Chapter 46

David

Their screams echoed through my mind, over and over again, like an infinite echo tearing through my chest with precision, taking everything I had with just one bullet.

I saw her being thrown into the van like a piece of meat, I heard as they screamed and tore down the street before the crowd surrounded me. I had done it, I had condemned the only woman I had come to love after my sister, my mother. My only duty was to protect her and I had failed her just like when I was nine.

Even after showing him what would happen if he touched her again, it wasn't enough.

The scene I abhorred and kept in the back of my mind replayed itself, the screams covering the surrounding chatter. I remembered what they smelled like, what their dirty clothes looked like, and how they smiled when they begged them to stop.

Viscous heat began to emanate from the hole made in my abdomen, it was too dark to recognize any faces around me, which didn't matter, I was going to go after him even though I was falling apart.

“Someone hold him down!”

I pushed away the hands that tried to keep me down in the middle of the street, but the pain had already mixed with the anguish and numbed my body. If I took too long, I might not be able to save her like I had years ago.

“They've already called an ambulance, please, you've lost a lot of blood and you need to stop moving.”

I was again pushed against the floor as they tried to keep me upright, I tightened the scarf I was wearing that night on the open wound to try to keep the blood inside my body and struggled to get up again.

The hospital wouldn't let me find her in time, not with the resentment in Michael's eyes.

I pushed my stubborn hands away again and got into the car, I didn't have much time. Neither did she.

I locked the door before the sound of sirens finally stopped approaching and took me by force to start the car. I drove around the city before stopping in front of the place where she was sleeping to try and get away from me, from what we had.

It wasn't the right place, I knew that. But the lack of direction brought me to the only place I knew I'd have help finding her. I threw my jacket in the back seat and leaned on the gate as I got out. He would have to help me, or he would have the same fate as the kid he called brother.

Knocking on the doorbell was the least of my problems, but looking at the face of the man who was sleeping with my little girl was much worse.

“What the fuck?” He grunted after seeing the amount of blood on his sidewalk and still held me before I collapsed. Benjamin, that was his name I think, dragged me inside trying not to move and make me bleed even more. “Where's Sarah?”

I laughed scornfully trying to hold back a wet cough, that was going to be my first question too.

“Mike.”

He moved away after propping me up on his sofa, disbelieving, ran a hand through his hair and I pulled my glasses off my face. I got up to get a knife from his kitchen.

“Hey, wait a minute. What are you doing?”

I pulled out the drawers and found nothing that could help me remove that bullet from my abdomen. Benjamin seemed to understand what I wanted when he pulled out other drawers in his living room and when he found what he wanted, he threw it in my direction.

“Needle.” I coughed, returning to the sofa. “She doesn't have any more time than I do.”

I stretched my body as far as I could and stuck the blade into the irregular opening, the numbness disappearing bringing all the pain like an electric shock spreading through my body from the puncture.

“Ah, fuck.” He squeaked coming back with what I asked. “Where is he.”

I looked at him and moved the blade feeling the tip touch the back of the bullet.

“I would have gone straight there if I'd known,” I grunted before replacing the blade with my fingers, Benjamin threw down one of the kitchen towels and I stuffed it in my mouth to cope with the bloody pain as I sank my fingers in to pull out the bullet. “Get my phone from the car and call the college office, ask for Jessica Wilson's number, she was with Mike when Sarah was thrown like a piece of meat into a van.”

“They won't give me students' personal information.”

“Get the fuck out of here!” I shouted, finally pulling the projectile out of me. “Hell!”

“Shit!” He cursed as he left.

I had forgotten that he was a lawyer and that it wouldn't do much good to tell him what needed to be done if he didn't know how serious the situation was. After a few minutes, I had no strength left and that same weakness had taken most of my glass by the time he returned, making me feel like the world was spinning before I managed to stitch myself back up.

I'd lost too much blood.

“Wait, I'll do it.” He said throwing my phone across the sofa as he walked around me to reach the kitchen, Benjamin came back with a bottle of whiskey and handed it to me as he tried to get the needle out of my hand. “Drink.”

I let go of the needle and turned the bottle around seconds before he placed it on the open wound, I looked at him and nodded, turning the bottle around again.

“Fuck!” I grunted, trying not to move so that he could close the wound, and trying not to punch him in the face because of the anger and pain I felt. “I'm going to kill your brother,” I admitted it, but it wasn't because of the bullet he'd made sink into my body, but because he'd taken the only thing that was valuable to me.

Benjamin tied a knot at the end of the wound before breaking the thread and throwing the bloodstained needle in with the bullet I'd dropped, he stared back at me with the same hatred I felt.

“If you don't do it, I'll do it myself.”

I nodded and wiped my hands on the towel he'd given me to bite, reached for my phone and Jessica Wilson's number was already written down in the dial slot. She was finally going to have a private conversation with me, but I couldn't be sure that she would like it.