Get Rocked

by Tabatha Vargo

  Her watery eyes took in the room. They grazed across Sydney passed out in her bed and then down at her husband’s crumpled body. Her shaking hand came up and covered her mouth as she started to cry.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said into the silent room. “I couldn’t let him hurt her.” I pointed over to Sydney’s body.

  “Is she… is she dead?” Her voice was as frail as she looked.

  “No, ma’am, she just passed out, I think.”

  I saw relief run through her body. She took in the room, her husband’s naked body, her daughter’s ripped clothes, and I saw it in her eyes the moment she realized what was happening.

  “How did you know?” she asked.

  There was no point in lying to her.

  “Patience told me. He’s been molesting her since she was a little girl.”

  I hated that it sounded so cut and dry, but there was really no other way to say it. Her legs buckled like she was going to fall. I moved quickly and caught her. I pulled her over to a white, padded chair that was in front of a desk in the corner and helped her sit.

  “How do you know Patience?” she asked with tears on her face.

  “She’s my girlfriend,” I said firmly. “I’m in love with your daughter, ma’am.”

  A tiny hint of a smile touched her lips.

  “You’re Zeke?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” I nodded.

  She reached out and patted my cheek softly. Her paper-thin skin felt cold against my cheek.

  “She loves you, too.” She sighed. “Zeke, do me a favor, son.”

  “Anything.”

  It was the least I could do considering she thought I killed her husband.

  “Hand me that gun, call 9-1-1, take Sydney with you, and promise me you’ll take care of my girls.”

  My brows pulled down in confusion.

  “I’m sorry, I don’t follow. Who’s to say you won’t shoot me if I give you this gun?”

  It was a valid question. I didn’t know how much of my story she believed. For all she knew I’d broken in and shot and killed her husband and her daughter.

  “I’ve had my suspicions that my husband was a sick man. I should’ve said something and saved my girls. This is my fault and it’s the least I can do.” Her shoulders dropped. “I’m dying, Zeke. I have days at the most, and now my husband is dead. If you go to jail for life simply for doing something I failed to do, then who’ll care for my girls?”

  She smiled sadly at me as she reached down and used what little strength she had to pull the gun from my hand. I knew I should’ve stopped her, but she was right. Patience needed me. Especially considering her mother was going to die soon.

  She used the thick cotton of her robe to wipe the handle of the gun and laid it in her lap.

  “Now, be a good boy and do as I said,” she rasped.

  I nodded and backed away.

  I pulled out my phone and called the police. I told them someone had been shot, gave them the address, and then hung up. She smiled up at me and shook her head as if she agreed that what we were doing was right.

  I turned away, picked up Sydney’s limp body, and then turned to walk out of the room.

  “Zeke.” She stopped me. “I’m so glad Patience has someone in her life like you. Tell my daughter I’m sorry I didn’t protect her and tell her I love her.” Tears flowed down her sallow cheeks.

  “Yes, ma’am.” I adjusted Sydney’s body in my grasp and walked away.

  I hated leaving her there so sick and frail, but it was what she wanted, and while I would’ve been more than willing to take the blame for killing that sick son of a bitch, Patience needed me. I’d always be there for her no matter what.

  Thankfully, Sydney was out the entire ride back to my apartment. I’d never been formally introduced to her and I didn’t want her waking up and showing her ass, thinking I was kidnapping her. Not to mention, she’d gone through something pretty traumatic already.

  I wasn’t sure what story Patience wanted to tell her, but either way, when she woke up she’d find out her father was dead. Had it been me, I’d be happy the bastard was gone, but she might not take it so well. The girls’ lives were going to change from this point on, and I planned on being there to help them through every step of the way.

  When I walked through the door, holding Sydney’s body, Patience stood from the couch and pushed Finn and Tiny out of her way. They’d been doing a good job guarding her apparently, and she looked pretty pissed about it. She ran to me and pushed Sydney’s hair from her face, and then she looked up at me with a look of confusion.

  “What happened?” she asked with wide, accusing eyes.

  “Here, give her to me. I’ll put her in your bed,” Tiny said.

  I handed Sydney over to him and he turned to take her to my room. Finn nodded his good-bye as he turned and left the apartment.

  I reached out to Patience and attempted to pull her into my arms. All I wanted was to be close to her. We’d almost been pulled apart tonight and I wanted to feel her against my body, but she put her palms against my chest and stopped me.

  “What happened, Zeke?” she asked again in aggravation.

  The sun was beginning to peek through the living room curtains and bathe her face. There were tear stains on her cheeks and her hair was a ratted-up mess, but she was still the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

  “Your mom, she heard the commotion and came to the room.”

  Her eyes got large and she started to panic.

  “Is she okay? We have to go to her. What did the cops say? Why didn’t they arrest you?”

  I looked at her with sadness in my eyes. I knew what I was about to tell her was going to upset her, but I just hoped she could see as her mother did.

  “She took the blame, snowflake. She asked me to give her the gun, and then she told me to call the police and bring Sydney to you.”

  She exploded.

  “And you let her! You let a dying woman take the blame for killing her husband!”

  She pulled away from me and started digging through my pockets for my keys.

  “It’s what she wanted, baby. I told her I shot him to protect you and she said since your dad was dead and she’d be dying soon, she wanted me to take care of you and your sister.”

  She wasn’t hearing me. She was too busy trying to get my keys. When she finally got them, she ran toward the door. I caught her around the waist and she struggled against my hold.

  “Don’t do this, Patience. It’s what she wanted.”

  She growled at me and beat me in the chest. I was afraid I was hurting her so I loosened my hold a bit and she took the opportunity to get away. I ran after her and tried again to stop her, but finally she got away and ran to my car. When she locked the driver’s door and started to crank the car, I ran around to the passenger’s side and jumped in.

  I spent the ride to the police station trying to talk her out of whatever it was she was planning on doing, but she wouldn’t even look at me, much less talk to me. It was like I wasn’t even in the car.

  “Baby, please stop the car. I don’t want to lose you. Just think about this. Your mom was right and it’s what she wanted. I promise I wouldn’t have done it had she not asked me. She wanted me to tell you she was happy you had me and that she loved you.”

  That got a response from her and more tears slipped down her face.

  By the time we made it to the police station, the sun was up completely. There were reporters everywhere outside the station, waiting for the news on the governor. Thankfully, none of them noticed Patience. With her head held high, she went into the police station in a heated rush. I was right behind her, begging the entire way to please think things through. Still, she ignored me.

  When we got to the counter, a young officer looked down at her with concerned eyes.

  “Is there something we can do for you, ma’am?”

  I didn’t miss the fact that he looked over at me with suspicious eyes. I was sure it looked like
she was running from me because I was a danger to her, when all I was trying to do was save her.

  “Yes, my mother was brought in for murdering my father, the governor, last night. I’d like to confess and have her released immediately. She’s sick and she doesn’t belong behind bars.”

  She was beginning to raise her voice and cops were turning and looking over at us. An older detective came over and ushered us into a small questioning room.

  “Where’s my mother? I want to see her right now,” Patience demanded.

  The detective looked at her with sad eyes and I knew right away he was about to give her awful news.

  “Ma’am, your mother never made it to the station. When we saw the state she was in, we called in an ambulance to have her taken to the local hospital instead. But she never made it to the hospital. I’m sad to tell you she died in the ambulance.”

  I reached out and pulled Patience to me as soon as he said those words, but she pulled away from me and slapped me hard across the face. She looked at me like I was an intruder, like I wasn’t the man she was in love with, and my heart broke. I understood she was upset and I needed to let her grieve the death of her parents, but still, it hurt like hell.

  She turned back to the detective.

  “I killed my father! Do you hear me? I killed him. That bastard sexually molested me all my life and I wasn’t about to let him do it to my little sister. Arrest me, damn it! Arrest me!” She was crying hysterically.

  The detective calmly sat her down in the chair and handed her a tissue.

  “Miss Phillips, this is off the record. I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that. It’s in the books that your mother killed your father and the case has been closed. If what you say is true, then the bastard deserved to die. Let’s not ruin your life because you were protecting yourself and your sister. I can keep a secret if you can.”

  With luck that I didn’t know we had, Patience and I walked out of the police station and weren’t sentenced to life in prison, thanks to the detective who decided to turn his head.

  He was right. There was no need for Patience to ruin her life over that asshole, especially when the blame had already been set and her mother had already passed.

  When we got back to my apartment, I followed behind Patience and shut the front door. For the first time since I’d told her about her mother’s confession, she turned and acknowledged me.

  Her pale skin blanched and I thought for a minute she was going to be sick. I stepped toward her, and she held her hand out to stop me.

  “I’m going to go be with my sister. Stay away from me, Zeke. I can’t do this anymore.”

  The room around me disappeared and for a brief second, it was only us. All the air in my lungs rushed out and I suddenly felt like I was breathing though a tiny coffee straw. Too much. Too many things were going on around us and I just wanted it all to stop. I wanted to be alone with my snowflake and shut out the rest of the world.

  She wrung her hands and shook her head. No tears came to her eyes. She showed no expression whatsoever.

  “We’re over,” she said clearly.

  She said it as if she wasn’t gutting me, like she had no care for me at all. She was a stranger, not the girl I’d come to love so much. The broken girl was smashed, and I watched as the pieces of her flittered away and out of my reach.

  She didn’t even look me in the eyes, and just like that, Patience had killed twice in less than twenty-four hours. I was sure my heart had stopped and I was positive I was dying as she walked away from me, went into my bedroom, and shut the door behind her.

  Three days later, my mother was buried at a private burial. Sydney stood beside me and held my hand as we watched them lower her pretty pink coffin into the ground. I felt numb inside. I couldn’t cry even though the tears were choking me. Her death was expected, but I’d hoped she would die warm in bed at home.

  As for my father, I ordered that he be cremated and his ashes spread over the Atlantic. He didn’t deserve that much, but since the news stations were making a big deal out of everything, I figured it would draw more attention if I didn’t do at least that. Had it not been for the reporters, I would’ve left his ass on ice in the morgue.

  They both had life insurance on them, but I couldn’t touch it yet and something told me I was going to have a hell of a time with it. Not that the money mattered, but it would help with Syd and she was all I cared about anymore.

  My Aunt Sarah in Florida got custody over Sydney and even though I called her and begged her to let Sydney stay with me, she refused and I had to pack my sister up and send her to Florida. It was the hardest thing for me to do. I’d spent years protecting her and there I was, sending her off to live with a virtual stranger.

  It was just as well. Rumors about what happened in the governor’s mansion were beginning to circulate. Fingers were being pointed and guards were being questioned by reporters. So I promised Sydney once all was settled with our parents’ possessions and properties, I’d move to Florida, too, and I would. I wanted to get the hell out of this town and leave everything behind, everything including Zeke.

  I couldn’t get past that fact that he’d allowed my mother to take the blame for my father’s murder. I couldn’t let it go that he was the reason she died in the back of an ambulance and that Sydney and I didn’t get to say a proper good-bye. I loved him, but I hated him for doing that to me.

  He called continuously and texted constantly until finally I had my number changed. I didn’t want to hear his voice. I didn’t want to talk to him. I just wanted everything to go away. I didn’t want to feel anything for anyone anymore, anyone except Sydney.

  I was now able to drive the gray Toyota, so I drove over to Megan’s to tell her good-bye before I left for Florida.

  “I’ve missed you so much,” she said as she hugged me tightly.

  I told her the truth about everything. I wasn’t worried about her telling people. She agreed that my father deserved what he got, but what she didn’t agree with was my decision to leave Zeke.

  “He’s a mess, Pay. At least he was the last time I saw him. Me and Chet called it quits,” she said sadly.

  I pulled her into a hug.

  “Oh my God, Megan, I’m so sorry. I’ve been an awful friend, but I’ve just had so much going on.”

  I felt horrible for not being there for her, but with everything that happened, I barely had time to think about myself, much less anyone else.

  “Girl, please.” She swatted at me and rolled her eyes. “With everything you’ve had going on; the last thing you needed to worry about was my stupid love affairs.”

  We cried when it was time for me to leave and we promised to stay in touch through phone calls and texts. She even promised to come down to Florida for a week or two during the summer.

  An hour later, I was on the road and on my way to my new life. The interstate stretched in front of me and for the first time in days I was able to lose myself in my thoughts. I’d cry for an hour, and then I’d get angry. I experienced a wide range of emotions in the six hours it took me to get from South Carolina to Florida.

  By the time I passed the sign for Orlando, I was emotionally and physically exhausted. I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t even notice the change in scenery. Not that there were many changes; Florida wasn’t much different from South Carolina. It was hotter and the houses were flatter, but not much different.

  My sister ran into my arms when I got out of my car. I’d never been happier to see her sweet face. My life was wreck and she was the only person I really had left. Somehow she looked older to me, as if the drama from the prior days had changed her all around. I didn’t like the transformation in her. I wanted her to stay young and happy for as long as possible, but now there were lines forming in the baby-soft skin under her eyes that told an in-depth story of a life no girl should ever know.

  “It’s about time you got here, girl!” Aunt Sarah said.

  She was tan and barefoot. Her d
ark hair was braided over her shoulder and cut across the strap of her yellow tank top. Dream catcher earrings sparkled in the sunlight and there was a sun and moon tattoo on her right shoulder. Needless to say, she was nothing like my mother, yet her eyes were an exact match. Her eyes hurt my heart. It was almost like my mother was looking back at me.

  Aunt Sarah welcomed me with open arms and a smile that looked rehearsed. I wasn’t the innocent nine-year-old I was the last time she saw me, and she could probably see the tension in my face. I’d come so far, brought myself from the brink of hell, and I had been transformed. I wasn’t the soft, scared little girl that I’d always been. My father had scarred me, and those scars were forming a hard outer shell I was afraid no one would ever puncture again.

  We ate spaghetti for dinner and Aunt Sarah cooked it just like my mom used to. I slurped noodles and secretly cried inside with the memories of my mother when she was vibrant and able to stand in the kitchen and laugh with Syd and me.

  “So do you think you’ll like Florida?” Aunt Sarah asked around a mouthful of sauce.

  She was so laid-back and marched to her own drum. I found her joyful, hippy attitude refreshing.

  “Yeah, I think I will,” I said as I poked at a meatball. “I promise to get a job as soon as I get settled.”

  “What about college?” Her brows pulled in.

  I looked down and the only response I gave was a tiny shake of my head. There was no need to go into the college discussion since it was the last thing on my mind. College wasn’t important; taking care of Sydney and myself was.

  “Well, don’t you worry yourself about a job right now. Get settled in and once you feel up to it, I know a few places that are hiring.” Aunt Sarah smiled over at me and reached across the table to give my hand a squeeze.

  The first night in Florida the nightmares started. I woke up in a cold sweat with the fear of my father standing above me. I ripped the covers from my moist skin and tried to go back to sleep. Instead, I rolled onto my side and watched the sun rise.