Chapter 15
Fifteen
My hobbies include long scrolls on my phone and eating until I hate myself.
—Calliope to Jasper
CALLIOPE
After breaking into Jasper’s phone—I’d seen him type the code in several times while he was working on my truck the week before—to get Harlow’s address, I left the phone on the doorstep with the waters and took off.
The drive that should’ve taken me three hours took less than two and a half. Which was, honestly, saying something seeing as everyone and their brother was out either visiting family or buying last-minute gifts for Christmas.
I pulled into Paris, Texas, like a stereotypical bad driver would—on two wheels.
I took the very last turn that would take me to where Harlow was at, cutting off a car to do it.
I raced down the street and parked, bailing out of my truck as soon as the wheels came to a rocking stop in the middle of the yard.
I didn’t bother with knocking. I walked right into that house and immediately started calling Harlow’s name, knowing that what I was going to find wouldn’t be pretty.
I was right.
I rounded the corner of the hallway and came to a sudden, bone-jarring halt.
What I saw had my insides literally setting on fire.
Harlow, the beautiful woman of a few days ago when she was visiting her good friend, was no more.
She was sitting in the corner of what looked like a child’s bedroom, huddled in on herself, beaten to a pulp.
“Holy fuck,” I said, staring at the woman. “What the hell happened?”
Harlow’s breath hitched. “I…”
I dropped down to my knees and pulled my phone out of my pocket to dial 9-1-1, when she put her hand over mine.
“No.”
I frowned ferociously at her. “Why the hell not?”
Tears started to fall down across her battered face as she said, “He’s a c-cop.”
I shrugged. “So?”
She swallowed hard. “I…they won’t believe me.”
“Try telling me,” I said. “Then we’ll see what they believe.”
She made a sound in her throat that sent chills down the length of my spine, then started in.
“I came home early for lunch.” She cleared her throat. “I forgot my lunch at home, and since I live so close to the hospital I thought…why not? Plus, bonus, I’d get to see Cedrick. You know?”
I shifted my weight from one leg to the other, my knees creaking in protest as I did.
“So backstory, Cedrick and I started dating, and he shared that he had a daughter. Her name is Simone, and she’s so beautiful. I loved her from the moment that I met her.”
“Okay,” I pushed. “Hurry this along, honey. We need to get you to the ER.”
Because there was no doubt in my mind she wasn’t doing well.
She needed to be at the emergency room three hours ago.
“So I get home, and I was so excited because I knew that Cedrick was getting Simone from his ex for the week because of the holiday. Christian dropped her off this morning, and so I was going to get a quick little cuddle. So I get home unannounced and I walk in and the house is quiet. But Cedrick’s car is in the driveway, so I know he’s here. ”
I didn’t like where this was going.
“I get into the bedroom, he’s alone with Simone…”
I closed my eyes as she told me the rest.
It was worse than I could’ve imagined.
I forced myself to listen, but it made me physically so sick to hear.
“He was hitting her. Shaking her. Making her cry. Every time she’d try to get away, he’d pull her right back. She kept saying she wanted her mommy, and Cedrick would only hurt her more.”
I cracked my neck, hoping it would ease the tension.
“I just lost it. I attacked him.”
Good.
“The next thing I remember is waking up in the guest bedroom and…nothing.”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat, willing my voice to sound strong, but knowing it was anything but. “We’re going to the ER. Then we’re calling the cops.”
“We c-can’t…”
Well, we’d be dealing with that part later.
In the meantime… “Come on.”
The drive to the hospital took a lot more time than it should have. Every bump in the road made her whimper.
“You need to call Simone’s mom,” I found myself saying. “If you don’t want to call her, I will.”
“She won’t believe me, though.” Harlow brought her hand up to touch her face.
“She hates me. And I think she hates me because Cedrick makes her hate me. It didn’t make sense that she would hate me.
I’ve never done anything or said anything to make her hate me.
Simone loves me. But she made a comment about me and Simone the last time I dropped Simone off with Cedrick, and Cedrick cut off the line of conversation so quickly that I didn’t quite catch it all.
But I’ve been thinking about it for the last three hours, and I think that Cedrick is making her hate me. ”
“Regardless,” I said. “If she loves her daughter, she’s going to check.”
Women who loved their children didn’t abandon them. They also didn’t not follow up on a possible threat. This Christian woman would definitely follow up.
“I don’t have her number,” she admitted. “Cedrick never shared it with me, and I didn’t think anything weird about it.”
All the more reason to tell the police.
But it was clear that Harlow wasn’t thinking right.
Just because this man was a cop didn’t give him carte blanche to abuse his child or his girlfriend.
And we had enough evidence here that we would be able to prove that Harlow hadn’t beat up herself.
But first, get her to the ER.
Second, we’d deal with the police and hope that this child wasn’t dead somewhere in a ditch once this so-called “cop” finished with her.
“Hey…” Harlow’s eyes went narrow for a moment. “Is that Jasper’s dad’s watch?”
I shrugged, though I did feel slightly horrible about taking it now that I knew it was his dad’s.
I couldn’t change anything, however.
Not now.
“Safe keeping during his run today,” I lied as I pulled to a stop right outside the hospital entrance. “Come on. Let’s get you inside.”
I’d been waiting in the ER lobby for a little over an hour when shit hit the fan.
The cop, Cedrick, came through the door looking all concerned.
His daughter, cowering at his side, was with him and looking none the worse for wear.
But I knew abusers well.
When they hurt someone, they made sure to keep the bruises to the clothed areas so they weren’t visible.
And the little girl, all of eight or nine, looked like a shell of a person.
She wasn’t crying, but it was clear that she had been at one point.
She cringed every time her father raised his voice, too.
I’d already spoken to the police.
I’d also noticed the bikers arriving outside, one by one, as they holed up in the parking lot waiting.
Not interrupting, but waiting.
They’d let the man come into the lobby with his daughter.
But they did not let him get back to see Harlow, who was currently in the back with her other best friend, Catori. And Catori’s very handsome husband, Laric.
Laric had come out to the lobby an hour ago to make a phone call to someone, and that was when the bikers started to show up.
The cops were currently in the lobby, too, and I had a feeling they were trying to figure out how to get the daughter away from the cop without causing a scene or getting the daughter hurt any further.
Because, I was right.
The cops had believed Harlow instantly upon her sharing her story with them.
It was halfway through that discussion that Catori had arrived and I’d snuck out to give her privacy.
Which led me to now, sitting in the waiting room waiting to see what happened next.
I could’ve gone home.
I probably should have.
Yet, there I was, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
It was my curse: curiosity.
There was a reason that they said, “curiosity killed the cat.”
Mostly because it was backed up with enough scientific evidence to ever refute it.
My eyes flashed from side to side, wondering what would happen next.
Unable to stop myself from grabbing a few snacks to watch and wait, I’d gotten two Dr. Peppers from the drink machine, as well as a couple rolls of Rolos.
I was on my first Dr. Pepper and my second roll of Rolos when Cedrick had come inside.
“Cedrick, we need to talk,” a large man wearing a casual uniform of black tactical boots, pants, and a tan polo shirt that had “KPD” and a gold star stitched on the breast pocket said. “Can you step over here for a minute?”
Wrong thing to say.
That set alarm bells off in the man’s head and he pulled his kid closer.
Since he was so close to me he hadn’t seen me sitting there, so he backed up until he was almost about to step back into me.
It worked for me, though.
“What’s going on?” Cedrick asked the slew of cops blocking him in.
“Just want to talk…” Mr. In Charge said softly.
The man took another step back, his daughter being pulled in his wake.
One more step and he’d be on top of me.
“I don’t think…”
I’d heard enough.
I’d also seen him tense. Watched as his hand tightened down to a viselike grip on his daughter’s hand.
I’d had enough.
He would not hurt this kid with me standing right there.
Almost as if I was having an out-of-body experience, I stood up, caught my Dr. Pepper can in my hand and went to stand on the chair behind me.
The cops tensed, but I didn’t so much as flinch as I brought the arm holding the full Dr. Pepper in my hand out in a wide arc, then slammed it against the man’s temple.
He started to drop, but I brought it back for one more good swing.
The satisfied crunch of the man’s nose breaking was enough as he crumpled to the ground clutching his nose and face.
I caught the girl up in my arms and climbed over the back of the seats, pushing her behind me in case Cedrick got up.
What I did not expect, however, was an angry voice saying, “You’re under arrest for assaulting a police officer.”
Nor did I expect a pair of handcuffs to be slapped onto my wrists and tightened down so tight that my wrists ached.
Totally worth it, though.