I’d feel if someone tried to hurt Scarlett. The wave of raw anger, fear, was instinctive.
“Anyway, one night, the mother called Shelby in a panic,” he continued. “The son had chased her and the rest of the kids into a bedroom with a kitchen knife. They were locked in, and he was kicking and punching at the door.”
“Why didn’t she call the cops?” I asked, dreading the resolution of the story.
“Didn’t want her son to get taken away. Shelby knew that. She told the mom to hang tight, she’d handle it.”
I closed my eyes, took a breath.
“So she goes over there—”
“Alone?” I interrupted.
He nodded. “Like the innocent do-gooder she was.”
The past tense got me.
“He was waiting for her. His mom told him through the door that Shelby was coming to help him.”
“She knocked on the damn door, but it was already open.” George rubbed a hand over his mouth, taking a moment. “It was dark inside.”
My hands were clenched again. I crossed my arms over my chest and waited for the words he didn’t want to say. The story I didn’t want to hear.
“She walked in. All by herself. He came at her with the knife. They struggled. He got in a lucky swipe or two, the whole time screaming about how he loves her and they’re going to be together. But his grip slipped because of the… the blood.
“She started to run, and she either tripped or he pushed her. But she took a header down the stairs.”
“Jesus,” I muttered.
“You know her,” George said with a ghost of a smile. “Odds are she tripped over her own feet.”
“Yeah, odds are.”
“Anyway, another tenant—because everyone was in the hallway now calling 911—picked her up and carried her into his apartment. Another couple of them confronted the kid, got the knife away from him, held him down, until the cops came.”
“Meanwhile, Shelby’s texting me and my parents all like ‘Don’t freak out, but I’m heading to the hospital.’”
I could picture it.
“What my idiot sister didn’t tell us is that kid nicked her femoral artery and she almost bled out in a stranger’s apartment. By the time I flew in and my parents got there, she’d had a transfusion or two and was all smiles. Looked like that fucking vampire from the Twilight movie. So damn pale. Insisting that she was fine.”
“What happened to the kid?” I asked.
“He was sixteen. He went into a juvie mental facility. I kept an eye on the court proceedings. He was charged as a minor, sealed record.”
“So he’s just out there now?” I was horrified.
“His family moved out of state. When he got out at eighteen, he moved with them. Shelby had moved too by that time. Different apartment. New neighborhood. Better security. She decided to go back to school and get her doctorate. I think she just wanted to find a different way to help people,” he confessed. “Like it scared her bad enough that she couldn’t work one-on-one with clients anymore. Moving into research made us all feel better.”
“Smart girl,” I said.
“That’s why she’s not on social media. You never thought it was weird that our little social scientist isn’t on Facebook or Instagram?”
I hadn’t given it much thought. Hadn’t thought to ask.
“She cares too much and worries too little,” George said. “The whole thing scared the hell out of me and our parents.”
“She ever talk about it?” I asked, thinking about her diagnosis, her reluctance to discuss it.
He shook his head. “I think she thinks she’s past it, but you’ll see that fear every once in a while if something startles her.”
I’d seen it and written it off.
“Brave girl,” I said.
“The bravest. Sometimes I wish she weren’t so brave. That she didn’t think she had to handle everything on her own. She was always big on proving herself. And after seeing how worried we were when she was attacked, well, she’d probably never willingly tell us anything again. We hovered and smothered, did the family thing.”
And that explained a lot. But it sure as hell didn’t excuse her for shutting out the family that loved her.
“Well, she’s safe here. She’s got you, me, and an entire town of weirdos ready to back her up,” I said lightly. But I meant it. I didn’t know exactly what was happening between the two of us. But I was invested enough to make sure she never had to face that fear again.
36
Shelby
The lake was bathwater warm, but I sure as hell wasn’t lounging in it. No, I