just Damien and Gio out here. “Who all is here?”
“Just Wes and Royce. They’re with her in the basement, cops are close.” It seemed like a lot more to me.
“How’s Brody?”
Damien shakes his head, and I fight for breath. “No.”
“We must have showed up seconds after she took you. Judy was lying on top of him, and after we did a quick sweep of the house, Carter stayed with him until helped arrived. When we left, he wasn’t moving, and I don’t think he was breathing. It didn’t look good.”
My eyes fill with tears, and I shove my face in his neck, the last hour finally catching up to me. “I thought she was my friend.”
“I know you did.”
“Brody’s going to die, and it’s my fault.”
“It’s not your fault. Do you hear me? None of this is your fault.”
I don’t believe him and nothing he says will change that, but I let his warmth and his strength surround me. The sirens get louder and louder, doors slam shut, voices surround me, but I ignore it all and hold on to the man who literally acted as a shield to save my life.
Damien
“She wanted you.” Izzy’s neck is strained when she tips her head back. None of the shadows have left her face yet, but I suppose that’s to be expected since it’s only been a few hours.
She’s on the floor, and I’m sitting on the couch in her house playing with her hair in hopes to relax her a little bit. I feel like absolute dog shit for everything she just went through, but especially for having to hurt her. I wish I never had to do it, but at the time it was the best and only choice I had. “I know.”
“The only thing I could think of to keep her from killing me was to keep her talking, so I went with something I knew was close to her. It was so hard for me to say that horrible stuff about you. I had to force myself to even open my mouth. It burned my throat coming up.”
“Same here. Torture, and I have to live with the fact that I hurt you, something that I swear I would never have done… ever. I will never forgive myself for that.” I’m ashamed about it, I always will be, even if it ended up saving her life.
She crawls into my lap and straddles me and roughly takes hold of my face. “You didn’t hurt me. I knew what you were doing and it might not have been pleasant, but you didn’t hurt me.” I know she’s lying. “Hearing you say those things to her, calling her those names, that hurt worse even though I know it was fake.”
“I didn’t call her anything I called you, there was no way I could. I wanted to puke, Izzy baby. I swear it was like acid burning my tongue, but I had to try. I listened right outside the door and was so fucking proud of you for figuring out how to calm her down. It was risky, doing that, and it could have gone worse, but thank Christ it didn’t.”
“You shielded me from her.”
“Damn right, I did. I’d do it again, I’d take a dozen bullets for you. I’ll always protect you, Iz.” I still cannot believe Jesse found the gun I keep in the kitchen cabinet. I have no clue if it was her plan to shoot Brody, but I doubt it. More like she saw the opportunity and took it. Maybe she was going to get a knife but got lucky when she opened the right cabinet door. There was nothing of Izzy’s in the box she brought over, so I do believe she had an ulterior motive. Who knows if we’ll ever find out what was going on in her mind. She’ll more than likely be going to a facility for the mentally ill for a very, very long time. Although I think jail is the better option, it probably won’t happen since it’s clear Jesse needs rehabilitation more than she needs to be punished.
Dr. Rickman on the other hand will be going to jail. During his interview with Detective Reyes, he accidentally divulged some things about his involvement in a drug case she’d been working on. When he left after their meeting, he rushed home and to put his escape plan into motion. The search warrant Detective Reyes requested was executed, and Rickman was arrested on his way