2. Chase
2
CHASE
I knew Carteret Presbyterian Hospital like the back of my hand. I had walked these halls more times than I could count. I knew most of the staff, and they let me go wherever I needed to without much of a fuss. Especially if I was on duty.
Given the circumstances, I was.
I rested my hands on my hips as I waited at the empty nursing station outside Bridget’s room. I had pressed the call button, but no one responded. Probably short-staffed like usual. I shifted my belt, trying to redistribute the weight from the gun holstered on my hip.
“What’cha need, Detective Brannan?” Ruthie, a staunch nurse in her mid-fifties, asked, breathless, as she plopped down in a rolling chair behind the desk. Her graying curls were frazzled from hustling around the floor. She eyed me up and down before looking at the computer. “You look dead on your feet. You need to go home and get some sleep.”
I ignored the latter comment. The furthest I would be going from Bee’s room was the lobby to grab Mel. “Bridget McGrath is awake. She’s in pain. Probably needs some more meds.”
Ruthie raised a silver eyebrow. “Since she’s awake, I’ll page the doctor, and we’ll have a chat with Bridget about what she wants as far as pain management.” Her fingers flew over the keyboard.
My knuckles turned white as I gripped the edge of the Formica kiosk. “I do not want her in any pain,” I clipped through gritted teeth.
I knew my best friend. She could be a stubborn asshole when she wanted to be. I knew, undoubtedly, that she’d forgo pain intervention in favor of “toughing it out.”
Not on my watch.
I wanted her to be comfortable and resting peacefully so that she could heal properly before I ripped her a new one for hiding all this from me.
Ruthie stood, pulling her glasses down from the nest of silver hair on top of her head. She let them dangle on the jeweled chain around her neck. “I do not have enough Crayons on hand to explain this on your level, so please at least attempt to understand my grown-up words.”
She rounded the nursing station, crossing her arms as she stood in front of me. “It’ll take more than medication to help her heal. Step one is letting her have a say in her recovery process. What happens here at the hospital is just the beginning.” She paused and looked at Bridget’s door. “When someone is violated like that, they’re forced to rebuild who they are piece by piece. It’s an ugly process, and it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a timid dance between needing a safe space to be alone and heal, while being protected by a community that will keep her from becoming completely isolated again.”
I wanted to ask if she was speaking from experience, but I bit my tongue .
“It will take her mind longer to heal than her body,” Ruthie said gently. She reached out and gave my arm a squeeze. “Just don’t give up on her. Make sure you’re taking care of yourself, too. You can’t be there for her if you’re running on fumes.”
“Yeah,” I rasped. My throat was hoarse from hours of pleading with God not to take my girl from me.
“The cafeteria’s open for another hour. Why don’t you go down and get you somethin’ to eat? Grab her a little something too. They’ve got banana pudding today—the good kind. Not that hot mess with the meringue. It’ll perk her up. The doctor will probably want to run some tests while she’s awake, so we’ll keep her occupied until you get back.”
I looked over my shoulder. The door was cracked, and I could see her lying in the hospital bed. Her eyes were closed, but I wasn’t surprised. She had been fading in and out as she fought the effects of the pain medications.
It fucking hurt to look at her. To see her beautiful skin streaked with red and marked in shades of black and blue. To see her wrapped in gauze, precariously pieced back together.
But I had never loved anyone more.
Never loved anyone else.
“Yeah,” I said on a huff. I ran my hand over my hair. “Yeah. I’ll do that.”
I hurried down to the lobby to find Mel. My stomach protested the detour, but the pang of hunger would just have to wait.
The nursing staff threw a hissy fit when everyone tried to cram into Bee’s room to visit her all at once. So, they resigned to camping out in the lobby.
Melissa and Jason had come with her in the ambulance. Jason had been the one to send out the SOS text in the poker club group chat, but Steve had caught the BOLO sent out first .
I had never been to Kyle Kingsley’s house, but—for reasons I didn’t want to admit—I knew the address.
Havelock police responded to the house, but a BOLO for Kingsley’s vehicle had gone out to the surrounding counties.
I was already halfway to the precinct to see what I could do when my phone lit up with Jason’s text. Pulling a tight U-turn and flooring it, lights and sirens all the way, to the hospital had been muscle memory alone.
All I saw was red.
I was going to kill Kyle Kingsley if it was the last thing I ever did.
The poker club looked morose, all sprawled out in the lobby.
I was right there with them.
Luca was sitting in a chair. His phone was in his hand, but he was staring at the floor. Maddie lay curled up in the chair beside him. Her knees were up by her chest, and her head lay on Luca’s lap. Poor thing had to be feeling like shit. She was in the first trimester of her pregnancy and, according to Luca, it had been rough.
Hannah Jane and Isaac were beside them. She was sitting on Isaac’s lap. His tie was loose around the collar of his dress shirt. Hannah Jane was using his suit jacket as a blanket as she rested against him. When word about Bridget went out, he’d been in New York. The minute his phone went off, Isaac walked out of a meeting mid-negotiation, hopped on his plane, and flew back here to simply wait with everyone. That had been seventeen hours ago.
Will had his arm around Kristin, leaning down and speaking softly to her. Erica was sitting with them, rocking Eli in her arms. Steve was nowhere to be found.
Mel and Jason were sitting by themselves on the opposite side of the lobby. I couldn’t even begin to understand what they were dealing with .
Bridget had been admitted and taken back to the operating room immediately. The medical staff were worried about swelling around her brain from the head trauma. Given her condition, Mel, Jase, and I were forced to sit in the waiting room until she was stable.
Melissa Jacobsen was one of the strongest people I knew. But to see her crumble in Jase’s arms was a reckoning.
They were cagey with the details, giving me lines about Bridget’s privacy, and she would want to tell you herself.
Eventually, Jase gave it up that the abuse had been going on for a while, though he had only found out yesterday.
Melissa had known for years and didn’t say a fucking peep.
He explained some shit about Kingsley blackmailing Bridget with threats against Kristin and Melissa, but it was all in one ear and out the other. Especially when my girl was fighting for her life.
“She’s awake,” I managed to choke out.
All eyes looked up at me.
“What?” Kristin whimpered.
Luca shook Maddie awake and helped her sit up. Her eyes were red and puffy.
I scrubbed my hand down the stubble on my cheek. “Bridget. She, uh… She’s awake. Talking.” I sucked in a gulp of air and slowly let it out. The cocktail of adrenaline and exhaustion was a potent mix. I didn’t want to sugarcoat things, so I added, “She’s in some pain, but the, uh… The doctors are with her now.” I looked at Mel. “She asked for you.”
Melissa jumped up like her ass was on fire. Jason was on her tail, but stopped before passing me. He looked me in the eye.
Even though his world had been fragmented, he extended his hand and shook mine without a single word.
“How is she?” Maddie asked, dragging a chair over to their circle of misery so that I could sit .
I wanted to go back to Bridget’s room, but I figured Mel and Jason needed a few minutes alone with her.
“She, uh…” I sat down and dropped my head into my hands, scraping my nails against my scalp. “Shit…”
Kristin reached over and squeezed my knee.
None of them had actually seen Bridget yet. Only Mel, Jason, and I knew the extent of the damage. It was brutal.
“Is it true?” Hannah Jane asked quietly. “That Kyle…” She couldn’t even stomach vocalizing the words.
I nodded and stared a hole in the slick tile floor. “Yeah.”
Contempt and enmity churned with the hatred in my veins. I would make him pay. Remaining calm around Bee had been a fucking challenge. All I wanted to do was drive to the station, leave my badge on the chief’s desk, and hunt Kyle Kingsley like the animal he was.
I wouldn’t spare him with a bullet.
Whatever he had done to Bridget, I’d do to him tenfold until he was reduced to a lump of lifeless flesh and decimated bones.
“Jason said they saw Kyle fleeing the scene when they were on their way to the house to get Bee,” Erica said quietly. “Steve’s shift already ended, but he called a little bit ago and said he’s working with the Havelock PD to track him down.”
“I don’t want to state the obvious,” Maddie said as she looked around the circle. “But did Mel and Jason know about it before yesterday?”
Isaac sighed. “I think we all had suspicions.”
I looked at Erica. There had been a time before she and Steve started going steady that both Steve and I had confronted Bridget. Back then, Erica had been working at the bar with her. I ran into Erica a few days after the confrontation and asked her to tell me if she felt like something was up.
But that was years ago .
Fucking years.
“But why wouldn’t she tell someone?” Kristin asked quietly. “I mean, we saw her at least once a week. Hell, she probably saw at least one of us every day.”
Cases like this were some of the worst that I saw as a cop. People were hurt and violated by monsters claiming to be saviors. And, unfortunately, they were all too common.
“Leaving a relationship like that is the most dangerous part,” I said. “In a lot of cases, people find it safer to stay than to try to get out.”
The numbers were getting better now that there were more organizations to support people in transition, but it was still an uphill climb.
Domestic calls were often some of the most dangerous for law enforcement.
Steve and I had gone through a new training course last year. The statistics from that class echoed in my mind. Usually, it took someone seven tries before they left an abusive situation for good.
I wondered how many times Bridget had tried.
“He was blackmailing her,” Will said. His voice was monotone, but I could tell he was holding back.
Everyone chimed in with curious questions all at once.
Will held his hands out to stop the onslaught. When all was quiet, he wrapped his arm around Kristin and said, “Jase pulled me aside when he and Mel came down. Bridget told him everything yesterday morning. Bee said that she tried to leave Kyle a while back, and he let her go.” He sighed and pressed his fist to his mouth. “Apparently, he had people break into Mel’s apartment and Kristin’s trailer. Kyle sent Bee pictures of the girls while they were asleep inside their bedrooms. Of our kids while they were at school. Of Mel while she was out around town. Said that he would kill them if she didn’t come back. Jason told me so that I could keep an eye out.”
So, she had tried to leave.
That fucker yanked her back in with a noose around her neck.
Bridget chose to sacrifice herself for the safety of her friends. She walked back into the lions’ den, knowing she would never leave.
I was caught between wanting to yell at her and wanting to tell her what a fucking amazing heart she had.
Bile rose in my throat. Now I really was going to end him.
Kyle Kingsley’s days were numbered.
Hannah Jane went white as a sheet. “Oh my God.” She clamped her hands over her mouth. “She stayed at my house that night. I remember it. Bee was vague about what went down between her and Kyle, but I just assumed they’d had a fight, and she was thinking about breaking up with him.” She dabbed at a tear. “When I asked her about it a while later, she just said they worked things out.”
“Do you actually think Kyle would…” Maddie’s voice trailed off, and Luca held her just a little bit tighter. “Do you think he’s capable of something like that?”
I nodded, trying to put on my mask of professionalism. “Yeah. I do, actually.” I leaned back in the chair and ran my fingers through my hair. It was greasy and unkempt after hours of doing that exact motion. “I’ve seen it happen before. Guys like that. They’ll use whatever leverage they can. If I was a betting man, I’d say he’s not done yet.”
Before I could get another word out, everyone’s phones buzzed and chimed simultaneously.
Melissa
Bridget wanted me to text everyone and say that she loves y’all, but she’s not feeling up to seeing visitors. Hopefully, they’ll discharge her by poker night.
Erica sighed. “I guess that’s understandable. I should probably pick up Aly from Evelyn and Tom’s and get this little man home.” She nodded toward Eli, who was sound asleep in her arms.
There were murmurs of agreement and disappointment as everyone rose and shook off the fatigue.
Hannah Jane caught my arm as the group migrated toward the door. “Come over to my place. We’ll order in or scrounge up dinner or something. You shouldn’t be alone.”
“I’m staying,” I clipped. “But thanks.”
I said my goodbyes and made a quick pit stop at the cafeteria before heading back up to Bridget’s room.
“She’s not taking visitors,” Ruthie called from behind the nurse’s station. I hadn’t even made it to Bridget’s door yet.
I stopped dead in my tracks. “Is the doctor in there with her?”
“No.”
“Is she having tests done?”
“Nope.”
“Then I’m going in,” I said as I continued down the corridor.
Ruthie huffed. “Don’t make me call security, Detective Brannan. It’ll be really awkward when they have to escort you out.”
“I was just up here!” I argued, turning and dropping the plastic container of banana pudding on top of her desk to jog her memory. “Remember?”
She cocked an eyebrow, daring me to use that tone with her again.
I raised my palms and let out a breath.
When she was fully satisfied that I wasn’t going to fly off the handle, she said, “I remember. Now, do you remember me telling you that Bridget was going to get a hefty say in her own care? That means that when she tells me the only people allowed in her room are her brother and Melissa Jacobsen, I respect that. And when she tells me that under no circumstances are you to be allowed in her room, I will make sure that that wish is respected.”
“Just let me go talk to her,” I hissed. “Five minutes. Just give me five minutes.”
Ruthie shook her head. “If you try to enter that room, Stan is gonna tackle you.” She pointed to the security guard down the hall.
“Ruth—”
She relented and gave me a half-hearted smile. “Time, Chase. She needs time. You can’t go in there and steamroll her.” Then, with a flick of a red-painted nail, she said, “But you’re more than welcome to hang out in the lounge over there.”
I glanced over to the clump of vinyl-covered chairs and loveseats meant for loved ones to congregate.
“I happen to take patients that way when they need to go to imaging or need to take a few laps around the floor to stretch their legs.”
It was an olive branch. A small one. One that Bridget was probably going to hate.
“You got a sticky note or something?” I asked.
Ruthie handed me a pad and a pen. I scribbled down a few words and then stuck the note to the plastic lid of the banana pudding cup. “Mind taking that to Bee for me?”
She glared at me over the frame of her glasses.