Painless (6 page)

My stomach knotted.

Then Bloody Face stabbed me in the heart. He said, “She called him Chris. Chris something. I can’t remember exactly.”

Tall cop turned and fired bullets from his eyes directly into mine.

My stomach twisted my remaining internal organs into a wad that dropped down to my toes like lead. I was ready to vomit up my insides, including the bones in my toes. But I resisted the urge to unravel. I kept my innocent face in place and tried to appear as casual as possible.

Tall Cop must’ve run out of eye bullets because he turned back to Bloody Face.

“Those guys are lying,” Kamiko whispered.

“I know,” I said morosely.

With painful clarity I realized that Christos’ confession to me only hours before, the one about him being a criminal and having gotten into tons of fights and trouble with the law was ominously accurate. Bad luck found him, no matter what he did to avoid it. Was he cursed? Was I a fool for loving him? Would it always be like this? Would he constantly be on the verge of getting arrested, or worse, locked away for long stretches? What kind of life was that? I shivered and hugged my elbows to my chest. I needed to think of something fast.

“Officer!” I hollered while waving at Tall Cop.
 

He was still questioning Bloody Face. I noticed the two EMTs were now kneeling next to the guy who Christos had knocked out and shining a pen light in the guy’s eyes. Stocky cop saw me waving and he nodded to the two other cops before walking over to me.

He had a broad, sullen face and seemed rather gruff. I needed to win him over. Just because these guys were supposed to uphold the law didn’t mean they were going to believe our story over the rugby goon’s version of events.
 

“Yeah?” he asked. “Can I help you with something, miss?”

“I forgot to tell that other officer something,” I said. I’d been so focused on not saying anything to betray Christos, I’d missed the obvious.
 

“What?” he grunted expectantly, as if expecting something astonishing, like film footage of the second, third and perhaps fourth President Kennedy shooters.

My plan to win him over was not going well. “When those guys started harassing us,” I said tentatively, “I took a picture of them on my phone and told them I was going to call campus security. Before I could, that guy with the crew cut grabbed my phone and threw it.”

“Where?”

“Where what?”

“Where’d he throw your phone,” stocky cop said impatiently.

“Oh. Over the dining hall.”

Stocky cop turned to look. He frowned. “From here?”

“No. We were standing over there when he threw it.” I pointed.

“You sure he threw your phone?” the cop asked, as if I was suggesting Crew Cut had thrown my car or perhaps an elephant over the dining hall.

“Yes, I’m sure! Do you want to search me? My phone is gone.”

“How do I know you had a phone to begin with?”

A better question was, how did this get turned around on me?
 

“She did,” Romeo said. “And I saw that guy throw it.”

“Me too,” Kamiko said.

Stocky cop looked between the three of us, doubt curling his lips. Yes, he had the teeth of an ogre, or perhaps a rotten goblin. Take your pick. “Okay,” he sighed heavily, like I was asking him to clean his room for the tenth time. “I’ll go tell my partner.” He walked over to the other three cops and started chatting with them. Tall Cop looked at me again and nodded while Stocky Cop explained things. A minute later, Tall Cop walked back over to us.

“You say that guy over there grabbed your phone and threw it over the dining hall?” Tall Cop asked me.

“Yes,” I said.

“Was that when the fight started?”

“Yes.”

“Between those guys over there, and your friend, the cute guy?”

“Yes.”

“And what was cute guy’s name again?”

Brakes! I clamped my mouth shut before it could open. I’d almost fallen for the cop’s trick line of questioning. “I told you before, I don’t know his name. Like I said, he’s more of an acquaintance.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “Do you remember if he had any tattoos?” he asked suspiciously. “Your
acquaintance
?”

“I don’t think so,” I said, making my best Little Miss Honesty face.

“No,” Romeo added, “he didn’t have any tattoos. I would’ve remembered. Guys with tattoos are hot!”

Tall Cop raised an amused eyebrow. “And you said there were five guys fighting your one friend?”

“Yes! And I have a picture of all five on my phone!”

“But your phone is gone?”

“Yes! I can totally go look for it, if you want.”

“No. Hold tight here until we sort this out.”

Tall Cop rejoined the other three officers. The EMTs had helped the guy who’d been knocked out to stand up. Crew Cut and Bloody Face still sat in the grass. Stocky Cop uncuffed them and they stood up. Stocky Cop gave them what appeared to be a stern talking to. Crew Cut and his buddies nodded solemnly and repeatedly like they were law-abiding citizens who’d been wrongly assaulted for no good reason. When the cops were finished lecturing Crew Cut and Crew, they let the three rugby goons walk across the quad and out of sight.

The four cops walked up to us.

“We’re going to let you three go for the evening,” Tall Cop said. “I suggest you all head to bed.”

“What about my phone?” I asked.

He handed me a business card. “If you find it, give me a call.”
 

Wow, big help he was. “Okay. So, um, are those rugby guys in trouble or anything?” I asked.

He sighed heavily. “Obviously, the three guys we talked to were in a fight. But we’re missing several of the participants involved. Like your
acquaintance.
Unless we can round up everyone, there’s not much we can do.”

Great. Those rugby jerks got away with behaving like Upper Division Pricks while the man who had protected me time and time again was going to court in two days and possibly to jail.

How was that fair again?

===

CHRISTOS

Flashing reds and blues from a pair of police cars strobed across the pavement when I rounded the south end of the SDU campus and came up North Torrey Pines Road. The squad cars were parked behind Paiute Hall. I noticed them before I got to Adams College Drive, so I decided to drive right on by.

I wondered if Samantha had found her phone. If she had, did I want to ring her up while she was talking to a bunch of campus cops? Better to call her later.

I rode home. The house was silent when I walked inside. Not wanting to wake my grandfather, I slid my motorcycle boots off in the entry foyer and crept up to bed.

I needed to get my beauty rest before my pre-trial in the morning.

Fun stuff.

Chapter 3

CHRISTOS

Gravity had me by the balls and was hurtling me down toward oblivion like a boulder with a rocket pack strapped to its back. Faceless winged demons swirled around me, taunting me, clawing at my flesh, cackling with savage glee. Every time I swung at one of them or tried to grab an arm or a leg, they disappeared in a puff of black smoke only to reappear on my back, scaly limbs wound around my torso in a wicked embrace. Fangs sunk into my neck. I kept twisting and swinging and throwing knees, but there were too many of them. I couldn’t stop the onslaught.

“Christos?”

I flailed awake in my bed. “What the fuck!”

“It’s me,
agápi mou
,” Samantha whispered. I felt her lay a soothing hand on my shoulder. “I think you were having a nightmare. Was it about those rugby guys?”

“Worse.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really. It won’t make any difference. It was just a stupid dream.” My bedroom was still dark. I glanced at the clock on the bed stand. 4:17am. “Did you just get here?”

“No. I’ve been here for awhile.”

“In bed with me?”

“Yeah,” she said softly.

“Are you naked?”

“Yes.” Her voice was sultry and promised pleasant things.

I twisted and slid my arm around her waist, pulling her body into mine. Our taut stomachs kissed, delicious heat radiating from her skin into mine. Her soft breasts melted against my muscled chest and I was instantly hard. Samantha had no idea how completely womanly she was. Even in total darkness, she was incredible.
 

“Why didn’t you wake me when you came in?” I asked.

“You were sleeping so soundly, I didn’t want to disturb you.”

“Yeah, my body must’ve crashed after all the adrenaline from the fight was gone.” I kissed her softly on the lips and felt the tip of her tongue tease mine. “Mmm, but you definitely should’ve woken me.”

“You’re awake now,” she said. “I didn’t miss my window of opportunity, did I?” she giggled.

“Gee whiz, I don’t know. Let me check.” I rolled on top of her, skin to skin, and wedged my fingers under her ass, lifting her hips. Her knees parted freely and I slid between her legs. My cock was already throbbing, straining to be inside of her. I grabbed it in my fist and teased the tip against her. “Damn, woman, you’re already wet.”

“What did you expect,” she joked. “I’ve been lying naked next to you for like two hours waiting for you to wake up.”

“Did you touch yourself?” I asked suggestively.

“No!” she cried.

“Why not? It would be pretty damn sexy for me to wake up while you were getting yourself off next to me.”

“You’re such a perv, Christos!”

“Really? Why? Because I like the idea that you’re so hot for me that you can’t even wait for the real thing when I’m sleeping inches away? Sounds pretty damn hot to me…”

“Come here, you caveman,” she giggled.

I planted my arms around her shoulders and lowered my mouth to hers. Our tongues snaked together as desperation fired down my spine.
 

“Yeah, definitely should’ve woken me sooner.” I slid myself slowly inside her waiting warmth. “Fuck,
agápi mou…”

We made so much noise, I couldn’t hear those demons until long after we finished.

===

SAMANTHA

The scent of sex tickled my senses as I sighed pleasantly after making love to Christos.

I snuggled into Christos’ arms. I couldn’t get close enough to squeeze the unfinished business of his trial out of the way. I wanted to talk about it. I also wanted to forget about it and never mention it again. But it wasn’t going anywhere. The heat of our infinite love could not burn it away, no matter how much I wished it would.

I considered Christos’ feelings. Would bringing up his trial make him feel better so he could get it off his chest? Or would enjoying the comforting afterglow of our intimacy best soothe him into restful sleep? I didn’t know.

Inadvertently I heaved a huge sigh. I couldn’t help it. My indecision was driving me nuts. I was a terrible girlfriend.

“What is it,
agápi mou
?” he asked.

“Nothing.”

He chuckled. “Come on. Tell me. I admit I ran out of your apartment somewhat hastily earlier tonight.”

“Is that an apology?”

“It is. I apologize for bolting. But I’ve got all this heavy shit weighing down on me. I’ve got to get up and go to my pre-trial in a few hours.”

“What’s a pre-trial, anyway?”

“More legal bullshit before the actual trial. The D.A. and my attorney tell the judge what’s going to happen at the trial, what they’re going to say in court. But mainly it’s my chance to officially accept a plea bargain, or turn it down.”

“What’s that mean?”

“The D.A. is giving me a chance to plead guilty in exchange for a shortened sentence.”

He was talking about it like it was a news story that was happening to a total stranger. But this was real. Christos was going to court. Worse, I really didn’t know anything about it. So far, all he had told me in the last twenty four hours was that he had punched a guy out and the trial was on Valentine’s Day. Beyond that, I was totally in the dark. Not knowing anything made it somehow more frightening.

I asked, “Are you going to plead guilty?”

A heavy silence filled the room.
 

I’d watched TV shows about court in the past, I’d seen news footage of people in court, but none of it was real to me. It was always happening to someone else. In fact, the most memorable courtroom scene I could think of was the one at the end of the movie Legally Blonde. Somehow, I didn’t think Christos’ court experience was going to be candy-coated with a bunch of laugh track moments starring Reese Witherspoon.

“We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” I said.

“It’s okay. I’m going to plead not guilty.”

“Wait, I thought you told me you hit some guy?”

“I did.”

“Doesn’t that mean you’re guilty?”

“No, because it was self defense.”

“Oh.” I hadn’t expected that. The way Christos had described it initially, I’d thought maybe he’d had a bar fight or something equally stupid. “Now I’m confused.”

“The District Attorney is going to try to make me look like a bad guy. Like I started it for no reason. My attorney has to convince the jury that it was actually self defense, that the other guy started it.”

“Did he?” I blurted. I slapped my hand to my mouth. I shouldn’t be doubting Christos like this. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. Of course the other guy started it.” I meant it. Every time Christos had ever fought someone in my presence, the other guy
had
started it.

“It’s okay,
agápi mou
. Yes, the other guy started it. Despite all the shit I’ve done in the past, I haven’t started a fight in years.”

“So tell the jury that. Tell them you don’t start fights.”

“It’s not that simple,” Christos sighed. “There’s all these rules about what constitutes self defense and what doesn’t. It’s different in every state, and I don’t understand half of it myself. That’s what my attorney is for. But I do know that we have to prove that the only option I had in that split second moment was to defend myself.”

“Was it?” I asked.

He looked at me thoughtfully. “Without a doubt,” he said confidently. “I had no choice.”

“Then you’re going to win!”