Tanked: TANKED (22 page)

I nod. “Hey can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“How much do you think it would cost for me to have a door put in with a peephole?”

He smiles his charming smile and it makes you want to smile. “It won’t cost you anything.” He reaches up and knocks on the door. “It’s metal. I’ll install you one in your front and backdoor before I leave today.”

“Thank you!” I feel my eyes tear up and I wave my hand. “Sorry, I’m not normally this big a baby.”

His face softens. “It’s going to take you a little bit to get over. The wounds are still fresh, but you’ll get there.  Life will get back to normal and you will be happy.  I promise.”

His kind dark eyes mean every word. I wipe a tear off my cheek then nod my head again and mouth, “Thank you.”

“I’d better get back to helping him.”

I smile and shut the door. I go back to the kitchen where my mother is and she asks “Who was at the door?”

“Ambrose and Alex are here to take down the cameras.”

“Well, they can stay for lunch, too,” she says as she reaches back in the fridge and grabs another pack of bacon.

“Mom, don’t you think you should at least ask them first?”

“I’ll ask them.” She beams and begins opening up the second pack. “Oh I forgot, go out to my car, honey, and get the cooler out of the back. I brought you some tea and drinks. I didn’t know what you had here.”

I walk out to her car and grab the cooler, mumbling to myself the whole way. When I get back inside I open the refrigerator door, sit the cooler down, and begin to unload the drinks.  I pull out a jug of tea and read the label then look up at my mother. My nose is wrinkled. “You bought me unsweet tea?”

“No. That’s a jug from when your father was on one of his many diets.  That’s my homemade sweet tea in the jug.”

After I put the sodas away I watch my mother remove the cooked bacon and put it on a plate covered in paper towels to soak up the grease. The smell is fantastic. I feel my stomach growl and once again I find myself thankful my mother is here.  There’s another knock at the front door. I leave her in the kitchen and open the door. This time its Alexander and his face changes instantly. He glares at me so hard I know he is analyzing my bruises.  His face grimaces and he bites down on his jaw.  I finally find my voice although it doesn’t come out very loud, “Hey, Alexander, how are you?”

He doesn’t say anything. He continues to stare as he looks me up and down my entire body and any skin that’s showing. He’s checking me over. “I shouldn’t have left,” he bites out.

I begin talking quickly, “It’s alright, it all worked out. I’m okay, a little shaken up but other than that I’m alright.” Ambrose walks up behind him and I feel relieved. Alexander is too intense for me and I’m not sure how much longer I can deal with him. I look between both men. “Hey guys my mother has cooked like six pounds of bacon to make sandwiches and she really wants you to stay and eat lunch.  Would you?”

“Of course we will,” Ambrose says grinning as he slaps Alexander on the shoulder a couple of times. “Just show us where to wash up.”

I take a few steps back to let them inside and point in the direction down the hall to the bathroom.  Alexander goes first. I watch as his massive body makes my hallway look small I look to Ambrose as he says, “I know he’s intimidating to you but he’s had a crazy year and he takes this sort of situation personal.  I don’t want to go into too much detail but his wife was kidnapped and then later almost shot because of a lunatic.”

I swallow hard and watch as Alexander is making his way back up the hallway. Ambrose cheerfully says, “Guess it’s my turn.”

I nod then turn to go back into the kitchen, “Hey momma, they’re going to stay and have something to eat.”

“Okay will you peel and slice the tomato? This bacon is almost ready.”

“Sure, no problem.”

“Boys?” my mother calls and I almost burst out laughing at her calling them boys, “What can I get you to drink?” She asks.

Ambrose calls back from the other room, “We’ll both take a glass of tea.”

It’s a little awkward having both men sitting at the table with my mother and myself. Of course she acts like it’s just another meal with the family.  Ambrose is good with keeping up normal conversation but the shocker is Alexander brags on my mother’s sandwiches and seems to lighten up a little.  He takes a drink of tea and says, “I still haven’t figured out why you add so much sugar to your tea.”

My mother doesn’t miss a beat, “You know everything’s sweeter in the south.”

Alexander raises one eyebrow and seems to think over what she says then smiles a breathtakingly beautiful smile. I stop midway with the sandwich to my mouth and feel my insides move. He replies, “You’ve got that right.”  I shove my sandwich into my open mouth and chew slowly. 
Jessie is going to be pissed he missed that.

After lunch I help mother clean up and the guys go to get the parts they need for me to have peepholes.  It doesn’t take them long at all with Ambrose working on the front and Alexander working on the back.  In less than an hour I’m telling them goodbye.

As the days go on it doesn’t take me long to figure out I’m being babysat.  If my mother isn’t checking on me, Hunter is stopping by and hanging out.  I barely have a moment to myself even in the middle of the night when I wake up.  There will be a police cruiser parked out front.  It makes me feel good but also I don’t understand why Tank hasn’t called or come by to check on me.  If he’s waiting on me to go and talk to him, he can hold his breath and turn purple for all I care.  But who am I kidding? I did care and I do but apparently he doesn’t.

Wednesday evening Hunter shows up with two board games.  I frown. “Why do you have board games?”

“I thought you might be tired of just sitting at home and I know you’re not ready to go out yet.”

I reach up and touch my neck. “I think my bruises are starting to fade?” He bobs his head and I’m not sure if that’s an agreement or not.  I know they are still an angry purple but a girl can hope.  I notice him texting on his phone more than usual, so I ask, “Do you need to go to work?”

“Nah, some of the guys are going out to Weasel’s, it’s quarter beer night.”

“Could we go? I mean, not tonight, but would you take me some time?”

“I tell you what, let’s put some time behind this and I promise you I’ll take you to Weasel's.”

“Deal,” I smile then pick up the board game Sorry and say, “Let’s play this one.”

The rest of my week goes the same way. On Friday evening Hunter shows up with a DVD, bragging about his find. “I found this at the discount store and thought you might want to watch this before I take you out to Weasel's, so you know what you’re getting yourself into.”

“What is it?”

“
Sons of Anarchy
.”

I wrinkle my noise. “A biker show?”

“The biker show.”

“Alright, put it in.” I crawl into my normal spot in the recliner and he takes his spot on the couch.

“Hey, I brought my uniform. Do you mind if I get changed here? I can leave early and change at the station if it’s not cool.”

“Of course not, that’s fine. You can get changed here.”

We watch the first episode. I find myself watching between my fingers most of the time.  I no longer find myself interested in hanging out at Weasel's. Although I do find the main character Jax somewhat hot.  I look over at Hunter from time to time and he’s completely engrossed. 

I jump when I hear Jessie say, “What’s going on in here?” as he walks into the living room just at the perfect time to watch a man get the living crap beat out of him. He sits on the arm of my chair, “Hey, sunshine.” He pulls me into a hug and kisses my head.

“Hey.”

“What time is it?” Hunter asks, trying to pull his phone out of his pocket.

“10:30ish”

“Oh shit! I got to get dressed and go.”  Hunter jumps up and walks quickly back toward the bathroom.

“Sunshine. What. Is. Going. On. Here?”

“Hunter stopped by and we watched this show he wanted me to see.”

“It looks terrible.”

“Once you get over the initial shock it's actually quite interesting.”

“Uh huh.”

“Hey, McKinsey, I’ll call you tomorrow and I’ll make sure we do some drive by’s tonight alright?” Hunter calls as he runs out the front door.

“Sounds good, thanks,” I say, not sure that he heard me.

Jessie eyes me carefully then gets up and says, “We have so much to do tomorrow. We need to go shopping for the rest of our costumes for next Saturday, Disco here we come!”

I giggle. “You still going to wear your afro?”

“You know it, and I found a purple pimp suit.”

“You would.”

“Alright let me put my stuff up, go to the bathroom, then we got a lot to talk about,” Jessie says and walks out of the living room. He isn’t gone a minute when he comes back and asks, “Who’s been sleeping in my bed?”

“Hunter stayed one night the first night I got back.”

“What happened to Tank?”

I blow out a breath and explain, starting from the minute he left to go back to work until tonight. 

“You know for someone so smart he isn’t very bright when it comes to women.” He shakes his head, “Sunshine, I have to pee!” He jumps up and runs to the bathroom.

When he comes back he lies on the couch almost in the same place Hunter had been earlier and of course Prima jumps right in his lap.   I look at my best friend and say, “I sure am glad you’re home.”

“One more week then it’s all over.” He beams.

I smile and throw my arms up in the air. “One more week! Hallelujah!” Prima picks her head up from Jessie’s chest and looks at me with a grumpy look and I stick my tongue out at her.

“So, you and the sexy police officer a thing now?”

“Nah, it’s nothing like that.  Honestly, I think Tank sent him to keep an eye on me but he keeps saying his chief has, which I don’t get.”

“They’re scared you’ll sue them, which you should for employing a psycho on their force.” Jessie huffs as he rolls his eyes and rubs Prima behind the ear.

Not again
. I don’t want to talk about it all over again so I change the subject. “He did say he would take me to Weasel's.”

Jessie perks up. “Can I come?”

I thought about the
Sons of Anarchy
show and then imagine Jessie in the middle of all those biker men. “I’ll ask Hunter, but if you can’t come, I’m not going.”

“Are you sure all he did was sleep while he was over here?”

“Jessie shut up. Yes!”

“Aren’t we a bit touchy tonight?”

“Are we going to drive all the way into Birmingham tomorrow to find our costumes?”

“Yeah, they have my suit and I want to get you one of those mini dresses.  We’re also going to have to go to the Goth store at the mall. You’re totally going to get some black boots that go to your knees.”

And we do exactly that.  We spend the entire day in Birmingham going from store to store. I wear a collared shirt and Jessie helps me put some make up on my neck, a little trick we learned when I had terrible tan lines and was going to compete in the high school's beauty pageant.  It doesn’t look bad but I have to make sure I don’t sweat otherwise I’d have a complete mess. 

The next morning I don’t have a dress with a collared neckline so I’m apprehensive about going to church. I don’t want to face everybody and have them stare or ask questions. Because there’s always that one person who thinks it’s their God given right to know your business and it’s very clear they have never found themselves in a situation where they just want to be left alone.  Jessie stands behind me in the mirror fixing the back of my hair, something I’ve not perfected yet with this short bob hair style. I dabbed a little make up on my neck when Jessie says, “You know I think your neck soaked up some of that make up yesterday. I can’t believe how much better it looks.”

“I hope it soaks up a lot more. I don’t want to go to work looking like this.”

“Tomorrow it will practically be gone.” Jessie lies.

I smile at him in the mirror then get back busy trying to cover my neck.

Church goes great, and I’m surprised nobody stares or looks at me funny.  I mention it to my mother and she whispers, “Nobody knows it was you. Have you not read any of the articles in the paper? It’s an unnamed woman and it happened at Tank's.”

“But my car was out front. How could they not know it was me? I mean it wouldn’t be hard to figure out.”

“I don’t know, you’d need to ask Tank. Did anyone ever see you?”

“Not that I know of.”

“We were all brought in the back way that was blocked off by the police and then taken home.”

“So nobody knows it was me?”

“From what I can tell they went to great lengths to keep your name safe.”

My heart aches again. I want to call Tank and ask him if it’s true, that I wouldn’t have this following after me for the rest of my life.
The girl who barely escaped a serial killer.