Transcending Nirvana (Dark Evoke #3) (19 page)

Kady

I watched him from the window as he pulled off at lightning speed. The rage he felt easy for all to witness in the swift and hastiness of his driving.

I had no idea what to do. Should I tidy up? Should I leave everything as it is and call the police? My head was throbbing, my heart racing. How could such a great day be turned into complete and utter shit is beyond me. I finally decided on having a much needed drink, hoping that a dose of alcohol would ease the knot of trepidation and fear forming in the pit of my stomach, as my thoughts tethered to Walker’s departure, continued to make my body quake.

I was uncapping a bottle of Bud from the refrigerator when I heard a knock at the door. With haste, I made my way down the hallway and into the disorganized living room. Yet, my steps took on a degree of stealth I hadn’t known I was capable of, as I approached the apartment door.

“Kady, its Laurie.”

My shoulders drooped and a sigh was loud and potent even through the wooden barrier. As I unlatched the door and pulled it open, Laurie practically lunged at me with her arms spread.

“Thank God you’re okay,” I spoke into her hair, before loosening my arms from around her neck and pulling her further inside, closing the door behind her.

“Kady, it’s a fucking mess. Everything has been smashed: my TV, my glass carriage clock, mirrors. My couch has a huge gash along the backrest. Don’t get me started on the kitchen and my bedroom.” She took a moment to scan the area which we were standing in. Had it not been for the lack of possessions in Walker’s apartment, I knew it could have been much worse.

Offering the shaking, petite brunette something to calm her nerves, she nodded her head and murmured her thanks. By the time I uncapped a bottle and made my way back to her, she was squatting in the heart of the barren room where splinters of guitar wood lay in a pile.

“Here,” I handed her the drink. She rose and took it with thanks. “Laurie, I’m scared of what he’s going to do.”

“Liam?”

I couldn’t care less what happened to Liam. I’d order him dead if I could, at least that way I’d know where he was. “No. Walker.”

Taking a draw of her beer, she set it on the floor before approaching the mismatched chair, setting it on its legs in its rightful position. “Kady, you have no idea how badly he wanted to hurt Liam, knowing exactly what he was doing to you. He couldn’t hurt him or warn him off because it would’ve made things worse for you. He couldn’t go to the police because it would’ve been his words against yours and Liam’s. But right now, as of tonight”––she walked toward me and set her hands on my shoulders––“Shit just got personal.”

“I don’t understand.”

The small derisive snort which was ousted from her nose was met by the upturn of her lips. Her hazel eyes were the hardest I’d ever seen. “Intentionally or not, DeLaney has just signed his death sentence.”

Those words should have brought comfort. But comfort was the furthest thing I felt. My stomach knotted painfully while my heart clogged in my chest. As twisted as it may have sounded, Liam was the life source, Walker and I were merely vital organs attached to him. If anything happened to Liam, we wouldn’t survive.

Why not you ask?

Because one of two things would happen: Walker would be in jail or dead.

We cleaned up the majority of the apartment, placing the furniture the right way up and back into its rightful place, and brushed the shattered glass into the dustpan.

For the eighth time in forty-five minutes I looked out of the window, examining the night as the sound of sirens in the distance passed by at speed. Regardless of how hard I tried, shifting the mass of worry lining my stomach as I considered that each fleeting blare was intended for Walker, proved impossible. When I saw the truck pulling up outside, my heart stopped and my worry abated. I watched as Walker slammed the door shut, rounded the hood and rested against the passenger side door. He struck his lighter and lit the cigarette that was being held between his lips.

Needing nothing more than to get to him, I rushed from the window, dropping the dustpan on the coffee table as I passed. Laurie called my name once I reached the apartment door.

“He’s back,” I muttered from over my shoulder and ran down the stairs as quickly as my legs could manage. I just wanted to hold him in my arms, and the sheer desperation of that one simple gesture alone, had me admitting to my worst fear: I didn’t think I’d ever get the chance to again.

The sidewalk turned to quicksand, my hasty steps to get to my man, halted. I was standing immobile taking in the sight of him. With his head down, his focus aimed at the sidewalk, all I could see was his white shirt, disheveled and bloodied. I swallowed harshly and fought for breath when he lifted his head, his dark eyebrows rising and arched as he peeked up at me with his timid expression which never failed to make my heart swell.

I summoned every ounce of energy, and my steps toward him, were rushed once again. On instinct, my arms laced around his neck and tears I had been warding off for the last forty-five minutes, were freed into his collar.

“I thought…I thought…”

“Shush, it’s alright, darlin’. I’m here.”

I pulled away and with both hands framing his face, he blew the smoke out of his lips through a sideways gap. He was covered in blood. His right eyebrow had a gash through it, causing more blood to trickle down the side of his face, the same blood trails were made from his lip and nostril.

“What about all this blood? Are you––”

The cherry on the tip of the cigarette glowed in the night as he took another drag, his hand resting on my hip. “No need to worry, darlin’, it’s not my blood.”

I couldn’t believe that he was there with me and that he was okay. Tears of gratitude and love gushed down my cheeks as I threw myself into his arms again, sobbing, “I love you,” into his shirt.

“I love you, too. Can you do me a favor, Kady?” pulling back, I nodded for him to continue. “Can you go inside, get me a beer ready. I’ll be in in a minute; I just need to cool down.”

“Of course, please, hurry up.” I reached up onto my toes, and totally uncaring of the amount of blood staining his face and trickling from his lips, I pressed a kiss to his mouth, before turning around and seeing Laurie in the doorway. “You coming up?”

“In a minute,” she responded while I pushed my way through the doors, feeling safe knowing that he’s was back with me, and relatively unharmed.

Laurie

Six gradual steps felt like a mile. I crossed my arms over my chest in a bid to fend off the late night chill before I opened my mouth. “Are you okay?” I asked him during which he took the stick from his mouth and flicked the ash onto the sidewalk.

“I need you to do something for me, Laur. And I need you to keep it a secret otherwise it won’t work.”

More secrets? Don’t get me wrong, I loved Kady like a sister, but since I stepped into her life, all I seem to be doing is keeping secrets, whether it is for her or from her. Either way, my life seems to be one giant trunk filled with secrets nowadays. “Go on.”

When he peeked up at the black sky speckled with silver stars, I knew he was having trouble telling me whatever he was about to tell me. By then, I was standing toe-to-toe with him; crimson soaked his white shirt, causing the material to cling to his body.

“Walker, what is it? You’re scaring me.”

“I can’t take any risks in what could happen now. I need Kady safe––”

“Walker, regardless of if I said I’d go with her, that woman will
not
go anywhere without you, I can bet my life on that.”

His cigarette was an inch from his mouth as he muttered, “That’s why I need your help,” then his lips wrapped around the butt once again.

Threads of my hair weaved around my fingers as I fisted my hands through it in exasperation, freeing and equally exasperated sigh. “What do you––” The hardness in his eyes and firm-set of his profile had me halting any further words. I shook my head, “No, Walker you can’t––”

With one swift thrust from the side of the truck, he pushed himself straight and stepped into me. “I have no choice. I’d do that every day for the rest of my life if it means that I can keep her safe,”––the flick of his nails resounded through the darkness when he flicked the remnants of the cigarette in the opposite direction, and his smoky, bloodied hands were instantly framing my face––“Please, cousin. I can’t think of any other way.”

Kady

Walker was perched on the edge of the couch, his feet shoulder-width apart, his elbows on his knees.

Despite my relentless questions of what happened, he remained unusually silent for him. Laurie’s demeanor wasn’t much better than Walker’s either. She was silent, curling a lock of hair around her finger with a scowl cemented in place.

“I didn’t want to touch the guitar,” I murmured, my voice getting lost to the void in the room.

A hefty breath left the man on the couch beside me. I watched intently as he remained stock-still, studying the gathering of splintered wood and strings in the heart of the apartment.

From my position on the arm of the sofa, I leaned into Walker and rubbed his shoulder with a soothing quality. “We can buy another one––”

“It’s not that easy, darlin’.” Gradually, with a twist of his head, his attention was torn from the instrument to me. “It’s the memories it held.”

I wouldn’t argue with that. The pain and loss cast in his eyes from under hooded lids, was the most melancholic I had seen. From the arm of the seat, my body slipped down to meet the cushions below. Walker’s neck was circled by my arms as I held him close to me, offering a form of reassurance, letting him know that I could understand his loss without sounding patronizing.

“We need to get you cleaned up.” I went to lift my body from the seat once I pulled away. With his hand in mine, he shook his head. “What do you mean, ‘no’?”

“Things could have been worse, Kady. Please, I just want to hold you.” Smiling, I pressed my body into his, making us both to fall back into the couch. I didn’t care about the blood staining his shirt, I didn’t care about the smoke on his breath or the blood I tasted as I kissed him fiercely.

I didn’t care about anything, but us.

“You can stay here for a few nights okay, cuz. You’re not going home yet,” was the last thing I heard, other than Walker’s beating heart under my ear, as I drifted off into a disturbing sleep.

Four heavy, brutish thumps against the apartment door started me awake. Gasping for breath, my heart practically jumped out of my ribcage.

“Shush…it’s alright, darlin’.” Walker smiled, soothing me from the edge of the couch with his hand on my knee, a silver cloud of smoke bleeding from his lips in a weightless dance.

I had no idea what time it was, but it was still dark outside. Who the fuck would be calling at this hour?

The wooden legs of the brown chair groaned against the floorboards once Laurie lifted herself from the seat with a heavy outbreath. I saw her flash a questioning look at Walker as I shifted from my sleeping position. Elbows on his knees, his hands were overlapped, hanging between his thighs with another cigarette held between his fingers of his right hand. The tiny nod he gave almost went unnoticed.

When the door was pulled open, and a deep voiced asked for the occupant of the property, my brow crumpled and fear began to set in. It was when Laurie hung her head and moved aside, that my stomach roiled and heart rate spiked.

Two police officers made their way into the apartment. “Mr. Walker?”

“’Aye,” he nodded, taking another draw of the smoking stick between his fingers.

It was when the beefy officer made his way around the first one, retrieving handcuffs from his belt, and Walker reared up effortlessly with the stick hanging from his lips before outing it in the ashtray on the table, which caused the floor to crumble for the second time that night, at my feet.

“Gerald Walker, you are under arrest on the suspicion of assault…”

“
WHAT
?!” I shrieked, “No…no…no…” I fought to free myself of the sunken couch cushions and staggered to my feet when Walker turned around to face me, his hands behind his back as the officer put the cuffs into place.

“Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law…”

Tears streamed down my cheeks and I snaked my arms around his neck, holding him to me, fending off the officers who were putting the wrong man into cuffs. “No, Walker please. He didn’t do anything, please no…”

“Kady…it’s okay, darlin’,” he forced a smile, his eyes brimming with love. “It was worth it,” he mouthed.

“You have the right to consult an attorney before speaking to the police and to have an attorney present during questioning now or in the future. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you before any questioning, if you wish…”

Everything was crashing down around me. I remained holding onto him for as long as I could, kissing him desperately as though it was the last time.

“If you decide to answer any questions now, without an attorney present, you will still have the right to stop answering at any time until you talk to an attorney…”