Divine Savior by Kathi S. Barton Read Free Book Online Page B

dung—both of them. Why, if my Donny was alive, he’d of…” Shade cut her off, hearing her, but only registering about half right now.
    “ Will they let me see them at least? I want to also see if I can make funeral arrangements for Becca. Do you think they’ll let me do that? I don’t suspect that their mother will do anything for her. You should have seen what that man was doing to Becca when I opened the door. And Brent...he was just lying there, all broken up too. How could...why Mrs. Ridge, why would anyone do that? Why would anyone hurt their own children?” Tears were coming down her face, but she didn’t care.
    Shade wasn’t sure why she trusted this woman when she didn’t anyone else. The few times Diana had touched Shade in an offer of support, she hadn’t felt the need to immediately flinch away or to fight her.
    “ I don’t know, child. I just don’t know. It’s a horrible thing when a child dies, worst if’n they die by the one person theys suppose to be able to count on. I don’t know what this old world is a’coming to, no I don’t.”
    Shade knew what she meant. “How much do you suppose it’ll cost to bury Becca, Mrs. Ridge? I don’t have much, but I could make them payments if they’ll let me.” Shade would make it work if she had to stop eating all together.
    “ The city will bury her; won’t cost anyone nothin’. You let the city do the burying and you go ahead and get her a nice headstone, one with a pretty angel on it. They won’t give Becca one of dem, just a little old metal disk in the ground to mark where she is. Just a row and grave number on it, nothin’ to tell people what a wonderful little girl she was. You do that for her. Don’t let her be just a number, child; don’t let her be just another number in one of dem city books hid away somewheres dark.”
    “ I failed them, Diana. I failed them both,” Shade sobbed.
    “ Oh my God, child, dem kids weren’t yours. You couldn’t do no more than you did for’ em. You can’t think like that. Why, thinkin’ like that will make you sick.”
    Shade stood up and walked toward the elevators. She needed to breathe. She needed to get away from the smell of medicine and death, of the despair and sadness.
    Shade couldn’t help but think that if she hadn’t stopped to get pizza, she would have been there on time. That Becca wouldn’t have…but it wouldn’t do her any good now to think things like that. All she could do now was hope Brent lived. And Shade hoped she never saw that bitch Brenda again or she would be very sorry she had ever crossed paths with Shade Doe. Just like her run-in with Mark the other night.
    Mark had tried to arrest her, or at least he had said that was what he was doing. He had stopped her up while she was walking home after a small job that had paid her in cash. Said she was a vagrant and there was a law about her kind walking around without means to support themselves. She thought it had something to do with the kids, but he didn’t seem to know anything about that.
    He had pointed his gun at her and forced her into the back of the car. But once he got her into the cruiser, he took her in the opposite direction of the station house. By the time she had figured out what his intentions were, she was locked in the back and the handles had been removed.
    He drove her to a remote site and dragged her kicking and screaming from the car. He’d had to hit her a few times to get her to “cooperate” with him. Then when she kneed him in the groin, he changed tactics. His weapon had come out again so fast that she didn’t have time to react and to move out of the way. He had hit her on the side of the head so hard that she saw stars. She had actually, but they cleared quickly in her panic to survive. Thinking that he had knocked her out she supposed, he relaxed his grip enough for her to move, giving her the perfect opportunity to attack. Shade drew her knife from her boot and stabbed him in the