She was hearing things. Gideon’s voice. Her mind playing tricks on her. She really couldn’t breathe though. She did need her inhaler; she just couldn’t move her arms. They felt like lead. She couldn’t lift them. She could barely look around her at all the glass from the shattered windows. The doors torn off, the trunk popped open and jagged tears in the metal as if someone had tried to tear off the trunk the way they’d ripped off the doors. All the seats had been taken out and trashed. The sides of the car had been beaten in, creating craters. The hood was ripped off and something poured all over the engine. The outside of the car was spray-painted, telling her what they were going to do to her, none of it good.
The giant letters blurred unless she really focused, but why bother? She wasn’t certain why she was a bitch or a whore. Why someone was going to fuck her raw. This was pure hatred. She couldn’t possibly have given anyone reason to hate her this much.
Red, I know you’re upset with me, and you have every reason to be, but you have to use your inhaler. I’m coming to you. I’m on my way. If you need to call the cops, do it. I can’t leave you alone when you’re in trouble.
That was definitely Gideon talking in her head, not a figment of her imagination. She had to pull it together. The roaring in her ears wouldn’t go away, sounding so loud it nearly drowned out his voice.
She felt a hand on the nape of her neck, pushing her head down. It should have helped, but her lungs and airway refused to open, shutting down even more. She was too close to the concrete and the dust and dirt. Her panic increased. Her heart accelerated, pounded out of control, going crazy, the pressure in her chest so severe it was painful.
Far off, she could hear voices talking, but she couldn’t distinguish one from the other, and she had no clue what anyone was saying.
She became aware of being lifted. Of her palm on a chest and her inhaler pressed into her mouth.
“Breathe in, Red.”
It was a command, nothing less. She heard that very distinctly. She felt the chest lift beneath her palm, and she automatically took a breath, instinctively following that same pattern. In. Out. At first, she was unaware who had her, but then his scent hit. Gideon. She was shaking so much she wouldn’t have been able to hold herself upright if he hadn’t been pressing her so tightly in his arms. Surrounding her with safety.
She refused to cry again. She was already a mess. He didn’t need to see her as more of one. But however much she didn’t want to see him, she didn’t want Lydia or the detective to call an ambulance. She would be totally humiliated.
Feeling a little stronger, she made an attempt to take the inhaler herself. Her arm still wouldn’t cooperate. Pins and needles began to replace the numbness, as if her body were returning to life. The roaring in her ears receded enough that she began to hear the conversations happening around her.
“I’m Detective Larrsen.”
“Gideon Carpenter.” Gideon kept his arms around Rory. “She has severe asthma.”
“I should have known she needed her inhaler,” Lydia said, a sob in her voice. “I’m sorry, Rory. I couldn’t think. I just couldn’t think.”
“I take it you and Rory are seeing each other?”
Rory tried not to react. She knew if she objected and said she’d split up with Gideon, he’d instantly become a suspect. No way had he done this. She nodded her head, not looking at either Gideonor Lydia. She sent up a silent prayer to the universe that Lydia wouldn’t contradict her.
“How did you know Rory was in trouble?” The question was asked in a mild, almost casual voice.
“I texted him when she went down,” Lydia said. “Pam, Janice and I talked it over and thought Gideon should know. We were worried after we first saw the car. Rory is very independent, and we weren’t sure if she would tell him, so we agreed we should. I still hesitated until she went down like that, and then I just had to.”
“I see,” Larrsen said. There was amusement in his voice.
Rory wasn’t certain if Lydia was telling the truth or not. She sounded very honest, but then she knew Rory had broken up with Gideon. She didn’t know why, and Rory hadn’t told any of them. They only knew Rory had been heartbroken. Lydia was a romantic at heart, and maybe she saw this as an opportunity to get them back together.
Rory might not want suspicion to fall on Gideon, but she told herself that was because she wanted the real perpetrators to be hunted down.
“There are security cameras in the garage, right?” Gideon asked. He began to massage Rory’s arms, helping to get the blood flowing much faster.
“That was the very first thing taken out. Clearly, they knew what they were doing. Every camera was destroyed coming into the parking garage. There’s no recording of them driving in even on the lower levels.”
“This was planned out very carefully,” Gideon observed. “And it was done by more than one person.”
Larrsen agreed. “Rory, did you have anything of value in your car?”
She shook her head. It was still impossible to put a coherent sentence together. Her lungs burned, but the raw ache was beginningto subside along with the terrible panic. She kept her gaze away from the wreck of her car.
“Janice said she picked up mail, registration, insurance papers and a notebook that were strewn all over the floor of the garage and shoved them in a tote bag.”
“By the looks of the car, this attack was personal. Was it the same in her apartment?” Gideon asked.
Larrsen shook his head. “The break-in at the apartment didn’t feel personal. My take was someone was looking for something in the furniture. None of the women bought their furniture from the same place. Nothing appeared to be taken. There was no graffiti in the apartment, like on the car. No message written.”
Rory started shaking all over again when she’d just begun to get herself under control. No one had ever hated her—that she knew of. What could she have possibly done to cause someone to despise her so much? She remembered everything after her childhood. Every conversation. She didn’t intentionally snub people. Or hurt their feelings. Had she ignored someone at the bar? How had she not noticed someone following her home?
