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“What the hell are you doing?” Jed asked.
“This little bitch puked all over the fucking floor up there!” Ricky snapped as he jerked his head towards me and pointed towards the ceiling. “I saw a show where cops can track DNA or some shit like that!”
I dropped my eyes when Ricky passed me. The second he was out of the room, I maneuvered the phone carefully behind my back. I squeezed my eyes shut as I hit the button. I waited for Jed to ask me what the hell I was doing, but he seemed preoccupied with destroying what was left of the room. The first thing he and Ricky had done when we’d gotten everyone tied up had been to rip the paintings off the wall. I hadn’t realized until Jed had started asking the father about a safe that that’s what they’d been looking for. Now, he was tearing up the rest of the room, though I had no clue why. All I knew was that he was giving me the time I desperately needed.
The sound also helped drown out the sound of the dial tone. I couldn’t see the phone so I had to feel around the keypad and hope like hell I got the numbers right because I was only going to get one chance at this. As soon as I dialed, I pressed the phone against my back to muffle the sound I knew the operator would make when they answered. I could only hope and pray that they wouldn’t think the call was a hoax or wrong number and disconnect it.
A good minute passed before Jed finished trashing the place. I whispered silent pleas in my head as I listened for the sound of sirens. But there was nothing. I was so busy trying to listen for the 911 operator on the other end of the phone, that I didn’t notice Jed returning to the boy.
The boy’s quiet sob caught my attention and I finally snapped out of my daze long enough to see that Jed had pulled the boy to his feet. As soon as Jed pulled his arm back and the sheen of the knife reflected the light from the only lamp that hadn’t been shattered into a million pieces, I shouted “No!”
But Jed ignored me as he thrust his knife into the boy’s body.
I stepped forward, not remembering the phone in my hand. I also didn’t see my brother as he returned to the room.
He saw me, though. He saw me and then he was on me, snatching the phone from my grasp and hanging it up without saying even a single word to me. I heard the sickening sound of Jed stabbing the helpless kid, but I couldn’t do anything for him.
Because I was too busy staring into my brother’s eyes as I watched him pull his own knife from his waistband.
“Levi, wake up, damn it!”
As I jerked upright at the sound of Phoenix’s voice, I bumped my injured wrist. Between the searing pain and the remnants of my nightmare, I promptly lost it and began sobbing.
“Shhh, it’s okay,” Phoenix whispered in my ear as he pulled me against his bare chest.
Reality slowly returned as I remembered where I was and what had happened the night before.
After I’d taken my father’s car, I’d driven to St. Anthony’s in the hopes I’d be able to talk to Father O before he locked up for the night. I’d caught a break because he’d been in the process of locking the front door. While I hadn’t been able to tell him how I knew something had happened to Hank, he’d agreed to contact the prison, since they wouldn’t give information on an inmate to anyone but family. My hope was that as a member of the clergy, they might tell him something, anything about Hank’s condition.
I’d been lost after that. My fear for Hank and the close call with T had sent me right to the edge. I’d wanted more than anything to go to Phoenix right then and beg him to help me, but I’d known that wasn’t an option.
So I’d gone to the one place I’d never wanted to go near again, but that kept drawing me back like a lure. I’d sat in front of the Nichols house for hours, reliving that night and pretending things I had no business pretending.
Like that Fred and Corinne Nichols still lived in that house and their greatest joy was when their son came home from college for visits.
Or that they were spending a sleepless night in the home as they prepared for their child’s wedding the next day.
“Talk to me, Levi,” Phoenix urged as he stroked my back.
My naked back.
After we’d gotten out of the shower, Phoenix had taken his time drying me off with a towel as he’d kissed me softly over and over again. Then he’d carefully changed the soaking wet bandage on my wrist. I’d spent the entire time still reeling from what he done to me.
