Seth looked over his shoulder, narrowed eyes scanning my face. “Who the fuck do you think you are?” he asked, voice low in an attempt to threaten me. “That’s my son. I can tell him to do whatever the fuck I want.” He looked back at the boy. “Noah! Get the fuck outside!”
“N-no,” Noah replied, shaking his head. “I’m not going.”
Seth’s pride was evidently wounded at his son’s protest.
The man looked back at me with a blend of malice and disgust, then asked, “You just can’t get the fuck out of my way, can you?”
“Not as long as you keep showing up.”
He snorted a wicked chuckle. “And they’re afraid of me?” He shook his head, continuing to laugh. “Do they know you’re a murderer? Does she know”—he pointed behind himself at Ray—“that she’s fucking a murderer? And she’s scared of me?”
“Your time is up,” I told him, flexing my fists at my sides. “Get the fuck out now.”
“You are fucking her, right?” he asked, still trying to ruffle my feathers, even as he headed for the broken door. “How does it feel, Soldier? Knowing you’re just getting my sloppy seconds?”
As he stood in the open doorway, I spun to snatch his arm, twisting it around his back and feeling the telltale sensation of a bone snapping. Seth yelped, sounding like an injured dog, as I brought my mouth to his ear.
“If you ever come back here, I promise you, I will end your fucking life.”
“Not if I end yours first,” he challenged, his voice strained under the weight of his pain.
I released his arm, shoving him toward the steps and hoping he’d fall. But no such luck. He slithered his way down, like the fucking snake he was, clutching his fractured arm to his chest.
When I was sure he wasn’t turning around, I went to Ray.
Noah sat beside her. “I-I didn’t call the cops,” he admitted, clutching the phone. “I d-didn’t want them to take you away.”
I could only stare at him as my hands were held out, frozen, ready to tend to his mother. “Noah, they wouldn’t take me away.”
“But …” Shame filled his eyes with tears. “He … he said that you … you … that you’re a-a-a …”
He couldn’t say it, what he had heard come from his father’s mouth. That I had killed someone. He couldn’t admit out loud the possibility that it might be the truth.
“That’s not something you have to worry about, okay? You don’t ever have to worry about me. You worry about your mom and yourself. That’s it. And if I tell you to call 911, that’s what you do. You understand?”
He was crying as he nodded. “I-I-I’m sorry.”
This kid, who I had known for six months of my life, thought he’d done the right thing by protecting me.
For once, someone had looked out for me, and I couldn’t be mad at him for that.
“It’s okay, buddy,” I said as I reached out to lay my hand over his head. “Now, do me a favor. Get a wet washcloth and an ice pack from the freezer. Then, call 911.”
***
Her nose had been broken. Her cheek had been bruised. Seth hadn’t gotten the chance to do much more than that—thank Christ—but it was her mind that was wounded most of all.
Officer Kinney sat with us in an emergency room bay, asking questions about the break-in and if we knew the guy who had broken in. I let Ray do the talking, unsure of what she would say.
I was ready to blow a fuse when she claimed to not know the intruder. But instead of saying anything, I walked away as she spoke to him while the on-call doctor tended to her wounds, angry with myself for not killing Seth when I’d had the chance. Angry with her for not doing something to protect herself and her son.
Officer Kinney passed me on the way out, nodding his chin in my direction.
“I understand ya feel helpless,” he said.
You have no fucking idea, dude.
“Things like this …” He shook his head. “They just don’t happen here, so to see it happen now … it’s unsettling. And I’m sorry ya had to walk in to see what ya saw. I can’t imagine.”
“Yeah,” I said on an exhale, crossing my arms over my chest tightly.
He hesitated, eyeing the pad of paper in his hand before looking back at me, uncertainty in his gaze. “Are ya sure ya didn’t recognize him?”
Fucking hell, Ray.
My gut told me to tell him the truth. To tell him I knew exactly who it was. That this was my chance to bring the proverbial hammer down on that son of a bitch’s head. But my heart said I had to talk to Ray first. I had to know what was going on in her mind, why she hadn’t told him herself. And then I’d make a choice.
“Yeah,” I muttered. “I’m pretty sure.”
Patrick nodded slowly, sending his gaze downward toward the floor. “I gotta be honest with ya …” He lifted his eyes again, his half-hearted, lopsided smile full of apology. “I almost thought he might’ve been connected to your past.”
I couldn’t help but huff a sardonic chuckle because that Officer Patrick Kinney was a smart guy for such a small-town cop who had very likely never seen the type of shit I’d experienced.
But I couldn’t tell him that, so I just shook my head and said, “When I have something to tell you, man … I’ll let you know.”
Whether he could read between those lines or not, I wasn’t sure. He just flattened his lips into a tight line and nodded slowly.
“All right,” he relented. “I already said this to Ray, and I’m sure I don’t need to say it to you, but I’m going to anyway. If you see something”—he clapped a hand over my shoulder—“say something. Ya have my number.”
“Yep.”
“All right.” He nudged his chin in the direction of the ER bay where Ray was waiting, shaken up and hurt. “Go take care of her.”
“I will,” I promised before turning around and heading back inside.
***
I convinced Ray to come stay at my place—at least until we knew she and Noah were safe. Ray—wearing a nasal cast and claiming she was fine when, obviously, she wasn’t—made a joke about using the incident as an excuse for them to move in with me, and I shut her down with a hardened look as she quietly carried some of her clothes into my bedroom.
“I’m not laughing, Ray,” I said, keeping my voice down to prevent Noah from hearing me.
He was busying himself in the living room, setting up his Switch on my new TV.
His TV had been broken in the fight.
“Well, if you can’t laugh at life, then you’re just letting the bad guys win,” she muttered beneath her breath.
But they are winning. Doesn’t she see that?
I shook my head and slowly closed the door, letting it click shut before speaking again. “Why didn’t you tell Patrick the truth?”
Ray wouldn’t look at me as she carefully placed her clothes into the drawer I’d cleaned out for her. “You know why.”
“No, I really don’t. Goddammit, Ray. You could’ve gotten him arrested. He could be sitting in a fucking jail cell right now with a restraining order against him, but you let him go.” I shook my head and sat down on the bed, clapping my hands against my thighs and feeling helpless. “Why? Why the hell would you do that?”