Chapter Fifty-Six #2
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, honey,” Kingston said, coming closer, then squatting down at her level. “If you don’t want the cops involved, we clean this up. That’s your choice.”
“You can… do that?”
“Since the alarm didn’t go off? Yeah. But I have to ask, did you hit your head?”
“My head? Why?”
“Because if you hit your head, you might want to get checked for a concussion. In which case, the hospital staff are mandatory reporters, and would tell the cops. So, we don’t want to start to cover this up if that is the case.”
“No. I.. he hit me. Here and here,” she said, touching her face. It’s been much worse than this,” she admitted, gaze sliding away, like she had any fucking thing to be embarrassed about. “I’m okay. It’s my wrist. I think it’s broken.”
King’s gaze slid over her face, then down to her hand.
“I think you could swing a trip and fall. Maybe off of a step,” he said, thinking it through. “Tried to break it with your hands, but your wrist cracked, and you fell on your face.”
He glanced around, getting nods from all of us, thinking that would work.
“So, it’s up to you,” Kingston said.
“I… I don’t want to have to talk to the police,” she admitted, voice sounding small and sad.
“Then you don’t have to,” Kingston said. “How about you take her somewhere to… wash her hands and decompress?” King said, glancing at her hand where she must have gotten some of Joss’s blood on her. “We will take care of the rest.”
With that, I helped AJ off of the floor as Nixon moved in to take Samson’s leash.
“I just need to bathe him,” Nixon explained when AJ hesitated.
“Oh, okay,” she said, releasing the leash, then waving toward the room behind her.
I took AJ into the kitchen, washing her hands for her, making sure all the blood was off, then bringing her over to the table, and pressing her into a chair.
“How’re you holding up?” I asked.
“What about the cameras?” she asked, glancing up at me.
“What cameras?”
“The ones all around,” she said, waving toward the main area of the building.
“Kingston has that covered, I’m sure. This is the kind of shit he does,” I reminded her.
“Right,” she agreed. “Okay.”
She was shutting down a little. Normally, I would let her have that, knowing she would come back to me. But if I was going to shuffle her to the emergency room in the near future, I needed her not to seem traumatized.
The doctors and nurses at the hospital were seasoned professionals, they would be suspicious if she seemed shut down or in shock.
“You texted me,” I said, watching her vision clear, seeing her pull back out of her own swirling thoughts.
“Yeah.”
“You could’ve texted the police. You didn’t. You texted me.”
“I knew you’d come,” she said. “And that you’d know what was going on without me having to spell it out. Though, I also wasn’t sure the police could trace a burner,” she added, lips trying to turn up until the cut made her wince.
“They would have come,” I told her. “Just for future reference. And you can text them an address. You don’t have to call anymore if the situation is dangerous. But I’m glad you called me. Can I get you some a acetaminophen for your wrist?” I asked.
“I have some in my purse,” she said. “Under the desk.”
“Okay. I’ll be right back,” I said, getting up, then pressing a kiss to her head before moving out, glad to have a second to talk to my brother without her overhearing.
“How is she?”
“She’s… okay. This isn’t the first time he’s found her.”
“This is her ex?” Rush asked.
“Yeah. He’s been stalking her since she left him. She’s moved a lot. But he finds her each time. She usually figures out how, and then makes sure she doesn’t make that ‘mistake’ again.”
“Fucker,” Rush growled.
“Yeah. This is why I wanted the security system at home. I thought she was safe here.”
“So, what now?” Nixon asked, coming out with a wet Samson following behind, shaking hard, and sending water flying, landing on all of us. “That room has a lot of blood on the walls.”
“It’s Joss’s,” I said. “She stabbed his arm.”
“Tossed the scissors in the sink,” Nixon said, nodding.
“Now, we clean shit up. Get all the blood inside and out. At least until the tree line,” King said.
“We don’t want anyone finding that and asking questions.
I will check the security feed in the office.
If Joss didn’t disable it, I will erase it and create a loop for each feed, so it will look seamless.
“Once we’re done with that, we can have AJ call her boss, tell her that she fell in the parking lot, trying to get something out of her car and she had to go to the hospital.
“We will all leave. She will lock up. And then someone else will likely show up to take over her shift. That’s it.”
I found AJ’s purse, then made my way back to the break room to hand it to her while I made her a cup of coffee.
Rush and Nixon walked past, taking Samson with them again. A moment later, I heard the purr of the dog hair dryer.
AJ took her meds then waited with me until Kingston came to tell us we were all clear.
I was impressed at how well AJ pulled it together to fake a frantic call to her boss, talking about the fall, about the break, about needing to leave.
On the other end of the line, I could hear her boss begging her to take care of herself, not to worry about the dogs, that she would come over within the hour to take over.
With that, I walked AJ outside as the guys did one last tour of the building, checking all their work, then following us out.
Kingston, who was most familiar with him, took Samson, promising to drop him off at our place and hang with him for a bit.
Then I took AJ in my car to the hospital.
She rallied again, appearing both upset, in pain, and a little embarrassed about her mishap, claiming I’d even warned her that the steps were slippery as she was heading out the door, and she still fell anyway.
Silly me, right? was the vibe she gave off. And the nurse and the doctor smiled and nodded, sharing their own stories of being klutzes on occasion.
“We’re quite a pair, aren’t we?” she joked, waving at my boot, as the doctor slipped a brace onto AJ’s wrist, begging her to take it easy, so she didn’t move the bone out of place and require a cast.
“You guys need to be bubble-wrapped,” she agreed, shaking her head.
She was given instructions to take over-the-counter pain meds, as needed, to elevate and ice, and to follow up with an orthopedic doctor, then she signed her papers, and around sunrise, we were heading back to the house, both of us quiet, lost in our own thoughts.
As we pulled in, Kingston quietly made his way out of the front door, giving me a nod, and disappearing into his car, understanding that we weren’t up for company.
We were barely inside the door before AJ dropped to her knees.
My heart sank for a second, thinking she was breaking down, until I saw Samson rushing toward her, butt wiggling.
She wrapped him up in a big hug, holding on tight until, eventually, Samson wriggled away to go back to his bed, turn in a circle, and close his eyes, beat from the night’s events.
“What do you need, sweetheart?” I asked, reaching down to help her back onto her feet. “Food? Better medicine? Sleep?”
“Let’s go to bed,” she said, reaching for my hand, and leading me down the hall.
We climbed into the bed fully dressed.
More quickly than I expected, she drifted off to sleep, her braced hand on my chest.
As for me, I lay awake.
And I plotted.
Because there was no way for us to move forward.
Until Joss was fully in her past.
And that could only mean one thing…