“How lucky,” an unknown voice growled behind me, and the freezing feeling against my back moved even lower. “You’ve unwrapped a perfect canvas for me and even invited an audience.”
I couldn’t bring myself to scream. Maybe it was the barrel against my back or the shame washing over me. I’d allowed myself to get caught up in Gabriel, even knowing what I knew. I made it like a movie again. I let myself believe that love was enough to protect me, that as long as Gabriel and I wanted to be together more than anything, it would create some sort of invisible forcefield around me. Or maybe I’d convinced myself that I was already a mafia dame. That there were watchful eyes standing guard at Gabriel’s request. I’d notice them following me around one day and scream at him for not trusting me to take care of myself. The happily ever after I’d somehow deluded myself into thinking I’d achieved was one that didn’t exist in the real world. I gambled with my life, and I was about to lose.
“Stacy! Stacy!” Gabriel was pounding against the door. Finally, his fist slammed even harder, and the next voice I heard was unrecognizable. It was Gabriel, but it wasn’t at the same time. It was that viciousness that he feared lay just beneath his surface—the ghost of his dad bubbling out. “I swear on my dead father, if you hurt her, you’ll be sorry.”
Out of the corner of my eye, a second figure stepped out of the shadows, just as I could hear what sounded like Gabriel trying to break down my door. I hated opting for the stronger metal material at that moment. Being a single woman living alone, I’d needed something more resilient for the very reason of not being broken down easily.
“We’d better hurry,” the second body said. “He’ll find a way in, sooner or later.”
The banging of my living room window proved that was true, but the continued pounding at my door told me that Gabriel wasn’t alone. I hoped I’d live to see who he brought with him. I side-eyed the figure next to me, with his broad shoulders and unkempt goatee and hair. He slid a pair of black gloves over his hands as my reinforced home served to harm me where it was meant to protect. The figure next to me cocked his fist while the one behind me slung a single, thick arm around my bare waist to hold me in place. The fist made hard contact with my eye, and when the second one flew at me, I blacked out.
20
Stacy
When I finally came to, it was to the sound of a loud beep, pulsing against my head and rattling me down to the bones with each rhythmic chirp. Its screaming sound was second only to the overwhelming smell of bleach and other sterile smells. I blinked my eyes open, and even that sent jolts of pain screeching across my face. For an extended moment, I just stared up at the tan popcorn ceiling tiles. All attempts to count them resulted in them blurring against one another. The more I tried to focus, the more my head hurt until finally, my stomach lurched.
“I’m gonna be sick.” I barely recognized my voice and nearly jumped when a bucket appeared in front of my face. I followed the arm holding it over to my mom. My stomach settled at the sight of her. “Mama?”
My mom’s eyes were red and swollen from what I could only guess were hours of crying. “Hi, baby.”
I pushed against the pain to turn my head in the other direction to my dad’s waiting smile. “Hey there, Stace.”
“What happened?” I grumbled.
My mom frowned. “We were hoping you could tell us.”
I dropped into silence as my mind wheeled back over the past day. I remembered Gabriel coming over to my house for ice cream and talking to him for hours. I remembered him taking me to the hill and watching the city. I remembered him telling me he loved me and dropping me off at home so he could go and check in with his family. My head started to scream as I attempted to focus on what happened next. I had blurry, barely-there memories of my bath and getting out to investigate some sounds, but the rest was like trying to see through a broken viewfinder. There was darkness and pain and voices I didn’t know, but there was no clear picture. Everything felt so far from me, and I didn’t know how to make sense of it.
“I don’t know.”
I wanted to ask a question, but I didn’t know what to ask. “What happened?” I asked again.
My mom’s already worried expression etched into even deeper concern. “Concussion,” she murmured.
I searched my brain for that word, but the barking beep near my ear was distracting and demanded my attention. My eyes flew around the room, searching for the source until they landed on a machine near the corner of the bed I was laying on. It had a million flashing lights and numbers I couldn’t decipher, and it worsened my headache when I tried.
“What’s that?”
My mom looked over at the machine and then back at me. “An EKG machine, sweetie.” She touched my head lightly. “Do you know your name?”
I retreated to my brain again. For a moment, I saw a woman in a mental mirror. The image was blurry at first, like a picture I might have drawn when I was six. Slowly, the hair came into focus, long and blonde, the blue eyes, the pink lips. I recognized her. Did I know her name?
“Stacy,” I murmured out. “Stacy Everett.” I looked at my mom, considering her face for hints that I’d gotten the answer right. A forced out smile suggested I had. “Where am I?”
“The hospital,” she replied. “The police called us to say someone had broken into your home.”
“Did you try to fight them?” my dad asked. “We’ve told you a million times that material things aren’t important. We could have bought new stuff. It wasn’t worth risking your life.”
“Carl, don’t lecture her.”
My dad gasped a little and then smiled. “Sorry, sweetheart.”
“A break-in?” I thought back on it, and it was like someone was slowly spinning that blurry memory into view.
I heard thumps in my house and went to investigate. I didn’t find anything, but t
hen Gabriel was there, knocking on the door. He sounded afraid. I remembered the two men; one of them held a gun to my back while the other put on gloves. Gabriel couldn’t get in, but he knew that he needed to. Did…did he know they would be there?