AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sebastian and Kettle flanked me as we watched Ronnie stitch up Channing’s hand with the expertise of a man who’d been doing it for so long he could do it with his eyes closed.
“So you were her John for the night, eh?” Kettle gave me a sideways glance.
I ignored him, fascinated with the way Ronnie pulled her skin closed with the black thread. I’d always been interested in trauma, hence why I got my paramedic’s certification.
Although seeing it happen to someone I truly cared for gave me a feeling in my stomach that I hadn’t experienced since my mom was diagnosed with cancer.
It was a feeling I didn’t much like, and one that I refused to examine too closely.
“Yeah, he gives great head,” Channing garbled.
Kettle and Sebastian both burst out laughing, and Ronnie was smiling like a loon, but he didn’t say anything.
“Is this the chick?” Kettle asked once he regained his composure.
“Yep,” I confirmed.
“She’s the reason why you keep bugging out?” Sebastian asked.
I turned to him, regarding his impassive face for a few long moments before answering. “Not really. There’re some things going on with this case that I should probably bring you up to speed on. It most likely won’t affect you, and I can’t tell you all of it, but I’d like you to know...just in case.”
“I’m free tomorrow. Come to the house for breakfast. Bring your girl. Don’t come before ten,” Sebastian instructed before leaving Kettle and me standing there.
Kettle watched the VP go, and then turned to me.
“Viddy and Adeline talk,” he said slowly.
I raised my eyebrow at him in question. “And?”
“Maybe your girl would like to join their talk sometime. They feel like you’re purposefully not bringing her around because she’s scared of the club. Said your girl freaks out whenever Trance gets near,” he said
I looked back to Channing who was nearly done getting her stitches. “It’s not the club, necessarily, but cops. She was...yeah. I don’t really want to talk about it, and it’s her information to share. But suffice it to say, she didn’t have a good experience with one when she was sixteen, and that’s left her wary. I’ll bring her by tomorrow if she’s up to it. Don’t let them gossip about her though. She’s already self-conscious enough.”
He nodded. “Gotta go. We were in the middle of dinner when we got that call. I’ll check you later.”
“Later,” I said.
Forty five minutes later, I was walking with Channing up her front walk.
“Will you do it?” She asked as she searched through her purse. “It gives me the hives being under a time constraint. Do you remember that game where you had to try to fit all the shapes into that little box before the timer went off and popped all the pieces back out? That’s the way I feel when I’m disarming the alarm.”
I laughed as I took the keys from her, unlocked it, and easily disarmed the alarm.
We were just walking through when my pager went off.
“Fuck,” I groaned and glanced at the pager.
Pulling out my phone, I called into dispatch with a heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach.
“This is Detective Rector, I just got paged,” I said evenly, trying to contain the roiling emotions trying to entice me to spill my guts all over the white tiled floor of Channing’s entrance way.
“Detective Rector, we have a single suspected homicide at the gas station on June and Trail Road. Are you available to lead?” Dispatch asked.
“10-4. I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” I confirmed and we hung up.
Turning around, I found Channing looking at me worriedly. “Does this happen a lot?”
Putting the phone back in my pocket, I looked at her closely, studying her disposition, and very reluctant to leave her here alone after she’d just been hurt.
