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This was the second time in as many months that Beatrice had been attacked, and I was done with it.
“Devin, how is she?” I asked, not taking my eyes off the scum under me.
Shuffling sounded and Devin’s voice dropped into a soothing rumble, one he usually reserved for wild animals and injured kids as he completely ignored my question to focus on his sister.
“If you’re awake, I need you to work with me, Beatrice. I’m going to sit you up.” Silence was his answer, and from the corner of my eye I watched as he gently leaned her against the wall. The bruises starting to form looked bad, even from here, and the urge to beat the blood out of the scum who’d done it screamed through my veins.
My fists clenched hard enough that I could hear my knuckles crack, the man under me swallowing hard as he stopped trying to get away. I glared at him, boring holes as deeply into his skull as I could.
“Devin?” I prodded, and finally he answered, though his tone was dark.
“It looks like mostly bruises. She isn’t having difficulty breathing and as long as that continues, I don’t think she’ll need a hospital.”
Relief hit in waves and I pulled in a deep breath, settling my scattered nerves. She’d be fine, but that still left this one to handle.
Focusing back down, I narrowed my eyes and growled. “You had better hope the police get here soon because I’m this close to giving you every bruise she has and multiplying it by tenfold.”
He paled, his struggle to get away resuming as he sputtered. “I didn’t even rough her up that bad, I just wanted-.”
I could guess what he wanted, and my blood boiled. In a heartbeat my fist cracked across his face, more of my weight leaning down on his diaphragm as he wheezed.
The sirens were getting louder, and I hated the idea of getting off him. He’d hurt Beatrice, and he wasn’t bleeding nearly enough to pay that back.
Then again, even if I beat every drop of blood out of him, would it be equal?
The answer came swiftly. No.
When the door crashed open and a few officers barreled in, I let them pull me off the slime, Devin’s quiet explanation going over my head as I watched them drag her assailant away.
I tensed, ready to follow, but Devin caught my shoulder and leveled me with a warning look. “Don’t. She needs you here, not in prison.”
That, more than anything, snapped me back to the present. One of the officers eyed her warily, concern clear as he asked.
“Does she need an ambulance?”
Devin shook his head, gently gathering her against his chest and lifting. “I already looked her over and checked her vitals. She should be fine, but if she starts having difficulty breathing I’ll bring her to the hospital.”
The officer nodded, appeased with that, before scowling. “I’m going to need both of your witness accounts.”
Great.
Impatience itched through my veins, the urge to hide Beatrice in my room and wrap her into so many blankets nothing could ever touch her again, almost too much to ignore. Devin nodded in my direction.
“It should only take a few minutes, get yours done first.”
I almost argued, wanting to hold her if only long enough to calm my racing heart, but he nailed me with a glare. “If you do yours first, I can focus on giving them any answers they may need. This is my apartment too, so they might want me to walk them through things or ask more questions. Go first, then you can focus on her.”
Oh, well when he put it like that…
I nodded, facing the officer with a grimace. “I’m ready, though I don’t have a lot of information. I was with Devin at my place for a game night, and his security app pinged saying someone was here that shouldn’t be. We raced over and found the slime beating her.”
Short, sweet, and to the point.
The officer noted that down, then nodded to Devin. “Your turn, and you’re right, I do have plenty of questions for you. Namely, ones about your sister. We need to make sure there’s no one who could have a vendetta against her.”
I snorted at the thought. Beatrice was one of the kindest people I’d had the fortune of meeting. Even the idea of someone having a grudge against her was laughable.
The officer smiled my way. “I know it feels impossible, but you’d be amazed how a criminal’s mind works. We’ve had people targeted over everything from a kind rejection to them bumping into the assailant and saying hello. It’s scary how easy it is to attract the attention of a psycho.”
