The Divine Whisper (27 page)

Using her distraction from what was going on, Gemariah quickly reached through the window and grabbed the keys out of the ignition.

“Give them back, now!” she yelled.

“Not until you listen to me.” Almost as an afterthought, he added, “Please…”

As the woman walked by Nicole’s car, she hollered, “I had a great time last night Gem.
We’ll have to do it again.” Nicole looked up in time to see the woman wink at her.

A deep growl of frustration was the only answer she got from Gemariah.

Looking forward, Nicole pinched the bridge of her nose to ward off the headache that was forming.
“You have two minutes to talk. Then I want my keys back.”

“Two minutes?
There’s so much that I need to tell you. Two minutes isn’t enough time,” he complained.

Angrily, she looked over at him.
“You’re wasting your two minutes.”

“Fine.”
He held up his hands in surrender once more. “First of all. I was in a dark place last night.”

“That’s no excuse!”

“My two minutes. Let me finish.”

Pinching her lips together to keep quiet, she turned her head to look out the windshield.

“I was in a dark place because I got scared.”
Resting his head on the outside of the vehicle, he mumbled, “I can’t believe I’m about to tell you this in my driveway.”

He brought his head back up.
“Will you at least look at me?” he asked.

She didn’t want to.
She wanted to harden her resolve and stay angry forever. Part of her didn’t think it would be as easy if she were to look at him. Taking a deep breath to fight back the tears, she made her face like stone and turned to him.

“I was scared because of my mother.
She died when I was twelve, giving birth to my two brothers. We didn’t know that she was carrying twins. During the birth, the strain was too much for her. She died as well as both boys. I watched the whole thing happen.”

Out of everything she was expecting to hear, that was not one of them.

“Therefore, yesterday, when we saw both babies on the monitor, all those memories came crashing back.
It scared me to think that something could happen to you, and there wasn’t anything I could do to stop it. I didn’t think that I was strong enough to go through that again, especially with my own children.”

“You know what that’s called… Fatherhood! You don’t think that I’m scared? That’s why I called you so many times last night and came over here today. I
needed
you. I’m happy and excited, but really, really scared. If you would have answered your phone, we would have still both been scared, but at least we would have been
together
!”

“I know.
I know. I wish I would have, but last night, everything wasn’t so clear. I went to a bar to drink myself into oblivion. She approached me. Like I said, I was in a dark place. Eventually, she followed me home. I won’t lie. We kissed and things got heated, but before anything got too far, I stopped.

“Too far?
Too far? It was ‘too far’ the moment you touched her!” Nicole had to take a few calming breaths. “Okay, if you stopped, why was she still here and in your clothes?”

“I don’t know.
She said she was going to call a cab since she was so drunk. My shirt… she must have found on the floor. I’m not sure. I went up to my room, and didn’t come down till I heard someone at the door. You know the rest.”

“How come you both could drive here, obviously drunk, but not get her home?”

“I don’t know.
I wasn’t thinking straight.”

“You seem to have that issue a lot lately.”

He didn’t respond to her verbal jab, and instead waited for her to say anything else. She was so mad right then that she didn’t know what to say. The story about his mother cooled her temper a bit, but she kept seeing the woman standing in Gemariah’s shirt, which made her angry all over again.

All she wanted to do was curl up somewhere and cry.
Why does this man always make me cry
, she thought? She was done; done with the drama, done with the confusion, done with him. Everything was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.

Looking him in the eyes, she kept her resolve strong and held out her hand.
“Keys, please.”

For a moment, he didn’t do anything, just looked into her eyes.
Finally, he placed the keys in her hand but didn’t let go when she moved to pull away. “I really wish I knew what you were feeling right now,” he exclaimed.

“No.
No you don’t.” With a slightly stronger tug, she pulled her hand away.

When she started up the car, he stood up but kept his hands on the windowsill.
“What happens now?”

Shaking her head, she looked up at him before speaking.
“Now, I leave. That’s all I got right now.”

He didn’t stop her as she backed out of the driveway and drove off.
She wouldn’t look at him, but knew that he stood and watched her the entire time.

Driving down the road, she swiped at the tears that had finally started to fall.
Her anger kept building and building when she couldn’t help but picture the woman or the lipstick on Gemariah’s neck. “I hate him for making me feel this way,” she choked out.

At her words, she felt a tiny kick in her stomach before a gentle and soothing feeling slowly started to spread through her.

Taking a hand off the wheel, she gently caressed her stomach.
She wasn’t alone anymore. It didn’t matter what happened with Gemariah in the end because she still had two people that would love her unconditionally. The three of them would stick together always.

CHAPTER 12

Do you understand what you have to do?

“That lying BITCH,” the man yelled.

You’re not listening to me.
I asked if you knew what you had to do.

The man went on, as if he hadn’t heard anything.
“After everything I did for her… provided for her, and then she goes and spreads her legs for another man!”

He immediately grabbed his head and went down to his knees in pain.
“Ahh,” he yelled.

Now that I’ve gotten your attention… You already took care of your wife as her soul is already gone.
Now, you have to find the boy.

“Why?
He’s nothing!”

You handled one woman that disrespected you.
Don’t you want to keep going?

The man’s head finally stopped throbbing, be he stayed on his knees to listen to the voice that’s been speaking to him for over a year.
It never steered him wrong before, so he listened carefully.

There.
That’s better. Now, that “nothing” is on the phone, as we speak, with the social worker you loath so much. Now is the time to find him. She has a tender heart and will be here in minutes. She’s going to meddle in your life again, and I need you to take care of her like you did your wife.

He sneered at the thought of the woman.
She was small, tiny really, and easily breakable. Man, he was going to love breaking her.

Getting to his feet, he cracked his neck, rolled his shoulders, and started to move downstairs.

One more thing Ben… If you succeed in this, I can make it so you never have another worry for the rest of your minuscule life. If you should mess this up, I will no longer be there, because I will no longer have any use for you. Now, start looking.

With that, Benjamin McGrath did as he was told.

******

Nicole groaned when she got out of bed.
Mornings had been getting harder and harder for her. She wasn’t sleeping well. Either the babies were active during the night or she couldn’t find a comfortable position. With either scenario, she wasn’t getting the sleep she needed to make it a whole day.

She tossed around the idea of lightening her workload and giving a few cases to coworkers.
They all offered to help, but she just can’t see the point. She was only a little over half way through with her pregnancy. There were still many weeks before she left for maternity leave. Everyone was already bogged down with cases of their own; she would hate to give them more work so early.

Grudgingly, she got ready for work, stopping a few times to grab her back hip when she moved in a way that aggravated her sciatic nerve. Out of all the bathroom trips, bloating, and achy muscles, the nerve pain was the worst. She couldn’t get up from a chair too fast or keep moving when the pain shot across her backside.

When she grabbed her keys and walked outside, she felt a small amount of disappointment to find that no one was there.

It had been five weeks since that ugly morning with Gemariah.
She wasn’t ready to forgive him, and she wasn’t sure if she ever would, but there were still things that she missed. He still called once in a while to check on her and see how the babies were doing, but other than that, they hadn’t had any contact.

For all she knew, he had gone back to his former life and easy living.
It wouldn’t surprise her, if he had. She wouldn’t even blame him. That’s just who he was. At one time, she could have sworn that there was more to him, but she just didn’t know anymore.

Now if only she could train her heart to think like her mind.
Her mind was ready to let go, but her heart still hoped that he would be waiting outside for her when she left the house. It was as if it broke a little more every time she opened the door to an empty porch.

Shaking off the feeling once again, she got in her car and started driving to her office.
When she was only a couple blocks away, her cell phone began to ring, so she fumbled in her purse with one hand to find it. When she finally got it out, she held it up but didn’t recognize the number. Frowning, she hit the screen, and held the phone up to her ear. “Hello,” she answered.”

“Ms. Summers.
Is that you?” The voice on the other end was small and definitely panicked.”

“Yes,” she said in her most calming voice.
There was a crash in the background, and she heard something shatter. She still kept her voice even, but added a hint of urgency. “Hey sweetie. Tell me what’s going on.” When she heard a deep male voice yell in the background, she added, “Are you somewhere safe?”

The kid on the other end of the line started breathing harder and by the static, she knew that he had the receiver close to his mouth when he whispered.
“Dad’s gone crazy. I’m not even sure what set him off this time, but it’s not good.”

She finally put a face to the voice.
“Shane? Is that you?

“Yes,” he said on a sob.

“Are you somewhere safe?”

“I’m hiding downstairs in the laundry room, behind the dryer.
He’s upstairs, but I don’t know for how long.”

“Have you called the police?”

“Are you kidding me?” he silently shrieked. “He’d kill me if I called the cops. You have to promise not to. He’ll think I did it.”

Nicole had already turned around her car and was headed in the direction of Shane’s house.
She took a deep breath to calm herself. Her heart was racing, but she didn’t want Shane to panic. “I can’t promise that. You know I have to call them. I’ll tell your dad that it was me, okay?”

“No, that’s not okay.”
Nicole heard a shuffling noise and pictured Shane adjusting his position behind the dryer. “He would still blame me because I called you.”

She didn’t want him to panic, so she asked something else.
“We need to think about getting you safe. You’re right by the garage, is there any way that you can make it safely outside?”

“No,” he choked.
The garage door’s locked and Mom’s lying in front of the front door.”

She didn’t want to, but she had to ask.
“Shane, what’s your mom doing by the front door?”

That’s when he started to cry.
“She’s… hurt,” he said between sobs. “Her eyes are open, but she’s not moving. Dad pushed her down the stairs.”

By the sound of it, Nicole didn’t have a positive feeling about Evelyn’s well-being.
“Okay. I need you to stay exactly where you are. Do you understand?”

When there was no answer, she felt herself start to worry.
“Shane? I need you to answer me.”

“I understand.”
His voice was small and sounded so fragile. What she wouldn’t have done just then to take him away from all of it.

“Okay, now I’m going to add the police on the other line.
Do not hang up! I want to be able to hear everything that’s going on.”

“Okay.”

“Okay,” she repeated. With that, she proceeded to add the 911 operator on the line.

“911. What’s your emergency?”

“This is Nicole Summers, Department of Family Services. There is a boy on the line with me. He’s hiding in his basement, while his father is on a destructive rampage. His mother is unmoving after going down the stairs, and I need officers over there now to defuse the situation.” After that, the operator proceeded to ask questions to Shane and her as well.

Nicole arrived at the house just as she heard the sirens.
The operator had instructed her not to enter the house, but it was hard when she could hear everything going on.

It was when the first police cruiser pulled up, that her blood ran cold.
Through the phone, she heard Shane yell, “He found me! He found me!” There was a loud crack, and the line went dead.

Instinctively, her feet started to run toward the door, but her arm was snagged before she could make it inside.

“You can’t go in there.”

“You don’t understand.
I was on the phone with the boy, but the line went dead. The last thing he said was that Benjamin had found him.”

“Benjamin is...?”

Sighing in exasperation, she gestured wildly to the door. “His father! Now are you going to go help him, or not?” she yelled.

“Ma’am, I need you to calm down.”
He gestured to his partner. “We’ll go check it out, but you have to stay right here.”

When he still didn’t move, she raised her eyebrows impatiently.

Turning around, they walked cautiously up to the front door.
After knocking once the officer that stopped her yelled who they were. When there was no answer, they tried again. There was still no answer, no sound at all came from inside.

She was about to rush the house when a loud crash sounded from inside.
The officers drew their weapons and held them low. One shot the lock while the other pushed the door open. When they hurried inside, all was silent.

Tears started to form in her eyes.
She always tried to stay detached from the children she worked with, but always failed. Therefore, each time something bad happened to them, she couldn’t help but share their pain. Many scenarios were running through her head about what had happened.
Why can’t I hear anything
, she thought?

While she waited, another cruiser and an ambulance pulled up.
The two new police officers ran inside the house, but she still didn’t know what was happening. The silence was eerie.

She finally heard what sounded like footsteps pounding on stairs and looked up just in time to see Shane burst through the doorway.
She knew what he had been through had to have been awful, but she couldn’t keep the smile from her face. He was alright!

He was running toward her, and she opened her arms for him to run into.
Together they held onto each other, both crying, and both gripping each other tightly. It was Nicole that broke away first, and she leaned down to look at his face. She tilted his cheek to the side, and frowned. There was some definite bruising, but some were a few days old. Deciding not to bring it up at the moment, she stood and put her arm around him to direct him toward the ambulance.

That was when she heard it.
It was a sound that she had learned at too young of an age, and one that she wouldn’t soon forget. It was the unmistakable sound of a very angry human being, an almost inhuman roar.

She turned toward the sound and instinctively shoved Shane behind her.
It might not be much, but she would shield him from as much as possible.

Benjamin looked at her and spat, “You!”
She watched in horror as he lunged to the right then the left, successfully knocking loose the hold that the officers had on his arms. Then, as if they were a toy set, the cuffs holding his wrists broke and he started to run after her. “You meddling bitch! I’m going to kill you!”

“Shane, run!”
She tried to push him out of the way, but he was too busy trying to get in front of her to block his father’s attack.

In the end, it didn’t matter.
Shane wasn’t his intended target, she was. The blow to her face was no surprise. It was the pain that she had forgotten. She fell to the ground and for a moment, everything went blurry, but soon came back when he gripped her by the throat and stood her back up. Thinking of her babies, she started to thrash around and kick where she could.

“You couldn’t have left well enough alone, could you?” he asked before letting go of her with one hand and drawing it back into a fist.

She knew another punch was coming and she increased her struggles.
Already on the edge of consciousness, she knew that one more hit would knock her out cold. She would lose what little control she had if that happened. When his fist started to move, she shut her eyes.

The punch never landed and instead she suddenly dropped.
She vaguely heard struggling off to the side, but couldn’t gather enough strength to look over. Shutting her eyes, her head lolled on her shoulders and she quickly jerked them back open. Shane’s face was in front of hers, but was soon replaced by a paramedic’s.

She once again shut her eyes, but it was too hard to open them back up.
Instead of trying, she kept them closed and just listened. There were a lot of different noises around; machines, arguing, and even more yelling. Finally, she heard her name, not “Ms. Summers” not Ma’am… her name. She liked the way it sounded and just listened as she finally relaxed and let sleep overtake her.

******

What the hell was she doing there, Gemariah though? His team and he had just gotten to the neighborhood not five minutes ago. When they pulled up to the house, the last thing that he expected to find was Nicole outside of it.

Another 911 call had been placed involving a domestic dispute in the neighborhood that he had been watching for months.
By the information that was given, it sounded as if it was pretty bad. Terah and Gideon happened to be in the office at the time, and decided to tag along when he was going to check it out.