My Bad- Lani Lynn Vale

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  Pru Mackenzie: But you’re not here. :(

  I felt my stomach sink.

  Hoax Smith: That was an asshole thing to say, wasn’t it? I’m sorry.

  Pru Mackenzie: No. It was truthful. I know that you didn’t mean it maliciously. Are you all setup? Is there anything you need?

  Jokingly, I typed out my next reply.

  Hoax Smith: A fan. Jesus, it’s hot as balls here. I’m sitting here nearly naked, and it’s still hot. There’s no airflow at all. Then again, if there was, I’d be smelling Carl’s sweaty balls, so maybe a fan isn’t all that necessary. Then again, I don’t have anywhere to plug it in if I want to charge my phone…decisions, decisions.

  She immediately replied.

  Pru Mackenzie: I’ll see what I can think up. But I got a call from our union president today just after we dropped you off. They’ve settled with the hospital, and we all return to work tomorrow. So, I need to go to bed since it’s bordering on three in the morning here.

  I frowned.

  I wasn’t sure that I was happy that they’d settled. I figured it’d take longer seeing as Kelley was a douchebag to the nth degree.

  Hoax Smith: Stay safe. Pay attention to your surroundings. And call your dad or any of the boys there, and they’ll be there in a heartbeat. Don’t let Kelley get away with anything.

  Pru replied with an emoji type thing that looked like her.

  It was of her flying through the air, her fictitious curls flying behind her like a cape, as she karate kicked a watermelon.

  Pru Mackenzie: I’m a fierce bitch. He won’t hurt me.

  Smiling, I typed out a quick reply.

  Hoax Smith: and that’s why I love you. You’re fierce as fuck.

  Pru sent back a blue heart.

  Pru Mackenzie: you make me happy. I love you, too. Goodnight, make sure to keep those balls safe. I’m fond of them.

  I replied with a 10-4 and closed the app.

  “You’re so fucking screwed,” Carl said.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “But I’m screwed and happy. There’s a difference.”

  ***

  The first care package came in the mail a week later. How she knew where to send it, I didn’t know, but I had a feeling it had a lot to do with her father.

  In it was a lot of things. Beef jerky, a couple of small bottles of Dr. Pepper. Then there was the teeny tiny fan that plugged into the port of your phone that you usually used to charge it.

  I immediately plugged it in and sighed at the cool breeze.

  “That’s badass. Tell her to send us some,” Carl ordered.

  I gestured to my phone and said, “Take a picture so that I can send it to her.”

  “You do realize we’re in the middle of a meeting, yes?” Treat asked.

  I picked up a small packet of Twizzlers and tossed them at him.

  He caught it out of the air and ripped them open. “I suppose we can take five while you send your goddamn picture.”

  Grinning, I did.

  Then we got back to work.

  Chapter 15

  Waffles are just pancakes with abs.

  -Text from Pru to Hoax

  Pru

  Six weeks later

  It’d been six weeks, three days, and twenty-two hours since Hoax left.

  Every single time a doubt would creep into my mind over these past few weeks, something would beat them into submission.

  More often than not—you know, since all I fucking ate was Chinese food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner—it was a fortune cookie.

  Today’s fortune cookie that got my head on straight was actually the most accurate up to date.

  At the time, I hadn’t realized that it was accurate.

  You will be hungry again in an hour.

  Snickering, I snapped a picture of the fortune and sent it to Hoax over Messenger.

  He didn’t reply back immediately, which he would have had he had time, so I put my phone back on the table and considered my options.

  I had thirty minutes left of my break.

  I could either A, sit right where I was and read, or I could B, go back to work.

  Kelley walked in, and immediately I realized that A was no longer an option.

  I would not sit there while he was there.

  Over the few weeks that I’d been back, Kelley had not been a pleasant man to be around.

  Every time we were near each other, he never missed an opportunity to let me know just how angry he was at me.

  He saw me the instant he entered, and that cruel, mean smile instantly fell into place on that ugly face.

  “Look what the cat dragged in,” he drawled, his lip curling.

  My heart started to pound.

  The phone in my hand creaked slightly when I squeezed to try to control the reaction to him that would show on my face.

  I refrained from saying ‘look what the cat dragged in’ was usually used for the person that had just walked in, not the person that was in the room that you just entered. Honestly, it’d fit him more than it’d fit me, seeing as he was the one that’d previously walked in.

  I looked down at my phone and opened up my text app, and immediately sent an SOS to my mother. My mother replied almost instantly with ‘I’m in a meeting with the CEO.’

  I winced.

  On my own.

  I wondered if Kelley knew that my mother was meeting with his father.

  Probably not, or he would’ve tried to worm his way in. That’d been what he’d done the last two times that he’d found out about the meetings.

  That’d likely been why my mother had planned this one quietly. Why, I didn’t even know.

  Hopefully, they would accomplish something this time.

  Although a temporary plan was set into action that appeased all parties enough for the nurses to return to work, that temporary plan had expired at six weeks. Which was the point of the meeting with the CEO—to discuss the new protocols and see what needed to be fixed, and what didn’t.

  Kelley had, of course, said everything worked out perfectly fine.

  My mother, who’d discussed it with her entire ER staff at different times over the six weeks, disagreed.

  There were some places we could improve and some places that we needed to back off a little.

  Kelley had agreed that we needed to back off a little and had gone about fucking things up instead of making things better—which we all knew he was determined to do at this point.

  He resented the hell out of my mother and me and took it out on me because I was less untouchable than my mom was.

  “Shit,” I muttered under my breath.

  I opened my Messenger app and started to type, ignoring Kelley as he took the seat directly across from me and sat down.

  My feet itched to stand up and run out of there, but I couldn’t let him know that he was winning. I couldn’t let him know that he scared the crap out of me, and each time he was in my vicinity I wanted to vomit.

  Like right now.

  I could literally throw up all over him, spew it all over his thousand-dollar suit, and feel great about doing it.

  In desperation, I opened the message feed I talked to Hoax on and started spamming him with the fifty memes I’d saved for him to see over the last week. I was sending him number thirty-two—literally—when Kelley spoke again.

  “I haven’t seen your sister lately,” Kelley teased.

  I shrugged. “She graduated and got a new job.”

  I knew he’d ask where. I couldn’t wait to tell him.

  His face would turn into a mask of disgust, and then he’d think that job was inferior.

  Even though it wasn’t.

  Anything that wasn’t his job was inferior, truthfully. Even what I did was considered somehow less.

  Though I always wanted to point out that at least I went to school, graduated, and found my job on my own and wasn’t handed it by my daddy.

 
; I’d heard that he’d worked at a bank previously and that he’d been fired for sexual misconduct. Which I could see. Kelley was a creepy fucker.

  Slowly I stood up and walked to the trash, tossing my reusable Tupperware straight in.

  I wouldn’t be washing it today. The sink was directly behind him, and I would not put myself in that close of contact with him—practically giving him an opening to do something.

  Tupperware in the trash, I dropped my phone in the front pocket of my scrubs, ready to send another meme, and turned to grab the handle of the door—only Kelley stood in front of me, blocking my path.

  I felt my heart launch straight into my throat.

  ***

  Hoax

  “Jesus fucking Christ. Why is your phone on loud?” Treat grumbled.

  I yawned loudly, not bothering to hide it from him or the rest of my team.

  “I broke the button off yesterday,” I told him. “When I dropped it, it hit the corner of a rock and completely ripped it off. Then cracked the screen, remember?”

  That had sucked. I could no longer watch the screen without having a large spiderweb-like crack bisecting it.

  Pru had offered to send me another one, but it was my hope that we wouldn’t be here much longer. Two weeks tops, which was about how long it’d take if she sent it now.

  I was getting packages from her that she’d mailed ten to fourteen days ago. Not that I was complaining.

  The first package she’d sent—getting here within a week of my arrival—had come via one-day mail. I was honestly afraid to ask her how much it’d cost her.

  But, I’d asked her not to do that anymore, because I knew that sending packages wasn’t cheap, especially over here.

  “Motherfucker.” Treat slammed his hand down. “Answer her, tell her to give you another hour, and then y’all can text all the fuck you want. Take ten.”

  With that, he walked out of the building. He already had a smoke to his lips by the time he breached the tent flap.

  I wiped sweat from my face and looked at my phone, grinning when I saw all the memes.

  “Jesus,” Carl said as he leaned back in his chair. “You’re really into this chick.”

  I shrugged. “So what?”

  “Just never seen you smile like that before,” he muttered.

  The men around me grunted as they got up and left, following Treat to either take a smoke or use the bathroom while they got the chance.

  We’d been in this particular meeting for four hours, and this was the first time he’d given us a break.

  Honestly, I’d stopped paying as much attention after hour two.

  We were going over surveillance of our target, and so far we hadn’t found a damn thing on the men.

  Unlike the last team, we were unable to get any insider information from any planted sources since they were so on guard due to the last team’s fuck up. Meaning we were having to do this the long, hard way.

  The way that was taking about six weeks longer than it should have.

  The messages from Pru were coming in steady until suddenly they just stopped.

  Finally, I scrolled up to the top and started to read them, periodically showing one to Carl, who laughed right along with me.

  I was about ten memes in when I got the call.

  I frowned, never having seen or heard that particular sound before, and saw that it said ‘Pru Mackenzie is calling.’

  Having a feeling it was a complete accident, but not caring in the least since we had eight more minutes and I wanted to talk to her, I hit ‘accept call’ and waited to see what it would do.

  It connected, and my phone screen turned a muffled black. Pru was in mid-sentence.

  “Please step away,” Pru said, her panicked voice setting my heart to galloping within seconds of the phone call being accepted.

  “What’s wrong?” the muffled voice of a man asked. “Are you feeling unsafe? I thought all those protocols we were forced to implement were meant to keep you safe? Are you feeling unsafe despite all the security measures you asked for?”

  It took less than five seconds of hearing the man’s voice for me to place it. Kelley.

  And my spine stiffened.

  “Please,” Pru begged. “Back. Away. This is highly inappropriate, and I don’t want you this close to me. I’d like to leave.”

  “No,” Kelley rudely denied her.

  I reached for Treat’s satellite phone that was sitting across the table from me—the one that was only supposed to be used in emergencies—and started dialing.

  They had to be at work.

  There was no other way Kelley would’ve gotten her cornered.

  The phone felt like it took a year to connect, and in that time, I listened as Pru pleaded with Kelley to back off. Her voice only getting more and more scared as time passed.

  Someone picked up what felt like ten years later, and I recognized Conleigh’s voice almost immediately.

  “…ER, can I help you?” Conleigh answered breezily.

  “Conleigh. Hoax. Kelley has Pru cornered somewhere. Go help her,” I demanded.

  “Fuck,” Conleigh whispered. “I’m going.”

  Then the phone was placed down on the counter or something because then I could hear people talking—some doctor about a patient—and not a dial tone.

  Carl held out his hand for the satellite phone, and I handed it to him, concentrating hard on the black screen that was driving me fucking insane.

  “Kelley!” Pru said, truly panicked now. “Don’t touch me! Back off!”

  I felt bile rise into my esophagus and found myself standing without consciously thinking about it. What I thought I was going to do, I didn’t know. Hell, the anger I was feeling right then could’ve fueled me all the way home.

  “Oh, sorry about that, Kelley,” I heard Conleigh say. “What are you doing? Pru? Are you okay?”

  “Pru here was just crying because of her boyfriend. Weren’t you, Pru?” Kelley asked teasingly.

  My fist clenched, and had Kelley been standing in front of me right then, I would’ve force fed him my fist.

  Goddamn creep.

  I wanted to fucking filet him alive.

  “Oh, okay,” I heard Conleigh say like she didn’t believe a word that was being said.

  “Y’all have a good day now,” Kelley murmured.

  Then, I assumed he was gone because Pru burst into tears—which she would never do in front of that piece of shit—and Conleigh started talking to her soothingly.

  Then I heard dry heaving noises.

  “What did he do?” Conleigh asked, sounding much closer.

  I sat back down in my chair, feeling my heart rate start to return to normal—or as normal as it was ever going to get at this point—and wished the phone would show her face already.

  I heard Pru give Conleigh a muffled explanation and hearing it from her perspective was enough to set my anger on fire once again.

  “Pru, honey,” Conleigh murmured. “I think you must’ve called Hoax or something during that altercation because he knew something was wrong with you.”

  More retching noises, and then the phone was finally no longer black.

  I saw Pru’s face in the next instant, and had I been in the vicinity of Kelley, I would’ve killed him. Straight up killed him.

  Seeing the tears on Pru’s face, as well as her pale, clammy skin, had me seeing red.

  “Are you okay, baby?” I asked.

  She burst into tears once again.

  The men started to return, one by one, and my stomach sank farther and farther as she continued to cry.

  It wasn’t until Treat got back, and Carl gave him an explanation as to what the hell was going on, that I said I had to go.

  “Pru, honey,” I said softly, not caring in the least that the men were listening to my every word. “I have to go back to work.”

  She hastily wiped away the tears, and her spine stif
fened. “I’m okay.”

  We both knew that was a lie.

  Hell, I would’ve done anything to have her in my arms and to tell her that it’d be okay. That I’d rip that man apart with my bare hands.

  But we both knew that I couldn’t. First of all, I wasn’t there, and furthermore, Kelley probably wouldn’t get more than a slap on the wrist.

  That wouldn’t stop me from raising hell, though.

  No, fucking sir.

  “Thank you for the memes,” I told her, knowing it’d get a smile out of her.

  Her face cleared even more, and if I couldn’t see the bloodshot eyes, I might’ve believed that she was never hurt in the first place.

  Almost.

  “Love you,” she whispered.

  Then she was gone, hitting end on our video chat, and breaking my heart in the process.

  I put the phone down on the table and buried my face in my hands.

  Carl was still explaining as I finally got my shit together and allowed myself to think about where the last five minutes had taken me.

  One thing was for certain.

  I may not fucking be there, but I knew someone that was.

  ***

  Pru

  I made it to the front door, shift finally over, and wished with everything I had that Hoax was there to walk with me to my car.

  Or Mr. M.

  God, I missed Mr. M.

  I’d seen his wife two days ago at the supermarket buying her groceries, and my heart had broken all over again for her.

  Shoulders slumped more than normal, and my stomach still not back up to par after the events from earlier in the day, I made my way outside, phone in one hand, and keys in the other.

  I made it four steps outside before I saw them.

  Motorcycles.

  Everywhere.

  At first, it was my dad that caught my attention.

  Then it was Bayou, followed by my uncle James.

  And since my mother was still in her meeting, three hours later, I knew that they were here for me.

  Hoax had called in the cavalry, making sure that they’d be here so I wouldn’t be alone.

  I felt tears gathering once again and pulled my phone up to send a message to Hoax telling him how much I loved him before walking toward them.

  Bayou was the first person that I passed, and without much thought to what I was doing, I threw myself into his arms.