6
Angelo
Where To Lay The Blame
Kane forced Jess to go home last night - I don’t know how or what he said - but he forced her home when she was falling asleep, and promised to be back first thing this morning.
It’s first thing already, it’s barely after seven, but the therapist was faster.
Footsteps on the linoleum floor draw my attention away from the back of the thick curtain that blocks my view of Laine, and I glance up as they come to a stop behind me.
With a lingering glance between the couple and a squeeze of their joined hands, Jess bravely steps into the room like that tyrant therapist isn’t in there, and closes the door in our faces with a soft snick.
I want to go in.
I want to help.
I want to know how to make sure this never happens again.
When the crying in the room grows louder, Kane folds his arms across his chest and turns to face the same curtain I do. “How’s Laine doing?”
I pull in a cleansing breath and close my eyes. “She’s with the quack. She slept until just after midnight. Woke up, talked a little bit.”
He turns to me. “She talked to you?”
I nod.
“Did she go into detail?”
“Not really. I heard Sonia’s good, though, which means I’m putting a lot of fuckin’ faith in the people that recommended her.” I turn away and lean against the glass wall. “How’s Jess?”
“Didn’t sleep.” He rolls his eyes. “I’m the idiot, because I took her away so she could; she would’ve gotten more if she stayed here. She cried a lot. Blames herself. You know; exactly what we expected.”
“Yeah…” I glance over my shoulder and stare at the back of the curtain again. “They’re not just sisters, Kane, they’re best friends. There are four of them, four friends. Jess and Laine. Then Britt and Kari. Four best friends that were inseparable. They’d kill a guy for each other and none of them would snitch, but Jess and Laine had something else.”
“What they have is special…”
“Yeah, what they have is special. For the time you were gone, they were joined at the hip. They just cried, together, all the fuckin’ time. They hung out in their bedrooms, snuggled in bed, and cried. There was nothing any of us could do to get them out, but they were together, you know? It was heartbreaking, but at least they were together.”
“Until I came back…”
I push my hands into my pockets and nod. “Until you came back. Laine would never resent Jess for being happy, but once you came back and Jess stopped crying…” I sigh. “Well, Laine was still crying, but now she was doing it all alone.”
“Fuck.” He scrubs a tattooed hand through his short hair. “This is on me.”
“No, this is on Graham. This lands squarely on his shoulders, and I intend to do something about it.”
“You’re ready?” His dark eyes watch me. “We talked, then you dropped it. I figured you got over it.”
“No, I didn’t drop it. I was getting shit set up, getting all my ducks in a row, but I never once forgot, and I never dropped it.”
He turns to me seriously. “You sure you wanna get your hands dirty? Don’t you think she deserves better than a two-bit criminal sullied by vengeance?”
Howling sobs echo through the door. Identical cries of equal intensity bring us back to the glass. “He hurt them both.” I flex my hands at my sides. “He almost killed Laine. It’s not getting my hands dirty; it’s purifying this earth of something fucking vile. He doesn’t deserve to live. He doesn’t deserve to get away with what he did.”
Standing shoulder to shoulder, Kane rolls his bottom lip between his fingers and watches the glass window.
I don’t know if he can tell the girls’ cries apart yet. He struggles with their looks, and their cries sound the same.