Page 9 of Fast Fury

Voices swirled around her, unfamiliar and disembodied. Strong hands reached under her arms. She made a half-hearted attempt at swatting them away, but she was too weak.

Someone lifted her onto her feet. A man. She swayed, the room pitching and spinning around her. Her lungs were on fire, ready to burst.

I can’t bear this. Just let me die. Please, God, take me instead.She would trade places with Bailey in an instant if it meant bringing her daughter back.

“Mrs. Whitehead, please come with me out into the hall,” the man said.

Panic shot through her. She wrenched her arms free and stumbled forward a step, shaking her head. “No. Don’t touch me. I’m not leaving my baby.” She’d fight them. Fight them all with everything she had. They’d have to bodily drag her out of this room.

The man made a frustrated sound behind her. “Mrs. White—”

“No, goddamn it. Just get out!” She lunged for Bailey, afraid they would try and tear her away. She grabbed hold of her daughter’s ice-cold hand, and finally the grief broke through the pain. Great sobs wracked her as she stood there staring down at Bailey’s frozen features.

Baby, look what they did to you.

Voices murmured behind her. She didn’t hear any words. Didn’t care what they were saying. Didn’t care about anything anymore. Had never known she could hurt like this.

Her daughter was still so damn beautiful. So much potential, wasted. “Bailey,” she choked out, shaking all over. She couldn’t bring herself to look at Bailey’s arms. Didn’t want to see the needle tracks she knew she would find there. “Baby, I’m so sorry. So sorry…”This is partly my fault. I didn’t do enough to stop this.That almost killed her.

It had all started with a bad car accident.

Multiple broken bones and a concussion, whiplash. The doctor had prescribed Bailey Percocet and oxycodone. They’d helped at first. And Diane had missed the signs early on. She hadn’t noticed the way Bailey had begun relying on them. Sneaking them when she wasn’t looking. Hiding vials of them in various places.

Then the increased dosage had stopped working. So Bailey had begun taking more and more. Seeing a problem in the making, the doctor had cut her off, with Diane’s full support. And the unthinkable had happened.

Her sweet, loving and well-adjusted daughter had run away from home and turned to street drugs to feed her addiction.

Diane had found her. Put her directly into rehab. Bailey had left the first time. Relapsed after finishing on the second attempt. So Diane had done what any loving mother would do. She’d pulled up stakes and taken her daughter far away to save her.

Moving to Maui last year was supposed to give them both a fresh start, a new life far away from the toxic environment and people Bailey had been hanging with back in West Virginia. Bailey had completed rehab here. She’d been clean for over nine months.

Until her good-for-nothing ex-boyfriend from back home had destroyed her with a single phone call, derailing her recovery and sending her back to the heroin that had ultimately destroyed her.

Diane gazed down at her baby’s horrifyingly still face. The face of her only child and best friend. The only person who had truly understood and loved her on this earth. Now she had nothing and no one. God, she couldn’t take this, couldn’t bear to continue living in this place that was supposed to have been their island paradise, and instead had become their worst nightmare.

“Mrs. Whitehead, please,” the pathologist begged. “Come away now.”

“Just leave me alone.”

Utter devastation suffused Diane’s heart. They’d killed Bailey. The people who had sold her the heroin. The doctor who had prescribed the opioids that had begun this unimaginable tragedy. And all of Diane’s efforts to save her had been in vain.

Rage built beneath her ribs, a raging inferno that melted away the ice. Those people had murdered her daughter.

Gripping Bailey’s chilled hand tighter, she stared down into her daughter’s beloved face, the need for vengeance burning bright as the sun. “I’m going to find the people who did this to you,” she whispered. “And when I do, I swear to God I’ll make them pay.”

****

The familiar smell of stale sweat and hard work hit Kai the moment he opened the gym door. Over the smack of boxing gloves against pads, calls from the trainers rang out as they worked with their clients.

In the closest of the three rings, two guys wearing protective headgear were sparring while the trainers shouted encouragement and instructions. In the far ring, a huge guy worked with someone else. His back was to Kai, the level of his hands at mid-chest height suggesting that whoever was throwing the punches was a lot smaller than him.

Kai headed for the far ring, his attention riveted on the man’s invisible partner. He’d come here for one reason and one reason only: to see Abby.

He’d thought about her all last night, couldn’t get her out of his mind. Would getting involved be a huge mistake because of their friendship? They weren’t neighbors anymore. It’s not like they would see each other unless they made plans to meet up. But if shifting their relationship out of the friend zone would make things too weird for her, then he wouldn’t pursue anything. He didn’t want to lose her.

The trainer turned slightly, revealing a little blonde pixie throwing punches. Abby wore pink boxing gloves, a purple sports bra and a black running skirt. Her platinum bangs were stuck to her forehead, her face glistening with sweat as she threw punch after punch as her trainer called them out, the muscles in her arms and shoulders standing out.

Kai stopped and folded his arms, careful to stay out of her line of sight so he didn’t distract her, enjoying watching her. He’d never realized she’d taken up boxing. When she’d started going to the gym religiously a little over a year ago, he’d assumed she did yoga or whatever.

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