Just One More Yesterday

Morning came quickly and brought with it more sunshine and warmer temperatures. The condition outside was looking even better than yesterday, and I felt even more confident that the trip to the police station was possible. I wanted to get going as quickly as possible so that we would have plenty of day light left to go search for the guys, and even though the conditions were still improving it was going to be a tricky drive into town.

I tried to quietly slip away from Pete who was still asleep, but he woke up in the process of me trying to get up. He didn’t mention the fact that I had slept in his arms all night nor the kiss and neither did I. I wasn’t going to push anything that was going to lead to a broken heart later and that’s exactly where this was going to go if I went along with it. Patrick was already awake and up which was a good thing. We could get going.

“Please be careful.” Pete pleaded as we got ready to leave.

“We will. Stay alert and keep a gun with you until we get back.” I told him.

“Okay.”

The drive into town was messy and slippery but I had definitely driven through worse. The town seemed to be busy getting back to normal as there was a decent amount of traffic on the plowed off roads. The police department was bare when we pulled up, except for two patrol cars that sat out front in the blinding sunlight.

“Charlie, stop!” Patrick shouted suddenly as I pulled into a parking space on the side of the police department.

“What’s wrong?”

“That cop that just walked inside, he was wherever we were being held at. I remember his face. He helped with beating the shit out of us. I know he was there.”

His voice was frantic as I tried to comprehend what he was saying. Now I was beginning to wonder if these guys had done something illegal or if there was a reason that the cops were looking for them. Had I been housing criminals on the run for two days?

“What? Surely not. Patrick are you sure?”

“I am almost positive!”

“Is there something I should know about before I go in here? If ever there was a time for you to tell me the truth, it’s now.”

“Charlie, you have to believe me! That guy was there! In fact, I would almost bet that he probably has a cut or bruise on his face because Andy got a hit in on him! I would not lie about any of this. I just want to find my brothers and get the fuck out of this place!”

He was getting upset and angry as he tried to get his point across to me and while I found it extremely hard to believe that there were crooked cops in my town, I also had no reason not to believe him. I suddenly wished that I had never gotten myself tangled up in all of this mess and that I had been left alone to ride out the blizzard, pick up Raegan and return to work and continue on with my life. There was only one way to find out what the hell was going on here and that was to go inside and talk to them.

“Alright, listen. Stay low in the truck so you aren’t seen. I’m pretty sure you’ve mistaken this guy for someone else that was there.”

“I fucking know what I saw.”

“Okay, whatever.”

Despite my lack of belief in what he had told me, I tucked my pistol in the back of my jeans just in case I should need it. I was taking a huge risk walking into a police station with a weapon on me, but that was thanks to the small part of me that did believe him. My heartbeat sped up considerably as I walked around the building and entered the police station.

“Good morning.” A different cop said from behind the reception desk. “What can we do for you?”

“Good morning. I live up on the mountain not far from the rescue base and day before yesterday I had two injured guys come to my house. They said they had been kidnapped and were still missing two of their buddies. Do you guys know anything about this?”

I watched his face closely as I only gave just the bare minimum of information that I had to give to see what kind of response I could get out of him. The iciness that filled his eyes as soon as I told him what I wanted was very evident. He went from your typical friendly cop to one who was looking at me like I had killed his partner and gotten away with it. An alarm immediately went off within me and I suddenly one hundred percent believed Patrick.

“You don’t still have these two guys do you? They are convicted murderers that we are looking for. They are highly dangerous and you should let us know if you see them again.”

Wow. This guy was laying it on thick. If he only knew that I could see right through him after sleeping in bed with these two ‘highly dangerous murderers’ last night.

“Is that so? Are you sure about that, officer?” I asked, a coldness lacing my voice that I couldn’t control.

“Listen here, miss. You are messing in stuff that is not any of your concern and if you know what’s best for you, you will stay out of it.” He said in a very threatening tone.

“And if I don’t?”

I was grabbed from behind by the cop that Patrick had recognized. He wrapped his arm tightly around my throat and dug the barrel of his pistol into the side of my head. Just like Patrick had said he would, the guy was sporting a nice bruised up face. I resisted the urge to struggle against him and tried to keep my back from touching his stomach to keep the presence of my weapon unknown.

“Or else you will end up like they all are going to end up. Dead.” He snarled in my ear.

“Fuck you, you crooked son of a bitch. You wait until I get a call out to the FBI.”

My outburst earned me a hard blow to the head from the stock of the pistol that was to my head. My knees buckled as things went black but I was kept on my feet by the cop holding me. The cop behind the desk had his pistol pointed at me now and I knew that this was going to end badly. What the hell had I gotten myself in to?

“You are messing with the wrong people, love. I think you know exactly where these guys are and just aren’t telling us. So , I’m going to ask you again. Do you know where the two guys are at?”

“Up your ass, bitch.”

Two gunshots rang out as a fire hot burning pain tore through my shoulder and lower stomach and I hit the floor. Time seemed to stop in that second and I knew I had a choice to make by either screaming in pain which is what I really wanted to do, or grabbing my pistol to fight back and save my life. If I didn’t fight back now I had no chance at making it out of here alive against two guys with guns. I had a little girl to see in a few days and a promise I had made to Pete that I needed to keep. I wasn’t dying today. I grabbed my gun from the waist of my jeans and fired a shot at the cop that had been holding me, hitting him in the stomach. I then quickly turned my aim to the policeman behind the desk and fired at him, hitting him in the chest. I picked myself up off of the floor and ran out the door before any more shots could be fired or someone came to investigate what had happened.

I jerked the passenger door to my truck open, making Patrick jump. “Come on, get out now! We’ve got to go and you have to drive! Hurry up!” I yelled, all but pulling him out of the seat.

“What the hell happened?!”

“Just drive, dammit!”

I pulled myself into my truck and slammed the door, finally letting out my scream of pain I had been holding in in order to save my life. I had never felt pain this bad before and that was even with going through childbirth. It was all I could do to remind myself to breathe.

“What the fuck happened?” Patrick yelled as he sped out of town.

“You were right. The fucking cops are involved in this shit. Fuck, fuck, FUCK!”

“How do I get to the hospital? You have to go.”

“No! Get us back home to Pete. I only wounded them, so it’s only a matter of time before they send out whoever else is involved to look for us.”

“What kind of a sick town is this?! We weren’t hurting anybody! We wanted a simple weekend camping in the mountains, away from everybody and everything and this crazy fucked up shit had to happen. I don’t get it. I’m not leaving this place without finding Andy and Joe. I refuse. I’ll die trying.” Patrick yelled.

“We are going to find Andy and Joe. They have fucked with the wrong person.”

Patrick fell silent as he continued to drive with me directing him in between my grunts of pain. All I could think about besides the pain I was in was Raegan and how I had to make it out of this mess alive and see her again. I was so glad she hadn’t been home and in the middle of all of this. Nobody should ever have to go through anything like this, especially a kid.

“Shit!” Patrick yelled, breaking the silence in the truck.

I snapped out of my thoughts and felt the truck fish tailing on the slick road before we ran off the side of the road, hit a snow bank and flipped back across the road. The sky and road swapped places twice before we came to a rest upside down across the road. I couldn’t breathe from the seat belt digging into my stomach where I had been shot, so I released my seatbelt and landed a bloody mess onto the glass covered roof of my truck. I heard Patrick screaming my name from the driver’s seat, but I didn’t respond as my world went black.