He was sitting on the couch, one arm around his girlfriend and watching TV when he saw in the corner of his eyes a movement. He looked to the window and saw her standing there. She wore sunglasses despite the dark night, a dark scarf around her head. She scurried away back into the darkness. Rust closed his eyes for a moment hoping, that the hallucination would be gone when he opened them again. He looked back to the window and saw only the black dark night. "Honey, are you all right? You seem distracted." Knowing, that he found find the peace to sit on the couch and watch some stupid TV show with his girlfriend he lied "yeah, got a headache. I think I will head home, if you won't mind." He said with his heavy accent. She shook her head. "No, it's fine. Just get resting, okay? You're so pale like you've seen a ghost!" she smiled while Rusts eyes just got wider. "You might be right on that." He grabbed his jacket and left after giving his girl a kiss. Outside the door, he lit up a cigarette and inhaled quick and deep, letting the smoke escape slowly afterwards. He drove home.
"Look Lori, I just don't have the feelings, you are expecting me to have. I can't fulfill your wishes. Maybe it's best we… we split up. You could meet a decent man. Someone who is right for you, you know?" she was crying, silent tears ran down her cheeks. As she didn't answer he grabbed his jacket and left. The next day he met Martin in the locker room. "Hey, Rust. I've heard from Maggie that you broke up with Lori? Man, what happened?" Rust was standing in front of his locker in his undershirt. "Reality happened, Marty." The older cop shook his head in disapproval but kept silent. He knew better than to argue with Rusts logic. "So, are you okay? Wanna take some days off?" Rust closed his locker. "Nah! I'm fine. It was the expected course. Nothing to talk about." He walked out of the room to his desk, leaving a baffled Martin behind.
"I tell ya, Maggie, he never meant to stay with her. He told me, that it was the expected course." He shoved down his drink. Maggie stood in the kitchen and prepared dinner, Martin sat on the counter with his glass. The TV could be heard from the living room and the girls talking and screaming about the channel which they wanted to watch. "Girls, be nice to each other!" Maggie yelled over to them and then returned to her pots. "Maybe he is right, maybe it is the best for both of them, especially for Lori." Martin squinted his eyes. "What do you mean by that?" she sighed before continuing. "Rust is kind of… a broke man. Maybe he realized that he cannot satisfy her. Can't reciprocate her feelings. I think it was for the best to give the relationship up. He tried; he gave his best but eventually realized that his best is not enough for her." "So you get how he tics up there?" martin asked a little bit angry while making a circling gesture with his finger near his temple. "You know, that worries me. His messed up head." "I was just saying, that I get why he split up with Lori. And in my opinion, it was the most honest move of him in that situation. "Martin filled his glass with another drink. He would never understand that, he realized.
This night, he didn't slept, he just dreamed again. About his days as an undercover cop, called crash, ridding with the iron crusaders. He dreamed about that girl, the daughter of the gangs cook. Blood everywhere, she lying in the middle of all these men. Her father crying and screaming to spare her and punish him instead. The girl was still conscious, lying on her side and trying to crawl away from her torturer. Her former white shirt was ripped in pieces, her jeans shorts all dirty from the dusty ground, she was missing a shoe. Rust locked eyes with the girl on the ground. "Thank you" she whispered and smiled.
He started from his sleep, left hand trembling, when he suddenly heard the knocking on his backdoor. Only in shorts, he grabbed his gun and moved slowly to his door. It knocked again. With one quick movement he opened the door, gun at draw in the face of the stranger. She was startled and tumbled backwards, as rusts hand shot forward and grabbed one wrist. Pulling her inside and pinning her on the fast closed door. „What are you doing here?" he asked her with hold breath. She did not answer; instead, she put her sunglasses down, exposing her blue swollen eye which matched her busted lip. „they found me" she tried to smile and her lip began bleeding again. „Oh shit" she muttered and put the tips of her fingers on her lip. Rust sighed and went to the kitchen. He returned with rag full of ice cubes and handed it her. She sat down on one of the barstools and rested her elbows on the counter, the cold and wet rag pressed on her right side of her face.
Rust was standing across from her, lighting a cigarette. „How did you find me?" he asked her as he exhaled. „you know, these gonna kill you someday, right?" she pointed to his cigarette in between his fingers. „Someone has to do the job, so, how did you find me? Where you followed?" she shook her head. „Nah. They were too busy looking at the wrong places for Me." as he didn't answer she continued with a sigh. "Your, let's call them friends in the Narco department helped me." „Ahh, they're not supposed to tell anyone." „Guess, they had pity with me." she pointed at her face. Rust leaned with both hands on the counter. „What happened? I thought I got you out for good." This sad smile flashed over her face again.
"yah, me too. They gave me a new identity so I could study in peace, build my own life. Worked out for a few years, but then my best friend got into trouble, she needed money. I had to help her, you know? She was the only one who dealt with me that time. So I cooked a few batches. Dad showed me when he was still around. We sold them and she got out of her debt. Problem was the iron crusaders somehow got one batch and well. There ain't nobody who could cook meth like my dad. They got curious and started asking question where this meth comes from, who cooked it and so on. At some point, they showed up at my dorm. I was faster and got way through the backdoor. That friend of mine drove me to the next police station. I couldn't tell them why the gang was purchasing me. I would have been thrown out of the program. So I asked them if I could call the Narco department of Houston. Well, they let me and your friends there said that you asked to be transferred to Homicide. I just knew Louisiana. I got into the next train and got here. The news was all over of this new case. This way, I knew where your department was; I waited outside and followed you. Well I guess you saw me outside of the window at your girlfriend's house, that night?"
He nodded."Yeah. Thought I was hallucinating again." „Sorry about that. I thought you lived there. Should have known better when I saw the nice front porch." he laughed huskily. „Yeah you should have." he agreed with her. She pulled of her rag from her head and exposed her long red hair. „Grew pretty long." "Looks nice, I think. But a little bit too remarkable for a flight." they went silent for a moment. „Ever heard something from my brother?" he throws away his cigarette. „Ginger? Not much. Heard that he is still riding with the gang." her face lit up. „So he is still alive? That's good. Good." „ Amber. That you were outside of my ex-girlfriends window is months ago. What have you been doing all the time?" "Oh. Ex-girlfriend? What happened?" he sighed. "You are avoiding my question." Amber smiled. "And you are avoiding my question." As he did not answer, she continued. "I saw you there sitting, cuddling with this woman and thought to myself that you did it. Found someone new, someone to settle down with. Someone who could heal your wounds. I did not want to tear these open again. So I left. Found a little place on the outskirts. Earned money by working at a bar."
He got two glasses and a bottle of whiskey and filled them up as he spoke "There is nothing to heal." She looked concerned. "You drink again." "Never stopped, I guess. Just…" he made one smooth movement with his hand. "Paused" He shrugged and pushed one glass in her direction. They clinked them together and Rust drank up. Amber sipped a little from the dark liquor. "It still tastes like shit. Guess I will never get used to it" she muttered. "Why your face does look like you kissed a truck?" she wiggled her forefinger in front of his face before she forced herself to swallow the whiskey. "First, you have to answer my question. What happened between you and your girlfriend?" he groaned. "What do you think happened? Reality happened. she wanted kids. I didn't. I let her go. She has not deserved a man like… yeah like me." She was silent for a moment. "Sorry to hear that." He put his glass to his lips. "It was inevitable." He drank up again. "So, your face." He pointed with his empty glass to her busted lip and the swollen eye.
"My uncle went into my bar." Rust laughed "Shiiit" she grinned and inhaled loudly as her lip started to bleeding again. She wiped it away. Rust starred for one moment on her bleeding lip before focusing on her eyes again. "That's not the bad part. He was really happy to see me, thinking I was dead. We drank and talked about old times. He told me, why he was here. Told me, that he was finished with the iron crusaders after they got their new cook. My uncle said that the new cook was into some… weird stuff that even he could not stand." She took one deep sip of her whiskey. "Huh. That means something. Remember that time, when he threatened me to put a snake into my ass if I ever called him princess again?" she laughed. "Yeah, he even head the snake ready in this pouch." She continued.
"Either way, why I'm here. You know, the name of the new cook?" he shook his head. Amber leaned forward and set the rag down on the counter. "Ledoux." Rust froze. "How do you know about Ledoux?" "Rust, don't act silly. You think I got work in a nice little dinner, selling milkshakes to teenager? The guys in the bar are talking. I know about your case, I know, that you are looking for Ledoux. And then, my uncle came in a told me that their new cook is into crazy stuff and is called Ledoux. Yeah, rest of the story is that I finished my shift and as I went outside, some guys were waiting for me. They beat me up, but my uncle interfered and I could get away. Don't worry, I'm sure, they didn't follow me." She finished his drink and rust opened the bottle for a refill. "How do you know?" my uncle killed them. We went separate ways afterwards. Said something about leaving Louisiana." "And you're telling the truth?"
She laughed. "I know better than to lie to you." He smiled. "Yeah you do" she was trying to stand up, but she slumped down before rust could hurry around the counter to grab her around her waist. She hissed and repressed a yell of pain. "Damn girl, what were you trying to do?" he scolded her. "The ice is all melted but my head still hurts." She mumbled with a slurry voice. "And you could not ask me to get you some more ice?" she blinked her eyes at him as she seemed to process his words. "I guess I could have done that." He tightened his grip round her waist. "Come on, get up." She screamed out of pain and clawed her fingernails in his forearm but he did not let her sit back on the floor.
He steered her back on the barstool. "Raise your top." She grimaced. "I don't want to." "I know, but I have to inspect your broken rips. You don't want them to poke a hole in your lungs, don't you?" she groaned in disapprove but followed his orders. Her right side was turning black and blue and yellow. Carefully he laid his hands on the bruise. She twitched. "Sorry." He muttered. "Didn't mean to hurt you." She suppressed her laughing. "Ain't not hurting. I'm ticklish."
He smiled. "And here I'm standing, having a bad feeling about hurting you." She went silent for a second. "You were the only one who did not hurt me back then." He stopped groping here and there for her broken rips. Swallowed. "Old story." She nodded. "How much did you drink with your uncle?" he asked to change the topic. "Dunno. A few, maybe a few more." "I see" he mumbled. "The adrenalin wore off. That's why you just realized that your ribs are broken, and" he twitched the glass of whiskey from her hand. "You had too much to drink."
She lowered her top and squinted at him. "Smartass." He chuckled silently. "Yeah you're insults are still the worst I ever heard." He lit another cigarette, still standing in front of her. "I guess, you have nowhere to stay?" "Have you graduated in fortune-telling?" she grinned. "Of course I have. A diploma in telekinetic and telepathic, too." He said as he grabbed her around her waist to maneuver her to the mattress in the living room. "Wow, you're such an amazing guy." She giggled as she sat down on the makeshift bed. She looked up to him.
His cigarette placed in the corner of his lip. "Where will you sleep?" "Aah, girl. I never sleep." She raised one eyebrow. "You sure? Cause you looked asleep when I watched through the window." He shook his head "nah. Just dreaming." "Fine" she muttered sleepily as her eyes closed. He stood a moment there, watching the girl sleep, unsure what to do. He hadn't drunk alcohol in the last months and he felt dizzy. Finally he took one of the camping chairs, grabbed a book and sat in the corner across from the mattress. Tomorrow, he will talk to Martin about Ledoux and what to do next.
Amber woke up from a loud noise. She needed a moment to remember where she was, and why she was here as she heard the stifled moaning from Rust who was sleeping in a chair in the corner. The book which he was reading fell down from his lap to the ground. She stood slowly up, pressing one hand against her fractured ribs. The girl approached the sleeping man who was obviously having a nightmare carefully. "Rust" he did not woke up. She hesitated first but put then a hand on his shoulder. He jumped up from his chair and knocked her over on her butt. With panic in his eyes he was looking around, not recognizing where he was at first. "Ouch." Amber hissed between gridded teeth. His head snapped over to her, a questioning look on his face. "What are you doing here? You should not be here. No! I got you out of it." He was still dreaming. She bobbed up "Rust, it's okay. You got me out. I'm save. You did good that day, remember?" He just looked at her with wide eyes. Amber sighed as he suddenly answered. "Yeah." He paused. " Yeah. But I was so late. I… The blood. I thought." She grabbed one hand of his. "It's fine. Everything is okay now." With one quick movement he pulled her into his embracement. His left hand on her lower back while his right hand stroke her hair first and then pressed her head into the crook of his neck. She smelled sweat and alcohol and smoke. "I'm sorry I was so late. I'm sorry you had to endure it." "Nah, it's fine, it's fine." She reassured him. "Come on, you need to sleep a bit at least." She pulled him to the bed and he laid slowly down, pulling her with him, his face buried against her waist while she placed one arm around him and started petting his back. His breathing normalized eventually. "and I thought, I'm the broken one." The corner of her mouth twitched which gave her a gruesome look with one eye still swollen and blood dripping again from her busted lip.