by Sarah Curtis
Cassie, unsuccessfully, tried to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat. She gave a jerky nod acknowledging Helen's words but worried if she opened her mouth to speak, a sob would erupt forth.
Helen seemed to understand her dilemma. She patted her arm then gave it a light squeeze. "I'm glad you and Gage reconnected. Not just because of Logan, but because I have never seen my son so happy, and I thank you for that."
Helen left the kitchen just as she had entered it, quickly and quietly. Cassie turned back to the iced tea, stirring it while trying to keep her tears at bay. She was mostly successful.
The next day she was finally able to go investigate the addresses. If she had known what would happen to her that day, she would have wished for something else to have foiled her plans.
Chapter Twenty-three
The first address on Cassie's list was in a seedy area of downtown Las Vegas. It was also the farthest away, and she figured she would hit different addresses as she wound her way back into town. The area went downhill fast, the closer she got to her destination. Trash littered the streets, and advertisements for X-rated shows featuring nude women were plastered all over every available space.
Her GPS led her to a quiet street in a tired looking neighborhood. She parked across from the address and was disappointed to see it was a fourplex. She sat in her car, looking around the property, noting the absence of any kind of yard. The likelihood of the dogs being here were slim to none. She hit a button on her GPS pulling up the next address. Maybe she'll have better luck there.
* * * * *
Jeremy sat in his car and watched the red SUV. He knew who it belonged to. That nosy bitch from the animal rescue. The bitch that took his dogs and wouldn't give them back. The bitch that kept snooping around, making trouble for him and his boys.
He had just gotten home and had backed into his parking space when he noticed the SUV parked across the street. He wasn't sure how she learned were he lived, especially since he had only moved in the month before, but he didn't like it.
She really was a pest and putting a crimp in their whole operation. They even had to change where they held their fights after they caught her snooping around the warehouse. Yeah, they had known she would set the cops on their asses. Good thing they had security cameras set up that had recorded her visit. What a clusterfuck it would have been if they hadn't gotten everything cleared out before the cops arrived. She had caused them enough hassle just by having to move all their shit and informing everyone of their new location. She was a menace that they needed to stop. And he was just the person to do it.
She pulled away from the curb, and he decided to follow her. See what the bitch was up to now and put a stop to it once and for all.
* * * * *
The next address on the list was in a slightly better, residential neighborhood. The houses were run down and unkempt and looked as though the residents didn't care because the yards were just as unkempt. Overgrown lawns and old discarded furniture seemed to be the theme up and down the block.
She watched the house carefully, noticing movement in the front window. There was no way she could get out of the car to check for dogs in the back yard. She cracked her window, hoping to hear dogs barking, but all was quiet in the neighborhood.
Cassie looked at the clock on her dashboard. She had two more hours until she needed to pick up Logan. She had time to check out one more address.
The next neighborhood was a definite step up from the last. The houses were tract homes, so they were all similar, single and two-story houses painted in various shades of tan and brown. She parked across from the house she sought. It was in good repair, recently painted, and the landscaping was desert friendly, having little lawn with a beautiful rock and cactus garden.
A UPS truck pulled up but didn't block her view of the front door. The driver held a package and a clipboard. Perfect, a package that needed a signature. She was about to discover if anyone was home. Cassie watched the driver ring the doorbell and immediately heard barking in the distance. She rolled her window down to try and discern if the barking came from the back of the house. It was hard to tell.
The UPS driver rang the doorbell a few times before attaching a little slip of paper to the front door, jogging back to his truck, and driving away. No one was home.
Cassie got out of her car and looked around. The neighborhood was mostly quiet. About halfway down the block a group of kids played basketball in the street with one of those tall, rolling basketball hoops, and off in the distance, Cassie could hear a lawn mower running.
She cautiously approached the house. The front windows had sheer curtains covering them, and she detected no movement from inside. She crept around the side of the house and immediately dogs started barking. Bingo. But she had to make sure they were pits and that they looked as if they had been fighting recently.
The side gate was wooden and about her height. She reached over, felt a latch and flipped it. The gate swung open noiselessly. No dogs came charging, so she assumed they were penned somewhere in the back. She slowly made her way along the side of the house and peeked around the back corner. A large dog run took up half the backyard and inside were about ten pit bulls.
From this distance, it was hard to be sure, but most looked injured in some way. The dogs were all barking so that was probably why she didn't hear the person who came up behind her, seizing her in a tight bear hug.
"You just don't know when to leave things the fuck alone, do you?"
Cassie's body got tense. After two encounters, she knew Jeremy Beckett's voice. Shit. Shit. Shit.
He stood to full height, lifting her feet from the ground, and walked to the back door. Her body became unfrozen and, she struggled, squirming in his grasp, her feet kicking at his shins. "What are you doing? Where are you taking me?"
"Shut the fuck up, bitch," he said, giving her a tight squeeze, momentarily cutting off her air.
Cassie started to panic. She didn't want him to take her into the house. She tried to entangle his legs with her feet, hoping to make him lose his balance and thereby drop her, but luck wasn't on her side, and they reached the back door without incident. He kept her immobile with one arm while he opened the door with his other hand.
"Please let me go. I promise to stay away from now on. You won't see me ever again." Cassie was almost hysterical now. Why was he taking her into the house, and what did he plan on doing with her?
"Too late, bitch. I warned you more than once, but you just don't seem to listen. Now I'm gonna make you listen."
He walked her into the kitchen, grabbed a fistful of hair at the back of her head, and slammed her head down, forehead first, onto the solid, wood kitchen table. She almost passed out. She was dazed for a moment. He lifted her up roughly by the hair and slapped her hard across the left side of her face. She would have fallen from the force of the blow, but he still had a secure hold on her hair.
"Please," she mumbled through numb lips. She tasted blood in her mouth and knew her teeth cut the inside of her cheek.
"Are you gonna stay out of my fucking business?"
He pulled on her hair, yanking at her scalp so her head would tip back. She stared into his face. Anger, all she could see was anger. "Yes," she whimpered.
"I don't believe you." He gave her hair another yank, twisting her neck at an odd angle. She whimpered again, and he gave her another slap, starting a ringing in her ear.
He threw her to the floor and kick at her chest and stomach. He wore some type of work boot that felt heavy and hard. She tried to bring her knees up, tried to form a ball, but the blows came too fast, leaving her barely able to take a breath.
Her arm got in the way of a blow, and he kicked it. Her
forearm went numb instantly. In fact, her whole body was numb at this point, thankfully.
He squatted beside her and pinched her chin, angling her face to look at him. "I think you've learned your lesson. What do you think, bitch?"
Cassie was beyond speech. Her brain was shutting down, trying to block out the horror of the last ten minutes.
"Answer me when I talk to you, bitch."
Cassie opened her mouth and managed to breathe out, "Yes."
"If you go to the cops with this, what I did to you, I'll do to the rest of your family. Don't forget, I know where you live. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"
"Yes, no cops," Cassie mumbled.
"Good." He stood and kicked her in the head. And that's the last thing she remembered.
Cassie slowly came awake and several things hit her all at once. The bright glare of the sun shining into her slitted lids. The pain coursing through her body. The difficulty she was having, trying to breathe. And the fact that she seemed to be lying on the backseat of her SUV.
She tried to sit up, gasping at the intense pain that hit her chest, halting that endeavor. She lay perfectly still, taking shallow breaths, trying to remember what happened. Then it all hit her in a flash. Jeremy and the beating churned through her head in one, big, ugly blur.
Cassie craned her neck, trying to see out the window. She didn't know where she was other than in her car. It was early still, the sun shone brightly overhead, but she didn't know the time. She couldn't pick up Logan in this condition, but she needed to call someone that could.
She awkwardly maneuvered her left arm behind her back and under her butt to reach her cell phone. Her right arm was achy and swollen, and she wondered fleetingly if it was broken. She managed to grasp the phone with her fingertips and pulled it from her back pocket. Cassie decided to call Gage. She knew it wasn't the smartest choice (he was literally going to have a seizure when she told him about this), but it was the wisest choice (if he found out about this from someone else, he would literally have a seizure then kill her).
The phone rang twice before he picked up. "Everything okay, Sunshine?"
Cassie tried to speak but discovered only a croak would form. Her face felt swollen, her jaw was sore, and the position she was in made it impossible to take a full breath. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Gage?"
"Cassie, what's wrong? Where are you?"
"Um..."
"Um's not an answer, Cassie. Tell me what the fuck is wrong and tell me now."
She could hear the worry behind the anger in his tone. But she had to get her main concern out of the way first. "Gage, you need pick up Logan. I can't do it."
"I'll call Sam and have her get him when she gets Kyle. Now tell me why you can't make it."
"Um...." She cleared her throat again. Her voice sounded stronger, but she still had trouble speaking. The whole left side of her face throbbed. "Do you promise not to get mad?"
"I can't promise that, Cassie, but I can promise if you don't tell me soon, it's gonna happen anyway."
Cassie sighed, "Okay, I'll just tell you straight out, but remember after you get done freaking out, I need help." She thought she heard Gage growl through the line. She plowed on. "I did something stupid, snooped around where I shouldn't have been, and had another encounter with Jeremy Beckett. This time the outcome didn't turn out so well for me."
"Where are you, Cassie?" Gage asked, in a low, menacing voice.
"I don't know. I just woke up. I'm in the back seat of my car, and I don't know where I am."
He must have heard the fear and panic in her voice because his next words were said in a soft and soothing tone. "Okay baby, flip over to your GPS, pull up your location, then tell me what it says. But hurry, okay. Don't keep me waiting long."
In her panic, she had forgotten she could pull up her location on her GPS. Her heart rate calmed a little knowing Gage would come for her soon. "Okay, hang on."
She tapped her GPS button, discovered her location, then flipped back over to Gage and told him where she was.
"Okay baby, I want you to stay on the line with me, don't hang up. I'm on my way now. I'll be there soon, understand?"
"Yeah, just hurry."
"I will, baby. I'll hurry."
* * * * *
Gage quickly made his way to the kitchen. He had a landline there. No way in hell, he was hanging up with Cassie to make the phone calls he needed to make. His first call was to Sam. He explained, as briefly as possible, that Cassie and he had an emergency, and could she watch Logan until they were free. She asked a few questions, and he gave her vague answers, telling her he would fill her in later.
His next call was to 911. He told them he needed an ambulance and police at the location Cassie had given him. Then he got the fuck out of the house, jumped in his SUV, and drove like hell to Cassie.
He had his phone on speaker and every few minutes, he would make Cassie speak to him. Nothing taxing, he just wanted to hear her voice, reassure himself that she was okay. He worried at what he would find. She didn't sound good. Her breathing was labored and every once in a while, he would hear her gasp.
His grip on the steering wheel was tight, his knuckles turning white as he tried to keep his anger under control. Cassie needed him, and she needed him to stay calm and focused. He could go after that shithead Jeremy Beckett later, after he made sure Cassie would be all right. And go after him he would. It would be his pleasure to beat the ever living shit out of him.
His feelings for Cassie were all over the place at the moment. On the one hand, he was pissed as fuck that she went and stuck her nose somewhere that it didn't belong, getting herself into trouble, especially when he told her not to. But, on the other hand, he was so panicked at the condition he would find her in, that overshadowed the anger, leaving him with nothing but a feeling of urgency to reach her.
He heard sirens over the line and knew either the paramedics or the police had arrived. "Baby, help has arrived. Make sure the car is unlocked, so they can get to you."
"Where are you?"
"I'm almost there. Just a few minutes away."
"Okay." Her voice sounded weak like she was fighting sleep.
"Stay with me, Sunshine," he said, loudly into the phone, trying to keep her focused.
Gage pulled up to a scene of chaos. Three police cars and a paramedic van, lights flashing, surrounded Cassie's SUV. A stretcher was out, waiting to be filled while a paramedic leaned into the open back door of Cassie's SUV, hopefully assessing her condition.
He screeched to a halt, put the car in park, and jumped out not even bothering to turn off the car. Nobody stopped him as he opened the passenger side, back door and climbed into the back seat with Cassie. Either he moved too fast for them to take issue or the determined look on his face made him someone they didn't want to fuck with. He was guessing it was the latter.
His body tensed at his first sight of her. The whole left side of her face was swollen, red, and puffy, and she had a large, purple goose egg in the center of her forehead. Dried blood was caked under her nose and smeared along her cheek. Her right arm was cradled protectively against her chest, and he could tell it was most likely broken by how much it had swelled.
Her eyes were closed, and the paramedic held his fingers on the pulse at her neck. His breathing stilled, and his heart rate picked up speed until he saw her take a shallow breath. Gage hesitantly placed his hand on her leg, just above her knee, hoping like hell it was a spot that wasn't injured. "Sunshine?" His voice came out rough, raspy. He cleared his throat to repeat her name, but she opened her eyes before he could speak.
He smiled at her, and she tried to s
mile back but it turned more into a grimace, and her eyes narrowed in pain. The paramedic, not wanting to miss his opportunity, chose that moment to shine a light in her eyes, causing her to flinch, which in turn made her moan, pissing Gage right the fuck off.
He glared at the paramedic. "What the fuck! You need to do that now?"
"Sir please," the paramedic said, looking over at Gage, then he turned his focus back to Cassie. "Ma'am, we need to move you to the stretcher." He turned back to Gage once more. "Sir, you need to move. My partner needs to get in on that side to take her feet."
"I'll take her feet," Gage said, in a tone the brooked no argument.
The paramedic didn't heed the warning. "I'm afraid that won't be possible. My partner–"
"I said, I'll take her feet. Don't fuck with me right now."
The paramedic stared at him a moment, then came to the right decision. He gave Gage a nod. "Okay, grab her feet. We lift on three. One... two... three."
The paramedic held Cassie under the shoulders, her head cradled on his upper arm. She whimpered then cried out as they carried her from the SUV. They gently laid her on the stretcher, and the paramedics immediately got to work on her, assessing her injuries and starting an IV.
During this, a police officer walked up to Gage. "Sir, can you tell me what happened."
Gage gave the officer a run down of everything that had taken place, ending with Jeremy Beckett and the beating. He also gave him Officer Cruz's card, letting the officer know that everything he told him had been documented.
Gage watched the paramedics load Cassie into the back of the ambulance then went over to Cassie's SUV to close the back doors and lock it up. He noticed her cell phone laying on the backseat. He snatched it up, put it in his back pocket, got in his Escalade, then followed the ambulance to the hospital.