Page 4 of Razor
“You really don’t like to have anyone helping you, do you?” he asked.
She sighed, “I’ve already told you that I’m an ER nurse. I know how to assess my injuries, Razor.”
“Got it,” he grumbled, “you don’t need any help and can take care of yourself. You still need to be checked out by a doctor.” She didn’t look very happy about that idea, but there was no way that he’d let her off the hook. She needed to be completely checked out—especially if she was raped. It would only strengthen her case if there was one. He believed that she was abducted and abused by the Devils. So many women had been but proving that was going to be the issue.
“Now, you’re just acting like a man-child,” Ella grumbled. “I’ve known enough of those to steer clear of them.”
“Well, for now, you’re stuck with me.” Razor left out the part about her possibly being stuck with him for longer than just the day. If the Devils were looking for Ella, she would need to lie low for a while, and that would mean putting her into protective custody, whether she liked it or not.
“Lucky me,” she sassed. He watched as she pulled the door open and hobbled through it on her own, just shaking his head at how stubborn she was.
“Are you always this stubborn?” he asked, following her into the precinct.
“Not usually, but being abducted, sold off at auction four times, and then having to kill a man—well, that kind of changes a person. How about you let me worry about myself and you take my statement so that I can be on my way?” she asked.
He held the door to his office open for her, and she stepped in. “Where will you go?” he asked.
“Um, I’ll call my dad and find out what happened to my apartment and all my stuff,” she said. He nodded to the chair in front of his desk, and she sat down, grimacing a little when her leg hit the seat. “If he had to let my lease go, I’m sure that I’ll be able to stay with him for a bit until I can get back on my feet.”
Spade stuck his head into Razor’s office and gruffly asked what he needed. “I’m glad that you’re here,” Razor admitted.
“Well, I’m heading out soon, so how about you tell me why I’ve been summoned to your office?” Spade said, getting right to the point. It’s the reason why Razor liked the guy so much. They had the same get-it-done mentality.
“Right, this is Ella, and she claims to have been abducted by the Devils,” Razor said, introducing her.
“What the hell do you mean by ‘Claims’?” she asked. “I’m not claiming, I’m telling you that the Devils took me against my will and sold me off at auction—four times. It’s not a claim, it’s a fact,” she spat.
Spade sat down on the edge of the desk and smiled at Ella. The guy always laid on the charm with the ladies, and Razor often wondered how his wife felt about that. “How about you tell me what happened, and Razor can sit behind his big, importantdesk and take down your statement?” he asked. Ella smiled smugly at Razor and nodded her agreement.
“Great,” Razor mumbled under his breath. He didn’t invite Spade down to his office to give him crap, but at least he was going to get Ella to talk. That was more than he’d been able to do since picking her up on the side of the road. She had told him the gist of her story, but he was sure that there was so much more to it than she was sharing.
He sat down and grabbed his laptop out of his locked desk drawer. “I’m ready,” he said, opening it. “Whenever you are, Ella.”
She took a deep breath and nodded again. Spade stood and sat down next to Ella in the adjacent chair. “How about we start with your full name, Ella?” he asked.
“My name is Ella Rainwater,” she almost whispered. It was as though saying her name out loud was like giving away a piece of her soul.
“How old are you, Ella?” Spade asked.
“I’m twenty-six,” she admitted. Razor could feel himself grimace at how young she was. For someone still in her twenties, she had been through a hell of a lot. “I missed my last birthday,” she admitted. “When they took me, I was twenty-five. They held me for almost six months, and when I realized that I had missed my twenty-sixth birthday, I was a mess.”
“I’m sure,” Spade said. “Where were you when they took you?”
“I had gone out with some of my friends—you know, went dancing and had a couple drinks, but I had to call it an early night because I had a shift the next morning.”
“A shift,” Spade repeated.
“Yes, I’m an ER nurse,” she said, looking around Spade at Razor. “Some people in this room think that I’m not a very good one because they keep insisting that I’m not okay—and I am.”
Razor rolled his eyes and cleared his throat at being called out by Ella. “I never said that you weren’t a good nurse, Ella,” he corrected. “I just said that you’re going to have to get checked out by a doctor. You are covered in blood.”
She looked down at her body and back up at Razor. “I’ve told you that it’s not all mine. Some of it belongs to the man that I killed.”
“Fuck,” Spade swore. “Why didn’t you tell me that she killed a man? I thought that this was a kidnapping investigation.”
“It is,” Razor assured. “The Devils kidnapped Ella and sold her off four times. She killed the last guy to escape, and here we are.”
“Is he telling the story, or am I?” she questioned. Razor had to admit, she was sassy, and he loved a woman with a bit of spunk.
