles of a hand came to my cheek, they rested
there
lightly for a second. Then it felt like fingers were sifting gently through the hair at the side of my head, pulling it way from my face.

Now that was even more bizarre because it felt nice, nice and sweet and lovely even though everywhere else there was pain.

“I know,
mamita
, but you need to stay awake.”

“Why can’t I sleep?” I asked.

“Because when you go to sleep, I want you to be somewhere with doctors so we can make sure you wake up,” Hector told me.

I shook my head in his neck. “That’s okay.”

“What’s okay?”

“It’s okay if I don’t wake up.”

“Sadie, don’t say that.”

I snuggled closer to his heat and felt fuzzier. It wasn’t a bad fuzzier but a good fuzzier.

There was an edging sense of peace sliding over me and I wanted it. Peace was good. Peace was
great
. I liked peace. Who didn’t like peace?

“No really,” I whispered, letting the sweet, peaceful feeling steal over me. “It only matters if there’s someone to care if you don’t wake up. It’s okay if I don’t wake up because there’s no one to care.”

After I said that, with tremendous gratitude, I welcomed the peace.

* * * * *

Lee

Lee held the phone to his ear, listening to it ring but kept his eyes on Hector and Luke.

“Yeah?” he heard Eddie say in his ear.

Eddie Chavez was Lee Nightingale’s best friend. He was Hector’s brother. Lastly, he was a cop.

“I’m at Denver Health. Hector and Luke just brought in Sadie Townsend,” Lee told Eddie.

“Fuck. What happened?” Eddie asked and Lee could tell by his voice that Eddie was up and on the move.

“Don’t know. Jack called me in. She drove into the parking garage under the offices. Jack showed me her tape. He recorded her driving into the garage and getting out of her car. Maybe five minutes he got before he left the surveillance room to get to her so he didn’t switch to the camera on the stairs. She was in bad shape, covered in blood.”

“Luke and Hector brought her in?”

“Luke says Hector wouldn’t wait for an ambulance.”

They both knew what that meant. They also both knew what Sadie meant. They’d been through this a number of times before.

So far they’d been lucky but luck had a way of running out. It had, in the past, gotten pretty fucking ugly.

But never this ugly.

“I’ll be there in ten,” Eddie said.

Lee moved several steps away from Luke and Hector.

“Something else,” he said to Eddie.

Silence then, “Shit.”

“Jack says she was in her nightgown and wasn’t wearing any underwear. She was bleeding between her legs.”

More silence then some cursing in Spanish then, “You called the boys?”

“Jack’s on it.”

“You better call Shirleen, there’s the chance Vance, Mace and
Luke’ll
lose it too.”

Lee thought there was a chance, if this woman meant what Lee thought she meant to Hector, that Eddie might lose it too.

“Jack’s on it,” was all Lee said.

“You got any idea who did it to her?”

Lee closed his eyes and clenched his jaw. It took an effort but he got control.