Sentencing Sapphire (Sapphire Dubois: Book 3)

Chapter 17

"Hello? I'm literally starving here!" Chrissy waved at the passing nurses in the hallway. "Imbeciles."

"So," the cop said, "you don't remember who rescued you?"

"No," Chrissy sighed in aggravation. Everything was foggy. She had memories of the abduction and the cot, but they were brief. The doctors said this was normal, a way for the brain to blah-blah-blah, and that the memories would probably come back.

Chrissy hated it all. She hated that her parents were still in Abu Dhabi and that she was stuck at this tiny hospital in some puny farmer town. She'd asked, and been denied, to be taken to the Beverly Hills hospital where the staff prepared personal egg white omelets. They served Jello here. Jello. As if she were an animal... or worse—a poor person.

"You didn't hear any sounds, smell anything that could indicate—"

Chrissy sighed again to make a point. "Listen, Larry..."

"Barry," the cop corrected.

"Listen, Larry. The sun is barely up, I'm tired, I'm hungry, and the doctor told me it's gonna take months for my nails to grow back. Do you have any idea what that's like?"

"I lost a toenail in college once—"

"This is not about you, it's about me. I'm the kidnap victim. I want my daddy." Chrissy waved a hand. "Move along, Larry."

"I know you know it's Barry. We have, um, friends in common."

They did? Ew.

"Or actually," the cop straightened his posture, "it's Officer Barry Harry to you, and we're going to do this whether you like it or not. It's about preventing this man from hurting other women." He looked her up and down. "I would've thought someone in your current situation would have grown more humble."

"Oh my Gawd, how terrible." Chrissy put a hand to her mouth as it dawned on her. "Your parents named you Barry Harry?"

A familiar voice sounded in the hallway and their heads turned.

"Ma'am!" someone shouted. "You have to let us work!"

Chrissy groaned. The shouts and squeaky wheels hurt her ears.

"Then do something!" Sapphire's voice rang clear. Chrissy and Barry looked at each other, then followed the voice out into the hallway.

A man was being rolled along on a stretcher. Doctors and nurses surrounded him, trying to pump air into his lungs.

"Aston!" Barry exclaimed.

It took Chrissy a second to remember Aston was the cop her BFF had slept with.

Sapphire tried to run alongside the stretcher, but kept tripping on her blood-spattered, Marc Jacobs gown. She didn't even notice Chrissy when she stumbled by. Rude.

The doctor shouted words Chrissy couldn't follow—CCs, AB-negative, crash cart—then the group disappeared into a room and shut the door behind them. Two second later, it opened, and Sapphire was thrown out. She ran up to the window that connected to the room and placed her palms on the glass.

"What the hell, Sapphire?" Barry shouted. "Sapphire!"

"This-isn't-happening-this-isn't-happening-this-isn't-happening," Sapphire mumbled, skin pale and eyes full of tears, as she stared through the window where the doctors were shocking Aston. His body jumped at every jolt, then stayed motionless. Chrissy got nauseated looking at the ever-growing pile of discarded bloody rags.