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Andre gently took my shoulder in hand. “I know where she is, and I’ll go with whoever Detective Cortez sends. It’ll be sirens all the way, or I’ll throw the driver’s ass out and drive myself.” He was dead serious.
I hugged his waist then reversed into Tobin’s arms. “Thank you, Andre. I’ll stay Detective Cortez as long as I think you’re truly investigating instead of asking me questions that only mean something to you. The first time you ask when was the last time I saw Eva like I may be a suspect in her kidnapping, I’m out of here.” This wasn’t the time for mental games. Chad had too many of those in play at the moment, and I wasn’t tolerating those well.
“Have a seat, Dr. Johnston. Let’s go over that phone call word by word, sound by sound while my team finds your recording.”
I sat, but it wasn’t happily. My legs bounced, fingers twisting around themselves. Even Tobin’s nearness couldn’t help with the dread coming from not knowing of Malaysia’s true whereabouts. During the hoopla, the alarm company entered the fray. How they did their job with all the cops underfoot was a mystery to me. Eventually, Detective Cortez went away with little to no information that would help his case or mine. Malaysia arrived. I hugged the poor woman like I hadn’t seen her in ages.
When she got me untangled from her, she sat me down between her and Tobin. “What have you eaten, Cherise?”
I had to think about it, but it didn’t take long. “Nothing. I couldn’t eat when worried about you and Athena.” And Eva.
“We should get you home then. It’s my turn to feed us. How about Chinese?”
“I can’t eat, Malaysia. He has Eva. I think I may have motivated him to hurt her.” Guilt was eating at me something awful.
Malaysia took my hands in hers. “He’s already hurt her, Cherise. If he does anything else, it’s still his choice, his fault alone. We’ll do whatever we can to help her, but you have to keep your strength up. You’re bouncing like a baby on granddaddy’s knee. Too much adrenaline is in your system. When it clears out, you’ll crash. Your blood sugar is going to go with it. You need to eat if you don’t want to end up in a hospital.” She was correct on all fronts.
“I’ll get something when the guys putting in the alarms are gone.”
Tobin pressed his lips to my forehead. “I’ll make sure of that, Malaysia.”
She gave him no backtalk. Something was wrong. Too much was wrong. We talked about how to right it all in whispers until everyone started to clear out except a few cops. They would patrol the building. Some would go back to the station and babysit the brothering device connected to my office’s landline. It was tied to my cellphone. Any calls my office got, I got, and they listened in on it. As the minutes ticked by, I grew tired, not hungry, wanting to go home. I only had to say that once to Tobin. Malaysia opted to ride with Andre on her own. Something was definitely wrong—she was being too civil to everybody.
Tobin bundled me under one arm after I locked up. I was lagging so much he carried me partway to his truck. Someone had moved it from the center of the lane to a parking spot. I huddled in my seat, knees to my chest, all the way home with Tobin rubbing some part of me or another. The human connection kept me grounded in the here and now. It was not a pretty place anymore. At the gate, Tobin entered the code. Tires peeled in the distance then got closer way too fast. Next, we were becoming victims of whiplash from being hit from the back. Why did Andre rear-end us?
I attempted to sit up. “What the hell?”
Tobin’s hand lying across my spine pushed me back down into the fetal position. “Cherise, don’t get up! Stay down! It’s not Andre pushing us. Fucking Chad is pushing Andre into us!” No, not Chad. Not right now. I needed to recuperate from this morning’s fiasco. Early afternoon had brought another one.
Tobin was trying to steer one-handed and cover me with the other while we were being forced forward at a breakneck pace gathering speed. Swerving would mean hitting other cars or dogwalkers and joggers watching this disaster from the sidewalk.
“Use both hands, Tobin!” I screamed. “I’m fine!” Not really. The parked cars in the condo lot were starting to go by too fast for conditions in my limited view. Moving at all was too fast in the interim. We were up to five miles an hour, with another quarter mile of road to go. It ended at another section of condos. Mercifully, they were on a steeper hill than my home. The cars and light poles were not.
Mashing his brakes to the floor with both feet, Tobin stole a look at the rearview mirror. His tires were squealing and burning from the punishment. “The son of a bitch must’ve been parked at the house’s across the street from the gate.” This was the lesson Chad was teaching me, by trying to kill us all. “Cherise, take the wheel!”
“Are you crazy? I’m not a defensive driver!” I didn’t think Tobin was on drugs, but now, I was starting to wonder.
Tobin glanced down at me pleadingly. “Cherise, take the wheel and brakes before that motherfucking psycho makes us hit the cars coming up! I need to get out!” Indeed, he had smoked something today if he thought he’d abandon me in a truck being guided by somebody two vehicles back.
“No, dammit! I’m not letting you out, Tobin!”
“We are going to die in here, Cherise, if we hit something just right! Will that work better for you?” Not in the slightest.
“Fuck!” I unbuckled, crawling over his lap. “I swear if you die out there, when I die, my spirit will find your spirit and haunt yours for eternity.”
Fumbling beside him for something, Tobin moved his feet from the brakes. “I’m coming back to you if I have to bring Chad with me.”
“Please don’t bring him back,” I begged, feeling like a toddler trying to take her father’s place and wear his shoes. His seat was so far back I had space to stand up on the brakes. Bracing my weight on the steering wheel helped me to hold it steady and gave him room to slide from beneath me. He sprung out the truck like a rabbit with a gun in his hand.
I had to let that tremendously disturbing sight slide. Just holding the wheel straight was a tussle between machine and woman who didn’t have the muscles for the job. My adrenaline was pumping at a grueling rate as I fought to stop and steer the truck. Those two things should not ever be occurring at the same time. Gunshots discharged behind me. Brakes screamed. I ducked on instinct. The truck slammed to a stop, throwing me back into the driver’s seat.
Praise God, I had stopped moving. It got eerily quiet like on a normal day. A bellow full of rage packed in a single word, “Tires!” broke the silence as fast as it had arrived. I remember why the silence sounded so eerie; a few seconds ago, my world was nothing but car parts protesting about being mistreated. Tobin had gone to stop it.
“Oh, God, Tobin.” Malaysia and Andre quickly emerged in my mind. I pushed and kicked open the door, barely getting my feet on the ground before Malaysia charged at me.
“Cherise, get back in!” she shrieked as I glimpsed Tobin and Andre with guns drawn, chasing after Chad’s white truck reversing out the gate at full throttle. He had just whipped around to face the street when she collided with me in full frontal. We fell together half in, half out the truck under the steering wheel. There were squealing tires, and more shots fired, more bellows of rage in rapidly-fired words. I struggled under her to get up. With the advantage of being on top of me, she fought to keep me down.
“Dammit, Cherise! They’re unloading on a bulletproof truck. Bullets are ricocheting everywhere!” My neighbors were out being nosy as usual too.
