Page 52 of All Wrong
“AJ and his buddy got jumped at the park earlier tonight.”
“How bad?”
“Jackie got banged up pretty good, but he’s going to be all right.”
“And AJ?”
Sean shot him a sideways glance. “He was alive when I left.”
Nick’s heart bottomed out. “Jesus.”
“Could’ve been worse. Some old lady walking her dog called it in; otherwise …” Sean let the sentence hang.
“How’d you find out?”
“The sister called the emergency number.”
Right. Every kid at The Zone was given theemergency number, guaranteed to get help whenever, wherever.
“Nicki’s been trying to reach you,” Sean added. His voice was even, but the question was there.
Nick had silenced his phone at Corinne’s. “I was out.”
Sean snorted. “Yeah, no shit.”
They pulled up to the ER’s entrance. Sean let Nick out and then went to park the car. Nick stepped inside. Nicki and Candace were seated to the side. Judging by their grim faces, things weren’t good.
“How is he?” Nick asked.
Candace’s face was pale; her arms were crossed over her midsection, and she was rocking back and forth. At the sound of Nick’s voice, she stood, wrapped her arms around him, and buried her face in his chest. Not knowing what else to do, he patted her back. Over her shoulder, he caught the expression on Nicki’s face. Sympathy. Empathy. Concern. Nicki could relate to what Candace was going through because she’d been through similar situations.
How many times had Nicki sat at his bedside in that rathole they lived in when they were kids? How many times had he been collateral damage in a world of drug lords, pedophiles, and pimps? Howmany times had he been beaten and abused before he became fast enough, strong enough, and valuable enough?
AJ’s circumstances were different, but did that matter when the result was the same?
“They got him stabilized and are moving him up to intensive care,” Nicki answered.
“Tell me what happened,” he said to Candace.
Candace sniffed and pulled away. She wiped at her eyes, smearing the mascara running in narrow rivers down her face. “I don’t know. I got home from my shift, and AJ wasn’t there. I went looking for him, and that’s when I saw the police at the park, and Iknew. They wouldn’t let me ride in the ambulance with him, but I saw him. He looked bad, Nick. Real bad.”
Candace’s gaze moved to the side, her face hardening. “What is she doing here?” she hissed.
Nick turned and looked over his shoulder. Candace and AJ’s mother was being escorted out of the elevator by Mitch Torres and his partner. The woman was gaunt and pale, her eyes sunken. She looked so much like the woman who’d made his and Nicki’s life hell, caught in the downward spiral of an addiction where nothing mattered except getting that next fix.
“The hospital must have called her. It’s procedure. She’s his mother,” Nicki said.
“She’s no mother.” Candace practically spit the words.
“She’s his legal guardian. That’s all they care about,” Nicki said. She spoke to Candace but looked meaningfully at Nick. “You know how it works.”
Yeah, he did because that was something else he and Nicki were intimately familiar with.
The woman spotted Candace, her face contorting into something ugly and mean. “Talk to her. This isherfault. If he’d been home with me where he belonged, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Torres’s gaze followed the woman’s bony finger, his brows pulling down when he saw Candace clinging to Nick. Torres said something to his partner, who led the woman outside. Torres crossed the distance.
“I’m going to need to ask you a few questions,” he said to Candace. He glanced at Nick and Nicki, then added, “Alone.”
