Under Suspicion

by Hannah Jayne

  I clamped a hand around each of the bars and hauled myself up to the window a la Mary Lou Retton. Okay, Mary Lou after a few too many donuts and a couple of extra years. I stuck my head out the window first and wriggled, legs kicking, sneakers thunking against the bathroom wall, and my shoulders slipped out easily. I was out, up to my hips, when one of the bars firmly stopped my plumpish rump. The cold metal bore down hard on my lower back. I couldn’t risk the leeway I’d already made by going back in for more soap, so I used the pads of my fingers to dig into the crumbling stucco outside. When I looked down, I realized that my little cell must have been nearly underground. A cement parking lot was only about a foot below me, and the realization sent a hopeful thrill through me. I gave myself a mighty wriggle and moved about a quarter inch forward, successfully scraping my chin on the wall, pushing my half-soaped panties halfway down my butt, and eking the breath out of my lungs. I rested my forehead against the concrete in an effort to regroup and cry miserably, when I was met with a pair of slowly walking, sneakered feet. They came to a rest a half inch from my nose.

  “God, I love this country!”

  I worked to turn my pancaked self over and stared up at Will. His face was upside down, but his delighted smile unmistakable.

  “What are you doing back here? Weren’t you ever going to come find me?” I managed to shout in breathy gasps.

  “I did find you. Here. What are you doing here?” Will asked without breaking his stupid grin.

  “Help me!” I howled. “Get me out of here!”

  Will crouched down and hugged me to him; then gave my body a quick succession of gentle tugs and wriggles until I felt my butt make it under the bar. Then I felt my legs slide free.

  “Oh, oh, thank God!” I said, running around the parking lot, loving the fresh air, feeling the length of my arms and legs. “It was getting so claustrophobic in there!”

  “Is that why you decided to take off your clothes?”

  I suddenly realized that I was running around a public parking lot that was half bathed in yellow streetlight in my underclothes.

  My sudsy, wet underclothes.

  I doubled over; my arms clamped in front of my boobs. “Don’t look!”

  “I just saved your life.”

  “That doesn’t give you the right to see me naked.”

  Will’s grin was sly. “Again?”

  I punched Will, hard, in the shoulder. “Where the hell were you? I was being kidnapped! I was going to be singed by the sun and killed!”

  Will reached out for me and I dodged him. “I’m sorry, love. I was right behind you, but the door was bloody locked. I had to find a way in.”

  My teeth started to chatter, the rattle going through my skull. My fingertips started to blue as an inch of breeze covered my body in gooseflesh. Will began to shrug out of his coat and I took a step toward him, shivering, my soapy arms outstretched. Will surprised me and came at me like a linebacker—deadweight that clotheslined me. We both went down hard—me on my back, the melon-like thud of my skull on the concrete as tiny pebbles needled through the bare skin on my shoulder blades. I tried to cry out, but my breath was gone. The pain behind my eyes went from a dull black to a brilliantly bright starburst.

  My heart thundered against Will’s forehead and I was finally able to gasp, to suck in, hungrily, huge lungfuls of the icy-cold air as he slid off me. I struggled to sit up and gaped as Will’s head flopped, thumping listlessly on the ground.

  Roland was hunched over, his ham-hock hands gripping Will’s red-and-yellow Arsenal socks. A bubble of blood oozed from Will’s hairline, leaving a two-inch-thick red smear from my collarbone to hip as Roland dragged Will’s limp body down my stiffened one.

  “What did you do to him?”

  Roland eyed me, his lips turned up into a gruesome snarl reminiscent of a smile. He straightened, brushing his palms on his ugly dress pants and kicked at a tire iron that clanged on the ground next to Will’s temple. Ice water sped through my veins and promptly froze solid when I caught sight of the smear of blood on the edge of the iron—Will’s blood.

  I tried desperately to moisten my lips. “What ... Is he ...” I couldn’t form the word—wouldn’t form the word.

  “Dead?” Roland spat it out with a kind of horrendous glee. “No.” He dropped Will’s ankles and I kicked away, my damp sneakers losing traction in the parking lot.

  “Don’t worry about him,” Roland said, giving Will’s slack body a swift kick. “He went down hard, but it’s really not as bad as it looks.” He looked wistfully at Will’s still back. “Probably. Now come on, dear.” Roland crouched down, offering me a pale hand and an even paler smile.

  I pitched back, staring horrified at him. “Get away from me.”

  Roland cocked his head in a way that was likely meant to be comforting but chilled me—damp underwear not withstanding—to the soles of my feet. “You know you can’t be here, Sophie.”

  “Shut up.” I tried to keep my voice steady as my eyes darted from left to right, taking in the empty parking lot, weighing my chances of escape.

  “No,” Roland said, his eyes suddenly slate gray and sharp as naked swords, “no.” He straightened, holding a single pointed finger a half inch from my nose before he dove for me, his stubby fingertips digging into the flesh at the back of my arm. For a squat fire hydrant of a man, he was surprisingly strong and lithe. He had me up on my feet; my sneakers folding over each other as he dragged me toward the lone car in the parking lot.

  Words—excuses, explanations, scenarios—rushed through my head as I tried to come up with some way to stall, to keep Roland from getting me into his car. I had watched enough 48 Hours to know that once I was in his car, I was a dead woman.

  “We can’t just leave Will there,” I said finally, working to keep the hysteria out of my voice. “Look.” I jerked my head and felt my pulse start to throb when I could see Will’s shallow breath making his chest rise.

  Oh, thank God.

  Roland’s gaze followed mine, and he must have been as stunned to see Will’s body swell with breath as I was, because his fingers loosened their grip for a split second. I took off at a dead sprint; my lungs swelling with the scorching fire of desperation and fear. The streets were bare and empty; I dove toward Roland’s car and yanked open the driver’s-side door, pitching myself into the front seat. My feet slammed hard against the gas and the brake, my wet hands yanking on the clutch, the parking brake, anything that would make the damn thing go.

  In the rearview mirror I could see Roland walking toward me, a confident saunter. I smacked at the power locks and sucked in a shaky breath, placing both hands on the steering wheel. I stared out the front windshield, as if somehow looking straight ahead would make everything on either side of the car disappear.

  It didn’t.

  There was a quick, friendly rapping on the driver’s-side window, which unleashed a torrent of pinpricks down my spine and cemented every muscle in my body. I willed myself to move my head, just enough to see Roland out the side window, his grin wide and winning. He pinched the car keys in his fat Vienna sausage fingers and waved them triumphantly.

  My heart skidded to a stop. I felt the slow smolder of terror start as our eyes met in a deadlocked gaze, and our stares held each other until they met at the door lock.

  I swallowed hard, watched the pink triangle of Roland’s serpentine tongue dart out from between his pressed lips. We dove for the lock at the same time. He was clutching the keys, sinking them into the outside lock; I was pushing my palm so hard against the power lock that I was certain the narrow hunk of plastic would tear through my palm. I heard the sickening squeak of metal pushing against plastic as he turned the key and the lock fought to disengage. I heard every other lock in the car pop up with a jaunty, terrifying plink!

  When I looked up, Roland was gone, diving for the next open door. I clawed at the handle and opened it myself, kicking open the door, hearing it thunk as it hit hard. The car door swung wide, a
nd Roland was flat out on his back. He rolled like a walrus on sand, his hands pressed against his nose. Blood streamed between his palms as he lay on the cement.

  “You fucking bitch!” he managed to mutter. “You fucking broke my nose!”

  But I was past response.

  I launched myself from the driver’s seat and had nearly cleared Roland, was feeling light and airy and Wonder Woman chic, until I felt a hand clamp around my ankle. A firm yank brought me clattering to the pavement; my knees and palms were pressing into the concrete, my delicate skin being shredded.

  I felt my teeth clamp down hard on the soft flesh of my lower lip. I felt the skin open easily and then my mouth was filled with blood so hot and viscous it was like liquid steel.

  “Ooh!”

  My chin went down next and then my cheek skidded across the concrete. My forehead scraped the ground and I dug the pads of my fingertips against the cement, trying to kick out of Roland’s grasp. He was strong and every inch of my body cried out with stinging, searing heat. Adrenaline was pooling, weighing down each limb. He had a knee in my back and then flipped me over quickly, straddling me. His thighs were clamped hard around my hips, and I cursed Suzanne Somers and her goddamn ThighMaster as I tried to swivel uselessly underneath him.

  “Forget it,” he said, his hate foaming at the sides of his mouth, his saliva raining over me.

  I tried again to wriggle, to move, but Roland was pinning me. My arms were clamped to my sides; my legs kicked and bucked futilely in the mocking yellow slash of streetlight.

  Scream, I commanded myself. Scream! Goddamn it!

  I opened my mouth and choked on my own breath as Roland’s hands clamped down on my throat. His fat sausage thumbs dug against my windpipe.

  “I’ve worked too damn hard with that tool Harley to let a fucking beast like you ruin everything.”

  In my mind I was answering him. In my mind my eyes were still open and I was still aware of the ice-cold night, the little bit of streetlight, and the furious, berserk look in his narrowed eyes. In my mind I wasn’t feeling lighter and lighter. My eyelids weren’t feeling heavy; the colors of the night weren’t starting to fade into muted, bleeding blotches.

  I tried to gasp. I tried to suck in the smallest micro inch of air through my parted lips, but the effort seared everything inside me. Suddenly there was the loudest, most sickening thunk, and I was drifting through the darkness. I was feeling so light, so airy.

  “Sophie! Sophie!”

  Will’s voice was needling at me through a purple haze and I tried to turn toward him. He was dead, too.

  “We’re dead,” I told him, my lips feeling heavy and purple; hot pools of bloody saliva dripping from my mouth. “We’re both dead now, Will.”

  “No, we’re not. Sophie, open your eyes!”

  “I’ll kill you both!”

  I opened my eyes just in time to see Roland go for Will’s wrist. Will easily turned him around and wrapped his muscular forearm around Roland’s neck. I was so mesmerized I didn’t hear the sound of plastic and metal sliding across the concrete until the gun hit my thigh and stopped sliding.

  “Pick it up, Sophie!”

  I stared blankly at the gun, then up at Will; his face was red as Roland flailed wildly, trying to bash Will in the head, trying to go for the bloody gouge that was already there.

  Suddenly Will lost his footing and the pair was tumbling, limbs flailing, the sickening sound of flesh hitting flesh resounding as they fought.

  “Soph—”

  The sound of Roland’s knuckles making contact with Will’s jaw cut off my name. I wrapped my hand around the gun when Roland rolled over and had Will pinned. I closed my eyes and squeezed the trigger, the popping of the bullet roiling through my body, cracking in my brain. I opened my eyes and gawked.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Roland bucked liked a bronco and flopped off Will, making the loudest, most terrifying sound I’ve ever heard. I saw the soles of Will’s shoes first—flailing, kicking at the cement, then dropping silent.

  Oh my God.

  I heard nothing but the blood rushing in a fierce flow through my ears. My heart clanged and the tears were rolling over my cheeks before I knew I was crying. I didn’t care about Roland, who was scratching the driver’s-side door, trying to get into his car. I threw the gun aside and crab walked over to Will, willing myself to look at him, to see him. I would stop the bleeding; I would wait until the ambulance came; I would beg him to hold on for just a few more precious moments. I saw the police lights flashing in the distance. Could hear the mournful wail as the squad cars closed in.

  “Will?” I whispered, grasping his hand. “Please hold on. Please.”

  I kill everyone I love, I thought. I made love to him, and then I shot him.

  I swallowed hard and Will blinked up at me, coughing, using the back of his hand to wipe at the blood and spit on his lips.

  “Will!”

  “Oh, love.” Will struggled to sit up. His face was scratched and bruised, and bits of rust-colored blood dried in his hair, around his nose, was liquid at the corner of his mouth. His rubbing at it only made it worse.

  “I thought I shot you.”

  “Hands where I can see them!” someone barked.

  The cop cars were on us and I shielded my eyes against the overwhelming wash of headlights and raised my hands. There were two squad cars with six cops in fighting stance, knees bent, guns drawn. Behind them came a parade of flashing-light cars—an ambulance, a fire truck, more cop cars. My heart exploded in overwhelming joy, and relief washed over me in cool waves.

  “Put them up!”

  My heart did a double thump and I thought about explaining, but I saw those muzzles at the ready. I raised my arms higher, until I realized all of the officers had their guns trained on Roland. He reluctantly, slowly pulled his hands from where they had been—cradling his butt—and I saw that they were covered in blood.

  “She shot me!” he screamed, bits of spit flying out of his mouth as he aimed a blood-drenched index finger at me. “That crazy bitch shot me in the ass! Arrest her!”

  Two officers I’d known from Bettina’s crime scene rushed to me and Will, beckoning over the paramedic while another cop cuffed Roland and read him his rights.

  I licked at my paper-dry lips. My tongue stung the broken skin as I looked at the officer rushing toward us. “How did you—how did you know it was me?” I asked him.

  Officer Romero draped a thick, itchy blanket over my bare shoulders as the paramedic helped me up.

  “There was a disturbance reported.” He looked almost sheepish. “I knew you were one of Alex’s people.” His sheepish look turned into a small grin. “And the one most likely to be in a disturbance. Also, someone named Athena Bushant called you in as a missing person, likely in danger.”

  “Who’s Athena Bushant?” Will wanted to know.

  I laughed—a weird, high-pitched, got-out-with-my-life laugh. “Athena Bushant, the great vampire-romance writer.”

  The paramedics tended to Will first, while I chanced a glance at Roland, who was being laid belly-first on a gurney. His gunshot ass faced upward, while a professional-looking paramedic cut his pants off as though he wasn’t still ranting.

  “Isn’t it illegal to shoot someone in the ass? Isn’t this America?”

  “Sir, you need to calm down. You’re making the blood loss worse.”

  I immediately made a mental note to send a donation to the San Francisco paramedics. They had rescued me on more than one occasion and I was grateful—but having to tend to Roland’s butt was a whole different level of public service.

  After one of the officers dropped Will and me at our apartment building, we trudged through the vestibule in companionable silence. When we came to our doors, he took my arm—still covered in six inches of industrial-grade blanket—and pulled me to him, resting his cheek on the top of my head.

  “Quite a day, wasn’t it, love?”

  I just nodded, m
y head heavy with exhaustion and stinging from the paramedic’s Mercurochrome. Will looked down at me and slid one bandaged hand underneath my chin, raising my lips toward his. He kissed me softly and I kissed back—briefly. When I pulled away, tears were stinging my eyes.

  “I should get inside,” I said without looking back.

  “Oh my God!” Nina screamed when I let myself in. “I was so worried about you!” She gave me a brief once-over before smashing me to her. Her eyes filled with tears. “We’re so, so sorry.”

  I stiffened and pulled back. “We?”

  Nina looked over her shoulder, heart-shaped lips pursed in a modest pink smile. “Harley and I.”

  I felt anger roil through me. “Nina, Harley’s the reason—”

  Harley held up a hand. “I’m so sorry, Sophie. I should have known. Roland had become really controlling and paranoid in the last few cities. He would disappear for hours and mutter about how he was going to ‘clean things up.’ He said he saw things—ridiculous things—demons, gremlins. I just thought he was drinking. I never imagined he would—would peg you for a vampire.”

  A little breath of hysterical laughter passed my lips.

  “Vampire?” I said, feeling the laughter rise in my throat. “That’s why Roland came after me?” I said, playing along.

  Harley nodded solemnly. “He got this idea that there were all sorts of demons and monsters roaming around. He said he had to kill them, or the book would be a flop. I didn’t think he was serious. I thought it was more of a stress thing.”

  “Vampire,” I said again, feeling my shoulders ache as the laughter shot through my whole body.

  “Wow,” Nina said, her eyes intent on mine. “Imagine our little Sophie, mistaken for a vampire.”

  Harley laughed, too, now; and Nina followed suit, her small fangs catching the light. Harley was oblivious and slung an arm around his girlfriend, pulling her to his side. “Can you imagine? He actually thought vampires existed!”

  “Can’t imagine at all,” Nina said, one eyebrow raised, mischievous lips curling over her fangs. She trailed her fingers down Harley’s arm and laced her fingers with his.