CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

 

The son of a bitch tried to get away. 

He ran for his car and tripped on a rock, performing a belly flop on the pavement and it would have been fucking comical if I hadn’t been on the verge of murdering him. 

When I reached the park and saw Cassie on the ground, desperately crawling away from this motherfucker, my only panicked thought was to get to her.  I scooped her up off the ground and felt her immediately cling to me like a lifeline while she said my name. She was emotional and glassy-eyed and she smelled like vomit but I didn’t see any physical injuries.

But the bastard who’d been chasing her was about to be introduced to a whole new world of physical injury.  Cassie was still holding onto me but I had to set her down because I saw he was trying to make a break for it.

The fucker was still scrambling to pick himself back up after his fall when I grabbed him and hauled him to his feet.  He struggled and flailed around as I slammed him against the hood of his car but it was easy because he didn’t know shit about how to fight.  No, all he knew how to do was attack women in the darkness.  It probably made him feel like a fucking man.

I yanked him upright because I wanted to look into his eyes and let him know that he had every reason to be terrified. 

“I remember you,” I growled.  “And you need to fucking understand that no matter where you go I’ll be able to find you.” I leaned into his face, practically able to smell the sick fear as I held him in place.  “You will NEVER come near her again. If I hear that you’ve even breathed in Cassie’s direction I will take you apart piece by fucking agonizing piece and asshole, you’d better believe I know exactly how to do it.  And in case you’re wondering, there’s no expiration date on this promise. Not ever.”

It felt incomplete, not making him bleed the way I wanted to. In the not too distant past I wouldn’t have hesitated.  Only the fear of leaving the boys alone while I served a prison sentence made me pause.  Yet I still meant what I said.  He’d find out real fucking quickly if he bothered Cassie again.   

“I’m s-sorry,” he stuttered.  “Was just helping her-“

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” 

“And give me my damn phone back!” Cassie was right there now, swaying a little bit on her feet but standing her ground as she glowered at him. 

The guy started fishing around in the pockets of his designer slacks and I noticed with some satisfaction that there was a nice wet patch in the crotch.  He’d pissed himself, the worthless little shit had pissed himself. 

His hands were trembling when he pulled the pink sparkly phone from his pocket and I snatched it out of his hand.  Then I released him because if I didn’t do that now then I might keep punching until he couldn’t stand up.   

“Now get the fuck out of here before I decide you need a few bones broken to remember my words.” 

The creep practically dove into his luxury sedan and peeled out. 

I turned to Cassie and held her phone out but she was shaking now, shaking and crying.  She sat right down on the ground and that’s when I noticed her shirt.  It was all bunched up, exposing her belly.  A feeling of sick grief washed over me and I sank down to the ground at her side. 

“Did he hurt you?” I asked, barely able to deal with the possibility of her answer.  “If he hurt you I’ll go find him right now and make sure he won’t be walking around tomorrow.” 

She shook her head and drew her knees to her chest.  “No, I got out of there before he could…” 

Her face crumpled and she lowered her head with a sob and my heart just about broke. 

Then Cassie wiped her tears with the back of her hand and glared angrily at where the silver car had been parked.  “He drugged me or something, Curtis.  I don’t know with what.  He bought me a drink and when I came back from the restroom he kept urging me to drink it, saying it hardly had any alcohol and that it tasted sweet.”  A tear rolled down her cheek. “I’m so fucking stupid.” 

“No, you’re not stupid.  He’s just evil.”  I cleared my throat.  “Who is he, Cassie? I recognize him as being the guy who showed up at Scratch. But who is he to you?” 

She looked at me.  “I’m almost too ashamed to tell you.”

I touched her arm.  “Don’t be. You can tell me anything.  I’ll never think less of you.” 

She leaned against me. “Okay, I’ll tell you. But I’m still kind of out of it right now.” 

“Are you dizzy?” 

“Not a much as I was.” 

“Do you feel like you’re going to pass out?” 

“No, not anymore.  I’m just real shaky.  I puked outside the bar and then again over there so maybe I got most of whatever it was out of my system.” 

My brain was in overdrive.  It was likely he did slip a drug into her drink.  She didn’t believe she’d ingested much and what she had swallowed had mostly been puked up. 

“Maybe,” I said.  “But you should really go to the hospital.” 

“What?” Her eyes got wide. “No, I’m not going to the hospital.”   

“Whatever drug he gave you will still be in your blood.” 

Cassie shook her head.  “No!  My folks.  I don’t want them to hear about this.  They’ll be devastated.” 

“They’ll want that motherfucker to get nailed to the wall,” I said, realizing my voice was rising in anger. 

Cassie looked away.  I wanted to kick myself.  I didn’t know how she felt, what she’d been through tonight.  I had no right to make demands over how she handled this.  Whatever she wanted to do, whatever would make her feel safe, was what needed to happen now. 

“I’m sorry, Cassie, I’m a dick.  Tell me what you need and I’ll get it for you.” 

She put a hand to her mouth.  “I’d give a lot for a drink of water right now.” 

Her house was just down the street.  Yet we both knew that there was a good chance she might run into one of her parents and she was still obviously so upset and traumatized they would have been alarmed. And I also couldn’t leave her here, not even for a minute to dash back to the house. 

“You think if I help you walk you can make it two blocks to the gas station on the corner at Baseline Road?  You could get some water, clean up in the restroom, maybe try to eat something light if your stomach can handle it.” 

She thought about it and then nodded.  I was trying to guess what that fucker had given her. It could be anything. She was more lucid every second so she must have thrown up enough of it before the effects penetrated completely.  If he’d given her something real hardcore she would have been totally unconscious in minutes, completely vulnerable to whatever kind of disgusting things he had in mind. The idea made me feel murderous again but I wouldn’t tell her that.  Cassie needed protection right now, not violence.   

I helped her up, wondering if it would be easier to just carry her but she leaned into me and let me support her with one arm around her waist. 

“Wait, my purse,” she said, pointing to a pink handbag that was lying sadly on the concrete. I scooped it up for her and set it on my own shoulder. 

“This is a good look for me,” I said as the thing bounced against my hip.  “What do you think?” 

She managed a snort of laughter and I tightened my arm around her waist.  We made slow progress but after about fifteen minutes we reached the gas station with my arm still around her waist as she did her best to walk a straight path.  To anyone watching, Cassie just looked like a girl who probably had one too many drinks tonight.  No one would be able to guess what had nearly happened to her.

I tensed up a little when we reached the doors of the little store attached to the gas station.  Every once in a while when I found myself in a place like this after dark I’d get hit with the memory of my dad’s murder.  He’d walked through glass doors just like this, expecting to walk out five minutes later with the pack of cigarettes he’d left the house for.  He exited the doors in a body bag.  

“This goes better with your outfit,” I said to Cassie, giving up custody of the pink handbag when we were standing outside the door to the restroom. 

“I’ll be out soon,” she promised. 

“Take your time,” I said, making myself comfortable by leaning against the wall right across from the bathroom door.  “I’ll be waiting right here.”  

The gas station attendant was a beefy guy in his forties and it was a little awkward standing outside the ladies’ room while he glared at me with suspicion but I’d told Cassie this was where I’d be so I wasn’t moving. 

When she emerged ten minutes later she looked much better.  Her face was pale but she walked steadier and she smiled when she saw me. 

“I think I smell a little less like vomit now,” she said. 

“I’m grateful,” I replied and she laughed. 

I selected a few bottles of water and some soda crackers and set it all on the counter in front of the attendant, who treated me less suspiciously now that I was going to pay for something. 

“I’ll take one of those, too,” Cassie said, pointing to the hot food counter where churros and hot dogs baked side by side beneath the heat lamp. 

“The burrito?” the cashier asked and Cassie nodded. 

“I doubt your stomach will thank you for a burrito right now,” I said and Cassie raised an eyebrow. 

“I might be a slightly better judge of the condition of my stomach,” she said and I was glad she felt okay enough to make a sarcastic crack. 

“Two burritos then,” I told the guy and he wrapped them both in brown paper sleeves before handing over all the purchases in a plastic bag.

When we were outside I exhaled loudly and Cassie noticed. 

“What’s wrong?” she asked.  

“Nothing.  Bad memories, that’s all.” 

She was curious.  “Of what?”

“My dad was shot to death in a gas station convenience store, kind of like this one.  He was in the wrong place, wrong time.  Walked into an armed robbery.  Sometimes it just hits me, that’s all.”   

Now she looked distressed and I wished I hadn’t just brought it up.  “I’m sorry, Curtis.  I knew your dad was gone but I never heard the whole story before.”   

“It was a long time ago,” I assured her.

“I’m sure it’s still painful, for you and your brothers.”  Her face was full of sympathy.  This girl who had just experienced the most violent scare of her life was feeling sorry for me.  I felt like an asshole for mentioning it.  

“Let’s get out of here,” I said, trying to sound more upbeat. 

I encouraged Cassie to drink an entire bottle of water before we walked back to her street.  She didn’t need my arm around her waist anymore but I stayed on alert in case she stumbled. 

“Damn, I forgot about my car,” she said.  “I left it by Baca’s.” 

“I’ll go get it.” 

“How are you going to drive my car and your car at the same time?”

“I’m not.  I’ll walk over and drive your car home.” 

“It’s like four miles away, Curtis.” 

“That’s nothing.” 

Cassie opened another bottle of water.  “Do you still want to hear about my sordid history with Parker the Prick?” 

“Only if you still want to tell me.” 

She sighed and spoke haltingly at first.  The story itself was bad enough; the party, the betrayal, the humiliation.  But the worst part was the aftermath.  Cassie began suffering from anxiety and depression.  She was bullied right out of school, forced to finish her senior year online. 

“It changed me, Curtis.  I guess I’m ashamed of that.  I let some high school bullshit strip away my self-confidence and I’ve never gotten over it completely. I was lost.  The girl you seem to think I am, the carefree privileged princess who has never been touched by anything bad, that’s who I used to be.” She shook her head and looked miserable. “But I haven’t been that girl for a long time.”   

I digested everything she’d just told me.  There were so many things I wished I’d never said to her, that she led a charmed life, that she had everything so easy.  I should have known better by now, that people couldn’t be wrapped up and labeled so neatly. Reality was more complex.  And sometimes terrible. 

“I’m sorry,” I told her.  “I was wrong about you.  And I hate the idea that some of the careless comments I made might have hurt your feelings.  Cassie, I didn’t know what the fuck I was talking about.” 

She stopped walking. “I didn’t mean to imply that I was angry at you.  I can’t even tell you how grateful I am that you came along when you did.  I’m pissed at myself for trying to see the good in someone like Parker Neely. And for being such a clueless idiot.”  She sighed and crossed her arms.  “How the hell did I manage to do this again? To once more cast myself as the damsel in distress?  You know, last summer I went to a club with Cami and was nearly assaulted by some creep.  I had to be rescued by Dalton for crying out loud.  I don’t want to be the girl who always needs to be rescued.” 

“Cassidy,” I said sternly so she’d look at me. “You are not to blame.  You were in the company of a fucking predator.  He is the only one in this equation who bears the guilt.” 

She nodded.  “I know.  I’m thinking about it now and there are things that don’t add up.  He said that he’d been working on a cattle ranch in Nebraska and hadn’t been to college.  My friend Debra told me she heard he’d graduated from the University of Nebraska with an engineering degree. He wouldn’t talk about his day job. And tonight I noticed he had a University of Nebraska license plate so Debra must have been right.  And there’d be no reason at all for an engineering graduate to be taking an introductory statistics class at a community college.  He was there for a different reason.” 

“He was there for you,” I said and a chilly sense of dread rolled through me.  I hadn’t wanted to push her but this was an even more dangerous situation than I thought.  “You should at least file a police report tonight.  I’ll go with you.  And you need to talk to your folks. Especially since he’s already shown up at Scratch once.” 

She was already vehemently shaking her head before I finished talking. “No.  You don’t know how it was.  After I left school I could barely be persuaded to leave the house and I actually made myself sick.  The whole thing just shattered my parents.  I can’t handle putting them through any more pain.  I swear I’m not going to go off the rails this time, Curtis.” 

“I believe you.  But he might try something else.” 

“I don’t think he will after the way you dealt with him.”  She let out a bark of laughter.  “Did you see the way he wet his pants?” 

I snorted.  “I might have noticed that.” 

We walked side by side in silence for a moment. 

“Just think about it, Cassie,” I said.  “You ought to file a restraining order and there needs to be a record of this attack.” 

She was uncertain.  “What about you? Isn’t it possible you could get arrested if he says you threatened him?” 

“How the hell is he going to spin that?  Is he going to play the victim and complain that I stopped him from assaulting the woman he drugged?” 

She winced over the imagery.  It was still raw and horrifying, the thought that the night might have had a very different outcome.

“So are we going to eat these burritos or what?” I asked, holding up the paper bag. 

We found a bench in that same park at the end of Cassie’s street.  She probably had a lot of good memories of this park.  And one very bad one.  I’d try to make up for that at least a little. 

“This reminds me of your first day at Scratch,” I said, unwrapping the food. 

She giggled.  “I know.  The case of the infamous discarded burrito.  I wondered if you’d pick up on that.” 

“I made too big a deal out of it.” 

“Yeah, you were kind of a jerk.” 

I took a big bite and chewed.  It tasted exactly how one might think a gas station burrito would taste.  I waited until I swallowed before I asked, “Do you still think I’m a jerk?” 

Cassie was in the middle of daintily unwrapping her own burrito in her lap.  She poked me in the side.  “Sometimes.” 

“Like when I’m growling at you to get your coffee cup off the hood of my car or having a temper tantrum because you threw my lunch away?”

“Yes, exactly.” She picked at the edge of the burrito.  “But you’re honest, Curtis.  I’ve learned to appreciate how rare that is.” 

I thought about some of the things I’d done in my life, things that were definitely not on the honest side of the law.

What did that say about me?  I suppose I couldn’t be easily classified either. 

But it must mean something that I’d lie down in traffic for the people I cared about. Including her.

No, especially her. 

She didn’t eat much, just nibbled a few bites and then crumpled everything up in the bag, which I tossed into a nearby dumpster. 

“So, Curtis Mulligan, what do you think of me now?” she asked.  It wasn’t a flirtatious question.  It was a serious one.  “I want you to tell me because I know you won’t lie.  You always tell me the truth even if it’s harsh.” 

I thought for a moment before answering.  And I did tell her the truth. 

“I think you’re brave,” I said.  “You’re smart.  You’re kind. You’re loyal and you want to see the good in people.  And Cassie, you’re much stronger than you give yourself credit for.”  I debated whether I should continue but then decided I wasn’t telling her anything I hadn’t already said before. “Plus you’re so insanely sexy it drives me up the fucking wall every single goddamn day.” 

She blushed and tittered but she moved closer to me.  When she rested her head on my shoulder I waited for a few minutes before slowly moving my arm and putting it around her.  She didn’t stop me.  She understood the gesture wasn’t supposed to be romantic. After a hellish night we were just two people sitting on a park bench who understood each other. 

A few minutes passed that way in comfortable silence before I checked the time. 

“You want to head back to the house?” I asked. It wasn’t that late.  I could walk Cassie back home, jog the short miles to get her car and return before eleven. 

“Soon,” she said tiredly and let out a soft sigh as I held her closer.  “Will you do something for me first?”

“Anything.” 

“Just stay here with me for a little while longer.”

“Of course.”     

I would stay with her as long as she wanted me here.  She didn’t even have to ask.