“Here. Take some cupcakes for the road.” I thrust out a container full of my mom’s famous cupcakes at Hendrix with a sweet smile on my face. Even if I’d started to kind of, sort of enjoy the guy’s company, it didn’t mean I wasn’t still doing my best to get him comfortable with me so I could get away.
It was late and his shift was over. I’d spent the day in and out of my room. When I was out, he stayed with me in the kitchen while I worked, constantly reminding me how attractive he was with his mere presence. We talked a little more about our lives, but we didn’t get deeper than the surface. What was scary is that I could imagine myself talking to him more. Real conversations, too.
“Thanks, Darby. Do you want to meet the night shift guy?”
Not at all. “Sure. Maybe he’d like some cupcakes, too.”
Just as I was about to step outside and meet him, I heard my phone ringing. It was late and I had a gut feeling that it was about my case. “Actually, I’d better get that. Why don’t you take one out to him?”
I hurried to my room, not waiting for his response. I pushed the door shut and then answered my phone. “Hello?”
“Darby… I need your help.” It was Tabatha and she sounded like she was speaking through massively swollen lips.
“What is it?”
“I need someplace else to stay. I need you to find me someplace safe.”
I looked around my room and spotted my tennis shoes. “Are you okay?”
“No. Ricky found out that I was trying to talk. He got to me. I’m hiding at a friend’s house, but I know he’s going to find me. I’ll tell you everything you need to know. Just come and get me.”
“Give me the address, Tabatha.” I shoved my feet into my shoes and grabbed a pen to jot down the address. After she’d given it to me, I shoved my pillows in my bed to make it look like I was sleeping there and then turned off the light. “I’m on my way. Just stay calm. I’m going to get you, Tabatha. We’ll find somewhere safe for you until Ricky is rotting in jail.”
She mumbled a few more words and then the line disconnected. Worry urged me forward. I slid the window up and looked around to make sure the night guard wasn’t on that side of the house. When I saw it was clear, I slipped out and then hurried to my neighbor’s yard. Without much difficulty, I disappeared into the night.
I jogged some of the way and then called a car service to get me to Tabatha. Her friend’s house was in a rundown part of town, outside of the city. My driver didn’t want to leave her Lexus sitting there for longer than necessary, but I promised her a huge tip to sit at the curb and wait for me to collect Tabatha. I had no clue what I was going to do with her, but I knew I couldn’t abandon her.
The front door was ajar when I got there. It swung open when I touched it and an awful smell wafted out to me. I clasped my hand over my nose and mouth and stepped inside. As soon as I did, I heard my driver speed away. “What an asshole.”
The smell got worse the farther into the house I went. I guessed from the broken glass crunching under foot and the darkness of the house that someone had smashed the bulbs. I knew I should leave, but I had to find Tabatha.
“Get her body the fuck out of here. I want to wrap it up nicely and send it to that little bitch writer.” Ricky’s voice tore through the apartment and I nearly screamed.
A hand locked over my mouth, though, and I was jerked back into a hard chest. The smell of chocolate washed over me and then soft lips pressed into my ear. “Do not make another sound.”
Hendrix. I was equally terrified and relieved to have him there with me. I knew I was busted, but I also knew I wasn’t going to die. He’d protect me from Ricky.
“I’m going to teach that stupid bitch a lesson. She thinks these whores have it bad… Just wait and see what we do to her. I’ve got too much shit hanging in the balance right now to have to keep worrying about some fucking nerd trying to get my girls to talk.”
Hendrix held me tighter and slowly moved us farther into the shadows. His body was rock hard behind mine, but it wasn’t the time to get sentimental about things.
“You got her?”
Another voice joined Ricky. “Which part of her? You sure did a number on her, boss.”
“Yeah, well, I knew she was the little ringleader. Pam told me everything. Said Tabatha was just waiting for the right time to spill her guts. Well, I made it the right time.”
The image seared its way onto my brain and I sagged against Hendrix. Ricky never gently killed anyone. A simple gunshot wound to the back of the head was too easy for him. He was more of a beat-you-to-death kind of guy. Or, apparently, a cut you in half with a kitchen knife kind of guy.
Hendrix hooked his other arm around my waist and locked it there. His grip was so tight that the bones in his wrist felt like they were digging into my hip, but I welcomed the distraction.
The sounds that followed were enough to make me want to vomit. The men took forever, during which they described, in detail, what they were going to do to me when they caught me. It wasn’t pretty and the longer they went on, the more Hendrix vibrated behind me. His grip was punishing and even his hand over my mouth started hurting. I was too afraid to tell him, though. I didn’t want Ricky to find me.
When they finally left, Hendrix still held me against him for another little while. Time stretched on in the darkness and my ears strained so hard to hear footsteps or voices that I ended up with a massive headache.
Hendrix finally released me, but instead of letting me leave, he shoved me against the wall behind us and mouthed that I needed to stay. Lucky for him, I was already planning on it. I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to move again.
When he came back to my side, his eyes were narrowed and he looked like he was thinking of taking Ricky’s approach in dealing with women. “Come on. Now. Before he comes back.”
I let him pull me out of the house and across a darkened yard, into a black SUV. Once I was in and he’d buckled us both in, he turned to me.
“I suggest you start fucking talking right now.”
Well. My gig was up. My goose was cooked. My…whatever. There would be no more buttering up Hendrix. He’d clearly seen right through me. “Just take me home.”
He sped away from the decrepit house, his knuckles white on the steering wheel. “Do you have a death wish? Is that what this is all about? You want to die?”
I scoffed, while also wincing as he barely missed a turning car. His driving was atrocious. “If I say no will you drive like a fucking sane person?”
“You’re going to have to forgive me for driving a bit like an asshole right now. You snuck out and walked right into a trap. Do you want to end up like that woman in there?”
“Of course! I’d love to end up cut open with my insides on my outside! What kind of question is that? I’m trying to do my job, but my entire case just vanished under my nose. Two women are dead now! Tabatha is dead now.”
As I said it, my voice broke. I pressed my head against the window and tried to keep from crying. I didn’t deserve to cry and feel bad for myself. I’d gotten Tab killed.
“I thought you weren’t working on anything.” His voice sounded strained and I decided that focusing on his anger was easier than dealing with Tab’s death.
“Well, now I’m not. There you go.” I gasped as he swerved around someone moving too slowly. “You’re insane! Slow down!”
He ignored me and continued yelling. “Did you hear his plans for you? Were you paying attention?”
“I heard! But I’m not going to have to worry about him gutting me if you kill me tonight!”
There was a tiny burger shack on the side of the road and he slammed on the breaks and pulled into the lot. He immediately jumped out of the car and came around to my side. He jerked the door open and leaned in. His hands fumbled as they unlatched my seatbelt and then pulled me out.
“What are you doing?!”
He slammed the door shut and pulled me towards the burger place. “The only way I’m going to be able to stop yelling at you right now is if we’re in a public place. I need to be able to calmly listen to you and all I want to do right now is strangle you for being foolish.”
I cocked my head at him and stared at him in confusion until we were sitting in one of the few red vinyl booths inside the little place. Besides a couple of teenagers, we were the only customers.
Once the waitress dropped off a couple of menus and took our drink orders, I couldn’t keep it in anymore. “Why are we having burgers?”
His eyes still had just as much fire in them and his jaw worked overtime as he ground his teeth together, but his voice was quiet as he spoke. “Because I want to have a conversation with you. I don’t want to yell the whole time.”
“And you won’t yell in here.”
“No. At least, I don’t think I will.”
It was a foreign concept to me. My brothers were never finished yelling at me. It didn’t matter what happened, they yelled until they either went hoarse or got what they wanted. Hendrix putting himself in a place where he had to control himself was astonishing.
“Wow.”
He forced a smile at the waitress when she dropped off his water, but it looked more like a growl, in his current state. The poor woman probably thought he wanted to attack her. His voice was rough, too, as he ordered a burger with everything and extra pickles.
“I don’t want anything.”
“You need to eat something. You’ve barely had anything over the last few days.”
I glared at him. “Now you control what I eat, too?”
He’d been holding the spoon at his place setting, but it bent as he tightened his grip. “Just bring out two of what I ordered, ma’am. Thank you.”
The waitress hurried away and left me with a less-in-control Hendrix. He shoved the spoon to the back of the table and shook his head. “I don’t want to yell at you. I’m just beyond frustrated. You snuck out of a safe house and walked into a trap. I dragged my ass all over LA to make sure you weren’t involved in drugs or God knows what, only to find you in a house with a fucking dead body and the murderer. The murderer who seems to have a real hard on for you. What if I hadn’t followed you? What then, Darby?”
“I can take care of myself! I wouldn’t have let him find me.”
“Really? Because when I got there, you were just standing in the middle of the living room, wilting away. Look, if you want to commit suicide, let me know. I don’t need this fucking job. I can go back to Texas and be with my family. If you don’t want to live, I’ll just let Jennifer know this isn’t a case I can work and I’ll go home. Gladly. So, you just let me know what you decide.”
I balled my fists up under the table and tried to breathe through the anger. “I don’t want to die! I’m not going to. I’m just… I’m trying to do my job!”
“As far as I knew, your job required you to sit at a movie set.”
“The other one. I just took this job”
“Hey, aren’t you the woman who wrote that book on Aaron Gadberry?”
I jerked around to find the two teenagers standing beside us. Two pierced and dyed older teens, dressed in black with frowns on their faces. I didn’t want to assume anything about them, despite the itch at the back of my head telling me they didn’t like me. Even through the anger at Hendrix and horror at what’d just happened, I could feel that itch.
“Not me.”
The taller one, with the chain connecting his nose to his lips and ears, rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right. You shouldn’t say that shit about Aaron. He’s going to prove you wrong, little rabbit.”