Blood Money

13

"Danielle, come on precious." Jeremiah coaxes her. Danielle just ignores him like she has every other time he's come in. Just like she's done for everyone that comes in.

She's now handcuffed to the bed since she found a razor blade and actually tried to slice her wrists. Jeremiah was very thankful he'd decided to visit her at that time. If he hadn't of come when he did she would likely have bled to death.

"Get out, Jeremiah," Trevor's cold voice says from the doorway.

Jeremiah looks at Trevor in shock. They've always been rather free with courtesies with each other, but they've never been downright rude before. "I apologize, Jeremiah. I need to talk to Danielle privately."

Looking at Trevor, Jeremiah isn't sure that it would be a smart thing to leave Danielle alone with Trevor. But then again Danielle would get what she wants. She hasn't talked to anyone for more than two weeks now.

Jeremiah reluctantly tells Danielle goodbye. He leaves the room making sure that the door is firmly shut behind him.

"You bitch. Did you think I wouldn't find out who you really are?" Trevor demands as soon as he hears the door shut completely.

Danielle still doesn't even look at him. Trevor in anger slaps her hard. Danielle's head snaps to the side and there's an immediate red hand shape on her face. Not even tears enter her eyes. She in truth didn't even feel it. She's so far into the black void that has become her life. She's so cold, frozen inside.

Trevor is too angry to care if she answers or not. He hits and punches her. When she doesn't even try to offer any defense or even show him a reaction it finally gets through to him. He looks at her face and is sickened at what he'd done. He has no doubt that her torso looks just as bad. He looks at his hands in sickened horror. He'd never hit a female before. Especially one that couldn't even protect herself.

"You win, Danielle. Once you are able to be released I won't bother you any more." Trevor takes the key to the cuffs and undoes them.

Danielle doesn't even rub her wrists or even look at him. "Why did you lie? Why didn't you tell us who you are?" Trevor asks plaintively. "It wouldn't have mattered to father, you know that right? He was crazy about you." Trevor wipes the tears that have started falling off his face.

He turns his wheelchair around and leaves the room. He knows that he's never going to see Danielle again. He'll try to watch over her from a distance, but he doesn't think he'll be able to do so, she's too good at hiding.

That night Danielle leaves the hospital and no one notices until the nurse comes on rounds to check on her. By then Danielle was long gone.

Danielle finds slipping out of the hospital wasn't that hard. Even though she was almost doubled over in pain from the beating Trevor gave her. Her face throbs in time with her heart. She's sure that she has at least a little internal bleeding, but she ignores the pain and continues onward. 

She slips into her apartment and gathers her most cherished items. Stuffing them into the backpack, she grabs some clothes and goes to the where the couch is and pushes it. Bending down she hisses in pain.

After catching her breath she pries open a couple of the floor boards and takes out the gun and cash that lie within. Now she's ready to go. She doesn't even take a backwards look at what she leaves behind. 

On the counter are the keys and her phone. On the phone is an out going text to her landlord telling him that she will no longer be renting the apartment and that the keys are on the counter.

She figures that the value of the items left behind will more than make up for any inconvenience he might have in cleaning out the apartment. After all like Trevor had said, the place was a dump. She hadn't lied, she grew up in locations like this and worse, much, much worse. She shivers in remembered revulsion at some of those locations.

Shortly after that she disappears in the darkness. Jeremiah's people phone in to tell him that they lost her almost immediately after that.

"She's gone, Trevor. My people have lost her." Jeremiah tells him sadly. He rather liked Danielle.

"It's for the better, it's what she wanted. Trying to keep her alive was actually killing her. Shit, I can't believe I actually beat her like that." He has beaten prisoners before and it never bothered him. There's just something about Danielle that makes him question everything.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing, Trevor? You might have just let a lamb loose among the wolves."

Trevor laughs even though it hurts him to do so. "She is no lamb. If anything I feel sorry for the wolves that try for her."

Jeremiah looks at him hard. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Danielle isn't the innocent person she makes herself out to be. She is a very dangerous person to be around. Jeremiah, just be glad that she is leaving." Trevor replies bitterly. She'd fooled him and his father.  But he couldn't kill her, not yet. He has no doubt that she honestly loved his father. He still can't find any trace of the killer. He's willing to bet that Danielle has more of an idea of who killed him than she's said. He's willing to bet that she'll kill whoever killed Max and he doesn't think that she will go easy on whoever it was either.

"Are you going to kill her?" Jeremiah senses the change in attitude in Trevor.

"I don't know at this time if I will or not, but not until she finishes what she's set out to do." Trevor states with a small smile playing about his lips.

"What's that?" Jeremiah asks amused.

"She's going to find and kill whoever killed my father."

Jeremiah is no longer amused. "You think she knows who did it?"

"I think she has an idea of where to start. Which is far more than what I have. I don't believe my father was the target, I think that she was. My father thought that someone was going to come after her as well, that's why he asked me to look after her."

"You think he knew who she really is?" Jeremiah questions.

"I think he knew and he still loved her, perhaps even more because of it." Trevor replies softly looking out the window into the darkness.