18. Eighteen

eighteen

Phoenix

Ifucking lost it.

One minute I was standing in the middle of the road watching Charlotte drive away, and then the next thing I knew, I was standing over Spike with my chest heaving as he lay in the grass, groaning, tribute from the triple decker I'd just impulsively graced him with.

"Fuck, Phoenix," he whined, rolling to his side and groaning louder as he clutched his mouth.

"Fuck you," I spat, so fucking furious it was all I could do not to stomp his ass to dust. "You can walk to the hospital."

"Phoenix," he screamed. "Don't you fucking dare leave me—"

I got in the car, fired up the engine, and as promised, left his ass on the side of the street to fend for his-fucking-self. I may have temporarily set my personal feelings aside after the previous incident thanks to this new case, but now, fair was fucking fair. Spike had already fucked me over once today and I refused to let him do this shit to me again. One way or another I was going to fix this shit with Charlotte.

I just had to.

But first, I really needed to get Daniel to the hospital.

"You alive back there?"

When he didn't respond, I began to panic, so I stomped the pedal as hard as I could and activated my hazard lights since I was in my personal vehicle and didn't have access to a siren. Thankfully, traffic wasn't too bad, and I was safely able to dodge and weave most of the way there without any major holdups.

The sign to the hospital blessed my vision and as fast as fucking possible, I parked out front and screamed for help getting Daniel inside the building. It'd taken a few minutes—more than what we could afford to lose—but we got Daniel in a wheelchair and inside an empty room. Right away the nurses got to work gathering what blood they could from Daniel as I began explaining the situation.

"His wife is Amber, the woman they brought in not too long ago?" the brunette asked.

I nodded. "Yes, why? Did something happen with Amber?"

"No, no, she's fine," the nurse promised, offering me an assertive smile as her colleague gathered the last of the blood they needed from Daniel's vein. "She woke up about five minutes ago. She's in a lot of pain and she's been asking for him." She nudged her head to Daniel, who was pale, and desperately needed to be hooked up on fluids.

"Where's her doctor?" I asked.

"He should be in the room with her now."

"I'll go talk to her. Get him set up on an IV and get those blood samples off to the lab. I need those results ran ASAP." I started for the door, pausing to stare back at the nurses. "Get some food in him and then bring him to Amber's room when he's stable enough to walk."

I got Amber's room number, and after making a quick detour to the bathroom long enough to drain the snake, I knocked on the door, then walked in to find Amber sitting up in bed, crying as she painfully tried to breathe in and out while the doctor planted his stethoscope along different areas of her chest and back.

"Excuse me," I announced, clearing my throat, and flashing my badge. "I'm Detective Rhodes, SPD."

"You're just in time, Detective," the doctor said as he stepped away from Amber and faced me, reaching out and shaking my hand. "I'm Dr. Giles. Charlotte Greene was here not too long ago hoping to interview Amber, but she'd fallen asleep and so, I told Charlotte she'd have to come back later."

"Yes," I nodded. "I just spoke to Charlotte. I brought Amber's husband with me, and he's in another room getting checked out." I paused, then leaned in closer to the doctor so Amber wouldn't overhear. "My partner and I think he may have been drugged. I had the nurses take blood from him and I need those samples ran yesterday."

"Da-Daniel?" Amber's raspy voice cracked across the room. "He-he's here?"

"He is," I replied, offering her a comforting smile. "He's in bad shape right now, but we're going to get some food and fluids in him, and then I promise he'll be here with you soon."

"Th-thank you, Detective. Thank you so much."

"Can I talk to her?" I asked Dr. Giles.

"You can, but I'll tell you just like I told Charlotte—I'm not sure how much you'll get out of her. Tox results aren't back yet, but trust me, once you get close enough, you'll know what I mean. I'm surprised you can't already smell it from here."

"That bad?"

"Yeah. I imagine the results will have quite the story to tell us."

"Is she going to be okay?"

"She's horribly injured, but yes, she'll live. Charlotte requested I have all the paperwork sent to her once they're in. Do you want me to include the husband's results in those reports?"

I nodded. "Yes. Whatever she needs, you give it to her. If anyone has a problem with it, send them to me."

He nodded, then stepped aside, exiting the room.

I approached Amber with somewhat of a wobbly smile on my face.

"Hi, Amber. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

I walked out of the hospital a couple hours later, freezing mid-step and angrily grinding my teeth when I found Spike sitting on a bench ahead of me, his eyes locked on mine. His left eye was swollen and had already begun sprouting a bruise, same with along his jawline.

"I'm sorry."

I marched right past him and onward for the parking lot, digging inside my pocket for my keys.

"Phoenix," he called out, getting up and following behind me.

I whipped around, my chest heaving, tempted to shoot him in his fucking face.

"We just got the tox report back on Amber," I cut him off when he made to speak again.

I didn't care to listen to his bullshit right now.

And besides, it wasn't me he should be apologizing and groveling to.

It was Charlotte.

"She was drugged with Rohypnol. Daniel's results aren't back yet, but it's obvious he was too."

"What did Amber tell you?"

Even though I was still gravely pissed with him, I nudged my head for him to come the hell on and began the trek to the parking lot.

"She said they were at the bar, drinking, and then some guy came up to her and offered to buy them a drink. She also believes he has dark hair and either blue or green eyes."

"Does she remember what they talked about?" he asked, cursing low under his breath when I shook my head.

"She doesn't, which is to be expected given the circumstances. That's okay though, because hey, guess where we're heading next?"

I offered him a wicked grin and narrowed my eyes at him when we made it to the car.

"And for being a fucking asshole and forcing Charlotte to quit, you get to deal with Felix this time."