Neanderthal Seeks Human(127)

It took me a moment to realize that Sandra was holding a ball of yarn in her other hand, the one not holding the gun. She stuffed it in the mouth of Goon#2 even as she brought the gun down for another bone crunching blow.

Fiona scrambled over to Elizabeth, cupping her face and trying to shield her from further violence and Quinn pistol whipped Sam, knocking the tattooed menace out with a single blow.

Marie picked up the tequila bottle and swung it wildly at Goon#1 who, seemingly, had just started to recover from the shock of being stabbed with a Susan Bates knitting needle. Goon#1 lifted the hand of his good arm over his face but a little too late; Marie brought the bottle down with a resounding crash and the tower of a man fell backwards, unconscious.

Kat and I were peaking under the couch. The only sound in the small apartment was labored breathing until someone, I guessed Marie, said:

“Oh, shit! Sandra! Is that the limited dye lot Madelintosh aran you just stuffed in that asshole’s mouth? You know I can’t replace that!”





CHAPTER 28

The police arrived not ten seconds later. It was a good thing, too. Marie was holding a broken bottle of tequila, shards of glass in every direction, and Sandra was holding a gun; they were arguing about the, apparently, very expensive and hard to find skein of yarn that Sandra had stuffed in the mouth of Goon#2.

Quinn turned towards me as soon as the police entered. His eyes met mine and what I saw there was potent mixture of tension and relief. But, he didn’t come to me. Instead he placed his weapon on the ground then moved his hands to the back of his head, waiting for the Chicago PD. The room, small made smaller by a crush of large officers and subdued bad guys and my somewhat traumatized knitting group, felt unbearably large.

The distance between us felt impossible.

It wasn’t until hours later, after statements and questioning and a pseudo-physical administered by an EMT, that we were all released; actually, all of us but Quinn. Soon after the police arrived they handcuffed him and took him to the police station- despite protests from me, Kat, Elizabeth, Sandra, Marie, and Fiona.

Ashley arrived around seven and was quickly filled in on the details by Sandra. As she listened to the story I watched a spectrum of emotions cross over her features.

Finally she settled on exasperation, “Why does everything good happen when I’m not there? I swear, the next time Janie’s hot boyfriend saves ya’all from neck tattooed goons, ya’all better wait till I’m done with my shift or else I’m gunna be pissed.”

“He didn’t save us, haven’t you been listening?” Elizabeth held an icepack to her chin where she’d been hit by a goon elbow, “Fiona stabbed one of them with a Susan Bates needle, Marie was wielding a tequila bottle, Sandra pistol-whipped the other, and I shot the third.”

“Where were Janie and Kat?” Ashley looked from me to Kat.

“Hiding behind the couch, like sane people!” Kat said before anyone else could speak.

Ashley gave us a suddenly watery smile, “Damn it, if something had happened to any of you, I would have been very upset. What were you thinking?”

She initiated a group hug which lasted well past what would have been considered typical as none of us wanted to let each other go.



~*~



After all the ladies left, Elizabeth leaving with Marie, but before the last police car drove away, I approached a short, stocky guard who I instantly recognized and who’d been watching me since the police escorted us all out to the ambulance for our EMT checkups. It was Dan the security man from the Fairbanks building.

We walked towards each other, meeting half way. His large brown eyes were big and kind and he gave me a small smile, it almost looked apologetic.

“Ms. Morris.” He nodded to me.

“Dan the security man.” I nodded to him.

He sighed, “Are you ok?”

I continued to nod. I didn’t want to say yes because I wasn’t, at that moment, at all sure how I was doing. However, I didn’t want to appear to be a basket case when I needed his help.

“Listen, Dan, I was hoping you could take me to Quinn- um- Mr. Sullivan’s place.”

“It’s ok, I call him Quinn, too.” Dan pointed with his thumb to a car behind him, a black Mercedes coupe, “That’s actually why I’m here.”

I half smiled and released a short breath, “Of course.”

“Come on.” He motioned with his head for me to follow.

When we were settled in the car and he’d pulled into traffic I noticed he was giving me long, sideways glances- as though he wanted to say something, ask something, but wasn’t sure how to start.

Taking pity on him I prompted, “Is there something you want to say?”