Dressed all in black, he towered over the cops, easily topping six-six. A black hood obscured the guy's face and Noah jerked it back, giving me my first real look at him.
A kid. A gigantic kid, but a kid all the same. He had a baby face — freckled and round. With his red hair, he looked like he could be my kid brother or my big brother's kid. Dirt and tears streaked his face. A thin line of blood mixed with mucus ran from his nose, the side of his face starting to purple in a bruise.
Catching me staring at the kid, Noah jerked a thumb at the cops. 'Get this piece — put him in the fucking squad car.'
One of the uniformed officers started to obey. The kid's knees buckled. He folded to the ground and the cop looked at Noah.
'I think you broke the little bastard's arm, Lodge'
Noah's glance cut my way for half a second before he looked back to the cop. 'Then put him in an ambulance. Just get him the hell out of here!'
One of the cops standing in the circle had stopped gaping at the kid on the ground and was watching me through the window. Noah caught the direction of the guy's gaze. His arm shot out, grabbed hold of the cop's collar and pulled him close. Noah's lips moved, the words too softly spoken for me to hear through the window, and then the cop nodded. Noah let go of the guy, glaring at me as the man quick stepped out of sight and I snapped the curtains shut.
Ten minutes later, I sat on my couch, shaking violently as a female police officer took my statement.
'It was pretty much over before I knew what was going on,' I explained. 'The screaming woke me.'
Making a note in the small pad balanced on her knee, she tittered nervously. 'Yeah, his arm is pretty jacked. He's lucky Noah didn't break it.'
Her response to the boy's injury unnerved me. 'He looked pretty young.'
'Seventeen, but he's built like a linebacker.' She shrugged. 'I helped serve a warrant last week on a fifteen year old who beat and…' She stopped, seemed to reconsider what she was going to say and shrugged again. 'Baby face or not, he'll get charged as an adult.'
She stared at me until I was ready to squirm in my seat.
I cleared my throat, tried to smile even though the boy's screams were still echoing in my head. 'Was there something else, Officer Hicks?'
She blushed, surprising me. 'I've been expecting to meet you for a long time, just not like this.'
I lifted a brow. I'd never heard of Amanda Hicks before she'd stepped through my front door and introduced herself fifteen minutes ago. She was a good decade older than me, but trim and athletic. Age aside, she might be Noah's type. I couldn't think of any other reason she'd expect to be introduced to me.
'How's that?' I asked.
'I mean, you know, someone at the station is always throwing a cookout — and the way Noah's always talking about you…' She trailed off and glanced at the front door before her head tilted intimately in my direction. 'We've got this room at the station for kids, for when…'
Her face clouded for a minute and she brushed the room's purpose away with a wave of her hand. 'Well, you know. We've got stuffed animals in it, boxes of crayons and picture books — every last one of yours, I think. He brings the books in, leaves them at his desk for the first few days while he shows them to anyone who'll pay attention. Then he puts them in the room for the kids.'
I blinked, not knowing what to say or think. Another uncomfortable second ticked by before I mumbled something I hoped would shut her up. 'He's always been very supportive of my work.'
Laughing, she rolled her eyes at me and flipped her notepad shut. 'Honey, supportive isn't the word for it.'
Before I could ask what that was supposed to mean, someone knocked against the screen's vinyl frame. The front door was open. I looked over to see Noah standing in the pale circle of my porch light.
Hicks stood, offering her hand as she said good-bye. 'I hope we can meet again, under different circumstances.'
I nodded and forced another smile on my face. There would be no police union cookout or Christmas party in my future. She was mistaken about Noah's feelings. She didn't know him like I did, didn't realize he was choosing to stand outside and knock rather than come in and that the choice wasn't without meaning. I knew what it meant and the realization cut deeper than I wanted to admit.
I followed her to the door, still smiling. She nodded at Noah, he nodded back, his gaze leaving my face for no more than a second. When Hicks was out of ear shot, he looked down, one hand running nervously along the door frame.
He was holding a set of keys in his other hand, metal grinding against metal as he clenched his fist. 'I figured you might want to spend the night at a hotel or something.'
A hotel — another telling choice. Not him in my bed or on my couch or me sleeping at his place. Just me, at a hotel, Noah's duty to Mike executed. The annoying little sister and one night stand secured and safe.
I shook my head, rejecting the idea of him taking me anywhere. He reached for the screen's handle. I grabbed it first and clicked the lock. 'I don't need you to keep an eye on me anymore, Noah. The kid's in the hospital. I don't think he's going to be bothering me any time soon.'
He swallowed, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His eyes drifted open and crawled slowly up my face. 'That's what you really want?'
Knowing I'd never get the lie past my lips, I nodded. I started to shut the door, but he raised his hand, stopping me.
'You remember how to set the alarm, right?'
'Yeah, I kn-'
'I can…double check it.' He gripped the screen handle, the knob rattling from the tension of his fingers tightening around it. 'If you want me to, that is.'
I shook another lie out and finished closing the door. I threw the dead bolt and punched the new pass code in to set the alarm. Then I walked slowly through the house, shutting off the lights as I went.
In my bedroom, I left the lamp on and crawled into bed crying.
My cell phone vibrated straight off the night stand at around six thirty am. I picked it up from the floor, glanced at a number I didn't recognize and considered hitting dismiss. Instead, I suppressed a groan, hit answer and mumbled a greeting.
A high-pitched voice with just a trace of masculinity burst through the speaker. 'Did that fucking pervert escape or something?'
I looked at the phone's display again to see if the caller's information had miraculously populated. Still just a number I didn't recognize.
'Who is this?' Rude as the jackass calling me was, I managed to keep my tone polite. The area code was the same as mine, so it could be a neighbor.
'Don Donovan — now answer my question. Did that fuck get loose or something?'
Two thoughts struck me at the same time. The first was more a feeling of dread at the prospect of the kid making his way to my house to finish whatever he had planned to start last night. The second thing was that Donovan's parents must not have liked him very much to name him Don.
Suppressing a giggle and a thin thread of fear with it, I answered Donovan as he started to repeat his question. 'Dude, I don't know — and why do you ask?'
'Because Officer Lodge is on guard outside your door.'
I heard a woman's voice speaking in a soft, unsure whisper. 'I think he's sleeping, dear. It's probably not what you think — he isn't even in uniform.'
More whispers followed as she urged him to hang up and he argued with her. I didn't wait to find out which Donovan would win that fight. I snapped the phone shut and marched into the front room, not even bothering to grab my robe before I threw the door open.
'You stupid, obstinate-'
Noah woke with a start, the deck chair he'd pinched from my back patio falling over with him in it. He shook his head, rubbed at his eyes. 'Don't be angry, baby-'
'Baby!' He was obviously too tired to remember he'd dumped me yesterday morning.
