Always Closer

by Amelia Harlow

  ‘Coops, since when did you have security on this place?’ said the police officer.

  Hudson didn’t answer the question.

  ‘Come on now, I’m just asking, not as a cop, but as your mate. What’s going on here, what have you got yourself into?’ The officers curiosity was growing.

  ‘You’re in your uniform, with your notebook and your pen out, so I’m really not sure who’s asking,’ said Hudson.

  ‘This is all very out of character, for you, the town-’

  Hudson interrupted him, ‘Look, there’s a girl I’m seeing, and there’s a bit of trouble with her ex, that’s all.’

  ‘That’s all?’ said the officer, ‘A guy nearly gets beaten to death and you’re telling me this is just a little bit of trouble?’

  There was no response from Hudson.

  ‘Can you at least give me a name?’ said the officer.

  Hudson and the officer walked away from the house together and I couldn’t hear them talking anymore, so I went back to the bedroom, sat on the bed and waited for him to come back.

  He looked so exhausted when he entered the room, sweeping his hand through his hair and breathing deep.

  ‘That was the cops, they’re going to be there with me today when I meet Alex.’

  ‘There’s no way they are going to be able to pin him for the assault on Archie. He’ll have a solid alibi, they won’t be able to hold him, there’s no way,’ I explained.

  ‘That may be so, but I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter,’ said Hudson.

  Hudson sat down on the bed next to me, resting his hand on my thigh.

  ‘I’m meeting Alex at four, at Millers Pub. There’ll be two officers there, plain clothes, unmarked cars. They’ll take him in for questioning about the assault.’

  It all sounded so pointless to me, because I knew they wouldn’t be able to charge Alex. He was too conniving to let that happen. I buried my face in my hands and took a deep breath.

  I fell silent as I didn’t know what to say.

  Hudson continued talking about the plan. ‘It will be okay. You’ll stay here. There’ll be two officers watching over you while I’m gone, and by the time I get back Alex will be in police custody.’

  ‘I just hope you’ll be okay Hudson, I don’t want this mess for you.’

  ‘And I don’t want it for you either, so I’m happy to help you put an end to it all.’

  ‘Thank you,’ I said, looking up at him.

  I could feel the worry spread across my face. He wrapped me up in his arms and held me for some time. You could almost hear the thoughts inside our heads, but they didn’t dare jump out of our mouths. I was consumed with concern.

  ‘Now, let me get cleaned up and I’ll make us some breakfast,’ he said, squeezing my hand gently before letting it slide loose from his and walking towards the shower.

  He disappeared behind the wall and I relaxed back into the bed while listening to the sound of the water hitting tiles. He emerged with just a towel around his waist as he searched for some clothes in the room, and I admired his body from a distance. The sun was still beating into the room and even though I had a level of dread about the day, I felt so calm and confident when I was with him.

  He held up two shirts, one white, one pink. ‘Which one says “don’t mess with me” more?’

  I laughed, ‘Definitely the pink one.’

  ‘It’s salmon!’ he declared, ‘At least that’s what my sister told me when she gifted it to me.’

  He went with the white one, and placed it on the bed with a pair of blue jeans. I loved watching his body move, and the way all of his muscles looked as he tensed them. He turned back around and pulled some underwear from the large wooden chest of drawers. He was very confident in his body, so he didn’t shy away from me when he needed to get dressed.

  ‘So what do you feel like for breakfast?’ he said, as he pulled the towel from his waist, leaving himself completely exposed in front of me.

  I smiled as I looked over his body, and caught a glimpse of everything between his legs before looking away, then back into his eyes.

  ‘We’ve got so much to choose from remember, and I really do need your help eating it all,’ he said, as he adjusted himself in his underwear. A sizeable bulge now sat in the front of his boxer briefs. He looked like an underwear model, and I really couldn’t believe my luck.

  ‘Maybe you can surprise me. I think I’ll take a shower too,’ I said, as I got up and made my way to the bathroom.

  ‘Why don’t you let me run you a bath instead? You can take some time for yourself and relax a bit.’

  I agreed that would be a good idea. Hudson followed me into the bathroom, still only wearing his underwear, and ran the bath for me. He sprinkled in a few different bath salts, and liquids that made some bubbles form and rise up in the water.

  ‘My sister left all this here, I’m not really sure what they all are, but it seems to be working so far,’ he said, with curiosity as he grabbed another thing to put in the bath.

  ‘Bath bomb! Stand back!’ he shouted, as he threw a round ball into the bath whilst shielding me with his body. I could feel the warmth of his skin, and his muscles pushing against me. I laughed and enjoyed how playful he was.

  ‘I think that’s plenty,’ I teased, as he reached for another concoction to throw in.

  ‘Okay, I think my work here is done,’ he said, proud of his bath making efforts.

  He moved over to the window, to open up the blinds even more, by which point I was beginning to undress.

  ‘The view is pretty special, I could never get sick of it,’ he said while looking out the window and fiddling with the blinds.

  By the time he turned around I was removing my underwear and ready to get into the bath.

  ‘Wow. This view is far superior though,’ he said.

  He took my hand and admired my body as I stepped into the bath.

  ‘Enjoy,’ he said, as he leaned in and kissed me on the lips, ‘if you need anything, just call out.’

  Over half an hour had passed before Hudson came back upstairs. He sat down on a wooden chair opposite the bath.

  ‘I hope you’re hungry. I might have got a bit carried away,’ he said.

  ‘I am, I’ve definitely worked up an appetite after last night.’

  Hudson stood up to help me out of the bath, and handed me a large fluffy white towel. It felt so soft on my skin as I wrapped it around my body and wiped away the bubbles that still hung on to me.

  I got dressed, and we walked downstairs to the breakfast, or late lunch, that he had prepared.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  HUDSON COOPER

  The two officers had arrived as planned. One of them was Pete, a close friend of mine, so I knew I could trust him to look after Mae while I was gone. Mae and I met them out the front of the house. They were both relaxed about the situation, but told me to keep an eye out for a black S-Class Mercedes.

  ‘That’s the car he drives,’ said Mae.

  ‘That’s right, Archie was able to tell us a bit about what he saw before he was attacked, and he identified the car for us,’ said Pete.

  ‘So Archie’s okay then?’ I asked, relieved.

  ‘He’s doing okay, yeah.’

  ‘Thank god,’ Mae and I both said in unison.

  I put my arm around her and pulled her against me. I just wanted so badly to keep her safe and end this all.

  ‘The car’s been seen driving nearby this place a lot over the past day,’ said Pete, ‘we’ve been keeping an eye on it and following them most of today and the boys at the station just called in to let us know it’s been spotted at the pub, so it looks like he’s there and everything is going to plan.’

  ‘Okay, well I better get going then,’ I said.

  ‘Look, Coops, just keep a cool head about this. Just sit down, give him the laptop and the boys will jump in and take it from there all right?’ said Pete.

  ‘Yeah, no worries.’ I knew it was import
ant not to make things worse by assaulting Alex, but I couldn’t help but think about knocking him out.

  Mae walked me to the car and I kissed her goodbye before getting in.

  ‘Please be careful,’ she said, looking like she was about to cry.

  ‘I’ll be fine, don’t worry about a thing.’

  I put the laptop on the passenger seat and headed for the road. I wondered about what sort of stuff was on there, what could be so incriminating. Mae didn’t ever really elaborate, maybe because she didn’t know the extent of it. Or maybe because she did, and felt bad about never telling anyone what he was up to. A lot of thoughts were racing through my head and I just wanted it all to be over so I could get on with actually getting to know her, and spend some relaxing time with her without all of this on our shoulders.

  The drive was short, and before I knew it I was in town. I drove into the car park at the back of the pub, and noticed a black Mercedes. There weren’t too many luxury cars in this town so it really stood out. Most of the cars here were practical, or your average middle class sedan or SUV. Miller’s was one of the smaller pubs in town, and it sat back off the main road, nestled neatly into the forest. There were only three other cars parked out the back, and I knew one of them belonged to the owner, Mick. I guessed the other one or two might be the unmarked cop cars.

  I felt like the exchange was happening on my territory, so it was a bit more reassuring. I grabbed the laptop and stepped out of the car. The next thing I know, I’m face down in the dirt of the car park, slowly peeling my eyes open. The back of my head was throbbing with pain like I’d never felt before. I rolled onto my side and reached around to the back of my head. Everything was spinning, and when I looked at my hand I couldn’t see much but a blur of red. I pulled myself up off the ground and tried to steady my steps, but I was struggling real bad to stay up.

  I heard a voice calling out my name, then suddenly someone was at my side trying to help me stand.

  ‘Mr Cooper, I’m officer Baird.’

  I hung onto the car for balance then pulled myself into the seat. The time on the clock was a blur of green and when I could finally see it clear enough, I realised I had been out cold for at least ten minutes. A wave of adrenaline shot through me and helped wake me up and straighten out my vision.

  ‘Alex never planned on meeting me, they were going to ambush me all along! Mae, I have to get to Mae!’ I demanded, ‘They’re going to try and get to her too!’

  ‘Calm down Mr Cooper,’ said the officer.

  ‘That wasn’t Alex inside, that’s the wrong guy!’ I said, with my head feeling unsteady on my shoulders.

  ‘Mr Cooper, you’ve taken a heavy hit to your head and we’re going to need to get a medic to look at it right away.’

  I tried to push the officer away and close the car door, but he held it open. ‘You’ll need these and I’m not giving them to you,’ he said, putting my car keys in his pocket, ‘I’ll radio the officers at your place right now.’

  He ran over to his car, and I staggered with great difficulty behind him. I climbed into the passenger seat of the car and waited for a response from the other end of the radio. There was nothing.

  ‘Drive! Now!’ I yelled at him, ‘We have to go now!’.

  ‘I think you’re right,’ he said, as he turned the siren on and placed the light on the dashboard.

  We were flying down the main road out of town, and everything felt like it was still spinning. I felt sick, but that feeling soon passed and I was just full of rage for Alex, and full of worry for Mae.

  When we reached the front gates of the house they were still closed. The officer jumped out and opened them faster than I ever have, jumped back in the car and sped down to the front of the house.

  I couldn’t see Pete or the other officer standing outside, but as we got closer I saw them both on either side of the property.

  I jumped out of the car before it had come to a complete stop, and stumbled forward, almost losing my footing. Pete seeing this sense of urgency came running over.

  ‘What’s going on?’ he asked.

  ‘Where’s Mae!’ I yelled, as I ran past him.

  ‘Inside Coops, she’s inside,’ he said, confused as he ran after me.

  I didn’t have the keys on me, so I busted through the side door, breaking the lock clean off the frame.

  I called out Mae’s name but there was no answer. I ran through the whole house, everyone now in the house searching for her too with their guns drawn.

  In the back room I noticed a window had been tampered with. When I looked through the window for any sign of Mae, I noticed way off in the distance, someone dressed in black struggling toward the property boundary.

  ‘Hey!’ I growled, at the top of my lungs.

  The person in black looked over their shoulder and I could see why they were struggling now, they had someone they were dragging along with them. It was Mae, it had to have been.

  I ran through the house, grabbed my motorbike keys from the counter and burst through the front door.

  The officers heard the commotion and followed me.

  ‘He’s got her, out in the east paddock!’ I said, as I started the bike and it roared to life. Rocks and dust flew out behind me as a spun around and headed straight for them. I tore through the paddock at full speed and caught up to them in no time. I cut in front of them, dropped the bike to the ground and ran straight towards Alex ready to knock the lights out of him. He let go of Mae, but before he could turn to run I managed to tackle him to the ground and I knocked one solid punch into him. I wanted to beat the shit out of him, but I was more worried about Mae. He began to scramble away and I turned to help Mae, I knew the cops would catch up to him, so I let him go. Mae was laying down on the grass in shock and gasping for air.

  She burst out crying as soon as I scooped her up in my arms holding her against my body.

  ‘You’re okay now, you’re okay, I’ve got you,’ I reassured her, then looked over my shoulder to make sure Alex wasn’t coming back. He was almost standing now, and trying to run away.

  The son of a bitch must have tried to tie her up because I could see grazes across her wrists.

  When I turned again to look for Alex, Mae must have seen the blood on the back of my head.

  ‘You’re bleeding!’ she cried.

  ‘It’s okay, don’t worry about me,’ I said, ‘did he hurt you?’ I looked over her body with my eyes and my hands, checking to see if she was hurt.

  I could see a few more scratches and cuts on her arms from where he had been grabbing her.

  ‘He hit me a few times, I’m okay though,’ she said.

  As I looked closer I could see red marks more clearly on her face, the kind that would turn into serious bruises.

  ‘He hit you huh? Okay. Okay,’ I said, with my temper brewing, I stood up and marched straight for Alex who was still hobbling away, the police now closing in on him.

  I threw him to the ground and he felt light in my hands as I did. He tried to get back up but I hit him square in the face, dropping him to the ground again, blood now spilling from his mouth and filling the gaps in his teeth as he smiled at me.

  ‘Hudson! Let him go!’ I heard Pete calling.

  I threw a few more punches into him and pulled his face right up close to mine.

  ‘You ever touch Mae again, and you’re a dead man you hear me!’ I screamed into his face as I shook him then slammed his head back down into the ground.

  I hurried back over to Mae, then knelt down in front of her.

  ‘I’m so sorry I let this happen.’

  ‘No,’ she said, ‘I’m sorry you got caught up in this.’

  The police now had Alex under arrest and were hauling him off to the station. Pete ran over to us and examined our injuries.

  ‘Paramedics are on their way. Let’s get you back up to the house. Can you walk Mae?’ he asked.

  ‘Yeah, I’m okay,’ she said, as I helped her to her feet.

&nbs
p; My head was still spinning and I didn’t feel well at all. The motorbike engine was still humming in the background as we walked to the house. When we got back up to the house I could hear the sirens coming, so I sat down on the porch in the shade with Mae beside me, waiting for the paramedics and watched the police haul Alex off.

  ‘It’s over now.’ My words sent tears of relief from her eyes as she fell into my arms. I never wanted to let her go.

  At the hospital Mae sat by my side in one of those comfortable but ugly chairs, the kind that are covered with what looks like vinyl and they squeak when you sit on them. Even the sound of the occasional squeak pierced my head with more pain. She held my hand, and looked more relaxed and at peace than I had ever seen her. The doctors kept me at the hospital for a little while so they could run some tests and make sure I didn’t have a serious concussion. I needed a few stitches in my head which Mae was very apologetic about, but I didn’t mind. It was all worth it to know that she was now free, and didn’t have to keep looking over her shoulder.

  A doctor came into the room and greeted me as he picked up my chart from the end of the bed, scribbling something on it. He then greeted Mae.

  ‘Good to see you Miss Haliway, I’m sorry, however, that it’s under such circumstances,’ he said apologetically.

  Mae nodded in silent acknowledgement.

  The doctor told me I was allowed to go home under the condition that someone would have to keep a close eye on me and wake me throughout the night, to make sure I was waking up properly. I asked if Mae was okay to do that for me, and she happily agreed to it.

  We signed out of the hospital expecting to take a cab home, but Pete was waiting out the front with the police car to take us. I think he felt guilty about letting Alex get to Mae, but the guy was a sneaky bastard and we all did as much as we could.

  He opened the door for Mae to get in, then closed it behind her. Before he could begin to apologise to me, which I could see he was about to do, I put my hand on his shoulder and thanked him for everything he did for me. He understood that we were cool, and there was nothing to apologise for.