Torn (45 page)

“But Nate,” he protested, his
eyes drifting back over to Billy’s prone body behind me.

“You promised, Josh. You promised
Dad that when he wasn’t around, you’d listen to your big brother. Now I’m
giving you an order. Get your ass out of here, I’ve got this.”

He swallowed and nodded, his eyes
flicking over to where Sky lay on the floor. I grabbed his face and pulled it
back to me, then leaned in and whispered to him, trying to reassure him that
everything was going to be ok. I planted a kiss on the top of his head, then
repeated my order to go. He turned and fled out of the open front door.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I uttered, as
reality caught up with me. I shot around the sofa and skidded on my knees to
Sky’s side. “What did he do to you, baby?” I groaned. She looked so pale, but
totally at peace, just like an angel. I felt for a pulse, my heart leaping for
joy to find it was there, then I quickly checked to see if she was breathing,
which she was. Everything else paled in comparison to the relief I felt that
she was still alive. I lowered my lips to hers and kissed her, holding them
there for a moment as I felt the prickle of tears in my eyes. “I love you, Sky,
more than life itself. Tell me you know that. I need you to know that whatever
happens, whatever I say or do from this moment onward, this is the truth. You’re
the love of my life. The one I’ll never get over.”

She didn’t even flicker her
eyelids in response, breaking my heart to know that she couldn’t hear me. I
rolled her onto her side in the recovery position, tugging her uniform down to
cover my boxers she was wearing and trying to cover her exposed chest. I stood
up, taking a few deep breaths as I pulled my phone out of my pocket and stared
at it, then dialed 911, speaking over the woman that answered in a rush.

“I need paramedics and the police
immediately. My girlfriend’s been drugged during an attempted rape and is
unconscious, and I … I …” I took another deep breath, knowing what I was about
to lose with just one more sentence. “I shot and killed the guy who did it.”

I fired off Billy’s address as
well and told her that Sky wasn’t in immediate danger as I had first-aid training.
She hesitated for a moment, then told me that the police and the EMTs had been
alerted. I cut her off and shoved my cell back in my pocket. My hands were
shaking so hard. I wondered if it was normal for someone to call 911 and admit
to murder. I put my hands over my eyes and tried to pull myself together. Sky
needed me, and once the police got here, I had no idea when I was going to see
her again. I turned around and removed my hands from my face to force myself to
look at my cousin. I thought I’d seen blood when I’d found Ma in the bath, but
that had been a watered-down version of what I was looking at now. Billy was
surrounded by fluid that was far thicker, darker, and more sticky looking.
There was so much of it.
So much
. My stomach roiled, and I just made it
to the tall bamboo plant by the front door before throwing up. My stomach
retched again and again.

My family was cursed. Four dead in
two years, and I was somehow responsible for two of them. Three if you counted
that I’d pretty much just ended my own life as well. In fact, four if you
counted what I was about to put Sky through. I wiped my mouth on the back of my
sleeve and walked with leaden feet back to my girl. I sank down onto the floor
next to Sky’s head, my back against the sofa, and studied her face as I put my
fingers on her neck, making sure her pulse was still there. As I sat and watched
her, I went back to the moment we first met and I saw those gorgeous brown eyes
of hers. I’d give anything to see those eyes of hers right now.

Nate

Saturday

I was still sitting there with my
fingers on her neck, staring at her beautiful face, when armed police entered
Billy’s house and yelled at me to put my hands on my head and not move.

That was it.

A single moment in time.

A defining moment in your life
when you know that everything’s about to change.

A moment when you take
responsibility for your choices and own them.

That moment that you realize
nothing’s ever going to be the same again.

That
moment was mine.

My life as I knew it was over.

Sky

Sunday

My eyes flickered as I tried to
open them, but the bright light that tried to pierce through and burn my pupils
made me force them shut again. I groaned and rolled my head to the side. Jesus,
my head was pounding and my mouth was so dry.

“Sky, sweetheart, are you awake?”
Mom’s voice exclaimed. “Diego, Diego! She’s waking up, she’s waking up,” Mom
cried.

“Mom,” I croaked, my throat
scratchy and raw. “Don’t shout, my head hurts.”

I winced as I felt her clasp my
face and pepper it in kisses, drops of wetness falling on my forehead. Was she
crying? Why was she crying? What the hell was going on?

“Out of the way please, Mrs.
Torres, I need to check her,” came a firm female voice, and I slowly opened my
eyes. I squinted as I looked up at the white square tiles on the ceiling, with
the odd light pane here and there. That wasn’t my bedroom ceiling. That wasn’t
Nate’s either. But I was in bed. “Sky, my name is Doctor McPherson-Mock. Can
you hear me?”

“Too loud and clear,” I moaned as
her face came into view. She gave me a tight-lipped smile as she nodded. Why
was there a doctor here?

“You suffered a concussion and
you’re in Boulder City Hospital. I’d like to check your pupil responses, please?”
She said it as a question, but didn’t give me a choice as she lifted up one of
my eyelids and shone a bright light into it, and I winced and tried to shut it
again. She repeated with the other, then muttered, “Excellent.”

“What’s going on?” I grumbled as
I went to wipe my eyes, then hissed as something tugged on my right arm and
stung.

“Gently,” she warned, pushing my
hand back down onto the bed. “You were brought in yesterday at lunchtime,
unconscious, as an emergency. We gave you a CT scan, which showed a mild
concussion, and we’ve been monitoring you overnight. You have a drip in your
arm to give you fluids and keep you hydrated. I’d like to keep you overnight
again to observe you, as … well, there were additional complications, but I
think I’ll let your family explain. They’ve been by your side since we called
them,” she smiled, patting my hand before slipping her instrument of bright-beamed
torture back into the upper pocket of her white coat.

“Complications?” I homed in on
that one word and quickly tried flexing my toes, breathing a sigh of relief
that I could feel and move them. At least I wasn’t paralyzed. I could see,
hear, feel, talk, and sadly smell too. The scent of disinfectant was so
pungent. So what complications were there?

“I’m here if you need to ask any
questions once your parents have spoken to you. But I can assure you that
you’re going to be fine.” She gave me a kind smile this time, which I returned,
even though I was feeling confused. I followed her with my eyes to the door, and
I registered that I was in a private hospital room, with vertical blinds on the
window and a glass pane in the door. She gently closed it behind her, and I
heard a heavy sigh to my left. I tipped my head back to see Mom and Pops
holding hands, worry etched all over their faces.

“Hey, what’s going on?”

“Oh, sweetheart,” Mom sobbed,
racing to my side and gathering me up into her arms.

“Mom, kind of need to breathe
here,” I laughed as she crushed me. She quickly sat up, taking my good hand in
hers as Pops came to put his hand on her shoulder and gave me a smile.

“What do you remember, before you
woke up?”

“Ermmm.” I bit on my bottom lip
as I ran things through in my head. “Getting dressed at Nate’s, saying goodbye.
I got a text to go and meet Billy. I biked to his house and we were talking …” I
frowned, were we talking or arguing? Things were kind of fuzzy. “I felt kind of
woozy, then I woke up here.”

Mom and Pops gave each other a
look, and Pops nodded to her.

“Sky,” she sighed as she pulled
her gaze back to mine. “You remember that time Nate brought you home from the
party, where someone had slipped something into your drink?”

“How could I forget? I even have
a bottle combination lock for when I take a bottle to a party.”

“Which is a very sensible move,
sweetheart, but sadly you accepted a drink from Billy at his house and he … he
drugged you, Sky. And I’m sure it was him that drugged you before,” she choked,
tears suddenly spewing from her eyes as she turned to bury her face in Pops’
stomach.

“He what?” I whispered, hardly
able to believe what I was hearing.

“He drugged you, Sky,” Pops
confirmed, forcing me to swallow hard as a number of scenarios, none of them
good, suddenly invaded my thoughts. “And no, he didn’t get a chance to touch
you before Nate got there and put a stop to it,” he added quickly, as he read
the look of horror on my face. “Nate called the paramedics, who brought you
here immediately. Your mom and I even consented to a … rape test, just in case,
and it was clear.”

“Oh my God.” I felt like I was
going to be sick. I pushed myself up in bed as fury flowed through my veins, a
red-hot anger that was going to end with me and Billy having this out once and
for all. “Where is the sonofabitch? I’m going to kill him!” I yelled,
struggling to get myself out of bed, with Mom and Pops holding me down.

“Sky, he–”

“Darling, no!” Pops said sharply,
interrupting her. “He’s not going to trouble you again, sweetheart. Josh is
outside, waiting to see you. He can fill in the blanks, but you need to stay in
bed. You’re weak, and with that nasty head bump you took, I don’t want you
falling and hurting yourself again. The sooner we can get you discharged and
home, the better, ok?”

“He was my friend, Pops,” I
whispered, feeling unbelievably hurt, not sure whether my overriding emotion
right now was anger or disappointment. “He was supposed to be my friend.”

“I know,” he sighed, as he leaned
down and kissed my forehead. “But you’ve got a great one waiting outside to see
you, and even Liam will be arriving soon. In fact, I need to get going to McCarran
airport to pick him up. Your mom will be outside until I get back, ok?”

“Liam’s really coming?” I
enthused, focusing on that happy news instead of what I wanted to do to Billy.
I hadn’t seen him in person since last August.

“He was going to drive, in that beat-up
thing he calls a car,” Pops scoffed. “So I put a halt to that and paid for an
open-ended return.”

“I love you, Pops, but speaking
of love, where’s Nate? I could really do with a hug from him right now. Is he
super mad with me? He warned me to never be alone with Billy and I didn’t
listen.”

“He’s kind of … tied up right now,”
Mom advised, stroking my hair. “He’d be here if he could, but he sends his
love. I’ll send Josh in, but I’m outside if you need me.” She handed me a glass
and straw, and I smiled and clutched it as they both headed out, Mom waving as
she shut the door.

I craned my head and could just
see through the blinds that hadn’t been fully closed. Pops was talking to Josh,
with his hands on his shoulders as Mom shook her head. Pops pulled Josh in for
a hug, then disappeared off up the hallway. Billy
damn
Hudson! I wracked
my brain, trying to pick up any signs I’d gotten from him that indicated he’d
go as far as drugging me. Josh was going to have to give me some answers as
soon as he got in here, including why Nate was so busy he couldn’t be here. If
he’d been hospitalized, I wouldn’t have left his side for a second. There was a
knock on the door and Josh slipped inside and shut it, hanging back as we
locked eyes. He looked tired and stressed, and even had a dusting of stubble, which
was so unlike him. I shoved my cup of water on the side and seconds later, he’d
crossed the room and was sitting on my bed with his arms around me. I clutched
him back tightly, closing my eyes as he kissed the top of my head.

“Why, Josh? Why did he do this to
me? Was it my fault? Did I lead him on?” I whimpered.

“You did nothing wrong,” he
sighed. “We did, me and Nate. We should have been honest from the start, but we
… we didn’t want you to look at us differently. Mental health problems can
freak some people out.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. He
let go of me and settled me back on my propped-up bed, then scrubbed his hands
over his face.

“There’s a history of it in our
family. Obviously you know about Ma, and her brother, Billy’s dad, who
committed suicide after Dad died. I guess we were just worried that if you knew
our family history, that it ran in the family and that Billy was affected too,
you might treat me and Nate differently, stay away from us,” he shrugged.

“Josh!” I scolded. “You really
think I’m that shallow and stupid? Depression’s a disease that can happen to
anyone, all mental health problems are. And they can be treated. I’d never hold
that against anyone. Liam, my own best friend, is on antidepressants. The
people I feel sorry for are the ones who don’t get diagnosed, or who are but
can’t afford the treatment they so desperately need.”

“See, that’s why you had all
three of us fighting over you, Sky Torres. You’re the sweetest person I know, you
don’t have a bad bone in your body.” He gave me a weak smile and shook his
head. “It means a lot that you don’t judge us, but Billy … Billy had severe
problems. He was diagnosed on the autism spectrum and suffered from manic
depression too, plus he had auditory hallucinations.”

“Come again?” I frowned.

“In simple terms, he had problems
with empathy and had tunnel vision, where he’d fixate on something. In this
case, it was obviously you. He didn’t like that you picked Nate and was
irrationally jealous. When he was younger, he used to hear voices in his head
telling him to do things, and he … that doesn’t matter now. Basically it made
him deluded, and he acted from time to time in a way that was dangerous, but
luckily he got diagnosed and treated. While he was taking his meds, he was so
much better, but Nate and I still looked out for him, made sure he was ok and
wasn’t a threat to anyone. We just wanted him to not be treated differently by
anyone else. Sometimes he’d stop taking his meds though, insisting there was
nothing wrong with him. He must have … he must have come off them. God, Sky,
this is all my fault. I should have been honest with you, I’m so sorry,” he
groaned.

“You’re right, you should have
told me. I get you keeping it a secret from a stranger, but I wasn’t a stranger,
Josh. I was in your lives virtually every day and he drugged me, twice!”

“We don’t know if it was him the
first time, Sky,” Josh protested, halting himself as I raised my eyebrows. “It
was probably him and we were too blind to see it,” he sighed with a gentle nod
of his head.