Winter's Heat by Tami Vinson

talking about what happened?” He asked fully prepared to stand by whatever she wanted to do.
    “ Yes…I’m okay.” She said faltering over her words as she laid there holding his hand in death grip.
    “ Sweetheart, I’ll be right here by your side the whole time.” He quietly assured her. He was proud of her in that moment for her bravery that he forgot himself and leaned down to kiss her brow. Right as he made contact, she flinched away from him.
    “ I’m sorry—“ Grimacing, she apologized. She hadn’t been able to stop the knee jerk reaction.
    “ It’s okay, baby. I’m not going anywhere.” Conviction rang from every word he said.
    Eric stayed with her for a few more minutes until she settled back down. Getting up to check on things, he left her lying quietly in her room and went back out in the living room to check on Randy.
    But when he got there Randy’s once limp body was nowhere to be found and the door lay wide open to the cool April desert evening. Silently cursing a blue streak, he closed it and went throughout the small apartment, but the man was still nowhere to be found. He had pulled a Houdini.
    What he did find was Cheri’s cold body lying haphazardly across the bed in her room with a syringe sticking out of her bruised up arm. Her sightless eyes looked up at him and he felt a cold weight drop in his stomach.
    The signs had been right in front of him and his slip up had cost this woman her life and had almost cost the woman he loved hers as well.
    ****
     
    When the police arrived, everything fell into a mode Eric was familiar with. He spoke with the lead detective and gave a detailed description of the events that had taken place as far as he knew. After he was finished, the detective asked to speak to the other victim. At first it took a considerable amount of self-control not demand that Winter not be referred to as the victim by the detective and the few officers roaming around the apartment.
    He was reminded of all the times he had been on past assignments. He too had been just as impersonal as the detective and had thought nothing of it at the time.
    It was just a job.
    Now after seeing the sight of Winter’s terrified face and torn clothes, all the names and faces of past clients and situations had greater meaning. He now found that he was anything but professional and impersonal.
    But he realized he had to get a hold of himself. They were just doing their job. He had to drill that into his brain if they were going to get anything done and catch that slippery sonofabitch Randy. Plus the sooner he could get her away from this place, the better.
    ****
     
    Winter sat quietly in the passenger seat of Eric’s car an hour later as they rode in silence to his home. The images in her head were stuck on replay with no signs of relenting behind her closed eyelids. The most shocking image of them all had been the glimpse she’d seen of Sheri’s unresponsive form being put in a body bag as they were leaving the apartment. The image played a dominant role in her troubled mind and was still vibrating through her.
    Cheri’s slight form being carried out in a sterile black body bag was the very last thing she had expected to see. The sight had been almost more than she could take. She opened her eyes in an effort to dispel the image. It never occurred to her that Cheri had needed help too from an apparent drug overdose when Randy had been trying to rape her less than a hundred feet away. She shivered with the thought.
     
    A short while later as they drove through the wrought iron gates of Eric’s well lit home, Winter felt a sense of relief wash over her. She watched the familiar paved curve of the driveway lead up to the front of the house and a semblance of normalcy returning at the sight.
    After bringing the car to a stop, Eric got out and came around to her side to open the door. When he saw Winter try to stand unsteady to her feet, he smoothly swept her up off her feet into his strong