Royce (2 page)

“You started this, Officer York, and you’ll finish this. What do you need to find my badge information?” She knew then that she was going to lose her job. With a sigh of resignation she stepped back to the keyboard and, with trembling fingers, she started typing.

“Your name will do. Unless you know your employee number, either will do.” She looked at him when she had put in her password and could feel the heat of Mike’s anger rolling off him and onto her. “If it’s not in here, we can print one in no time and you can be on your way.”

He smiled again. “Of course. But let me spell it for you. Don’t want it wrong on the thing, do I? My first name is Royce.” She typed it in as he spelled it. “My last name is Hunter.”

Her fingers stilled on the keys. Well, of course he is.
Why not?
her mind screamed at her. Why wouldn’t she stop the owner of the building and make a scene about badging in? She watched as the name Hunter popped up on the screen in front of her. Jesse was there, as was another man named Daniel and yet another named Curtis. She was so fucked. But she knew that she had to finish this.

“No sir, there doesn’t seem to be a badge for you. If you’d like to go with Mr. White here, he can get your picture taken and—”

“You’ll do it, Officer York. I wouldn’t want anyone else at this point.” He handed his briefcase to his brother and told him to go on up. He’d be up shortly before he turned back to her. “Shall we?”

“I can’t.”

He raised a well-shaped brow at her.

“I mean, I don’t have the clearance to make badges. Mr. White will need to take it from here.” She moved back only to be stopped by his next command.

“You’ll come along then. You should really learn all aspects of this job, don’t you think?”

Yeah, she thought, it was going to do her a lot of good to know how to print a badge at the Hunter building while she was unemployed. She nodded and followed Mike. She wanted to burst into tears, but she’d learned a long time ago that tears got you nothing but a runny nose and a headache.

Mr. Hunter sat for his picture. Kasey thought she’d ask for a copy so that the next time she wanted to stop the owner of a company for a trivial thing, she’d pull out this man’s picture to remind herself of what not to do. She just wanted this over with and if the daggers that Mike was sending her were any indication, she’d be done here before the ink dried on the stupid badge.

But the badge printer wasn’t working for him. No matter how many times Mike tried to get it to work, it kept telling him he was putting the wrong information in. Kasey just watched him struggle.

Working nights gave her a lot of time to read and Kasey would read anything and everything. One night in a desperate attempt to stay awake when a murder mystery she’d already figured out didn’t help she’d read the manual on the badge making process, including the manual on the equipment. But she didn’t move forward to show Mike he was doing wrong. She just clenched and unclenched her fists until he gave up. He turned to Mr. Hunter.

“I can give you a temporary badge until the repair guy gets here later. Then when he’s fixed it, I’ll be able to print your badge, now that I have the picture, and bring it up to you to your office.”

Mr. Hunter was staring at her. She knew that he had figured out she could fix the machine, but for whatever reason he let it go. She was more grateful than she ever thought she’d been.

“All right. But have Officer York bring it up.” She looked up at him sharply when he said that. “I’ll be in meetings all day, but she can catch me between them.” He walked away without a backward glance.

Kasey looked over at Mike when the door to his office closed with a snap. She started to turn to leave, but he snarled at her. Before she could think about what he was doing, she was on the floor and her head felt as if it had exploded.

Chapter 2

Royce was sitting in his meeting with the department heads two hours later when Jesse opened the doors with a crash. Royce stood immediately and when Daniel came in too, Royce started for the door. Something had happened to their mother.

“Where is she?” he asked them as they headed to the elevator. His heart was pounding in his chest and he hoped to Christ that she was all right. “What happened?”

“She was in the bathroom when I left her. She’s beat up pretty bad. Christ.” Daniel leaned back against the wall as the elevator started down. “I didn’t go and check on her sooner so I didn’t get in there on time.”

Royce nearly dropped to the floor. “Someone…someone beat up Mom? What…she’s gone?”

Daniel straightened up and looked at him. “What are you talking about? I’m talking about that girl from this morning. She was beat up. Though I don’t know why anyone would tangle with her, but he did.”

The girl from… “The York girl? Someone beat her up? What happened?”

The elevator slid open onto the lobby. The place was quiet and the only people who looked out of place were them. The ambulance rolled to a stop in front of the building before he could ask again what had happened. Jesse led them to the back part of the first floor where the security offices were. Royce stepped into the room just as the medics began working on…a man? He looked at his brother.

“I thought you said
she
was beat up. I’m reasonably sure you know the difference between a male and female.” Royce looked back at the man from this morning as he whimpered on the floor. “Where is she if he looks like this? And where is the person who beat them up?”

Royce thought it a reasonable question. He was confused when Jesse starting laughing and Daniel flushed. Before he could ask again Mike White began howling like someone was trying to murder him.

“Quiet,” Royce snapped. The room did just that. “Now, who did this to you?”

“She did. She’s nothing but a fucking cunt. I didn’t do…you have no idea what it’s like to come to work every day afraid of your employees. She hit me. Hit me with a…she used a club. Yes, a club. I’m suing her for…oh, I’m in so much pain.”

Royce looked at his brother with a raised brow.

“Bathroom. She was bleeding pretty well before I left. I told her to sit still, but she had to throw up.”

Rubbing his fingers over his forehead, Royce went to the bathroom that Jesse had indicated. Royce knocked and waited. When he didn’t get an answer, he knocked harder and announced he was coming in.

The room was empty. He could see where someone, presumably the girl, had rinsed blood from somewhere in one of the sinks, but there was no one in here. He looked under the three stall doors before opening them and still, no girl. He came out of the bathroom and entered the men’s room just in case. No one was there either. He went to speak to Daniel and Jesse.

“She’s gone. Where could she have gone? Do we know if she had someone take her to the hospital?” Royce noticed that the officer that had been with her this morning was trying to move away. “Stop right there.”

“She left,” he said as soon as Royce was in front of him. “She probably went home, but she ain’t here. Poor girl. She won’t go to the hospital, so she’ll either be at her aunt’s by now or her own place, though that ain’t much of a place I’d want to be in if’n I was hurt.”

Royce didn’t know what that meant and was frankly too pissed to care. He took a deep breath and tried for patience. He had very little under normal circumstances and this was proving to push him very close to the end of his tether.

“Can you give me the address to both places? And have my car brought around.” Royce turned to Daniel. “Go with White and make sure he keeps his mouth shut until we can figure this out. Jesse, can you—”

“Her uncle needs to be told. He’ll wanna go with you if’n you go to his house.”

Royce turned to the guard who spoke behind him.

“Her uncle is Jay York. He’s the armament.”

Royce heard his brother move away. He hoped to get the girl’s uncle. Royce pulled out his cell phone as he stepped from the desk. He watched as the medics took a now quiet White out of the building with Daniel right next to him. The phone was answered on the second ring.

“Yes, sir.”

He smiled at the voice at the other end. The unflappable Mrs. Bobbie Noel had been his secretary for nearly as long as he’d been working.

“I need some information on one of the security guards. Address, phone number, if she’s been in trouble before. Her last name is York.”

“Kasey York?”

That shocked him. Both that she knew who the girl was and the tone of her voice.

“What’s happened? Her uncle? Or…oh God, not her mother, is it?”

“No, she’s apparently hurt and I’m trying to get to her to see how badly. I didn’t find out about it until just a few minutes ago.” He was suddenly very tired. “Her uncle works here. Do you know how long she’s worked for me?”

“Ten years.” She rattled off the address. Jesse was coming toward him with an older man who he assumed was the uncle. “Bobbie, I’ll let you know what I find out. Her uncle is coming now.”

His car pulled up out front just as he shook the man’s hand. They were headed out to the car when he realized that he had a meeting in progress. He thought about having one of his brothers go up and fix it, but decided maybe, if he didn’t return, they’d go back to their jobs. Probably not, but who knew?

~~~

Kasey didn’t think she was going to make it home. But when the big, ugly building came into view she nearly wept with joy. She hurt in places she’d only read about and some she didn’t even know a body could hurt in. She made it up the three flights of stairs barely and had to work to get her keys out of her pocket. When she managed to get them free she couldn’t make her fingers wrap around them to get the key into the lock at first, but finally got it to stick. She got the door open and was falling inside before she remembered to take the keys from the lock.

Fuck it
, she thought, as she stumbled toward the bed. If someone wanted to murder her, she’d welcome them to. She didn’t even care if they took their time. It wasn’t like they could make her suffer any more. But she turned to take them out anyway. She wasn’t really that stupid.

She cried out when she laid down. She didn’t know what she’d done, but something sharp was poking at her side and she was almost afraid to look. She had just closed her eyes when she heard someone pounding at the door.

“Go away,” she whispered, all that she could manage. “Please.” This time, when she closed her eyes, she knew she was slipping away in a void that she was sure she should be worried about. But by then it was too late.

When she opened her eyes again her uncle was there and he looked worried. She tried to assure him she was fine, but her body refused to cooperate. She closed her eyes again.

The room was bright, which threw her off. There were no windows in her apartment and she knew for a fact that she wasn’t in her room at her uncle’s place. She tried to roll over, but she felt weighed down and heavy. It took her several tries to get her eyes to pry open and then a bit more to make them focus. But it mattered little because she still had no idea where she was.

“Christ, girl, it’s about time. You scared me plum to death.” Her uncle came into her line of sight, but he was out of focus for a few seconds.

“Where?” she croaked. It was the best she could do with the towel stuffed down her throat and the elephant on her chest.

“St. Luke’s. You’ve been here ‘bout four days. Best we can tell, you got the record for being out. You done your family name proud.”

She wanted to smile, but it was just too exhausting. She heard her mom, but couldn’t keep her eyes open long enough to see her.

“Mom?” She heard some shifting then suddenly her mom was there. Tears formed, but she couldn’t tell if they fell or not.

“I’m here, baby. You’re going to be all right now. You rest and get better. Jay and I will be here with you.”

Kasey had a moment to wonder why her mom and uncle where in the bedroom with her, but she fuzzed out again. She was just drifting off when she remembered something, but it was there and gone so quickly she let it go. Besides, it hurt too much to try to chase it.

She knew that she drifted in and out a lot. She also knew that there were changes when she’d been out, that she noticed, but didn’t remark on. There were things she thought she’d imagined, others she knew she had.

Like the man, Mr. Hunter. He’d been in her bedroom too. That was just plain silly. What on earth would he even care…unless he was there to fire her? Maybe, she thought, but couldn’t remember why. Then she opened her eyes one day and knew she was in the hospital.

“Hello, Miss. York. I’m Abby, your nurse. Can I get you anything? If you’re in pain, I can give you something for that as well.”

Kasey tried to move, but it hurt too much so she looked around the room as well as she could just using her eyes and not turning her head. This place changed with every eye opening, she thought, as she took in the sofa and the big television. She looked back at Abby for answers.

“Where…where am I?” She almost dreaded the answer. If she was where she thought she was, she was in big trouble.

“St. Luke’s Hospital on Main. You need anything?”

Yes, answers
, she thought, but didn’t ask her. “I need AMA papers now.” She wasn’t sure how she expected to leave against medical advice, but she had to get out of here now.

“I don’t think… You won’t be able to leave, Miss York. You’re still hurt pretty badly.”

Well, no shit,
Kasey said to herself. She lifted her arm and blinked several times at the bruises and cuts on her arm. It took a full five seconds to remember what had happened and who had done this. She groaned when she remembered every detail. She looked over at the nurse who was still staring at her.

“Papers. Now. I don’t have any insurance and I certainly can’t afford this being unemployed.” That got her moving. Abby was out the door like a shot.

Kasey was still trying to figure out how to get the bed in an upright position when her door opened again. She turned to ask the nurse how to do it when she saw who was there.