Ruthless Ink

by April Lust

  Chapter 20

  Lily

  “I know you’re in there, Miss Erickson. Your car is in the lot.”

  Miss Erickson?

  Bang. Ring. “Let me in. Mr. Hanley sent me.”

  “Luke?” I whisper, my hand reaching for but falling shy of the lock. My heart is racing, my breathing puffing out. I grab my phone, figuring I can text Luke, ask him for confirmation of this unexpected visit.

  But he’s banging so loud, I can’t text straight. I get through the message eventually, relying on the spell check feature, and then I open the door despite the warning alarms sounding off in my head.

  I’m thinking of Luke and Floyd and their family’s side business. This guy is connected to the loan shark dealings, I know that. I don’t want the neighbors’ gossiping and harming Luke or getting him in trouble with his father.

  “Are you going to let me in? I told you, Hanley sent me.”

  I leave the door at the sliver of a crack, enough for me to peer up at him and assess if he means to harm me. He’s dressed in head-to-toe black today again, but this time there’s no mask covering the lower half of his face. His glassy blue eyes stare down at me from his six-something, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his duster coat.

  I don’t like that sight at all. “Hands?”

  He sighs but draws them out. “I am armed, but like I said, Hanley sent me over here.”

  “To help me pack?”

  “Yeah,” he says. “To help you pack. So, you going to let me in?”

  Slowly, I draw the door open wider, gesturing him in. I’ll be happy for his strong hands to help me out, but I am not going to play hostess. It’s hard to forget staring down the barrel of his gun, his finger snapping off the safety.

  Taking him into the kitchen, I open some drawers and two sets of cabinets up top and reveal an array of silver tableware. I know Luke will have tons, but my mother, in one of her forgiving moments, gave me the family heirloom silver. My great-great grandmother started the tradition and I want to continue it with my children.

  “Pack these up, please,” I tell him, pointing to the hall. “I’ll be in the bedroom if you have questions.”

  As I’m sitting down in front of my open, half-filled luggage, I check the vibrating phone in my pocket. Luke’s text is chilling.

  Lily get out of there

  Then he’s calling me, and I’m fumbling to slide the screen and accept the call, but he’s there—Luke’s thug, and he’s grabbing at my shoulders, crushing an arm around my middle. The phone is knocked from my hand and it hits the floor by my suitcase.

  I scream, but it’s short-lived when his sweaty, salty palm slaps over my mouth, pushing down hard enough to make me scream in pain. He holds me up like a flailing, writhing doll, carrying us backward out to the living area.

  My body goes rigid at the sight awaiting me there.

  Art Dayton.

  Dayton is looking handsome in a flashy suit, his hands preening and smoothing his emerald green tie. But it’s not his fashion sense that has me freezing up. It’s his nodding grimly at the couch and the thug manhandling me listening to the silent order.

  Deposited there on my belly, I scream as soon as I can get my lungs to cooperate. The thug pushes me down, his big, meaty hand over my back, holding me fast to the sofa. That doesn’t stop me from praying the neighbors hear my screaming and call for help.

  It’s the brush of the cool metal over my cheek that shuts me up.

  “Huh? Look at that. Quiet as a mouse suddenly,” the big thug taunts.

  “Mr. Raymond, I’ll ask you to lower your voice,” Art tells him.

  “Hey, what did I say? It’s just Keith, okay?” He snaps at Dayton. “Shit, you’re only here because of me. So I think maybe you should sorta listen when I ask you to do something.”

  I stare up fearfully at Art Dayton, begging for his help. He doesn’t even give me a look, his gaze on Keith Raymond.

  I’m alone. Art is a bad guy. Just like Luke suspected.

  I cling to the information I have. I have a full name to go with the thug, and without his scarf covering his face, I can work with a sketch artist to make sure he pays once I get through this.

  And I would get through. I had to.

  As if sensing I’m thinking of the baby, Keith pushes me down harder into the sofa. I groan.

  “Now, record your damn questions already. I think she called someone, probably Hanley. If he suspects anything, we’ll both be dead before the sun rises tomorrow.”

  “Hush,” Art narrows his eyes, his attention finally falling on me. “Did you call someone, Lily?”

  I tighten my lips, glaring at him.

  Seriously, he couldn’t think I’d share details with him when he orchestrated this bullshit. And all to get Luke charged with the murder of Derrick Smyth. Luke might have pulled the hit, but I know him now, and Derrick seemed to get what would be coming his way someday anyway.

  I did my search online and everything Luke said checked out. Derrick was a bad man—an evil man, and no amount of jail time would cleanse him of his propensity to hurt others.

  Besides, if anyone should be charged, it should be this brute crushing me with a fraction of his weight. It was his gun and his hand pulling the trigger killing Derrick.

  “Lily,” Art shakes his head with a sigh. He pushes my name out in a clipped tone.

  Art walks away, stepping out of my vision. His ominous footsteps thud softly from the room and they find a squeaky floorboard on his way back. “I see. You’ve been a busy girl.” He slides back into my vision, my phone in his hands.

  “Guess we’ll have to speed this up.”

  Art drops my phone on the coffee table and crouches in front of me, his hand reaching out and digging into my hair. He yanks my hair tie out sharply, smiling cruelling at my yelp and tearing eyes.

  “We could have been magnificent—you and I, but you tossed that away for a criminal.”

  I can’t help snapping, “I’m looking at the real criminals now.” I cheer for my bravado. As quickly as he slaps me, Art tugs my head back sharply by my hair and pushes his face in close, his gaze dropping to my mouth.

  “Lord knows I’d like to fuck that mouth of yours, but I need it more for this.” He magically produces a pocket-sized voice recorder, waving it tauntingly in my face. “You’re going to tell me Luke Hanley had his men murder Derrick Smyth. Better yet,” Art grins manically, “you’re going to say the great and wonderful Luke Hanley, Potentia’s Oz, pulled the trigger himself.”

  “I won’t—” I start, another slap silencing me.

  He wouldn’t bully and batter me into saying those words though. Luke will be here soon. I know it. When a tear leaks out, Art snarls.

  “You stupid bitch. Do you know how long I’ve waited for this? How long I waited for that bastard to slip up?” Art unloads some history on me. “I asked to be assigned here, you know.

  “Did my research, knew all about the Hanley's game in St. Louis. They’re almost legends there. Toeing the line of black and white, paying the right people to look the other way. I, on the other hand, dedicate sixteen years of my life to law enforcement.

  “It all went to hell one night and the next thing I know, I’m staring unemployment and a shamble of careers straight in the face,” he spits his rage out in my face, his hot breath forcing me to blink my eyes. “Then I have this opportunity land on my lap. Come here to Potentia, keep my head low, look for a way out, a way back to what I deserve.”

  Keith yawns and Art breaks off to glare his way. “Now here I am, dressed down by a lowly town’s low-ranking police chief, a man I once could have ordered to bring me my coffee,” Art laughs bitterly.

  Setting the recorder down under my head, he clicks it on, a red light glowing to indicate it’s recording. Art pulls my head back and stands, reaching for his fly.

  “Finally, some fun,” Keith chuckles darkly.

  “No,” I beg, voice weak. “Please, don’t do this.” I appeal to
Art, but I realize he’s no different than Luke’s traitorous thug. He’s hell bent on ruining Luke’s life, and that means ruining me now.

  For a second there are no other sounds than my sniffling and the sound of their shifting clothing as both men work their cocks free. I feel Keith’s hard dick bumping my leg over my jeans. I squirm from it until he grabs me and snaps, “Don’t move.” He bumps my cheek with that dreaded gun.

  “Why didn’t you choose me, Lily?” Art breaks off, his hand moving from his open fly to smooth over the cheek he’s been abusing. My skin is hot and throbbing there, and I draw back from his touch.

  This sets him off again. “I’m going to fuck you and this is going to record our wonderful noises. I’ll make sure to send a copy to Luke, so every time he gets between those thick thighs of yours, he’s going to know I got in there too.”

  The sound of sirens splits the air.

  Both men still, like a calm before the real storm hits. And it hits hard. Activity explodes all around me.

  “I’m out of here.” Keith hops off me. I hear his zipper slide blessedly closed, his gun moving off my cheek.

  Art also moves, releasing the hand tugging the hairs out of my scalp. I’m seeing stars still from Art’s slapping, and my body is aching from Keith’s rough handling, but I half-turn, half-slide up on the armrest, shifting into a position to keep my eyes on my two almost-rapists as they turn on each other.

  Art beats Keith to the door, reaching inside his blazer. The detective trains his gun on his fleeing partner.

  Keith laughs. “You idiot. You won’t shoot. You care too much about getting that fancy, old life of yours back. My death would certainly set you far, far away from it. Killer cop doesn’t have as great a ring to it as hero cop, now, doesn’t it?”

  “Or,” Art says, coolly, “I came here to ask Miss Erickson some further up questions, and I saw the door ajar and you on top her, ready to force yourself on the poor woman.”

  “She won’t take that sitting down.” Keith’s voice has a wavering to it though, and he asks me, “You won’t, will you? Let this bastard get away with it? He’s the one who started this. I didn’t want to come here. But he made me do it.”

  I couldn’t process any of this now. It had to be the shock setting it, numbing me to their squabbling.

  “And who’s going to believe her word?” Art is saying, his question high and reedy. “Maybe I’ll kill her too, blame your ass for that as well.” Art barks a laugh. “Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. There’s no mention of me in her cell message to Hanley. This has your name written all over it.” Before Keith can get a word in, there’s a loud bang, a groan, and a thud.

  Art moves on quickly, prowling to me next.

  All that I can see of Keith Raymond is his feet sticking out from behind my large-screened TV.

  “Now, Miss Erickson,” he brandishes his gun, the barrel pointed at my chest, “it’s time I said goodbye. I’d say I’m going to miss you, but I’m not. I only regret I couldn’t screw you before this but,” he chuckles, that demented look blooming over his face, “I guess you sort of already screwed me. I’ll remember it...not so fondly. Good bye.”

  The front door is slowly opening behind him all through his speech. I try not to gasp when I see Russ. I don’t see his gun until the shot rings out, once, twice, three times.

  Art’s blood sails and splatters over me. I flinch.

  The detective groans, eyes rolling to the back of his head, the gun slipping from his hand and clattering to the floor. He sways and drops to a knee, his body hunching to the side, caving in on itself.

  His eyelids flutter and then he moans, “Lily…”

  Chapter 21

  Luke

  The place is crawling with officers, firefighters, and paramedics when I arrive.

  I push through the crowd at the front of the apartment. A few faces pop out at me in the group, but I don’t stop to greet anyone except one of the officers guarding the entrance.

  She holds up a hand, but I practically barrel into her. Another officer, a taller, thicker male, assists, and the first officer snaps, “Excuse me. Back up right now, sir. Area’s off limits.”

  Forced to explain myself, I babble, “My girlfriend—”

  “Is in there? That’s not our top concern at the moment,” she says.

  “We’ve asked for the cooperation of the tenants and no one is leaving the building or entering it until we’re given the clear,” her partner adds.

  “Get your chief,” I snap. “Tell Chief Jack Isaac that Luke Hanley wants to speak with him.”

  The two officers share a look. I growl, “Now. Or I swear I’ll,” my threat is going to end with “call him myself”, but when I reach inside for my phone, both cops jump back, instinctively reaching for their pieces.

  I’m facing their guns, and the gasps and cries behind as a commotion starts and more officers round my back. Before I can say “Shit” I’m surrounded by five cops, at least two drawing their weapons.

  “Hands where we can see them, sir,” the female officer orders, briskly, her lips curled. Everyone is on edge about something, and I hate not knowing what’s happened—what’s happening. I glance up, finding the window in Lily’s living room, swallowing hard and wondering if she’s trapped in there, scared.

  Slowly moving my hand out of my pocket, I hold up my phone. I raise my other hand and wait for them to decide whether they’ll gun me down or not.

  Then I see two paramedics heading our way out of the entrance and between them is the woman I’m willing to die for.

  “Lily,” I croak. Sweet, powerful relief lowers my hands.

  Shouts from the police to keep my hands raised stir Lily’s lowered head up. Our eyes catch. Her mouth opens and eyes widen with recognition. Before the medics can get a hold of her, Lily loses the blanket they’ve tossed over her shoulders and she runs towards the cops.

  When they round on her, I yell, “Don’t.” I’m breathing hard, fearful for Lily as she notices the guns. Then she screams short and stumbles back, shaking her head, crying. The paramedics catch up with her, thank God, and keep her from tumbling onto her rear.

  Trauma scores her beautiful features.

  I step to her, hand clenching around my phone.

  She reaches for me as they pull her back toward the parked ambulance. She cries my name, wails for me. “No, let me go,” she screams. “Luke, don’t leave me.”

  “Never,” I whisper hoarsely, glowering at the cops who hold their guns at me.

  Fuck this.

  Ignoring them, I find Isaac’s number and dial. His wife picks up, and she gets a hold of her husband.

  “Day off,” Isaac greets me, cheerily.

  “Tell them to back off.” I chew out the words like bits of gravel. “I can’t see my girlfriend. They won’t let me see her.” Once I’m calm enough, once I see Lily hasn’t left—she’s being held down and checked in the rear of the ambulance—I walk Isaac through this mess.

  “He wants to talk to a Detective Lawson.” I hold out the phone to the two officers who have at least holstered their weapon. Their stances still scream I’m a threat though, so they only perk up at the name I’ve dropped.

  Called from inside the building, Lawson is a tall woman in her forties; her light brown hair is knotted in a bun. She has her walkie-talkie flaring to life with commands. She holds up her finger and speaks to whoever is on the other end. Then she drops her hand and clips the walkie back to her belt.

  Accepting the phone, she hums and nods, her laugh lightening up the remaining tension in the air. I hear the three officers behind me clearing their defensive hold and returning to whatever they were up to before they believed me a danger to their teammates.

  “Mr. Luke Hanley, you’ve been cleared to see your girlfriend.” Lawson gestures for her officers to let me through. Passing me my phone, she looks to Lily and frowns. “If it’s any consolation, I apologize for having this happen.”

  “What did happen?” I as
k. Now that I have her attention and her sympathy, I figure I can poke around for answers.

  She tightens her lips. “It’s still under wraps as an ongoing investigation, but as the chief trusts you, I’ll tell you this: that young woman, your girlfriend, was attacked in her own home.”

  On cue, a stretcher is rolled out by three paramedics. The black body bag is foreboding. I’d weaken to my doubts and despair if I didn’t know Lily was safe.

  Lawson and I follow the stretcher as the first responders roll it into the back of another ambulance. Blinking from the grim scene, Lawson nudges her chin at Lily. “Go ahead. You should be able to ride with her to the hospital.”

  Thanking her, I head for Lily. She tries to stand to hug me, but the paramedic checking her out holds her down. “Please, miss,” he tells her, noticing me belatedly.

  “Family member,” I gruffly say to his raised, questioning brows.

  “You’re riding with her?” the other paramedic asks, setting up inside the ambulance.

  “Yes.” I nod. I brush Lily’s hair, smoothing my hand over her mussed waves to hold her cheek. It an ugly, splotchy red and I can predict a bruise is on its way. Chomping at the bit to ask how she managed to hurt herself, and afraid of what her answer will make me do to the culprit behind this, I focus on her.

  Lily’s seems content now, and damn if it doesn’t swell my chest knowing my presence is giving her that much-needed comfort. She leans into my palm, her sigh parting her soft pinks lips, puffy from her tears. It hurts my heart and mind to think she’s cried, and I don’t want to wonder how much.

  It’s not going to happen anymore.

  This girl’s my world. I see it now. And I almost lost my world, and that feeling isn’t one I’m going to forget, ever.

  Giving us a moment, the paramedic backs off and Lily and I hold each other. I give her back a good, deep rub, lowering my head to brush my lips over the top of her ear. “I love you, Lily.”

  I hear a loud sob and I smile.

  When she shifts her head back to meet my eyes, she smiles over the new wetness adorning her cheeks. “I love you too.”

  “Ready?” the paramedic calls.

  The other holds out a hand to help Lily. I keep my hands ready from the back. We don’t need her falling, and I need to prove to Lily I’ll always catch her.