False Start - Jessica Ruddick Page 0,45

the hood of one cruiser, chatting. Their nonchalance should have calmed me, but it didn’t. It took a lot to rattle a cop, but that didn’t mean the situation wasn’t serious.

Becca called. That means she’s okay. If something had happened to her, she wouldn’t have been able to call. Shit. It must be her roommate. Relief filled me, making me feel like an ass. It wasn’t as if I wanted something bad to happen to Lucy, but I wanted even more for Becca to be safe. Becca came first. Always.

Not caring that I was double-parked, I flung open the Jeep door. God, I hoped Lucy wasn’t hurt too badly. If it were really serious, the ambulance would have whisked her away to the hospital by now, so the fact that it was still here was a good sign.

I rushed toward the scene. The sight of Becca sitting in the back of the ambulance sent ice speeding through my veins. I jumped into the vehicle, not caring if I was allowed to do that, and pushed past the EMT. I gripped Becca by the shoulders, probably much too roughly given the circumstance, and pulled her against me, cradling her head in my hand. I couldn’t breathe. But thank God she was.

Her breaths were shuddered, but the rise and fall of her chest against mine was a sweet feeling. “I’m okay,” she whispered. “I’m okay.”

But I couldn’t force myself to let go of her just yet, much less speak coherent words. She was hurt. It was my job to protect her, and I hadn’t.

“Miss Zizzo, would you like us to give you a minute?” the cop sitting next to the EMT asked.

“Yes, please.”

It was only after we were alone in the back of the ambulance that I released her, but only so I could look her over myself. A nasty bruise was forming above her right eyebrow, and a small cut on her temple had been closed with a butterfly bandage.

I instinctively reached up to touch it before drawing my hand back. “You’re not okay.”

“It looks worse than it is,” she said meekly.

“What happened?” My voice was much calmer than I felt.

“I feel so stupid.” Her words made me think she’d fallen and hurt herself or done something else that was equally stupid. “For eff’s sake, I’m a cop’s daughter.”

That sentiment chilled me. Tony Zizzo had been a cop for nearly thirty years, and I’d been at their house when he’d come home from being on duty with a tortured look in his eyes. He’d seen some shit in the line of duty. He’d made his entire family—even Roman—take self-defense classes and learn basic medical training, like CPR. Just a precaution, he’d always said. You’ll probably never need it. It sickened me that he’d been wrong.

“What happened?” I repeated.

“I was in my room, listening to music with my headphones on, and I fell asleep. When I woke up, I went into the kitchen. I thought I heard Lucy in her room, but it wasn’t her. Someone had broken in while I was listening to music or sleeping. I don’t know how long he’d been there. He knocked me out and ran off. It could have been a lot worse.”

She wrapped her arms around her middle, and for the first time I noticed she was only wearing a bathrobe. Holy fuck. She was already almost naked. He wouldn’t even have had to remove her clothes if he’d intended to rape her. If she hadn’t already had that thought, I wasn’t going to enlighten her. But holy fuck. It could have been a lot worse, but it could have been a lot better too. I could have been there.

“Did you see him?”

“Yes, but it’s a blur. I looked him right in the eyes, and he got this oh shit look because he knew he’d been caught. That’s when he slammed his elbow into my temple.”

I’ll kill him. If the cops did their job and found that guy, they were going to have to protect him from me.

“How did he get in?”

“The deadbolt wasn’t locked. See? Stupid. But it’s Bleaksburg, you know? I never thought…”

I knew what she meant. I had buddies who regularly left their apartments unlocked because they didn’t feel like having to take out their keys. “Lucy left earlier with a suitcase, so it might have looked like the apartment was empty since I had the lights off. The officer said there were two break-ins at apartments last week, so he might