Scars and Songs (21 page)

I may or may not have watched her for thirty minutes. 

I only touched her shoulder to wake her when more tears spilled from her eyes and small whimpers passed through her lips.  Whatever she was dreaming of that made her cry; I wanted to save her from.

“Grace?  What’s wrong, are you sick?”

She shot up and wiped at her eyes, “I’m fine.  How are you?”  She turned her head away from me and brushed away her tears.

Crap. 
I needed to make her think of something else and not her crying in front of me
.  I raked my hands through my hair and figured I should just act like I didn’t remember shit from last night.
Hopefully that would make her pissed off at me and get her mind off why she was crying
.  “What the hell did I do last night?”

That did it.  She glared at me and laughed humorlessly.  “That’s great, Shane.  No, really.  That’s perfect.  Why don’t you go home now, okay?  Goodbye,” she snapped.
Her head turned away again and her hand reached to wipe another tear.

Okay, I need to be a bigger dick right now
.  “Grace, I know we didn’t…did we?”

Yeah.  That stopped her from crying.  She wasn’t sad anymore, now she was pissed off
.  Whatever she was upset about and hiding from me was not the problem anymore. 
Now my complete douche-ness was the problem
. 
Maybe I didn’t think this through
.

She jumped up, grabbing all the papers and shoving them into one of her drawers.  Then she bolted out of her room. 
Shit, I went too far!

I ran after her, caught up to her in the kitchen and swung her around to face me.  “What did I do?  Why have you been crying?”  I leaned my face into her so all she could see was
me
.  The face off lasted about five full minutes.  Her expression softened.

“You didn’t do anything, Shane.  You called me last night.  You thought I was with Ethan.  I hung up on you and you climbed up the fire escape in the snow, with no coat on and banged on my window until I let you in.  Now please, just leave.”

“No.  I’m not leaving until I know I’m not the reason you’re crying.”  I stopped talking and looked intensely into her eyes.  “You were wearing a sheet?  You…you got me dry clothes,” I said, pretending I was just remembering.

“No big deal, see?”

“No big deal?  I leaned you up against a wall; I can still taste your skin on my mouth.  I can still feel your body against mine.”

My God, did my heart almost stop when I saw the shy smile that she tried desperately to hide from her lips. 
Now, if I ask why she was crying, she’d tell me
.

Gently, I took her wrists in both my hands and skimmed my thumbs against her scars.  I could feel the pulse quicken from my touch.  “Why were you crying this morning?”

“I received a letter in the mail today from the hospice where Jacob passed away.  Inside was a letter that he had written for me before he died. It was just hard to read it.” She slowly dragged her hands from mine and let them limply fall in front of her.

I scooped them right back up, “Grace...”

Her eyes searched mine and she blew her cheeks out in a puff.  The tears poured down her cheeks right after.  I pulled her in and held her tight. Holding her until the tears stopped and she looked up at me, and smiled timidly, “I’m sorry, Shane.  I didn’t mean to snap.  I’m not used to all this emotional crap.”

I closed my eyes and leaned my forehead against hers.  I loved feeling her skin on mine like that.  I moved my head just enough to look into her eyes, and breathed her in softly, our lips almost touching. It took all my strength not to kiss her.  I closed my eyes and stepped back finding my resolve.  I almost lost it again when her body followed mine. 
Damn it, then why the hell does she fight against me all the time? 
I stepped forward. 
Damn this restraint, I needed my lips on hers
. 

Before I could close the space between us further, the damn doorbell rang.  “Please don’t be sorry, Grace,” I said before I let her answer the door.  “I
am
your friend and I’m here if you need to talk about anything or need a shoulder to cry on.”

“Thanks,” she whispered and spun around to answer the door.

I tore my hands through my hair.  “Especially if that’s the only way I’ll ever get to hold you,” I whispered looking up to the ceiling.  I leaned back heavily against the wall making a soft thud, causing the pain in my head to throb harder and sharper. 

“Good afternoon.  We’re detectives from the 19th precinct.  We’re looking for a Grace Taylor,” a man’s voice sliced through my thoughts.

I ran to Grace’s side instantly.

Grace offered the detectives a tight smile, “I’m Grace Taylor.  How may I help you?”

“Miss Taylor, may we come in?  We need to speak to you about the incident with Carl Sumpton.”

Next to me, Grace’s body went rigid.  Nodding her head, she directed them into the living room.  “I’m sorry, Detectives, but I’m not sure who Carl Sumpton is, unless you are referring to the man who attacked me in Boozer’s late Wednesday night?”

I walked ahead of them and yanked the blankets and pillows I slept on the night before off the couch, so they could sit.  Folding the blanket up, I piled it on top of the pillows on a small antique style table that stood in the hallway.  In the kitchen, I made a fresh pot of coffee, grabbed four bottles of cold water from the refrigerator and walked back into the living room to offer the detectives some.  “I made some coffee, if you’d like,” I said.

One of the Detectives, he said his name was Ramos, accepted the water, “Thank you.  I’m sorry
, I didn’t catch your name.”  He twisted off the top of the bottle and sipped the water, waiting for me to reply.

I held out my hand to shake the Detective’s.  “That’s because I never said it.  I’m Shane Maxton.”  I smiled at him and sat down next to Grace, placing a water bottle on the table in front of her.  Without thinking, my hand slid to the small of her back, giving her the slightest touch of pressure.  I wanted to nuzzle my face in her neck when she moved in closer to me.  And I freaking would have if those damn detectives weren’t eyeing us like we just robbed a bank.

Ramos looked at me deadpan, “You’re the one who helped to stop the attack.”

Grace’s body stiffened under my fingertips.  I kneaded small circles over her back and she slowly relaxed back into my touch.  “Grace was doing a pretty good job of defending herself. I think she could have taken care of him all by herself if I hadn’t gotten there in time. But I’m confused, we already spoke with the arresting officers at the hospital that night. Has something changed?”

Ramos glanced at his partner.  Then the older man nodded his head and Detective Ramos gave me a somber expression.  “After Mr. Sumpton was arraigned, he was remanded and housed in Riker’s Island.  We don’t know how it happened, but he was put in his cell at 1400 hours and at the evening head count after meal, he wasn’t accounted for.”  He hesitated for a moment, letting the news sink in.  “The cell was still locked when they went to feed him. No one understands how he escaped, since the cell hadn’t been opened since his arrival.  Furthermore, when questioned, none of the other prisoners even remembered seeing him inside his cell.”

What the hell?  They let that piece of shit escape?

“Like he just vanished?” Grace asked.

The hand I held on her tightened and she moved in even closer to me.  The level of my anger was about to explode through the roof.  If it wasn’t for my hand touching Grace, which in some weird way was calming to me, I know I would have punched the detective in the face. 
These fuckards let that guy get away, the guy that took Grace into a back room and tried to hurt her!

Detective Ramos gave Grace a tight smile.  “No.  Most likely, he found some way out with help from someone on the outside of the cell. He probably terrified the other prisoners so badly that they pretended to see nothing.  He was a monster when they brought him in. They needed a few corrections officers to settle him down when he was left in his cell, but there’s an even more disturbing part,” he explained.  He sighed and continued, “When we ran his name through our system, nothing came up.  Investigating further, we found him to be an outstanding citizen until the last five months or so.”

My blood pressure soared; I could feel it surging faster through my veins.  Sweat was breaking out over my cheeks and across my forehead. 
Weren’t these people supposed to be trained in containing criminals?
  “What happened five months ago?” I asked through clenched teeth.

Taking a deep breath, Ramos’ partner stepped forward to answer, “He was admitted to the Sans de Barron Hospice; he was terminal.  His doctors had given him only a few weeks to live. He’d been comatose and unresponsive for weeks, and then sometime last Sunday, he just walked out of the hospice.”  He gave Grace a curious look, “Am I right in saying that you had been living at the hospice with your brother Jacob for approximately six months?” 

Grace nodded and leaned into me further. 
I didn’t even think she realized what she was doing, but thank God she was doing it, because it stopped me from pummeling these two cowards to a bloody pulp
.

“There must be a mistake though. The man that attacked me, there was no way that he could have been that strong and dying of some disease at the same time. Maybe the guy stole the real Carl Sumpton’s identity or something,” Grace offered.

The detectives both nodded their heads, and then Ramos cleared his throat and continued, “When a perpetrator of a crime of this magnitude is arraigned, the District Attorney on the case usually requests a temporary order of protection to be issued to the victim.  This is your copy of the order.” He placed a paper on the table from his briefcase in front of Grace.  “I wanted to say that I’m sure this matter will be resolved soon.”

That’s when I snapped.  “And you think a piece of paper will stop this lunatic from trying to hurt Grace again?  What should she do if he comes up to her when she’s walking down the street? Should she say, hold on while I look in my purse for the piece of paper that will stop you?”

Grace grabbed my knee and her touch sent an electric current straight to my freaking dick.  The feeling was so strong that I almost jumped out of this damn skin.  Our eyes collided and she held my stare for a moment, “Stop it, Shane.  I’m sure they will do everything they can to contain him again.” I knew she meant to calm me down, but anger tore through my veins, as my protectiveness over her was all I could see.

Then she looked at both the detectives, “Thank you both for coming here and telling me instead of calling me on the phone.  I appreciate the paperwork and everything.  Is there anything that you think I could do in the meantime, while you…um…work on this matter?” 

Her face was stoic. 
Like she didn’t care
.  That’s different, wouldn’t most girls cry and whine about being afraid? 
Yeah, they would
.

“We understand your anxiety, Mr. Maxton.  For the next twenty-four hours, there will be a uniformed officer sitting outside this apartment in a patrol car.  Just be aware and keep your eyes open, Miss Taylor.”

After a few more words, Grace walked the detectives to the front door and locked the deadbolt.  She stood there staring at it, so I walked up behind her and laid my hands on her shoulders and pulled her towards me.  She freaked.  She moved away and shoved my hands off of her, “I’m fine, Shane,” she snapped.

“Yeah, well you definitely will be, because Conner and I are staying here with you and Lea until that asshole is behind bars again,” I said as I left her in the hallway.  I was freaking livid.  I should have broken the guy’s neck when I had the chance.  I stormed down the hallway and locked myself in the bathroom.  I needed to calm the hell down before I found that worthless bag of flesh and ended his existence. “I’m taking a shower!  Do not leave this building without me!”

“Make sure you scrub yourself real well, Shane!  That perfume you were wearing when you came here last night stinks!”  She screamed, slamming her bedroom door. 

Where the hell did that crap come from?
Oh damn. 
Perfume from last night?
  Well, fuck me, isn’t that interesting.  Grace was acting jealous. 

I regulated the temperature in the shower with a big-ass grin on my face and jumped in.  All thoughts of tearing Carl Sumpton to shreds were gone because the images of Grace’s words filled up my mind.  I heard a door slam somewhere in the house and an icy blast of water hit me full in the face.  I let out a startled scream,
okay so it wasn’t one of my more masculine moments
, but it felt like someone was pouring ice cubes
and
glass over me.

She either flushed a toilet somewhere or she was using the hot water. 
On freaking purpose!
  Grabbing a towel and wrapping it loosely around my waist, I jumped out of the shower and ran through the house looking for her, dripping a stream of water everywhere I stepped. 

The basement light was on. I could tell by the illumination that seeped through the bottom of the door to downstairs when I looked in the kitchen.  I flew down the stairs, almost losing my damn towel, and shoved open the laundry room door and charged at her.  Only stopping right before my body collided with hers, our lips but an inch apart.  “You really need to do your laundry right now?  What? Are you mad at me for wanting to stay here?  Ticked off because I might actually care if you are okay?  What?  Will it ruin your high expectations of me?”  I cupped her face in both my hands.  I could feel her heart pounding against my chest and the heaviness of her breaths.  “Or, maybe Grace, you want me here every freaking bit as much I want to be here and that scares the shit out of you?”