Memory Lapse: A Slater Vance Novel (15 page)

Slater’s mind was
reeling; what else could they have possibly taken that would make his brother
quake so much?

“What?” Slater demanded.

They took your keys and
ransacked your house. Almost everything has been destroyed. I’m so sorry,
Slate.”

Slater closed his eyes
tightly. The pain in his chest was immense. That house was his last connection
to Anne and Sophie. Slater took rapid breaths and finally another thought crept
into his mind.

“Was anyone at the house
when they broke in?”

Tucker slowly shook in
his head. “No, Honey and I were still at the park with Tiger when Bridge called
me about you. I sent Honey to your house with Tiger and they were the ones who
discovered your house had been broken into and vandalized. Do you think this
has anything to do with her?” he asked mournfully with his eyes downcast.

“I don’t think so. But
even if it is, it’s not your fault. Don’t worry about it. Where is Janet now?”
Slater asked but then amended when he saw Tucker’s blank, confused stare.
“Honey… her real name is Janet Jackson. Or at least I think it is – or it could
be,” Slater finished with his head pounding even harder.

“She’s with Tiger for now
still at your house. I’m sorry, Slate, but so many of your things were
destroyed,” Tucker said softly.

Slater’s body stilled and
he asked, “What about the stuff in the attic? Was it taken also?”

“I don’t know. I’ll call
Tiger and have him check if you’d like.”

“No, no. I’ll check when
I can get out of here. Which will be when, exactly?” Slater asked impatiently.

“You got knocked on the
head pretty good but there doesn’t appear to any fractures. They want you to
stay overnight for observation and will release you once the doctor has seen
you this morning.”

Slater’s lips tightened,
and as a thought crossed his mind, he foolishly turned his head to his brother,
causing pain to ricochet through his skull. Closing his eyes, he asked quickly,
“Did anyone notify Bennie? She doesn’t need to be at the office alone.”

“Hey, everything’s fine.
The police notified her.”

Exhaustion flooded
Slater’s being. It’d been a rough week all the way around. He closed his eyes
and heard his brother as he quietly began to pray. Who could be behind the
break-ins? What did they think he had? Wiseman Linear was the biggest piece of
shit he knew, but what would he gain from breaking in? Maybe Bridge could tell
him something more
later
. Slowly, with the aid of the
drugs still lingering in his system, Slater drifted off, wondering how he was
getting home now that his SUV had been stolen.

◊◊◊

Much to his chagrin,
irritation, annoyance, and frustration, the hospital required Slater to be
pushed out of the hospital in a wheelchair. While he still had a headache, he
was perfectly capable of walking out under his own steam. He’d done four tours
of combat in several trouble spots around the world; he thought he could manage
to push a damn elevator button! It wasn’t like he was required to jump or scale
from his fourth floor window to the parking lot.

Tucker smiled as Slater
ranted and raved all the way down. He was just happy Slater
could
have walked out. It could have
been so much worse; although, Tucker was worried about Slater’s reaction when
he got home.

The elevator doors slid opened
with a loud, annoying ping. As Tucker rolled Slater out and headed into the
lobby, a beautiful red-haired girl of about twenty-five came bouncing across
the lobby in their direction.

“Slater!
Oh, my God, Slater! I’ve been so
worried.”

Celia McCloud knelt down
in front of him at the foot of wheelchair.

Tucker saw Slater’s
shoulders stiffen at the intrusion.
“Uh, Celia, what a
surprise to see you here.”

Running a hand with
painted red nails over his thigh, she said, “I would have been here sooner, but
no one told me. I only found out by the nice man at your house.” At his
perplexed look, she said, “I think his name was Thomas…
Tidmore
…
Tilton… Tiger… Yeah, Tiger, that’s it. He was the one who told me, and so, like
– here I am.”

“Yeah, here you are. Listen,
Celia, I’m just on my way home and I’m not feeling well, so if you don’t mind…”

“You don’t have to worry
about anything. I’ll come with you and take care of you until you’re better,”
she said decisively.

“Uh, I don’t think that’s
a good idea. I… uh… I already have company at my house.”

“Oh, but I insist. I love
you,” Celia said with upturned eyes misted with emotion.

Slater blew out an
aggravated breath and said sternly, “Celia, listen, as I told you, this…” he
motioned the air between them, “isn’t
happenin
’. I
thought I was clear the other night. I don’t want a relationship right now. I’m
serious about that. Please don’t come to my house. You are not wanted there.”

Tears filled her eyes and
ran in rivulets down her cheeks. “You are a bastard, Slater Vance. One day,
you’re going to look around and you’ll be alone. What do you think about that?”

Tilting his head
slightly, he said harshly, “If tomorrow is that day, I’ll say… good. I’m tired,
Celia, and I have a headache which you are adding to. Please step aside.”

Celia stumbled back on
her excessively high heels, a fist drawn to her mouth as she stifled a sob. “I
don’t know what I did. Please tell me and I’ll fix it. I don’t want to lose
you,” she pleaded.

Slater rubbed a hand over
his face before running it through his hair.

With a heavy sigh and a
more gentle tone, he replied, “Celia, I can’t be what you want me to be. I
don’t have what it takes. I’m sorry, I thought you understood that. You are a
nice girl and we had fun… but that’s all it’ll ever be. Please don’t call or
come by anymore.”

Slater signaled for
Tucker to continue moving forward. When his brother hesitated, Slater turned
his head to glance at him, but Tucker wasn’t looking at him, he of course, was
concentrating on Celia, now full-blown crying.

“Tucker, let’s roll…
now,” he barked.

Slowly, Tucker rolled him
past the lovely Celia McCloud. Slater took in her short, flowered mini-dress
and high heels,
yep certainly was a
shame, the girl had legs that went on forever
.

Slater slid into Tucker’s
blue Prius. “Geez, Tuck, could you have found a smaller car?”

“It’s good for the
environment,” Tucker replied a little distractedly.

Slater rolled his eyes;
he could feel a lecture coming.

“Are we going to the
police station first?”

Patiently, Tucker replied,
“No, Bridge offered to meet us at your house. The doctor was clear – straight
home, no passing go; no collecting two hundred dollars.”

Slater’s jaw clenched. He
wondered how long his brother would stay and try to enforce the ‘no go’ rule.
He had things to do and people to see. He was going to get to the bottom of
this. He’d been attacked three times in under a week. Briefly he wondered if it
had anything to do with Honey Luscious/Janet Jackson. The attacks began when
she’d turned up. Who knew? Slater bet his brother could count on one finger the
number of people who’d want to do him in. Maybe Slater needed to re-think his
way of life.

Tucker broke into his
thoughts when he asked casually, “So how long did you date that woman?”

Groaning, Slater replied,
“Tuck, do you really want to talk about my sex life?”

Pulling into the
appropriate turning lane at the red light, Tucker glanced at his brother. “I
wasn’t asking you about sex, Slate, I was asking about your relationship with
her.”

Slater eyed his brother perplexedly.
“There was no ‘relationship’,” he said, making air quotes. “There was only sex…
mind-blowing sex. You saw her, she is seriously hot.”

Tucker turned his eyes
back to the road as the light turned green and didn’t respond for a long while.
Finally, he said softly, “Slate, life doesn’t come with guarantees – with the
exception of one… one day you will die and your life will be over. Don’t let
that day come without having lived your life to its fullest. Find someone to
love, Slate, and who will love you. You’re such an incredible human being. It’d
be a waste for you not to share yourself with another.”

Slater jerked his head in
his brother’s direction so fast it hurt. With an agonized snarl, he replied, “I
did, and look how that worked out. They’re dead because of me. They had no
chance to live a full life – because of me. They were incredible human beings,
the very best this world had to offer and now they are no more – they are dust.
Because.
Of.
 
Me.” He finished on a whisper turning his head to stare out the window.

Tucker sighed quietly but
didn’t pursue the subject further. His heart broke for his brother. He’d hoped
Slater had moved beyond this point, but here he still sat, wallowing in a vast
waste-pool of despair.

Tucker rolled the car to
a stop in front of Slater’s house. Softly, he asked, “Are you ready for this?”

Rolling his stiff
shoulders, Slater replied, “Yep.”

From his vantage point in
the car, Slater saw Tiger Monroe push a small gap in the curtains from inside
the house, looking to see who’d pulled into the drive. Slater blew a breath out
in preparation and pulled the door handle lever and stepped out of the
impossibly small car. As he neared the entrance, his front door was opened by
Tiger.

Tiger Monroe was built to
be a runner. He had the sleek, thin lines necessary for such a sport. He
reminded Slater of a panther, always coiled ready to strike. While his cousin,
Bridge, had the mass and girth of a linebacker, Tiger – like his namesake – had
stealth and agility.

“Welcome home, Pretty-Boy,”
Tiger said, flashing his gold-capped front teeth as he leaned against the
doorjamb.

Slater had laughed when
Tiger had come home from his first tour of duty with those gold caps with the
two Chinese symbols carved into them. When he’d asked Tiger what the symbols
meant, he’d told him one meant long life and the other meant prosperity. With a
smirk, Slater had said,
What
? Like
StarTrek
?
Tiger had looked at him questioningly. Rolling on the floor laughing, Slater
lifted one hand and spread his fingers into two parts and said in his best
Spock voice,
Live
long and Prosper
. Tiger hadn’t been
able to resist a grin, although he’d tried to hide it.

Slater slapped Tiger on
the shoulder. “How are things?”

Removing the toothpick
from the side of his mouth, Tiger said sultrily, “Well, for me, they’re pretty
good.” Pointing the toothpick at Slater, he continued, “But for you…
dawg
, you got some seriously
fu
….”
eyeing Tucker behind Slater, he revised, “excuse me, Father, screwed up stuff
going on around here,” he grinned.

“Don’t I know
it.
I appreciate you hanging around, keeping everyone safe.
Any more problems?”

“
Naw
,
it’s been quiet. The girl’s not much of a talker, though. But hey, she’s just
your type…
smokin
’ hot but silent.”

Slater grinned but didn’t
comment about Janet Jackson. “I hate to think how much you’re going to cost
me,” he groaned instead.

“
Naw
,
don’t worry about it. Me and the padre got it all worked out. I’ll just charge
for the initial time and we’ll call it even.
Deal?”

Patting Tiger on the face,
Slater said, “Thanks, man, I appreciate it.”

“Don’t sweat it,
although, I’m thinking about charging you for all this manual labor.”

Slater lifted an
inquiring eyebrow. “What labor?”

He jerked his orange and
yellow tiger-striped head of hair towards the interior of the house. “Your girl
there, she’s quiet but bossy… do this; move that – shit, I’m tired.”

“Hey, I appreciate it,
man. If
you’re
needin
’
to
hit the road, by all means, go ahead. If you’ll come by the office tomorrow,
I’ll pay you… you know what, I don’t know what my office looks like either. How
‘bout I get Tuck to run it by to you later today, is that okay?”

“Don’t sweat it, man, I
know where you live. Just keep me in mind for work… I’m always looking for work
– damn Feds.”

Slater grinned at Tiger.
“Will do, man, and thanks again.”

Pushing away from the
doorjamb, Tiger said, “Let me say goodbye to the Little Missus.”

Taking a deep breath,
Slater followed Tiger into the house. His initial glance didn’t really spot any
damage. He turned to cast a questioning glance back at Tucker.

Tucker entered the house,
paused, and put his hands on his hips. “Well I’ll be. Tiger wasn’t kidding. You
do owe him for
a lot
of manual labor.
This place was a mess!”