Chapter 17
“I’ve seen enough of that place for a long time,” Ellis said, putting his arm around me as we left the hospital and walked back toward my salon.
“Now we’re both held together with string for the holidays,” I teased, holding up my bandaged hand. “Not sure how I’m going to cut hair with this thing.”
He tightened his arm on my waist and held me to him. “Maybe you can reschedule tomorrow’s clients. Since you aren’t working Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, by the time Monday rolls around you’ll be good to go.”
“I’ll call Heather when we get home and see if she can take any of them before I cancel on people. It’s the holidays, you know.”
He grinned and shook his head. “I know, but you still have to let that heal a little. Besides, this weekend is going to be super busy. I’d like to spend some time with you alone.”
“What did you have in mind?” I asked, raising a brow at him and wiggling it.
He laughed and snugged me up against him. “Seriously, don’t tempt me. I haven’t been to the pharmacy yet.”
I grinned and side-eyed him. “Little secret?” I asked and he nodded at me to go ahead. “You don’t need the pharmacy. I have a device too, only my device prevents unplanned pregnancies.”
His head turned to make eye contact for a moment. “Why didn’t you say something before?”
“I could tell you were hesitant about being with me. I decided when you came to me with the birth control, then I’d know you were ready. Since you still haven’t, I guess I have my answer.”
He paused and grabbed my shoulders, turning me into him. “No, you don’t have your answer. I was going to go after I ditched the Santa suit on Saturday, but you know what happened. Yes, it’s Wednesday, but I decided I better go to a different town to get them to avoid embarrassing you. Everyone knows I’m staying with you now and I didn’t want the knitting club to start speculating on our sex life.”
I bit my lower lip and sighed. “I’m actually glad you thought that out. It would have been back to my mom in a matter of minutes and then she would kill you and hide the body.”
He pointed at me with a smile on his lips. “That’s exactly what I was thinking. She’s a wonderful lady, don’t get me wrong, but she scares me.”
She scares me, too. Her wrath was the only reason I was leaving the ER at nine o’clock on a Wednesday night. Mel must have squealed to my mother about my finger because she showed up on my doorstep minutes after Mel and Holly left. She took one look at it without the steri-strips and insisted I get it checked out. Now, five stitches later, I had pleased my mother but screwed up the rest of my week.
He pushed me up against the wall of the carpet store in the shadows. “I was thinking,” he said, his eyes focused on my lips. “I’d like to buy you a piece of pie at the diner as a reward for not crying when they stitched your finger.”
My tongue darted out to lick my lips and he groaned, attacking them with a fever of a man who had waited too long to taste the woman he loved. His tongue was practically down my throat when we heard an engine racing and yelling from the street.
Inappropriate racial slurs were yelled and a bottle broke next to my head. I screamed and was pulled down at the same time by Ellis. “Alley!” he yelled, pulling me into the space between the two buildings as the car raced by and another bottle busted apart on the brick wall.
We stood with our backs against the store, both of us breathing heavily as we tried to catch our breaths from the pure adrenaline dump. “What the hell was that?” I asked, anger filling my bones. “What the ever-loving fu—”
“Addie,” Ellis said, taking my hand. “It’s okay, take a breath.”
I flipped around and checked him over. “Did you get hurt? Did you pull anything when you ducked?” I asked frantically, running my hands down his chest.
He grabbed them and held them still. “I’m okay. I’m more worried about you.”
He lifted my hair back and grimaced. I brought my hand up to my face, but he stopped me and held it at my side. “Don’t touch that until we can get some light on it. Your face is bleeding. Hopefully, it’s just a couple of scratches from the glass.”
“I don’t want to walk on the street in case they come back,” I said, checking the other end of the alley. “They could have parked and are heading back here for all we know.”
He nodded and took my hand. “Which is exactly why we have to go now. We’re going to walk the block up to the diner and ask Ivy for help. Let’s go.” He grabbed my good hand and propelled me out of the alley and onto the sidewalk again.
“What if they come back?” I checked behind me nervously as he dragged me up the street.
“They won’t, they got their shot in, but if they do, just keep walking. We’re almost to the diner.”
I had to practically run to keep up with the guy who had a pacemaker put in four days ago. How pathetic was that? In my defense, I was scared out of my wits and my face hurt. They better pray they didn’t scar up my face for my friends’ wedding or they were going to pay when I found them. The diner loomed ahead as cheery as ever. The lights were on, the tree shone brightly into the night, and I could see Ivy behind the counter talking to the cook.
Ellis pushed through the door of the diner like a hurricane and pulled me inside and then around the counter. He motioned at Ivy to follow us into the hallway through the swinging doors.
“What’s going on?” she asked concerned.
Ellis stood in front of me. “I don’t want her in front of the windows. Can we use your office?”
Ivy stepped around him and took a look at me for barely a second before she pointed to the backdoor. “Go to my house. I’ll let Mason know I’m leaving.”
I was dragged through the door of the diner and across the parking lot straight to Ivy’s house, which sat behind the Nightingale Diner. Mrs. Bevvywetter had bought the house years ago when it came up for sale. She wanted it to be part of the Nightingale legacy, which meant the Nightingale in possession of the diner at the time lived in the house. When they transferred ownership to the next Nightingale, the house also transferred. It was an amazing legacy if you asked me and I was always moved to see the beautiful old Victorian when I got a chance to visit Ivy. Tonight’s visit was anything but charming.
The door opened before we even got there, which meant Ivy had called ahead and told Shep to let us in. We slid through the door, followed by Ivy a few moments later. She closed it behind her and turned to me, pulling my hair back. “What the hell happened.”
Ellis explained while she tucked my hair back behind my ear. “It’s fine,” I promised, batting at her hand. She noticed my bandaged finger then and gave me the what the hell look. I held it up. “I cut my hand on my shears and Mom insisted I get it looked at. She dropped us at the ER and we told her we’d walk home. We had just left the hospital when those idiots showed up.”
Ivy spun on her heel to face the two guys behind her. “Shep, would you call the PD and get them out here? I’m going to clean her face and see how bad it is. Ellis, sit in the living room and rest. Make sure you didn’t hurt yourself, too.”
“I’m fine,” he promised. “I’m worried about Addie. That bottle almost took her out.”
Ivy pointed to the living room without words and Ellis slunk away like a child being scolded. I snickered as Ivy led me to the downstairs bathroom off the kitchen. She snapped the light on and the little space reminded me of sunshine on a rainy day. It was small, but the bright yellow tiles sparkled in the light.
She grabbed a washcloth from the cupboard above the toilet and handed it to me. I pulled my hair back and sighed, the blood trailing down my face like a horror flick.
“I’m sure it’s fine,” I said tightly, then ran the water to warm and tried to wring it out one-handed. She finished the job and handed it back silently while I wiped away the blood, being careful to make sure I didn’t rub any glass further into the wounds. Thankfully, there was no glass and the cuts were small, except for one, which had sliced into my cheek and would definitely leave a mark. “Nothing stitch worthy,” I joked. “I’ll live to see another day.”
Ivy’s lips were tugged into a grim line and she grabbed her first-aid kit. She handed me ointment and a small bandage for the larger cut. We joined the guys back in the other room only this time, there was another body filling the space. Officer Gabe.
I joined Ellis on the couch and waved at Gabe. “How’s it going?” I asked, patting Ellis’s leg while he doublechecked my face. His lips were frowning, but I gave him a wink. “It’s fine. You’ll barely see them in the morning.”
“It’s not fine, though,” Ellis said through clenched teeth. “Someone chucked bottles at you while yelling racial slurs.”
“The racial slurs were actually aimed at you,” I pointed out. “Which is beside the point. Gabe, this just doesn’t happen in Bells Pass. What’s going on?”
“I wish I could tell you, Addie. Do you remember anything about the vehicle?”
“It was dark and I didn’t get a plate, other than to see it was from Michigan. The car was black or maybe dark blue. Four-door sedan it looked like. Windows were tinted dark.”
His lips pulled into a line as he wrote. “That’s a description of the car we found on video the night his business was damaged. We couldn’t get a plate that night either. They’re probably changing the plates regularly anyway. Do you remember anything else?”
Ellis sighed heavily. “I had my back turned to them so I never saw it coming. I heard it though, and the engine was loud. It was definitely souped-up. Maybe dual exhaust.”
I snapped my fingers instantly then. “It had bigger tires. Like one of those old cars you used to see cruising the ghettos in movies.”
Gabe scratched on his pad. “Okay, that’s helpful. It sounds to me like the same car. We have a general description out, but so far, no hits. You noticed more than we could see in the video, so that will help. We’ll keep trying.”
“That’s it?” Ivy asked, her voice shrill. “You’ll keep trying? What are they supposed to do in the meantime?”
Gabe spun toward her. “There isn’t much else I can do, Ivy. We’re actively looking for the car, but until we can find it and question the driver, we can’t do much more. I’m going to canvas for video now. Normally, I’d wait until morning, but if I can catch these yahoos tonight, that’d be ideal.” He turned to address us again. “In the meantime, don’t walk on the sidewalks alone. Driving is safer. Don’t leave yourself open to an attack and you should be fine until we find them. Throwing bottles without direct confrontation appears to be their thing. If you don’t make yourself a target, they can’t attack.”
Ellis and I both nodded and Gabe left the way he came. Ivy stood hands on hips and frowned. “This is terrible. Whoever is doing this has to be from somewhere else, because no one here is going to have a problem with the two of you being in a relationship.”
I gasped and grabbed Ellis’s arm. “My mom and Stan! We have to warn them. They take Pudgy for a walk every night.”
“Pudgy?” Ellis asked confused.
“Stan’s pug. He’s pudgy,” I said, laughing, even though I was scared for my mom. “They’re probably walking him right now.”
I grabbed my phone and called her, asking her where she was and what she was doing. She assured me she was watching a show and Pudgy was all done going out for the night. I begged her to stay put until we got there to explain and she promised she would. I stood up and shifted uncomfortably. “I just remembered we don’t have a car. We should have asked Gabe for a ride home.”
Shep tossed Ellis a set of keys. “Take the SUV. I’ll grab it from you tomorrow at the studio. We have another vehicle here if we need it.”
Ellis nodded and shook his hand while I hugged Ivy. “Thank you. I’m sorry to dump this on you. We just knew if we could get to the diner, we’d find safety.”
Ivy rubbed my back and smiled, tucking my hair out of my face. “You aren’t the first to say that and I hope you aren’t the last. I love that people think of my diner as a safe place when they’re in trouble. I’ll take that all day long, and with that goes the agreement to always be there to help, so don’t apologize.”
I grinned when she released me. “Because you’re a Nightingale and a Nightingale will always help those in need.”
She winked and led me toward the front door. “Always, so don’t hesitate if anything else comes up. Are you going to be able to do our hair on Friday with your hand like that?”
I lifted it and twisted it around. “Nope,” I said, sadly shaking my head. “I’ve already sent a pitiful help me text to Heather who has agreed to step in and do the job. I’ll be there to supervise, but hey, maybe I can get my hair done too and be one of the girls,” I joked, fluffing my hair.
“You are one of the girls,” she promised, hugging me one last time. “We’ll see you Friday unless something comes up before then.”
Ellis and I waved then we climbed into the SUV and he started it up. He reached his hand out to squeeze mine. “It’s going to be okay. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
I rolled my head toward him and smiled. “I know, but Ellis, I’m more worried about you.”
“Why? Because a bunch of jackasses yelled some inappropriate words our way?”
I shook my head and sat up. “They also tried to burn down your business because you’re dating a black woman.”
“I’m dating a woman, who happens to be the best thing that has ever happened to me. Besides, they tried to burn down my business before we started dating. I don’t care what a bunch of brainless fools think, Addie. Don’t let them get in here,” he said, tapping my temple. “They can have my studio as long as I have you.”
“But, Ellis,” I said again, and his finger came down over my lips.
“But nothing, Addie. You can’t fight hate with fear, sweetheart. You can only fight hate with love. That sounds cliché, but it’s the truth. Let them come at us. Eventually, we’ll figure out who they are and then a little bit more hate is off the street.”
His finger strayed to the cuts on my face and he frowned. “Correction. Let them come at me.”
“They don’t hurt,” I promised, grasping his wrist. “It would have been another trip to the ER if you hadn’t pulled me down at the last second. You protected me because boyfriends protect girlfriends, right?”
A sneaky grin crossed his face and he winked as he let off the brake. The SUV rolled forward to take us back into that scary world we could survive for only one reason.
Love.