Beauty (23 page)

“But…did you check the apartment good? I could help you look…” I trailed off as her green eyes flashed in my direction, anger and fear there.

“Are you fucking kidding me?! What idiot would break in, steal my safe and then hide it somewhere in my apartment. THEY TOOK IT EVE! WHAT DON’T YOU GET! Of course I fucking looked!” she screamed, tears falling before she could swipe them away. “They even took the fucking spoon,” she laughed bitterly, her eyes finally meeting mine.

I couldn’t look at her.
I’d taken the spoon too?! FUCK!

“S…sorry,” I whispered, throwing the Jetta into first, the car lurching before squealing in protest as I slammed on the gas.

“Maybe I could crash with you for a while… You don’t have a roommate right now…”

“No!” I interrupted before she could finish, my heart suddenly racing at the thought of her seeing my room. She
’d
know right away that I’d stolen her stuff. “People have probably seen me at your place. Darius will probably ask questions right…?” I offered weakly,
nodding when she shrugged slowly.

The last thing I needed was a dealer breaking into my room too. I wanted to get as far away from here as possible and figure out a new plan.

I shifted hard, anger filling me as we peeled from the parking lot narrowly missing a black SUV turning in. If she’d just let me come help her look, she would have found the coke and the money
. B
ut I couldn’
t tell her that.

Chapter 23*

We’d been driving for thirty minutes in silence, each lost in our own thoughts. Becca’s constant sniffles were starting to get to me and I was glad when I saw a sign reading: Hospital, Gas, Food next exit. I’d taken the interstate to avoid the morning traffic, but my high was wearing off and my nerves were shot from the
morning excitement. I signaled to get over and jumped when Becca grabbed the arm I was steering with. The car lurched and then swerved onto the exit both of us fighting for the wheel.

“What the hell are you doing?!
This isn’t far enough!” she shrieked, her eyes suddenly wild as I slowed behind a line of cars.

“We won’t be going anywhere if I don’t get gas soon,” I snapped, pointing to the needle as I turned on the main street. “And if you do that again, I won’t be driving you anywhere,” I added, maneuvering into another turning lane.

She didn’t comment as I pulled into the gas station, her hand back on my arm once I had the car in neutral. I met her gaze, and almost jumped out before she said anything. I didn’t want to hear her apologize. Not to me.

“Look Eve I’m sorry about all this. I was so panicked
…
I had to calm down. I smoked a joint, popped a couple blue devils and somehow
dragged you into my mess
. I know you have class today,” she paused, looking up at the still dark sky. “You have time to get back. I can get a hotel room. Think of a plan maybe… Traveling by bus might actually be safer than…”

“I don’t mind,” I stopped her, pointing to my wallet in the console. “Grab a twenty and go pay for gas?” I asked, ignoring the guilt in her eyes.

I’d
gotten
her
into this mess,
and
I wasn’t going to leave her in a hotel room to fend for herself. She was my friend. I watched as she did as I asked,
glancing over her shoulders several times as she made her way inside the store. There was only one other car in the lot and judging from the condensation covering the windows I could almost bet it belonged to the pimply faced attendant who looked my way as soon as Becca stepped to the counter. I didn’t have much time. I scrambled out of the car, opening the back door to retrieve the backpack I’d tossed. One quick look up and I saw Becca handing over payment for the gas. There was no time to even snort it. I scraped off as much coke as I could onto my finger, sticking it into my mouth as I turned away, lifting the nozzle and starting the pump.

The soft purr of another car pulling in caught my attention and I turned as a black SUV
pulled up right behind me
, the two occupants in the front looking directly at me. I was suddenly uneasy, the hairs on the back of my neck prickling as I met the driver’s gaze. He looked familiar….dark chocolate skin, almond shaped eyes set deep in a broad forehead… Where had I seen him before…?

I smiled nervously, my feet shifting as I dropped my gaze for a moment,
suddenly ready to get out of there. Becca seemed to have struck up a conversation with the attendant and was hovering near the door, smiling at something he said. The memory was fuzzy at best, my head hurting as I struggled to make sense of it. I’d seen the driver of the SUV before…and it was at Becca’s apartment.
Darius…!

The sound of Becca’s name froze me where I stood, my ear
s
piquing at the distinct click of a clip being loaded.
Their windows were down, but I pretended not to notice them at all now, my hands shaking as I pulled the nozzle from the tank and replaced it in his holder.
Becca was leaving the store
, half her body out
the door
when she paused to say one more thing. From the corner of my eye I saw them both pointing
their guns in her direction
and I bolted, m
y feet slamming hard on the clutch and the gas as my little Jetta roared to life and then backfired.

F
or a moment there was silence and then all hell broke loose. I could hear Becca screaming,
the SUV tires squealing just as I got my car started again
. The truck
was suddenly blocking my view and I saw the driver take aim
at me
just as I careened sideways, slamming into its front bumper. The shot rang out anyway and then another, the sound of glass shattering filling the air. Becca’s screams reached another octave and then I saw her, behind the SUV and coming up alongside the driver side of my car at a dead run.

“Get in!” I screamed as I threw the Jetta into first and then ripped to second before we’d even got going
good
.

The
back
door slammed shut behind her
as I took off
and that’s when I froze, a soft “Umph” silencing the noise
outside
as Becca slumped forward, her head on the back of my seat.
A glance behind me
and bile rose in
to
my throat as I slid into oncoming traffic, the Jetta groaning in protest when the passenger side scraped the guardrail. I could see the bullet hole in the door across from her, the pool of blood on the seat beside her evidence that she’d been shot.

If I hadn’t stopped to get gas… If I hadn’t taken the drugs…

Police were already in route, their sirens blaring as they cut off traffic to get to the convenience store.
The attendant must have called them. The hospital… I suddenly remembered the sign on the exit and dodged
across the median, jostling us so hard that Becca fell sideways, her head hitting the door with a sickening thud.

“Please hang on,” I whispered to her through clenched teeth, my eyes searching the rear view mirror for a sign of Darius.

I saw the black SUV now, m
aking the same move but dodging
sideways at the last minute to avoid a collision. It put them at a dead stop and I stomped on the gas hard, the petal now to the floor. Ther
e was no need to look for signs;
I saw it just ahead on my right, illuminated in a soft green glow against the still dark sky. Double shifting up from third to fifth I gave the Jetta all it had, taking the ope
n bike lane on my right. Sixty. Sixty-five. Seventy
.
The frame shook so violently now I was sure it was going to fall apart right under me, the brakes barely catching as I careened through a stop light and onto the next street.

The black SUV w
as nowhere in sight as I cross
ed
two more lanes of traffic to swerve into the emergency room entrance. I was out of the car and around to the other side, screaming for help
before police pulled up behind me, their we
apons drawn. I sank to my
knees with my hands in the air at their command, watching as paramedics pulled Becca’s lifeless body from the car
and onto a waiting
stretcher.

Mass hysteria erupted around me when a single gunshot rang out
from the street
and I was no longer the suspect, my body tucked into a roll as an officer dove on top of me. They were leaving. All of them.
Still on my belly
I watched as the four policeman rushed back into their cars, taking off after the SUV as it passed.
Onlookers eyed me open
mouthed as I pulled myself to a stand, my body trembling so badly that I was forced to cling to the trunk to keep from falling.
They hadn’t said don’t move. They hadn’t said anything. The Jetta was sputtering badly, bu
t still running, and I stumbled back to the driver’s side, dazed. I couldn’t leave her without knowing, and I was sure the police would be back to question me sooner rather than later. A honk behind me jolted my thoughts to the present and
I jerked the car into gear. T
he Jetta lurched forward,
and I headed towards the parking garage,
tears finally falling.

**********

Hours had passed and I still sat in the emergency waiting room, clutching the clipboard I’d been given to my chest. The form clipped to it remained blank except for the first two slots: first and last name.
Becca hadn’t brought a purse with her, and I’d only found pills in the black duffel bag, a variety of them, all different shapes and colors. I
’d
flushed them al
ong with the coke the second I
reached a bathroom, and had tossed the bag for good measure as well.

She was my friend and yet I hadn’t even known her well enough to ask when her birthday was, who her parents were, or w
h
ere she was from. The police had felt sorry for me, taking my statement and then offering to sit with me while I waited. She had no other family here because I didn’t know of anyone to call, and they respected my wishes to wait alone
–after I agreed to let them search my car
.

A flurry of activity at the wide double doors leading into the emergency startled me and I turned, but the orderly’s words didn’t register at first.

“Family of Rebecca Waters …” she repeated and I jumped, suddenly remembering Becca’s introduction in the car the night after Jeremy’s party.

“
That’s...tha
t’s me…” I jumped up
, forcing my legs to walk towards the
surgeon who appeared behind her.

“Miss…?”

“Barns…” I supplied, my stomach turning at the blood staining the front of his scrubs.
Becca’s blood…

“I’m sorry… Are you family?” he asked, gesturing for me to follow him through the doors.

The orderly joined us
, solemn faced with her hand
on my back, waiting for me to answer.

“Um…no…her friend. We go to the same school… I was driving…” I whispered, my shoulders shrugging helplessly.

I’d already been through all this with the nurse at reception and again with the security guard when I’d tried to find out Becca’s status. They’d refused to tell me anything then, and I had a sinking feeling it was going to be more of the same now.

“I can’t release any information about her condition. You have to be kin…or next of kin…” the surgeon finally said, his brow creasing as my shoulders started to shake.

“Please…” I sighed, swiping at the tears that blurred my vision. “I’m all she has. Just tell me… Is she going to live…
?
Did she…
?
”

“No…” he sighed, interrupting, his hand on my shoulder now. “She’s alive… For now, but…”

“But what… She’s going to die? I don’t understand…” I shook my head, biting back the sob that
threatened to break free.

“The bullet entered her right side, grazed her rib and went through her lung,” he explained, his eyes falling from my face on his next words. “It collapsed, but we were able to repair it. Her heart…it’s not so simple…”

“Not so simple…? What do you mean?!” I gritted out, my hands thrown up in frustration now.

It wasn’t making since. It didn’t sound so severe that she’d be on the brink of death, not if they were able to repair her lung. Even then, people could live with one lung…couldn’t they?

“Miss Barns the heart has three layers…
The endoca
rdium, which is the inner layer; the myocardium, the middle layer; a
nd then the outer most layer…the pericardium. That’s where the bullet stopped, just inside the pericardium.
Now she’s already beat
en
a million to one odds… She was shot with a small caliber gun. Sh
e was shot at an angle as to where
a millimeter to the right or left and she would have died within seconds. And she was close enough to a hospital that we were able to stop the major bleeding within the first twenty minutes.
Nobody
has those odds… Less than ten percent of all chest wound victims. The bullet is still there…we stopped the bleeding for now, but it’s positioned in such a way that we can’t remove it. The chambers would fill full of blood so fast there wouldn’t be time to stop it. She’d die within seconds. Her family needs to say goodbye and they need to do it now,” he finished,
finally meeting my tearful gaze
.