"Please forgive me Maddy, I'm so
fucking sorry I didn't know." She was now the one comforting me as
she tried to make sense of my words, her little hands running up
and down my back soothingly.
"It's okay Dominic whatever it is
it's okay I love you." And that just made me feel ten times worse.
How could I have had so little faith in her when she has so much in
me? She had no way of knowing it but with every stroke of her hand
she was driving the nail deeper into her friends' coffins. They are
so fucked, right after I stop kicking my own ass for being a piss
poor husband. Her dad has every right to come after me with his
gun. I had sworn to protect her and in the end I had been her worst
nightmare. Way to go Hearst you fuck.
I sat her in the chair as I tried to
get my thoughts together. Pacing back and forth in front of her my
mind went in a thousand directions at once. I needed to piece the
shit together somehow because someone was going to pay for this
shit but it was more important to me to get the guilty party than
to just go off half cocked like I'd done before and fuck with the
wrong person.
"I need you to tell me everything
you remember about that night baby."
I saw her tense, she didn't even need to ask me what night I was
referring to, she already knew, and I could see it was the last
thing she wanted to talk about.
"It's very important baby." She
turned fearful eyes up to me and I could see the tears already
gathering. Kneeling beside her I placed one hand over her stomach
and took one of hers with the other.
"I promise you I'm not going to get
mad at you, look at me, I'm not mad at you okay just answer the
question for me." I kissed her forehead gently and felt her take a
reassuring breath, sort of like she was gathering her strength to
face a battle.
"Um, I think Brenda called me
earlier in the day and asked me if I wanted to go into town for a
night out. I turned her down because I knew you wouldn't approve.
Then a little later Simon called and said Brenda was hounding him
to go hang out and that we should go to get her off our backs or
something like that. I hadn't seen Simon since before you left
and..." She paused to look at me because she knew what hearing that
name now did to me. I was silently gritting my teeth and trying not
to fold my fists so as not to give away my feelings.
"Go on it's okay."
"Well after Simon called I decided
it might not be so bad to go for a little while, I didn't plan to
be there for very long maybe an hour or two tops. Plus I was
working on something and I was getting a little stuck so I thought
a change of scenery might do me some good so I went." She fluttered
her free hand nervously from her throat or her chest and back and
looked everywhere but at me.
"Then what happened?"
"Um, I don't really remember all the
details, that's the truth Dominic I swear. I just remember Brenda
yelling whoo hoo or something like it when we got there and she
already had a beer waiting for me. I honestly don't remember much
after that first beer but I must've had more after that. Anyway,
you know the rest."
"That's it, that's all you
remember?"
"Um, sorta, I remember feeling hot
and a little disoriented so I had to sit in the corner. Yeah, I
remember Simon asking if I was okay but his face kept going in and
out and I think I was laughing or someone was laughing and I guess
that's when I kissed Simon."
"What do you mean guess? Before when
I asked you told me you did."
"Well that's what everyone else said
that I did." Fucking lamb to the slaughter.
"Did you fall asleep?"
"I must've because I woke up on
dad's couch."
"Wait a minute what? Why am I now
hearing this?"
"I don't know you were so angry that
day when you confronted me that you didn't let me say anything. As
soon as I admitted to the kiss you shut down, shut me out." I had
to pull her into my arms then because she started tearing up and
rocking back and forth in her chair.
"Ssh, ssh, it's okay baby, it's okay
I was being an asshole, when we're done you can take me out back
and use all those Krav Maga skills I taught you on me okay." She
hugged me tighter but at least the tears had stopped.
"How did you get on your dad's couch
do you know?"
"He said Simon dropped me off,
something about me having too much but I only remembered having the
one. Maybe the pregnancy made me even less tolerant I don't know,
usually I can do two and a half beers before I feel like toppling
over but..."
"Do you remember anything else about
the bar?" She shook her head slowly back and forth.
"Why're you asking me all these
questions you're not planning on going after Simon are you? Dominic
I think it was all me, I'm sorry but when the rumor started I
confronted him and he was too embarrassed to tell me but then I got
the truth out of him. He said I was the one that kissed him, then
he was muttering something about Brenda but I didn't understand him
and I didn't follow through because I was sick to my stomach with
fear. I knew if you ever got wind of it you'd kill us both. I don't
think he tried anything. It was all me." She started to cry again
my poor baby.
"Baby listen to me, you weren't
yourself that night it's not your fault."
"What do you mean?" She looked at me
in confusion.
"I think you were
drugged."
"What? Simon would never do
that."
"Maybe not but somebody
did."
"I don't know Dominic it seems
rather far fetched why would someone drug me? And who?"
"That's what I'm going to find out."
I didn't tell her about Garrett, not yet I had to get to the bottom
of this first. I could see she was having a hard time accepting
that she might've been drugged, I wouldn't have believed it myself
either if I didn't have the proof.
“You need to call the doctor and
tell him you need a check up ASAP.” I could see that made her
nervous but even though Garret had assured me the kid should be
okay I wasn’t willing to take the chance.
She ran to the phone and called;
forty minutes later she was lying on an examination table. I had
word with the doctor out of earshot to let him know what he should
be looking for. He too was very reassuring about the affects on the
baby but I still needed hard proof.
When he was through with her I ran
her back up the mountain, I had shit to do that couldn’t
wait.
"I have something to take care of I
might be a few hours, you'll be okay here by yourself?"
"Yes, you're coming back though
right?"
"Of course I'm coming
back."
In the last few days I’d been doing my
homework while I waited for Garret. There was only one person in
the surrounding areas that could’ve supplied the drug since I’m
pretty sure the guilty party hadn’t ordered it online. I know this
guy Jimmy Belafonte was a small time hustler who dabbled in
illegals on the side along with some other shady shit. Every small
town has their Jimmy it seems. The American fucking nightmare!
I’d never had reason to pay him a visit
before; our worlds didn’t collide. It would probably be better to
let my father in law deal with this shit he’s the law after all.
I’m sure he could find something to haul good old Jimmy off to the
clinker for, but I needed more than that, I needed names. There
were too many variables at play here, things that had I kept a cool
head I would’ve seen didn’t add up. But now with new light shining
on this shit I could see the gaping holes.
He was out back in his yard shirtless
puttering around with some old pieces of pipe or some shit. He was
a scraggly, pock marked douche who looked twenty years older than
the twenty four I knew him to be; the typical small-town addict. I
didn’t make a sound as I crept up on him but his survival instinct
must’ve been high because he senses me all the same. I guess in his
line of work you had to have a sixth sense.
His first instinct on seeing me was to run
as is the way with prey when a predator came into its space. But
I’d been prepared for that. The gun I held trained on him ensured
that he didn’t move a fucking muscle. “You know who I am?”
“Sorta, what do you want with me man? I
didn’t do anything.” His eyes shifted from side to side seeking an
escape but there was none. The fucker was twitchy as shit too,
looked like Jimmy likes to sample the merchandise.
“I’m not interested in your meth lab; you
sold some GHB to someone in my town in the last two and a half
weeks or thereabout, who was it?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about man,
I don’t sell anything I’m a painter.”
“You haven’t had a painting job in over a
year asshole” I saw his eyes widen at that bit of knowledge.
“Yeah I did my homework. Now as it stands I’m
not interested in your shit, that’s for the cops to deal with.”
That was a fucking lie, as soon as I get what I need out of this
piece a shit I’m gonna have this place swarming with uniforms.
That’s if he didn’t fuck up and cause me to kill his ass.
“I don’t know…”
“Shut the fuck up, I want to know about the
GHB, who did you sell it to? And if you fuck with me on this I will
shoot so many holes in you not even your mother will recognize you.
Starting with your nuts.” I lowered the gun and pointed it at his
balls so he’d know I wasn’t fucking talking out my ass.
His shoulders deflated and he started
scratching at his body like he had a sudden flea infestation or
some shit. He mumbled something that sounded like ‘I knew that
stupid bitch would get me in some shit.’
“Come again?” The hair on my body was
standing at attention and my gut had gone into overdrive. It had
been a toss up the whole way here. Shaw or Brenda, I couldn’t quite
work out the dynamics in my head.
On the one hand Shaw has been her friend
forever and there’d never been anything romantic between them.
Until this shit happened I’d never really got the feeling that he
wanted to go there, she was more like a kid sister to him. But why
would Brenda go to these lengths? What’s in it for her? It didn’t
make any sense. I’d rebuffed her a time or two and had thought that
that was the end of it. I never even told Maddy about her freakish
come-ons because they just hadn’t been that important, maybe that
was my mistake.
I walked up on him keeping my gun trained
now at his heart. “Who?”
“That chick with the red hair, I can’t
remember her name.”
“Try fucker.” A hard poke in the chest with
the business end of a nine-millimeter ought to jog anybody’s
memory.
“Brenda okay, it was Brenda. Stupid bitch.”
The last was mumbled but I heard it all the same.
“And why did she need it did she say?”
“No man I swear; I asked her ya know. Usually
it’s guys buying that shit but she said she needed it for something
else so I didn’t push.” I looked him in the eye for a long minute
letting the fear set in before stepping back.
“We never had this conversation.”
“So we’re cool, you won’t get me
involved in this shit? Whatever she did I had no part in it man I
swear.” If he only knew how close he came to losing his fucking
life just then. No part in it? He’d supplied the drug that could’ve
harmed my unborn child not to mention the shit they’d done to my
wife.
I called Silas as soon as I made it
back to my truck. I didn’t tell him who had been the buyer but I
filled him in on what had gone down. I had no doubt he’d coordinate
with the local authorities in this town and take care of this piece
a shit. I should get my guys on it but there was no time. I had to
plan my next move carefully, had to find out Shaw’s part in all
this. If he was innocent, well! I still wasn’t apologizing to his
ass. He’d kissed my fucking wife; the fact that he was still
breathing was apology enough.
I wanted to rush home to her and
hold her the rest of the day but first I had to tie up all the
loose ends. I’d spent the time waiting to hear from Garret lining
shit up. I knew what I was going to do to all the players involved
according to their level of guilt. I have a kid on the way and a
wife that needs me, and who truth be told I need just as much. I
can’t put a bullet in Brenda and spend the rest of my life away
from my family as much as I’d like to, but there were other ways to
make that bitch suffer. First things first.
I found Shaw at his office in the
savings and loan place in town. He didn’t look too happy to see me,
which was understandable considering. I held up my hands so he’d
know I came in peace. “Is there somewhere we can talk?” He looked
around at the others who were trying hard to pretend disinterest.
That’s one of the perils of living in a small town everybody knows
everybody else’s business. He nodded towards his office in he back
and I followed him.
“I need to hear your side of what
went down the night you kissed my wife.”
“Look I didn’t…”
“That doesn’t matter now, I’d as
soon not even talk about that part and who kissed who. I just want
you to tell me what happened.”
“Okay, but you can’t use this
against her I think she was just too drunk or something.” He seemed
to be waiting for my reassurance so I gave it to him.