He destroyed my girl tonight and I destroyed his chance of ever doing this to another woman again. We’re not even close to even but I’ll settle for it anyway, because it may just keep another naive girl from having her life destroyed by that fucker.
Two kilometres from the Turner household and I have to pull the bike over because the shock of what I just did sets in, and I start spewing before I’ve even pulled off the road. I spend a good twenty minutes outside the Sugartown Primary School heaving up my guts, and then I climb back on my bike and drive to the nearest payphone where I report a break in at 24 Pine Tree Road.
Across town, I hear the wail of police sirens cut through the quiet early morning air and I jump back on the bike. I drive right past the motel, about 10 kilometres past it actually, and hurl the gun off into a cane field. I bury the gloves by the side of the road and clean myself up as best I can with some wet wipes I keep in an ammo case, then I speed back to the motel to spend as much time with Ana as I can before the men in blue come for me. And they will come. I have absolutely no doubt about that fact. In a way, I’m counting on it to keep me in line, because I could still very easily turn around and put a bullet in that kid’s head.
Once I slide my key in the door Holly is right up in my face, demanding answers. I pull her into the bathroom with me and quietly close the door to keep her from waking Ana.
“What the hell did you do?”
“I took care of it.”
Her eyes widen. “What does that mean, Elijah?”
I run my hands under the hot tap to clean away a spot of blood on my wrist and curse these old pipes for taking so long to heat up. My knuckles are bruised and, despite the leather gloves I’d been wearing, the skin is still all torn up from slamming my fist into Scott’s face. I desperately want a shower so I peel off my jacket and shuck off my boots but then it occurs to me that Fanta-pants has no intention of leaving until she gets her answers.
“He’s still breathing,” I say, and then think,
“What the hell does that mean?” she shouts. I glare at her to shut up but the bathroom door opens and a shell-shocked Ana looks back and forth between us. She takes one look at my hands and my guilty wide-eyed expression and bolts.
“Ana!” I shout and take off after her, nearly knocking Holly off her feet as I push through the bathroom door and into the motel room. She’s already out the door and half way to the staircase when I catch her by the waist and drag her back to my room, kicking and screaming. I dump her down on the bed, remembering only at the last minute how carefully she was moving last night. In the daylight I can see he really fucking did a number on her, and I curse myself again for being such a fucking pussy and not gutting the bastard.
“You promised,” Ana sobs and I make a move toward her, but suddenly Holly is beside her on the bed, holding her in her arms, and I feel like I’ve been shunted aside like old garbage. “You promised you wouldn’t tell. You said you wouldn’t go after him.”
She’s right. I did promise that. But I also made myself a promise the night the Angels attacked us, when she was almost raped right there in front of me. I promised myself I’d do everything within my power to keep her safe and if it’s one thing I know about spoilt little rich kid fucks like Scott Turner it’s that once they get away with something, they’re cocky enough to try a second time I’ll be a rotting corpse before I ever let him near my Ana again.
Holly surprises us both by saying, “He did the right thing, Ana.”
“What?” Ana and I ask at the same time.
“You need to go to the hospital. You need to let them carry out a rape kit and then you need to report this to the police.”
Ana shakes her head, “My dad, he can’t … this will destroy him.”
“No. It won’t.” I peer out through the curtains at the car park below. “Learning that you covered it up and let that arsehole walk, that will destroy him.”
She glances up at me. Her voice is just a whisper when she says, “What did you do?”
“I didn’t kill him, Ana. I wanted to.” I shake my head. “I
I glance at Holly, who’s looking at me with an odd expression, which is really saying something because she’s always looking at me odd. “Can you give us a minute?”
“Sure.” She squeezes Ana’s hand and then steps out onto the balcony, closing the door behind her.
“I’m sorry, baby girl. I know I betrayed your trust, but I hope you know I did it because I thought it was for the best.”
“That wasn’t your call to make,” she snaps and peeks up at me from behind a curtain of the prettiest hair I’ve ever seen.
I hear the wail of sirens in the distance and I know I don’t have long. I pull her to her feet, wondering whether these precious few minutes with her will be the last I’ll ever get. God, I hope not because I love this crazy, naive, insanely beautiful woman more than I’ve ever loved anyone, and the thought of never seeing her smile again, or the way she folds her arms and arches her eyebrow when she gets mad, or hearing the way she moans when I bring her exquisite pussy to the brink with my mouth, forces something inside me to snap. I know she’s still furious with me she has every right to be, but I don’t have time to worry about how much I hurt her, because those sirens are getting closer and she and I are drifting further apart.
“Promise me you’ll report this?”
“What, like you promised me?”
“Ana, please, I’m begging you. If you care about me at all, you’ll report it.”
“What does that mean?” The sirens get louder and it must finally click with her because she glances up at me with eyes shining with tears. “They’re coming for you?”
I nod.
She closes her eyes and the tears start rolling freely. “No. What did you do?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I say and take her chin in my hands, because I’m afraid touching her cheeks will only cause her more pain. “I love you, baby girl.”
I press her into me and kiss her hard on the mouth. It’s not a lingering kiss, she doesn’t open her lips and I don’t force her, but for a moment I feel her soften and melt into me and that’s good enough.
“I’m sorry you have to see this,” I say, as I pull away from her lips and study her face one last time. Outside, the screeching of brakes sets my hair on end. I count three pairs of footsteps thundering up the stairs and hear Holly swear beneath her breath and mutter, “Ah, guys?” before an officer kicks in the motel door and two more are pulling me away from Ana. She cups a hand over her mouth and shakes her head in disbelief.
I’m asked to put my hands behind my head and I do. I also bend a little at the knees in order for the officers to reach my arms but some fuck-rag shoves his boot in the back of my knees and I drop like a tonne of bricks. Then I’m being shoved face down on the floor with some arsehole’s knee between my shoulder blades as they slap a pair of cuffs on me and yank me up by my wrists.
“Elijah Cade, you’re under arrest for the mutilation of Scott Turner. You have the right to remain silent …” The officer continues to read me my rights but I don’t hear any of it. I’m too focused on Ana and the way she’s mouthing “mutilation” at me like it’s a question she thinks I can answer. I feel the officers restrain my hands and slip the cuffs into place and then I’m being hauled to my feet and carted out the door.
“Wait,” I hear Ana say behind me and my walk of shame comes to a grinding halt. “I need to report a rape.” She blurts out, and for a heartbeat no one says a thing.
The officer holding my arm yanks me around to face her. “This guy?”
“No.” Ana’s shaking like a leaf but her gaze slides over me and she steels herself, wipes her tears and says, “Scott Turner is the one who raped me, in the cane fields outside town, last night.”
The officer nearest me sighs and pushes me toward the door, and I overhear the cop who read me my rights telling Ana to follow him down to the station.
I don’t know what lies ahead of me now, but I’m bursting with pride over how fucking brave my girl is. The officer forces my head down as he guides me into the back of the paddy wagon and, for the first time in my life, I
