I rolled to the side, nabbed the Triumph tee and pulled it over my head then I hopped into my panties. By the time I did this, Luke was already clothed and headed to a door at the side of the loft. I saw that he was shoving a gun in the back waistband of his pants.
“Luke,” I called as he unlocked the door my voice, I could hear, was filled with fear.
He turned to me. “Stay here. Lock yourself in. Don’t go anywhere. I don’t care what you hear.”
I ran to him, he went out the door and I watched as he went down the fire escape.
I closed the door and ran to the drawer where I found a bunch of keys in my search for cookies the night before. I grabbed a key ring full, ran back to the door and found the right key on the third go. I locked the door, tossed the keys to the bar and I ran to my suitcases and grabbed my jeans, pulling them on.
Then I didn’t know what to do.
Sissy, my bestest, best friend was out there, screaming my name.
I put my hands to my forehead, fingers sifting into my hair, I shoved the heels of my palms in and I stood solid, listening.
“Luke, get to her, please, Luke, get to her,” I whispered to no one.
Breathe, Ava, in, out, in, out, Good Ava spoke quietly in my ear.
Snap out of it, girl. Go to the bathroom, brush your teeth, get your glasses, put your bra on, be ready for anything, Bad Ava advised.
I listened to both of them. Breathing deeply in and out, I went about the business of being ready for anything to the point of putting on a bra and deodorant, changing into my Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers tee and putting on flip-flops.
I’d flipped the switch to a fresh pot of coffee (don’t ask me, I wasn’t thinking clearly), when the elevator doors slid open. Luke and Sissy came in and I rushed to them. Sissy was bleeding from the nose and shaking visibly.
Luke looked like Luke. Once I ascertained that he was okay, it was all about Sissy.
I put my arm around her waist and the minute I did she started crying.
“Shh, Sissy, shh,” I sat her on a barstool and Luke went to the phone. I ran to the bathroom, wet a washcloth and carried it into the other room.
“I got a woman bleeding in my loft. Where the f**k is Bobby?” Luke snapped into the phone as I stopped by Sissy and whispered to her, wrapping my fingers around the wrist of her hand at her nose and pulling it away.
There was blood everywhere and I gently wiped at it, constantly whispering in a soft soothing voice as great, shaking sobs tore through her.
“Calm, Sis. Calm, honey. You’re safe. We’re here. No one can hurt you here. Let’s get you cleaned up and see about your nose.”
“He… he punched me, Ava. Right in the nose,” Sissy told me
“Who, honey?” I asked, wiping.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I’ve never seen him before. He wa… was so big.”
My eyes slid to Luke. He had a fist to his hip, head bowed and he was listening to the phone at his ear.
“Do you think it’s broken?” she asked.
My eyes came back to Sissy. “I don’t know, Sis. Wait until Luke gets off the phone, he’ll look at it.”
Hearing his name, Luke’s head swung around and his eyes came to me.
“Right. Out,” he said. He beeped the phone off and walked to us, the whole time his eyes on me.
“Can you look at her nose?” I asked, shocked to find my voice sounded normal, not shaky and hysterical like I felt inside. “She’s worried it’s broken.”
Luke’s eyes stayed on me a beat, they were intense, partly angry, partly hyper-alert and partly something else. Then they turned to Sissy and I watched his always-hard face grow slightly soft. I was holding the washcloth to her nose but pulled it away as Luke put his hand to her forehead, gently pressing it back. He looked at Sissy’s nose and then turned back to me.
“She’s okay. We’ll take her to the hospital to make sure.”