Page 72 of Playing With Danger

I slapped the spigot all the way to the left, letting the water heat as hot as the shitty regulator in the locker room shower would allow and I scrubbed.

Unfortunately the scrubbing wouldn’t wash away my father’s problems, and no matter how much soap I used, the trauma of his abandonment wouldn’t rinse down the drain.

Life was life.

Shame and fear.

The shame I wasn’t enough.

The fear one day my father would drink himself to death.

When I got back to my locker, my dirty clothes were bagged and someone had left a container of bleach wipes on the bench.

Logically I knew nothing could penetrate the High Abrasion nylon gloves I’d worn during the altercation, yet I still wiped down the combo dial and latch before I opened my locker.

Instead of dressing I grabbed my phone.

I ignored the three calls from my father. I would’ve done that regardless, but six missed calls from Hayden had my gut twisting. I didn’t bother listening to the voice mails or reading the texts. I hit his contact and four rings later he picked up.

“Fuck. Finally.”

“Is Sophie?—”

“We’re at the hospital.”

Four words and I couldn’t breathe.

“What the fuck for? Is she okay?”

I put the call on speaker and yanked clean clothes out of my bag at the bottom of my locker.

“She’s fine, now,” he clipped. “After you left she stayed in her room working. Khloe left and I went to talk to her and she was curled up in bed with a stomachache.”

I had my pants on and was pulling on a tee when I asked, “Stomachache?”

“Yeah. Stomachache. An hour later I’m getting out of the shower and hear her yelling for me. I go in, she’s shaking and holding her stomach. I thought it was her appendix or some shit. I brought her to Memorial.”

I tied my clean boots, grabbed my side arm and knife, and was heading to the door when I prompted, “Was it?”

“No. We’ve been here for hours. Blood test, urine test, ultrasound. No fever. The doctor can’t find the source, but she’s feeling better and they’re gonna let her leave.”

“No way they have the results of blood and urine this fast,” I noted, stopping in front of my captain’s office.

“You’re right, they don’t, but the stomachache has gone away. So she’ll be discharged soon. Where are you?”

“At the station but I’ll be on my way to you after I tell my captain I’m leaving.”

“We’ll probably be?—”

“Do not leave that hospital until I get there, Winslow.”

“Roger that.”

I would’ve given him shit if he hadn’t disconnected the call and my heart wasn’t in my throat.

I needed to get to Sophie.

“Cap?” I called out and waited for his attention to come to the doorway. “My woman’s in the hospital, I need to bounce.”

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