CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Holden
I’m not crazy. I don’t care what I was labeled growing up, don’t care what the police have told me, don’t care that these voices keep insisting I attacked the men charging in Deli’s bedroom for no good reason.
She was frightened beyond belief, balling up beneath her blanket so that when they finally burst through the door, her screams had filled the room and ignited every protection instinct inside me. Helpless to do anything to stop them from tearing her room apart in their mad dash for me, I’d charged them before they had the chance, and despite how loud my demands had been for them to stay away from her, they tore apart the room regardless, after shooting me, after dragging me away and lying that there wasn’t anybody else in the room with me.
I didn’t trust them. Didn’t trust a group of thugs who were bought and paid for by the Thorne family. And due to my insistence that they were lying to me now like they had lied after the night Jack crashed into me with his car, they’d cuffed me and ignored the bleeding in my leg, they’d dragged me out and kicked me when I struggled. They’d tossed me in a car and driven me to a hospital where I was dosed with every tranquilizer known to man.
Waking up in a hospital bed had brought the past rushing back to my mind. Except this time, my sister wasn’t sitting beside me, my parents weren’t rushing down the halls to get to me after learning I was conscious. I was alone in a dimly lit room, kept company by the machines beeping above my head and the restraints holding me to the bed. No matter how hard I tugged, the restraints weren’t letting me go.
The rage inside me was blinding.
And according to the voices filtering into my room from the hallway, I wasn’t the only one planning to tear this place apart.
“Is he under arrest?” The voice was recognizable, a silver haired woman with the patience of a rabid dog. I couldn’t hear the response to Angela’s question, but they must have said something that irritated her. Voice notching a decibel higher, she asked, “Is he a suspect for something? Has he done anything to warrant being kept in a room by himself without being allowed to talk with anybody? What if I brought a lawyer with me? Would you let me in then?”
Again, they answered, but their voice wasn’t strong enough to bleed through the door.
“Well, that’s funny because yesterday one of your officers made it perfectly clear that I was a suspect as well. Is that your game, call everybody a suspect because you have a missing drug addict on your hands? Maybe you should be checking out the drug houses instead of wasting your time harassing good people who are just trying to live their lives. What the hell is wrong with you?”
The hallway outside my room became quiet, the door eventually opening as Angela slipped in. She rushed over to my bedside as quickly as she could. “We need to be fast about this conversation. I just sent that rookie off to go find his superior and I’m not supposed to be in here. What happened?”
“Angela? What are you doing? You’re going to get in trouble.” Still dazed by the drugs they’d given me, I was having trouble speaking around a tongue that felt like cotton.
“Don’t you worry about me, Holden. I have a way of getting out of just about anything. But what I need to know is, are you okay?”
“I think so. My leg hurts like a wicked bitch.”
She nodded. “That’s what happens when people shoot bullets through it. I just taught you medicine 101. Why were you shot?”
My rage came roaring back, the heat of it driving blood through my veins and casting a red haze over my vision. “Those bastards were trashing Deli’s room. She was screaming and crying for them to stop. I tried to stop them, but they wouldn’t listen. They told me nobody was in the room, but she was under her blankets. They didn’t see her and they wouldn’t listen to me. I rushed to stop them and they shot me.”
Flinching at my words, Angela’s expression tightened even more, her eyes searching mine as her hand brushed softly down my arm. I could tell thoughts were racing through her mind, but she didn’t voice any of them until settling on a question I wasn’t sure how to answer. “Holden, where is your sister now?”
“I don’t know.”
My head was killing me, a steady pounding inside my skull that spread pain over every inch of my body. “I need you to find her. I’m not worried about me at the moment, but if you really want to help me, you’ll find Delilah. She can’t be alone. She’s terrified of going outside or leaving the house. She-“
Angela patted my cheek, snapping her fingers in my face to stop me from speaking and pay attention to her. Once I was quiet, she glanced quickly at the door before saying, “I’ll find your sister, okay? But you need to calm down. Those machines above your head are beeping so fast, they’re about to melt down. So don’t you worry, Holden. I’ll handle this.”
The door burst open behind her, Officer Shay himself storming in to roar out his discontent. “Who the hell said you could come into this room and speak to our suspect?”
Spinning on her heel, Angela planted her hands on his hips and barked out her response. “Oh? So he’s a suspect now? For what? Getting in the way of the bullet your incompetent police force fired in his house? Is he under arrest? Have you done your job and read him his rights or told him he can speak to a lawyer?”
Officer Shay’s face was crimson red. “I have the right to hold him for twenty-four hours, and in that time, if I find evidence that he had something to do with Jack Thorne’s disappearance, then yes, he’s under arrest.”
“He wants an attorney,” Angela screamed back, refusing to give ground to the man who now had his hand hovering over the butt of his gun. Panic shot through me, the machines beeping even faster now that the drugs they’d given me were wearing off.
“He can’t demand one because he’s not under arrest.”
“Then you can’t stop me from talking to him!”
They were nose to nose, as much as they could be. Officer Shay had several inches on Angela in height. Shay’s voice coming out on a low growl, he scowled down at my boss, his hand still hovering over his gun, his eyes locked to the face of a woman who wasn’t giving up. “I will arrest you if you don’t leave this room in the next five seconds.”
“For what?”
“For getting in the way of a police investigation.”
“Oh? Now I’m just getting in the way of an investigation? Yesterday, you called me a suspect. It sucks to be downgraded.”
She was going to get herself shot and be strapped down to a bed right beside me if she didn’t stop. “Angela. It’s okay,” I called out. “Please, just go find my sister.”
Both their heads snapped in my direction, Officer Shay’s mouth pulling into an angry line and Angela’s eyes filling with sorrow. Nodding her head, she ignored the officer still standing toe to toe with her. “I’ll leave now, Holden. Don’t worry. I’ll find out what happened to Delilah.”
Turning back to Shay, she snapped, “If you will excuse me, please. I need to go find out what you all did to another innocent person.”
I was shocked when he actually stepped aside to let her pass. Nobody messed with Angela when she was in one of her moods. Not even the police, apparently.
She’d almost made it to the door, when Shay set his sights on her, calling his question out before she could place her hand on the knob. “How did you even know that Mr. Bishop was here?”
My brows rose at the question, only because it was one I hadn’t thought to ask.
Turning back to face us, Angela smiled. “Well, you see, Officer, I happen to be psychic. And if you don’t believe me, I’ll be happy to pull the crystal ball out of my ass and read your future for you, too.” Her smile became fiercer. “Actually, wait, how stupid of me. I don’t need a crystal ball to know that you and your entire police force are about to be sued for shooting an innocent man. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go find what other victims to add to the lawsuit that’s coming your way very soon”
Spinning back, she was out the door before he could utter another word. I didn’t know whether to curse her for getting herself involved in my mess, or cheer to have her on my side.
The cheering would have to wait. Officer Shay leveled a glare in my direction, his large, stocky body taking up too much space in the room. “Do you want to tell me what happened to Jack Thorne now that you’re awake?”
My first instinct was to admit the truth and save everybody the headache this entire situation had caused. But remembering the promise Michaela had demanded from me, I stuck to the script, hoping like hell she knew what she was doing. “I don’t know what happened to Jack. Have you checked with his drug dealers? Or asked around at the parties on his side of town? Maybe they know.”
Shay smirked. “You know, it’s really funny how you, Michaela, and your boss all want to paint Jack as some drug addict not worthy of your time, but I happen to know him as a talented and intelligent young man who has everything going for him. I also happen to know you have a bone to pick with him and no money to your name, so if I had to take a guess, I would pin his disappearance on you.”
I shrugged. “Seems to me you’ve already done that. Did you happen to find him as you tore apart my house?”
“No, but I found his girlfriend, and isn’t that all sorts of interesting? When we talked to you yesterday, you didn’t mention Michaela was at your house. Sounds to me like you were hiding something.”
“Yeah,” I answered, wishing my voice could be a little stronger and clearer. The drugs weren’t allowing it. “I was hiding a woman who was terrified to go to you about whatever caused her to show up at my door beaten and bruised.”
Narrowing his eyes, he looked at me like I was scum he’d just scraped from the bottom of his shoe. “Are you trying to convince me that Michaela Paige showed up at your house unexpectedly on the night both she and Jack caused a scene at your restaurant, and you let her in without asking any questions about why she was at your door?”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying. Of course, I asked her what happened. Her face was swollen and she was crying. But she wouldn’t tell me why she was there, just that she needed help because she was scared and hurt. Given how Jack was acting that night at the diner, it didn’t take a genius to put two and two together. So I let her in.”
He scowled. “And what do you believe happened?”
Taking a deep breath, I let it out slowly. The pain meds were wearing off and my leg was throbbing as bad as my head. “Does it matter what I believed happened? That’s just an opinion. All I know is that a woman needed help, so I helped her. She’s a friend of my sister’s.”
“Let’s talk about your sister, shall we?”
“My sister has nothing to do with any of this,” I growled, anger balling my hands into fists.
He opened his mouth to respond, but the door opened behind him, a nurse I recognized from after my accident two years ago walking in. She had been the woman who sat beside me after Delilah was brought in, the same woman who had wheeled me to Delilah’s room to let me see that my sister was alive. Seeing her brought all the pain back to me from that day, but I wasn’t unhappy to see her either.
“You again?” Officer Shay angrily barked.
The nurse’s eyes snapped up to him, her lips a thin line of annoyance. Crossing her arms over her chest, she reminded him, “As far as I can tell, this is a hospital and not a police station. I have every right to be in this room, even more than you.”
“Are you planning on kicking me out of here like you did in Ms. Paige’s room?”
“No,” she answered calmly, “I’m here to tell you we have the results of Michaela Paige’s tests that were run, and I think they might be of interest to you in your investigation.”
A groaned rolled over his lips before he tipped his head toward the door. “Let’s step outside to discuss it. I don’t need sensitive information being overheard by a suspect.”
The nurse barked out a humorless laugh. “Suspect for what? Beating a woman for years? Because I can promise that you have the wrong man if that’s the crime you’re investigating.”
Officer Shay wasn’t amused. “Outside, now.”
Rolling her eyes, the nurse stepped out, Officer Shay following right behind her. I was left on the bed to consider what I’d just overheard.
Resting my head against the pillow, I closed my eyes and thought about what the nurse had just admitted. Jack had been hitting Michaela for years, most likely leaving enough evidence behind for the hospital to verify the abuse.
My jaw ticked with anger at the thought of it, and I wasn’t sorry for killing Jack. Especially not after what I had just learned.