She raises a brow and walks back behind me as the elevator pings open and we walk down another hallway. “Don’t even, it’s me you’re talking to.”
We round a corner and come face to face with four cops.
My heart starts to try and fight its way out of my chest as they all turn my way. “Stop.” She keeps on walking toward them. “Stop. I need to catch my breath.”
She does this time but lets me deal with this on my own, it’s like she’s in tune with me. I nod that I’m okay and she wheels me to them, Hernandez and Daniels being two of the four standing outside a room as if guarding it. They eye each other and I stare at Sam.
“Why am I here?”
She crosses her arms over her chest. “I told you I was going to help you heal, the first step would be to get rid of your demons.” She kneels down to face me. “You don’t have to do this, Kee. I know how scary it must be to put yourself back there with him, but I’ll be right there with you if you need me to be.”
Her eyes flit between mine, assessing me. I shut my eyes so she can’t read me, take in a deep breath, and open my eyes nodding at Hernandez and Daniels who gesture to a room on their left. Sam pushes me into the plain room holding only a few chairs in it.
She pulls up a chair next to my wheelchair and the two cops sit opposite us.
I find my battered hands much more interesting, just like earlier. “I really need a manicure,” I say out loud, breaking the ice.
And then I start from the beginning. Reliving every humiliating, gruesome thing that happened from start to finish. I don’t leave anything out. It takes me a while to recount everything, having to stop in between remembering it all to remind myself that I’m not there anymore.
The whole time I’m talking, Sam never takes her eyes off me, tears pouring down her face, but I keep mine impassive. This will not break me.
“And you don’t know how they found you?” Sergeant Daniels asks when I finish. I shake my head, no. “Okay, you’ve cleared a lot of things up, Miss Michaels.” He looks at Sam. “May I have a word outside?”
Sam nods, wiping at her eyes and kisses me on the forehead as she stands up. “Back in a minute.”
I smile weakly and play with the hem of my hospital gown, feeling awkward at being left in this room with a strange man. I hear Sam raise her voice but I can’t quite make out what she’s saying, but she storms back into the room, Daniels on her heels. “Miss Reynolds, I don’t think this is a good idea.”
Her five foot four frame stands tall. “Because you know her do you?”
“Sam?” I interrupt.
She holds up a finger to me then points it toward the door opposite the one we’re in.
“You let us in, he’s done nothing wrong.”
He rubs the back of his neck and looks at Hernandez who shakes his head and chuckles. “Redheads. I don’t see why not. You heard what she said, he’s innocent.”
My heart beats in my chest. “What’s going on?” I ask, but they can’t hear my stringy voice so I stick my fingers in my mouth and whistle. That get’s their attention. “Someone want to fill me in?”
Sam smiles like she’s got the best secret in the world and wheels me out of the room to stand outside the one the cops were just guarding seconds ago.
She squeezes my shoulder, opens the door, and my head swims.
The quarter I’ve been twirling through my fingers for the past couple of hours drops to the floor. I want to run to her and I can tell she wants to do the same, but I’m handcuffed to this Goddamn chair.
“Sam?” she says, never taking her beautiful blue eyes off me. The pretty redhead kneels in front of her. “Get Daniels or Hernandez in here… now.”
The redhead walks out of the room and Keeley stays rigid in her wheelchair. She looks a little better than a few days ago, but there’s a haunted look in her eyes.
It seems like forever before the redhead walks back into the room with a cop trailing behind her and during that time, we don’t say anything, we just stare at each other. There’s so many things I want to say, should say, but it feels like someone is squeezing my voicebox.
Keeley points at me. “Take those cuffs off him.”
The cop eyes me. “You sure about that?”
She rolls her eyes and motions for him to go to me so he walks over. “Your story checks out, you’re one lucky son of a bitch.”
Lucky? I nearly died from him being trigger happy!
He uncuffs me and I rub my wrist again my sweatpant clad leg.
“I’ll be right outside.” He tries to say it menacingly but a look of my own has him backing out the room.
I watch the redhead put her hand on Keeley’s shoulder and whisper something in her ear before following him, closing the door behind her. My eyes focus back on hers and her hitch in breath makes it feel like all the air is sucked out of the room. I use my good arm to push me out of the chair I’m sat in and slowly walk toward her.