Page 67 of Lorna's Savior
“You little bitch, we need to talk.”
“Not now, Mother.” Lorna tried to get away, but Kristen whipped her around, and slapped her across the face. In anger, Lorna struck out to defend herself and ended up slapping Kristen back. Pissed, upset, and angry, with her insides shaking, Lorna glared at her mother. “I said, not now. The world doesn’t revolve around you. I have other things to deal with besides your bullshit. Now unhand me, or you’ll regret it.”
“Ha, you’re nothing. You’ll do as I say, when I say.”
“No, I won’t.” Lorna jerked her arm from her mother’s grasp and didn’t realize her long nails had pulled her skin, or that she was bleeding. Lorna got into her mother’s face and demanded. “Tell me, Mother. Who the fuck is Marvin Hepplewaite?” When Kristen looked at her in shock, but remained silent, Lorna gave her a shove, and stepped back. “I thought so. Goodbye, Mother.” She turned on her heel and hurried to her car, ignoring the shouts from several people behind her. She had to get away from these people.
Chapter 27
It was a hairy ride home for Lorna, she couldn’t stop crying enough to see the road, but she did it anyway. As she pulled into the parking garage at the bottom of her apartment building, she realized she still had that investigator’s card clenched in her hand.
“Monk Andrew Ball Investigations,”the card read. As she looked at it, she flashed back all the times she’d said any variation of monk to Andy. “Oh my god, he was laughing at me the whole time,” she whispered, and felt herself shrink. “I’m so humiliated.” Grabbing her purse, because she’d left her briefcase at the office, she exited her car and made her way to the elevator. She was a couple of hours earlier than normal, so the car came right away. As she rode up, she still couldn’t get her tears under control. Uncaring, she let them flow. Stepping off the elevator, she saw three huge, strappingly handsome men standing in the doorway outside her apartment. Cautiously she approached, but they were banging on Andy’s door. Feeling a sense of relief, she started forward, then stopped when she saw the man of all her anguish.
“Monkey!” One man called out when he saw Andy. They hugged, and slapped each other on the back. It was obvious Andy was used to the name.
“Ball Buster!” The other two called out, and they too hugged, and slapped each other’s back.
Lorna saw red, not caring if she sounded like a deranged lunatic, she rushed forward, shoved the men out of her way, and stood before Andy. “You knew?” She bit out. “How long were you fucking laughing at me?” She shoved him and she could tell Andy knew what she was talking about. When the men tried to intervene, all she had to do was give them one look, before they held up their hands, and backed away.
“Lorna, I can explain!”
“What? That you laughed at me from the first time I met you? That you went behind my back and interrogated me without my knowledge. To get dirt on my mother for some sick fuck’s jolly? That must have been a hilarious conversation. The woman you’ve been fucking revealing all.” Incensed, Lorna brought her hand back and slapped Andy’s face as hard as she could. She didn’t care that her hand became instantly numb. All she cared about was that bright red mark on his cheek.
“Never talk to me again!” She screamed, then went to her apartment, fumbled with the lock, then when she finally got the door to open, she slammed it so hard that she heard a picture hanging on the wall in the hallway crash. She locked the door, slid down, curled into the fetal position, and burst into tears. She didn’t care who heard her. She felt like her heart had been ripped out of her chest.
Lorna didn’t know how long she lay there. When she could finally move, it was only to drag herself to her bedroom, change into some ratty shorts and tee, and climb into bed. She never even bothered to remove her makeup. Lorna spent the night staring at the wall on the other side of the bedroom. At four in the morning, she rose, showered, and dressed for work. Before leaving, she boxed up everything Andy had left at her apartment, and put it outside his door. She left a note, asking for her items to be returned.
By five o’clock she climbed in her car and headed to work. Halfway there, she saw headlights fast approaching from behind, and moved over, thinking it was a police officer. Instead, the vehicle got right behind her and put his high beams on, blinding Lorna. She jerked the wheel, and when she did, she was hit from behind, and pushed into the corner of a building. She had tried to make the alley, but didn’t turn her wheel fast enough. The impact caused her air bag to deploy. She must have passed out, because the next thing she knew, someone tossed her into the back of a van, slammed the door shut, then banged on the side of it. Lorna flew into the wall, hit her head, and passed out when the van took off with a squeal of tires. It would be several hours before she realized what had happened.
* * *
The next morning, Andy stumbled out of his bedroom and growled at his houseguests sitting in his living room and invading his kitchen. After pouring himself a cup of steaming coffee, he began to feel human.
“Want to talk about it?” Brian, his cousin, asked from his seat at the island, sipping his own coffee.
“Not really.”
“Might help,” Grover said as he joined them.
“Yeah,” Lucky agreed as he too joined them.
“Why are you guys here again?” Andy growled at them.
“Because the team was given a week off because of Trigger’s wedding. We didn’t have any plans, so I thought I’d come see you. It’s not like we ever have a lot of time off. Grover and Lucky decided to ride along.”
“Oh.” Andy shook his head, looked out into space and sipped his coffee. “It’s a clusterfuck.”
“We saw that.” Grover grinned. “Who was that hot chick anyway?” He quickly held up his hands by the look on Andy’s face. “Sorry, but you have to admit, she is hot.”
“Yeah, she is.” Andy admitted, then he proceeded to tell them how he had met Lorna, and about their relationship. Only after he’d talked about that, did he mention his investigation.
“Did you sleep with her to garner that information?” Lucky asked as he refilled their cups and made a fresh pot.
“No. I met her on a Friday night, and she didn’t even live next door the day I met her. She moved in the next day. See, I had rented a hotel room, because the paint fumes coming from that apartment were bad. And I had just had my carpets professionally cleaned. It was recommended that I didn’t walk on them for at least forty-eight hours. We hooked up, and went there. She left me in the middle of the night. And, before you ask, we never exchanged names. I thought it was only a hookup, you know, a one-night stand, but a week or two later, I saw her standing on her deck. We hooked up again. It wasn’t until six weeks ago that we became serious.”
“How serious?” Brian asked.
“Serious enough that I’m going to ask her to marry me.” Andy grinned when Brian actually fell off his stool and spilled his coffee.
