When I was waking up, I had a splitting headache. I felt like I had slept on a cattle brod. I was lying on a couch. I knew that much, but everything was blurry. I saw a figure standing over me. At first I was scared, so I put my guard up, throwing my knees up, using my forearms to block my face and head. A kind and disarming voice, not to mention female, started telling me it was ok. “Whoa, Nick, it’s ok! It’s ok! It’s me, Melanie. Shshshshshsh, everything’s going to be ok.”
“What… What happened? Why do my muscles ache? And why does my neck feel like it was branded?”
“Luke stopped you with a Tazzer. My dad heard the fight and grabbed his stun gun from his utility belt and ran outside. Luke dropped like a bag of potatoes. He’s tied up out in the shed while dad’s waiting for his captain and some other cops to show up.”
“Guess it’s a good thing this happened here and not at the restaurant. Do you think they’ll need a statement?”
“They probably will. Don’t worry though, you fought them off in self-defense.”
“What happened to Robert and Don?”
“The paramedics came and took them to the hospital. They’ll be fine. My dad took care of the paper work so that went pretty fast. He put you in a good light.”
She put her hand on my shoulder. It was calming, considering my level of nervousness and stress. Her father walked in from the kitchen and was just getting off the phone. “… Thanks Frank. Just get here as soon as you can… Ok. Bye. *click* Well look who’s up! How are you feeling Champ?”
“Like someone branded me.”
“Well you’re a lucky guy. If Luke had gotten you in the chest, your heart could have stopped and tonight would be going a little differently.”
“Well I guess I should be glad you came when you did.”
“Just so you know, the police chief is on his way and is going to need to get a statement from you. Don’t be nervous, you didn’t do anything illegal.”
He patted me on the back lightly and went to his room upstairs. While he did that, I decided to go check on Luke. I turned to Melanie, “I’m going to go check on our little prisoner out there.” As I got up to go out to the shed, she said, “Don’t hurt him. He’s just there until my dad’s partner and chief get here.” “Don’t worry, I won’t touch him. I just have some questions.” My legs were still weak and I felt like I was walking on a boat. Melanie came and helped me until I could walk normally. I got to the back door and asked her to stay there.
The shed was used as Melanie’s dad’s workshop. He would carve beautiful wooden furniture like his wife’s rocking chair and Melanie’s bed frame. He was very good at what he did with wood and also as a cop. When I got there, Luke’s hands were cuffed up around a support beam above his head. The shed was only 8 or 9 feet tall at the peek of the roof so the beam was only about 6 feet off the ground, just high enough so his arms were bent slightly. He looked at me with the eyes of forced hatred, which I knew was just a sorry attempt at intimidation. I walked in and pulled up a nearby chair Melanie’s dad had just finished. “So Luke, looks like you got the short end of the stick, didn’t you?” He didn’t say anything; he just looked off to the side so not to look me in the eye. “You know those guys don’t care about you right?” There was still no response from him, so I continued more sternly. “You’re going to juvi for assault and Robert and his little pose aren’t going to bail you out. Hope your mom received a good tip from her client last night. Heard she's making house calls to lonely guys around town.”
“Shut up about my moms!”
“Ok, one, your not black. Two, your not a gangster. So with those things cleared up, talk like the inbred, red blooded, white trash, American red neck you are.”
“You don’t even know me or my moms!”
“Your mom’s what?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Nope, sorry, think you forgot a noun in there somewhere.”
“What do you want from me?”
“An explanation! What possible reason do you have to hate me?”
“Melanie is Roberts girl.”
“What do you care? It’s not like she has a thing for you or you’ve got the hotts for her. Actually, with as much as you do for Robert, people might start to think you’ve got a crush on him!... You are straight aren’t you?”
“Ass.”
“Hey, I just call ‘em as I see ‘em.”
“So, you screw her yet?”
“That’s for me to know and you to never find out!”
“So you have…” I picked up some duck tape from a near by table and put a piece of it over Luke’s mouth in the middle of his sentence. I didn’t need him guessing and finding out that we decided to wait. That would just be one more bullet to add to their "bully gun". “Have fun talking to the police about how much you love to kiss Robert’s butt.” I left him there to simmer in his own anger, hoping he would unload on the cops and not get bail. I came back into the house as Melanie opened the door for the Police chief and his guys. Her dad came down the stairs and greeted the chief. Then he turned to me and waved me over. “Nick is the one who got attacked. Nick, tell them what happened.”
I wasn’t really sure where to begin. “Well, sir, I don’t honestly remember much but what I do remember is that I brought Melanie home from dinner. I walked her up to the door and… well, anyways, I turned around and got blindsided by a paint ball. Next thing I know, Robert is rushing me with a bat so one thing leads to another and I finished the fight. Then every thing went black. Where did the paramedics take Rob and Don?”
The chief replied, “The hospital right down the road. They’ll be fine, we just have to finish talking to you and Luke out there and then take Luke in.”
“What’s going to happen to Rob and Don?” Melanie asked.
“After they have recovered and the hospital releases them into our custody, they’ll go to jail until their court date.”
I then had to know, “How long do you think they’ll get?”
“Well, considering it’s not their first offense, probably somewhere from 6 to 12 months, but we need to finish questioning. Did they provoke you earlier, yesterday perhaps, or even earlier in the week?”
Melanie answered, “He interrupted our dinner tonight. He made a huge scene about needing to talk to me but Nick wouldn’t let him near me. The store manager and a waiter threw him out.”
“Did, he make any threats or anything like that?”
I took this one. “He went to take a swing at me but the manager stopped him before he could. He then told me that it wasn’t over and he was waiting for me, but when we left he was no where to be found. Guess he was waiting for us here.”
“Alright, well I think that’s it for now. If we have anymore questions I’ll let you know.” The chief said to Melanie’s father, “So now we have to talk to Luke. Where is he again?”
Melanie’s dad answered, “He’s cuffed out in the shed. Here I’ll take you to him.”
They walked out back and disappeared into the darkness as I turned to Melanie. She looked at me with a thankful expression, glad that I was ok. I didn’t know what to say but I was glad to hear she did. “So what do we do now?”
“Well, the mood here just got a little too ‘Law-and-Order’ for me. I say we get out of here.”
“Where do you want to go?”
“What would you say if I said I wanted to make sure I didn’t permanently damage Rob and Don?”
“I’d say I’ll go just to see Robert in pain!”
I had to smile, “I’ll Race you to the car.”
Before I could get a response, she was already out the door and half way down the walkway. I unlocked the door and as she got in the passanger side, I slid across the hood dukes-of-hazard style. I got in the car and started it. The drive there was filled with jokes of how bad Rob would be. It took us about 5 to 10 minutes to get there but it was real easy to find a spot to park. When we got there, we walked right into in to a realm of chaos with nurses and doctors running around like a flock of birds with nowhere to go. I reached out and grabbed the first person I felt, which ended up being a nurse who had set up Robert and Don in their rooms. The first thing out of my mouth was, “What happened here?” The nurse was on the verge of tears. “I… I did all I knew. I… I need this job. I don’t want to be fired. I…”
“Whoa, calm down. Listen…” I looked at her nametag, which said Jenni. “… Jenni, I need you to look at me. Alright? look at me. Now calm down and focus. What happened here?”
“I set those two boys from the assault case earlier tonight up in their rooms. I left to go get them some medication and when I got back they were gone.”
Melanie piped up, “Were their names Robert and Don?”
“I think so, yeah.”
At that point I knew if they weren’t here they were coming back after me. And this time, for blood.
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