Quinn gulped in breath, and sweat dripped off his forehead. Sarah slid off Dory and leaned her head against the bed, her chest heaving. Then she was on the move again, snatching his T-shirt and shorts. She tossed them at him and sat on Dory while he dressed.
The doorbell gonged just as the disembodied voice of the nine-one-one operator announced the police were at the front door.
Sarah leapt up. “You stay here with her. I’ll let them in.”
He kept his knee, and his weight, firmly in the center of Dory’s back, who now sobbed uncontrollably.
The officers appeared in the doorway, Sarah right behind; one had drawn her weapon. Quinn put up his hands and backed away in a crouch. The male officer’s eyes bounced between Dory bound on the floor and Quinn.
Questions, answers, more questions. The female officer looked at Quinn as though she were trying to work out a puzzle. Finally, she said, “You’re Quinn Hadley. You play for the Blizzard.”
He nodded and pointed at Sarah. “And that’s my girlfriend, Sarah Nelson.”
Dory shrieked. “I’m his girlfriend! I caught him cheating on me with that ugly bitch!”
Hours later, after Dory had been hauled away, the cops had sorted the situation enough to leave Quinn and Sarah in peace for a few hours until they were due at the station for formal statements. Though the officers didn’t elaborate, they’d arrested Dory on other charges besides those she’d racked up at Quinn’s.
As Quinn closed and locked the front door, he sagged against it, fatigue seeping into the marrow of his bones. Sarah put her arms around his waist, rubbing her cheek against his back, and tugged him toward her room. “C’mon, Sparky. Let’s sleep in my room tonight.”
If I can sleep.
He flopped into her bed and tucked her under his arm. “I thought Wolf had broken in. I never imagined it was Dory. But she was outside, watching us the whole time. When we were in the pool, the hot tub. She spied through the windows when we were on the couch and set off the lights. She must’ve sneaked in through the gym door before I locked it.”
Still wearing his shirt, Sarah snaked her arm around him and nuzzled his shoulder, soothing him. A shiver ran through her body. “I saw her out there, not a cat. And she must have shredded my robe.”
The cops had found his robe, intact, stashed in some bushes.
“She threw the rock,” he said.
“How? I thought she was with Wyatt.”
“I don’t know how she did it, but she did.” He shuddered with the recollection of his shredded mattress and how close Dory had come to burying the knife in him. And if she’d immobilized him? He had no doubt she’d have gone after Sarah. “Jesus, Sunshine. What the fuck is wrong with people? We know how to pick the crazies, don’t we?”
She parked her chin on his chest. “I guess that’s one more thing we have in common.”
He tweaked her nose. “How about we just stick with each other from now on?”
Her eyebrow dipped. “Except we’re crazy too.”
He ran his fingers through her hair. “A good kind of crazy. And your crazy matches mine perfectly. I think we make a good team.”
“You think?”
“I know.”
The next day, Quinn called Wyatt, keeping the shit-shooting to a bare minimum before he launched into the reason for his call. “So I wanted to ask you about Dory.”
On the other end, Wyatt was uncharacteristically quiet.
“It’s not like that, man,” Quinn explained. “I wanted to know if you’re still seeing her.”
A throat clear. “Haven’t seen much of her. She’s been acting strange lately, and last week she went dark. I’m guessing I pissed her off, but I’m not sure why. Or maybe … Is she, ah, back with you?”
Quinn kept himself from barking, Hell no! “No, she’s not, and when I tell you what went down last night, I’m betting you’ll be relieved she’s not with you either.” Quinn filled Wyatt in, leaving Sarah’s name out of the narrative. He referred to her simply as “a lady friend I’ve been spending time with.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Wyatt spluttered. “This is a joke, right? You’re making this up.”
“Wish that was the case, buddy. But don’t take my word for it. Her arrest should be public record, so check for yourself.”
Quinn lost count of how many times Wyatt muttered, “My fucking God!”
“Do you remember when you first told me you were seeing her? You said you’d been at your place in the mountains?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m just trying to wrap my head around some of the dates.” Quinn told Wyatt which dates.
“No, man. She was here the whole time. She drove up separately, but she didn’t go anywhere.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive. In fact, McMurphy, his date, and a few other friends joined us. They saw her here too.” Wyatt laughed. “Though one of them wishes they hadn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know what set it off, but McMurphy’s date got into it with Dory one night when we were all pretty wasted. What a shit-show! Told Dory she was nuts. There was no shortage of claws. Dory got so pissed, she … Oh shit! I totally forgot she did leave. But it was only for a few hours, I think. Not the whole night.”
When Quinn pressed him, Wyatt said, “Shit, Hads. I don’t know how long she was gone. I was hammered. I just know she showed back up, and everything was cool again. But—here’s something else I totally spaced—I found out later two of Hunts’s tires were slashed. He had a hell of a time getting new ones, and his date ended up missing some important work thing. He told me all about it afterward.”
“Which night, Wyatt?” This is really important.
“Let me think. Had to be the last night we were there.”
The same night the rock sailed through Quinn’s window. By the time he hung up, Quinn was slicked in a fine sheen of sweat.
Over the coming weeks, Quinn and Sarah learned far
