TWENTY-SIX
Boom. Boom. Boom. Cora winced. Someone was punching her in the head. That had to be what was happening because she couldn’t open her eyes for the sharp pain pounding through her skull. She groaned, wishing that whoever it was would just knock her the fuck out.
Stop.
“Coraline? Can you hear me?”
Don’t call me Coraline. No one got to call her that except her mother. But the words came out as a mumble.
A warm hand pressed over her arm and squeezed. “Sweetheart, can you try to open your eyes? Please. You’re okay. It’s going to be okay. I’m here.”
Mom? The thought registered, cleared a little of the fog. What the hell was her mom doing here in her bed? Cora tried to lift her hand to her head, anything to stop the pounding, but her fingers got tangled in something.
“Easy, baby. They’ve got you hooked up to a few things.”
Hooked up to a few things? Cora attempted to open her eyes, but the bright white light that broke through her vision was like an ice pick to her eye sockets. “Shit. Bright.”
Her voice was sticky in her throat. Clogged.
There was a flicking sound and the lights went down. “Sorry. Is that better?”
Her mom’s hand returned to Cora’s arm. Cora cracked her eyelids open again, finding a softer, dimmer level of light. She blinked, trying to adjust and breathe through the pounding headache and the wave of nausea. God, what the hell had happened?
Worst. Hangover. Ever.
Her vision cleared, the woman leaning over her coming into view. Her mom, bare-faced and in street clothes, eyes red-rimmed. She gave a brief, tense smile. “There you are.”
Cora blinked a few more times, trying to figure out where she was and why her mom was here. “What’s going on?”
“You’re okay,” she said again, voice a little quivery. “You’re at the hospital. But you’re going to be all right.”
That thought arrowed right through the hazy state in her brain. Her muscles stiffened. “Hospital?” She glanced around, now recognizing the bare, clinical walls, the machine she was attached to, the thin sheets against her skin. Panic started to creep in. “What happened?”
Janet sat on the edge of the bed and offered Cora a little paper cup of water.
Cora pushed herself up on the pillows and sipped, the ice water harsh against her dry throat but welcome.
Once Cora had taken another swallow, the lines around her mother’s eyes deepened. “Do you remember anything, sweetheart? I know you’re groggy, but try to think. It’s Sunday. Do you remember anything about yesterday?”
Cora frowned, her brain trying to connect thoughts, make sense of the world in which she’d awakened. It was Sunday. What had she done yesterday? Her head was pounding too hard to concentrate. “I’m not sure. I think I cleaned house yesterday morning? Can’t you just tell me? Did I crash my car or something?”
She was starting to get nervous. Janet Benning was nothing if not straightforward. Why was she questioning her instead of just telling her?
“I . . .” Her mom considered her and then let out a resigned sigh. “Do you remember going out to a club last night?”
“A club?” At that, pictures flashed in Cora’s brain. Her friends at the table. Lines of tequila shots in front of them. Dancing. “Oh God, did I drink too much? Is that why I’m here?”
Something flickered through her mom’s eyes—pain. “Coraline . . .”
That sent true fear rushing through Cora. Her mom was as tough as they came. The fact that she looked to be bracing for something sent Cora’s stomach flipping over. “Mom, tell me what’s going on. Now.”
Janet took Cora’s hand and pressed it between hers. For a second, her eyes went shiny like she was going to cry, but then she pulled it back and took a breath. “Honey, last night someone drugged your drink.”
“What?”
“We have the two men in custody, baby.” She pressed her lips together as if trying to maintain her composure and shook her head. “And I’m so sorry to be the one to tell you this, but we found you at their house. We’re not sure what happened, but we’re pretty sure they . . . took advantage of you.”
Everything left in Cora’s stomach threatened to come up. She’d been drugged. Raped?
The idea terrified her to her core, but as the words settled over her, worked their way through the fog in her brain, they didn’t seem to make sense. For some reason, they didn’t feel like truth. She could feel the aches in her body, but something was off.
Her mom was talking again but Cora had closed her eyes, trying to make sense of it, trying to grab on to memories. Parts of her day were coming back to her like torn pieces of photographs blowing in a breeze. She grasped for them.
She’d gotten up to clean the house. She’d had a lazy day, but she’d been excited. She’d danced around the house to music while vacuuming. What had she been so excited about?
She played through the scenes in her head, trying to fill in the blank spots. In her head, she could see herself cleaning, pulling out her clothes. Nice clothes.
Date clothes.
“I had a date,” she blurted.
She opened her eyes and found her mom had been talking and tears were now officially in her eyes. Janet stopped whatever she’d been saying and blinked. “You remember?”
“Yes.” She pressed a hand to her forehead, rubbed. She’d had a date. With Ren. And Hayes. Two men. Oh, shit. She looked at her mom. “Wait, are the men you arrested Ren and Hayes?”
Her mother’s expression hardened. “They won’t ever bother you again, baby. I swear to you—”
“Oh, God. No. They didn’t.” Shit. Shit. Shit. “They wouldn’t—”
Her mom’s eyes turned empathetic. “I’m sorry, honey. I know you were working with them. I’m sure you would’ve never suspected. But you don’t know people. And Hayes Fox has a history—”
Oh, no. Oh, fuck. Cora sat up taller, trying to get the pounding in her head to subside enough so that she could make sense to her mother. “No, Mom. No. They wouldn’t have done this. I—”
Ugh. How was she supposed to say what she needed to say to her mother?
“Cora, you’re confused and probably in some sort of shock and the drugs—”
“No,” she said more firmly, cutting her off. “I’m not in shock. I remember. I went home with Hayes and Fox. Of my own free will. I—I was out with both of them.”
Her mom blinked like Cora had clapped in front of her face. Then her stunned expression smoothed into a firm one. “Coraline, I don’t know what you think you know, but you tested positive for a date rape drug. And the officers found a cup at the house from the bar that had traces of the drug.”
Cora shook her head. That didn’t make any sense. But her memory was in patches. She had a big black spot in it. She remembered getting to Hayes and Ren’s place. She remembered kissing in the kitchen. They’d ended up in the bedroom. They’d had amazing sex. Some of the details were fuzzy but she remembered that much.
A drink from the bar?
Another thought occurred to her. “How did someone find me? Did the guys call for help?”
Janet was in full frown now. “No. A tip came in. Someone at the bar recognized Hayes Fox and said he saw him drop something into your drink. He texted a pic of Fox offering you the drink. Officers were sent to the house.”
Cora’s skin prickled. “Who sent in the pic?”
“Why does that matter?”
“It matters. Who was it? A bartender? Did they give a name?”
“It was anonymous.”
“Of course it was.” Cora’s heart was pounding so hard against her ribs the machine next to her started to sound like it was going to short out.
Her mom’s gaze jumped to the machine. “I need you to calm down, Coraline. I think the drugs are still mixing up your brain. You wouldn’t go home with two men you hardly knew. I’ve taught you better. You’re smarter than that. And I know it’s scary to consider that—”
Cora clamped her hand over her mom’s. “I need to talk to the guys.”
“What? You most certainly will not. You’re not going within a mile of those disgusting excuses—”
“No, Mom. Listen. Someone’s setting them up. Like the last time when Hayes went to prison. I’ve been working with them because of a hacker. This is just the next step. They’re doing it to him again.”
Her mother stood at that, her hackles raised. “I promise you, Coraline. I don’t know what line of bullshit those men fed you, but Hayes Fox is a criminal. He got off because he had a good lawyer and too much money. You should’ve seen the marks on the woman he raped. And you have some of those same marks on you.”
Heat flooded Cora’s cheeks. The night was coming back to her in bits and pieces but she could feel the tenderness of her backside, could see the faint bruises on her wrists, and had an idea how all that had happened. “Mom, please. I need you to trust me on this. You said I was smart. Act like you believe it. I swear to you these men are good men. They would’ve had no reason to drug me. I wanted to be there. I wanted the things that happened to happen. I don’t know how the drug got in my drink, but I would bet my life on the fact that it wasn’t put there by one of them.”
Janet crossed her arms, her expression tired. “I’m going to call for the nurse. They need to check you out while you’re awake. And you need more sleep.”
Before Cora had a chance to respond, her mom stepped outside the door. A minute later she could hear the conversation drifting to her. Words like confused and in denial were clear enough. Cora pulled wires off her body, sending the machine into a fit.
The nurse rushed in. “Ma’am, I need you to—”
“I need to check out.”
The nurse, a broad woman with a tight bun, looked unmoved. “We can’t do that until the doctor comes by and gives the go-ahead. He’ll be making rounds in the next two hours. I need you to just relax for now. We can get you something—”
“I want to check out.”
“You can’t—”
“Yes, I can. I can do that—what’s it called? That AMA thing. Please get someone who can make that happen. I’m fine. I have a headache, but I wasn’t raped. I’m not in denial. And I sure as hell don’t need more sleep. I’ve slept enough.”
The nurse’s expression conveyed her frustration, and Janet looked ready to physically hold Cora back. But Cora knew enough to know that they couldn’t hold her unless they thought she was a danger to herself or someone else. She could leave “Against Medical Advice” if she signed a form. Sometimes it was a benefit to have been a cop’s kid and have heard all her mother’s shop talk.
So after a tense few minutes of trying to negotiate, the nurse strode off to get the forms.
Cora’s mother was red in the face by the end of the exchange. “You need to stay. This is ridiculous. The drugs are making you act irrational.”
“I’m not being irrational.” Cora found a bag her mom had apparently brought up to the hospital with fresh clothes. She tugged on the yoga pants and T-shirt. She could feel her mom watching her. Angry. But worried, too.
And that’s when it registered that her mom truly believed this. She wasn’t trying to be a pain in the ass. She thought Cora had been drugged and raped and was now going off the deep end. She didn’t have access to all the information Cora had. So with a sigh, Cora walked over to her and put her hands on her shoulders.
“Mom, listen to me. You said it yourself. You’ve trained me to be smart about these things. To be cautious. Paranoid, even. I’ve been on the lookout for dangerous men all my life. Do you think I would’ve gone home with two guys who I didn’t absolutely, one hundred percent trust? Do you think if I truly believed I’d been raped that I wouldn’t be the first in line to throw the book at these guys?”
Janet shook her head. “Baby, you’re young and naive. Men will take advantage of you. You can’t know everything about people . . .”
“No, I can’t.” Cora put her arms at her sides. “And you can’t either. But I can promise you, I know enough. And if you and the police aren’t going to help figure out who really did this, who’s really setting up Hayes, then I’m going to have to find out myself.” She took a deep breath. She couldn’t even think about Ren and Hayes being behind bars right now. She couldn’t let that image sink in. “You taught me that not everyone or everything is as it seems on the surface. And what you’re doing right now is just looking at the surface, at the obvious thing. Why in God’s name would Hayes put himself at risk so publicly again when he just got out of prison?”
She frowned. “Poor impulse control.”
“Ha—if you knew him, you’d realize how far from the truth that is. And if they had this grand plan, why come out with me and my friends? Why create all those witnesses? I would’ve gone out with just them.”
“Witnesses said that you were drunk. That helps their case to pin this on your behavior.”
“But I wasn’t drunk! Call my friends. Talk to Josh. I had a few drinks but was sober by the time I left. Josh checked in with me before I left to make sure I was good.”
“You hadn’t had the drink yet. It was in a takeaway cup.”
She groaned. “Why would they drug me in public when they could’ve just slipped me something at their house? I was already going home with them. I wasn’t going to their place to play checkers. I was already willing.”
“To have sex with two strangers and to let them abuse you.”
Cora closed her eyes. Part of her wanted to die discussing this with her mother. Awkward wasn’t an adequate enough word to describe it. But she was tired of being ashamed, of hiding, of being the girl who wore all the masks. “Yes. I’m kinky, all right? I’ve dabbled in that lifestyle online for a while and wanted to try it for real with them. So yes, I wanted to be with both of them. And I wanted them to be a little rough. It was all with consent. I don’t remember everything, but I remember that much without doubt. And it’s okay that you don’t approve or that you think I’m weird or being young and stupid, but I need you to believe me. I need you to trust my judgement on these two guys. They are not the criminals.”
Her mother stepped back and lowered her head. “I’m sorry, Coraline. I love you and I’d much rather know that you were just being wild and that no one had hurt you, but I can’t in good conscience believe that these guys didn’t do this to you. The evidence doesn’t lie.”
The words hurt more than Cora expected. Her mother would rather trust a stranger’s word than hers. All her life she’d played by her mom’s rules and it hadn’t made a difference. But she held back the tears that threatened and nodded. “Innocent until proven guilty. Right. Sure.”
She walked over to the cabinet, which thankfully held her purse and phone, and then walked out in search of the nurse so she could sign the papers.
She loved her mother more than anyone in the world. But right now, there were two men sitting in jail who needed her.
She wasn’t going to let them down.