There is a knot in my gut. Did the abusive ex find her? Did he hurt her? My hold on her tightens yet again at the thought of anyone hurting her.
“Colt?”
“Yeah?”
“I can’t breathe,” she wheezes.
“Sorry.” I loosen my grip and kiss the top of her head. “I see red at the thought of someone hurting you.” She’s quiet, and I know I’ve said the wrong thing. “Please keep going, Hollis. I need to know what we’re up against so that I can help you.” There’s a brief silence before she begins again.
“She worked so hard on the picture, I didn’t want to bend it, so I decided to just carry it home. I was walking to my car that night, just a block over from the shelter, and a gust of wind blew the picture from my hand. Of course, I chased after it. That drawing meant so much to me, and to her, that I didn’t have any other choice. I made her a promise, you know? I told her I would hang it on my fridge, and I didn’t want to break my promise to her.”
“Because you’re the sweetest woman I know.” I don’t know what higher power brought her to me, but I will forever be grateful to have her not only in my life but my son’s.
She laughs lightly. “Have you met your mother, or your sister-in-law or Gwen? You’re surrounded by sweet women.”
“Maybe,” I agree. “But you’re the only one who’s mine.” The tension in her shoulders eases just a little at my declaration.
“Um… your mother?”
“Dad’s already claimed her,” I tease.
“Fair enough,” she says, and I can already hear that she’s starting to relax a little. “Anyway, I chased after the picture. It had so much meaning to both of us. The wind blew it down an alley, and as fast as my feet could carry me, I followed. The picture fell to the ground behind a dumpster. I didn’t even hesitate to kneel down and reach for it. When I finally had it in my hands, I heard a deep, menacing voice that had me freezing.”
She pulls out of my arms and turns to face me. “I should have run. I know that now. I never should have stopped moving. I should have just moved on and not stopped until I got to my car. I had the picture, which is all that I wanted. Instead, I froze. Two guys, they were talking about drugs and money, and evidence.”
“Fuck,” I mutter, running my hands through my hair. “Drug deal?”
“Yeah, I assume so. Only it’s a little more complicated than that. I knew I had to get out of there. I knew I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And it may sound bad of me, but I didn’t care what they were doing. I just wanted out of that situation. I wanted to be away from them, and whatever it was that was going down.”
“What did you do?”
“I stood, and it was my intention to take off running, but I tripped over my own feet. My legs were shaking so bad I lost my footing and fell to the ground. They, of course, heard me and came running. One of them was a cop. He was in uniform. I will never forget his face as he stared down at me.” She stops and takes a deep breath. “He looked so angry, and there was a hint of panic in his eyes.”
Fuck, this is not good. Who knows what was really going on and a crooked cop takes this to an all-new level. “You’re doing great, babe,” I encourage her. I need to know the rest of the story.
She nods. “I scrambled to my feet and was walking backward when he started following me. I turned to run and ran into a body. Looking up, it was another cop, this time a woman. She could see the fear on my face and immediately pushed me behind her. She recognized the other cop and asked him if she needed to call for backup. That’s when a gunshot went off, and all hell broke loose. I didn’t stick around to see what the end result would be. The female cop got distracted, and I took off running. I didn’t stop until I got to my car and locked the doors. I sped out of my parking spot and drove around for over an hour. Just in case they were following me, I didn’t want them to know where I lived.”
“Were they? Following you?” I ask, holding my breath, waiting for her reply.
“No.” She shakes her head. “There wasn’t a car in sight the last twenty minutes or so of my drive.”
“Good.” I exhale.
“I was scared out of my mind, didn’t sleep that night, and I was mad at myself for losing the picture that Jasmine has worked so hard on for me. If I’d had a better hold on it, I wouldn’t have been in that alley, and I wouldn’t have had to run.”