He Defended My Mother's Killer, Now He Pays with His Life novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Voicemail

The burn unit waiting room smelled of smoke and bad coffee.

Samson stood beside me at one in the morning with his arms folded, as he had at the urgent care.

The doctor had said Tull would live.

His lungs were scorched and his hands were blistered from the freezer door.

He was asleep behind a curtain with a tube in his nose.

Mrs. Tull sat across from us with her cardigan buttoned wrong and her purse in both arms.

Nobody spoke for a long time.

Then she stood, crossed the room, and sat down beside me.

"I lied to you on the phone," she said.

"What?"

"I didn't know who was listening. His people, or yours." She looked at Samson. "I didn't know which one you are anymore."

"Mrs. Tull," Samson said.

"Russ carried the phone out of the freezer yesterday. He didn't trust the house. He didn't trust me." She opened her purse and took out a small cracked phone wrapped in foil. "He put it in the bottom of my bag and told me to give it to the girl if anything happened to him."

My hands were not steady.

I took the foil off.

The screen was dead.

Samson had a charger in his jacket, because he was the kind of man who carried one, and we plugged it into the wall by the vending machine and waited.

It woke slowly.

There was one saved voicemail, dated October 14th, three years ago, 11:44 p.m.

I put it on speaker.

There was road noise, and heavy breathing, and then a voice I had heard say my name every night for four years.

"Russ. Pick up. Pick up, goddamn it."

A long, wet breath.

"I hit somebody on Route 9. She's not moving. Come get me. I don't know what to do. Come and get me. Don't tell anyone."

The line cut.

I did not make a sound.

I stood in a hospital corridor with the phone in my hand, and the voice kept playing in my head.

← Chapter 15 · All chapters · Chapter 17 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend