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“Hello?” My voice was thick.
“Fury?”
A woman’s voice, unfamiliar and tense, crackled through the speaker.
“Yes. Who’s this?” I scrubbed my face with my free hand, fumbling to switch on the bedside lamp. Harsh light flooded the room, making me wince.
“Vanessa Rodriguez. I’m Sienna’s roommate.”
My stomach dropped, every muscle tensing. “What’s wrong?”
“She’s been mugged.”
Ice flooded my veins. “Where is she? Is she okay?”
“She’s here,” Vanessa said, exasperation clear in her tone. “She’s refusing to go to the hospital.”
“I’m fine!” Sienna’s voice rang out in the background, slurred but defiant. “I just need to sleep.”
“That’s the last thing you need to do,” Vanessa snapped, her patience clearly fraying. “And if you won’t listen to me, maybe you’ll listen to him.”
I didn’t bother telling her that I doubted I could make Sienna listen any more than Vanessa could; honestly, at this point, the roommate probably had a better chance. Still, I wasn’t going to give Sienna a reason to turn me away. I was already throwing off the covers and scrambling to find clothes.
“If you can’t get her to go to the hospital, she needs someone to stay with her for a while. Make sure she doesn’t start throwing up or pass out or anything.”
“I just have a headache,” Sienna muttered, her voice quieter this time but still audible. “I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Normally, I’d stay with her,” Vanessa continued, ignoring Sienna. “But my sister just called to say she’s in labor. Her husband’s overseas on deployment and won’t be back until next week. I’m her backup birthing partner.”
“I’m on my way,” I said. “If you have to leave, go ahead.”
“Thanks,” Vanessa replied. “I have a little time before I have to go, but if I’m gone before you get here, I’ll let Sienna know she can’t lock you out.”
Something in the way she said that made me think she knew that Sienna was being weird with me, maybe even knew why. If she did, and had still called me, it meant she was rooting for me, and that felt good. Really good.
“I’m heading to my car now,” I said as I locked my door behind me. “I’ll text you when I’m at your building.”
We ended the call, and I focused on getting to their place as quickly and safely as I could. Less than twenty minutes later, I hit the buzzer, and Vanessa let me in, but didn’t linger. When the door closed behind her, leaving Sienna and me alone for the first time since I’d dropped her off here on Thanksgiving night, I turned to Sienna.
“I’m fine,” she said before I could even speak.
I raised an eyebrow and walked over to where she sat on the couch, holding something to the back of her head. I perched on the low table in front of her, close enough for our knees to brush, but I resisted the urge to reach for her. I had no idea what had been going on with her, and I wasn’t about to assume my touch was welcome.
“What happened?”
“I was mugged.” The words came out flat, and her eyes darted everywhere but at me.
“Then why won’t you go to the hospital to get that looked at?” I gestured toward her head. “A mugging is hardly something you need to hide.”
“You saw how the cops treated Lulu and me,” Sienna shot back. “Do you really think they’d give a damn about me getting mugged? Hell, that one asshole would probably claim I made it up.”
“Then we find another cop.”
“You don’t get it,” Sienna snapped. “No one gives a shit about people like me, so why should I waste my time trying to get them to care? I’d rather just sit here with ice on my head and wait for the ibuprofen to kick in.”
“I give a shit,” I shot back, unable to hold back. “I thought I’d made that pretty clear.”
“Oh, yeah, your whole savior complex makes it crystal clear.” Sienna rolled her eyes. “You just love swooping in and saving damsels in distress, right? And that’s what I am. How you see me. And while you might think it’s better than how those cops saw me, it’s not.”
