Don't Leave Me

by Lorhainne Eckhart

  She said nothing as she followed him across his tiny place. It was a mess, and there was no food, likely not even coffee. He reached for his wallet and pulled out the forty dollars he had.

  “You should get something to eat,” he said. “I’ve got nothing. Sorry, and a key. You’ll need a key.” He patted his pockets and pulled open a drawer in the kitchen after tossing the bills on the counter, spotting the extra set of keys.

  “You don’t need to give me money,” she said. “Besides, I need to check in with my family.”

  He looked over to her. What was there in her expression? He held the keys out to her. “Here.”

  She opened her palm, and he pressed them into it. He wanted to kiss her again, but she slid her arm across her stomach, and he took in how his shirt just covered her. He walked to the door and pulled it open, looking back to where Claudia stood, looking sexy as all hell, looking back at him.

  “I’ll call you” was all he said as he stepped out, then hesitated. Everything from the past forty-eight hours hit him, sending a chill up his spine, and he turned back to her and said, “Lock it after me.”

  Then he pulled the door closed, heard her footsteps and the click of the deadbolt, and walked away to the elevator. He took in the dingy hallway, the burnt-out light beside the stairwell exit. The moment the elevator doors slid open, he glanced back again, feeling completely unsettled.

  Chapter 23

  Claudia took in Tony’s apartment, which was now reasonably clean as a result of her efforts of the past hour, during which she’d wiped down, scrubbed, picked up, dusted, and cleaned up as best she could. The man certainly wasn’t a housekeeper, and his very tiny bachelor pad resembled a guys’ locker room. He didn’t own a vacuum cleaner, either, so she’d popped open the sliding glass door that led out to a tiny balcony to let in some air. The bed was now made, the dirty clothes picked up, and she’d showered before pulling on her clothes from the day before and taking in the midday sun.

  She could hear the traffic and the sounds of life that filled the apartment from the street below. Her stomach rumbled. A coffee would’ve been great, but as she’d already discovered, Tony’s shelves were bare. What the heck did he live off of? Her answer was clear as she stared at the take-out cartons and pizza boxes she’d stacked in the corner by the door to go out with the trash. She should get some coffee, maybe a muffin. She knew there was a strip mall next door with shops and cafes.

  Then there was Tony. She didn’t have a clue how long he’d be, and she hadn’t allowed herself to think of what was next for them. She was here at his place. His place! Considering she’d known him for less than forty-eight hours, this was so new, but at the same time, because of the circumstances of how they’d been thrown together, she couldn’t shake the sense that she knew him better than anyone. In the extremes of life and death and all the ugliness, they had done away with the pretense, the facade that often came with meeting someone for the first time. That would have been moot.

  She reached for her purse on the ledge above where a kitchen table was supposed to go. Tony really had only minimal furnishings, she noted. On habit, she slid her hand into her purse, rummaging for her phone, which wasn’t there. Right, it had been lost in the moment those shots were fired, and she couldn’t help feeling lost too. Of course there was no landline phone, so she wondered how he was supposed to call her.

  Claudia glanced at the forty dollars still on the counter and the eleven bucks she had in her wallet. She tucked the bills into her purse and reached for the two keys on the silver ring, then went out and locked the door behind her. She took in the hall, which seemed so different from the night before, and jabbed the button for the elevator. She didn’t have to wait long before the doors opened to reveal a crowd, and she rode down in silence with strangers.

  She stepped outside into the bright sun and dug in her purse, but no shades. They had to be locked in her car. The keys too were lost, but there was a spare set at home. Yeah, she definitely needed to make a plan for her things. She spotted a busy coffeehouse on the next block and stepped inside, taking in the crowds and the TVs mounted to the walls. A news reel was on. She could see the headlines, the photos of cops and what looked like a live shot of the front of the Henderson Police Department.

  “Can I help you?” the young woman behind the counter called out to her.

  She took in the menu, the glassed-in counter full of baked goods and premade sandwiches.

  “I’ll have a mocha latte with an egg salad sandwich.” She pointed to the stack of sandwiches on fluffy white bread, which looked fresh and yummy.

  She paid the clerk, took the plastic-wrapped sandwich, and gave her name before moving down to the end of the counter to wait for her coffee. She took in the TV again, seeing the cops’ names flash across the screen. The camera zoomed in on the crowds out front and then back out as the door of the station opened. Out came two uniformed officers and then Tony. Cameras zoomed in on his face, and though she couldn’t hear what was being said, she didn’t miss the chaos. He just shook his head, wearing dark shades as he moved through the crowd and past them to a waiting car. He looked pissed. Of all times for her not to have a phone!

  “Claudia?” the clerk called out as a paper cup appeared.

  “Thank you,” Claudia said and reached for it, the steam rising. “Listen, do you have a phone I can use?”

  The clerk slid a black corded phone across the counter, and Claudia reached for it and dialed. She could hear ringing.

  “Yeah?” It was a sharp, deep male voice.

  “Aaron?”

  “Yeah, where are you? Whose phone is this?” He was a man of few words, and she could hear talking in the background.

  “At a coffeehouse close to Tony’s. I don’t have my phone. I’m using theirs. What happened is plastered all over the news. Can you come and pick me up? I need my car.” She also needed some clean clothes and to figure out a way of getting another phone that day.

  “Yeah, just give me the address and I’ll be there.”

  She rattled it off, and then he was gone. There was something about Aaron that was so to the point, and she couldn’t quite figure out the what, where, how, or why of anything about him, what made him tick and why he cared for her. Then there was the fact that he was still at her parents’.

  “Thank you,” she called out to the clerk as she slid the phone across the counter. Then she perched on a stool at the end of the bar and unwrapped her sandwich to take a bite. Yup, even better than she’d first thought, but then, she was starving. As she shoved the last bite of the first half in her mouth, she spotted what looked like Chase’s BMW pull up out front. Aaron stepped out of the passenger side and strode her way. He was walking fast, shades on, so Claudia grabbed her coffee and wrapped up the remaining part of her sandwich before sliding off the stool. She was at the door when Aaron pulled it open.

  “Hey, kid” was all he said as he held the door, and she walked through it ahead of him.

  “Thanks for picking me up. Didn’t know Chase was still here,” she said. She strode beside him, his legs long and his build ripped. He really dug into each step.

  “Too much going on. You okay?” he asked as he reached for the back door of the car and opened it for her, then held it as she climbed in.

  “Yeah, I’m good. Hi, Chase,” she said as she slid in back. The door closed behind her as she rested her purse on the floor, put her sandwich on her lap, and tucked the coffee cup in the holder. She reached for the seatbelt and snapped it in place as Aaron slid in front.

  Chase didn’t say a word as he pulled out into traffic, but he glanced back to her once, twice in the rear-view mirror.

  “We already picked up your car and brought it home,” Aaron said. “The crime scene is still a crazed zoo. Here.” He handed a phone back to Claudia, one of the new iPhones.

  “Thanks. What’s this?”

  “Your new phone. You lost yours at the crime scene, right? Got you a new one.”

&
nbsp; Of course he had, kind of like what he’d done with the new car he’d bought her. Aaron was so confusing. Why did he care so much for her?

  “That wasn’t necessary, but thanks,” she said, feeling a sense of relief that she wouldn’t be out of the loop anymore. “So Tony was on the news. I didn’t hear it all, but it looks like chaos there. You know what’s going on?” She reached for her coffee and took another swallow as Chase slowed for a light.

  “Yeah, media is all over the cops being taken down for the shooting. Internal affairs was called in, and the cops arrested are in federal custody, but word is coming down that could change,” Chase said.

  Aaron turned back to her. “What did Tony say?”

  Wow, the million-dollar question. “Not much. He got a call this morning to get his ass into the station. His sergeant was angry, yelling on the phone. Don’t think Tony expected that, but at the same time, last night, he mentioned he was pretty sure his job was in jeopardy if he still had one. Could they actually make things difficult for him? I guess I don’t understand how anyone would take the side of dirty cops,” she said, then took in the way her brothers glanced to each other. Whatever it was, the exchange lasted just a moment.

  “I think it’s best, Claudia, in light of things, that maybe you get out of town for a while,” Chase said. “Put some distance between yourself and this situation, which is likely to have this town fuelled up for some time. Tony’s mixed up in this, and he has to be, but with what you saw, I really don’t like the fact you’re here and could be dragged into it. You should be at Vic’s.”

  She just stared at the back of his head and then over to Aaron, who was looking out the passenger window as Chase pulled down her parents’ street. “Yeah, I’m not going anywhere, Chase,” she said.

  He pulled up and parked in front of the house, where her Camry was parked in the driveway behind her dad’s pickup, then flicked open his seatbelt and turned, giving her all his attention. As he lifted his shades up over his short wavy blond hair, his megawatt blue eyes were intense. He was handsome, her brother. Though he was from another generation, he too cared. Why?

  She could see Aaron staring at him, not saying a word, and it seemed as if they had discussed a lot, or maybe she was reading more into it than was there.

  “You know we could make you,” he said, and there it was, something she hadn’t seen before, just a flicker of heavy handedness. He sighed when Aaron muttered something under his breath that she thought sounded like “No.”

  She reached for the door and opened it. Chase was shaking his head as he stepped out, and Aaron too. She took in the house, her parents, and Vic through the front window, phone pressed to his ear, walking back and forth. So he too was still there. Why?

  “Claudia, I need you to not be so stubborn,” Chase said as he walked around the car. “Seriously, this is a really bad situation, and I wonder if you have any idea what kind of shit could be coming down the line, heading right toward you. Tony is sitting right in the line of fire.”

  Aaron looked up the street and then the other way as if checking for anyone who may have followed them. He said nothing as Claudia lifted her half-eaten sandwich, downed the rest of her coffee, slung her purse over her shoulder, and started walking to the house.

  “Chase, that’s the thing,” she said. “I’m the one who walked into the middle of this. I’m the one who saw the cop plant the gun. Tony is the one who just tried to protect me, and wasn’t it you who worked with Tony and the feds, who told him to wear a wire? Now you want me to, what, just run away and hide and let him deal with the fallout? No.”

  As she reached the back door, Aaron reached around her and pulled it open. “No one’s asking you to leave, kid. Chase is just doing what he does for all of us: sticking his nose in all our business to fix and handle everything, because he’s done it his whole life. He doesn’t know how not to.” He rested his hand on her shoulder as she stepped into the kitchen.

  She could hear Vic on the phone, and he appeared in the doorway. Her mom and dad were sitting at the round kitchen table, which held dirty dishes and leftover toast on a plate.

  “Okay, got to go. She’s here now,” Vic said, then hung up and jabbed his index finger toward her. It was intimidating as he stepped closer, his dark eyes so intense, more than Aaron’s. She wondered whether she’d ever get used to Vic or understand him.

  Chase stepped around her. “Talk some sense into her” was all he said.

  Vic took in Chase and then her before crossing his arms over his ripped chest. He took a breath and let it out. She felt a hand rest on her shoulder, Aaron’s, again. What did it mean, that he was on her side through all of this?

  “Okay, what’s going on?” she said, looking from Vic to Aaron and over to Chase across the kitchen, leaning against the wall. Then there were her parents, who seemed unusually agitated.

  “There was a call this morning, Claudia,” her mom said, and her dad reached across the table and pressed his hand over hers. “A man who said it would be best for you if you forgot all about what happened.” She flicked up her gaze, and there was worry there the likes of which Claudia hadn’t seen before.

  “So…” she started.

  Vic was now in her face, his hand on her other shoulder, leaning closer. “Claudia, it’s getting too hot, and the problem is that even though Tony wore a wire and got the confession, there’s a very real threat against you. This isn’t the kind of town where you can be safe right now.”

  She knew he was worried, but they’d already dealt with this the night before. “So what has changed? I don’t understand,” she said.

  “Claudia, what Tony did was perfect,” Chase began, “but those cops could very well make bail, and even though we have a confession, the biggest problem, as I was reminded today, is that no one ever convicts the police force.” He pushed away from the wall, looking around at the kitchen, the yellow flowers on dated wallpaper.

  “So what are you saying, Chase?” she said. “That all of the raid, Tony wearing a wire last night to get the confession, the entrapment of another cop, turning on his own, putting his job in jeopardy to save Zoe, it was for nothing?” She didn’t know what it was about the silence in the room, the way her brothers tensed and her mom reached up to touch her wrist. “Come on, what is it?”

  “Well, tell her,” Aaron said.

  Chase sighed. “Yes, Claudia. It seems the entire Henderson police force has pulled together and gone into damage control, and Tony may very well be on the outside looking in.”

  She didn’t know what to say, as for the first time in her life, it seemed as if her brothers were forming a solid, impenetrable wall around her.

  Chapter 24

  Walking in the front door of the police department that had been his second home for years, Tony experienced scrutiny for the first time as every cop stopped, turned, and gave him all their attention. It wasn’t so much that they were looking his way but that they were staring at him with expressions that said his ties with them had been severed. He was acutely aware that he was now being seen as the enemy. It was as if they hadn’t gotten the memo that in fact, the dirty cops they worked with had killed those four innocents, Margolis, Hickman, Ruiz, and Johnson, four people who had done nothing to end up on a cold slab in the morgue. There was no “Hey, how’s it going, Tony?” and no shooting the shit, not a word as he made his way through the precinct into the bullpen and to his sergeant’s office, a small eight by ten room with glass windows.

  Staff sergeant Salinsky and two suits were all standing inside along with one of the young beat cops. No one looked happy. Tony tapped on the closed door, and all four directed their attention his way.

  “Get in here!” Salinsky shouted, and Tony opened the door and strode in as the beat cop slipped out past him. He recognized only one of the suits.

  “Well, here he is, the man of the hour and the asshole who stirred up all this shit!” Salinsky barked. “We got feds up our ass, the mayor up in arms, and the c
hief on his way down here—and IAB wants a word with you, too.” Salinsky gestured to Brown, the head of internal affairs, an older balding man with an expanding middle and a tacky brown suit. The other guy was tall and lean, with salt and pepper hair.

  “Special Agent Dawson,” he said. “Tony, I’d say it’s a pleasure to meet you, but considering the circumstances…” He stepped around Brown, whom no one liked. Being here in an office with him, Tony was likely to have a target on his back now if there hadn’t been one already.

  Tony said nothing as he shook the man’s hand, wondering where Alexander was, the federal agent Chase had lined up to lead the raid and arrange the wiretap to trap Llewellyn.

  “I’m taking over the investigation from Agent Alexander, who’s been called away for a family emergency,” Dawson said. He seemed to have perfectly straight teeth, polished, not a field operative. There was nothing gritty about this man.

  Tony glanced to his sergeant, who was staring him down, not saying anything but conveying a lot. So lines had been drawn. Tony had known they would be.

  “Family emergency, you say. That’s rather convenient, don’t you think?” Tony snapped, his hands on his hips, touching his holster and his gun. His badge was tucked in his waistband, and he couldn’t remember ever having felt this uncertain.

  “It happens,” Dawson said, sounding far too happy. “So Lieutenant Brown and I are going to start interviewing each of the cops here, as we stated.”

  Abruptly, he and the head of internal affairs stepped out of the office, and that left Tony with Salinsky and a conversation he wasn’t looking forward to. They both stood where they were, and his boss had no intentions, by the looks of it, of sitting. At the same time, Tony’s back ached as if every eye of the department was watching him through the glass.

  “Congratulations, Martin,” Salinsky said. “You want to go it alone? Fine, you go it alone. Would love nothing more than to park your ass at a desk, since there isn’t a cop in this department who’ll work with you now. Oh, I could assign them, yes.” Salinsky stepped around the desk and lowered his large frame into the cheap vinyl chair, which squeaked.