Blood Ties (34 page)

I wasn’t going to argue with him. He waited patiently until I grabbed another handful of tissues and mopped up some more. I was fast running out of tissues.

“How many of them were there?” he asked when I’d finished, starting the car.

I breathed in a deep gasp of air and released it in a huge unsteady draught, wanting only to forget what had just happened. “Four. Red, Karl, Al and Grae. The older ones. The worst ones.” I sketched out for him what had happened as we sped off towards the medical clinic at the prison again, pressing more tissues against my forehead. It wouldn’t stop bleeding. I was proud that my voice trembled only a smidge as I spoke.

“You fought off four men by yourself?” he asked with unconcealed astonishment.

“I can look after myself,” I said coldly, not appreciating his condescending attitude.

“I can see that,” he commented evenly. “But still . . . four men?”

“I told you, Joanna came along at the right time too.” I paused for a moment. “I’ll be in trouble. I shot Red Bycraft in the arm. I’ve never shot anyone before.”

“Who’s he going to complain to?”

I looked out the window. “I should have shot him in the head. They would have all raped me if they’d had the chance. Especially him.”

“Tess . . .” He was at a loss as to what to say. We drove in silence for a while.

I finally made eye contact with him, my eyes scouring his profile, all the hope that he’d brought into my life evaporated. “You said we were going to be a team, but you wouldn’t listen to me when I told you it was a bad idea to arrest Lola. And you left me alone to deal with the Bycrafts when I tried to tell you that I was worried about them seeking revenge. They told me that they watched you leave before they pounced. They wouldn’t have tried it on if you’d been there.”

He said nothing, only tightening his jaw in response. We kept driving.

I stared at him accusingly. I couldn’t hide the depth of betrayal I was feeling at that moment. It hurt almost as much as the physical pain I was experiencing. I’d trusted him and he’d let me down. “I genuinely believed everything you said to me about being a team. But you know what? I’ve heard all that crap before. Des gave me the same rubbish when I started working with him, so you can save your breath in the future.”

Nothing but silence from him as he steered the wheel and pressed the pedals automatically, but the emotional electricity in the air could have powered a small village for a few weeks.

I didn’t hold back and lashed out at him fiercely. “Now I know you’re just one of those people who only talk the talk. The kind of hypocrite that tells me off for letting my emotions affect my professionalism and then does exactly the same thing himself. But I guess that’s the reason you’re the officer-in-charge and I’m not. Because you’re the big city cop who knows everything about this town after living here for a whole five minutes and I’m just the thick hillbilly who doesn’t know shit. Well, you know what? I’m a better cop than you’ll ever give me credit for.” I stared out the window, stonily, one hand pressing the tissues against my forehead.

A wretched look crossed his face. “I deserve every word of that and I’m really sorry, Tess, believe me. I completely misjudged the whole situation. You’re right. I was so angry at Lola Bycraft that I let my emotions take over my thinking. I won’t make that mistake again, I promise.”

I turned to him with scorn. “If you do, you’ll have to work out what happened to me from the forensics.” I let that sink in for a moment. “Because I won’t be alive to tell you.”

His jaw clenched and unclenched at few times at my bluntness. “I’m going to get us more resources, Tess. We’re a team now. We’re going to beat those Bycrafts, together. You’re not alone anymore,” he said earnestly.

“Aren’t I?” I questioned with bitterness, thinking that, God help me, I
did
want to believe him. Then I berated myself.
Was there no end to my gullibility
, I asked, reminding myself that when I’d needed him most, he hadn’t been there for me. Just like Des.

Chapter 17

We were saved from any further uncomfortable discussion by my phone ringing. It was Dad and I assured him that I hadn’t been shot as he’d heard and that, yes, I had been injured but was well and truly alive and on my way to the doctor. Then Abe rang and I went through the same routine, but this time assuring him that Joanna and I hadn’t shot five Bycrafts dead as he’d heard, though I confessed that I wished we had.

The next call was from Jake. He was at boiling point with angry distress. “Tess, what the fuck’s going on? I’m hearing all sorts of things – that you’ve been shot, that you’ve killed my mother, that you’ve been assaulted by my brothers. Talk to me, babe.”

I didn’t feel like going through it again while the Sarge was listening, so told him I was okay, was on my way to the prison as we spoke and would tell him everything when I arrived. Then I hung up and turned off my phone, not wanting to talk to anybody else. I closed my eyes and tried to go over every action that had happened during those terrifying minutes, thinking about the report I’d have to write later.

When we pulled into the carpark of the prison, Jake was waiting for me. As was every other prison officer on a break. I wasn’t happy about that, not particularly wanting to have an audience. Jake rushed over to me the second I gingerly stepped out of the car, pulling up short when he saw my face. The response from his work mates ranged from sympathetic murmurings to angry disgust (at the Bycrafts, not me, I hoped).

“Oh Tessie. Babe,” he whispered in dismay and gathered me to his chest, crushing me in his arms. We stayed like that for a while, but there were no more tears from me. I’d cried myself out all over the Sarge’s shirt already. Jake pulled back to look down at me. I met his eyes steadily, not flinching from his intense gaze, even though I knew I looked beyond terrible.

“Who did it?” he asked with suppressed anger, stroking my hair. “I’m going to kill them.”

I loosened one hand from his tight grip and pointed to my bleeding nose. “This was Red. Twice. And this was Grae,” I said pointing to my blackening eye. “And this,” referring to my split lip, “was Al.”

“What about this?” he asked softly, kissing my forehead near the ugly gash.

I gave a sour laugh and wiped away more blood. “That was where I hit my head on the doorstop after Karl tackled me.”

“And what about . . .” he hesitated, not knowing how to phrase one of his greatest fears.

“No, they didn’t get the chance. But Red threatened to and your mother told me that she hoped they had.” I wasn’t sugar-coating the truth for him.

“You shouldn’t have arrested her,” he said defensively.

“She swore at the Sarge and spat on him. We’re not putting up with that rubbish anymore, Jake,” I said, defending the Sarge. I wondered briefly why I bothered. “Your family has to start behaving themselves like civilised human beings.”

He changed the subject, which he always did when the talk about his family became too prickly for him, needing to direct his immense rage somewhere else besides them. The Sarge made an easy and obvious target. Jake looked over at him waiting impatiently, wanting to take me to the doctor as soon as possible.

“Where the hell were you when all this was happening to Tessie, Maguire? You’re supposed to be a team.” His tone was unmistakably hostile.

The Sarge bristled immediately. “I had other duties to see to that took me from the station.”

“Did you know that your clever decision to lock up my mother would provoke my family? I’m sure that Tessie told you it was a bad idea. Did you listen to her or are you too much of a hotshot city cop to listen to a local yokel?” The expression on the Sarge’s face apparently told him everything he needed to know. Jake shook his head with pure loathing. “What’s happened to Tessie is all your fault,” he said heatedly.

“No, it’s not!” the Sarge shouted suddenly. “It’s
your
family’s fault, Bycraft. They’re the savages who ganged up on your girlfriend and beat her up. And I hope you’re proud of them.”

Jake stalked over and stood nose-to-nose with the Sarge. They were of a similar height and build, the Sarge marginally taller and bulkier.

“Your bad judgement is hurting Tessie,” Jake snarled.

“That pack of animals you call a family is hurting Tess,” the Sarge snarled back.

“I’m going to sort them out,” Jake told him.

“No, you won’t,” the Sarge insisted coldly. “You won’t interfere with police business.”

Jake butted up even closer to him. If the two men had horns, they would have been locked together by now. “Don’t you fucking tell me what to do, Maguire. This is
my
girlfriend and
my
family we’re talking about.”

“Don’t you disobey a directive from a police officer,” warned the Sarge officiously, “or you’ll find yourself in the lockup as well. You stay away from your family, and I’ll take care of Tess.”

“You haven’t done a good job of that so far, have you? Des looked after her better than you,” sneered Jake. “You better just stay the fuck away from her if you know what’s good for you.”

My eyes moved from Jake to the Sarge, unimpressed with either. I rotated and pushing through the crowd of prison officers engrossed by the men’s confrontation, stalked into the prison by myself, straight past the reception area. Unlike my usual practice, today I didn’t stop to talk to any of the curious staff, who jumped to open all the security doors for me down the hall to the clinic. When he saw my face, Lindsey hustled the current patient out of the consulting room to a prison officer and took me in ahead of the waiting prisoners, ignoring their loud moans about the unfairness of my priority treatment.

Dr Fenn took one look at me and made me sit down, telling Lindsey to fetch me some warm sweet tea immediately. I fell into the chair and started trembling uncontrollably, tears pooling in my eyes again at their kindness and concern. The doctor held my hands tightly and reassured me with a composed authority I found comforting that I was suffering from delayed shock. He informed me it was a perfectly normal physical reaction to any event that had caused the production of a lot of adrenaline in the body. And while I sipped on the sweet lukewarm tea and calmed myself, he and Lindsey patched me up, stitching the gash above my eyebrow and cleaning up my split lip, examining my nose. I told them everything that had happened to me while they worked.

“Tessie,” sympathised the Doc, pausing with a blood-drenched cotton swab in his hand, “you can’t continue like this. Your body’s taken a real beating over the last few days. You need some time off and maybe start thinking about leaving town. Or finding a new job.”

“I’m not going to let those Bycrafts beat me,” I insisted stubbornly. “They’ve already done enough damage to my family. I’m not letting them drive Dad and me out of the home that we were both born in, or the town that our family has lived in since the very beginning. Especially with Dad in the shape he is.”

“Tessie, you know that I admire your spirit, but those Bycraft animals are clearly gunning for you. And you’re not going to be any good to your father if you’re dead, are you?”

“Doc . . .” I started, shocked by his brutal frankness. But before I could say another word, there was a soft knock on the door and Jake poked his head around, uncertain of his welcome.

“We’re still consulting here, Officer Bycraft. Wait outside please,” the doctor demanded with icy sharpness. Jake withdrew without a fuss.

The doctor took a syringe out of its packet. “I’m giving you a shot of morphine. You’ll feel the effects immediately. You must be in a great deal of pain with these new injuries on top of your old ones.”

I admitted that I was and braced for the injection. I wasn’t a big fan of needles or of drugs in general, but he was right. I felt the strong pain fading into the background after only a few minutes. I could have kissed him.

He took photos of my face for evidence, with close-ups of each wound, and promised again to email me his report as soon as possible. As I stood up, he pressed even more painkillers into my hands. “You’re going to need these later. They’re very strong so take them sparingly and strictly according to directions.”

“Thanks Doc. I better let you get back to your other patients,” I said as I gave both the doctor and Lindsey a spontaneous hug. “And thanks very much again for helping me out so often.”

Dr Fenn smiled sadly. “Tess, I’m very fond of you, but I’d be happy never to see you here again.” Lindsey nodded in wry agreement.

I gave them the best half-smile I could manage, a bit tearful again and agreed, leaving the room and quietly closing the door behind me.

Jake and the Sarge were sprawled on the plastic waiting-room seats, bored, sitting conspicuously apart. They both jumped up when I came out and both walked towards me. I went to Jake and stepped into his arms again. He hugged me tightly and it was heaven to lean against him, safe and loved again.

“Tessie, I’m so sorry about what my family have done to you. I want to go and sort them out myself, but Sergeant Shithead over there keeps threatening to arrest me if I go near them,” he whispered in my ear, kissing me gently on the lips. I recoiled strongly backwards in pain.

“Don’t do that! It hurts,” I snapped, pushing him away. “You better listen to the Sarge, Jakey. I don’t want him to arrest you.” I yawned. Now that the adrenaline had faded, I suddenly felt totally exhausted. “I’m going home. I need to rest.”