The Ballad Nocturne (The Midnight Defenders Book 3) by Ruff Joey

Author:Ruff, Joey [Ruff, Joey]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2015-05-14T04:00:00+00:00

23

Swyftt

I woke up alone.

My chest stung, my face was burning. My head throbbed. I sat up to find myself on a cot in a jail cell. There was nothing else in the small space but a sink and a toilet. Brick walls surrounded me on three sides, bars on the fourth.

My pockets were completely empty. My gun was gone. Huxley was gone.

I stood on shaky legs and hobbled over to the sink, turning it on, waiting for the water to warm. It didn’t. I splashed cold water into my face, saw the red water splash back into the basin. I felt my face. My nose didn’t appear to be broken, but there was a cut over my left eye. The blood was mostly dry, but it oozed just a little.

I shut the water off and turned around, walked to the bars, and tried to look around. It was an empty hallway, not very long. There was only one cell – mine. I stood there against the bars for a minute, mainly because they were cold and felt good on my skin, but also because I was trying to listen. It was late, I knew, but didn’t know how late. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been out.

I thought of Nadia, alone in the woods with those things. I tried to convince myself that she was okay. That they weren’t eating her. Bigfoots were vegan. At least, I’m pretty sure I heard that somewhere.

I stood against the bars for a short time, just listening, even though there was nothing to hear. It didn’t seem like a very large office to begin with, there’d be even fewer people for the graveyard shift. Eventually, I just gave it up and went and sat on the edge of the cot again. Like I always did when I was hurting and alone, I began thinking miserable fucking thoughts. Thoughts about how I’d failed Nadia. She was gone. I began to doubt if I’d ever even see her again. Like Chuck. It’s what I told DeNobb. You just didn’t make friends in this line of work. There was always something out there to fucking take them away. It was best to be alone.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t pay any attention to the squeaking noise. It was faint at first, but seemed to grow louder. Then it stopped. From the other side of the bars, Huxley said, “Are you crying?”

“Fuck you,” I said, not looking up. I turned toward the back wall and ran my hands across my eyes, just to be sure, wiping away the tears that weren’t there.

“Take care of yourself,” Huxley said. “I’ll wait.”

“Piss off, Hux.”

I turned to look over at him. The doll was standing there in the hallway, no taller than an action figure, with one finger-less paw on the bars and the other on a single roller skate. Sticking out of the top of the skate was the handle of my FN.

“Where the bloody hell did you get that?”

“All of your belongings were put into evidence lock-up, myself included.

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