Mule

Chapter 11: Memories

The tape that held the cotton swab from the blood withdrawal irritated her skin, and Ana tried not to scratch at it. The nurse had left her alone for quite a while, and she wished her brother or Mule could sit with her. She was still shaken from waking up on the side of the road, not to mention the rose in her toes. That son of a bitch had a thing for touching her feet, and who knows where else he had his hands?

Someone pushed the curtain aside, and the nurse came back in. She looked tired since it was almost three a.m., and Anabelle's heart went out to her. No one wanted to be up at this hour, especially for a police-mandated physical exam. It was a suggestion of course, but one look from Mule had coerced her into being cooperative.

"Sorry for the wait," she said. "Your tox screen should be done in a few hours, so we can start the internal exam."

Ana blanched. Though she'd gone to the gynecologist before, this was different. She wasn't here to inquire about birth control or her yearly check-up. She was afraid of what they might find. She didn't feel sore or anything, but if the guy had done something to her, she wanted to know right away.

"Alright, yeah."

"Just lay back and put your feet on the stirrups." She opened a box and pulled out a camera. "I'm required to take pictures for evidence. If you're uncomfortable with that, you have the right to refuse."

"No, uh . . . do what you gotta do."

She hesitated then lay with her head against the pillow and put her feet up. While the nurse put on her gloves and mask, Anabelle did her best not to freak out. If only she had a sister or a close girl friend. She didn't feel tight enough with Chelsea to call her in the dead of night. Cole had been a life saver by rushing to her rescue and letting her sit in his car while waiting for Mule and her brother. He'd lent her a jacket since it was forty degrees out and she was in nothing but underwear and a thin t-shirt.

"Just a few questions before we begin. Are you sexually active?"

"Yes."

"When was the last time you engaged in intercourse."

Well, she wouldn't call it that. Jared hadn't given her an incentive to participate.

"Three days ago."

"Casual or with a long-term partner."

All these questions weren't helping her anxiety. She just wanted to get the procedure over with and go home to her little twin bed and hide away for a few hours. It never seemed to end.

"Long-term," she finally answered.

"Any chance you might be pregnant?"

Ana smirked. "No. No, there certainly isn't."

The nurse finally began the procedure, and Ana distanced herself from everything, staring at a spot on the ceiling. She tried counting the tiles then measuring how many tiles there were from wall to wall and between each light. The numbers weren't uniform, and none of them were in tens or divisible by five, so the task brought her no comfort.

The click and flash of the camera sent her back to that day in the woods. She shut her eyes, allowing her mind to drift into the memory.

Anabelle opened her eyes when the yelling stopped. She didn't hear anymore gunshots, but that didn't mean the danger was no longer there. The sun still shone from beneath the trees, and it rested where it should in the early morning hours.

Gathering her thoughts, she picked up her gun and continued forward down the trail she'd seen Derek take not moments before. She licked her lips, her breath clouding in the chill air. The cold ground crunched beneath her boots, though she tried to be quiet.