Chapter 20
It costs nothing to be kind. Except my sanity. But who needs that anyway?
—Text from Ellodie to her mom
ELLODIE
5 weeks later
“All hands on deck. Officer down.”
I whipped my head in the direction of Garrett’s walkie talkie.
“Who?” I asked, feeling a surge of adrenaline dump into my veins.
Don’t be Quaid.
Don’t be Quaid.
Please, don’t be Quaid.
“Officer 455, officer down. Officer down,” I heard a pained voice say over the radio.
“Where are you?” I heard Quaid bark.
“Corner of BeltlineRoad and Houston,” Officer 455 responded.
“Who is Officer 455?” I asked, sounding alarmed at the way Garrett had stiffened so completely.
“Quinn,” Garrett answered.
“Let’s go,” I said. “I’m not due into work today.”
I’d officially made the switch from nursing to nurse anesthetist.
I’d switched just last week, and so far, I was loving it.
WhatI was not loving was being the low woman on the totem pole.
I was called in for everything, even when I wasn’t supposed to be there.
But last week, I’d put my foot down, and explained that I couldn’t be coming in on days that I wasn’t scheduled to work thanks to there still being a serial killer gunning for me.
How did I know that there was a serial killer gunning for me?
Because over the last week, things had escalated.
It was as if he’d stopped getting the fix he needed, and he was now bombarding my app with messages. And since I couldn’t block anything because we were trying to find this sick asshole, I’d had to see every single message that came in.
They’d started out tame, so to speak. But the latest ones, like the one I’d gotten today, weren’t so great.
SleepyJoe122:
I saw you with your boyfriend at the hospital. You look tired. I’ll help you sleep.
I didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know what he meant by ‘helping me sleep.’
“Officer 455,” Quinn sounded sick. As if he was dying. “I’m… I’m…”
He couldn’t even finish his sentence.
“Go,” Garrett ordered. “Go.”
Garrett wasn’t driving today.
I was.
SoI gunned it, heading exactly where he told me to.
When we got to a police barrier, Garrett got out to talk to the officer.
He looked back at me, and then kept talking. A few more seconds, and then Garrett was on the phone.
Garrett started walking back to the car seconds later, shoving his phone angrily into his pocket.
My phone rang and then, and I answered it on the car.
“Hello?” I asked, voice slightly shaky.
“Hey, it’s me,” Quaid said. “I’m going to have you drive home. OfficerAssman’s following you.”
I looked around for OfficerAssman but didn’t notice him.
Garrett opened the door, whistled, and Boss jumped out, knocking me in the face with his butt as he did.
Boss and I had started to get along quite well. Only, he still treated me like leftovers when it came to his master.
Garrett looked at me, then pointed at a patrol car with an officer inside I couldn’t see.
“Assman,” he said. “He’s following you home. Go straight home.”
“Assman will follow you inside,” Quaid sounded distracted.
I was already nodding my head, tears leaking into my eyes at the sound of Quaid’s hollow voice.
Lord, please let Quinn be okay.
“I’ll go straight home,” I promised.
Except, it didn’t work out quite like I expected it to.
We got onto the road, heading back toward Quaid’s home, and got caught up in traffic.
We sat there so long that my gas light came on, indicating I had forty miles until empty.
I looked at the GPS that showed red as far as the eye could see, and then the temperature on the dash that read 108.
Grimacing, I started to search for the closest gas station, knowing I had no other choice.
We’d been on the way to fill it up when the call about Quinn had come in, and well, it hadn’t happened.
I was considering pulling over and leaving my car in the closest parking lot when I looked back to see Assman’s patrol car jolt forward.
“Oh, shit,” I said as I watched the patrol car jerk, then, fuck, tip over!
I gasped, ready to pull over myself, but thought better of it after I saw what felt like hundreds of people hop out of their car and head toward the downed cruiser.
In my rearview, I watched as he hopped out of the cruiser, angry as hell and throwing his hands up in the air.
Knowing he was in good hands, and not wanting to block traffic even more now, I made the stupid decision to leave him behind.
I moved up until I could take the next exit, then sent a quick text to Quaid to let Assman know where I went.
Quaid called immediately, but when I went to answer it, the call dropped.
I looked at the signal and groaned.
If this wasn’t the worst possible scenario…
I went to the most well-lit gas station, pulled over, and took a look around.
There was no one in sight.
In fact, for it being a brand-new gas station, I figured it’d be hopping.
But then I got a look at the price of the gas and realized why no one was here.
It was well over thirty cents more than the one across the street.
“Oh,” I groaned.
I hated paying more for gas…
But at least I was being smart about this.
Getting out, I lifted up the center console to make sure my gun was where I’d left it.
The entire Carter clan had given me lessons in shooting, and I was proud to say, I was a pretty decent shot… as long as the target wasn’t moving.
HittingApplePay, I typed in my pin code then got the pump to pumping.
Buzz. Buzz.
I looked down when the watch on my wrist vibrated with an incoming message, and grimaced.
He would be so mad at me that I didn’t wait, but there was nothing I could do.
EitherI pumped my own gas, or I walked home.
I knew where I was—about ten minutes from the hospital.
In fact, I was so close to the doctor’s parking area that I could just make out the hood of a familiar orange Jeep that belonged to a doctor in Oncology. It was ostentatious at best and stuck out like a sore thumb.
Quaid:
You better not be out of that car.
I felt my lips twitch.
I was just about to answer him on my watch when I felt the presence beside me.
I looked up, heart in my throat, only to deflate at the sight of Dr. Brewn.
“Dr. Brewn!” I chirped. “How are you?”
I hadn’t seen him in weeks thanks to the transfer to the new department. His eyes took me in, trailing from my head to my toes.
He smiled, but there was something wrong about it, almost as if he was trying to force it.
“I’ve been better, to be honest,” he admitted. “Do you think you could give me a ride to the hospital? I just got dropped off by the shuttle, but the shuttle broke down on FourteenthStreet, according to the hospital director. I’d walk to the bus stop, but the knee is acting up more today.”
He patted his knee, and I instantly felt bad for the poor guy.
“I’ll give you a ride, sure,” I said before I could think too hard. “I just have to finish this up. And don’t be surprised if Quaid shows up all pissy. He was supposed to do this for me so I wasn’t out here alone, but he got caught up on a call.” i.e., his brother was fighting for his life, and we were all terrified.
“No babysitter at all?” he frowned, looking worried.
“Nope.” I shrugged just as a woman in a black LincolnNavigator pulled up next to me and got out. “I’m free! No shadows today!”
She worked at the hospital, too, based on the pink scrubs.
The moment I said it, I felt a sense of foreboding slam into me.
I tried to backpedal, but even the woman on the pump next to me wasn’t convinced.
“Well, kind of,” I lied. “They’re on their way. I’m sure only a few minutes at most.”
The woman at the pump across from me snorted, giving me a wide-eyed stare.
Quaid might very well kill me.
I got into the driver’s side of my car, started it up, and had just pulled out when it happened.
The foreboding turned into a true knowledge that I’d fucked up.
I’d done the wrong thing.
I’d…
“Do you want to go on a hike with me?”
A hike?
“Your kn-knee?” I stuttered, tongue thick.
He smiled.
Dr. Brewn forced me deeper and deeper into the woods.
ButI knew, if I didn’t put up some kind of a fight, he’d get me too far away to be found.
AndI would be found.
Quaid wouldn’t give up.
The thorn in my left Croc pushed deeper, and I groaned. “I have to stop. There’s a thorn in my shoe.”
He looked at my shoes, lip curled. “Those aren’t great hiking shoes.”
They weren’t.
BecauseI hadn’t planned on fucking hiking, dammit!
“Let me see,” he said.
I reluctantly picked my foot up for him to see, and he caught my leg, jerking it toward him so hard that I soon found myself flat on my back.
His eyes gleamed as he took the shoe from me and tossed it into the woods. “Here’s good enough, I guess.”
The next moments of my life were the longest, and most painful, I’d ever experienced.
I’d never, not in a million years, be able to say what, exactly, had happened.
Hits. Punches. Kicks. Slices.
Over and over, it continued until I was so far gone I couldn’t think about anything but the pain.
“Brewn,” I heard called out. “I know you’re having fun, but it’s my turn.”
Two.
There were two of them.
“Fuck off, Darron.”
Darron.
Dr. DarronSimpson? The one I’d just gone on a date with and couldn’t change a tire, Darron?
What the absolute hell was going on?
A kick to my head had me seeing stars, and that thought was the last thing I remembered.