30. Chapter 30
Chapter 30
Joker
I stare at Ginny. She’s not quite awake, but this is more than sleep. I’ve seen this in the desert before. Her mind is in preservation mode. And if the swelling in her cheek and lip are any indication, her brain could have been knocked around a bit. I hold her, not moving, and not touching anything, waiting for everyone to get here. I don't care if it take an hour, I'll sit with her, holding her close, keeping her safe.
I don’t have any answers, and she didn’t tell me anything, but I know he was going to attack her again. He wasn’t going to let her out of here. And if it comes down to it, I’m taking the fall for this one. For now, she’s safe, softly breathing in my arms, her body warm against my chest.
Davis is the first to arrive, stopping at the door, like he’s afraid to come in. “What the fuck?”
I just look at him, trying to think of the best words to use. “She’s going to be fine,” I assure him.
“What’s wrong with her?”
“Self-preservation,” I tell him. “But her vitals are good, and we’re going to let her be comfortable for a little while.”
Mr. Mills steps up beside Davis, having heard the last few words. I nod at him as he takes in the scene.
“Who hit her?” he asks, not wasting any time.
“Blood is fresh,” I reply. “He was the only one in here with her.”
“Who did,” he pauses and waves his hand toward Keith’s body, “that?”
“Do you want the truth or what we’re telling Sammy?” I raise my brow.
“What you’re telling Sammy is the fucking truth. No mostly legal this time,” Sam says through clenched teeth. “What did you touch?”
“The gun and Ginny. That’s it.”
“She okay?” he asks.
“She’s going to be fine. Physically.”
“He hit her?”
“That’s my guess.”
“Good.”
“Good?” Davis, Mr. Mills, and I all ask at the same time.
“Self-defense, gentleman.” He gets closer and kneels down by the body. “How many of these did you do?” he asks me, and I almost detect the hint of a grin on his face.
“I needed to make sure he was dead.”
“But three? Isn’t that a little excessive?”
“Is he dead?
“Yup, I’d say.”
“Then mission accomplished.”
“You’re trying to put doubt on who fired the kill shot, aren’t you?”
I shrug. “Ginny might have the right to walk away from this because of the circumstances, but that doesn’t mean she’s going to be okay. If I can take the burden of guilt off her shoulders at all, I’m going to fucking do it.”
“Even if it puts you in jail?” he asks.
“Even—”
“My client doesn’t have anything else to say,” Mr. Mills interrupts me.
Sam grins at him, nodding. “God, took you long enough to shut him up. Thank you.”
“Eh, I wanted to hear some of the story myself.”
“The fuck is going on?” Davis asks.
“I have to call this in. When I do, there’s going to be a shitload of officers in here, and these two,” he shoots his thumb our way, “need to protect themselves. Can’t ask any questions and get actual answers if there’s a lawyer telling them to shut up.”
“What the fuck?” Ranger asks, peeking around Davis and his father. “Oh, shit.”
“What?” I hear Tiny ask behind him.
“Dead body,” Ranger answers.
“Not Ginny, right?”
“She’s going to be alright,” I call out to him.
“Thank fuck.”
“Everyone needs to stay outside the room, okay?” Sam asks. “I need to call this in and get an ambulance here for Ginny.”
I nod at him, and he walks to the door. “Nobody else enters that room,” he tells Davis again.
“Understood.”
“Why didn’t she wait for someone?” Mr. Mills asks.
“She couldn’t,” I answer. “I begged her to wait, and she said she couldn’t wait.”
“She was afraid he was going to come clean up the mess and act like it never happened,” Tiny offers.
“Where was he?” I ask. “His car isn’t outside.”
“I can answer that,” Aiden says, looking into the room and whistling. “He fucked this shit up.”
“Are you carrying a baby?” I ask, momentarily distracted.
He grins, bouncing a baby in his arms. “This guy,” he nods to Davis, “asked me to hold him while he came inside.”
“What do you know?”
“He parked at the baseball field. Behind the cages. Out of sight. No way to see that from the parking lot of the main building.”
“Are we really just going to stand here and watch you sit next to a dead body with my sister in your arms?” Davis asks, looking tortured.
“We stay here until the ambulance gets here and they can safely move her. I don’t know how hard he hit her or if he hurt her neck or bounced her brain.”
“Logical.” Ranger nods his approval as the one with medic training.
“And this wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been next to a dead body.”
“Did you really shoot him after Ginny?” Davis asks.
“Bet your ass I did. I didn’t want there to be any chance that this fucktwat would ever move again.”
Davis looks behind him, grimacing. “Incoming,” he quietly says.
“Where is she?” Trish asks loudly. I stare at Davis, hopefully getting my point across to shut her the hell up.
“She’s in the classroom,” Davis tells her.
She’s quick, I’ll give her that. Without missing a beat, she doesn’t do what the guys did and pause at the door, she comes marching into the room. Or she starts to, at least. Davis is quick enough to grab her around the waist and pull her back.
“What the fuck? Let me go!”
“Can’t do that, Sugar,” he calmly tells her. “It’s an active crime scene. You need to stay out here.”
“But Ginny’s in there,” she fights against him.
“And Joker’s got her.”
“Is she hurt?”
“She’ll be alright. She just needs to rest for a little bit, okay?”
She turns her head and gives me a look that would terrify others. That’s when she realizes that I’m sitting in a pile of wood, holding an unconscious Ginny, next to a dead Keith.
“Oh, fuck.”
I grin at her and she recoils. Ha! I haven’t lost it. “We’re waiting on an ambulance. Why don’t you gather up the other women as they come in and keep them from this?” I ask her.
She looks at Davis. “What is it with us and dead bodies?” she mutters. “Take care of her, she’s my sister!” she yells over her shoulder, her voice trailing off as she moves down the hall.
“Thanks.” Davis sighs.
“I think I’ll go with her for a while. Make sure they keep calm?” Aiden asks. “And I have her baby. She’ll probably start to wonder about that as soon as her shock goes away.”
I chuckle. Only Aiden could joke around at a time like this. I’m glad he’s the one who’s here.
“EMTs are coming in.” Sam sticks his head in the door. “Let’s get you two out of here so we can seal it off.”
“Thanks, Sammy.” I tip my chin.
“You know, only my friends call me Sammy. Did you promote yourself?” He smiles back.
“Fuck yeah, I did.”
He chuckles and walks away. Things are crowded now, but it’s going to get even more crowded. We need to get Ginny out of here.
We’ve moved our operation to the hospital. The girls are all in momma-protector mode and making sure Ginny is okay. She woke up once, screaming, and I about lost my mind. The nurse gave her something that knocked her out again, and then I was unceremoniously kicked out of the room for ‘being too growly’ or some shit like that.
Daniel has called an informal meeting and we’re all gathered in the room adjacent to Ginny’s. I refused to move farther than ten feet from her. This was the compromise. It’s crowded. They’ll survive.
“So we have a dead body and still no idea what’s going on,” Daniel starts, making eye contact with each of us. “Does that help or hurt?”
“Don’t care,” I grumble. “Fucker’s dead.”
“Are you still planning on taking the fall for all this?” Nate asks with an odd look of concern on his face.
“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Sammy speaks up. Yes, the cop is in the room with us. So is Mary, the DEA agent, and Claire, who’s been straddling both rooms. She’s worried about me but understands she needs to be there when Ginny wakes up.
“How do we find out what we don’t know?” Aiden asks.
“We need to search his place, find anything that relates to what is going on here and the woman,” I tell them.
“You mean the cops will search his place and I might be able to tell you what we find.”
Grady looks between the two of us, Sammy silently telling me I have to do this by the book, me telling him to fuck the book. “What about an official DEA agent? Is she allowed to search with the cops?”
“If she can provide reason, I’ll walk her in myself. Hell, I’ll give her first crack at it if it gives us answers. You know we don’t deal with this shit in Boulder Canyon.”
Mary grins. It’s not as scary as mine can be. “I do know what to look for where there’re drugs involved. The title kind of implies it.”
“We’ve also got four boys from the baseball team we need to ask a few questions,” I add.
“You know damn well I can’t let you in there for that.” Sammy snorts.
“As long as you ask the questions we need, that’s not a problem. Can we make that happen?”
“You get me a list of questions, and I’ll ask them.”
“Thanks, Sammy.”
He looks at me, growing somber. “I know that what you do is ride the line sometimes.” He turns to look at Mr. Mills. “I know that what you do is what you do.” He looks back at me. “I need you to take a step back on this, okay? I need for this to be clean and by the book. I’m not going to let my friend go down for taking out that—”
“Fucky McFuckerson,” I offer.
He snorts, losing some of the seriousness. “Yeah, that. We know she only did what she did because she didn’t feel like she had a choice. And she’s going to live with her actions regardless of what the law says. And I need your actions from here until this is all wrapped up to be above reproach.” He looks at everyone in the room. “That goes for all of you. Don’t do something that will fuck anything up.”
Daniel nods, accepting responsibility for his guys.
“I’ll keep an eye on the riff-raff,” Davis promises.
“Am I one of his,” I point to Daniel, “or the riff-raff?”
The two men smirk at each other before answering, “Yes.”
“Okay. You have about an hour to get your questions for the kids ready. And we’re going to his house before to give it a cursory look.”
“I’ll go with you for that, if it’s alright,” Mary offers. “I don’t need to touch anything, but I can point out what you might want to gather.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Sammy stands.
“Take care of Ginny. She’s one of the good ones and doesn’t deserve this shit.”
I stand and shake his hand, offering to walk him out. “I’ll be back,” I tell everyone still in the room. It’s time to check on my girl.
“We’ll get working on the questions for you and send them over,” Tiny assures Sammy as we leave.
“I mean it, Joker. No funny business.”
“Not this time,” I promise. “Nothing that will put Ginny in more danger. Have you talked to Roger at the security monitoring place yet?”
“He’s waiting at the station for me. He wanted to come up here to see Ginny, but I told him to wait and you all would call him.”
“Good looking out. Thanks.”
“He’s got a few things he wants me to look at.”
“Let me know what you need from us.”
We part ways and I stand at Ginny’s door. Trish, Lottie, Elle, and her mom are all there. I’ve seen her teacher friends come and go as well. She looks so peaceful on the bed.
“She’s fine,” Trish tells me.
“I know. Just need to see for myself.”
“We’ve got her, Joker. Go make yourself useful and find out what that fuck-stick was doing behind her back, will you?”
“You got it.”