Dirty Devil (82 Street Vandals Book 4), page 26
They sent me to the white static because I slapped the doctor’s hand. But Freddie told me it would be fine. “Course, we’re not waiting anymore.”
“We’re not?” It was almost time for him to go back to his room. He’d brought a book with him and we’d been taking turns reading it. I had no idea what it was about, but listening to him soothed me.
“No,” he said. “I think Bodhi will help us and I have a couple of ideas. So tonight, when I get here—we’re going to go.”
I wanted to believe him so badly.
“I know, Boo-Boo. Should have done it two days ago, but you were still—”
Out of it. I was better now. I nodded.
“Today,” he said as he scooted off the bed so I could lay down. He reached for the first strap and his expression darkened. “Today, do everything you can to not have them drug you. Pills only.”
Yeah, the pills I could gag up sometimes. The shots—I couldn’t do anything about those. I swallowed as he secured my ankles first, before he came up to wrap the strap around my arms.
“The last time was cause I hit the doctor.”
Freddie scowled. “Do you have to see him today?”
I lifted my shoulders. No one told me my schedule. I didn’t even know how long I’d been here. Time had kind of lost all meaning.
“Why did you hit him?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “I won’t hit him today.”
The fierceness of his frown intensified. “Boo-Boo, I don’t care if you hit him. If he deserves it, you lay his ass out.”
“But you can’t get out of here if I’m drugged.” Because clearly, he wouldn’t leave me.
“We’ll make it,” he promised, then pressed a kiss to my forehead. “We’ll make it. Tonight.”
I nodded and then he was just gone and I was strapped back to the bed.
I hated this place.
When Janice took me to the doctor’s office instead of group, my heart sank. The doctor waited for me, dismissing Janice and waving me in to sit down.
“How are we feeling today?”
I just had to play along. Then Freddie and I could leave. “I’m fine.”
“Good,” he said as he waved me into a chair. Instead of sitting down across from me, he circled behind me. That was enough to make my stomach plummet, but when he put his hands on my shoulders I went cold. “Glad to hear it. You know we’ve been worried about you.”
With hard fingers he began to squeeze and massage the muscles. My spine went rigid and I had to fight to keep from yanking away. “So you said.” When he rubbed toward my neck, I flinched.
“Sore?”
What would I be sore from? It seemed like forever since I danced. My arms were achy. The scars on them ugly as hell. A reminder of what happened at—no, just focus on here. I told myself that over and over. Focus on here and on getting out of here. “Not sore. This is uncomfortable.”
“What is? Your neck?”
“You touching me.”
He stilled, but he didn’t take his hands away. “Withdrawing from contact, alienating family and friends, even resorting to physical violence—these are all symptoms.”
That sounded familiar.
“I know you’ve been struggling, that’s why you’re here.” He started his massage again. The ice under my skin began to spread like a wild frost. “The kidnapping has left you traumatized and we need to reacclimatize you to—”
I had no idea what the rest of that sentence was because he slid his hand toward my chest from my shoulder. I gripped two of his fingers, and twisted until they popped. Grabbing the first thing in reach with my free hand, I struck back at him with the stapler. He swore, stumbling back, but his grip on me pulled me with him and the chair went over. I twisted and struck him with the stapler again. It flipped open and the end snapped against his face.
Blood sprayed from his nostril.
His fingers dug into my arm, but I just grabbed the stapler with my free hand and bashed it down on his head. Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Four.
I lost count. But he let me go.
His fingers unlocked and his hand fell away.
I was half sitting on his chest and my hand was soaking wet. The world was a blurring, whirring mess. Then I looked down at the doctor. There were little metal staples in his face. What parts of his face I could make out.
His mouth was open, but his chest didn’t move. Scrabbling backward, I bounced against the wall and stared down at him.
Doctor Skate-Boarder didn’t move.
The blood on his face matched the blood on my hands and on my shirt.
And the wall.
I’d killed him.
Stapler.
I’d killed him with a stapler.
Had Bodhi ever used one before?
What the hell did I do?
The doorknob rattled and began to turn.
Too late.
CHAPTER 29
EMERSYN
The stapler still dangled from my hand when the door pushed inward. Nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run. I tightened my fingers on it, ready to strike the next person if I had to. No more.
Just no damn more.
Bodhi stuck his head inside and glanced around. First at the doctor, more curious than anything, then he looked at me. What—what was he doing here?
“Hey, Pretty Pussy Girl,” he said, slipping all the way in and closing the door behind him. “Didn’t know you’d be here.”
“I didn’t know I’d be here,” I said slowly. “Why are you—wait, how are you here?” Wasn’t he a patient too?
He held up a white electronic badge. “Have key, will travel.” Crossing the room, he paused to stare at the doctor. “Messy.”
“He’s dead.” Pretty sure he could see that.
“Yeah?”
“I think so.” I mean, he hadn’t been breathing. Bodhi crouched down for a sec, then gripped the man’s head. He twisted it viciously. The sickening crack echoed through the room and I would have covered my mouth with my hand, except they were both red and speckled.
“Definitely dead now,” Bodhi offered. “You should go use his bathroom and clean up.”
I had blood on my shirt and on the stapler. I went to put it down, then hesitated. It was slick with blood. My stomach rolled. The blood wasn’t just on my hands or the stapler. It was on my top and my pajamas.
“It’s that way,” Bodhi offered as he walked around the doctor’s desk. He motioned toward the other corner where a door stood open. I hadn’t even noticed it. Then again, I didn’t like being in this room.
Hands trembling, I headed for the bathroom and I took the stapler with me. Once inside, I couldn’t believe my state. The blood speckled my face, soaked my shirt and coated my hands. I didn’t know whether to sob or scream. The trembling in my hands spread everywhere.
“Use soap,” Bodhi called. “Cold water would be good too.”
The words jarred me and I stared down at the bloodied mess on the stapler then the sink. “I can’t touch anything.”
A minute later he popped in and I jerked as he twisted on the water. It was also when I realized he had on gloves. I lifted my gaze from his hands to the mirror, where I found him staring at me. “Stapler?”
I nodded slowly.
“Cool.”
Then he left me to “wash.” Even if I could get all the blood off the stapler and my hands. There was still my shirt. And my face. A shudder went through me and the tremors grew more violent even with the cold water. The blood smeared on my cheeks and wouldn’t come off until I grabbed the high thread count cloth towel.
“I can’t clean this all off.”
Bodhi came back and stared at me. “Okay.”
That was it before he turned and left.
Just—okay?
What…
I looked back at the body on the floor and the air in my lungs backed up. There was a phone on the desk. I was alone. Alone for real and not strapped down somewhere for the first time since I’d gotten on my uncle’s plane.
My uncle.
A vise squeezed all of the air out of my lungs. I couldn’t get a breath. Then the door opened again and I probably would have screamed if I could have sucked in even a drop of oxygen. Bodhi was back and he had Freddie with him.
Knees buckling, I tried to brace myself up with a shoulder against the door jamb. “Holy shit, Boo-Boo,” Freddie said in a hushed whisper as he hurried over to me. He didn’t even look at the doctor. “Fuck me. What happened?”
A dozen explanations collided in my head, but when I opened my mouth, the only words that came out were, “He touched me.”
Both of them paused. Bodhi, from where he stood back at the desk, and Freddie, from where he stood in front of me, and they glared down at him.
“He’s dead?” Freddie checked.
“Definitely dead,” Bodhi confirmed. “We can do it again, though. Maybe cut the head off. I did that once. It’s messy. But not as messy since he’s already dead. Shouldn’t gush too bad.”
I grimaced at that description. Yeah, I didn't want to see that. But I couldn’t find an ounce of remorse inside of me for it. “I killed him.”
“Well,” Bodhi said before Freddie could respond. “Maybe. You weren’t sure. I definitely killed him.”
Oh.
But…
“It doesn’t matter right now, Boo-Boo. Are you hurt?” Freddie studied me. “Is any of that blood yours?”
I shook my head.
“Good.” He stripped his shirt off and I blinked. There were two of them. Why did he have two shirts on? “Bodhi, give me your pants.”
“No,” Bodhi said, then pointed at the second chair the doctor usually sat in. “I brought another pair.”
“Smart.”
“I thought so.”
Rolling his eyes, Freddie grinned at me. “Okay, Boo-Boo, don’t take this the wrong way, but you need to strip so we can clean you up and put you in fresh clothes.”
“Okay.”
Mouth open, Freddie hesitated then glanced behind him at Bodhi then back at me. “You know what, Boo-Boo. Back into the bathroom a little more and let’s get that off all careful like. I can help, or not. What do you want?”
I wanted his blood off of me.
“I want to go home.”
Head tilted, he studied. “Home—home or…”
“The clubhouse. Liam’s. Home.”
The corners of his mouth curved. “Good. That’s where you belong. Okay. Let’s get you changed.”
Once I got out of the top, I spotted all the blood on my chest. It had soaked through. I didn’t have on a bra, but I didn’t care about that as much. Freddie didn’t even so much as playfully leer at me or comment while he bagged up the clothes in the plastic liner he’d taken out of the trash can. Once I changed pants, we realized the shoes had to go too. They were slippers.
“It’s time,” Bodhi said. The floor was cold under my feet, but I didn’t care. Freddie frowned, then looked back.
“Yeah, we need to go. We’ll get you shoes out there.”
Out where?
Bodhi was already out the door and going when Freddie clasped my hand. “Stay with me, okay, Boo-Boo? No running off. Trust me.”
I did, but the earlier shaking was back. Before he could pull me out of the bathroom, I grabbed the stapler. I didn’t want to leave it there. “I promise.”
Shooting me another small smile, Freddie headed for the door. We were in the doctor’s office. The doctor was dead—how were we—an alarm started ringing out in the hall. Its shrill scream punched through my skull at an unrelenting cadence and painful decibel.
As soon as it went off, Freddie moved faster, pulling me with him. I had to take two steps for every single one of his. There were flashing lights along the corridors. I had no idea where we were going, but I didn’t ask. Instead of going out, we went down a flight of stairs and then along a hallway. Where were the people?
The alarm changed, growing more intense. Then Freddie opened a set of doors I didn’t recognize. This part of Pinetree wasn’t nice at all. It looked like a prison. Even the doors looked like cells. They were open too. All of them.
“Freddie—”
“Hang on, Boo-Boo, almost there.”
Where were all the people?
At the end of the corridor, he hit the crash bar on the door and another set of alarms went off. I could barely hear anything beyond the cacophony. The fresh air slapped me in the face as soon as we were outside. There was a driveway there, circling a couple of dumpsters tucked into a bricked cubby. The light actually hurt my eyes. It was so bright.
The sun blinded me and I squinted and tried to stay close to Freddie. We didn’t head up the driveway, instead, he headed for the grass and the woods. It was soft against my feet, but I didn’t care if it was rough or cold. I just wanted to go.
I glanced back to see the bellows of huge black smoke escaping one side of the building. There were people everywhere—out front. But it was pure chaos. Orderlies. Nurses. Patients. More smoke, and I tripped.
Freddie kept me from falling and I twisted to face front, but a movement behind us made me jerk back.
“What—” Freddie started to ask, but I pulled the stapler up like I could throw it at the huge orderly charging us. “Stay behind me,” was all Freddie said before he went for the big man. The guy was huge, he could hurt Freddie. The plastic bag was at my feet, where Freddie dropped it and there was silver in Freddie’s hand. The sun glinted off it.
The big man barely said anything as Freddie cut him. He never stopped moving and the guy never touched him. Little rips of blood began to soak through his white shirt, and pants. One minute he was on his feet and the next he staggered to his knees. Then he had both hands on his throat, but blood rushed through his clenched fingers.
Freddie retreated from him and then he shot the guy the finger. “Fuck you very much, Ox. Good riddance and good night.”
The man crumpled and then Freddie faced me. His grin demanded I smile, and I couldn’t help it. Even the gleam in his eyes was happier. The buzz under my skin and the static in my head couldn’t compete with it, especially after the deafening cacophony. Despite the shakes still gripping me, I took Freddie’s offered hand as he snagged the bag with my bloodied clothes.
Then we were off again.
Behind, there was the sound of an explosion, shattering glass, and screams. The smell of smoke clung to the air, but Freddie kept us moving. I fought to stay on my feet, despite stumbling over what amounted to air. It was like my limbs were too heavy to be graceful.
Freddie only slowed when we got to the huge brick wall. It was at least eight feet high. Not a problem. I could climb that normally. The sound of leaves crunching behind us, had us both turning. Bodhi was there, with another guy who wore—was that a straight jacket? Only it was all loosened up.
Grinning, he passed Freddie a bag. “This was fun,” he said. “Definitely invite me to the next party.”
“Thanks man,” Freddie told him.
The other two didn’t even slow down as they climbed over the wall. We waited a minute, then Freddie hoisted himself up and I had to pass him my stapler before I scrambled up after him. At the top of the wall, I looked back one more time.
Pinetree was burning. The smell carried. More glass shattered in the distance and there was another boom.
“Come on, Boo-Boo,” Freddie said and I looked down. He was already on the ground and when I pushed off, he caught me. Hand in hand, we ran. There were more woods. I was panting when he finally slowed down. We were right at the edge of the woods and there was a road below us when he urged me to stop.
I leaned against a tree while he rooted through the bag Bodhi gave him. The sound of sirens carried on the wind. When he pulled out a phone, I nearly sagged with relief.
“Come on,” Freddie murmured as he powered it up. When the company logo appeared on the screen, I sagged. “Told you we had this.” Then he pressed a button and put it to his ear.
Whoever he called must have answered on the first ring. “I got her and we’re out.” After hitting the speaker button, he held the phone out toward me. “Say hi, Boo-Boo.”
“Hi,” I said and it came out really shaky.
“Goddammit, Hellspawn, if it wasn’t so good to hear your voice I might threaten to beat your ass when I see you. Where the fuck are you two?”
I hit my knees at the sound of Liam’s voice. A crazy little laugh bubbled up out of me. I was so happy to hear him, I just might let him.
“We’re—at—mile marker twelve,” Freddie said. “On that winding fucking road we took.”
“We’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Five,” Rome said and tears burned in my eyes.
“Right, Rome’s driving,” Liam said. “We’ll be there soon, Hellspawn. And Freddie?”
“Yeah, Big Bro?” Freddie just grinned.
“You did good.”
“I know, I’m awesome.” He was still grinning when he hung up.
Sitting back against the tree, I stared up at the blue sky. Puffs of black smoke streaked across it. There were still sirens in the distance. The sun was shining, the air was warm but the breeze was cool. Freddie sank down to sit in the grass right next to me.
“We’re going home, Boo-Boo.”
Home.
CHAPTER 30
EMERSYN
An eternity passed between the phone call and when the sound of a motor approaching had Freddie waving me back behind the tree. Granted, we were near the road, but not on it. The heavily wooded area afforded us shelter from sight. Freddie didn’t duck back with me, though, he stood up.
Exhaustion swarmed me the longer we sat still. The trembling came back to my hands and despite the sunshine peeking through the trees, it seemed to get colder. The stapler still firmly in my grip, I stared at it for a moment before putting it down next to me. Knees to my chest, I wrapped my arms around my legs.
A car door slammed, but only one. The motor continued to idle. It all seemed so loud. Freddie whistled, two short, sharp notes.
