"Wait!"
"C'mon, K.C. we've got to go while Brad is gone."
"Just hold your horses. I need you to reach into the back and grab the Enforcer for me. It hurts my bursitis to reach over the seat like that."
"The what?"
"Just reach down on the floor there behind the seat."
I thought it was a strange time to go searching around in the car, but I reached down and lifted up a Louisville Slugger.
"The Enforcer?" I asked.
"Do you think I would go on those out of town field trips on the bus without protection? This has been my constant companion for years."
"I am not rushing into that house toting a baseball bat. I just want to get my sister and get out of here."
"Suit yourself, Boss. But I'm bringing my old pal."
"Fine."
We went up to the door and knocked. No one answered for what felt like forever. Just as I started to think about what to do next, the bolt on the door opened and Allie peeked out.
"C'mon, Allie lets go," I said.
She stood there not saying anything, her eyes were huge and she stared at me strangely.
"Allie! Come on."
The door swung open. Brad stood behind Allie. He must have left her car somewhere else, because it wasn’t in the driveway or anywhere near the house when we pulled up.
"Quincy, this is a surprise visit. We weren't expecting you," Brad said.
"I'm sorry we didn't call ahead,” I said. “K.C. and I just wanted to take Allie out shopping with us on the spur of the moment."
"Gosh, well we're busy, so it'll have to be some other time."
"We can't..." I wanted to say something to stall but couldn't think of anything.
"We can't wait to see your place," K.C. blurted out. "Allie has told us all about it."
"She has?" He wasn't buying.
K.C. pushed past me and I could see she had stuffed the bat into the back of her pants, down one leg. The little handle peeked up above the waistband of her comfort stretch jeans.
"Oh yes! Once I saw you drive up with that fancy car of yours to drop Allie off at work, I thought to myself, this man has got some taste. I bet that car was expensive." K.C. knew exactly where this man’s motivation came from.
"Yeah, it was very expensive," Brad said, as if he had been complimented.
"You know, my grandson has one just like it, and it was ex...pen...sive! It cost a pretty penny."
He closed his eyes and a crooked smirk checked one side of his face. "I don't think so, I had it specially made. Nobody has one just like it."
"Oh, really?" K.C. sounded like a doting grandmother, enchanted by his every word. "Is this it in this picture here?" She reached for a framed photo from the sideboard table just inside the door. She had worked her way inside the house without Brad realizing what she was doing.
"Don't touch that!" Brad yelled, then left the doorway and rushed over to the table. "I mean, yeah that's me with the car." Brad let go of Allie to make sure K.C. didn't touch his prized possession.
Before I knew what was happening, K.C. slid the bat out of her pants. Bursitis my ass.
"Run Allie!" K.C. yelled.
Brad wheeled around and looked up just in time to see Allie's back as she ran out the door. He lunged toward us and I felt the swish of air as the bat swung past my ear and landed in the middle of Brad's left rib cage. I thought I heard a crackling noise. K.C. had swung that bat like it was full-count in the bottom of the ninth. Brad collapsed to the floor.
K.C. ran out the door and I followed. The bat hung from K.C.'s right hand and as I leapt down the first step, the bat and my back leg crossed paths. I fell sideways off the stairs, about four feet to the ground. K.C. kept running.
My back hit the flowerbed, knocking all of the air out of me. I tried to get up but I couldn't breathe. I gulped and wheezed, willing myself not to panic while it felt as if I might die of asphyxiation. I could see Brad above me looking out the door. His eyes flashed with rage as he watched K.C. and Allie get away. Then he looked down and saw me.
He came down the stairs, crouched next to me and spoke very calmly. I expected him to drag me by the hair up the stairs, but then I was reminded by memories from the past about what would happen next. He needed to keep up appearances in the neighborhood. The pain wouldn’t happen until we were inside. I was furious and petrified at the same time. I had to think of a way out of the situation, but my brain was frozen along with the rest of my body.
“You stupid bitch. You don’t know what a huge mistake you’ve made,” he hissed, quietly, through gritted teeth. “You’re going to get up, and we’re going to walk into the house just as nice as can be. Don’t even think about making a sound. Do you understand?”
I nodded then slowly got up, barely having found enough air to breathe again. I felt the pain of the impact setting into all of my joints as we walked up the stairs. Brad pretended to assist me by holding my forearm and resting a stabilizing hand on my shoulder. In reality he was squeezing hard enough that his fingers seemed to be digging into my bones.
“You think its okay to make me look bad?” he yelled once we were inside with the door closed. He shoved me toward the coffee table. I hit my shins on the edge and fell forward onto the couch.
“You don’t need any help looking bad, you’ve got that covered on your own,” I said.
“What did you just say?”
“You heard me,” I said.
"You just don't get it. I gave you plenty of warnings to stay out of our business, but you didn't pay attention."
"You mean the fires."
He said nothing, but the self-satisfied grin on his face told me I was right. My previous experience had taught me that when in this situation, the best thing to do did not involve adding fuel to the fire. I ignored experience. Bad idea.
I stood up gingerly and tried to make my way to the door.
“Sit down! Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m leaving. I don’t want to be here and you can’t keep me here.”
“Oh yeah? You know, you’re just as stupid as that sister of yours. You’re not going anywhere.” He slid in front of me and blocked the front door with his body.
“Get out of my way Brad.” I tried to push him out of the way and unintentionally pushed on his torso, probably where the bat had hit. I don’t remember what happened after that.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
I could hear my name echoing in the distance. Everything was warm and dark around me. I heard the same lyrics to a song repeating over and over but I couldn’t tell just what the words were.
“Quincy! Wake up. Can you hear me?”
I opened my eyes and the brightness made them water and slam shut. They weren’t open very long, but long enough to make the insides of my skull whirl around like I was on a ride at the amusement park.
“Quincy, c’mon, wake up.” I recognized the voice. It was a voice that made me want to open my eyes again even though I knew it would hurt.
I barely opened them in a squint and in the center of the gauzy edges I saw a beautifully shaped pair of lips saying my name, and then a strong cleft chin under those lips. So I opened my eyes a little more and saw two warm brown eyes looking at me.
“Alex?” My voice sounded foreign as it left my mouth.
“Hey. There you are,” he said softly.
“What…” I couldn’t finish the thought. I reached up to press on my forehead from where the ringing seemed to be emanating. “Ow.” I had touched my eyebrow, which sent a shock wave of pain through my skull and down my spine.
“Careful, Quince. You took a pretty good shot to that eye.”
I was still groggy but managed to look around. I was propped up against the La-Z-Boy recliner in Brad’s living room.
“Where’s Brad?” I asked as I struggled to stand up.
“Hold on there. Where are you going?” Alex asked.
“I have to find Allie.”
“Allie is fine. You need to just sit for a minute.”
“How do you know she’s fine? Do you know where she is?”
“She’s at your shop with your driver.”
“She’s with Nick?”
“Wow, you really did take one to the head, didn’t you?”
“Huh?”
“Allie is with the lady that’s your new driver. She’s the one that called me and told me you were here. When your mind gets clear we’ve got a lot to talk about.”
At this point I had come to enough to realize where I was, and what had happened, up until the part where I pushed Brad. I could pretty much guess what happened after that, even though I didn’t remember. But, I knew Alex was not going to appreciate the reason I ended up in this situation, no matter how noble my intentions.
“Do you feel okay enough to walk out to my car?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I want to get out of this place.”
Alex escorted me out of the house to his car. It felt wrongly comforting that he placed his arm on my back as we walked.
As we approached the curb, angry yelling echoed throughout the neighborhood. I looked back to see an officer escorting a handcuffed Brad to a police car.
“That bitch and her crazy friend break into my house and hit me with a weapon, and
I’m
being arrested? It was self-defense. I’m suing all of you into oblivion. Especially you.” Brad was staring directly at me. “I’d watch my back if I were you.” He said it in a way that made my flesh crawl.
I sat in the passenger seat of the car Alex had directed me to. It wasn’t a black and white, but it wasn’t his Scout, either. It had a radio and computer in it just like the police cars I had ridden in before. My mind felt fizzy, like soda pop. I sat there for what seemed a long, long time, looking around at the inside of the car, and outside the window. The air conditioner was blowing full bore into my face, and I was alone. Alex had left me to go talk to the other officers. I was completely aware of my eye now. It felt like something had been drilled into my skull through the socket.
Alex came back to the car and asked how I was doing.
“How am I doing?”
“Oh. Sounds like you’re not so foggy anymore,” he said timidly. “Quincy, I know what you’re probably going to say, and I don’t blame you for being upset with me.”
“Upset? What is it I should be upset about, Alex? Besides my sister being kidnapped, I mean.”
“Okay, now I know for sure that you’re mad. And I don’t blame you, but…”
“Can I have a ride to my car please?”
“Fine. I’ll give you a ride to your car.”
Not a word passed between us on the ride to my store. When Alex pulled into the parking lot I pulled on the door handle, but nothing happened.
“Could you unlock the door please?”
“Nope.”
“Alex, come on. I am in so much pain right now, and I’ve got a business that should be open.”
“We’re not leaving until you hear what I have to say, Quincy.”
I was trapped. It was a recurring theme in my life, being trapped with a dangerous man. And danger could present itself in different forms. I clenched my jaw, balled my fists on my lap and closed my eyes, prepared to endure one more wrenching of my heart.
“First of all,” he said, “it was an extremely stupid thing you did going to Brad’s house.”
“Someone had to do something.”
“Yes, the police. You should have called the police.”
“It hasn’t helped calling the police so far. In fact, any contact I’ve had with the police has been enough to put at the top of my list of the worst things that have ever happened to me. Including, and especially you.”
Alex’s mouth dropped open then snapped shut and formed a straight line. His jaw worked as if he were chewing on his next sentence. He took a deep breath.
“I know you’re mad at me, but don’t use that as justification for acting crazy. If something happens, you call the police.”
“You know what, Alex? You’re right, I am mad at you. You come into my shop after disappearing on me the first time, you make up some story about a note, you manipulate me enough to get a few thrills for the road—I guess, and then you leave me again.”
“Manipulate you?” he shouted.
“Well, what would you call it?” I shouted back. My head felt like a bell in a church tower on Sunday. I couldn't help grimacing.
“Okay, lets just calm down. Quincy, I’m so sorry I had to leave like that. I wasn’t manipulating you. I tried to tell you..." He sighed and gripped the steering wheel hard enough to turn his knuckles white. He looked straight forward, through the windshield, "I'll be able to explain it all to you really soon.”
“Explain all of what? You abandoned me. You made a fool out of me. It’s bad enough that I’ve got psychos chasing me and I just got punched in the face by another nut job, but you’ve hurt me more than all of those other things combined.”
His eyes softened and the tension left his face. He let go of the steering wheel, and reached for my hand. My first instinct due to previous experience was to jerk away from him when he reached out, since we had been arguing. But he gently cradled my hand in his.
“Quincy, when I left the other day—I shouldn’t be telling you this—I left because I got an emergency page about Arroyo.”
“Arroyo? I thought you were dealing with gangs. Wait…you still have a pager?”
“Yes I have a pager, in case my cell phone isn’t working. It’s a backup, which is a good thing, because like I told you, my phone was broken. I had to leave immediately. I can’t tell you any more. I told you I was on a special task force and that is it. You have to take my word for it.”
“Take your word for it? You couldn’t have left a note, or stuck your head into the other room and said…anything?”
“It was a code red. I was supposed to leave right away, but I did look into the front and saw you were dealing with Cindy. It looked like you were involved in something important and I didn’t think I had time to explain things to you. I didn’t want to interrupt what looked like an intense conversation between you and your employee.” He let go of my hand and softly brushed his thumb over my cheek just below the swollen part of my eye, then winced. He looked into my eyes and sighed. “I'm watching out for you, Quincy. I’m sorry I can’t give you any details now. I’ll be able to later, I promise. Until then I just need you to trust me.”