Page 9 of Blue Summer

I take her by the elbow before she can answer me, and all but drag her to the bedroom she says she’s been sleeping in - Pearl’s old bedroom - and slam the door behind us. “Maybe you can tell me about this.”

I hand over the tablet and watch as she pales while reading what is on the screen. She tries to hand the thing back to me, but I refuse to take it from her. When she finally looks at me, I have at least schooled my features, so I won’t give too much away.

“You need to start talking.” I use my cop voice on her, so she knows how serious about this I am.

She inhales slowly before exhaling just as slowly. She tries again to pull out of my hold, but I won’t let her. “I… had some trouble with… this guy. It’s why I’m here, okay? I thought he would leave me alone and forget about me if he couldn’t find me all summer.”

“Is he your boyfriend?” She shakes her head no. “Your ex?”

“No. He’s a guy I go to school with. I was… I was nice to him. I let him sit with me one time and then he started getting all…weird. He asked me out and I told him I didn’t want to date anyone…” she gasps, “oh shit, do you think that was him? Do you think he scratched up my car like that because I told him I didn’t want to go out with anyone but then he saw me and you… not that it was a date or anything.”

“It was a date. We went out, we enjoyed time with one another, we ate, we laughed. It was a date, sweetheart.”

“So, this is him? He… found me.”

It’s my turn to walk away, to try to figure out how to say the next thing I have to tell her. “It might be because of me.”

“What?”

“I might have been the reason your car got… I think the guy at the wreck saw you pull me out before he took off running.”

She stands beside the bed looking at me, waiting for me to tell her all of it.

“He’s a really bad man and dangerous. If he knows you helped me out of that wreck…”

“He might be pissed and come looking for me. So, he can… punish me for helping you.”

“More or less.”

“Maybe… I should leave. I don’t want any of this coming back to hurt Pearl and all that she’s found here. And Kat and Bea are most likely pregnant, it would kill me if I was the reason they got hurt. I should leave. Tonight.”

Damn! This isn’t really the way I wanted this to go. I damned sure didn’t want to send her running.

“Come home with me.”

The words are out of my mouth before I can work on a more tactful way of saying it. Even if I didn’t say it right it at least does what I want it to do. She stops mid-step and turns to look at me.

“What did you say?”

“Come stay with me. If this is my fault, the least I can do is offer you protection.”

“The least you can do? The least you can do? No. I am not going to be some… obligation you have to fulfill so you can clear your conscious. I helped you. That was all. I’m not sorry I did it, but I won’t have that control my life.”

“And letting it make you run is taking control? Letting your boyfriend stalk you halfway across the state is you controlling the situation?”

“I told you; he isn’t my boyfriend. I never dated him. I was nice to him once.”

“Like you were nice to me when you told me you would let me take you out?”

“What? No, that… I… this conversation is over. My mind is made up. I’m…”

“Fuck this.” I pull my cuffs from my back pocket and have them on her in seconds, both hands behind her back.

“Wha… Roan, what the hell? Roan! Where the hell did those come from? Did you have those the entire time? Where were you keeping those? Let me go! I can’t believe, uff.”

Her rant ends when I bend her over my shoulder but only for a second. By the time I walk out of the room, she is wound back up again. I can’t see her, but I can almost tell she is looking for someone to help her yell at me. She pretty much gives me the admission with her next words.

“Hey! Hey, you! Aren’t you supposed to be his boss or something? Isn’t this an illegal use of handcuffs? It has to be. This is not how an officer of the law is supposed to act.” The captain turns his back; like if he didn’t see it, it didn’t happen. “Sir, please… tell him to put me down.”

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