by Cass Sellars
“I will kill you, bitch,” Sydney growled fiercely, terrifyingly calm. She had never felt the level of anger she was consumed by now, just inches from Becky’s face.
“No!” Parker cried as she crawled over to Sydney. “Stop, Sydney. Look at me,” Parker begged, grabbing her cheek and forcing Sydney to focus on her face. “Please, I need you. Syd, I love you,” she said desperately. “It’s over. Put it down.”
Parker’s voice, breaking through Sydney’s fury, landed only seconds before her finger could deliver the necessary pressure to the trigger. Sirens wailed announcing the arrival of the troops, further sobering Sydney.
Shouts rang through the loft as Parker called, “Over here.”
Sydney engaged the safety and slid the gun toward the opposite wall as she watched Mack holster her own gun. Mack assessed Sydney and Parker carefully as she moved to unload Sydney’s weapon, tucking the pistol into her own waistband.
“Clear,” Mack called out as she rolled Becky onto her stomach and pulled her wrists into cuffs, double locking them. “You both okay?”
“Parker’s hurt.” Syd kneeled on the floor next to her. Blood had soaked through her sweater and dried in streaks on her tear-stained cheek.
“Please be okay.” Raising her fingers carefully to touch Parker’s bruised face, Sydney’s chest clenched as she felt desperate tears gather behind her eyes. She instantly forgot the homicidal rage that had gripped her just seconds before. Parker shifted into Sydney’s arms as she was consumed by terrified, relieved sobs.
Sydney whispered into Parker’s ear, “I have you, please be okay. I am so sorry. I love you.”
Sydney pulled Parker harder against her chest when Mack and a uniformed officer lifted Becky, who was slowly regaining consciousness, into an upright position. Parker’s muffled tears wrenched at Sydney as she stood to carry her to the door. An EMT wheeling in a stretcher pulled Parker from her arms and laid her on the mattress. Sydney felt her stomach lurch when she no longer held Parker and watched the tech begin assessing his patient. Sydney followed quickly behind the stretcher as Parker reached out for her.
“Sydney, no,” Parker implored weakly. “I don’t need to go. Sydney, make them stop.” Parker sat up when the gurney paused at the back doors of the ambulance. “Please, I’m okay. I don’t need to go in the ambulance. I just want to be with you.” Her eyes pleaded with Sydney and she reached out to clutch her arm.
Cupping Parker’s face, Sydney looked into her frightened blue eyes. “Baby, they want to make sure you’re okay. I’ll go with you. Just let me talk to Mack.” Parker acquiesced as they lifted her into the bus and began to check her vital signs and her wounds more closely. Mack jogged up behind the ambulance.
“Go. Jen’s on the way with the boys, they’ll meet you at the hospital. I’ll take care of things here—we’ll be a while.” Mack gave Sydney’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “It’s okay, go.”
Becky was being dragged to a waiting police car, complaining indignantly that the situation was all a misunderstanding. Sydney’s fists clenched as the girl was led past her, a renewed rage settling over her.
“Go now.” This time, Mack made it an order as she shifted her body to block Syd’s view of Becky Weaver. Sydney nodded and turned to the ambulance.
Parker visibly relaxed when Sydney climbed in beside her and knelt by her head. Holding Parker’s shaky hand to her face, she felt tears leak from her eyes. “I am so sorry.”
Parker stroked Sydney’s face and squeezed her hand. “I’m okay, Syd. It’s okay. This isn’t your fault. She isn’t stable, you didn’t know.”
“I should have been there.” Syd was so angry that she hadn’t seen it before.
“You were when it counted.” She attempted a smile, sending an intensely personal message to Syd. “He said that they’re just a few minor cuts and possibly a couple of stitches, don’t worry.” Parker glanced toward the paramedic cleaning the gash near her eye.
The ambulance stopped, the doors swung open, and a member of the emergency room staff jogged over. “We’ll check her out now. They will come and get you in a few minutes,” he said politely indicating the far door to the waiting room with a nod of his head. Syd kissed Parker tentatively before the gurney was pulled away by the retreating team of medical staff.
Barely five minutes later, Syd saw Richard approach the desk to ask about Parker. Allen found Sydney crouched against the wall with her head on her knees.
Allen touched her back and slid down next to her, pulling her hand to thread through his. Sydney knew his best friend’s blood had dried on her skin and clothes.
“I would never do anything to hurt her, Allen,” Sydney whispered to the man who’d judged her so harshly before. “I didn’t know she would go there. I really thought it was over.”
“We all know that, Syd,” Allen replied quietly. “Mack told us what happened. This wasn’t your fault.”
Richard returned, pushing Jenny into a nearby chair and helping Allen pull Syd to her feet. She focused on him briefly.
“She is being stitched up and then we can take her home.” He offered a thin smile, his attempt to bolster Syd’s mood less than successful.
Sydney hid her face in her hands and sobbed. She looked up when Jenny pulled her firmly down to a chair and into a hug.
“Mack said you saved her, Syd.”
“I would never have put her in danger, Jen. If I had known, I wouldn’t have left her.” Sydney needed to convince herself as much as Parker’s friends.
“We know that. She knows that. She is going to be okay, Syd.” Jenny stroked her back gently.
The large room felt silent and sterile despite the small groupings of other patients’ families dotting the seating area. Syd closed her eyes against the memory of Becky’s knife-wielding hand over Parker’s pale skin. She could not erase the devastating picture that repeatedly flashed in her mind.
A short stocky man in a lab coat and scrubs appeared and spoke from behind them. “Parker Duncan?”
They all walked toward him and formed a tight circle as he approached. Allen spoke first. “How is she? When can we take her home?”
Syd heard only the first part of the response before she saw Parker being pushed toward them in a wheelchair. A thin strip of white tape held gauze over the wound just below her swollen eye. Sydney jogged to her and Parker stood to lean happily into her arms.
“I’m so sorry, baby.” Sydney felt Parker’s body mold into hers and her breathing faltered at the sensation.
“Stop apologizing, you couldn’t know that she would try to hurt me to get to you.” A smile hinted at her lips. “Again, you are going to have to tell me what you did to her, because it must have been fabulous.” She laughed weakly and squeezed her lover’s hand.
Syd shook her head and pressed her mouth against Parker’s, inhaling her. “I was so scared I would lose you.” Sydney wondered if she would still.
Parker squeezed into Sydney’s warm body and stilled. “I hear quite a party down there,” she said, tilting her head toward the lobby. “Can we go home now?”
“Absolutely.”
Chapter Seventeen
A scant five hours since the terrifying episode began, Parker rode silently in the back of Richard’s car. She gripped Jenny’s hand and curled against Sydney who couldn’t seem to hold her tightly enough. Mack greeted them at the lobby door. Parker could see a scene team still processing the loft that looked vacant and unfamiliar to her now. She glanced up at Sydney who had carried her from the car, and whispered, “I can walk from here, love.”
“I imagine that is probably true,” Sydney said absently and held Parker tighter to her body.
“Do you think I can stay with you tonight, Syd?” Parker’s own voice sounded foreign and far away to her. She felt so tired and didn’t think she could face whatever aftermath awaited her at home.
“There wasn’t any other option, baby.” Sydney passed her key to a worried Allen as the rest of the crew follow
ed in close behind. Parker rested her head against Sydney’s shoulder as she walked with her into the bathroom, guiding her carefully on the edge of the bathtub. Parker closed her eyes as Sydney dragged a warm washcloth across the smears of dried blood vigilantly avoiding the bandage on her arm and the smaller white strip hiding stitches on her face.
Parker watched Sydney’s anguished face as she cut away her ruined top and searched carefully for hidden injuries as if the hospital might have missed something. As Syd helped her out of her pants, she noticed an angry linear bruise forming on her thigh. Sydney skimmed gentle fingers across the darkened skin and Parker covered her hand.
“I’m going to get you some clothes, okay?” Sydney’s voice faltered betraying the tough façade she meant to maintain.
“Okay.” Parker was shocked by the tiny voice that replied. “Can we talk later?”
“We can talk all night. I’m not going anywhere.” She placed her mouth against Parker’s and held her there. Parker shuddered into Sydney, fighting the feelings of shock and residual fear before Sydney briefly left her alone.
When Sydney returned, Parker carefully stood to step into the sweats that she had left at Syd’s. An unexpected sob claimed her again as the dangling remnants of her strength ebbed without her consent. Sydney pulled Parker against her and Parker listened helplessly as Sydney allowed her own tears to fall.
Parker was desperate to erase the carnage of the day. They emerged from the bathroom as Mack was disconnecting her call with the lead detective assigned to the case.
“Well, needless to say,” Mack reported, “she will be in custody for quite a while. The psych eval will take weeks, I imagine. Park, there is an automatic emergency restraining order and I will help you make that permanent when the time comes.”
Mack looked at Sydney, as if gauging her state of mind. “Apparently she saw you guys leave the Pride last week and it stirred up some unresolved stuff for her.”
Parker tried to picture the bar and the street, scanning her recall for indications that anyone was watching them.
“Syd, I’m sorry, but I have to get your statement now. I held them off as long as I could. You, too, Parker, but David’s going to get yours, okay? Our connection’s too close and I don’t want anyone to miss nailing her on some technicality.”
Parker nodded as Sydney walked with her to the couch. She felt unexpected pain at disconnecting from her. “I’ll be right back, baby,” Syd whispered in Parker’s ear.
Detective David Hicks walked in to sit next to Parker as Allen flanked her on the other side.
Sydney’s bravado seemed to melt away when she was forced to leave Parker, even for a short time.
After an hour of recounting her story and signing paperwork, Detective Hicks left Parker with her small supportive group bookending her on Sydney’s couch. Parker pulled a blanket over her legs and talked to her friends, grateful for fluffy stories of their lives and related intentional miscellany.
*
Mack sat in Syd’s studio taking notes while Syd glanced down through the glass repeatedly. “I have a copy of your concealed carry permit but they’ll want your gun until this is sorted properly. The CCW will help, but you know the drill.”
“I get it. Thank you for everything you did,” Syd said quietly. “I know I would have been facedown on the concrete and not in the ambulance with her, if you hadn’t come in first.”
“Just don’t be stupid, that’s my friend down there.” She roughly swatted Syd on the knee before they jogged down the stairs to the living room and to the sound of the group preparing to leave.
“Syd, please call us if you need anything. If you have to leave her tomorrow, one of us will be there.” Allen’s delivery spoke of a warning declaration as much as a concerned offer.
“Message received,” Sydney responded stiffly. She felt the weight of his words, and they echoed with her own dire internal dialogue which declared loudly that she had failed to protect Parker, or worse, caused the Becky situation to begin with.
Allen and Richard both gathered Parker into a tight hug, carefully avoiding her injuries.
“Don’t scare us like that again, okay? Richard’s heart can’t take it.” Allen glanced at his stalwart partner.
“Love you two,” Parker responded wearily. “I’m okay, don’t worry. I’m just tired.”
She slid the door closed behind the last guest as Sydney reached for her and held her tightly, as much to comfort her as to rescue her from reliving the terror she could still see rolling through her mind. Syd left her only to retrieve items from Parker’s loft, while Parker waited quietly on the edge of the bed. Breathing slowly, Parker clung to the mattress with cold white fingertips until Sydney returned.
Parker’s gray pallor jolted Syd as she knelt at Parker’s feet. “Can I hold you?” Parker nodded as tears poured from her eyes again. Sydney gathered her up and prayed for the sobs to quiet.
“What can I do, baby? What do you need?” Her palm skimmed over Parker’s hair in a desperate attempt to soothe them both. Sydney did loud confrontations, intense negotiations; she didn’t do this. She didn’t know how to do this, not well anyway.
Parker wiped the slow-spilling tears from her cheeks, wincing when her fingers found the stitches. “Can we lie down?”
Sydney pulled the sheets back and turned Parker against the mattress, sliding in behind her. Parker turned in Sydney’s embrace, nearly breaking her when she spoke. “Please don’t let go, okay?”
Guilt flooded Syd’s gut, paralyzing her. “I won’t.”
After several minutes, Sydney felt Parker jerk in her arms. She exhaled raggedly from a tortured sleep—probably sheer exhaustion, Syd realized. Sydney, still fully clothed, pulled her down onto the pillow and clicked off the lamp, never once releasing her.
*
Parker jolted awake looking around to get her bearings. She glanced at the bedside clock. Three a.m. She turned back toward Sydney, whose concerned eyes met hers.
“Park? Are you okay?” Syd pulled her to her tighter than before.
“Yeah.” Parker sighed and cleared her throat. “I am. It took me a minute to figure out where I was.” She looked carefully at Sydney who held her as if she caressed a dying kitten. “I just don’t want to feel fragile or broken, okay?”
“What do you mean?” Sydney brushed over her hair, resting her cheek on her forehead. “What can I do? What can I get you? Water? I could make you some tea?” Sydney felt like her offers amounted to a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. She didn’t have any idea how to make this better.
Parker tilted her face to press her lips softly onto Syd’s. “I just want you, okay?” She slipped her leg over Syd’s long frame. Her fingers gripped at Sydney’s back.
Syd froze at the implication. “Park, no. You need to rest. We can be together anytime.” Sydney spoke carefully, nervously watching her.
“I need you. I just need to feel you on me. Please.” She sounded desperate for Sydney, for normalcy. “I just need to remember where we were yesterday.”
Sydney’s blood surged for Parker as always. She carefully rolled Parker’s damaged body beneath hers, also desperate to reconnect with her.
Parker responded fiercely, skidding her nails into the flesh of Sydney’s back, pushing her mouth onto to her throat, demanding relief and release, tearing her own shirt away and pushing at Sydney’s clothes. “I need to feel you against me now.”
Sydney regarded her cautiously but her eyes were resolute.
“Please, Sydney.”
Sydney dragged her clothes away. She reclaimed her lover’s mouth, placing her burning skin over Parker’s, surging her tongue over her nipples, drawing them between her teeth. A deep growl emanated from Parker’s throat. “Fuck. Yes. Yes.”
Sydney’s breath rushed as she traced her ribs to the deep V at her pelvis.
“Please, I need you inside me.” Parker cried out as she arched into Sydney’s body, quite shocked by her own X-rated demands.
&nbs
p; Sydney slipped between her legs, coercing Parker’s body to accommodate her broad frame and her mouth as she covered her burning core, driving her tongue to the place where she compelled her lover’s compliance and release. Only moments after Sydney steered insistently into her center, she heard Parker cry out for her.
“God, yes. There. Please.” Sydney pushed her tongue against Parker repeatedly as her muscles clenched in answer. Her stroking fingers replaced her mouth to induce Parker’s sensual break. Parker pulled Sydney’s lips up to hers in a punishing kiss as her final primal scream was swallowed behind Sydney’s mouth. Parker fell over and under, shaking into her again and again as Sydney took her there.
She gasped into Sydney’s neck, clasping her arms to pull her closer as Syd pressed Parker against her skin. “You are so amazing to me,” Sydney whispered, holding her even tighter to her chest.
“I want to taste you, Syd.” Parker’s eyes darkened as she pushed onto Syd, sliding her thigh between her legs. “Please, let me.”
Syd felt apprehensive as she relinquished control to Parker, somehow terrified by the prospect but willing to give anything to this woman who absolutely possessed her, who she’d come so close to losing.
Parker moaned urgently into Sydney as she seized her hungrily, clasping her hips as she directed her, devouring her as if discovering the feast would be her last. Syd heard her own voice begging for Parker to push her over, amazed by the intensity of her release with her. More than for anyone else, ever. She couldn’t hold her tightly enough as Parker seemed to derive some sense of psychological peace from their physical theater.
Hours later, Sydney was dragged from a restless sleep by the sting of fingernails scraping roughly over the skin at her neck. Parker cried out against Sydney’s chest, grasping blindly into the cloaking dark.