23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
I’m startledawake at 2:03 in the morning. Having no idea what roused me from my sleep, I listen for a moment, but hear nothing moving in the house. It’s pitch black outside with the clouds covering the moon. The weatherman said we can expect bad storms to move through the area today and it seems they’re coming in early. Sophia is still sound asleep, but for some reason I’m wide-awake. Easing out of bed, being careful not to wake her, I slip on my lounging pants and head to my study.
The whole ordeal with my wreck, the hospitalization, and the knowledge that someone intentionally planted that device to make me wreck has kept me on edge. I haven’t admitted this to anyone—including Tucker and Shadow—but I can’t shake the foreboding feeling I’ve had since then. I’ve tried to dismiss it as an after-effect of all these traumatic events, but the fact is, whoever is responsible is still out there.
Keeping my movements as light and quiet as possible, I pace back and forth, trying to make square pegs fit into round holes. The gaps in my memory of the wreck are becoming narrower as bits and pieces of that morning come back to me. Leaning my head back in frustration, I look up at the ceiling and focus on the recessed lighting directly above me.
Headlights. I remember headlights approaching way too fast and from out of nowhere that morning. Whoever was in that car must’ve been waiting for me to pass them and then they pulled out and floored it to catch up with me. The way Shadow described that device indicated they had to be close to use the remote control.
Strolling over to my desk, I grab a pen and pad to make notes about everything before I forget a single detail. Maybe seeing it in writing will jog more details that could be useful. I scribble my questions on the paper.What kind of car was it? What color? How long were they close to me? What happened to them when I lost control?They sure didn’t call for help, so I have no doubt that was their sole purpose.
Not that I had any doubt that my life was in danger, but the memory of this car speeding up from nowhere both infuriates and alarms me. If it was so easy to get to my car, they could do it to Sophia’s just as easily. I’m leaning over the front of my desk with my back to the door, busily making notes and writing more questions, when I feel a presence behind me. I quickly straighten my back to turn and face them, but before I can move, there’s a sharp pinch in the back of my neck and my vision instantly starts fading.
* * *
“Dominic! Dominic!”
I can hear Sophia frantically calling my name but I can’t respond. She sounds terrified and I struggle to fight against the heaviness that has engulfed my entire body. I’m having a difficult time moving my arms and my eyelids feel like they’ve been weighed down with cinder blocks. My mind is reeling, knowing something bad has happened, but I can’t make my body cooperate to help her, shelter her, and protect her.
“Dominic! Open your eyes!” she cries. “Please, Dom, please open your eyes!”
Despite being more than groggy, I finally win the battle and force my eyes to open. Everything is blurry, but there’s a bright light over my head, and those damn flashing blue and red lights everywhere. Shaking my head, I sit up more and put my head in my hands. Rubbing my eyes in an attempt to make them cooperate, I look at my surroundings again.
Sophia, Tucker, and Shadow are all standing in the doorway, looking at me. I look down and see that I’m on a gurney. In the back of an ambulance.What the fuck is going on?
As I start to get up off the gurney, the paramedic tries to stop me, “Whoa! Whoa! Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’ve had about enough of this shit,” I say, madder than hell now. “What the hell is going on?”
When I climb out of the back, it’s then that I realize Sophia is covered in soot and another medic has an oxygen mask on her face. She keeps taking it off to try to talk to me and he keeps putting it back up to cover her nose and mouth. “Ma’am, if you don’t wear this and get your oxygen saturation level back up, I will have to transport you the hospital,” he says decisively.
“Keep it on, Sophia,” I agree with the medic. Tucker has his oxygen mask on and is also covered in black soot. “Shadow, what the hell is going on?”
Shadow walks me around the side of the ambulance and I get a good look at my house. There are fire trucks all over the front yard. Hoses are stretched out across the lawn from the tanker and several men are holding the hose as they put out the last of the fire. There’s definitely no way the house is livable with all this damage.
“What do you remember last?” Shadow asks.
Taking my eyes off the disastrous scene in front of me, I focus instead on my last memories. “I couldn’t sleep so I got up and went to my study. I started writing down the events I was remembering from just before my wreck. I felt someone in the room with me, but before I could turn around, I felt a pinch in the back of my neck. That’s the last thing I remember,” I tell Shadow.
He walks me back over to the ambulance and motions for me to get in. He climbs in behind me, effectively taking up all the space left in the back, and meticulously examines my neck. “Here,” he says to the medic when he puts his finger on a specific spot. “Make sure to note this in your trip report. Mr. Powers was injected with a drug, most likely a benzo since it was so fast acting.”
Sophia is listening to the conversation and quickly removes her oxygen mask, “Someone drugged you?You need to go to the hospital!”
“I’m fine, Sophia. There are other things I need to take care of right now,” I say distractedly as I climb out of the ambulance again. Sitting down beside her, I take her hand in mine and kiss the back of it. “Are you okay, love? Are you hurt?”
“No, Dom, I’m not hurt,” she replies, “just coughing a little, but they said that’s normal.”
Lacing our fingers together, feeling so grateful she wasn’t hurt, I ask Tucker the same thing. He waves me off as if this was an everyday, run of the mill occurrence. Typical Tucker. “Someone fill me in on what happened after I was knocked out,” I state to my motley crew.
Tucker’s eyes cut to Sophia and she immediately lowers her eyes to stare at her lap. Tucker won’t look at me and Shadow has the biggest shit-eating grin on his face I’ve ever seen. “Someone better start talking.”
“Well, Mr. Powers, while you were napping in the study, someone set fire to the house. Since your fire alarms are all wired together as one unit, when the first one goes off, it sets the rest of them off, too. Tucker ran upstairs and bypassed the first floor, thinking you and Miss Vasco were both in your bedroom. The alarm woke her up and she ran into the hall just as Tucker arrived at your room.
“Tucker got her outside and met me here in the front yard. It was then that Miss Vasco realized you weren’t already out here. Tucker confirmed he hadn’t seen or heard from you, so Miss Vasco ranbackinto the burning house to find you,” Shadow paused for effect and let his words sink in.
“YOU. DID. WHAT?” I bellow. Sophia shrinks away and doesn’t dare to look at me. I immediately remember to watch my temper, especially given her past. I’m still beyond pissed off, but I lower my voice and try again. “You ran back in the burning house, Sophia?”
