Unlovable (31 page)

“
Miss Brown, would you like
to ride along with us?” the EMT driver asked, after loading her in
the ambulance.

“
Maggie, I’ll take you,”
Seth said quietly.

I turned to the medic, “Please get me
out of here.” I peered out the back window of the ambulance at
Seth’s face as we drove away. He looked devastated, and why
shouldn’t he be, his cover was blown and he’d have to start all
over again with some other stupid unsuspecting girl. Booker pulled
up and got out of his car as we pulled away.

I was beyond distraught and couldn’t
hold back the tears any longer.

22

Seth

While Maggie lay unconscious in my
arms, I’d called in the ID on the two men and the manhunt had begun
straightaway, although I wasn’t holding my breath. If they were
anything like their father, they’d be hard to catch. The man was a
chameleon.

Booker was the first to arrive and
immediately left again to coordinate the search. He was now
returning, probably to check on Maggie and to find out exactly what
had happened.

“
Are you positive they were
the Dreser boys?”

I nodded soberly as I watched the
ambulance drive away. Never in my life will I forget the look of
betrayal in Maggie’s eyes. Never.

“
I heard they’d run into
some money troubles in Arizona, I just never imagined they’d come
this far north, of course, Harry Dreser’s known for doing the
unexpected. This is big, bigger than I originally thought.” Booker
was like a walking encyclopedia when it came to drug smugglers. He
knew of each one, and he knew their territories.

“
So Jeffery was the dealer
killed in Syracuse.” He shook his head in disgust. “The whole
family’s scum. That would explain why nothing came up when we tried
to ID the body. Daddy Dearest probably paid someone to erase
Jeffery’s file, not even his dental records were a match. Big time
smugglers like Dreser have an endless supply of money, and more
than enough stooges to help cover their tracks.” He looked at me.
“Are you okay? They didn’t hurt you did they?”

“
She knows,” I said, shoving
my hands through my hair. “The Dreser’s were in the house when we
arrived. I pulled out my gun and ordered them to freeze.” In my
mind I could still see the knife at her throat, with a thin trickle
of ruby-red blood racing down it. The cut was superficial, but it
still made me sick.

“
I’m guessing she didn’t
take it so well,” Booker said quietly.

“
She freaked. She thinks I
used her, just like Zack, only I wasn’t trying to sleep with her, I
just wanted to toss her and her mother into jail, that’s
all.”

“
Seth, that’s not what we’re
doing here and you know it. Everything will be okay, give her some
time.”

“
Everything will be okay?
Like it was with Lisa or Heather? Or how about Nikkolynn?” To bring
up Booker’s past was a low blow. I felt horrible as soon as the
words left my mouth.
“I’m sorry, man. I
shouldn’t have said that.”

“
Come on. Mags is nothing
like Lisa or Heather, and she’s definitely not like Nikkolynn,” he
said casually, as if those women hadn’t torn his heart into a
million pieces. “You don’t think she’ll blow your cover at the high
school, do you? Never mind, stupid question, of course she
won’t.”

“
Nope, she won’t. I should
have come clean sooner, you were right. I—” Booker’s police radio
interrupted us.

“
Captain Gatto, Officer
Whelks here.” Her voice crackled with static. “I’m sorry, sir, they
got away.”

I don’t know who yelled at poor Whelks
more, Booker or me. By the time we were through, she was in tears.
Great, something more to feel guilty about.

“
If you two men are finished
abusing my officer,” interrupted the chief over the radio, “I’d
like to send her home. She’s been on duty for 15 hours straight.”
The chief wasn’t a woman to mess with. She protected her officers
like a mother bear protected her cubs.

Booker walked me over to my car after
we apologized. He’d ordered a search warrant for Maggie’s place and
knew I didn’t want to be here when it came through.

“
I’ll call and have
Jeffery’s body exhumed tomorrow. I want it checked out, just to be
sure.”

I was barely listening now, my mind
was wrapped up in Maggie. If I’d blown it with her…

“
Go home. I’ll call you if
anything turns up.” He gave my left shoulder a squeeze. “She needs
time, Seth. This is a lot to take in, it’s going to be alright,
trust me.”

No, it wouldn’t be alright. Not this
time.

23

Maggie

Once at the hospital, an aide escorted
me to a private waiting area where I fought to compose myself. When
I wasn’t wondering what was going on with my mother, I could still
see Seth in my mind, standing in my living room with his huge gun.
He was a liar, and he was using me. He was no better than Zack. At
least with Zack I knew from the get-go his true nature.

Dr. Colter came into the waiting room,
saving me from another meltdown. “Hello, Maggie. Please, sit down.”
I took a seat on the edge of a green chair. “Can you explain what
happened exactly?”

I gave him a quick rundown of what
went on in the trailer, leaving out the whole undercover cop thing.
I wasn’t going to expose Seth, even if he did use me. When I got to
the part about having my head used as a battering ram, my hands
were shaking. I stuffed them between my knees to steady
them.

“
How long were you
unconscious?” Before I could answer, he pulled a small pen light
out of the breast pocket of his scrubs and began checking my eyes.
“I want you to have a CAT scan. Are you experiencing any dizziness
or nausea?”

“
No, I’m fine,”
Aside from a killer headache
, “I don’t need a CAT scan.”

“
Maggie, I’m afraid I’m
going to have to insist,” he said, lifting my chin and examining
the cut on my neck.

“
This wound’s superficial.
I’ll have the nurse clean you it and put some ointment on it. When
was your last tetanus shot?” I shrugged. Had I ever had one? “We’d
better give you one just to be safe,” he said, making notes on the
palm of his hand.

“
Now, back to your mom.
There doesn’t seem to be any blunt trauma to her body. When was the
last time you saw her awake and coherent?”

I had to think for a minute. “She
wasn’t awake when I left for school yesterday. However, there were
three empty bottles of alcohol lying on the floor when I arrived
home. She must have been awake sometime during the day.”

“
Three empty bottles? Can
she drink that much?”

I shrugged. “I’ve never known her to.
She may have had the neighbor, Mr. Hoffman, over.”

“
Maggie, your mother is in a
coma, which I believe was brought on by her alcohol abuse. With her
unstable health, it wouldn’t take much. Her blood count is still
good, and I’m running some tests on her liver and pancreas to check
a few things, as well as a brain scan.”

Brain scan?

“
I’d also like to do a drug
screen to make sure we’re not dealing with any other
substances.”

“
My mom’s not on any
medications. I told the nurse that when I filled out all the paper
work.”

“
Maggie, it is not uncommon
for those with addictions to have more than one. I just want to
rule everything else out. That way we can give her the best
possible care,” he explained gently.

Why all of the sudden did everyone
think my mom was a drug addict? This was getting
ridiculous!

“
I’m afraid she is going to
be here for a while. You should go home and try to get some sleep.
We still have your cell phone number, correct?”

“
Yes,” I said
weakly.

“
Is Seth coming to pick you
up?”

“
NO!” His eyes opened wide
at my over-reaction to his question. It was then I remembered he
was a friend of Seth’s.

“
Is there a problem, I mean
nothing happened when Seth chased off those men did it?” He began
nervously fidgeting with the chart in his hands.

Did he know about Seth? They
were pretty chummy whenever I’d seen them together.
Play it cool
,
Maggie
.

“
He has a huge test
tomorrow, I’ll call one of my girlfriends.” He raised his eyes to
mine, they were filled with trepidation.

“
I’m guessing something more
happened with Seth and the two men than you’re telling me,” he said
calmly.

He knew. Did everyone in this stinking
town know about Seth except me? “You know about him and Booker.” It
was a statement, pure and simple.

“
Occasionally, I help out
with some of their cases.”

“
You’re in on the lie
too.”

“
I wouldn’t exactly call it
lying. We were under—”

“
A lie by any other name,
still stinks, Dr. Colter.” I said sharply.

“
Yes, I suppose it
does.”

“
I would like a full drug
screen done on my mother and myself.” Might as well clear this all
up and get these men out of our lives, once and for all.

“
No one believes you are
involved, Maggie.”

“
Even so, I want it done. I
want all doubt removed from everyone’s mind.”

He nodded. “I’m terribly sorry about
all of this, but my hands were tied. This is an undercover
operation.”

I’d had enough for one day, and didn’t
want to discuss this whole mess anymore. “Can I see my
mother?”

“
Certainly.” He escorted me
to a private room off the emergency department. My mom looked small
and frail in the middle of the hospital bed. She had all kinds of
wires and tubes hooked up to her and an oxygen mask strapped to her
peaked face. I softly stroked her brow, and carefully lying across
her body, I cried.

When I composed myself, I followed Dr.
Colter to the x-ray department. He gave me a clean bill of health,
along with a painful tetanus shot, after the results from the CAT
scan and drug screen came back negative. I thanked him, hustled
down the nearly empty hallway, and went to the maternity floor
waiting area. It was two A.M., and I wasn’t about to walk home in
the dark after my run-in with the men at my house.

There were a couple of
families anxiously awaiting the arrival of a new member. Despite
the shouts of glee, I was grateful for the extra
bodies
.
I found a
plush maroon chair in the corner, curled up into it, and fell
asleep almost instantly. It had been a long miserable day, and I
refused to think about it for another minute.

I spent the next morning reading to my
mother from some ancient magazines I confiscated from the waiting
room. My mind was enlightened to the vast uses of Styrofoam, and
how to cook an entire Thanksgiving meal that fed six for under
$25.

Being with her occupied my mind,
leaving little room to think about Seth. Walking home later that
day was another story. I barely made it inside before losing
control and falling hard onto the floor. “Fool! You stupid fool!
Why did I let my guard down? Why?” I twisted onto my side and
clenched my stomach. I felt so totally and utterly deceived my body
physically hurt.

Then the anger hit again.

I drew myself up off the floor and
everyone else, except my mom, out of my heart. I wasn’t going to
waste another minute pining over Seth. I was a means-to-an-end for
him, period, moreover, I wasn’t ever going to let it happen again.
Lesson learned.

Walking into the kitchen, I found an
abandoned search warrant on the counter. The police had searched my
trailer! I felt angry and violated all over again. I crumpled it
up, tossed it into the garbage can, and began straightening up
while I made a mental list of what needed to be done to keep us
safe, finally deciding on a dead bolt for the front door and some
window locks.

Now I needed money. That was going to
be a problem. I searched the kitchen and bathroom, they were a
total bust, as was my room. Under the couch cushions, I found a
total of eleven cents. I shoved the paltry coins into my pocket and
plopped down on the couch in complete frustration.

The only place I hadn’t checked was my
mother’s room. She’d always forbidden me from going in there unless
I had to help her into bed after a long day of drinking. Did she
have money she didn’t want me to know about? No matter how little
food we had in the house, she always seemed to have enough for her
booze.

On the other hand, maybe
she’d forbidden me from going in there because she
was
doing drugs and
didn’t want me finding out.

The thought chilled me to the bone.
There had to be a reason Seth thought she was involved in this
mess. Sucking in a deep breath, I decided to check.

I walked slowly into my mom’s
sanctuary. The room was long, narrow and an absolute mess.
Housekeeping was most certainly not her forte. The unmade bed was
arranged long-ways on the wall, extending to the doorway of her
closet. The only possible way for her to get into bed was to crawl
in from the top, which was probably why she opted to sleep on the
couch most nights.