“You’re too late. The money’s already spent,” I explained, grabbing the nearest bottle of liquor and holding it out between us. “Now get out. You have a problem with how things went down? Try to sue me. Then your sorry ass will have to take that paternity test.” Then the f**ker would owe me money for all the years he bailed on child support.
“What do you think you’re going to do with that, huh?” he asked humorously.
I gritted my teeth and slammed the bottle against the edge of the bar. Brown glass and amber liquid flew through the air. But half the bottle remained in my hand, and his eyes widened at the jagged shards remaining, ready to pierce his sickening skin. I got some satisfaction from his moment of fear. Sully had always preferred women working the bar, but he didn’t want to train us to use a gun. Not when there was a bar full of weapons right here, he said. He trained each and every one of us with empty bottles on how to properly hit it so it didn’t just shatter into useless glass. I was never more grateful as Brad began to take me a little more seriously.
Unfortunately, respect only went so far with a drunk, who thought he could easily leap the tallest of buildings. I could literally see the change in his eyes when he decided he could still swat me down. “Get the f**k out,” I threatened.
“I will.” But slowly, he added, “Once I take what’s mine.”
He was surprisingly quick for someone so saturated with alcohol, probably one of those damn functioning drunks. Unfortunately, being able to fashion a weapon didn’t make me ready to use it on a human being, even one that pissed me off as much as Brad. I just didn’t have it in me to stab him. But I did find the courage to swing for his head as he leapt over the bar.
I never was any good at baseball, no matter how many times Brad showed me how to swing a bat. And I think he remembered that. Part of the bottle did hit his head, but mostly his neck, and all I ended up doing was pissing him off even more. He yelled as he smashed into me, and I stumbled backwards against his weight, my feet tripping over that damn rubber mat that I folded over. We went crashing onto the floor, his body atop mine. As we hit, we both screamed out. My forearms were suddenly burning, particularly my left, fire ripping through the skin.
A chunk of the bottle I broke protruded halfway up my forearm. I ripped it free and screamed again, blood steadily drizzling down. I knew I only had a few seconds before Brad’s attention focused from his cut palms back onto me again. On the floor to my right were a few extra bottles of our most popular liquors. I grabbed one and aimed for his head before he could see what I was doing. No hesitation this time. I just swung with all my might.
It thunked against the side of his head. He groaned miserably and rolled sideways with the momentum, his bloody hands moving to cradle his head. I untangled my legs with his and awkwardly scooched backwards. My body protested getting to my feet, like the impact between us hurt more than my mind had caught onto yet. I gripped the gash on my arm, but blood began seeping through my fingers.
Brad stirred and groaned on the floor. I didn’t risk running to the back for my keys, I just hightailed it out of there, setting off the alarm as I shoved myself through the emergency exit. The police department was just three blocks away. I could make it.
The cool night air stung the cuts on my skin and the tears in my eyes. It was raining, but the light pace of their pitter patter was quickening, the drops becoming heavier as they nailed me from above. After a single block, I couldn’t bear running in my heels anymore and kicked them to the curb. I just left them there and kept on running, the length of my boot cut jeans getting caught between my heel and the concrete with each step, saturating the fabric that made a sticking noise every time I peeled my foot from the ground. It should’ve only taken me a minute or two to run to the station, but even with the adrenaline pumping, it seemed like forever.
My body slammed into their front door, my bare feet refusing to slow down. I stumbled inside the small police station, and I must’ve looked a horrible sight, because the single cop and dispatcher both looked up at me and froze in shock. Guess they weren’t used to dealing with actual emergencies that much, because it took a few seconds to take in my drenched and bloodied appearance before they snapped into action.
Out of breath from my sprint, I got out two words, Sully’s and robber. I didn’t know either of these people, so mentioning I knew the robber wasn’t going to help right now. But that was all the explanation the officer needed and he took off, leaving the dispatcher to call me an EMS and wake whoever was on call to aid in the robbery. Marisa, her nametag said, sat me down and found a fresh towel to wrap around my wound. She even took over keeping pressure on the cut, so I was finally able to calm myself from the high.
What the hell was that moron thinking? Showing up and trying to attack me? Rob me? For all I knew he did. I didn’t have the stomach to keep on hitting him to really knock him out. We were both hurt, but he was still a lot stronger than me. I had a son to think about. Sticking around and attacking his father, who apparently didn’t mind turning the aggressor on me, didn’t seem like the smartest thing to do. I didn’t even know how to throw a punch, let alone take one.
Ten minutes later, Sheriff Litskin came through the front. It looked like he dressed in yesterday’s wrinkled clothing and his hair was askew, a mixture of rain and bed-head. “Melanie?” he asked, taking in the red-soaked towel beside me. EMS had beaten him by two minutes and already the guy was wrapping my arm tightly, saying I needed to go in and get a few stitches. Awesome. That was so not what I wanted to spend my money on. I was half tempted to tell him to pass me the krazy glue and go home. But no way would Sully let me get away with that since it happened at work. Hopefully, he’d be able to help me pay for it, because I could really only afford healthcare for one of us, and that honor went to Jake.
“It was Brad,” I said glumly, and he let loose a knowing sigh. “He came by at closing. Drunk, wanting Joyce’s money. When I wouldn’t give it to him he jumped me.”
He didn’t even waste time, simply asking Marisa if Mike had checked in from the bar yet. She nodded, saying, “The perp was gone before Mike got there. He called Sully and asked him to come in to see if anything’s missing.”
Turning back to me, he asked, “Any idea where he’d go?”
I shrugged and replied, “Back to Shane?”
“Where’s Shane?”
I shrugged again. “He’s been spending a lot of time with Matt Delaney. You can go ask him.”
“And your son?” he asked. “Where’s he right now?”
“Jake stays over at my neighbor’s until I get home. Susan Leighton. Brad doesn’t know that.” I paused, my eyes widening as I realized… “But my purse. My license. I left it in the office. And the employee files there will have my address too.”
My face must’ve been relaying the panic growing inside me, because Sheriff Litskin was quick to remind me, “It’s okay. You said he won’t know where Jake is anyways. We’ll have Sully locate the files and check on your purse. He may not’ve had time to find those things.”
I nodded weakly. He was right. Of course he was right. Brad’s mind was on the money. It wouldn’t occur to him to go looking for my whereabouts. Not with the alarm piercing the air. He would’ve been panicking. He didn’t know that the alarm wasn’t actually monitored by a security company. That was why I had to hoof it here myself. No one was ever going to come unless someone nearby heard the siren and reported it.
“Get her to the hospital, Charlie” he told the EMS guy. “Make sure someone’s always with her until we find out what he got his hands on.” To me, he added, “Don’t you worry about your son. I’ll have Thomas go over and tell your neighbor what’s going on, make sure Jake stays for the night.”
I whispered my thanks, biting back the tears that continually threatened to leak. My arm stung, my feet were frozen and my head hurt, and I couldn’t help but fear what Brad would do next.
16
“Psst. Shane!”
My eyes felt heavy, but I fought against them, forcing my eyelids open. I was pretty sure it was Matt leaning over me, shaking my shoulder. “What?” I grumbled.
“The sheriff’s here.”
My body snapped awake, all haziness dissipating as I untangled myself from the twisted sheets. I snatched my shirt off my bag and pulled it on as I stumbled out of the dim room. “What happened?” I asked, my mind immediately thinking of Mel. I noticed the sofa was empty, the pillow and blanket on the floor. I scanned the room, noting a certain absence. “Where’s Brad?” I asked Matt.
“That’s what I came to ask you,” the sheriff said.
“What happened?” I repeated. Brad, what the f**k did you do?
“He got into an altercation with Melanie over at Sully’s.”
“Are you f**king kidding me?!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, a sharp pain punching my chest as I did. I whipped towards Matt. “Did you tell him?”
“What? No! I said nothing!”
“Well, I didn’t f**king tell him she worked there!” I couldn’t help it. I just kept yelling.
“Well, he found out somehow, didn’t he?” Sheriff Litskin said calmly.
“Or he f**king knew all along and played me!” The f**ker. I yanked on my hair and sat on the edge of the sofa, my mind just figuring out what the sheriff said originally. Altercation. Melanie. “Holy shit, is Mel okay?”
“She’s fine. But I need to know. Where would Brad go from here?”
My poor damn heart finally had a moment’s peace hearing she was okay, just to be upturned all over again. “You mean you don’t have him?” I didn’t even wait for an answer. I just charged back to my room, flipped on the light and tossed everything in my suitcase looking for my keys. Of all times for them to hide. “Where the f**k are my keys?!” I yelled in aggravation.
“Uh, probably with your truck, dude,” Matt said from the other room.
“What?” I replied, heading back out. Matt was standing in the entryway, looking back at me, Sheriff Litskin right beside him. “Didn’t you park next to me tonight?”
“Yeah,” I answered, making my way over. “Son of a bitch.” My truck was gone. That f**ker took my truck! “Well, Sheriff. I guess that answers your question. He’s got no money but my tank was three-quarters full.”
“Oh, he’s got money now,” the sheriff replied. Matt and I looked curiously between ourselves, then back at him. “He got out of Sully’s with whatever was in the cash register. Don’t know the full amount yet, but Sully says the register isn’t supposed to have more than five hundred in it at one given time.”
Enough to get the f**k far away from here.
“I’ll put an APB out for him and the truck. Let’s hope we get lucky.”
I pulled my car insurance out of my wallet and passed it to him so he’d have my truck’s information. He tipped his head and put his hat back on. Before he could completely leave, I had to ask. “Sheriff? What about Mel?”
“She’s fine, Shane. Little shaken up, a few stitches on her arm, but she’s fine.”
Stitches! He cut her?! I was going to f**king kill him!
I hustled back to my room and grabbed my phone off the bedside table, quickly dialing Mel’s number. Nothing. It just rang and rang until her voice mail picked up. So I dialed again. And again. Nothing but voice mail. I groaned and sighed all in one. I wanted to hold her in my arms and comfort her, comfort me. Because if I didn’t have that, I was tempted to walk the streets for him. And right now I truly wanted to kill my childhood friend. The same man who stuck with me through thick and thin, who played with me side-by-side in high school, who always had my back.
I thought I never saw the deceit coming with Mel. I sure as hell never saw it coming from him.
I couldn’t fall back asleep. I kept dialing Mel, kept sending her text messages, begging her to get back to me. I was so f**king confused. I didn’t have a flippin’ clue what was going on. There was so much bullshit going on I didn’t know the truth from the hole in my ass.
Did he know? All this time? Or did Brad just figure Mel would be the one? All it would take was asking a local who knew her if she had a kid, or find out where she worked. I told Matt to keep his mouth shut, but I honestly didn’t think about the rest of town. So many people had turned their back on him long ago. It didn’t occur to me there might be a few still willing to give him the time of day. The poor saps probably didn’t even know he was playing them. All he had to do was casually ask how his ex-girlfriend was doing. Simple as that.
“Amber!” I screamed. Matt came rushing in from the next room. “Amber,” I repeated. “Mel said Brad knew she was pregnant when he left. If he figured it was her all along, Amber would’ve been more than happy to tell him everything she knew.”
“I’ll let the sheriff know. Maybe Brad’ll be stupid enough to try and stay with her.”
I nodded and fell back onto the bed. Fucking bitch. If I hadn’t wiped all trace of her off my phone I’d be calling to bitch her ass out right this very second. God, if he did find out from her, it would mean he’d known all night and day. No wonder he didn’t want to leave yet. He wanted his chance to go after Mel.
My body jerked when my phone emitted that jingle, telling me a text message had arrived. With trembling fingers and a shaky breath, I swiped along Mel’s message.
And I kind of wished I hadn’t.