How to Save a Life (27 page)

I couldn’t be happier, I had my son with me in my home. But even still, my heart wasn’t completely whole. A piece was missing in the form of a tall man with brown hair and piercing hazel eyes. I missed Mike. I missed my best friend.

“Now you be good for Tessa, alright?" I told Ben as I was crouched down in front of him in The Morgan’s living room. I adjusted his glasses because they never really seemed to keep straight on his little face. Boys and all of their rough housing, I would never understand.

“I will, mommy," he replied with a whisper cautiously looking in Tessa’s direction. I had to brace myself for the possibility of the onslaught of tears to begin streaming down his face since I was leaving him. He was still getting used to being in a new place and actually being able to be with me all the time.

I enveloped Ben in a hug and he squeezed me tightly before letting go and giving me an Eskimo kiss.

I stood from my place on the floor and watched my little man run off to play with Blake Morgan. Dodged the tears bullet today. Tessa and her mother in law had been a godsend, one of them always offered to watch Benjamin while I was at work. I told them that, at any time, I could find a more permanent sitter, but they wouldn’t hear of it, Tessa actually told me not to be ‘redonkulous’ perhaps one of these days I would get used to her outrageous lingo. When Tessa was working her mother in law watched Blake so they said it was nice to have another little boy around the same age for him to play with.

It was a huge relief to have someone that I knew and trusted watch my son.

Ben had been here for just a few weeks and together we had adjusted pretty well. Wanda knew that I wouldn’t work much overtime now since my son was with me, so we’ve gotten our schedules fixed to what would work out well for us both. She even hired a part-time waitress to work at night so I was able to leave at a decent time.

I couldn’t deny the lonely feeling that I felt at night whenever I would lie in my bed thinking of Mike, hoping he was just in the room next to me, or my ultimate dream, actually lying right next to me.

I left The Morgan’s and got in my new to me car, and went on about my way to work. I wished that I could say that I was surprised to be hearing from Brock when he called about my car but that would’ve been a lie. Mike had basically cut all ties from me and I really couldn’t blame him. Everything just led up to a downward spiral, first with me not telling him about Ben, then him jumping to his own conclusions about Ethan. Ethan didn’t openly advertise himself as being gay, but he didn’t hide it either. His business was his own and I wasn’t about to openly seek out Mike just to tell him that Ethan wasn’t into me nor was I into him. He had made his decision and as much as that hurt, I had to move on with my life because of my son.

I made it into work a few minutes before my shift started and I didn’t hesitate to tie my apron around my waist and set out making fresh coffee.

Today was an unusually slow day for The Diner so I made sure to keep myself busy by making sure all of the counters and tables were continuously wiped clean and all of the condiments and metal napkin dispensers were filled.

Wanda had just stepped through the door to the kitchen to go outback to take her break and I was finishing up with a customer.

Tipping up the coffee pot making sure that I got the last of the hot brown liquid into the cup placed on the table in front of my customer, I smiled to them and said, “Please let me know if you need anything else."

I turned around and directly into a brick wall of a chest as a hand wrapped around my upper arm, digging into my flesh.

Slowly tipping my head to where I could look into the eyes of the owner of this body, I couldn’t believe the set of ice cold eyes staring back at me.

I took two steps back trying to get away from the person when I felt the handle to the coffee pot slip from my grasp and quickly fall to the floor, breaking into hundreds of tiny little pieces.

“P…Pate," I barely got out through my trembling voice.

“Tsk. Tsk. Sheridan," he leaned towards my ear and said. Having his hot breath on my skin made me tremble in fear.

This wasn’t happening.

This couldn’t be happening.

He continued on, “I’m going to give you five minutes to get this mess cleaned up and out into my car willfully before I come back in and drag you out myself, making a scene. And if you don’t come out on your own, there will be consequences for little Ben." My eyes bulged out of my head and my legs felt as if they were going to crumble.

How did he know about Ben?

He placed his hands on my cheeks and directed my face up to where I was forced to look in his eyes. “Do I make myself clear?"

“Yes, sir," I said instantly thrown back into being that scared woman who felt inadequate and insecure.

He let go of my arm and left as quickly as he came leaving me a terrified shaking mess.

I could feel the walls begin to force in on me, but I couldn’t let them, I didn’t have time. I couldn’t let anything happen to Ben.

I turned towards the kitchen to see Archie looking at me through the serving window.

I glanced down towards my feet at the broken shards of glass, “The coffee pot slipped out of my hands. I’ll get the broom." Lowering my head, I went to retrieve the broom and dustpan to dispose of my mess. Luckily this wasn’t the first time so hopefully no one would be none the wiser.

I had to quickly think about what to do because I didn’t have much time remaining. The thing about Pate was when he said he was going to do something, he would do it. So I had no doubt in my mind that he would come back into The Diner and drag me out kicking and screaming. He had never done anything forcefully to me in public, but he’s had several months to stew on my leaving. And here to think that I thought that I was completely safe and now out of harm’s way. But now I had to protect Ben. No one would come between my son and me anymore.

I went behind the counter retrieving my purse and walked through the swinging door that led towards the kitchen. Archie had his back to me busy making food and cleaning the grill so he had no idea that I was picking out a knife from the butcher block and slipping it into my purse.

If things came down to it, I wouldn’t hesitate to take matters into my own hands.

“Uh Archie. Something came up and I’m going to have to leave. I’m sorry for it being such short notice."

He had stopped what he was doing and turned around to face me. Giving me a stern look, “Are you sure everything is ok?" Archie was more like a second father to me rather than a boss. He had that protective instinct.

I tried to let out a lighthearted giggle, but I was pretty sure that I failed, “Everything is fine. Nothing to worry about."

“Well alright, call and let us know if you need anything." The vibe he was giving off led me to think that he didn’t believe my lie. Even though I had never been any good at lying, I didn’t know what else to do.

I knew my time was quickly running out so I rushed through the glass and metal front door to the diner making sure to keep my purse close to me at all times.

True to his word, Pate was standing in the concrete parking lot, casually leaning against his car as if he wasn’t about to commit a crime.

Apparently I wasn’t walking fast enough for him so he stormed over to me and grabbed my arm once again as I tried to cower away from him.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Sheridan."

He opened the back driver’s side door before he wretched my purse out of my grasp and threw it on the other side of the car. Then he proceeded to yank my arms behind my back and secure my hands together. Feeling the hard plastic bite into my skin, I knew his handcuff of choice was a zip tie.

My brain was working overtime trying to think of various ways to escape.

Pushing down on the top of my head to get me to crouch down, he placed a hand on my upper back and shoved me into the backseat in the same manner as my purse. That’s all I was to him, an object to do with as he saw fit.

Looking back through the window, I saw his smooth the wrinkles out of his suit jacket and unbutton the one button that held it together in front of his stomach so he could move a little more freely. Then he glanced around and all I could do was hope that someone saw the assault that just occurred.

Pate opened the driver’s side door and smoothly slid behind the wheel to his luxurious car and cranked the engine. He wasted no time leaving the parking lot and going in the direction of wherever he was taking me.

I was laying on my side, which wasn’t comfortable at all and there was no possible way for me to move to be able to sit up and see where we were going. I hoped to God that he wasn’t going to take me back to his house out of Brown County.

It didn’t take him long before I saw him adjust the rearview mirror to where he could see my face and I could see his.

“Do you honestly think that I’m stupid, Sheridan? I saw the look on your face whenever I mentioned Ben. I don’t know how you thought you could keep it a secret from me. Being a lawyer, I can find out just about anything about anyone."

My chin began quivering and I was on the verge of tears, I thought I had covered my tracks with everything with Ben. But I did just leave him with my parents.

“I will admit that I didn’t know about him until after you left, but before then I didn’t have any need to dig into your parent’s information while you were with me. But when I found out that I had a son that you hid from me, I was shocked and then appalled. It didn’t take much time for me to figure out that you had changed your name. Sheridan," he glanced back up through the mirror to where I could see the pity in his eyes, “did you not think I couldn’t find you? You changed your last name from Meinshein to Nichols? At least next time change your first name as well to make it a little more challenging for me. I just had to bide my time until the right moment to come get you. Of course, you were always around Mike Jameson and by looking through his personal history, I could tell that he was a ticking time bomb that I really didn’t have the patience to deal with. So I waited, weeks turned to months, then once you brought the boy here and Jameson was no longer coming around I knew it was now my time. But you began hanging out with someone new, my initial thought was that you were quite the little slut, but then I checked Deputy Ethan Bradley out and that boy is as queer as they get."

I didn’t want to hear him slandering the people that I cared most about, but I really didn’t have any other option. I should have just taken Ben with me in the beginning and ran off to Mexico, where we would’ve been completely out of sight. To think that I could’ve left him in harm’s way by leaving him with my parents almost made me physically ill. I could feel my breakfast wanting to make a reappearance, but I had to quickly swallow it down. I knew Pate and the one thing that he absolutely hated was a mess. That would probably earn me the beating of a lifetime and then I would be forced to clean it up.

On second thought…I tried to quickly formulate my plan. I didn’t know if it would work, but I had to take any chance that I could at this point.

I thought of him hurting my friends and loved ones and the sickness feeling was overwhelming once again that I just let it happen. I proceeded to throw up all over his floorboard.

“What the fuck?" Pate screamed before he craned his neck to see what just took place in his backseat. “God dammit, Sheridan." I knew his tolerance for puke was nonexistent. I felt him take a sharp turn to where I was sliding towards the door, my head first. I could just see my purse on the floor in front of me, but I had no absolute way to reach it with my hands secured behind my back. And if he wanted me to clean up the mess, he would have to let me go…

He threw the car into park before he peeled himself out of the seat. I saw his menacing face right before he jerked the backdoor open, covering his face with his free suit clad arm, to try and deter the smell. He had a weak stomach, so I knew that the stench was getting to him. I was really surprised he wasn’t retching.

I felt his cold, clammy hand on my bare calf before he drug me out. He luckily moved his hand from my leg to one of my arms so I could stand up. But the feeling of being on my own two feet didn’t last long before he shoved me to the ground.

“You dumb bitch!" he spat out in my general direction. “I really don’t know why I made such an effort to find you when you are absolutely useless."

“Why did you then?" I yelled out before I had a chance to think better of it. His glare became more threatening and I knew that I had done it. I had messed with a sleeping bear and now he was up and ready to attack.

He lifted me up to where I thought he was going to put me back on my feet, but he kept lifting me to where I was even with his face, my feet dangling barely reaching the ground from my tiptoes.

“Because you are
mine
, Sheridan!
Mine!"
I smelled the lingering effects of tequila and tried to turn my face to where I wouldn’t directly feel the harshness of his words or his breath, but he shook me until I looked back at him.

My body slammed against his car, my face leaning on the hot metal of the roof before he bent down to retrieve something from the center console. Pate made sure to yank at the zip ties to make them dig into my wrists before he used something to clip it off. I instantly moved my hands to the front of my body which was still pushed up against his car.

He jerked me around to where I was now facing him and my back was now forced against the car. “You will clean this mess up," he pointed to the back floor board. I guess I didn’t make the confirmation that he was waiting for, because I was so relieved for my hands to be free so I could possibly carry out my plan. So with the same hand that he was pointing with, he proceeded to backhand me across my face. I raised my hand to my cheek where the after effects of the slap stung my face. I felt a wetness form in the corner of my mouth and brought my hand away to see that he drew blood. This man had drawn blood for the last fucking time.

But he wasn’t finished, holding onto me on my shoulder with one hand he reared his other back and punched me in the stomach, knocking my breath clean out of me.