by Box Set
I didn’t want to think about that part, but despite my desire to forget about Baldy, questions insisted on being asked. Did Baldy do it? Was it because of me? Did he find out I went to the police station? Is this a warning? Will I be next? As the questions multiplied, my heart fluttered painfully in my chest. I looked at Shelby. “Will you come to the hospital with me?”
“I can’t. I have to go to work.”
I couldn’t believe work was more important to her than coming with me to see Tyler. “Can’t you call in sick?”
She glanced at me. “Look, I don’t want to go to the hospital, okay?”
“Why not? Don’t you want to know if Tyler’s okay?”
“Of course, but the smells there . . .” She frowned, then shook her head. “The hospital creeps me out.”
This was news to me, but I didn’t want to argue about it. My first priority was seeing if Tyler was okay. “Fine. Can you take me to my car then?”
“Yeah.” Her voice was soft, and I got the feeling she felt guilty for abandoning me.
She’d been such a support, I didn’t want her to feel bad about this. “It’s okay.” I was quiet a moment. “Holy crap, Shelby. I just thought of something.”
“What?”
“What if Baldy did this to lure me out? If he’s been watching me then he knows I’ve been dating Tyler. Maybe he put him in the hospital because he knew I would come to see him.” That idea thoroughly freaked me out.
“That would be sick.”
Sick was something I was certain was part of Baldy’s DNA. “Yeah.” My voice nearly shook.
“Are you still gonna go?”
I looked at her and the worry written in the wrinkles of her forehead, then thought of Mom and how I’d blithely told her I’ve got this. My lips turned down in a frown. You so don’t got this. But I couldn’t abandon Tyler. Not after what had happened to him.
“Maybe this has nothing to do with you,” Shelby said. “Maybe Tyler pissed somebody off.”
“Yeah. Maybe.” But it was too coincidental. The same day Baldy had warned me to keep quiet—had basically told me when he’d gotten out of my car that someone was going to get hurt—that was the day the man I was dating got jumped. Misery settled over me like a damp fog, and we drove the rest of the way to my car in silence.
“There it is,” Shelby said as she drew alongside my car.
I scrutinized my car and the area around it. “Seems okay.” Unless he planted a bomb underneath it or something. I held back hysterical laughter. You’ve watched too many movies, baby girl. I turned to Shelby. “Now what? I mean, I don’t think we want to spend the night at my house tonight, do you?”
Her head shook briskly from side to side. “No way.”
“Then where will we sleep?”
The skin around her eyes seemed to tighten as she stared at me. “I don’t know.”
“What time are you off work?”
“Eleven.”
I checked the time. “That’s not for five and a half hours. Why don’t you text me when you’re off work and we’ll figure it out then.”
“Yeah. Okay.”
I reached for the doorknob.
“Courtney?”
I turned to her. “Yeah?”
“Be careful, okay?”
I nodded. “You too.”
A small smile curved her lips, then I opened the door and stepped onto the pavement. “I’ll wait until you get in your car,” she said.
“Okay. Thanks.”
With trepidation, I approached my car. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I cupped my hand against the glass and made sure no one was hiding inside, then I knelt on the ground near the gas tank and peered underneath. You have no clue what to look for. You wouldn’t know if he’d planted a bomb, or cut your gas line, or anything. Frustrated at my helplessness, I stood and walked to the driver’s door. Anyway, he was busy beating Tyler. He probably had no idea your car was here. Feeling a mix of relief and horror, I unlocked the door, then after a brief hesitation, slid behind the wheel.
I waved to Shelby, then closed and locked the door. A moment later she drove off, leaving me alone with my thoughts and my worries.
Chapter Thirty-Four
On the drive to the hospital I stayed vigilant, arriving thirty minutes after I left the mall. After parking, I sent Mom a text letting her know I was okay and that I would check in with her in an hour. The sun still shone brightly, so it was easy to see what was going on around me, and nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary. Nevertheless, my heart raced as I thought about Baldy sitting in any one of the parked cars, a pair of binoculars pressed to his face as he waited for me to arrive.
I climbed out of my car and looked around. Now he knows where you’re parked. With a barely suppressed shudder, I locked my car and began walking to the entrance. Once I’d made it safely inside, I texted Mitch and asked him where Tyler was. A moment later he replied, and I headed for the elevator.
“Mitch,” I said when I got off the elevator and saw him in the foyer of the third floor. “How is he?” I didn’t know Mitch well, but anyone could see the worry on his face.
“They just moved him up from the Emergency room, but he hasn’t woken up yet.”
Alarm that he would never wake up sent a jolt of terrified energy zinging along my nerves. “Can I see him?”
He grimaced. “He looks pretty gnarly.”
I wasn’t sure what that meant, although I was certain it wasn’t a good thing. “I don’t care. I need to see him.” I need to see what Baldy did, what my fear has led to. To see what could happen to me. I couldn’t suppress the shudder that time.
“If you really want to. I mean, I guess that would be okay.”
I nodded as we stood in the foyer, then I thought about Tyler’s family. Would they be able to read the guilt on my face? Would they blame me, as they should? “What about his parents? Are they in there?”
“No. The police contacted them and they’re on their way, but they won’t be here for a few hours. They’re the ones who called me.”
The police. I’d forgotten that they would get involved. “What did the police say?”
Mitch frowned. “They don’t know much. Just that someone found him on the ground, all beat up. The guy who found him said Tyler told him some guys jumped him, then he passed out.” He shook his head. “He just needs to wake up.”
The fear that he wouldn’t was clear in Mitch’s eyes, which pushed my worry up several notches. “Can you take me to him?”
He nodded. “Follow me.”
We passed the nurse’s station, where one nurse sat behind the counter.
“Hold on there,” she called after us.
I stopped, then turned to look at her.
“You need to sign in.” She stood and pointed to an open binder.
“Oh right.” I walked to the counter and picked up the pen. What if Baldy sees this? He’ll know I was here. Then I saw that the names of the other visitors who had signed in had been covered. For privacy. Good. I signed my name, then held out my arm so she could place a green paper wristband around my wrist.
“You’re all set,” she said with a smile.
“Thank you.”
Mitch and I walked down the corridor, and he stopped just before we reached an open door. “He’s in there.” He gazed at me. “Are you sure you want to go in?”
No. “Yes.”
With a nod, he turned and led the way in.
When I saw Tyler, I gasped. Loudly. I couldn’t help it. His face was battered and swollen, tubes snaked from his nose and mouth, and one arm was wrapped in gauze. I was sure there was even more damage hidden under the blankets. Cracked ribs, broken bones, internal bleeding.
“It’s okay, Courtney,” Mitch said as he patted my back.
It was then I realized tears were streaming down my face. This is all my fault. My fault. My fault. The words echoed in my head in a never-ending loop, tormenting me, torturing me, haunting me. I have to talk
to Detective Turner. I have to tell the truth.
My body stiffened as abject fear coursed through me. What will happen if I do? Will Baldy kill me? What about Mom? And Shelby? My gaze slid to Mitch. Is anyone safe?
My heart stuttered as I imagined myself the cursed girl—anyone who knew me would be in danger. Anyone. I wiped the tears from my face. You have to do it, Court. You did nothing wrong and look what he did to Tyler. How will keeping quiet help?
An image of Dylan filled my mind. In all my worries over Baldy, I’d hardly thought about Dylan. He was the one I’d actually seen stabbing Jeremy Owens, but I wasn’t even afraid of him. Then again, he was in jail, so he couldn’t harm me. Besides, he could have hurt me the night he’d murdered Jeremy Owens. But he hadn’t.
I remembered the day he’d been waiting beside my car and his warning to keep quiet. He’d said he didn’t want to see anything happen to me, but that others were in charge. Baldy. Baldy was the real person to fear, which I’d sensed the moment I’d met him.
The steady blip blip blip of Tyler’s heartbeat showed on a screen near the head of his bed, steadying my erratic pulse. He’s alive. He’s here. They’ll take good care of him. He’ll be okay. He has to be.
A knock sounded on the open door to Tyler’s room. I turned to see who it was and saw a uniformed police officer. An officer who looked familiar. Because I’d been in the same room with him less than two hours earlier. Officer Bowen.
Chapter Thirty-Five
When his gaze met mine, his head tilted. “Courtney, right?”
I nodded.
He walked into the room and stopped beside me. “Do you know him?” He gestured to Tyler, helpless and wounded on the bed.
Instinctively I wanted to deny it. But the answer was obvious. After all, I stood beside his bed. “Yeah.”
Bowen glanced at Mitch, then looked at me. “I’d like to chat with you in the hall please.”
My worry meter kicked on, but I couldn’t exactly refuse. Why would I if I had nothing to hide? “Sure.” I followed him out, and after stepping to the side, he turned to face me.
“I came to check on Tyler Cartwright, but I have to admit . . .” A sigh of surprise slid from his lips. “I didn’t expect to see you here.” His eyes narrowed as his gaze locked on mine. “How do you know him?”
“Uh, we’ve . . . we’ve dated a few times.”
“Uh-huh.” He nodded as he spoke. “What do you know about what happened to him?”
Cut right to the chase, why don’t you? Desperate to tell him my suspicions, I realized that’s all they were. I had no proof that Baldy had anything to do with this. Torn between the almost overwhelming desire to unburden myself and the equally compelling need to keep my mouth firmly closed, I hesitated.
“I’ll ask again,” he said.
Well, crap. Now I hesitated too long. And now he’s going to factor that into anything I say.
His gaze bore into mine. “What do you know?”
This guy’s worse than Turner. Of course Turner had no reason to think I was lying. “I . . . I know someone beat him up.”
His eyebrows rose in a statement of Really? Thanks for the newsflash. “And?”
“I don’t know anything else.”
His gaze remained steady as if he was trying to peer into my mind and extract every last bit of information I stored there. Finally, finally, he drew back a fraction of an inch. “Okay.”
Controlling myself to keep from exhaling a breath of relief, I smiled. With a last scrutinization of my face, he turned and walked down the hall, away from Tyler’s room. I watched him go, then went back to Tyler’s bedside.
“What was that all about?” Mitch asked.
I shrugged. “He just asked if I knew anything.”
“Why would you?”
I nodded, all the while feeling more miserable than ever.
An hour later, after I’d sat unmoving beside Tyler’s bed, Mitch offered to get me something to eat. “What about you?” I asked. “You’ve been here longer than me.”
He half-smiled. “I’ll get us both something.”
I shrugged. My appetite was non-existent, but I could tell Mitch needed something to do. “Sure. A sandwich or something would be great.”
His smile grew. “Okay. I’ll be back in a while.”
I nodded, then turned my attention back to Tyler. He looked exactly the same as when I’d walked in. Nurses had come and gone, but Tyler remained unchanged. As I gazed at him, sorrow at what he was going through nearly crushed me. I placed my hand on his arm and leaned close.
“I’m so sorry, Tyler,” I whispered. “You didn’t deserve this.”
I thought about hiking with him, dancing with him, spending time with him as tears filled my eyes. They overflowed my lashes and slid down my cheeks as all-consuming regret descended upon me.
A moment later my phone chimed a message. I brushed my hands across my face before unlocking my phone.
Mom: It’s been more than an hour and I haven’t heard from you.
My shoulders slid downward. I’d completely forgotten my promise to my mom. I typed a reply.
Courtney: Sorry, Mom! I got busy and forgot. I’m still perfectly fine.
She replied immediately.
Mom: I’m going to call you.
I glanced toward the hallway. No one was in sight. A moment later my phone rang.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Are you really safe? Where are you?”
Though tempted to pretend everything was A-Okay, I couldn’t bring myself to lie to her. “I’m visiting a friend at the hospital.”
“What? Now?”
“Yes.
“Couldn’t that wait?”
My gaze slid to Tyler—helpless, alone, beaten to within an inch of his life. I swallowed over the tightness in my throat. “No, it couldn’t.”
“Why not?” She sighed—the sigh I’d heard hundreds of times in my life. The sigh that said she’d about had it. “What’s going on?”
I gnawed on my lower lip, debating how much to tell her. I’m so tired of trying to hide the truth. “You remember Tyler? The guy I’ve been dating?”
“Yes.” Her voice sounded wary.
“He got hurt and he’s in the hospital.”
“Oh.” She waited a beat. “What happened to him?”
“Uh, he got in a fight.” Way to not hide the truth, Court.
Mom was silent a moment. “Why?”
“I don’t know what it was about.” Which was true. I suspected it was Baldy and his minions, but I didn’t know that for sure. For all I knew, he’d gotten into some stupid argument with a group of thugs. But in the moments after he’d been discovered, he’d said he’d been jumped. That didn’t sound like he’d had anything to do with it.
“How serious are his injuries?” I pictured Mom in her nurse’s uniform, her nurse’s instincts turned on high.
“He’s . . . uh . . . he’s unconscious.”
“Unconscious?”
“Yes.”
“Why do I get the feeling you’re not telling me something?”
Because you know me too well. I glanced behind me to make sure Mitch hadn’t returned, then decided to give full disclosure. “I think it might have been the guys who threatened me earlier.”
A loud gasp came across the line. “Oh no. Courtney.” Her voice shook. “You have to talk to the police and then get out of town. Immediately.”
I agreed. At least about getting out of town. Maybe that’s what Shelby and I should do tonight. Just grab what we can and go. Or don’t even get our stuff. The idea of taking nothing with me upset me, but when I looked at Tyler lying on the bed, I knew my stuff wasn’t worth getting if this could be my fate. “Okay.”
“You’ll leave?” Mom asked. “Right away?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, thank goodness.” She paused before adding, “I’ll transfer some money to your account. You know, to help cover the cost of gas and a hotel for tonight.”
/>
I felt bad that she would have to pay my way. “Mom, I don’t think you need to do that.”
“Don’t argue with me!”
My mouth snapped shut at the fury in her voice.
“Let me do this,” she said in her Don’t you dare argue with me voice. “I have to know you’ll be okay. This is something I can do now. So let me.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
She sighed softly. “You call or text, okay? Keep me informed.”
I heard footsteps approaching and turned to see if Mitch had returned with our food. But it wasn’t Mitch. It was Detective Turner. And he didn’t look happy.
“Mom, I’ve gotta go.”
“Okay, baby. I love you.”
“I love you too.” I disconnected the call, then stood to face the detective.
Chapter Thirty-Six
“Courtney, good evening.” He walked toward me and stopped beside me.
“Hello.”
“Officer Bowen told me you were here. I thought it would be best for us to speak face to face.”
“Speak to me? About what?” Of course I knew exactly what he wanted to speak to me about, but I was trying to buy time. Time to decide what I should say. Was I finally ready to tell the truth? All of it?
You’re leaving town now, so there’s no reason to hide what you know.
“About what happened to this young man,” he said as he nodded in Tyler’s direction, then he met my gaze. “Among other things.”
With a small nod, I said, “Right.”
He pointed to the chair I’d been sitting in. I sat, and he sat in the chair beside it. “Now, why don’t you tell me what you know?”
I wanted to. So bad. So very, very bad. I stared at him as I battled with myself, thought of the consequences, looked at Tyler. Decided.
I’m gonna do it. What do I have to lose? If Shelby and I leave town, then we’ll be safe. They’ve already beaten Tyler. Mom’s out of their reach.
I looked at Detective Turner and imagined the liberation I would feel to let him figure it out. Yes. It’s time.
I drew in a deep breath, slowly released it, then I began talking. I told him exactly what had happened on the night of the murder, leaving out nothing.