Drift Away (Noah Braddock Mysteries) (11 page)

“Man, you seem to be everywhere,” he said. “Like fucking Superman or something.”

I looked past him at Bella. “You alright?”

“She’s fine,”
Colin
snarled, sticking his chest out.

“Last time you spoke to me, I broke one of your fingers,” I said. “Answer for her again and I’ll break the other nine.”

David chuckled as
Colin
’s chest deflated a fraction.

I looked at Bella again. “You alright?”

The cut beneath her eye had puckered and scabbed over, the dried blood turning a dark red. The bruising around her nose had darkened and the swelling in her lip was gone. None of the defiance I’d seen in her eyes in the restaurant the day before was present. Confusion and fear had replaced it all.

Jackson knocked on the car window behind her and waved at me. I smiled and waved back.

“We were just talking to Bella,” David said, shrugging his shoulders. “Just hanging out.”

I didn’t like that he was so at ease.

I looked at Bella again. “You wanna go have lunch?”

“Yes,” she said, quickly.

“You aren’t invited,” I said to David. “I don’t eat with assholes who beat up women.”

“Man, you are such a
…
”
Colin
said before I shoved my elbow in his mouth.

He stumbled back, blood staining his teeth bright red before he could get his hands to them. He looked at his hands, then at me and charged. I held my ground, then stepped to the side, just as he got to me. I caught him around the neck and moved behind him, locking my arm around his throat and pulling hard. He gagged and his hands pulled at my arm.

But I was stronger.

David watched us, again with amusement. “At least he didn’t break your fingers this time.”

Colin
tried to respond, but managed only something between a scream and a gag.

“Let him go,” David said.

I turned to him. “Why? Better to beat the shit out of a woman than some asshole like this? Because that’s what you do, right? Send your shit scum to do the work,” I said, tightening my grip around
Colin
’s thick neck. “Or was it you? Did you do this to Bella?”

David’s only answer was a thin smile.

“Get in the car, Bella,” I said through clenched teeth.

She hurried around the back of the car, fumbling for the door handle. She slid into the driver’s seat.

“Let him go,” David said. “I won’t ask again.”

Colin
’s hands pulled at my forearm, pinching and scratching at the skin.

I held on. “Fat chance.”

David reached into the waistband of his shorts and produced a gun, aiming it at us. “I might hit him first, but eventually I’ll get one in you, too, Superman.”

I heard Jackson’s muffled voice in the car and Bella very clearly telling him to get down on the floor of the car.

I yanked hard one more time and then shoved
Colin
toward David. He stumbled and fell at David’s feet, coughing and gasping, his hands going to his throat.

“Leave her alone,” I said.

David squinted at me. “Seems like I’m the one with the gun and I’m pretty sure in the movies, the guy with the gun is the one telling people what to do.”

“I don’t watch movies.”

David smiled, nodded. “Good one.”

Colin
got to his feet, rubbing his neck, adjusting his sunglasses on his bright red face. “Motherfucker.”

Bella started the car and the door lock popped.

David kept the gun on me and walked in my direction. “I can tell you are going to be a problem.”

“Most likely,” I said.

“I hate problems.”

“I hate assholes.”

He laughed again, now right in front of me. He pressed the barrel of the gun to my forehead. “Now who do you hate?”

David’s biggest problem wasn’t me. It was that he didn’t know me. He had no idea what I’d been through, that I’d had plenty of guns stuck in my face, that I’d shared space with guys far scarier.

And he had no idea that I wasn’t afraid to die.

“Still you,” I said. “Because you’re an asshole. An asshole who beats up women. Your buddy, too.”

“Pretty ballsy calling me an asshole,” David said, raising an eyebrow. “Me holding a gun to your skull and all.”

“Pull it,” I said.

“Excuse me?”

“Pull the trigger,” I repeated.

“Do it,”
Colin
urged from behind him.

But he wasn’t going to. I could already see it in David’s eyes. I felt sure he was capable of pulling the trigger, but he was too smart to do it in such a public place.

Which made him even more dangerous.

“You are going to wish you never met me,” he whispered.

“Already do,” I said.

I heard the window slide down behind me.

“David, don’t,” Bella said. “Just don’t. Please.”

His eyes never left me. “You’ll call me later, baby?  Finish the discussion?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Noah, get in the car.”

I stood still, leaning into the gun, letting the steel bite into the skin on my forehead.

David slid the gun to the side, then jerked his arm and slammed the weapon into the side of my face.

Colors exploded in my eyes and pain seared through my skull as I dropped to a knee. I heard both Bella and Jackson scream.

The steel crashed into me again and I went down on both knees, the colors brighter, the pain hotter as it spread through my forehead and cheeks. I leaned forward and rested on my hands. Drops of blood fell to the asphalt next to them.

I felt David’s breath on my ear. “Lucky the kid was here. Only reason you’re alive.”

Nausea swept through my stomach and I swallowed hard to keep it at bay, the red droplets near my hand beginning to form a pool.

“See you soon, Noah,” David said, sweeping my arms with his leg.

I hit the ground, my body heavy and I rolled to my side. The black clouds, thick with rain, were the last things I saw before I blacked out.

EIGHTEEN

The side of my face was frozen.

My eyes fluttered in protest as I tried to open them. I lay still for a moment, finally realizing I was on Bella’s couch, staring at her ceiling, with something extremely cold pressed to my face.

I reached up and grabbed a massive freezer bag full of ice. The plastic stuck to my skin and stung when I pulled it free.

“Are you okay?” Jackson asked.

His voice startled me because it was so close. I turned to the side and he was right next to my face, kneeling on the floor. His eyes were wide, rimmed with red.

“I’m okay,” I mumbled.

“You don’t look okay,” he said. “Your face is all messed up.”

“I’ve heard that before.”

“You have?”

I shifted on the couch and pain shot through my jaw and up into my temple. I bit my lip.

“I was kidding, Jax,” I said. “But I’m okay.”

His tiny hands held onto the sleeve of my T-shirt. “They’re always mean to Mommy.”

“Who?”

“The boys who hurt you.”

“She see them a lot?”

He nodded. “They always come here.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. She says I’m not allowed to ask.”

“Are they mean to you?”

He thought for a moment, then shrugged. “Not really. But they never wanna play Legos.”

“Jackson,” Bella said from somewhere I couldn’t see. “You were supposed to come get me when he woke up.”

“He just did.”

“I just did,” I said.

She appeared next to her son, dropping to her knees, too, on the side of the couch. “Okay. How are you?”

“Great.”

“Yeah. You look great.”

“Figured.”

She nudged Jackson. “Hey, buddy. Can you give me a minute with Noah?”

“Why?”

“Because I’d like to talk to him for just a minute.”

“I won’t listen,” Jackson said.

She smiled and ran a hand through his hair. “I know you won’t. But just give me a minute. Maybe go grab a couple of your stuffed animals and bring them out here to keep Noah company?”

His eyes lit up and he jumped to his feet. “Okay!  I’ll be back.”

He sprinted out of the room.

Bella took the bag of ice from my hand and pressed it gently against my face. “You need this. Trust me.”

The cold bag stung my face.

“Thank you,” she said.

“For what?”