by K. M. Hodge
“Jason!”
Jason sat up as Ellie ran into the room and threw her arms around him—holding him tight.
He looked down at the bag in her hands. “My clothes?”
“Yes.” She let him go and handed him the bag. “Have you filled out your discharge paperwork yet?”
He shook his head. “No, not yet.”
Ellie looked away as he started to strip out of the scrubs and change into his own clothes. The fresh clothes were a treat after wearing the same two sets of clothes for weeks.
As he finished, a nurse walked in with all his discharge paperwork. He only half listened as she explained all his aftercare instructions. “You’re free to go home, Mr. Knettle.” She prepped the wheelchair for him and pointed to the seat. “Hospital policy.”
Jason scowled, but sat down and permitted the nurse to push him down the hall.
Ellie walked alongside him and kept checking her watch. “We have a long drive ahead of us. We’re gonna hit rush hour.”
He smiled up at her. She had squealed into the phone when he’d first called her from the hospital. He’d tried to fill her in a little on what had transpired, but he had left out the lion’s share of it. He knew she was anxious to have all of her questions answered, and wouldn’t leave him alone until he had answered every one of them to her satisfaction.
Ellie continued to drone on but he had stopped listening. Something at the end of the hall had caught his attention. The low afternoon sun outlined a small, familiar frame. His heart began to race and he thought he might pass out.
“Sally!”
Jason jumped out of the moving wheelchair and ran down the hall towards her.
“Sir!” the nurse called out.
He wrapped his arms around Sally and ignored the aching pain in his belly.
She pulled away and looked him in the eye. “Did you mean what you said?”
Jason nodded and pulled her in for another kiss.
“Eh-em.”
Jason broke from the kiss and looked over to see Emmanuel Richards and Ellie standing by, watching them.
Richards scratched the small tuft of hair at the back of his head, a faint blush coloring his cheeks.
“Sally, this is Emmanuel Richards and Dr. Elliana Forester. Manny and Ellie, this is Sally Ride.” Jason didn’t take his eyes off Sally.
“Hi.” Sally glanced at them briefly before returning her gaze back to him.
“Nice to meet you, too.”
Jason ignored his friends and brought Sally’s hand up to his lips.
“Are you okay?” Her wide-eyed expression of concern touched him.
“I’ll be fine. I’m sorry I drank again.”
“Good!” She gave him a playful punch to the shoulder, but the look in her eyes told him she meant business.
Ellie put her hand on Jason’s shoulder and glanced back at Manny. “I’m going over to that vending machine and load up on snacks for the trip.” She gave Jason a not-so-subtle wink.
Manny, trying to suppress laughter, cut in and said, “Ms. Ride, when you get a moment, I’m going to need to transport you to Richmond PD. They need to take down your statement.”
Jason and Sally nodded as Manny and Ellie walked away to give them a little privacy.
***
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Sally asked.
“Now that I know you’re okay, I’m doing just fine.” He gave her a sly smile and pulled her in closer to him. “No matter what happens from here on out, I would really like it if you would be at my side.”
His words caused her chest to tighten. No man had ever treated her with the respect and kindness that Jason did. It was hard for her to believe he really loved her—wanted her. She replied, “There’s no place in the world that I would rather be.”
He dipped his head down to cover her smiling lips with his own. “I love you,” he said into her open mouth.
“I love you, too.”
He swayed against her and Sally shot a worried look at the nurse.
The nurse was at his side in a flash, and Sally helped her get Jason back into the wheelchair.
“We should probably go. They’re waiting for us,” Sally said.
Jason nodded as he let the nurse push the chair once more.
Sally fidgeted with her hair and nibbled on her thumbnail as she followed the nurse and Jason down the hallway. She should tell him everything about her involvement and what might happen next—The Syndicate might have taken a blow today, but the group still threatened them and their plans. After all, the real threat to their safety and wellbeing was still at large.
Scott wouldn’t go down without a fight. He and whatever men went into hiding with him would strike again. It was only a matter of time. You kick a hornet’s nest and you chance getting stung.
She said none of this. Instead, she dropped her hand and reached for his as they walked to where his friends stood waiting. There would be time for all of that other stuff, and she didn’t want the real world to creep in just yet.
Jason looked up at her, his face pale and ashen. “Will you come see me after you give the police your statement?”
“Yes.” She stroked his pale cheek and her eyes filled with tears. “Promise me....” she choked out. “Promise me you won’t drink again.”
He squeezed her hand and waved his other hand at the nurse to stop the chair. The nurse let out an exaggerated sigh, but came to a stop in the middle of the hall. He tugged Sally’s hand so that she would crouch beside his chair.
“No more drinking. I promise.” He cupped her tear-stained cheeks in his palms.
Sally knew he meant it and kissed him softly before standing back up.
“All right, Nurse Jeeves, ever onward,” he said, making the nurse roll her eyes.
When they rounded the corner, his friends stood huddled together, deep in conversation.
Sally squatted down once more and kissed him goodbye. “Later... tonight.”
As she stood to walk away, Jason grabbed her hand and pulled her back to him. “One more for the road,” he said with a tilt of his head.
It was the look that undid her every time. She bent at the waist and kissed him one last time. “I love you.”
“Good.” The fine skin around his eyes crinkled and his broad smile made her stomach bottom out, as if she were at the top of the coaster right before the drop.
She playfully tapped his arm before straightening and turning to Ellie. “Please take good care of him.”
Ellie smiled a genuine smile and said, “Of course.”
Manny motioned for Sally to follow him in the opposite direction.
She looked over her shoulder one last time and caught him doing the same. She laughed.
It doesn’t get any better than this.
Chapter 18
Highway 64
Virginia
July 23, 2025
7:30 PM
~~~
Ellie sat hunched over the steering wheel trying to navigate the heavy traffic going into Richmond. Jason had been quiet most of the drive, and she got the impression he wasn’t up for a game of twenty questions regarding his new friend Sally, or what he had been up to for the last month.
He finally turned to face her. “Do you think we could stop at Memorial so I can see Marianna?”
That surprised her. He was making out with one woman for the entire world to see, and the next thing he was asking to check in on his old lover. “Um, yeah, sure.”
“Thanks.” He resumed staring out the window, seemingly lost in his own world.
***
Ellie maneuvered them through traffic just in time to catch the last fifteen minutes of visitor’s hours. It had taken some doing but Jason got the nurses to let him in to see Mari. When he opened the door to her room, he felt like he’d been kicked in the gut—she was covered in tubes, wires and bandages. He couldn’t imagine what she’d gone through or how she had survived.
He sat beside her, took her hand in hi
s, and rubbed it with the pad of his thumb, bringing it up to his lips to kiss.
Her eyelids fluttered open. “Hey,” she said.
“Hey,” he said with a sad smile.
Mari scrunched her face up in concern. “How bad is it?”
“Bad, but the doctors think you’re out of the woods.” He knew she appreciated honesty over being coddled.
“Did they catch the guy?”
Jason nodded, worrying his bottom lip. “Yes, he was shot and killed when they stormed the building.”
Jason rubbed his face with the heel of his free hand. The events of the last month were starting to creep up on him, and he felt as though he had aged ten years.
I’m getting too old for this action adventure bullshit.
He was ready to live the quiet life of a cozy mystery writer. He knew that would never be his life—it seemed as though the darkness of the world would always find him.
Mari groaned in discomfort, thumbing the drug dispenser to supply her with more pain medication. “What happened to your friend?”
Jason shifted uncomfortably in his chair. The mere thought of Sally made his skin prickle and heart race. “She’s at the precinct making her statement. She was held captive as well. That Detective O’Mally is in charge of trying to piece everything together. It was such a mess that no one really knows what happened.” He cupped his open mouth to suppress a yawn.
“Why aren’t you with her?”
Her question broke his heart a little. He squeezed her hand and swallowed back the ball of emotions that choked his throat and made his voice catch. “I’m right where I need to be.”
She started to drift off.
He let go of her hand and kissed her forehead. “Get some rest. I’ll come by tomorrow, okay?”
Mari sighed and nodded. “Tomorrow.”
Once she had drifted off to sleep, he stood up to leave the room. He paused in the doorframe to look at her once more. His heart ached for her and all that she had gone through.
It’s my fault. If she hadn’t been up at the cabin looking for me, that monster wouldn’t have gone after her.
Though they weren’t a couple anymore, he still cared about her deeply, and wanted to protect her from being hurt again—by him or anyone else.
By the time he and Ellie made it home, it was after nine and he was exhausted. He took his medication and stripped down to his boxers. He’d wanted to wait up until Sally came by, but he passed out cold.
***
Richmond Police Department, First Precinct
Richmond, Virginia
July 23, 2025
8:30 PM
~~~
Sally’s knee bounced up and down under the table. She had her blue hair pulled back into a low pony, and she hadn’t a stitch of makeup on. She wrung her hands together and pulled the sleeves of her flannel shirt over the knuckles of her hands.
The detective had been asking her about her involvement in the heist of MacAvoy’s weapon by The Syndicate, and her involvement with Scott Mitchel and the mess in Northern Virginia.
“I needed money to get out,” she said.
“Out of where?” he asked.
“Out of Ocean City,” she said, playing her role. “After they killed Billy, I knew it was time to get away from there, away from The Syndicate. You can’t fart in that town without everyone knowing about it.”
The officer sat quietly across from her taking down notes as she kept talking.
“I’d been following Jason online. He was this quiet voice speaking out against The Syndicate—throwing pebbles at the lion—and I admired that.” She twisted the shirtsleeves and let them unravel.
“I mean I grew up under The Syndicate’s thumb,” she continued. “I knew what they were capable of, and I knew he knew what could happen, and the fact that he did it anyways... well... it was interesting, like I said.” She offered a shy smile.
“So I was following him online when he started to drop hints about doing a true crime book about The Syndicate, and I got really excited. I knew he would be the kind of man who would tell the world the truth, no matter how dangerous it would be for him.” She glanced at the clock, hoping he was asleep and not up waiting for her.
The cop looked up from his legal pad of notes; she’d stopped talking.
She resumed. “I started to send him anonymous tips, little things to guide him in the right direction. I got one of my friends to hack into his system so that I could see his work. Through his emails and a direct hack into his cam, I was able to get to know him and his life.”
The officer continued to sit still across from her with his hands together as if in prayer.
An urge to cross herself and pray for her immortal soul came over her. Though, she imagined, after all she had done, the Virgin Mary wouldn’t be taking her calls anytime soon.
“In the meantime, I’d been fixing to find a way outta here. In Jason’s notes, I read more about Charles MacAvoy. He’d been in a whole other part of the organization than me or my family, so our paths never crossed. All I knew was that he had snitched on everyone. I also knew that he hated Scott and that he was rich.”
The officer took down some more notes and she paused to let him catch up with her story. No one except Jason had ever been so interested in what she had to say.
“I was at the party with my cousin William. He stole Charles’ gun and a bunch of fancy knick-knack crap to make it look good. While he was stealing, I was posing as part of the wait staff. I flirted with Charles all night to create a diversion for William, but also because I was hoping he would take me aside and I could make a deal with him, like that old show, Survivor? Remember they would make all those crazy alliances?”
Her joke fell flat.
“Anyways, it worked. He took me into the wine cellar and wanted me to go down on him. Once I had his attention, I told him my story, my idea. He bought it hook, line and sinker. He was the one that encouraged me to go after Scott with Jason as bait,” she said.
“So I did. I got Jason at his weakest moment, when his girlfriend had left him and he was drunk off his ass most days.” She brought her sleeve-covered hands up to her face, shivering.
“He’s a good man. The world is a bad place for good men, these days....” Her thoughts trailed off for a second, but she came back to reality when the cop across from her tapped his pen on the table.
“I didn’t know that Scott was going to do what he did. We had thought we were going to best him. You should never make deals with the devil. You remember that,” she said, pointing her finger at him.
The officer nodded and said, “Yes ma’am,” but seemed a little thrown by her comment.
The moment she’d entered the interrogation room, she knew she was done for. She’d played along with the cop, telling him what truths she could tell to make it all believable, but she wouldn’t live to see another sunrise.
All she could think about was her son and Jason. The Syndicate may have lost the battle, but the war had not yet been won. As before, both sides had suffered more setbacks and losses, but the final battle was still ahead. It hurt her to know that she wouldn’t be there to see it played out to its end.
Sally swallowed hard. Her mouth had gone dry and she’d asked the cop for something to drink. She had one card left to play, and it was as wild as they came. The red and blue capsule was the size of an ant, and she quickly squirreled it away in her cheek.
The detective returned to the interrogation room with a cup of coffee.
She sipped enough to swallow down the capsule, then cupped her cold, shaking hands around the steaming hot drink.
“Are we done yet, Detective? It’s been a long day and I’d really like to get home.”
She wanted to throw him under the bus, call him out, but she loved Jason too much to put him in danger again. She would take on all the risks this time, even if it meant she would never see him again. He would grieve for her, but he’d be okay when all was said and done.
T
he police were happy with finding The Tidy Killer dead and capturing several low level operatives. Manny had told her in the car ride back to Richmond that Scott had effectively disappeared off the face of the Earth. Even though he had broken the terms of his probation, it didn’t appear that anyone aside from Manny was in any hurry to find him. It appeared as if it was all for naught.
She had to hope that Plan C would come through.
The detective flipped his notes back and placed his pen on top of the pad.
“Thank you, Ms. Ride, for your cooperation. We’ll be in touch with you if we have any more questions” He stood and shook her hand.
“None of it matters though, does it? As soon as I walk out of this station I’m a dead woman,” she said under her breath, just loud enough for only him to hear her.
“Let me walk you out, Ms. Ride.” He motioned for her to go ahead of him out of the room.
She did.
When they were away from the surveillance equipment and out of earshot, she walked beside him closely. She tried desperately to come up with the right words—her last and final words.
As they waited for the elevator to open, she shifted back and forth on the sides of her feet and balled her fists into the sleeves of Jason’s flannel shirt. The doors opened, and Detective Quinn O’Mally walked inside, but she stood outside the open doors. She couldn’t move.
“Come on, Sal.” He held the doors open with his hand and stared at her—waiting.
Sally looked up at the man in front of her and, for a moment, all she could see was the little boy she had played stick ball with all those years ago—the boy with whom she had done homework after school at his parents’ bar. She knew that no one at the department was aware of his connections—Syndicate born and bred. It didn’t matter; even if they did know, it wouldn’t stop the cog of The Syndicate.
At this point, she was beginning to think that no one could stop it.
“Come on, Sal, it’s time.” His voice cracked a little.
She raised her head and stood tall as she walked into the elevator. She would face her fate with dignity.