Chapter 19
19
Aubrey was tired, hurting, and afraid. But there was still so much she had to get through before she could go home—if she went home at all. She wanted to stay with Genny, but she suspected that wasn’t going to happen. For one thing, Ayla couldn’t stay in the chair in the waiting room all night.
Her sister had been up on her feet too long already; Aubrey knew it with one look. Ayla had a limit to what she could do physically. Stress just made it worse.
As Aubrey listened to the Hiller family deciding who was going to stay in the room with Genny, Ayla winced and twisted in the seat. That was all it took. Aubrey made her decision. She was getting her sister home. Genny would be well taken care of here with her family. Well, Aubrey was going to take her family home and take care of her.
She stood and looked at Genny’s mother next to her. Gayle was going to stay with her daughter overnight. Genny’s brothers were preparing to leave now. George’s wife had been driven home by her own brother—one of the police who had responded to the attack—an hour or so earlier.
“I need to get Ayla home now.”
Guthrie stood. “I’ll drive you.”
“I’ll need my car. I can drive. We’re not that far away.” Less than ten minutes. She could drive for ten minutes—the pain meds had lessened the ache in her cheek and her arm. It wasn’t her dominant hand. “Thank you, but I can drive us home.”
“Or, I can,” Ayla said from right beside her. “I can drive a car, you know. I just don’t do it very often.”
“I’m good,” Aubrey said firmly. “If I didn’t think I should, then I wouldn’t take the risk.”
She just wanted to get home. Where she could have two minutes to herself to put her thoughts into perspective, to deal with all of this. Somehow.
She had hit her limit. She just needed to get away.
“I’ll walk you to your car,” Guthrie said. His hand wrapped around her arm, pulling her closer. For a sharp moment, she just wanted to press against him and let him hold her. To keep the darkness away.
“Do you have your bag?”
She did. She’d grabbed it when she’d changed clothes, giving her bloody clothes to the TSP. She bit back the nausea.
Home. She was going to get home.
Someone called Guthrie’s name. It was one of the men from the TSP. Guthrie still had his hand wrapped around her elbow, holding her. Guthrie didn’t want to leave her. He was hovering—probably because he couldn’t get in there with Genny yet. Aubrey understood. He couldn’t be in with his sister—but he could take care of Aubrey now.
But she had to get home. She just needed a place where she could feel safe again.
If she ever could.
“I’ll follow them home, Guth,” a voice very much like Guthrie’s said from behind her. Aubrey turned a little. It was the brother that looked the most like Guthrie. George. The mayor.
“I’ll make sure they get there okay. I need to get home to Veronica and the girls.”
He lived three blocks from Aubrey and Ayla. Just three blocks.
The cop was waiting. Aubrey studied Guthrie’s face for a moment. He didn’t want to leave her. That floored her, no denying that. But he had to take care of his family now, and she… was good on her own.
“I’m okay, Guthrie, but thank you.”
“Just… text me or call me when you get home. I need to know you’re going to be okay tonight. And if you need me later—I’ll keep my phone with me. Text me. I can come to you in a heartbeat. I promise.”
Guthrie looked at Ayla, too. “If your sister needs me, text me. You have my number?”
He gave Ayla his number right there and made her promise to use it.
Then Giavonna was there, helping Ayla to her feet, helping Ayla get balanced. Aubrey usually did that. She just didn’t know if she could right now. Her arm was hurting, even if she wasn’t going to admit that.
She wasn’t used to having people to help. She just wasn’t.
“Are you going to be okay?” Ayla asked quietly, once Giavonna had helped her into her side of the small SUV Aubrey was still making payments on. It had been the easiest for Ayla to ride in comfortably, even though it was a bit more expensive than she had liked.
“I’m going to have nightmares for a long time. But nothing new.” Sometimes she sugarcoated her fears, her worries, from her sister. But Ayla had a tendency to see through that. And Aubrey just couldn’t do it tonight.
“It brings back memories… of eight years ago. And… before. No denying that. It probably always will. She’s my best friend. The only one I’ve ever really had, besides you—and Carlos. And to see—” Aubrey bit back a sob. Now… wasn’t the time. Not while driving her baby sister home. She would get Ayla home.
Then fall apart when she was alone.
Like she had so many times before.
Finally… finally, they were on their street. Genny’s brother was right behind them—and had been the whole way. Those Hiller brothers took the whole “protective” thing seriously. They had hovered over her and Ayla tonight, too.
It had unsettled her, no denying that.
“We are almost home,” Ayla said, completely unnecessarily. But Aubrey heard the relief.
“Are you hurting badly?” Her sister took anti-inflammatories at eight p.m. every night, to help her get through the night. She’d missed those, unless she had some in her bag. Aubrey should have caught that. “I’m sorry.”
“Not too badly, actually. More from story time. I read the Wonkus McBubbles with the climbing moves worked in. It’s probably my favorite of all of the Wonkus books; the kids’, too.”
“But that’s the most physical book, right?” With jumping moves and climbing moves and—it was a cute story. But it took a lot out of Ayla to read twice in one day, and there were two story times at the library now.
“Yes. But it’s worth it. The mayor’s youngest two were in there. They are so cute.” But Ayla was hurting. It was evident in her words, in the way she moved.
Aubrey should have seen that sooner. “Let’s get home. You can take a hot bath tonight, and pain meds, see if they help.”
“I’m more worried about you. This is something I’ve dealt with before. You want to talk yet—Aub!”
Aubrey jerked the SUV to the side, going off a little into the shoulder. Fortunately, their road was wider than most in town. She hit the brakes as the dark truck roared by and disappeared into the night.
Genny’s brother’s truck had swerved behind them. He’d fared a little better—he was still on the road.
“Our house! Look!” Ayla almost yelled. “Someone broke our door!”
Aubrey just looked. And looked.
Their front windows were broken in, their door was in their front yard. And there was—“Is that paint? Who would do this? Why?”
Aubrey pulled her SUV back onto the road and into the far corner of their driveway. “Stay in the car.”
“I don’t think you should get out.”
“I need to see what they did. I need to. It’s… it’s our home.” The only place in the world she had ever truly felt safe before. Safety was an illusion—she had learned that long ago. But this was their home, the first house she had ever bought. It was her… home.
George was there. Right next to her door. “Aubrey, Ayla, stay in the car. I’ve already called the police. They’ll be here shortly.”
Aubrey was already out. It was her home . She needed to see.
No matter what, she needed to see.