Page 57 of Ruthless Riches
“No. I just heard someone else talking about it.”
Her shoulders slumped. “Oh.”
“Did someone drug you?” I asked, forehead creasing with concern. “Did they hurt you?”
She shook her head. “That’s the problem,” she said, voice barely above a whisper. “I have no idea.”
“What do you mean?”
She rubbed her eyes and leaned back on the sofa. “You know how I’ve been going to the art studio a lot lately?” she said. “It helps to take my mind off everything that’s been going on. Being around other people helps, too.”
“Yeah. I get it.”
“Well, I went there again yesterday afternoon. I’m totally certain of that, because I remember it all very clearly,” she said, staring across the room. “I think it was around six when I left. Anyway, there’s a bar right across the street. I used to go in there a lot because it’s close and I love their cocktails. I haven’t lately, though. Haven’t been in the mood to go out drinking, for obvious reasons.”
I nodded to acknowledge her story so far, even though I had no idea why she’d gone off on a tangent about a bar.
“I don’t actually remember doing this, but I guess I must’ve decided to go into the bar for a drink after I finished in the studio,” Sascha went on, turning her gaze back to me. “I remember stepping out of the studio and onto the street, and then… nothing. It just goes blank.”
“What makes you think you went to the bar?”
“That’s where I woke up this morning,” she said. “Well, sort of, anyway. It was the alleyway next door.”
I frowned. “You were just lying in an alley when you woke up?”
“Yeah. It was about an hour ago,” she said. She twisted her hands in her lap. “Like I said, I don’t remember anything, but I keep thinking that I must’ve gone to the bar, and then someone drugged my drink while I was there. Then they left me out in the alley when they were…” She trailed off and swallowed so hard I could hear it. “When they were done with me. But I don’t know. I really don’t know.”
“You need to go the hospital,” I said, heart thumping rapidly. “I can take you.”
“You don’t think I’m overreacting?”
“Fuck no. It definitely sounds like you were drugged.”
She bit her bottom lip and slowly shook her head. “I don’t know, though. I really don’t remember going into the bar or anywhere else. So I’ve been wondering if maybe all the recent stress and tiredness just caught up to me, and then I passed out in the alley.”
“Maybe. But you need to get checked out just in case,” I said. “How did you feel when you woke up?”
The corners of her lips tipped down. “I had a horrible headache, which still hasn’t gone away. There’s this, too,” she said, rolling up her cardigan sleeve. “I saw it when I got home and changed out of my dirty clothes.”
My eyes widened as I caught sight of an enormous bruise on her left arm. “Shit. That’s bad. Do you have any idea how you got it?”
“No, but it looks pretty new,” she said. “Do you think it could be a handprint from a guy grabbing me?”
“It could be. Or maybe you just hit it on something when you passed out. Either way, you need to go to the hospital and get a doctor to look at you.” I stood and fished my keys out of my pocket. “Come on. I’ll take you in.”
Sascha reached up and grabbed my arm. “Wait. I have to tell you something else.”
I sat down again. “What is it?”
She dropped her hands back to her lap and clasped them together. “This is going to sound completely crazy, and I know you’re totally going to judge me for believing it, but… Alexis was with me last night. I swear.”
My brows shot up. “What do you mean?”
“She was there. I saw her.”
“In the alley?”
She looked down and shook her head. “I don’t know exactly where she was. I really don’t know how to explain it,” she said. “Usually I’d think it was just a dream, but I’ve never had a dream as vivid as this one. It felt real.”
