“So you’re going to Lexie’s house?” Trinity said, bringing me out of my thoughts.
The question had thrown me off guard. I normally wasn’t a great liar, this time wasn’t any different. I had nothing to say. Thankfully Lexie was a little more on the ball than I was, and once again saved my ass. I had to admit that whatever I had done for her in the alleyway had been paid back in kind. But even before I could relax back into the lies, Lexie’s mention of the Virgin Islands, brought our torrid night back in Technicolor. I tried not to react but my body had different plans, tensing up at the word virgin. Being reminded about what I had done felt like a punch in the guts. From her friends warm reception, she hadn’t told them what had happened.
I nodded mutely. There was no way I was actually going to Lexie’s house. In fact as soon as I had a chance I was getting as far away from her and her friends as I could. There was no way I was going to bring any heat down on them by process of association.
“Trin, can you flip on the radio, I need a diversion, my head is still pounding,” Lexie said.
She leaned back against the leather seat, closing her eyes.
“Didn’t you get the Tylenol at the Pharmacy?” Trinity asked. Lexie’s eyes cut toward me then away as if she didn’t know how to respond.
“They were closed,” she said, glancing out the window.
She was lying. I had noticed the sign had said opened on the Pharmacy when I had ran by. Lexie looked over at me as if she knew I was questioning why she had lied.
“What?” she said with a note of irritation in her tone. I arched an eyebrow, deciding that it was none of my business. She closed her eyes again.
I shrugged, tugging my phone out of my pocket. I knew that Dave would still be sound asleep, but that Sanford would be around to answer my call. Hopefully he had been in touch with Pa, and would know what was going on with Gab’s surgery.
Sanford’s phone rang three times before he finally picked up.
“Yeah,” he practically barked into the phone. His unusually curt demeanor left me silent.
“Hello?” he said again. His voice was filled with impatience with an undercurrent of tension.
“Sanford, it’s Ransom,” I said in a soft voice, not wanting to disturb Lexie. Her mouth was wide open, and she had her head resting against the side window as she slept.
“Ransom,” he said, his voice losing all of its hostility. “Have you talked to your Pa?” he asked before I had a chance to say a word.
“Yeah, I did…” I started to say.
“Did he tell you that they found a small explosive device in the rubble, and that they’ve concluded that the stage collapse wasn’t an accident after all.”
The news hit me hard. It was one thing for the collapse to have been a horrific accident, but quite another for it to have been deliberate.
“Who would have done that?” I asked, my voice rising in pitch. “Who would have wanted to hurt Gab?”
I heard Sanford draw in a long inhalation before he spoke again.
“Your father is convinced that you were behind it…”
In that instant it felt as if all the oxygen in the atmosphere had been sucked away, and I was left struggling to catch my breath. Things were so much worse than I had originally thought.
“But that’s bullshit,” I shouted.
I felt a hand on my arm and heard Lexie’s voice. I didn’t seem capable of focusing on anything but Sanford’s bizarre statement. Pa knew exactly how I felt about Gabriel, in fact he had used my overprotective nature against me more times than I could count.
A veil of hot rage blotted out the world around me. I clasped my phone so tight that my hand hurt.
“I know you’d never do anything to hurt him Ransom, but it’s my word against your Pa’s, and I haven’t a shred of proof, not like him…”
“Proof?” I said incredulously. Then it came to me, the rap sheets Pa had mentioned.
“You mean the rap sheets?” I shook my head violently. “Just because I got into a few fights doesn’t mean I’d do anything like that…”
It felt like the world was crumbling all around me. The life I had always thought I had despised now seemed like heaven. It was weird how fate could make you change your whole perspective in a few heartbeats.
“There’s more. And before you ask, I don’t know what he has, only that whatever he showed the police made them mighty anxious to talk to you.”
“Fuck,” I said.
The word didn’t come close to describing how messed up everything was. It was one thing to be blamed for missing a few screws in the build, a planted bomb was something completely different.
“But it’s not true, I would never do anything to hurt Gab, don’t they know that the floor gave way in the exact spot that I was standing?”
My voice broke. The truth came at me in a flurry. Everything that had happened had been a plan to eliminate me.
“It was for me, the accident was supposed to take me out, but Gab somehow knew, he pushed me out of the way…”
I was the one who was supposed to have died not Gab. It made me wonder if Gabriel had known all along, saw or heard something about what was supposed to go down. But if he had, why hadn’t he told me about it.
“But why? Why would he do that?”
A thousand emotions swept through me as the truth lodged firmly in my brain; Pa didn’t just hate me, he despised me, enough that he wanted to get rid of me permanently.
There was a pause on the other end. When Sanford finally spoke again it was muffled as if he had his hand over the receiver.
“I’m not saying I know anything, since I’ve got nothing but a gut feeling to back me, but he hasn’t taken too kindly to what he sees as the control you have over Gabriel… ” I heard him exhale loudly into the receiver. It was the worst sound I had ever heard because Sanford was unflappable, for him to be this stressed out meant that there was little to no hope. More pieces to the twisted puzzle that was my life, snapped into place.
“Ransom? What’s wrong?” Lexie’s voice finally broke into my consciousness. I stared at her unable to speak. I shook my head, biting back the tears that clouded my vision. Pa’s voice filled my head, telling me only wimps and pussies cried. I felt Lexie’s fingers curl around my free hand. I squeezed back. Her touch, a show of kindness from a virtual stranger, was the only thing that kept me anchored enough to speak.
“He’s here…I’ve got to go, be safe and stay under cover because it’s only going to get hotter,” Sanford said hastily.
“What about Gabriel, how did his surgery go?” I said, finally finding my voice. A click and disconnection signal was my only response.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I yelled, smashing my phone against the seat in front of me over and again until it flew from my grasp and connected with the back of Aiden’s head. Five seconds later the dominoes began to fall. All I could do was watch, and regret that yet again my violent temper had screwed everything up.
There was a solid thunk sound when my phone hit the back of Aiden’s skull. Stunned, he slammed on the brakes, hard. The tires squealed and the car, not built for precision, fishtailed. Aiden jerked the wheel and just managed to get it back in control when my whole body jerked forward from the impact of another car rear-ending us. I braced myself with one arm against the back of Aiden’s seat. Lexie was jolted out of her seat, and I instinctively threw an arm in front of her, preventing her from flying forward. Her chest connected with my forearm, but not hard enough to hurt. Trinity screamed, long and shrill. Next came a crunch of metal then the sound of glass shattering.
Stillness came next, where only the drone of the radio broke the quiet. Finally after what seemed like an hour but was probably only a few seconds, Trinity yelled.
“Is everyone okay?”
I nodded immediately, not that anyone was even looking at me.
“I think I’m okay,” Lexie said, fear heavy in her voice.
“I cracked my head pretty good,”
Aiden said.
His voice was thick and slurred. I leaned forward to check him out. He had a three-inch gash on his head that was gushing blood. I realized that the car was too old to have been equipped with an airbag.
“Oh my god,” Trinity screeched.
Her hands went to her face as if she had no idea what else to do. Every part of me wanted to run away. I knew that the police were going to arrive at any minute, and probably arrest me. Despite the fear of getting nabbed and going to jail, I knew I couldn’t bail. Everything that had happened was my fault and though it wouldn’t make up for my actions, helping any way I could, was the least I could do.
I was out of the car in seconds. As soon as I was on the paved highway I got the full picture of the damage that I had caused. The bug was squashed like an accordion. The back hood was wide open, showing that the whole engine block had been shoved right up to the rearview window. The rear window had popped out from the impact, but rather than landing in the back seat with Lexie and I, it had fallen on top of the engine.
The white Toyota Corolla that had smashed into us looked like it had been welded to the back end of the bug. A woman with straw-colored hair and bug-eyed sunglasses was already outside her vehicle. Her white velour jumpsuit that just happened to match the color of her car perfectly, clung to the many lumps and bulges of her pudgy frame. She fanned her face with her age-spotted hand like she was overheated. Seeing that she was capable of walking on her own, I shifted my focus away from her to Aiden.
I took a step forward, flinging the driver’s side door wide. Aiden was reclined against the back seat with his eyes partially hooded. Trinity was rubbing his shoulder repeatedly as if the act would somehow help him. In the minute or two that it had taken me to appraise the scene, the blood flowing from the cut on Aiden’s forehead had already coated his entire face. If I hadn’t seen his cut just seconds before, I might have thought his injuries were much worse than they really were.
I ripped at the bottom of my shirt, managing to pull off a strip of fabric, wide enough to stanch the blood spurting from Aiden’s forehead.
“Aiden, are you all right?” Trinity’s voice had a hysterical quality, and did nothing to bring calm to the situation. I flicked my eyes to where she was still sitting. Her face was ghostly white as if she had passed out but her body hadn’t gotten the message yet. She had stopped touching Aiden’s shoulder, and now had her hands clasped together as if she was praying.
“Don’t worry Trinity, he’s going to be fine,” I said, trying to bring her anxiety level down a few notches. Her only response to my statement was for her to wring her hands until I thought she would shear the skin from her fingers and palms.
Resigned to the idea that there was nothing I could do for her, I dabbed at the blood on Aiden’s head then balled up the rag, applying pressure to his wound.
“What can I do to help?” Lexie said from beside me.
In my haste to get to Aiden I had all but forgotten about her.
“Hold this,” I said.
I grabbed her hand, pressing it to the space where I had just been holding. Though I had held her hand before, I hadn’t noticed how delicate her bones were, or how soft her skin was until right at that moment. It seemed like the oddest thing to think about when Aiden was bleeding like a stuck pig, but I guessed it was a testament to being human, and our need to grab onto something beautiful in a time of crisis. Lexie obliged unquestioningly, slipping into the space where I had just been standing. The worried expression in her eyes mingled with an aura of reticence that said she needed to suck it up and help, no matter how freaked out she was. In my experience that was a rare quality.
With my hands freed, I tugged my shirt off, grateful for the plain cotton that gave way to my vicious tears. In a few minutes I had salvaged three good-sized bandages that would suffice to dress Aiden’s wound until the medical personnel showed up. I tossed what was left of my shirt aside then tucked the strips of fabric into my pants pocket for later. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the woman behind us sway as if she was going to faint.
I hurried back to her. She was leaning against the side of her car and had so far managed to stay on her feet. From the way she was wobbling that was quickly about to change. Just before I reached her, she slid gracelessly down the side of her car as if she was drunk. She landed with her feet splayed out to the sides, her head lolling against her shoulder.
The smell of alcohol and breath mints assaulted my senses well before I reached her. Though my phone rocket had been the cause of the accident, it seemed like this lady’s dulled senses might have been a contributing factor too.
I went on my haunches until I was eye level with her.
“Ma’am, are you all right?” I asked in a loud voice that seemed to carry high into the air. From what I could see, she was more drunk than hurt. Her lidded eyes were caked with clumped black mascara and pale blue eye shadow. When she didn’t reply to my original question, I repeated it. This time her eyelids flickered then opened. Her brown cataract-filmed eyes seemed to stare right through me.
Without knowing why, I felt as if someone was standing behind me. I swiveled to look around and saw Lexie standing there, looking slightly dazed.
“Are you okay?” I asked. She nodded.
Then it twigged that she wasn’t with Aiden anymore. ”Why did you leave Aiden?” I asked.
Lexie shook her head a couple of times as if she was trying to clear the dust from her mind. Her face smoothed into a look of impassivity.
“There’s a doctor over there who stopped when she saw the accident. She’s taking care of Aiden,” Lexie said in a whisper, almost as if it was difficult for her to form the words. I wondered if she was having a delayed reaction to the shock of having just been in a car accident.
“Am I in heaven, are you an angel?” the old woman said. I turned back toward her. She had passed out again. I smirked at the absurdity of her comment.
I heard a gasp from behind me and shifted back to Lexie. She was paler than before and looked as if she was going to be sick.
“Are you okay?” I asked again. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Maybe an angel,” she said, trapping her bottom lip between her teeth.
“Huh?” I said, then rapidly realized that she was referring to the lady’s comment.
“Oh yeah, that…” I released a forced laugh.
Seeing there was nothing to do for the woman, I got back to my feet. The shriek of sirens grew louder as they drew closer.
“The Calvary has arrived,” I said, striding toward Lexie. She stood stunned and unmoving, staring at me with an intensity that left me feeling uncomfortable.
“Is she going to be all right?” Lexie asked in a tone that said she didn’t really care, and was only saying the words because it was the right thing to say.
I nodded. “Yeah I think so, she’s a lot trashed, but seems okay otherwise,” I said.
Lexie nodded in response, her face remained expressionless. I was beginning to wonder if she had conked her head too. I pulled my focus away from her long enough to see two paramedics rush toward us. My stomach lurched at the memories of the last paramedics that I had encountered. An unwanted image of Gabriel, broken and bruised, flashed into my mind, I rapidly pushed it away. I couldn’t think about Gab because if I did I would shut down. Now more than ever I needed to keep it together.
Pa had controlled me my whole life and now he was trying to have me sent away for something I didn’t even do. And if I didn’t keep it together he might just succeed. If he did I would never see Gabriel again. I would die before I ever let that happen.
22. LEXIE
It seemed I had just closed my eyes when I heard Ransom’s voice boom through the car. My eyes popped wide. I was still messed up from my hangover, and now my heart was beating erratically in my chest. I didn’t want to be scared with the way he was acting, but there was violence in his expression that sent a penetrating shudder through me. Instinctive
ly my hand found his. I wanted him to know that no matter what was happening that he wasn’t alone. Trinity and Aiden had been there for me, now I wanted to pay it forward.
Ransom seemed to cool down, the hard lines of his face relaxed slightly. I felt his fingers squeeze mine. I stared down at our linked hands, surprised at how good it felt to be there for someone else. Since Mom had died I had always been the needy one who required comforting, it felt good to give back. I glanced out at the scenery that we were zipping by. Ransom continued to speak but the stressed cadence of his voice wasn’t enough to stop exhaustion from taking over, making it tough to keep my eyes open.
Seconds later I was jerked back into consciousness. The car was careening and Aiden was trying to keep it in control, and just when I thought we were out of the woods Ransom’s arm came in front of me. An instant later an impossibly strong force threw me like a rag doll. The pressure of my body against Ransom’s arm had knocked the wind out of me, but since there was no seatbelt on my side of the car, he had saved me from flying forward. It had all happened so fast that it took me a minute to gauge where I was, and that we had been in a car accident.
My gaze traveled to Trinity. She was a complete mess, something that looked a lot like unhinged panic raced across her face. Aiden was even worse, blood poured from a cut in his forehead, making Trinity’s anxiety completely understandable. By the time I had gotten my bearings, Ransom was already out of the car, ripping at his shirt. I was by no means an expert in first aid, but I knew sitting there in the car wasn’t going to help anyone.
Ransom was calm and collected. He assessed the scene rapidly then jumped into action. Before I could think about helping he had already applied a rag to Aiden’s head.
“Can I do anything to help?” I asked, finally finding the right words to say.
He gave me a cursory glance back. “Hold this,” he said.
Then before I knew it, we had switched places, and he had gone to help the lady who had hit us.
“I’m a doctor, can I help?” a woman said from beside me.
Ransom (Holding Ransom # 1) Page 22