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My thumb hovered over the screen, ready to put their worries at ease, but something physically held me back from typing out what I knew was a lie. What I was currently doing was some of the most dangerous shit I’d ever done. I voluntarily put a bullseye right on my back, all for a young girl I didn’t even know. But her story had been so much like Cora’s, I couldn’t ignore it.
The loss of my sister, my best friend in the entire fucking world, had changed me, irrevocably. The person I was when she’d been alive, died right there beside her on that cold forest floor all those years ago, and who I was now was a product of that nightmare.
My parents weren’t bad people. In fact, they did their very best to show me nothing but love and support. The problem was that they struggled to understand why I couldn’t go back to the kid I’d been before Cora died. The loss of my sister was a devastating blow for all three of us, but while they tried to rebuild their lives and work their way back to who they’d been before, for me, that person no longer existed. They tried. Lord knew they bent over backward trying to understand, but losing Cora created this chasm deep inside me, cutting me off from everyone else, and I couldn’t find my way across.
The truth I kept buried so deep I hoped it would eventually fade from reality, was that I didn’t want to find a way across. The solitude that surrounded me since Cora was killed wasn’t something I initially intended. But there was a piece of me who knew I wouldn’t be able to survive another loss like that. The first one had taken too much from me, so the safest option was to make sure no one ever became that close again. I wore my solitude like a coat of armor that kept everyone far enough away so I didn’t risk connection. It wasn’t exactly the healthiest way to live, but it was the best I could manage.
At least that had been the case.
Until Iris.
My thumb hovered over that message for a full five minutes as I tried to work up the nerve to reply. In the end I did what I always did and chickened out. Closing out of the text chain with my parents, I scrolled through my contacts until I got to the number I was looking for.
The call connected on the fifth ring.
“This is Crews.”
I felt one corner of my mouth tremble with a barely-there smile. That was usually all I could muster. “I know who it is, asshole. I’m the one who called you.”
His chuckle carried through the line. “Aw, did I hurt your little snowflake feelings, Hastings?”
“Actually, you did. My heart is aching right now, you prick. I don’t think I’ll get over it.”
He let out a hearty chuckle. “It’s good to hear your voice, North. Been way too long.”
“Good to hear yours too, Arch.” Archer Crews was a friend of mine back in the Academy. He was the only real friend I had and the only person who hadn’t been directly involved that I told about Cora.
It had been a bad night. It was the anniversary of her death and I’d gotten shit-faced drunk. Much like the night with Iris, only, we’d been broke cadets at the time and could only afford beer. The hangover had been a bitch, but at least I remembered the night.
“I know I’ve been MIA lately. I’ve had a lot of shit going on.”
He let out a heavy sigh. He might not know the details of what I had planned, but he was aware enough about it to hate it. “Christ, what have you gotten up to now?”
I told him about Ashland, what lead me here, and how things at the department were running. “Fuck,” he hissed out once I finished. “You fucking asshole. You have a death wish or something?”
I didn’t answer, because I honestly didn’t know. I couldn’t explain the drive I felt to do right by these women. I only knew I had to help them.
No matter the cost.
“God dammit, Hastings” he snapped at my silence. “Have you given a single fucking thought to what this would do to your folks if you got hurt? Or, God forbid, worse?”
“It’s crossed my mind a time or two,” I deadpanned, that sinking sensation in my gut returning with a vengeance. “Look, man. I’m not doing this shit to try and hurt anyone. Myself included. It’s just something I have to do.”
He let out a string of curses under his breath before stating, “You get yourself killed, I’ll find a way to bring your ass back just so I can beat the shit out of you.”
“Well, that’s why I was calling.” I blew a breath out past my lips. There was no other man on the planet I trusted more than Archer Crews. “I need your help, man.”
My shift was over and I was taking the cruiser back to the station when a call came in. Medical emergency. Normally I would have let the officer on duty handle it, but when I heard the name of the person in distress, something came over me. My body reacted without any input from my head, switching on the blinker and whipping the wheel around heading in the opposite direction.
By the time I pulled up to the address dispatch had given, my heart was in my throat. A fire engine, ambulance, and police cruiser were parked outside Cheryl Maxwell’s house. Iris’s mother.
I climbed out of my cruiser and headed up the front walk at a fast clip. The darkness of the night sky was broken up by the flashing red and blue lights of the response vehicles.
“Hastings? What the hell are you doing here?”
I paused for just a second, coming toe-to-toe with that piece of shit, Simmons. “I was nearby when the call came in. Figured I’d swing by and see if I could help.”
The way his eyes narrowed told me he wasn’t sure if he bought my excuse or not, but he wasn’t happy with my sudden appearance either way. “Whatever.” He pointed at me with his index and middle finger. “Just stay out of my way.”
