Right as I was about to enter the room for my afternoon class my phone rang.
"Luke," Beth said, "I need your help."
"Now? I've got class. Can this wait?"
"This can't wait. I really need your help. I'd call someone else, but they're all busy or outta' town or I'm not speaking to that stupid bitch Sarah anymore."
The day after she returned from prison I told her what Sarah did to me. Beth put two fresh holes in my wall. Her anger at Sarah was frightening, it was much worse than how she reacted to Wyatt. With Wyatt she knew something was up. Sarah's betrayal was another wound she had to suffer through, a harsh betrayal from someone she only tried to help.
I managed to talk Beth down from going over to Sarah's apartment and kicking her ass. Beth made me call Dana so she could tell Sarah that they were no longer friends and that she should watch her back. Dana told me later that she passed along a similar message to Sarah, but did not quote Beth verbatim. As it was they still hadn't made up. I didn't blame Beth at all. I warned Sarah I would tell her. But now nobody was happy and we didn't have any more nights like was had when Beth broke out of prison.
Since then Beth hadn't mentioned Sarah much at all.
Whatever this was seemed more important than my math class so I ducked out and returned to the parking lot. Beth told me to meet her at an address I didn't recognize. It was up in North Hills, which was part of the expensive part of town. All her friends lived in the city. I couldn't imagine what reason Beth had to be way up there. She wouldn't tell me over the phone.
I made my way up there, driving into the suburbs. The address took me to a nice residential area, full of manicured trees and trash-less streets. It wasn't as fancy of place as it would be in a few blocks, but it was still where a lot of Paradiso's working rich lived. I parked on the street and approached the house.
Before I got to the front steps the door opened. I paused in my tracks. Beth stood in the doorway. The first thing I noticed was her bloody knuckles. It had been weeks since she punched the wall so it wasn't that she busted her scabs open. There was also spatters of blood on her shirt and face.
"Good. You're here. I need your help with something," she said.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Get inside and I'll show ya.'"
Inside was just as nice as I thought it would be. Until Beth led me into the living room. That was when I saw the carnage. Paintings were pulled off the wall and smashed, the couch was overturned, every lamp looked shattered. Blood dripped everywhere. Laying in the middle of it all was a woman.
Her face was mashed and dripping blood from every orifice. Both her eyes were swollen shut, the rest of her face was a bruise. Her lips were puffy, when she breathed out, blowing bubbles in her blood, I saw she was missing a fair amount of teeth. She held her broken left arm to her chest with her right arm. I stood and stared in horror.
"Who...who is this?" I asked.
"This, Luke, would be my piece of shit attorney, Jessi Chips."
"Did you...do this to her?"
"Hell, yes, I did. Do you know what this woman was doing while I was in prison? She was helping my ex-husband fuck me over and lie to ya'. Dana told ya' that I was broke? Nope. She just went and got my accounts all tied up so they were inaccessible to y'all. She was the one who passed your letters, and others, to Wyatt instead a' me. It's why none of my mail every made it out a' the prison and let ya' know I was doing okay.
"The worst part a' all this? Ya' know why she did this to me even though I was fucking paying her and paying her well? It's because she had a crush on the idiot. And he used that against her. He played her like a fucking fiddle. He charmed her and took her on a few dates, all the while never intending to do anything more since he still thought a' me as his wife. She went along with it.
"I could excuse a little corruption. She's the attorney for a super villain. There had to be a bad streak in her somewhere. I expected maybe something like inflating her rates, something with a financial motive. Nope. All because of a stupid, schoolgirl crush on Wyatt. That's stupidity I couldn't stand. So I came to her house to have a little chat and, I guess, things got a little outta' hand."
The woman moaned on the ground. Beth kicked her and the woman shrieked.
"Jesus, Beth, you're going to kill her!"
"Nah, I ain't. Thought about it. Want to. But right now I'm trying to put my life back together and I still need her for that. She's done something to my money which is keeping my accountant from getting to it. There are some deeds I need from her and I need my new attorney to get some records from her. So...she lives. For now."
I flipped a chair upright and sat on the edge of the seat. I held my face in my hands. I peeked over my fingers and the scene remained the same: Beth standing over a beaten and bloody woman. It was almost too much to process.
All I had was Beth's assurance that she was in the right. Well..."right." It was one thing to believe that I could handle living with the fact that my girlfriend was a super villain. It was quite another to see it up close and personal. This was much worse than that day in the parking lot. At least then there were circumstances I could rationalize. She was afraid for me and Jeff had drawn on her first after he shot me. This was outright brutality.
"What do you need me to do? Why did you call me?"
"I need your help. We have to get her patched up."
"Call an ambulance."
"Can't do that. She can't go to a normal hospital. If a woman shows up looking like that there are a lot of questions the police are gonna' ask her. And I don't want her thinking all she has to do is sell me out again to be safe. We gotta' take her to one a' our doctors."
"Oh, please don't tell me we're going to the Psycho Surgeon. I hate that place."
"Nah, that's too good for her. I want her patched up, but I don't want to waste too much money on her. I got a different guy we can use. First we have to put her in your car."
I breathed deep. Here was a turning point. Now I was aiding and abetting Beth in a crime. Knowing what she did was one thing, helping her was a whole different story. But I felt I had to do it. Loyalty. I always said I wanted to be with her, no matter what, and now it was time to prove it.
"What happened to your truck?" I asked.
"Too conspicuous in this neighborhood, left it at a park a couple a' blocks away and walked here. I was afraid that if I left to get it she would manage to get to a phone and call for help. I really didn't want ya' to do this, but I didn't have any other options. I need your help."
"Okay."
We dragged Jessi from the living room to the garage. She slipped in and out of consciousness, but couldn't do anything to stop us. When that was done I went and pulled my car up. Beth cut up some garbage bags and lined my back seat with them before she put Jessi in. When that was done Beth went and washed as much of the blood off herself as she could manage.
We drove off and Beth directed me to head back to the city. She mentioned I should head for Lower Bastion, which was a neighborhood almost completely opposite the hills we were leaving. She told me she would direct me further as we got closer.
As I drove Beth pulled out her cell phone and called someone up.
"Doc Lincoln? This is Black Hat. I'm heading your way with someone who needs a patch up. You up for that? You've only had three drinks so far? Good. Do ya' need me to pick you up or should I go directly to your place? Okay, good."
Beth hung up the phone and told me to stop by a bar called St. Amand's. We pulled up and a shabby man in a brown coat left the door and came to my car. I immediately thought it was a hobo who was going to beg us for enough money for a drink. Beth rolled down her window.
"Doc! Get in the back seat. Mind the plastic."
The man showed no hesitancy in shifting Jessi around so that he could sit down. He reeked of cheap scotch. I rolled down my window so that I wouldn't get drunk from his fumes. Beth directed me to a run-down apartment building a few blocks from the bar.
Neither Beth nor the doctor seemed concerned about anyone seeing them pull a beaten and bloody woman from the back of my car.
"Don't worry about it," Doc Lincoln said, "my neighbors have seen worse than this. In this neighborhood no one is going to dare call the police. Even if they did we have a long time before a cruiser will show."
The elevators were out so we had to heft the woman up three flights of stairs before we got to his apartment. He opened the door and motioned for us to put Jessi on the table. By now I was used to handling the woman like she was a sack of potatoes, but I was unable to get used to the screams when we would drop her on something she broke.
"Hrm, looks like someone did a number on her," Doc Lincoln said.
"I did it. Patch her up, spare the anesthetic."
"I definitely wouldn't want to get on your bad side, Black Hat."
"You're damn right."
"Is it okay if I'm not around for this part?" I asked.
"Might as well. This is going to take a little while and you might want to go keep an eye on your car, sir. Wouldn't want to leave a fine vehicle like that out around here," Doc Lincoln replied.
I went back down to the parking lot. Already there was a homeless guy trying to pry off one of my hubcaps. I chased him away then sat on the stoop, waiting for Beth and Jessi to be done. By the time the third homeless guy wandered by asking for change I started to wonder if it was worth the hassle to stay outside and watch my car.
Eventually Beth returned, leading a heavily bandaged Jessi down the steps. She looked like a mummy and had her arm in a sling. Beth had her own bandages wrapped around her knuckles, something which was become depressingly common. Beth put Jessi in the backseat and got in with her. I drove back to Jessi's house and pulled into the garage. Beth lead Jessi into her house. I opted to stay in the car and wait for Beth to return.
It was only a couple of minutes. Beth returned without Jessi, got into the front seat, and told me to drive her to a park. We spent the short trip in silence. I pulled up next to her truck and parked. Beth made no motion to get out.
"Thank you for helping me out with this," she said. "I know it's nothing you ever wanted to see and I'm sorry for that. I was in a bind and I really appreciate it."
I leaned forward and rested my head against the steering wheel, "I'm really not comfortable with this. This isn't what I want to do in my life. That woman was really beat up."
Beth took a deep breath, "I lost my temper. Shouldn't have done that. You know I wouldn't have put ya' in this situation if I didn't have to. I'm really glad ya' decided to help me." Since I was leaned forward Beth started rubbing my back. "It's all gonna' be okay."
"Please don't make me again. Please don't put me in this situation again."
"I can't tell ya' that I won't. I'll try hard not to, but I don't want to make ya' a promise I can't keep. All I can do is try. And I hope ya' understand why I did what I did to that woman."
"Does this make it any better? How can you be sure she isn't calling the police right now?" I asked.
"This is a something you're going to have to learn: there are no guarantees in my life. I mean, I was paying her well to help me out. For years she was happy to take my money and do some illegal activities up until she changed her mind. I honestly didn't believe she would try to fuck me, but here we are. I don't believe she's gonna' run to the cops because I think I put the fear into her and she knows if I get busted again she'll get busted. I think she would've called the police immediately if I kicked her ass and left. Now she's had time to think about the ramifications of what that would really mean."
"So our safety depends on her remaining too scared to do anything?"
"It's a weird kind of life."
