Trainer didn’t say anything in response, but I knew him well enough by now to see that he was troubled. I couldn’t figure out exactly why. Maybe he was upset that I asked Tammy instead of him?
“I better get Dominic home and in bed,” Tammy said as he let out a huge yawn.
“Thanks, Tammy,” I said sincerely. This was the hardest part about being a single parent, trying to make sure your kid was taken care of when something serious was going on, and you weren’t able to yourself.
“It’s no problem,” she placed her hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “You’re a part of the Outlaw Souls family now, and we take care of our own.”
I wanted to believe that, but I wasn’t like Tammy. She wasmarriedto Swole. They’d been together for years. I cared about them, and I was pretty sure that I loved Trainer, but that didn’t matter if it only went one way.
Tammy left with Dominic, and Trainer stood from his seat, lingering uncertainly. “I’ll come back first thing in the morning,” he promised.
Leaning down, he pressed a chaste kiss against my forehead before heading for the door. I wanted so much more. I wanted him to lay in this uncomfortable hospital bed with me in his arms and to tell me that everything would be okay, even though we both knew the threat of Jeff’s unstable violence was still out there.
I watched him walk out the door. The second he was gone, the silence in the room felt suffocating. Even the machines at my bedside were silent. Reaching over the table next to me, I picked up three different remotes. The red one said the wordNurseand had a single button. Pretty self-explanatory.
The other two looked similar, but one was for the TV, and the other had a cord that was attached to my bed. I used the second one to raise the top of the bed into a sitting position, nice and slowly. My ribs throbbed, but I’d have to get used to that. The doctor had already told me that they would take about six weeks to heal. It was going to be difficult to move to a new place with this injury.
With that depressing thought, I carefully swung my legs over the side of the bed, hissing through my teeth. The pain medication wasn’t strong enough to mask the effects of all this movement. I briefly considered calling a nurse, but Ineededto be independent right now, to prove to myself that I could do it. Soon enough, I’d have no choice.
I held my breath as I lowered my feet to the floor. Forgetting to avoid putting weight on my injured ankle, I almost collapsed as pain engulfed me.
“Shit,” I cried out.
A fresh wave of anger at Jeff gave me the strength to continue. So, I gripped my IV pole and used it as a crutch to avoid putting too much weight on the bad ankle. It seemed to take forever to get to the bathroom, but I eventually made it and felt a small sense of victory.
I wanted a shower to try and wash away this shitty day, but I didn’t dare try to do that by myself yet. If I fell in there, I could end up in much worse condition. So, I used the toilet, then washed my hands and face. When I looked at myself in the mirror above the sink, I stilled, staring at my reflection. The bruises and swelling made me feel sick.
I looked like the battered wife that I was, and for some reason, the sight of it made me feel light-headed. This was my reality. I had known that for a long time, but seeing myself like this was different. It made me feel hopeless.
I just wanted to be free of Jeff.
But I knew that when I closed my eyes tonight, I’d see him in my nightmares. There was no true freedom. Maybe there never would be.
When I finally made my way back into the bed and under the covers, my entire body seemed to ache. I knew that I should sleep like I said I was going to, but I didn’t want to relive the horror of what happened to me today. So, I picked up the TV remote instead.
It was almost an hour later that I fell into a restless sleep watching reruns of The Office.
Twenty-Five
Trainer
I hated leaving Erica alone in that cold hospital room. She didn’t ask me to stay, or even why I was leaving, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was disappointed.
I’d make it up to her.
For now, I needed to focus on making sure she was safe. When she spoke about obtaining fake IDs so that she could stay in La Playa, it didn’t escape my notice that she was speaking in the past tense. She was already thinking about fleeing again.
That was unacceptable. I needed her and Dominic. There was no denying that they had both stolen my heart.
So, when Hawk came through with the location of her husband, I knew that I needed to go have a conversation with him tonight. He was staying at the Castle Motel right off the freeway. It was a low-budget, seedy place, which surprised me, since Erica had mentioned that the guy was loaded. My only guess was that he chose it to stay under the radar. That was how people like this worked. They knew how to get away with shit, which included staying at one of the few places in La Playa that still accepted cash and didn’t exactly worry about checking identification.
Luckily, Hawk had connections just about everywhere, and that included this motel. I pulled into the parking lot, cutting the engine of my bike as I looked up at the second floor. Hawk’s contact was a housekeeper that told him a man fitting Jeff’s description was staying in room 223.
I sat on my bike for a moment, trying to decide how to handle this. I knew that finesse had never been my strong suit, so I followed my instincts. Going up the squeaky metal stairs to the second floor. I walked past a dozen doors before stopping in front of his room. Raising my fist, I pounded on his door with a thunderous boom. Once. Twice. Three times.
As soon as I heard the door unlatch, I lifted my booted foot and kicked the door open, knocking the man on the other side backward with a cry of surprise. He landed on his ass at the foot of his queen-sized bed. Stepping into the room, I slammed the door shut behind me.
“Jeff Donovan?” I asked. I’d never bothered to check out what the guy looked like before, so I wanted to be sure I had the right guy.
