His Every Move (8 page)

“I don’t know. Could I speak with her quickly?”

The guard finally nodded, and Red went out to the car. They opened the car door and he leaned in to speak.

Kallie couldn’t tell what was happening. She looked to Nicole, whose face was pale and anxious in the glare from the headlights.

“I’m sure everything will be fine,” Kallie said softly.

“Of course. He’s fixed it, hasn’t he?” Nicole said. But her tone was disturbed, not at all relieved.

When Red was done speaking to his mother, he closed the door and then conversed with the guard. The guard nodded, and a moment later he’d gotten back in the SUV and driven away, as Red came back inside.

“What happened?” Nicole asked.

Red looked at her. “She’s had some kind of psychotic break. I told them to take her to the hospital. I’m going to follow behind, so I need to get dressed.”

Nicole patted Riley’s back lightly, as she baby cried louder. “Should I come to the hospital with you?” she asked him.

“No, you and Kallie stay here. It’s going to be a long night of getting my mother situated. I want to make sure she gets the best possible care,” he said.

“Was all of this really necessary?” Nicole said. “All of the theatrics, the games, manipulations? Was this what you really wanted?”

“I’ll do whatever it takes to protect my family,” he replied.

Nicole turned and walked away from him, still shaking her head. She went up the stairs slowly.

He stared out the front door, hands on his hips. “I’m going to be gone most of the night now, probably. Try and make sure Nicole is okay?”

“I will.”

“She’s mad right now, but she’ll cool down.” He seemed to be trying to convince himself as much as Kallie. “It’s what needed to be done.”

“I’ll take care of things here,” she told him, “so don’t worry about us.”

“Thanks, Kallie.” Red left and went upstairs, presumably to get changed.

Kallie went to the kitchen and started to make a pot of fresh coffee. It was going to be a long night.

***

Red returned home late the next morning and explained that Erica was being kept at the psychiatric ward of the hospital for forty-eight hours so they could observe her.

Apparently during the evaluation, she’d made some comments that led them to believe she might be a danger to herself.

Kallie was finally able to go back to sleep, as she’d been up pretty much the entire night with Nicole and Riley.

When she woke up, it was late afternoon and her phone was next to her bed on the nightstand, and someone had left another text message. Her first thought was that Hunter had contacted her again.

I don’t want him to give up on us, she realized.

That realization was painful in a way. Because when she took the phone and looked at it, Kallie saw that the message was not from Hunter.

It was from Levi. It said:

Are u up for doing something tonite?

All at once she was angry and sad that this message hadn’t come from Hunter.

Hunter was the one she wanted to spend time with tonight, even if it was wrong and against her best interests. But because the message was from Levi, she decided that the best revenge against Hunter would be to accept the new guy’s offer.

At least Levi was pursuing her in a normal way. Maybe he was actually a normal guy.

But maybe I don’t want normal.

That was a disconcerting thought, to say the least.

Kallie sighed, and replied to Levi without giving herself a chance to lose her resolve. She typed in her response and hit send.

Sure. What do u have in mind?

She scooted up to a sitting position in her bed. A minute later, came his reply.

There’s a neat second-run theater on 321 Allred Street. Meet u there at 9:00?

Kallie smiled. She didn’t know what movie he wanted to see, but at least it was a real, somewhat normal version of a date.

I thought you didn’t want normal, she reminded herself.

And as she agreed to his request, Kallie knew from the sinking feeling in her stomach that it was true.

Maybe Hunter had been right about her when he said she was born for the BDSM

lifestyle. Truth be told, she’d never felt more alive than when she’d been his submissive partner, wondering what he had in store for her next.

It had been sweet, exquisite torture. This kind of dating was just boring, plain and simple. Levi was obviously a nice guy—maybe even too nice—and the spark just wasn’t there.

You’ll go and you’ll enjoy it, she reprimanded herself.

***

Kallie decided that she might as well enjoy the attentions of another man, and so she got dressed up in a pair of skinny jeans that showed off her legs, dark heels, and a white top with a dark blazer. She thought the look said sophisticated and serious, but still with a bit of youth and playfulness mixed in.

It was time to put away childish things, she reminded herself, as she applied makeup in the bathroom mirror.

Time to forget about Hunter Reardon and his ridiculous basement full of science fiction devices used to torture women.

Levi was good looking and friendly and fun. Maybe he’d surprise Kallie and end up being just as sexy in his own way as Hunter.

Not likely, she thought, as she shouldered her purse and headed out of her bedroom.

On the way out the door, she was spotted by Nicole, who was still looking exhausted from what had gone on the last couple of days.

“Going somewhere fun?” she asked.

“Thought I’d catch a movie,” Kallie replied casually. “There’s a cute second-run theater not far from here.”

Nicole looked perplexed. “You don’t mean the one that shut down recently?”

“No, this one’s definitely open,” Kallie replied, her brow creased. She hoped Levi hadn’t been mistaken about this theater.

“Oh.” Nicole nodded and smiled. “Well, then—have fun at your movie!”

“Thanks.” Kallie continued out, trying to ignore the strange feeling in her stomach.

You really don’t know this guy. You don’t even know his last name. Maybe you
should just stay home and tell him you’re not feeling well.

But why? She was just being silly and anxious. She was trying to sabotage her chance at having a normal night out with a regular guy. Even more determined now, Kallie strutted to the car and got in, looking at herself quickly in the mirror.

I look good and I’m ready to enjoy myself, she thought, trying a little positive thinking for a change.

On the way to the theater, she pictured what it might be like to sit next to Levi, in a darkened room, maybe whispering or joking with each other during the film. Unless he was one of those types that didn’t want to speak at all during the movie.

He didn’t strike her as an uptight sort, but you never could tell.

Her GPS told her she was getting close to the location, but Kallie was experiencing a familiar stirring of doubt and uncertainty in her gut. The neighborhood in this area appeared to be slightly rundown and empty at this time of night.

She kept going though, mostly because she refused to let her weakness for Hunter win out. This was a battle between the man she wanted and the kind of man she thought she should want. And Kallie didn’t want to lose the battle before it had even really begun.

Finally, she arrived at the parking lot near the movie theater. There were hardly any other cars nearby, and no people around either. Kallie could see the sign above the movie theater—it was a smaller, brick-faced building with posters along the outside walls. Most of them portrayed older films she remembered from her high school days.

Nicole was right, Kallie thought. It’s not open anymore.

To be sure, she decided to get close and see whether there were any notices taped to the glass doors in front.

She parked, got out of the car and locked it.

The car made its familiar bleeping noise and the lights flashed once in response.

Walking through the small, nearly empty lot, Kallie looked around for signs of life. There were some other buildings and stores nearby, but most of them seemed to be closed. Perhaps this was an area of town that received more traffic during normal business hours, and so it tended to shut down at night.

Either way, she was getting the creeps. Annoyed that Levi had invited her to such a strange, remote location for a first date, she considered just getting right back in her car again and leaving.

But she still wasn’t even sure that the movie theater was closed. As a second-run place, it might just get less customers than a normal movie house.

Why couldn’t he have invited me to some Loews Cinema Multiplex in Hartford?

She asked herself. Why did it always have to be something unique, special, and weird?

What was it about every guy she met lately, that nothing could ever be straightforward?

Finally she arrived at the doors. Peering inside, it was clear that this place hadn’t been open for a while. It was dark and empty inside, and it looked as if it had been stripped down to the studs.

There was a plain white sheet of paper affixed to one door that read: CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE and dated a month ago.

It didn’t appear that it would be open again anytime soon. Kallie sighed, frustrated. She pulled out her phone and checked the time. It was 8:56 P.M. Where was Levi? She looked around and didn’t see anyone at all in the vicinity.

Nearby, about ten feet to the left of the theater, was a narrow alleyway. She sniffed, smelling trash and probably a dumpster.

Maybe even a rat or two.

And it was dark. For the first time since Levi had invited her on this date, she allowed herself to feel relieved that the place was shutdown and he hadn’t arrived. This just wasn’t meant to be.

I tried, she thought. I was going to give it my best shot, but this is not happening and I’m not waiting around anymore.

I’ll text him when I get in the car and out of this dark, creepy old lot.

Turning, she checked her phone once more as she began walking back to her car.

In the far distance, she heard a siren wailing and a dog barking.

“Kallie?” a familiar voice called, so close behind her that she started to scream as she turned around.

And then there was an explosion of pain in her head and blackness.

***

She awoke to a woman’s voice.

“…hear me?”

It was difficult to swim out of the blackness. It wasn’t even as if Kallie were submerged under water, but more that she’d been thrown into a pool of mud. It was thick and black and getting out of it was such an effort.

“Kallie?” the voice called, more insistently. “Are you awake? Open your eyes.”

I can’t do it, she thought. It’s too hard and I’m so tired.

She fell back into unconsciousness for an unknown period of time.

When her eyes fluttered open again, there was a man staring down at her. He was bald, with a long, thin face and a large mole on one cheek. The man wore a white coat and he smiled as she looked at him. “Kallie, do you know where you are?”

She shook her head no.

“You’re at Manchester Memorial Hospital,” he said slowly and loudly.

“Did I get sick?” she said weakly, trying to sit up. As she did so, Kallie felt a tremendous pain in her head. She lay back weakly in the bed.

“You received some trauma to your head last night,” he told her. “My name is Doctor Scofield and I’m the attending physician. I’ve been looking after you since you were brought here.”

Kallie listened but found that she didn’t have much of an opinion about what the doctor was telling her. “I hurt my head? Did I fall?”

The doctor frowned slightly. “No, you didn’t fall.” He put his hands behind his back and sighed. “It appears as though you were mugged.”

“Mugged?” The word left her mouth feeling fuzzy and nonsensical.

“Yes. Do you remember anything from last night?”

She took a long breath and exhaled, whimpering a little as she did so. “My head hurts.”

“I can get you something for that,” he said reaching down and pulling some kind of clipboard off her bed and reading it. He took out a pen and made a note.

“I remember going to the movies,” she said.

Except she hadn’t really gone to the movies, had she? The movie theater had been closed. She’d started to leave and then everything was blank.

“What film did you see?” Dr. Scofield asked.

“Actually, the movie theater was closed. So I tried to leave and that must have been when I was mugged.”

“We’re not sure it was simply a mugging,” the doctor told her. “However, it appears that it may have been motivated by money, since you were found with no purse, car keys, money or phone on you.”

“Was I in a coma or something?”

“No, nothing as bad as that. You were found by a janitor who was leaving work and walking through the lot. He called the police and the paramedics brought you in with a head wound and possible skull fracture.”

“Skull fracture?” she asked, her heart pounding in her ears.

“It turned out not to be a fracture. You have a severe concussion and contusion, and we were concerned about bleeding in your brain. But there doesn’t appear to be any, from all the tests we’ve done. That’s very good news, of course.”

“My leg hurts too,” she said, realizing for the first time that the lower part of her left leg ached and throbbed almost as much as her head.

The doctor nodded. “Apparently, you fell down after being hit on the head. You sprained your left ankle some point during the fall. It’s a severe sprain, and you’ll need to be off that leg for a good week or so. But again—it’s good news. All of your injuries could easily have been far, far worse, given what you went through.”

Kallie felt tears behind her eyes. “I don’t remember anything. Was I awake when they brought me into the hospital?”

“You were confused, in and out of consciousness. However, we did sedate you temporarily, as you were agitated for a time, and we needed to keep you still.”

“I was agitated?”

“We calmed you down long enough to find out that you’re staying with Red and Nicole Jameson, and we contacted them.”