Chapter 8
Eight
—Text from Cutter to Apollo
APOLLO
“Can you tell me what happened?”
The official-looking man nodded his head, his face grim as he asked his questions.
I told him the modified version of the truth, leaving out any mention of the infant that Sam had left with earlier.
“And that’s what happened in your recollection as well?” the officer asked.
He wasn’t with any of the name-brand companies like the FBI or the CIA.
He was with something for the aviation commission. Or something I hadn’t caught because I was overly exhausted.
I needed a nap in the worst way, and the man in front of us didn’t think we needed one.
He was uncaring about what had happened to us. He only wanted us to repeat, over and over, what had happened.
Lucky for us, we’d been pretty much on the same page.
The only snag in our stories, however, was not telling them about the baby.
We’d lied our little heads off about that.
I still had the iPad of the woman.
We’d taken the bottle with us.
The only physical evidence that there had ever been a child present was a single diaper that we’d left on the counter at the home that we’d commandeered for the night.
There was no way that we could make it back there, either.
Emergency vehicles were everywhere, blocking the path into the destruction.
To get back, we’d have to sneak in, and we weren’t really interested in doing that.
Hopefully no one really thought to check that house.
And the owners who did their inspections overlooked it.
“Yes, sir.” Dru leaned forward and covered her face. “I’ve been at this for two hours with you. I’ve told you everything I know. I need a break.”
“Just a few more…”
“No!” Dru snarled. “I’m done. I’ve not slept in what feels like two days.
I’ve been through a plane crash and a tornado.
I haven’t even had a hot meal yet. I have to pee.
My entire body hurts. My eyes feel like sandpaper, and I’m really fucking over answering your questions.
Common decency usually requires you to help the people after they’ve experienced a tragedy.
I’ve seen so many dead bodies that I feel like the scent is in my nose.
I’m done. D. O. N. E. Now get me out of this fucking room! ”
The man leaned forward, ready to interrupt her multiple times.
But Dru wasn’t done. “I’m not a fucking criminal! You can’t fucking keep me here! It’s against my constitutional rights, goddammit! What’s the fucking point of living in the land of the free if I can’t fucking leave when I’m not under arrest?! Let me GO!”
The door opened, and a woman stepped inside. “Officer Henderson, that’s enough. They can go.”
“Good, at least someone has some sense. It makes sense that the woman has to come in here to deal with your stupid ass.”
My lips twitched.
And Officer Henderson didn’t look amused.
But I was done as well.
I got up and placed the palm of my hand against Dru’s lower back and herded her into the hallway.
We were outside when she said, “What the fuck was that about? Dammit, man. That’s not how you treat trauma victims!”
I agreed with her.
That was more.
Almost as if they were trying to fish out something else.
“A senator and a couple of really important people were on that plane,” I answered her as I guided her out of the building. “They think this was a terrorist event. They’re trying to figure out everything that happened and we’re the only two survivors.”
“I don’t fucking care,” she grumbled. “I really want Raising Canes.”
“I got you, girl.”
I looked up to find Webber, our club president, standing there with his arms crossed, in the middle of the parking lot.
“Everyone else leave?”
“As soon as I arrived. Too many people asking questions that we don’t like answering,” he answered. “Introduce me.”
“Dru, this is Webber, my club president.” I jerked my chin toward Dru. “Webber, this is Dru. The woman who saved my life.”
“I didn’t save your life,” she muttered. “You would’ve done just fine on your own. I was just there as moral support.”
My lips twitched. “And she’s really hungry.”
“Overly.” She nodded seriously.
“There’s a Raising Canes just past that red light,” Webber said. “Then we can get on the road.”
Webber walked us over to his truck and without words, Dru climbed inside the back seat and buckled herself in.
“I like her,” Webber murmured quietly.
I looked at him over the hood of the truck and said, “I do, too.”
We got Dru her Raising Canes, and I was impressed by how much she put away.
“I was hungry,” she said when I looked at her with a grin.
“I know,” I murmured as I took a swig of sweet tea. “You gonna finish that last chicken strip?”
She picked it up and took a large bite of it, glaring at me over her box.
Webber laughed. “Told you to get a second meal.”
“I truly didn’t think that she’d finish it,” I told my friend.
“She said she would,” Webber pointed out.
“Yeah, but she’s the size of a child. I honestly didn’t think that she would be able to,” I admitted. “It’s okay. I’m not that hungry anymore.”
Dru finished her food in silence, and then leaned over until she was laid out on the back seat, and closed her eyes.
I wanted to do the same, but I had other things on my mind.
Like getting a new phone.
“Need to stop at the nearest phone store,” I muttered.
“Already ahead of you.” He jerked his chin toward the console. “Got you a phone and a computer at Apple on the way out of Dallas. That’s why I was late.”
“Thanks,” I said as I dove into the console and pulled everything out. “I have to get an idea of what’s going on, and it’s driving me crazy not knowing.”
“You think that there’s more to that plane crash?”
“No,” I admitted. “I saw the lightning strike it myself. There’s no way that anyone can plan that. But I’m going to get onto the flight manifest and do some erasing. I want no mention of there being a baby on board at all belonging to that woman.”
Webber stayed silent as we drove, allowing me to do what I needed to do.
I’d just finished up when we hit traffic outside of Dallas.
“Why’d you need me home?” I asked, thinking about the timing of getting onto that plane in particular.
If I hadn’t gotten on that plane, Dru would’ve been all on her own.
“I just wanted you home,” he admitted. “Feel kind of shitty now asking you to get on a plane that crashed. Fuckin’ terrifying that you could’ve died, and it’d have been my fault.”
“I’m glad that I was on it,” I mumbled as I looked out of the window, noticing the traffic starting to pile up. “Home sweet home.”
Webber scoffed. “You know you love it.”
I thought about what he said for a long time before I admitted, “Being around the brothers makes me physically sick. Seeing all these kids being born or coming in from the outside…it makes me fuckin’ hurt.”
Webber stayed quiet for a long time as he navigated the traffic before saying, “Is that why you’ve been gone? Why you took this job that you said was only temporary, and haven’t come back?”
I scratched the back of my head. “Yeah.”
“No one blames you for taking the time you need to grieve, man,” Webber murmured as he cast me a quick glance before taking his eyes back to the road.
“We just want you to be happy. If that’s all the way in DC, then we’ll support you fully.
Would we like you here? Hell yes. Would we be sad that we can’t see you?
Double fucking yes. But we’re not going to begrudge you the time.
But, just in case you haven’t noticed, everyone has kids, man.
Just because you move up there and don’t come home doesn’t mean that they’re still not going to be in your life.
I mean, look at today. You had a kid strapped to your chest in the middle of one of the worst days of your life.
And you lived. It sucked. It was really hard.
But you took care of Dru and that baby…and you lived. ”
My shoulders slumped. “It made me want to puke.”
“But you did it.”
I nodded. “But I did it.”
“So what’s your next step?” he asked. “You need therapy. And I know that I’m not usually one to follow my own advice, but Silver’s made me fuckin’ soft, man.
And if you don’t want to talk to a therapist, at least talk to someone else.
” His eyes glanced in the rear-view mirror.
“Like a pretty little nurse that is obsessed with you.”
“What makes you think she’s obsessed?” I asked.
Because if anyone was obsessed, it was me.
I already had my computer and laptop working double time so I could find everything there was to know about Dru Rossi out. I’d know her every single wish and desire by the end of the day.
I’d have her shopping history. Her credit score. Her fuckin’ bookmark history on her computer.
I wanted to know it all, down to the tiniest of things.
If it concerned her, or even partially skimmed just beneath the surface of her, I wanted that knowledge.
Sure, I could ask her, but that wasn’t usually how I worked.
Plus, I doubted she’d go as in-depth as I wanted.
Hell, at this point I wanted to know her average keystroke when she typed. I wanted to know how many times she fuckin’ blinked in a minute.
I was that obsessed.
“She followed your every move. Every time someone came into that hotel room, she’d ask about you.
She even Googled you when someone let her use their phone.
Wouldn’t leave without you. Got combative when they tried to separate you out to talk to you about the crash.
If that doesn’t sound like she’s obsessed, after having known you for only a few short hours, then I don’t know what does. ”
I smiled. Her fit when they’d tried to separate us had been epic, and short of arresting her for doing nothing wrong but being irrationally attached to me, they had no other recourse but to bring us in together.
I had a feeling, had they tried to push harder, she would’ve shut down and not answered a single one of their questions.
I’d never felt so wanted in my life.