Page 19 of Embers in the Dark

“We need to call the police, Bay, then get you seen at the hospital to make sure you’re cleared. The sooner everything isofficial, the faster they’ll get an arrest warrant out for him,” I explain.

Her eyes go wide, dropping the dress, and she wraps her arms around her waist.

“Baylee, you didn’t think this was something we weren’t going to report, did you?” I look up at her.

“I just didn’t think about it, Tucker,” she says as her eyes take in the room around her. I can tell she’s starting to feel overwhelmed at the thought of everything that’s going to happen from this moment on.

“You’re a few steps ahead of me in all this,” she continues. “I’m still trying to catch up. I passed out from him hitting me and when I woke up he was gone. He trashed my apartment after I lost consciousness, and I’m just putting some of the pieces together. Myles comes from a prominent family here in Connecticut and I’m scared. What if it’s his word against mine? What if he does something else to me?”

The fear in her eyes nearly cripples me. I’ve never seen her this way before. Baylee has always been a pillar of strength whenever we tackled things throughout the years. She’s always been the person to stand tall against any obstacle. Obviously, nothing has ever been this big in her path, but I’ve never heard her sound so small. And that just makes me feel even more angry at what Myles has done to her. He’s muted something within her, and I wonder how long this has been going on.

“I won’t let you go through this alone, okay?” I reassure her.

She nods, but I can still see the apprehension in her eyes.

“Do you want me to call your family? I can have them meet us here,” I ask.

“No, I don’t want them involved just yet. Can we wait until we get to the hospital first?”

“Whatever you want. You’re in charge here. I’m going tocall the police now, okay?” I tell her, pulling my phone out of my back pocket and showing it to her.

She nods and I bring the phone to my ear. I make the call and it feels like the minute I finish explaining to the dispatcher what happened, everything moves at lightning-speed.

I walk with Baylee to the kitchen, shielding her so she doesn’t need to look over at the area where she was attacked. We choose to sit in an area that won’t disturb the crime scene. It isn’t until we walk through the living room that I really take in the force of the violence in front of me. The hole in the wall where he shoved her brings my blood to a boil all over again and I can only imagine how scared she must’ve been.

Once there’s a slight knock at the door, I greet the officers and have them speak to Baylee where she remains shielded from the mess Myles left behind. She’ll have to walk them through what went on earlier, but I’ll keep her from looking at everything longer than she has to. I stand behind her, blocking her view of the living room the best I can until she is forced to walk through the events of the night and show the officers what happened.

At one point, I make a move to give her some space, but she reaches for me to stay, so I stand next to her while she retells exactly what happened throughout the evening. She begins with the dinner with Myles at a restaurant for his office and the moment she starts to repeat his vile words, I have to hold back my reaction. Luckily, Baylee can’t see the reaction on my face, because I’m having a hard time keeping my features neutral at the moment. This asshole better be found after tonight because if he steps one foot too close to her, he may not be standing straight again.

Once Baylee gets to the point of her story where she’s explaining everything that went on in the apartment, she begins to move through her living room, doing her best to explain how Myles attacked. Some of her memory is a littlehazy due to the fact she lost consciousness, but she does a good job keeping her composure, although a few tears finally come loose at the end.

“Ms. Rios, I think we have everything we need here to file our arrest warrant. If we need anything else, we’ll contact you. Here’s my information. If you think of anything else, please don’t hesitate to reach out.” Officer Tamos hands each of us her card, a sad smile gracing her features.

“Also, we’d like you to make sure you stay somewhere else tonight. Have you contacted your roommates to let them know not to come back? That lock will need to be replaced,” Officer Tamos explains.

“Oh my God, I forgot to let the girls know.” She brings her hand to her face.

“It’s okay. We can let them know once morning comes. They won’t be coming back yet. We’ll head to the hospital and once we have you checked out and cleared, we’ll call them,” I tell her. She gives me a small nod.

Officer Tamos seems satisfied with that plan and moves toward the front door. “Also, make sure you get this lock fixed as soon as possible. We will get things moving to get the warrant out for Mr. Stempler, but I’d feel more comfortable knowing this is repaired.”

“Yes, I’ll get some calls out to companies while Baylee is getting seen at the hospital.”

“Great. And you’ll have somewhere to stay, Ms. Rios?”

Baylee is looking over at the hole in the wall, lost in thought.

“Baylee, did you hear Officer Tamos?” I ask her.

“Huh?” She pulls herself out of her thoughts.

“You have a friend to stay with while you get the locks changed?” Officer Tamos asks again.

“Oh, um, I’m moving, so Myles won’t find me here anyway,” she says, shocking me.

“I see. Well, make sure to still get this fixed soon for thesafety of your roommates.” Officer Tamos looks over at me, leaving me stunned while I look over at Baylee, this time I’m the one left without words.

The officers say their goodbyes and I walk them out. Once they leave, I set myself in motion to gather some things. Baylee is still moving slowly, probably now that the adrenaline is wearing off, she’s feeling sore all over.

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