Let Me Love You

by Morgan Rayne

  “I can’t deal with this right now. We need to take a step back and get some space.” She wished she could have missed the crushed expression that now clouded Kyle’s normally gorgeous face.

  “I can’t and won’t keep chasing you; it hurts too damn much. If after everything we’ve been through you still can’t trust me, then you can have all the space you want. I’m done trying to show you that I will never hurt you. The fact that you can’t even accept that I love you tells me everything I need to know. Goodbye Lindsay.” He slipped the ring into his pocket and picked up his shirt from the floor.

  Lindsay’s heart was breaking into a million pieces as he put his clothes and shoes on. She wanted to take back everything she had said, but Kyle left the room and she heard the front door slam shut seconds later.

  Tears fell one after another as Lindsay slumped into the chair by her vanity. What had she done? Kyle had been nothing but good to her and she let her fears run him off. She let him walk away without even trying to stop him. All rational thought escaped her as she frantically opened her drawers to put some clothes on. She was not going to let him go without a fight.

  Lindsay had just pulled her jeans on when she heard the front door open again. Thank God, he came back. She was already pleading with him when she came into the hallway.

  “Kyle, I’m so sorry. Please forgiv…” But it wasn’t Kyle. Standing ten feet away from her, wearing an evil smile, was Mitch. “NO! NO! Get out!”

  She ran back into her room screaming and tried to close the door, but Mitch was too strong and forced the door open. He pushed it so hard that Lindsay fell to the ground. One hard kick and all the air left her body along with a silent scream. The worst case of déjà vu hit Lindsay just as he landed another kick to her back.

  “Hi honey, miss me?” The endearment made Lindsay’s stomach roll and she tried to scream for help, but he was ready for it. A gloved hand covered her mouth and nose making it harder to breathe than it already was. Forcing her to stand up, Mitch pulled her back against his chest. Her robe had started to come undone and she could now feel something cold and hard moving across her bare stomach.

  “Now this reminds me of something.” He tapped the blade against her skin a few times. “I can’t seem to put my finger on it, but I feel like we’ve been here before. Do you remember?” His hand was still covering her mouth so she couldn’t answer, but the shiver that ran down her spine made Mitch chuckle menacingly.

  “I see you do. Only this time, I won’t be so careless. I’ll make sure you can’t run to the police and tell them what I’ve done. No, this time I will get what I want and then you will die; like you should have last time.”

  The knife cut into Lindsay’s skin just above her navel and she screamed out in pain. His hand and the glove muffled the sound, and the pain was almost too much.

  “No one can hear you scream. Not your boyfriend or your friend’s next door, just me.” Focusing on his words instead of the excruciating pain in her midsection, Lindsay’s eyes widened. How the hell did he know about any of them?

  “Oh you didn’t think I would come unprepared did you? It may have taken me a long time to find you, but I wasn’t taking any chances once I did. You know it’s amazing what money can buy. Find the right shady private investigator and all will be revealed.” Lindsay could feel blood running down her stomach and onto her legs. She struggled against his hold, but he was too strong.

  “You and that dumb bitch Jessie thought you were so smart, but I was smarter. I knew she would know where you were. Pretty stupid to have her send you something around your birthday, don’t you think?” Lindsay tried to hold back the tears. She had given him enough of her tears over the years, but her own stupidity led him here.

  “Since the card was sent to a P.O. Box, my guy waited for you to pick it up. After he was sure it was you and followed you for a few weeks, I knew it was time to pay you a visit.” A picture of the creepy guy from the post office flashed in her eyes, and she knew without a doubt who Mitch was talking about.

  “Now I’m going to take my hand off your mouth. If you make one sound, I will not hesitate to slit that milky white throat of yours. Understand.” Lindsay nodded and he let go of her mouth. His hand was replaced by a gag of some sort, and he tied it securely around her head. Knowing she was running out of time, Lindsay had to think fast.

  Mitch had dropped the knife when he reached for her hands to try and tie them together, so she gave one hard kick backwards and thankfully hit her target. He fell to the ground gasping for air, and Lindsay didn’t hesitate. Instead of running for the door, she ran for her gun; screaming the whole way.

  She pulled so hard on the drawer it came flying out of the dresser, and landed on the ground. As her fingers grazed the metal, something hit her so hard over the head that she only had seconds before unconsciousness took over.

  “You stupid bitch, now I will make sure you die a slow and painful death.” Lindsay grabbed the gun as she was collapsing to the floor, and when Mitch rolled her to her back she pointed the gun at his chest. The last thing she remembered seeing the large knife in his hand, and the sound of the gun going off. She thought she could hear Kyle screaming her name, but then it all went black.

  ****

  Chapter 18

  “You don’t understand I have to get back there, she needs me. Why won’t you let me see her?” Kyle was shouting at the nurse sitting behind the counter.

  “I’m sorry sir, its family only. A doctor will be out to see you as soon as they have news on her condition.”

  “She doesn’t have any family; we are all she’s got.” Alex gripped his arm and tried to pull him away from the nurses’ station.

  “Calm down before security throws you out. Come back to the waiting room. You’re not going to be any good to her from outside the hospital.” Kyle struggled against Alex, but one look from the security guard and he reluctantly went back to the waiting room.

  Stella and Vicki both jump to their feet. “Any news?”

  “No, they won’t let me back to see her either.” Kyle punched the wall beside the door and didn’t even feel the pain. “This is all my fault. I need to tell her how sorry I am. What if something bad happens and I can’t tell her?”

  Alex pushed Kyle down into a chair and shoved his finger into Kyle’s chest. “None of this is your fault. Her crazy ex is the one that put her in here, not you. So stop beating yourself up. She is going to pull through and you will make this right. Now sit there and don’t get up until they say we can see her.”

  Alex went to console Stella, but kept one eye on Kyle. No matter what Alex said, this was Kyle’s fault. He rested his elbows on his knees and hid his face behind his hands; thinking back to just a few hours before.

  ****

  The door slammed, and he held onto the knob for a couple seconds. No, he would not go back in there. She made it very clear when she didn’t say anything that this was over. With one final glance at her apartment, Kyle stomped down the stairs.

  Glad his keys hadn’t fallen out of his pants pocket last night too, he got into the truck and put the key in the ignition. He tried to turn it over, but nothing happened. “Just fucking great”

  He tried one more time, but not even the lights would come on. Kyle looked at the switch for his headlights and groaned. He had been in such a hurry to get Lindsay upstairs last night that he hadn’t turned off his lights, and now his battery was dead.

  Alex’s car was in its spot, so Kyle pulled out his phone to call his buddy to come down and jumpstart his truck. One ring later and he was met by a very pissed off Alex.

  “What!”

  “What’s got your panties in a wad this morning?”

  “You!”

  “What the fuck did I do?” Kyle was not in the mood for this bullshit.

  “Fighting with Lindsay ring a bell?” Of course she would run to Stella. Oh well, she was the one in the wrong, not him.

  “I don’t want to talk about that righ
t now. I just need you to come down and jumpstart my truck.”

  “Wait, what?” Alex had lost all of his anger and now sounded worried. “Where are you?” Kyle was losing his patience.

  “I’m down in your parking lot. I left my lights on last night and my batteries dead.”

  “Then who the fuck is arguing with Lindsay?” Kyle was out of his truck and sprinting to the stairs; his truck forgotten.

  “Call the cops, NOW.” Was the last thing he said to Alex before he threw his phone on the ground, and bolted up the stairs. He twisted and turned the door knob, but it didn’t budge. Kyle began beating on the door.

  “Lindsay! Lindsay hold on, I will get to you.” He could hear her scream, but the door wasn’t budging. Alex and Stella came out jingling keys.

  “Here, we have a set of her keys. Move” Alex quickly turned each lock and Kyle raced into the apartment screaming her name. The sound of a gun shot came from Lindsay’s bedroom and he ran faster.

  Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw when he made it to her room. Lying on the floor covered in blood, and surrounded by pieces of broken wood, was Lindsay and a man he had never seen before. Alex and Stella came into the room and Stella screamed.

  “NOOOO, Lindsay.” Alex held her back while Kyle made his way to Lindsay’s side. He checked for a pulse and almost fainted when he felt one.

  “She’s alive! Where the fuck are the cops? She needs to get to a hospital now.” The strange man’s body was partially on her, and Kyle quickly moved him to the side. He checked for a pulse and couldn’t help but feel relieved not to find one.

  “Is he…?” Kyle nodded, but didn’t take his eyes off Lindsay’s motionless body. His training took over and he started assessing her injuries. There was so much blood that it made it difficult to tell where it all was coming from. The only thing he could see for sure was a long cut on her stomach.

  “Alex grab some towels from the hall closet. I need to cover this wound while we wait for the paramedics.” He was barely holding it together, but falling apart wouldn’t do her any good right now. So he continued his evaluation and found another wound bleeding on the back of her head.

  “Here” Alex thrust a handful of towels at him.

  “I need you to take some of these and carefully apply pressure to the cut on her stomach.” Alex knelt beside him and did as he asked. Kyle moved to her head and tried to stop the bleeding, but he didn’t want to move her neck too much.

  Now that he was on the floor, he could tell the pieces of wood were from a chair. The bastard probably hit her over the head with it during the struggle. Thankfully, just then men yelling police came running into the apartment.

  “We are back here, hurry.” Stella was frantically screaming and four officers were in the room within seconds.

  “Where are the paramedics? She’s got a pulse, but it’s weak.” One of the officers tried to get Kyle out of the way, but he refused to leave her.

  “Kyle let us do our jobs. The paramedics need room to get in here. We will take care of her, I promise.” He hadn’t even realized he knew the officers that responded, until Chad said his name.

  “I can’t leave her. I left and look what happened.” He couldn’t hold back the tears as he looked down at Lindsay’s blood stained face.

  “We need to get her to the hospital. You can ride in the ambulance, but right now you are hurting more than you are helping.” With one final caress to her cheek, Kyle walked to where Alex and Stella were standing.

  “She is strong, and she will pull through this.” He knew Stella’s words were true, but if she didn’t he would never forgive himself. The paramedics came in and the rest was a flurry of activity as they got Lindsay on a backboard and loaded in the ambulance.

  ****

  Now he was sitting in the ER waiting room, feeling like the lowest form of life; praying that Lindsay would wake up so he could apologize for being the biggest jackass on the planet.

  “Where were you? Obviously you were at the apartments, so why weren’t you with her?” Vicki’s venomous question had him jerking his head from behind his hands and glaring a hole through her.

  “Vicki stop” Stella was glaring at her sister now too.

  “No, I want to know how her psycho ex got to her without you knowing.” All the anger inside Kyle boiled over. His anger toward her ex, his anger toward himself, his anger at the nurses and doctors that wouldn’t tell him anything; he took it all out on Victoria.

  “You want to know where I was? I was in the fucking parking lot trying to leave because we had a fight. I left because Lindsay found the engagement ring I bought for her and was completely freaked out. But because I’m such a self-centered asshole I let my temper blind me, and walked out on the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

  “And the reason her fucking ex was able to get in the apartment was because when I stormed out, I didn’t lock the fucking door.” Kyle turned to Alex and let him have some of his rage too.

  “So don’t tell me this isn’t my fault. The whole fucking thing is my fault.” He finished his tirade and almost collapsed with grief. Alex and Vicki both caught him and helped him back into a chair.

  “I shouldn’t have said that. I’m just worried about her and I took it out on you. I know you love her, Kyle. You had no reason to believe this would happen.”

  “Yes I did. She told me she felt like someone was watching her, and I still left her in harm’s way.” Kyle put his head between his knees in an attempt not to hyperventilate.

  “You may have made a rash decision, but the only person to blame for all of this is now lying in the morgue.” They all sat in silence after that. All of their eyes fixed on the door, waiting for the doctor to come in and give them good news hopefully.

  Twenty minutes later, a tall middle aged man came into the room.

  “Are you the family for Lindsay Pierce?”

  “Yes” They all said in unison as they stood.

  “Ms. Pierce is still unconscious, but we’ve ran tests and I think she should come out of it sooner rather than later. She has some bruised ribs and a pretty significant injury to her head that required stitches, but the CT scan showed no swelling of the brain. The cut on her stomach wasn’t deep, but we did have to put some butterfly bandages over it so it wouldn’t get infected.”

  “When can we see her?” Kyle hadn’t heard much after the doctor said she would pull through.

  “They are moving her to a room now. Give them about thirty minutes and you will be able to visit with her, but only for a short time; she needs her rest.” He shook the doctors’ hand and thanked him. Alex slapped him on the back and gave him a one armed hug.

  “See, she is going to be just fine. Let’s go get some food in the cafeteria while we wait, and then you can go see her.” He wasn’t in the mood for food, but he could sit there with his friends while he waited.

  When they got to the cafeteria, it turned out he wasn’t the only one that had lost his appetite. They all bought drinks, but couldn’t seem to eat.

  “So did you really buy her an engagement ring?” Stella swirled her water in the bottle and waiting for him to answer. Kyle took the box out of his pocket and set it on the table without a word. She looked at him as if asking for permission to open it, and he nodded. Three sets of eyes widened when Stella popped open the lid.

  “You’ll get the chance to ask her again, just give her some time.”

  “You know last night I told her to go to sleep because and I quote ‘we have all the time in the world to be together’. How wrong was I?” Vicki took his hand in hers.

  “You still do. She’s not dead, and after some major groveling on your part, Lindsay will forgive you.” Kyle stared at the swinging cafeteria doors and sighed.

  “How am I ever going to forgive myself?” Sitting here was getting them nowhere, and he couldn’t take it anymore. “I’m going up. They’ve had plenty of time to get her settled.”

  Alex, Stella and Vicki stood too
and made their way to the elevators. The doors opened and Kyle pushed the button for the fifth floor repeatedly until the doors closed.

  The whole ride up felt like it was set in slow motion, and when the doors finally dinged open he was the first one off. He went to the nurse’s station prepared for another argument about how he wasn’t family, when a sweet older lady greeted them.

  “Can I help you?”

  “We are here to see Lindsay Pierce. She was just brought up from the emergency room.” Kyle watched her tap a few buttons, and then point to one of four hallways.

  “Of course, Ms. Pierce is in room 502; second door on the right down this hall.”

  “Thank you.” He headed in the direction she pointed and paused outside Lindsay’s room.

  “Do you guys mind if I go in by myself first?” Vicki tipped her head toward a sign across the hall that said ‘Waiting room.’

  “We will be in here when you are ready for us.”

  “Thanks.” Kyle inhaled deeply in an attempt prepare himself for what he was about to see. Feeling as ready as he’d ever be, he went inside.

  Lindsay was lying in the bed, tubes and wires coming from what seemed like every part of her body. Seeing her hooked up to all those machines made Kyle’s heart plummet to his feet.

  “Oh baby” He sat in the chair by the bed and picked up her hand. All of his emotions came flooding out at once. “I’m so sorry, Red. I didn’t mean what I said this morning. I would chase you anywhere. Please wake up. You have to. You have to yell at me for being an idiot. You have to put your hands on your hips in that adorable way you do, and tell me what an asshole I am.

  “Then I will agree and hold you in my arms and promise to never do it again. You will forgive me and we will be together, happily unengaged for as long as you want, but we can’t do that if you don’t wake up. So please, please get that stubborn brain of yours to work, and let me love you.”