Bad Boy Blues(102)

Blinking, I try to focus, and I gasp painfully when I see Zach.

He’s bent over his dad, straddling him actually, and he’s punching him.

Repeatedly. Over and over.

His punches are ferocious and his arm ripples with his fury. God, he’s scary like this. So angry and unhinged.

I almost feel bad for his dad.

Somewhere off to the side, I hear Mrs. Prince shouting. Some of the staff members are holding her back. And a few are inching toward Zach, probably to stop him.

“Zach,” I whisper raggedly.

There’s no way that he can hear me but I try again, anyway.

“Zach, stop.”

His dad isn’t moving and I’m sure he’s killed him. Or if not, then he’s going to.

I open my mouth to tell him again when he stops abruptly.

Panting, he grabs his dad’s collar, who’s alive, thank God, and growls, “Don’t ever touch her again. Do you understand? Not ever. Because I’ll kill you with my bare hands. Like I should’ve done three years ago. And this time, Mom’s not gonna come save you.”

His dad doesn’t answer him; I don’t think he can.

Zach lets him go with a jerk and stands up, before turning to me like a compass that always points north.

His eyes flash with fear and he takes a step toward me, but then all hell breaks loose.

The room gets thrown in chaos when cops barge in.

Someone must have called 911. They come in, check the state of the room, talk to a crying Mrs. Prince, start firing orders.

And before I can even stand up, they take Zach away.

It happens so fast that it leaves me dizzy and nauseated.

One of them approaches me and says that he needs me to make a statement once I’m through with the doctor.

“There’s a doctor?” I ask, shocked, surprised and so many other things that I can’t even fathom right now. “What… where did you take Zach?”

“He’s been taken in for questioning,” he says, casually. “You don’t need to worry about that.”

“But he was…”

I trail off when he turns away and then, I’m being flooded with hugs and sympathy.

Someone cries at my shoulders. Someone else sits me down in a chair and hands me a glass of water that I don’t take a sip of.

“He was just trying to save his mom,” I whisper to no one in particular, watching the door they took Zach through.

But someone answers. It’s Tina.

She’s kneeling in front of me. “No, he was trying to save you.”





I don’t press charges against Mr. Prince.

They ask me if I want to, though.

But I think that it was just a formality. This is Princetown; I don’t think anyone can touch the Princes.

They ask me what I saw and how it all came about. I tell them about Mr. Prince’s slap and the suspicion I have about the abuse. Mrs. Prince’s wrist, which apparently is marked up.

Mrs. Prince claims that I attacked her husband without any reason. But I guess when her husband started pushing me around, people were already at the door because of all the noise, rushing to my rescue, and they saw what happened.

Not to mention, there’s another large imprint of his hand on her made-up cheeks.

It takes a few hours for them to question me and question me again before they let me go. The doctor had already cleared me, saying that all I had was a tiny busted lip and that I needed to take it easy.

Before I leave, I ask them about Zach and about what’s going to happen to him.

One of them gives me a curt answer, saying that he’ll be held longer for questioning and that’s all I need to know. The cop who escorts me out gives me the real scoop – because he’s young, a rookie, maybe, and when I tell him I’m from the south side, he perks up.

“He was violent. No question about it, and he said some things that might be used against him.”

“Like what?”

He glances around and divulges, “He made threats against his father in front of witnesses.” At my terrified look, he rushes to explain, “Look, as long as Mr. Prince is alive and kicking, I don’t think anything’s going to stick. There are people who saw you getting attacked and most of them confirmed that he was acting in your defense. It’s just bureaucratic bullshit.”

He was trying to save you.

“You said most of them. Why not all of them?”

He purses his lips.

“It’s his mom, isn’t it? She’s insisting that he did it out of spite.”

His silence confirms it.

God, that fucking woman.

Before I can talk further, I spy Maggie and Tina walking toward me. They both look concerned and as soon as they reach me, they burst out with all the questions.

They pull me away from the cop and help me out of the building. The building where Zach’s being held for questioning.

Back at The Pleiades, Tina puts me in my bed and Maggie brings me tea. She gives me a pill for the pain, which honestly, I’m not feeling at all. But I take it, nonetheless.

I don’t sleep that night. I toss and turn, thinking where Zach might be. If he got back or if he’s okay.

In the morning, I find out that he’s in the lock-up, and he’s going to stay there through the weekend.