Razor's Edge: A Bad Boy Romance (Bad Boys of Football Book 2) (12 page)

“I
 
swear, I’ll kill her!”

Kelly flew out of her seat and grabbed me by the collar. “Shut your mouth before someone hears you. That’s the last thing you need to have happen at this point. They already want to hog tie you and strip your whole life from you; what else do you want them to take away from you?”

The doctor stepped out into the waiting room. “For Hillary Jackson!”

I stood up. “Right here! How is she?”

“She’s doing okay. She’s a little tired and sore, but she’ll be fine soon. Sounds like she took quite the spill. We’re going to admit her because of the bump on her head, but she should do just fine,” the doctor explained.

“Can I see her?” I asked.

“Yes, but give her a little bit of time. The police are speaking to her now. I’ll send someone out to let you know when she’s ready. For now, hang tight.” He walked back through the doors.

“They’re going to keep her overnight,” I explained to Kelly.

“I heard. Good. A blow to the head is nothing to mess with. Here they come,” Kelly said, motioning toward a couple of Chicago’s finest walking in the entrance doors.

I watched them as they walked through the set of emergency room doors and spoke with the front desk staff. “What are they doing here? They need to be looking for Stephanie, not here dicking around.”

“Mr. Razor?” The taller of the two police officers walked over and held out his hand to me.

“Yeah. Did you find her?” I asked, ignoring his extended hand.

“Not yet, but we have officers out looking for her. You said you were with her earlier today?” He asked.

Kelly coughed. “Excuse me? You were with Stephanie today? When? Where was this?”

Her tone told me she wasn’t pleased with that revelation.

“She was at The Spot, like she always was. Old habits are, you know, hard to give up. Once a tramp, always a--” I started.

Kelly coughed again. This time louder than before. “Did you have some questions for E.J., officers?”

The officers smirked at each other. One answered, “Do you have a few minutes? I want to clear a couple of things up?”

He didn’t have to ask me twice. If it was going to get me closer to locking Stephanie’s crazy ass up, then, yes, they could interview me, but they’d have to make it quick. “Let’s do this. Ask away.”

They sat down on either side of me while Kelly placed herself in front of us, watching and listening.

“I can do this,” I said to her.

“I’m sure you can, but I’m not moving. Ask your questions, gentlemen. Mr. Razor has nothing to hide.” She wore an air of confidence when she meant business.

The taller officer spoke first. “My name is Detective Gurrola. This is Detective Richards. We’ll make this quick. When we spoke to you at your house, you mentioned spending some time with your ex-wife today. I’m sorry, but in all the confusion, we didn’t catch what the nature of your visit with her was.”

“She lied to the police and they took him away from me. I don’t know where he is or if he’s being fed or anything. I needed to talk to her, but she--” I started.

“How did you know where to find her?” the officer asked.

“I called her,” I answered.

Kelly’s eyebrows narrowed. “
You
called
her
?”

I knew it was a mistake, but I was desperate. “Yes, but only because I wanted to talk to her about Edge. It was stupid. I shouldn't have left Hillary alone at the house.”

“Sir, I can appreciate the strain you must be under, but you really have to let the courts figure this stuff out. Harassing your ex, well, it looks bad. Looks really bad for you. There’s already the accusations against you,” the officer said.

“She has my son somewhere. I wanted to make sure he was okay. It’s like she’s taunting me. She doesn’t want him. This is about her wanting to hurt me.” I fought back angry tears.

The other officer spoke. “Why would she want to hurt you? Did you ever hear her say that or is that just conjecture?”

Kelly interjected. “Are you going to get to the point anytime soon? Mr. Razor would like to check in on Hillary, the real victim here or did you forget?”

“No, no, of course not. We’re here to clear things up so we can proceed,” Detective Gurrola said, offering a crooked smile. “You understand, don’t you?”

“What I understand is you’re here questioning me when you should be looking into who went into my house and attacked my girlfriend!” I’d had enough.

“We’re doing that. Why are you so sensitive? Don’t you want us to get to the bottom of this for you? For Miss Jackson?” Detective Gurrola asked.

“Do you have surveillance cameras on your property?” Detective Richards tried another approach, but I got the feeling it would lead right back to me being at fault somehow.

“Yes, but they’re not on. Nothing ever happened at my house, so I didn’t see the need. I have alarms, though,” I answered, regretting my decision to handle things myself. “I have security guys if I need them, but they don’t live with us. It’s always been just me and my son. Why?”

They looked at each other. “We’ll check with your neighbors. I’m sure at least one of them must have security cameras.”

“It was her. I know it was her,” I said. “Ask Hillary. She’ll tell you who did this to her.”

“Officers are speaking to her now. She tells a slightly different story. She says it was a man who did this to her. Do you know any males who would want to get into your home and hurt someone you care about? Any enemies?” Officer Gurrola asked.

A man? What man?

“No. I mean, on the field, I have rivals but no enemies. The only person I know who hates me is Stephanie. She did this. I’m telling you, she had something to do with this. When I spoke to her, she said something about hurting Hillary. I ignored it because she’s a crazy big mouth bi--” I started, but Kelly interjected.

“Did Hillary see his face? Did she recognize him? How do you know this guy wasn’t there to rob the place and found her there? I don’t understand what you’re getting at and my client is under an extreme amount of stress, so either get to the point or get to work, gentlemen,” Kelly said.

Their mouths formed small grins, but their eyes told a different story. They had no intention of looking into Stephanie. They wanted to pin this on me. Make me look like the bad guy.

“Thank you for your time, Mr. Razor.” Detective Richards stood up, offering his hand. “If we have any more questions for you, we’ll be in touch. Give Miss Jackson our best, champ.”

Champ?

I grumbled in response, not inclined to want to respond with niceties. They hadn’t helped ease my mind at all and didn’t deserve kind words or my deepest gratitude.

Kelly shook their hands for me. “Goodbye, gentlemen.”

After they stepped out of the building, Kelly turned to me. “What the hell was that about? You called Stephanie? Have you lost your damn mind? I told you to let me handle this! I told you things would work out if you let me do my job. What part of stay home and out of trouble did you not understand?”

I didn’t have the energy to fight with her over this. I knew I’d made a mess of things. I’d fully accept the blame.

Taking the now-vacant seat next to me, Kelly placed her hand over mine. “Do you really think Stephanie had something to do with this? Why would she attack Hillary?”

“She’s nuts. I don’t know. She does things without thinking. They said it was a man?” I couldn’t wrap my mind around it.

“Yeah, isn’t that a load of crap? As if there’s not enough to worry about, we have to figure out who else wants to hurt you or in this case Hillary and why. I’m going to check to see if they’ll let you in to talk to Hillary yet.” She walked away while I sunk into my seat, feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders.

“C’mon, super stud, they said you can go in to see Hillary now. I can’t wait to hear what she has to say,” Kelly grabbed my hand and tugged it.

The nurse pointed us toward her room. The curtains were drawn shut. My hands shook as I reached for it.

“Hey, beautiful,” I said before I noticed the bandage on her head.

Tears brimmed in her eyes. “Hey.”

I froze in place. What had I done?

Kelly stepped forward to hug Hillary. “How are you feeling, sweetie? Are you in a lot of pain?”

I swallowed hard.

“Not too much. My head is sore, but it will be fine. The medications should start kicking in soon. They’re going to admit me,” Hillary said, her voice hoarse.

“Tell us what happened,” Kelly prompted her. “Who did this to you?”

A lone tear escaped Hillary’s eye.

I
f
  I was a different type of person -- someone like Stephanie -- I’d hunt her down like the dog she was. But, I wasn’t raised that way. I wasn’t an animal. I had morals. Thankfully, I also had reminders all over the place, telling me to not sink low. Felicia being one very loud, boisterous, overbearing one of them. She’d never let me do something stupid.

“Hey, sugar!” Felicia walked in carrying a large canvas bag.

“What’s that?” I covered my nose, nauseated by the smell.

A Cheshire grin on her face, she lifted the bag and whispered, “Chinese food.”

“You’re going to get me in trouble. You can’t bring food in here,” I said, snooping in the bag.

“When are they going to let you fly the coop?” Felicia asked as she handed me an egg roll. “I think your boyfriend misses you.”

I shook my head. “He’s not my boyfriend,” I corrected her. “If he was, I wouldn’t be sitting here by myself.”

“By yourself? What are you talking about? He looks like hell. No one stays up all night for someone they don’t care about,” Felicia said.

I swallowed the food in my mouth. “What? Where did you see him?”

Felicia hopped up on my bed. “He’s in the waiting room down the hall. When I walked in to grab some napkins, he was knocked out on one of the chairs.”

My throat went dry. “He was?”

Her mouth full of food, Felicia rolled her eyes. “You’re killing me.”

“What? I didn’t know he was here all night long. I didn’t see him. Why didn’t he come in the room?” I didn’t know whether to be touched or angry. I didn’t have any memory of having seen him the night before. I wasn’t on any mind-numbing medications. There was no reason for me to not remember seeing him.

“Girl, I don’t know. I think he’s having a hard time. I mean, wouldn’t you? His little boy is gone with some stranger, his girlfriend is attacked by some dude in his house, and he doesn’t know what to do to stop it,” Felicia explained.

“I wish you would stop saying I’m his girlfriend. I don’t know what I am to him. I don’t know who I am these days. I think I’m in way over my head with him. Tell me what to do. I’m lost,” I pleaded with her.

“Well, if it were me, I’d start with kicking that little hussie’s ass, but that would probably get you arrested. We can’t have that because you’ll never work again.” Felicia was teasing, but it didn’t bother me.

“Believe me; I’ve thought about it. I want to rip her eyes out, but then again, what good would that do? I can’t prove she had anything to do with what happened. She wasn’t there. At least, I didn’t see her there,” I explained.

Felicia took another bite. “Did the guy say anything to you? I can’t tell you how horrible I feel about leaving you there. I should have stayed a little while longer. Maybe none of this would have happened.”

I shook my head. “It’s not your fault. He probably would have hurt you too. Anyway, no, he didn’t really say anything to me. I thought it was E.J. when I heard the door open. I called out to him, but he didn’t answer. I didn’t think too much of it because E.J. was so upset when he left, but--” I didn’t want to think about it again.

“Okay, we don’t have to go there again. Sorry, honey. Let’s try another topic. What are you going to do about that hunk of man out there?” Felicia asked.

“I’d rather talk about the guy who hit me,” I groaned.

She wouldn’t let me off that easily. “Will you be serious? Are you really done with him? I mean, I get it. I’d be terrified too, but is it really a good idea to make a decision right now? I think you should give it some time. At least, wait until you’ve had some time to think. He obviously cares about you and I know you care about him and Edge. Why walk away now?”

“Seriously? Where do I start? He used me to hide his son. He got me suspended from my job. Oh, let’s not forget the best part, I’m in the hospital because some maniac walked into his house unannounced and decided my face would look better with a huge knot on it. I think there are more than enough reasons to walk -- no, run - away from him and never look back,” I explained.

Felicia shook her head.

“Is that all?” E.J. came in so quietly, neither of us heard him until he spoke.

“It’s enough, don’t you think?” I asked.

“Ignore her. She’s cranky. It’s probably time for some pain medications,” Felicia explained.

“No, it’s not. It’s definitely because of him. He’s the reason I’m so cranky,” I said, looking him directly in the eyes.