“Mean little son of bitch, but moneys good long as I do as he asks.”
Cassie turned her back on the bartender without another word. Marcus wanted her to drink. He knew of course she didn’t anymore, just as he seemed to know everything.
She sat down at the table and stared at the little glass as if it were a bomb about to detonate. Why had Marcus recreated this scene from their past? What did he want? Where was he? When was he going to come?
The creepy bartender eyed her. What was his connection to Marcus’s plan? She dabbed at the sweat breaking out on her forehead. What was she supposed to do? If she drank, she’d lose any edge she had over Marcus. She wouldn’t think clearly. Marcus knew that. But what the hell was he going to do if she didn’t drink it? She was sure he had something in mind and nothing would thwart his efforts, including whether she drank the liquor or not.
A shadow passed over her table and stayed. He was there. It was happening. Dread flooded her blood stream like a shot of whiskey. Her heart was a weighted brick in her chest.
“It’s not going to help.”
She jerked back. John loomed over her, disappointment on his face. He was tall and handsome, blocking off the rest of the gloomy, depressed room and its sad occupants.
Her mouth opened. Nothing came out. John stood before her, not the sadistic, violent man she’d been waiting for. John, who probably thought she’d run away from her son and sister to have a drink. He believed she’d frivolously abandoned all of them, and yet he’d still come to her.
Cassie jumped up, her chair hit the wall behind her. She stepped around the table and flung herself at John. He was solid and warm against her. His shirt brushed soft against her cheek. She leaned with relief against him. John took a step back to balance against her sudden added weight. Her head came up to his chin. He was rigid against her and didn’t twitch in response to her.
“How did you find me?” she asked, her voice muffled by his shirt.
“On-star,” he said simply.
She hadn’t noticed he had it in his SUV and almost laughed at how stupid she was to think she could carry out this plan. But now that he was here, no matter what the consequences, she was so happy and relieved to see him, she became dizzy from the overwhelming adrenalin rush.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
She pushed away from him, dug in her pocket, produced the note and put it into his hand.
John smoothed the paper open to read it then looked at her as realization dawned on his face. He crumbled the paper in his hand and suddenly pulled her against him in a fierce embrace.
“Why would you do it? Why would you come here alone? Jesus Cassie, you could have disappeared and I’d have never found you. Maybe no one would have.”
He pushed her back and made her look him in the eye. “Don’t you ever do something so stupid again. Promise me.”
She looked up at his face, shaken by the fierceness in his voice. Nothing ruffled John.
“I thought I had to.”
“Do you know what he could have done to you? Do you want that? Are you that self-destructive you think that would be some kind of answer? Sacrificing yourself for Tim?”
She’d had some ideas about what Marcus could do to her, but hearing John say it made her shiver with dread at what she’d almost done. “No. I—”
John ran his hands along her shoulders. “You have to believe me. None of us are going to let Marcus get Tim or you. No matter what he plans. But you going off alone, doing stupid things like this is what Leary wants you to do. He played on your love for Tim. He knows you’d do anything for him; including give yourself over to him in exchange for Tim.”
“But look at what he did to Kelly. What if he tries to do that to Tim? I can’t let that happen, not to my child.”
“It won’t happen. You have to trust me for once.”
“I thought—”
“Quit thinking on your own Cassie. Your conclusions have yet to help anything. Talk to me first. Promise me no more heroic self-sacrifices.”
She let out a shaky breath. Her shoulders dropped. “Okay, I promise.”
He was quiet for a moment. Then he said with a catch to his voice, “Your disappearance scared the shit out of me.”
“Me too.”
He waved at the table beside them. “Why the drink Cassie?”
She explained the odd appearance of the drink. John’s jaw tightened as looked at the harmless drink alone on the table. He pulled her toward the door, snagging the glass as he passed.
“Let’s get out of here.”
Quickly he escorted her outside, and she found he’d come escorted by a police cruiser whose lights rotated silently. John stopped at the door where the cop stood waiting. John had worried about her at first, but then no doubt assumed she’d gone off to drink alone.
Only then did Cassie understand what John suspected. John handed the drink to the officer. He believed Marcus had drugged her drink. This earned her twenty minutes inside the police cruiser as the officer took her statement, then he called in back up and asked them to wait until they could be escorted back to the hospital. Cassie watched in the rear view mirror as the bartender was brought out and put inside the car. Another patrol car came behind them and followed John as he drove back to the hospital.
“What do you think Marcus intended?”
The car was shadowy. She could see John was staring hard at the road as if to avoid glaring at her. “You’ve heard of Rohypnol?”
“The date rape drug?”
“Yeah. I’d bet my life he put that or something similar in that drink. And judging by the sleazy story the bartender had, I’ll bet Marcus is waiting some place close for a call from that bartender flagging him that you had drank the shot, drug and all.”
“Why would he bother? Why not just have me go somewhere private to meet him?”
John glanced at her. “Because this way he could watch you come and make sure you weren’t followed and were really alone. The bartender would have called when you drank the shot and Marcus would no doubt saunter in and take you. Nothing would have been easier. It was quite a plan, simple and to the point. And it almost worked.”
“How do you know it was drugged?”
“You didn’t notice your drink was discolored? Rophies is formulated to change the color of beverages it’s dissolved in.”
Cassie fell silent as the magnitude of what could have been settled on her chest like a vice suddenly tightening around the middle of her. Of course John would know that, he was a doctor. And she of course, didn’t have a clue. John’s jaw was clenched. His anger wasn’t helping.
Once safely back at the hospital, John became sullen and abrupt with her. He scowled at her, as his fury seemed to radiate off him in actual heat waves. He leaned against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest, his gaze directed at her.
Tim seemed to sense something had happened, because he clung to her like he was an infant. He sat on her until he finally fell asleep with his head resting against her.
Impossible as it seemed the adrenalin and emotions that had rocked furiously through her system in waves over the hours since receiving the call Kelly was hurt, had suddenly stilled. Cassie felt odd without the strong emotions. She was depleted, as if there was nothing left in her to react with any longer. And this waiting, so much waiting was wearing on her strung out brain and nerves. Sleep started to take over. She drifted off, with Tim warm and heavy across her lap.
****
Cassie’s eyes closed. She was exhausted; her hair was standing on ends. She’d run her hands through it endlessly, destroying it. Her clothes were as worn and tired looking as she.
They looked like a poster for vulnerable sitting together in the chair, Tim strung across her, as her head bent into his.
John needed to protect them. The stab of panic twisted in his stomach. How could he keep them safe? How could he make sure what happened to Kelly didn’t happen to Cassie? Or Tim?
But how was he to do that if Cassie didn’t trust him?
He couldn’t relax. He was impotent waiting here. He wasn’t used to the rage that was filling him. He’d never considered himself particularly violent and rarely felt the urge to even hit inanimate objects. But now a healthy dose of pent up violence filled him each time he thought of how close Cassie had come to being beaten, raped or murdered by Marcus Leary.
The thing was Cassie had realized the consequences of what she was doing before she’d done it.
John smacked a fist into the wall behind him. How could she have gone off like that? Cassie had witnessed what Marcus had done to her sister. She had to know that whatever Marcus Leary had planned for her was going to be far worse than what he’d done to Kelly. And still she’d gone without a word to him. She should have trusted him, told him about the note, and looked to him for help. Instead she’d nearly gotten herself killed. It was easier for Cassie to run off toward a violent felon alone, than it was for her to trust him. Would Cassie ever put her faith into him? Trust him? Be honest with him? She always had to figure the answers out by herself, but usually her actions made everything worse.
Chapter Twenty
The next morning, after little sleep in an ungodly chair, Cassie was still exhausted and strung out. The morning became a blur of police questions, and learning that her drink from the bar had indeed been drugged just as John suspected. There had been no sign of Marcus at or around the bar last night, and the bartender stuck to his story that he knew nothing about where Marcus was, or what Marcus had been planning.
Kelly finally came around. Cassie’s heart dropped out of her chest as her sister struggled to sit up and then made eye contact with Cassie. Kelly’s eyes filled with tears. She winced in pain when the salty tears touched her swollen, bruised eyelids.
She attempted a smile, and her shoulders jerked at the pain from her cracked lip. Her smile was a mere lifting of one corner of her lips as if to tell Cassie she was okay. Kelly touched a hand to her cheeks, then her nose. She blinked rapidly to hold back the onslaught of more tears. Cassie grabbed her hand.
“I’m sorry. I should have sent you home. I’m so sorry.
Kelly shook her head. Her voice was a raw whisper. “No. It wasn’t your fault. It was
his
.”
“What can I do?”
“A mirror.”
“No, later. You don’t need to see it.”
“Yes I do. Are you really going to say no to me?”
Cassie let out a deep sigh. “Of course not.” She got up and grabbed a compact from her purse and handed it to Kelly. Kelly’s fingers shook as she took it. She took a deep breath, held the mirror up, and looked over her face. She turned right and then left. She remained stoic. Finally she snapped the compact shut and thrust it at Cassie.
“You’ll heal. They said this will all heal. Do you want to talk about it?”
Kelly shook her head. “No. I want to sleep.”
Cassie nodded and let her sister close her eyes and pretend to sleep. Cassie was sure Kelly wanted to cry at the picture in the mirror, but the tears hurt too bad to let out.
****
Later, John talked to Kelly some, making her smile even though doing so made her wince in pain. Cassie watched them through the door. What did he say? He wouldn’t dare tell Kelly about Marcus’s latest attempt to get her would he?
In the afternoon Kelly began to feel a little better as her pain medication was reduced making her less groggy. Cassie sat next to her sister holding her hand and talking intermittently, until Kelly finally had Cassie alone.
“John told me about last night.”
“I wish he hadn’t worried you with it.”
“I’m glad he did. You can’t keep me out of this, especially now. What the hell were you thinking going there alone? Do you want to die? Is that what you think will solve this? Because your opinion of yourself is so low you think dying will keep me and Tim safe?
“No.”
“Then why would you do something so stupid? You know that little boy out there needs you safe just as much as he needs to be kept safe.”
“I’d do anything to keep Marcus from Tim, you know that. Especially now after what he did to you. And it’s not like I chose to run off and meet him, he made sure I had no choice.”
“What good are you to Tim if you’re dead?”
“Please Kelly can’t we fight about this later? John has said it all to me. I want to concentrate on getting you better and Tim safe, and finding Marcus.”
“Promise me you’ll never do anything so stupid again, even for Tim.”
“I already promised John.”
“Promise me.”
Cassie smiled. “I promise you.”
Kelly nodded. “Good. Now are you going to tell me what’s going on with you and John?”
“Oh Kelly there’s so much more important things than that to talk about right now.” Cassie couldn’t comprehend the last few days. She didn’t know what to say or where to begin.
Kelly stared at her. Then she tried to smile but her lips only lifted stiffly in the corners. Cassie winced. How could this have happened to Kelly? “I think you two left off where ten years ago ended.”
“Kelly…”
“What?”
“You’re lying beat up in a hospital bed. Who cares about some stupid romance from a decade ago?”
“You did! Otherwise you wouldn’t be avoiding my gaze. How was it?”
Cassie grew warm under Kelly’s gaze. “It was fine.”
“Fine?” Kelly’s eyebrows rose.
Cassie bit her lip, then smiled. “Okay it was great.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“Come on. Tell me.”
“Tell you what? That we ended up together out of the sheer freak circumstances we were trapped together in the same house, and I snuck into his bed because I was scared downstairs alone. Not to mention the fact that he’s on the rebound from the girl he really wants to be with.”
“You’re still in love with him.”
“What? No. I didn’t carry a torch for him all these years.”
“No. But maybe he carried a torch for you.”
“You have no idea how much anger he has toward me.”
“Hate and love can be a fuzzy line.”
“Or hate and lust.”
Kelly nodded. “Okay or lust. But it’s not like he was all that hard up, what with Sarah and all.”