I was totally baking Ned some cookies.
“Who you are to me, I gotta stay removed,” Hix shared. “Called Larry to work with Hal. EMT came to look over the guy. He got his head conked and good, was holdin’ himself delicate, but he was cleared for processing. So they took him to the department.”
Holding himself delicate.
I couldn’t stop my smirk.
Hix must have caught it because he squeezed my hand and asked, “How’d you get away?”
“Punched him in the throat and then kneed him in the . . .” I didn’t finish that because Mamie was probably asleep, but just in case she wasn’t.
“Good girl,” Hix murmured on another hand squeeze. “Asked, they said they took pictures at the hospital.”
“Yeah,” I mumbled, and they did. Both of me bloodied before they cleaned me up and me taped and the blood wiped away.
I knew those photos would be useful in case that creepy creep did something stupid and tried to fight the charges I was oh-so-totally going to file, but I hoped I never saw them.
“We have him on breaking and entering, criminal trespass, criminal stalking and assault. State of you, witness hearing you scream and fleeing the scene, catching the guy comin’ out of your house, none of that will go good for him, sweetheart,” Hix informed me.
I didn’t want to say what I said next but I had to say it because Hix was sheriff.
So I said it.
“I, uh . . . well, you need to know that I’d just come in. I didn’t have a chance to lock the door. I’d closed it so he entered, but he didn’t do any breaking.”
“Can’t enter any property, intent to do the occupant harm in any way, door is locked or not, baby,” he replied gently, not ticked in the slightest, even after he’d repeatedly told me to keep my doors locked (and that was the first thing I’d do from then on for sure).
He’d also told me to keep my phone out, something else I didn’t do (and was totally doing from that point on). Saying that, as it went down, it wouldn’t have mattered.
“Even so, all the charges might not stick if he makes a deal,” Hix continued. “And Hal told me first thing the asshole did when Hal showed was ask for his attorney. Not sure we got enough on him to pin criminal stalking, either. But we’re gonna charge him with it.”
“Okay,” I whispered.
“That said, Greta, it’s known from his attendance at the Dew he knew your schedule and it was clear he either followed you or was lyin’ in wait,” he told me. “This was premeditated. That’s a very bad thing. He’s dumb enough with all we got on this to fight it, deals will come off the table and he’ll be screwed.”
That sounded better so my next, “Okay,” was a lot stronger.
After it, Hix’s hand gave mine another squeeze.
He’d nabbed my purse when he was at my house. And Mamie had woken up close to Glossop, so when we arrived at Hix’s, she offered to carry it up for me like my broken nose was two broken arms.
However, I had the feeling she offered because she felt left out in the variety of duties there’d been to look out for me and it was something she could do.
I was learning Hix’s kids were good kids. Thoughtful. Sweet.
Not surprising.
Hope being their mother notwithstanding.
Up we went with Mamie carrying my purse, Hix holding my hand, and then his kids maneuvered me into his bed.
The pill was working and I was nearly asleep when I felt the bed move as Hix got in it and I felt his warmth shift into my back, melding with the curve that was me.
“Baby?” I mumbled just as his hand rounded my waist.
It found mine and he laced his fingers through.
“Right here,” he replied.
That was it before I fell asleep.
Now I was awake, the effects of the pill hadn’t quite left me, the pain was dull but there, and I was in Hix’s apartment with Hix and his kids there too, somewhere.
I pushed up, looked around, noted the sun was coming through the windows, and from Hix’s bedside clock, it was just after nine thirty.
I’d had under five hours of sleep.
Whatever.
I threw the covers back and looked to the club chair to see my sandals were still on the floor in front of it but my dress and jacket were gone.
Regardless, I couldn’t exactly put on a bloody dress.
I also couldn’t exactly walk out only in Hix’s tee.
In fact, I didn’t exactly know what the immediate future held for me.
The problem was, I also couldn’t think on any of this because I had to go to the bathroom.
Really.
I went to the door, opened it a bit, peered through, heard a TV playing low and some quiet conversation that didn’t seem close, but I didn’t see anybody.
I did see the bathroom door open.
So I scooted out, hurried there and ducked in.
I closed the door behind me, did my business, washed my hands and was carefully pulling the bloody gauze out of my nostrils when a knock came at the door.
Tossing the gauze in the toilet, I turned to the door, and when the knock came again, I called, “Uh . . . yeah?”
“You decent?” Corinne called back.
“Yeah, darlin’.”
The door opened, she scooted through and closed it behind her.
Her gaze glanced off my eyes before she walked past me at my back, closed the lid of the toilet and dumped a stack of folded clothes there.
She then passed me again, moved to the doors of the narrow cupboard just in from the closed bathroom door and did it talking.
“Those are mine. You’re, um . . .” she turned to me and gestured awkwardly with her hands around her hips then up to her chest, “like, a little bigger than me but that’s some of my loose stuff.”
Her eyes skimmed through mine again, I saw her cheeks were flushed, it was pretty, and she opened one of the cupboard doors.
It was full of stacks of folded towels and washcloths in the odd color combination of the darkest of blues and bright pink (this, I realized, was boys and girls, of which there was an equal number in that household with the boy part of that probably not real hip on using pink towels and the girl part of that equally not hip on using the darkest of blue). There was also a shelf of such things as bottles of pain reliever, Band-Aids, ointments, cold medicine, and other health and first-aid supplies.
The rest of it was shoved full of girl stuff, some of it Corinne was collecting.
She turned to me with her hands full and didn’t quite look at me when she stated, “This is my eye makeup remover. You can use these cotton wipes. And my all-around makeup remover. You can use a washcloth for that if you don’t want to get your bandage wet rinsing it off. And my moisturizer, because sometimes my face feels all tight if I don’t put on moisturizer after I cleanse. I also have a scrub in there, if you’re feeling like a deep clean. You can use it if you want. I don’t mind. And my comb. And my brush. And whatever you want.”
She did this handing me bottles, tubes and a sleeve of cotton wipes, all of which I took.