"Come here." Lance held out his arms and she went to him. He cradled her against his body and pulled the edge of the bedspread over them. "The detective called while you were in the bath."
"Randi?"
"Yes," Lance continued. "I didn't ask for many details, but Benny's in a coma, on life support."
"Is he..."
"Going to make it? I don't know. There's a chance, I guess. Detective Conroy said there's next to no brain activity. But they're not pulling the plug or anything, even though he's unresponsive. The doctors had to remove part of his skull due to brain swelling. Clark must have hit him pretty damned hard."
"He did. He tried to save us." Tears formed in her eyes again and ran silently onto Lance's chest.
"The one named Pete apparently bled to death." Lance stroked Brook's arm.
"Jerry? The guard?" Brook held her breath.
"The detective said the doctors are very optimistic about Jerry. He's out of surgery and stable."
Brook exhaled her relief. "The house, Clark's pride and joy, all of the things he valued," she mused. "Now it's all part of the investigation. Who's going to clean up the..."
"Brook, let the police worry about it. They'll hire someone," Lance said.
"I suppose so. The whole thing is so tangled up and crazy. The detective told me Clark's illegal activities appear to run deeper even than he admitted to me. There are a lot of layers to it. It'll take a while to sort out."
"I hope it isn't long before they let me leave town," Lance said, his voice full of worry. "I only left enough feed for several days and there's no one I can call to take care of my animals."
"I'll talk to Detective Conroy tomorrow." Brook hugged Lance closer.
"I already explained it all," Lance replied. "I came entirely clean with the police. They know everything."
"I managed to ruin your life, didn't I?" Brook mumbled against his broad chest.
"Hardly." Lance put a hand beneath her chin and tenderly tipped her face so he could look in her eyes. "Brooklyn, I actually feel like I have a life now. I love you." He brushed a gentle kiss over her lips.
She settled back against his body, exhaustion stealing over her.
"Besides," Lance said, "it felt good to get all that off my chest. I realized I'd grown tired of the whole thing. I'm going to have my name legally changed to Lance Matthew, and stop hiding. There's no reason to hide anyway."
He told her about the meeting with Danny Norton and about his intentions when he had set out from Haylieville to Denver. "I was coming to bring you home. Or anyway, I at least wanted to give you a choice, offer you a life with me."
"I was in the process of leaving Clark when all this happened," Brook said. "I had my stuff packed." Her voice sounded weary.
"Honey, let's talk in the morning. For now, we should try to get some sleep. What do you say?"
Brook nodded against his chest and closed her eyes. She was so very tired.
The next few days were hectic. There really wasn’t much more to say to the police. They had gotten all the pertinent information the night of the break-in, and prior to that, when Brook had returned from being missing. But there were still a few loose ends.
One of the loose ends was Gina. Brook picked her from a line-up. Now, besides theft, Gina would be charged with accessory to kidnapping and various lesser offenses.
Afterwards, Randi Conroy gave Brook a warm handshake. “You know the DA will need you back for Gina's trial, and the trial of Benny, if he survives. This might be the last time we meet.” She smiled kindly as Marco Vicente shook both Brook and Lance’s hands.
“Good luck, both of you,” Marco said. He tipped the brim of an imaginary hat and walked away.
Randi repeated Marco’s words. “Good luck, Brook! I wish none of this would have happened to you.”
Brook gave the detective a quick hug before claiming Lance’s hand. “There was some good that came of it.” She gave Lance a tender look as they moved to the outer door.
Epilog
The police were kind enough to deliver Brook's suitcases and boxes from the house to their hotel. Brook was relieved; she hadn't wanted to reenter what was now a house of horrors. Now, Brook and Lance loaded everything into the rear of Old Reliable.
“Ready to go home?” Lance asked.
“More than ready,” Brook said. “We need to see if Gilbert’s had that baby yet; although, I hope she waits for us. That’s something I’d like to see.”
“My calculations give her another couple of days before she becomes a momma. We’ll be there.” He headed the truck away from the hotel.
“Lance? I just had a thought.”
“What’s that?”
“I’d like to take flowers to Jerry. He was always so nice and I feel really bad that he’s hurt because of me.”
“Good idea. Just tell me how to get there and I’ll drive you anywhere you want to go.”
Lance drove through the parking lot of the hospital, looking for an empty slot. “Just drop me off at the door. I’ll run in, buy some flowers, and be back in a jiff.”
“You’re sure? I don’t mind going with you.”
“It’s fine, Lance. Come on, drop me off.”
Lance let Brook off at the main entrance. She stopped by the information desk and asked for Jerry’s room.
“He’s still in ICU,” the pink-haired, elderly woman staffing the desk remarked. Seeing Brook’s distress, she hurried on. “No need to worry. He’s just waiting for a room to open up on the general medicine floor. We’re just a little over-booked right now. Take that elevator over there, then go on down the hall to the right and follow the signs on the wall. He’s in room 210.”
Brook, relieved Jerry was better, stopped in the gift shop and bought a bouquet of cheery yellow carnations. She rode the elevator to the second floor, and then walked with decisive steps down the hall to the ICU unit. No one questioned her as she looked for and found room 210.
Two doors down, a policeman sat outside another room. A chill traveled down her back as she realized Benny was probably behind the door he guarded. The officer looked up at Brook with a bored expression on his face. Brook lowered her eyes and made a show of balancing the flowers in her hand. He turned away and picked up a magazine in his lap.
From beneath her lashes, Brook quickly scanned the walls of the unit before stepping through Jerry’s door.
“May I help you?” a tiny woman asked from beside the bed. Her gray hair was pulled back into a bun, and she wore a sweater draped around her shoulders.
Brook smiled towards the sleeping man in the bed. “I’m Brook Parrish. I just wanted to drop these off for Jerry. Are you his mother?”
“I am!” The woman’s smile seemed a little strained, which Brook could understand. After all, if it hadn’t been for Brook, Jerry wouldn’t be in the hospital at all. But the woman remained courteous. “I’m sure Jerry would love to see you. Let me wake him.”
Brook stopped her. “No, don’t. He should rest. Get his strength back. Please just tell him I stopped by.”
Jerry’s mom looked relieved. “I’ll do that.”
Brook stepped back into the outer ICU unit and found the area empty. Even the policeman had vacated his post. Maybe he didn’t find the job pressing since his prisoner was in a coma. Probably went for coffee.
Brook reached forward, and with a quick tug, pulled the fire alarm on the wall next to Jerry’s room. Chaos followed. In the confusion, Brook slipped down the hall and into Benny’s room. She stared at his bruised face for a few seconds, feeling no sympathy. He hardly looked alive, his skin waxen and his head swathed in white. A respirator breathed for him and various clear tubing snaked around his still body. He looked smaller than before, diminished.
Calmly, Brook turned and pulled every plug in sight. The ventilator went silent and alarms sounded, but they could not compete with the din outside the room. She stepped out and joined the exodus from the hospital, hoping there would be enough confusion to co
ver the plaintive bleeping coming from one of the nurse’s bays. At least long enough to put an end to the last of her tormentors.
“What’s going on in there?” Lance asked as Brook slid into the truck.
“I’m not sure. An alarm went off right after I dropped off Jerry’s flowers. Then everyone started for the doors so I followed along. Maybe we’ll hear something on the news.”
Lance searched Brook’s face for a long moment but she only smiled a tired smile. “Okay. Let’s go home.”
Notes of Interest
Cover photo for Betrayed by Alina Baykov
Special thanks to author, Glenn Starkey, for his encouragement and support. https://glennstarkey.net
The authors of Betrayed honored each of their children by using their names in the story: Coley, Danny, Denise, Donnie, Emily, Haylie, Matthew, and Randi. In Betrayed, Alternate Ending, their spouses appear as the characters: Mick and Leonard.
Setting:
The authors took artistic liberty with the locations and geography of the great state of Colorado. Haylieville, Mt. Coley, Mt. Hazel, and the Garrison Range are fictional. The beautiful Wet Mountains do exist.
Coming soon:
Alyiria by Wodke Hawkinson. On a distant planet, a young girl discovers she is heir to the throne and must journey across dangerous lands to claim her birthright.
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Dark Longings by Wodke Hawkinson. A vampire-themed nightclub, secret gatherings, unsolved murders, and a missing ex-boyfriend. Each clue brings Ruby closer to the truth...and to danger.
Tangerine by Wodke Hawkinson. Intrigue and romance set in a future time when aliens are a natural part of everyday life and travel to distant planets is commonplace.
Betrayed by Wodke Hawkinson. She is taken captive during a botched carjacking. And her nightmare begins.
Zeke by Wodke Hawkinson. A dark novel of sexual obsession and psychological suspense.
Betrayed - Alternate Ending by Wodke Hawkinson.
Catch Her in the Rye, Selected Short Stories Volume One by Wodke Hawkinson.
Blue, Selected Short Stories Volume Two by Wodke Hawkinson.
Alone, Selected Short Stories, Volume Three by Wodke Hawkinson.
“Ghost Writer”, a short story by Wodke Hawkinson
“Misery Loves Company”, a short story by Wodke Hawkinson
“Acim”, a short story by Wodke Hawkinson
Half Bitten by PJ Hawkinson. A tale of vampire revenge.
James Willis Makes a Million by K Wodke. A book for young readers about a boy who starts his first successful business at only eight years old.
Mirtis Tod by K. Wodke. A novelette. Mirtis has a ghastly physical problem, and little time left to solve it.
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Enjoy this excerpt from Wodke Hawkinson’s novel,
Tangerine.
The moon’s jump terminal was much like a large airport, only on a grander scale. Hovering above the building was the enormous E-H Transporter. Sleek and ovoid, it gleamed with the sheen of an opal. Ava stood speechless before it, gaping like a tourist seeing the great pyramids for the first time. Nothing could have prepared her for the sight. Ships of all sizes were being uploaded into the E-H. The giant transporter reminded Ava of a hive with busy bees swarming around it. Closing her mouth, Ava moved into the terminal where, due to her employment with Alliance, she was spared the usual agony of pre-flight check-in. She and Pisk moved past long lines of travelers, and went directly to the boarding station.
If she thought the outside of the transporter to be impressive then she certainly found the inside to be the opposite. Barren hallways led to the center of the transporter. Here, voyagers would stand in waist-high aisles in the order they entered. Seats could be dropped from the partitions if needed, and were being used here and there as the passengers waited for the uploading to end.
Air conditioning was not supplied, deemed unnecessary for a flight lasting less than a second. However, it seemed the designers of the ship had not considered the loading time. Ava was standing behind a rather heavyset man who reeked of body odor. Unable to move backwards, or even turn to the side due to the press of people from every direction, Ava took shallow breaths as she covered her mouth with her hand and prayed they would soon get under way. Pisk buried his face in her neck.
In answer to her prayer, a recorded voice announced that they would now make the jump. A mere nano-second after this announcement, the same mechanical voice welcomed them to the primary moon of Tangerine in the 32nd sector. Amazing, Ava thought, never felt a thing. She had heard stories about earlier jumps when travelers felt as if they were being pushed through the floor. Modern jumps had thankfully advanced to the point where dimension shifts were unnoticeable.
Ava followed the odoriferous man from the ship, through many hallways, and portals, until she stepped out into a sight even more amazing than the transport station on Earth’s moon. A sprawling city, alien in nature, stretched before her like a scene from a movie, only this scene was real, and she was part of it. The buildings before her were not tall, rising no more than twenty stories; but what they lacked in height they made up for in mass. Some were as long as three football fields while others were no larger than a satellite banking facility. All were made of a material unfamiliar to Ava, and ranged in color from dirty white to deep bronze. Looking over the city from her vantage point on the docking station’s balcony, Ava noticed the city expanded from that point and radiated out like the spokes of a wheel, with the buildings getting smaller in the distance.
Wow,” Ava murmured under her breath.
Turning, she scanned the interior wall of the docking station. Iron ramparts ascended high above, and stretched far on either side. Multiple levels of docking ports dotted the wall, each opening onto a platform spanning the length of the wall and interspersed with glass-enclosed lifts within which Ava could see people zipping up and down.
A burst of light caught Ava’s attention and drew her eyes upward. A meteor shower was in progress. As the meteors hit the protective shields of the complex, they were repelled, emitting an array of spectacular colors and drawing ohhs and ahhs from observers.
As the stellar show ended, Ava continued gazing up, marveling over the unseen force that protected the living beings within its shelter. Invisible to the eye, the shield could deflect massive projectiles from the outside while maintaining an artificial environment within. These force fields had a strange quality; they allowed nothing to move them from the outside but were completely flexible from the inside. It has not been determined to what degree a shelter could flex, as the maximum had not yet been reached.
Ava noticed that vids in the area were offering information about the jump site and the surrounding city. She stepped near and jacked her headphones. Watching the vid she listened to the commentator. Pisk placed his ear next to hers so he could listen too. They learned how the station dealt with waste of all kinds, turning it into useful material, including fuel for ships and supplementation of the city’s power supply. Businesses offering a range of goods and services from the practical to the whimsical, including hotels, entertainment venues, and souvenir shops from multiple galaxies, stood ready to meet the needs of the interstellar traveler. Information kiosks were situated throughout the terminal.
Scanning ahead, Ava looked at the different views of Tangerine. One shot showed the planet from deep space. She thought it resembled a big dip of
sherbet hung suspended in blackness, its huge moon a generous dollop of cream, and its second smaller moon a mere dot. Although uninhabited by “intelligent life,” the planet offered a variety of indigenous flora and fauna that would fascinate and intrigue any scientist.
Ava disconnected from the vid, and looked skyward again. Floating above the city, like an oversized balloon, was the planet Tangerine. Gazing at the glorious shades of orange, Ava felt strangely drawn to visit the planet now, but that wasn’t to be. While Tangerine was on her list of assignments, she wouldn’t visit it until later. Her first mission was in the galaxy, Alfea, four jumps from her present site. The first stage of those jumps was being announced now. She took one last longing look at the planet before she and Pisk entered the portal to the transporter to make their next jump.
Arriving on Xenorel’s moon, Ava took possession of her ship and was cleared for flight. Pisk settled into the co-pilot’s seat, his large eyes on Ava. Following the coordinates given her by flight command, Ava maneuvered away from the moon station. Moving past large barges and ships smaller than her own she gloried in the feel of being in control; of having no one to answer to directly, at least not here and now.
After exiting the main congestion, Ava found nothing but space in front of her.
“Look at that, Pisk,” Ava breathed in awe. “All that space just waiting for us.” She and her companion soaked up the view for a few minutes. Finally, Ava asked, “Ready?”
Pisk nodded in agreement.
Ava programmed the coordinates for their first stop, hit a button, and the ship entered hyper speed. Leaving Xenorel’s moon behind, she began her new career hurtling through a blaze of stars, with new experiences waiting to be found.
Enjoy this excerpt from Wodke Hawkinson’s novel,