Page 53 of Cougar

“The two I can’t make sense of is Dillon being brought back and the pigs. We were in church for the pigs!” He yells and punches a picture of the dead pigs in the pen. “There was an ad out for Dillon and Malika, yet Bigfoot brought him back. Why? Why stash Mallory instead of moving her? There are too many unanswered whys.”

He drags his hands through his hair and lets out a guttural scream. Knuckles punches the wall again, and on the third punch, the front door bursts open behind me, causing the cats in my line of sight to scatter. Drawing my gun, I spin and point it at the intruder. In steps someone I thought I wouldn’t have to deal with ever again. I click the safety off my gun and aim right between his eyes.

“This is what you get for barging into a place you aren’t welcomed. Now give me one reason why I shouldn’t pull the trigger.” My hand has never been as steady as it is right now. I’m begging him to breathe the wrong way so I can pull the trigger.

“Whitley,” I hear Knuckles speak tiredly. Like he can finally relax because this pig fucker, this cop who is under Connard’s thumb, is in here.

“What?” My eyes shoot to my brother and back to the man standing at the doorway with his hands up in surrender. His eyes aren’t even on me or my gun; they’re trained on Knuckles. “This is Whitley?” I ask, not at all trying to mask my surprise.

We were all advised that Whitley is a cop, but seeing him in the flesh—it makes it hard to process the truth we’ve been given. Seeing him in front of me, in his uniform, makes me question everything.

I hate it.

I shouldn’t be asking myself if Knuckles is being truthful regarding our business and Whitley, but I am. Seeing the man, the cop, right here is making everything harder to take in. It could very well be from all of the adrenaline from the night. This night’s been fucked up so far, and seeing a cop walk in is only fucking it more.

I bend my elbows, drawing back my gun, and Whitley makes his way to Knuckles. The change in Knuckles is instant. His body sags in relief as Whitley wraps his arms around him. I’ve never seen Knuckles like this. Consumed by someone. Not even five minutes ago, he was losing his damn mind, trying to connect all the dots. And now, he’s so relaxed. It’s as if Whitley holding him is the equivalent of shooting up heroin. An instant high, pure, blissed-out relaxation.

“I heard you screaming. Are you okay?”

Their moment almost feels too intimate to watch, but I have to. I have to listen and make sure they don’t talk about anything they shouldn’t. If Whitley’s been coming over here with everything up on the wall, we’re fucked. So much evidence is pegged to the wall, but the cop holding my brother hasn’t looked at it once. His eyes haven’t left Knuckles.

“I’m so fucking tired, Whit. My mind hurts. My heart’s broken. Judge and Storm—”

“—I know. Shhh, I know. I heard the call. I was on my way to help when I was stopped due to an accident. Which,” he turns away from Knuckles and looks at me. “You need to get to the hospital, Cougar.”

“I know that! I’ve been trying to get his ass there for,” I look down at the watch I don’t have, “I don’t even know how long.”

Whitley shakes his head, “No, not because of that. It’s Aletta.”

“The fuck did you just say?” I take a step toward him, ready to kill him if he did anything to my Birdie and my son.

“She’s okay. She was rear-ended. She and Mallory are fine. They were both taken to the hospital—”

“—Fuck! Come on, Knuckles. We gotta go.”

I start to grab at him when he passes out in Whitley’s arms. Just…drops.

“Let me get him to bed.”

Without another word, Whitley takes Knuckles to his bed. He’s back in less than a minute. “You better tell me the fucking truth. What did you do to Aletta? I swear to god, I will fucking kill you.”

“I didn’t do anything other than call it in and get her and Mallory into an ambulance. Whoever was driving the car Mallory was in wasn’t at the scene. I pulled up on it and called a bus. They got there fast and took Aletta in first. Cougar I—”

“—Don’t. I don’t want to hear it.” I turn and walk to the door. I need to get to the hospital and try and figure out what the fuck Knuckles figured out and talk to Prez about the mess this whole fucking situation is. With my hand on the knob to slam the door behind me, I hear Whitley call out.

“Cougar, for what it’s worth, I’m on your side.”

I stop and look back at him, “We’ll see.”

Twenty Three

Aletta

“How are you feeling?” My nurse asks me. She’s been super sweet and checks in on me regularly. She told me it’s because of what I’ve gone through, but I think she’s bored. The floor is quiet, and she may or may not have let it slip that I’m the only one in her care right now.

“Now that I’ve calmed down some, I can tell the drugs have done what they’re supposed to. To be honest, I don’t remember the last contraction I had. I’ve been watching Bob’s Burgers.”

“That’s good. We wanted the drugs to kick in quickly. Gotta keep Little Man in there for a tad longer.” She smiles at me and turns toward the computer, “Ah, see here?” she pulls out the strip of paper with what looks like a graph, “You haven’t had a contraction for almost half an hour. That’s really good. We’ll keep you here for a bit longer just to be safe, but you might be able to go home tonight. Worse case? Tomorrow morning.”

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