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“What a fucking day.”
That’s all Eddie managed to huff out as he watched the cops take Bonnie and Earl away. Not that anyone would have heard him. Buck was being checked out by the paramedics and Eddie was officially no longer suspected for murder. No one paid him any mind.
His entire body was burning with adrenaline and injury but he’d take ten times worse so long as it ensured they would be driving out of this shithole together.
End good, all good. Or something like that.
And if Eddie breathed in very slowly and played the jello-body game like Frank taught him to do it really wasn’t that bad.
He was not going to think about the what-ifs. Not about the fact that one wrong move could have ended up his last. Or Buck’s. Or both of them – fuck, they both could have died.
Eddie breathed in again. Slow and deliberate. Because he was fine and Buck had to be fine too because there was no space on the ofrenda for another photo. He wasn’t going to make space. Not for another thirty years at least.
Late afternoon was setting in. Hot orange light engulfed him like a blanket as Eddie watched the paramedics secure Buck onto the stretcher. He was still on facetime with Maddie. A big dumb smile plastered on a face covered in cuts and bruises.
God, what a sight.
Eddie felt as if he were looking at a scene straight out of a movie. Or the end of the world. Something warm in his chest that made him feel both relieved and on the verge of sobbing.
He let the image of Buck alive and well on the stretcher soak into his brain and prayed it would replace the memory of Buck collapsing onto the ground. Eddie wanted to forget all about that, he probably never would. Long live the amygdala.
He was about to make his way to the ambulance – hoping to exchange some words with Maddie and maybe Chimney as well – when a voice from the opposite direction stopped him.
“Hey!” The voice sounded rough and Eddie recognized it as the sheriff's. “Edmundo Diaz, right?” Loud thumping footsteps sounded as the man walked down the steps towards him.
Eddie turned around slowly, hoping his face didn’t betray how much he had been wanting to punch the sheriff all day. “Just Eddie’s fine.”
The man nodded. “Alright then, Eddie.”
And he braced for the catch. The plot twist. The “Okay so we’re actually letting the nice couple go and pinning all of this on you”.
Which – sure – that last one seemed highly unlikely but Eddie hated this sheriff and this town and he didn’t believe in curses but if they did exist he and Buck would definitely be cursed. Sue him for being paranoid but they were certified danger magnets.
I mean seriously, how many people could say they got shot by a sniper in broad daylight in the middle of a busy street? How many people got struck by lightning and survived?
What he got instead – though definitely still a surprise – were not handcuffs and the announcement that he was getting arrested.
“Son,” the sheriff looked at him and Eddie tilted his head slightly. “I believe I owe you an apology.”
Oh. Okay. Eddie didn’t know what to do with that, so he didn't do anything. Sheriff Woodson seemed to notice the confusion in his silence.
“I didn’t take you seriously enough back at the hospital. I was too busy bein’ suspicious of you so I didn’t listen. I should have. God knows what could’ve gone down here if you hadn’t found this place in time.”
A shiver ran up Eddie’s spine, he gritted his teeth. “Yeah, Buck could have died.”
“Hey.” Woodson threw his hands up in defense. “But he didn’t and you should be damn glad about that.”
Eddie sighed loudly and with the intention of letting the man know he was too tired to deal with his smug attitude.
Woodson lowered his hands again and sighed too. “Listen, son–” He tilted his head so that Eddie had no choice but to make eye-contact. “You gotta understand, this is a small town. It ain’t the big city out here, stuff like this is rare.”
“I’ve known Bonnie and Earl a long time – since before their boy passed away even – but that–” Woodson pointed back towards the house, now even more eerily quiet than it had been an hour ago. “No way in hell I would’ve suspected that.”
Eddie looked past the sheriff. Metal bars blocking the front door and windows to a house in the middle of nowhere. It was a horrible sight and for a moment Eddie imagined what it must have been like to be stuck on the other side of those bars.
He felt a lump form in his throat because Buck was stuck there. A whole day. He was stuck in that house, injured and alone with those people for an entire day and Eddie almost lost him.
“Some people do awful things in the name of love.” Eddie murmured under his breath as he frowned and rubbed his eyes, trying to wipe away the salty tears that threatened to fall.
Woodson crossed his arms. “Yeah, well I suppose some people can also be damn brave in the name of love.”
Eddie gave the man an incredulous glare. “You call kidnapping and torturing someone brave?” And the sheriff chuckled, fucking chuckled at him.
“Wasn’t talking about Bonnie and Earl, boy.”
Eddie just frowned at him confused. Woodson nonchalantly grabbed a small bottle of orange juice out of his belt and took a sip. “I was talking ‘bout you.”
His frown deepened. “Me?”
Woodson gave him a look. “I know you’re supposed to say through sickness and in health and ‘till death do us part and all that shit but you seem to have taken that very literally. I mean what? You climb through a hospital window to evade police custody and come all the way out here with the state that you’re in?”
“Believe me, that’s some real dedication you got.”
And Eddie was not going to think about what that implied. Because he had been avoiding that subject for a while now and he was not going to let a comment from this jackass be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
That wasn’t even a matter of denial, just a matter of pride. Instead he simply nodded.
A moment of silence came and passed with the slamming of the ambulance doors.
“Hey, wait up!” Woodson suddenly yelled, causing Eddie’s heart to jump. “This one wants to ride along with you guys! Tell the nurses to check him out too!”
And with that the sheriff gave him a shove towards the ambulance. “The two of you better get yourselves fixed up and get the hell out of here ‘cause I never wanna see either of you again.”
Eddie chuckled. “Not a problem.” He promised and climbed into the back of the ambulance.