by Kerry Taylor
KYLE
I had taken the day off that day, to spend some more time with Olivia and I was excited to see her. She made me smile and brought out the old me, more than anyone else had been able to since I lost my entire team almost a year before.
Seeing how strong and brave she was, gave me the strength to get my shit together and move forward. Not only that, but she was fun to be with, sweet and funny. I liked her a fuck of a lot.
“I’m done.” Matt declared as he powered down the treadmill. He, Cole and I had been down there for about an hour, alternating between cardio and lifting. “I’m gonna grab a shower then I’ll make breakfast.”
“I’m almost finished too. Olivia said she was going to read until we were ready to eat.” Cole told him. Matt nodded then headed out.
“How was she last night?” I asked as I jumped onto the treadmill Matt had just left. Cole was sat on the weight bench taking a breather.
“She said she slept well, but she was having a really bad nightmare just before she woke up. It was bad. She was writhing and fighting, her mouth open like she wanted to scream, but she didn’t. It was hard to see and it took me so long to wake her from it.”
“Xander said he thought she had been stopped from speaking, maybe he stopped her from screaming in pain too.” I suggested angrily.
“Fuck Ky! Don’t! I can’t….can’t think about anyone hurting her.”
“I know. I’m with you there. The sooner Kade gets this fucker, the better.”
“I told her I’d speak to you guys about one of us being with her at night while she sleeps, like take it in turns. She tried to say she didn’t need that, but she does and she wants it too. She’s scared of being alone.” Cole explained.
“Whatever she needs, I’m in. I’ll take tonight and we’ll talk to the others about working out a system. I’d feel better knowing someone was there in case she has nightmares anyway.”
“Me too.” Cole agreed. He laid back ready for the next set of reps when the house alarm started screeching loudly.
“Fuck!” I cursed as I slammed stop on the machine, leapt off of it and ran for the door, Cole right behind me.
“Check the front!” I yelled to Cole as we both sprinted into the entrance way. I had no idea if we were being broken into or if it was something more sinister, but I wasn’t taking a risk with Olivia and my family in the house.
I ran past the lounge and into the kitchen to check the back doors, but stopped dead when I saw Olivia’s book open on the floor beside a smashed cup and blood, drops of blood on the white tile floor.
“Front’s locked up. No one out there.” Cole yelled over the alarm as he ran in. “What the fuck? Where is she?” He looked as panicked as I felt, but I knew we needed to keep our cool.
“Go check the media room doors and all of the windows. If someone took her they haven’t gotten far yet” I ordered, terrified. I jumped over the mess and tried the doors to the garden, but they too were secure.
“Kyle? What’s going on?” Matt yelled from upstairs and I ran to the hall.
“Check all of the windows are secure up there and check every room. Olivia’s missing and there’s blood.” I yelled. I heard him running and went back to the kitchen. I looked at the mess before me again and tried to think straight. Is there some way her kidnapper knew she was here and came for her? Was that even possible?
“Kyle, the doors and windows are all secure back there. Has she been taken? Has he found her?” Cole asked frantically and I knew he was freaking out because I was too.
“Upstairs is clear. Olivia’s not up there.” Matt said between gasps as he appeared in the kitchen, soaked and dressed hurriedly in only a pair of shorts. He’d obviously been mid shower.
“We need to call the police and Kade!” Cole cried. It didn’t make sense though. If everything was locked up, then how did anyone get in and out with her in the seconds it took us to get up there?
“Turn the alarm off Matt.” I said frustrated I couldn’t think straight with it blaring at me. He nodded and jogged off to the entrance to type in the code.
“Kyle! We need to call the cops!” Cole yelled louder. Finally the alarm cut out and there was silence. I pulled my cell from my shorts ready to call Kade for the cavalry, but stopped when I realised it wasn’t silent. There was a very quiet shuffling somewhere to my right. I stopped unlocking my phone and just listened hard.
“Fuck this! I’ll call Kade!” Cole barked angrily.
“Ssh!” I said hurriedly. I listened harder and moved toward the sound. Cole followed me closely as I walked into the dining room. I found another patch of blood on the floor near the table and ducked down to follow the trail. Then I saw her and it broke my fucking heart. She was at the other end of the table, curled up tight and rocking, her hands over her ears and blood on the floor before her, likely coming from her foot.
“Get the first aid kit.” I told Cole as I stood and forced myself to take a breath.
“What? Why?” He asked, then he ducked down to look and gasped. “Fuck!”
“She’ll be ok, but we need to stop that bleeding. Get the first aid kit and warn Matt. I’m going to try and talk to her,”
“Should I call Xander?” Cole asked.
“Not yet. He’s working and I think we can handle this.” Cole nodded, then headed off to do as I asked. I took another deep breath, then dropped to my hands and knees and crawled under the table until I was only a foot away from her. She was rocking back and forth maniacally, the shuffling sound made by her sweater on the tiles. Her foot was bleeding quite badly and there were red spots on her skin, where I assumed hot tea had splashed her.
“Olivia? Can you hear me Princess?” I asked softly. She didn’t respond, but her rocking stuttered and then stopped completely. “That’s good, baby. Think you can open those beautiful eyes and look at me now?” I coaxed.
“Kyle?” She whispered, her voice shaky and raw.
“Yes Princess. I’m here. You’re safe. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.” Slowly she opened her eyes and dropped her hands from her ears. There were red marks on the side of her face where she had been pressing her hands so tightly. She looked up and her eyes met mine. She was terrified, completely terrified and I wished there was some way I could click my fingers and take away every awful thing she had been through to put that fear there.
“Hey.” I whispered as I forced a smile in an attempt to comfort her.
“Kyle!” She cried my name like it was her only lifeline, and before I could react she had launched her quaking body forward. I just caught her before she smashed into my chest hard and hurt herself. She grabbed handfuls of my sweaty t-shirt and held on for her life. She was like a pneumatic drill in my arms, shaking violently and freezing cold.
“I’ve got you now. You’re ok.” I whispered as I pulled her tight against me and held her as I knew she needed. She was crying and just seemed so lost.
“Kyle?” I looked across and found Matt crouched at the other end of the table, looking terrified.
“Grab me a blanket Matt. She’s freezing.” I asked and he nodded and hurried away, returning a moment later with a blanket from the stack in the lounge. He tossed it over and I struggled to wrap it around her with one hand, not wanting to release her with the other.
Once I had her tightly wrapped I held her tight and whispered over and over again that she was safe at home, with Matt, Cole and I, that we would never let anything happen to her. It took around ten minutes, but slowly, very slowly she started to come back to us. First the sobs stopped, then she released the unrelenting grip she had on my shirt. Then the shaking eased a little until finally those dark sapphire eyes were looking up at me with confusion and fear.
“Kyle? Did I freak out again?” She asked, her voice weak and croaky.
“A little bit. Are you with me now?” I asked.
“I’m not sure.” She replied hazily.
“The security alarm went off and I think it must have scared yo
u.”
“Security alarm?”
“Mom and Dad set it when they leave. There’s nothing to worry about. We checked the house. It’s secure. You’re safe.”
“Did I hide here?” She asked as she looked around her.
“I guess so.”
“Oh God!” She groaned. “I’m so s-sorry Kyle.”
“Hey! No apologies. None of this is your fault. It’s PTSD and it’s to be expected after what you’ve been through. It’s ok to freak out as long as you come back to me afterwards, ok?”
“Ok.” She agreed exhaustedly.
“You gonna be alright if I pick you up and get us out of here?” I asked.
“I’m ok. I can walk.”
“No, you’re bleeding. There could be glass in your foot.” I warned and she looked down to where blood ran from her foot and down my leg where it rested.
“Oh crap! I’m so sorry Ky.” She gasped. I couldn’t help the brief thought that my name shortened, sounded great in her raspy voice.
“Let’s get you out of here and fixed up.” I said as I gathered her up and held her to my chest tight. I shuffled out and got to my feet as soon as I could.
Cole and Matt stood side by side right beside the table, looking pale and frantic.
“I’m so sorry you guys.” Olivia said the second she saw them both.
“All we care about is that you are good Carina.” Matt told her, but it was obvious what had happened had scared him badly. Hell, it had scared me too, but I had experience of handling my shit when things got bad.
“I got the first aid kit and some hot water. It’s in the lounge.” Cole told me. He seemed marginally calmer, but still refused to take his eyes from Olivia, as though he feared she’d disappear if he did.
“Good. Let’s get this foot cleaned up and checked over.” I walked through to the lounge and gently set her down on the sofa. Cole had laid towels out over the rug and had everything I needed laid out on the table beside where I knelt.
“Matt. I’m ok, really.” Olivia said, and I looked up to see him looking terrible as he saw her bleeding. He was even paler, almost grey.
“Maybe go grab her some water Matt. She’ll need the fluids.” I said, giving him an opportunity to take a minute to get it together. He nodded and hurried away, stumbling over his own feet as he went.
“Cole, you should go with him, make sure he’s ok. I’ve upset him.” Olivia whimpered, tearful once again.
“He’ll be fine, beautiful. Don’t get upset.” Cole reassured her, then he turned and followed Matt into the kitchen.
Not knowing what to say to comfort her I set to work on her foot instead. She had stood on a large piece of the cup and it was deeply embedded, hence all of the bleeding. The small burns on the top of her foot were also blistering and I knew I was out of my depth.
“This is bad Liv. I need to call Xander.” I sighed as I placed her foot gently on top of a folded towel to cushion it.
“You don’t need to do that. He’s busy.” She cried. “I’m fine Kyle. It barely even hurts.”
“There is a large piece of smashed pottery in there, making it bleed like crazy and you have a ton of small burns from the boiling tea. If it isn’t handled properly you could end up with a nasty infection.”
“Trust me Kyle. If I didn’t die before, this is not going to kill me now. Just rip it out. I can handle it.” She said firmly.
“Well the difference is you have all of us now. We’re not taking the risk. Try and sit still until Xander gets here, ok?”
She nodded with a pout. I knew she was worried about Matt and how much she had scared all of us and hated the idea of worrying Xander with it too, but there was no way I was letting her suffer with botched first aid when our brother was a doctor who could fix her up properly.
Xander wasn’t answering his cell, so I called the switchboard and waited for the nurses to track him down.
“Dr King.” He answered after a few minutes.
“Xand, it’s Kyle. You busy man?”
“No. I just got out of a meeting. Why? What’s wrong?”
“Liv got hurt and it’s beyond my limited first aid.”
“What the fuck do you mean Liv got hurt?” He growled.
“The security alarm went off and scared the shit out of her. She dropped a cup of tea and cut her foot running to hide. It’s deep and she had some small burns too.”
“Fuck Kyle!”
“I know Xander, ok? We all feel like shit about it, but it happened and we just have to do what we can to fix her up now.”
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Raise her foot to try and stem the bleeding and keep her hydrated.”
“I will.” I agreed, then hung up.
I was so pissed with myself for not only letting what had happened, happen, but also for what else could have happened. We left her completely alone. What we had first feared, that some crazy had broken in and taken her, had been very possible. I would never take risks like that with her again, especially not until the monster who had hurt her was behind iron bars or cold in the ground. We had all agreed to keep her safe and protected and just three days in, she was bleeding and hurt. We needed to do a hell of a lot better.
OLIVIA
Kyle had me laid on the sofa, pretty much immobile, my foot raised high on a towel covered mountain of cushions. I felt so stupid for the way I had reacted to an alarm, I had now remembered, I triggered. Cole and Kyle had been worried and Matt looked ill over the whole situation. I hated that I caused him pain and I hated that Xander was also now rushing to me, worried unnecessarily. I seriously needed to do something to deal with these ‘episodes’. What if Evie had been home and seen what happened? I’d have scared her stupid. I couldn’t let it happen.
“KYLE?” A voice boomed as the front door slammed. I was expecting it to be Xander, but quickly realised from the deep voice it wasn’t.
“In here Dad.” Kyle called back from where he sat on the armchair opposite me. Cole and Matt were sat too, Cole at my side, cradling my back, and Matt in the armchair to my left.
Grant hurried into the room looking dishevelled. His tie had been pulled loose to the side and his top button undone. His jacket was badly wrinkled and his hair was a wild mess as though he had been pulling it straight up. His eyes searched the room frantically and I thought he was looking for Matt, worried by how much I had upset him, but then his eyes landed on me and he released a long breath as he looked me over.
“Olivia! Jesus! Are you ok? What happened?” He asked as he hurried around and knelt on the floor in front of me. Was he worried about me?
“She’s ok. Xander is on his way to handle the cut on her foot.” Kyle explained and Grant looked to my raised foot with concern.
“You’re bleeding.”
“It’s nothing. It was my fault. I tried to go outside and I accidentally set the alarm off. I freaked out, dropped my tea and hid. I scared the guys really bad. I’m so sorry Grant.”
“You do not apologise Olivia. All anyone cares about is that you are safe and well. Keira would be here too, but she was mid appointment. She’ll be calling for an update any minute.”
“Xander called you guys?” Cole asked.
“Yes he did, as you guys should have done, right away.” Grant scolded.
“It took us a while to handle things and then once we did…...we weren’t thinking straight.”
“He means I was a Froot Loop under the table and it took him quite a while to get me out, then when he did, they were all freaked the hell out by my crazy.” I explained, hoping to ease the tension in the room.
“Olivia, don’t say that about yourself. You are not crazy. You had a perfectly reasonable reaction to a scary situation.” Matt almost pleaded, making me feel bad again.
“He’s right sweetheart. We all understand that you are going through things beyond our comprehension. We just want to be here to help you get through them. You don’t need to be embarrassed. We all care deeply about you and w
e’re here for you now, no matter what.” Grant agreed, once again catching me off guard with how much he seemed to care, how much they all did.
“You’re all too kind. I’m really not worth it.” I whispered tearfully.
“Yes Liv, you are damn well worth it. Don’t you say that about yourself again. You are a very special person and we are all so lucky to have you here.” Kyle said with fire in his eyes. He meant what he was saying. I just wished I believed him, believed what he thought of me, but I knew I was no one.
Thankfully the front door crashing closed once again broke the conversation and we all looked around as Xander came hurrying in. He was in Navy scrubs, a backpack thrown over his shoulder.
“Fuck Xand! You didn’t leave some poor person open on the table did you?” Cole laughed.
“Ha! Very funny!” Xander said dryly. “That would be pretty impossible since I am not a surgeon!” He hurried around and knelt on the floor beside Grant.
“How are you sweetheart? You ok?” He asked. He was opening his bag as he spoke and pulling out packet after packet.
“I’m fine Xander. I told Kyle not to call you. It’s nothing.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.” He sighed, then he set to work, cursing and swearing up a storm as he did. He cleaned up the cut, closed it with some butterfly stitches, and dressed it with a waterproof dressing, then applied ointment to the small burns. Everything he did was overkill, since I had dealt with far, far worse injuries and burns alone in that hellhole since I was nine years old. Still, I decided it was better not to say that, since it would upset everyone. Instead I just kept quiet and let Xander do what he needed to, to make everyone feel better.
As he finished up Grant, who was still sat on the floor beside me, pulled out his vibrating cell phone.
“It’s Keira.” He said as he hit the button to pick up the call, then Keira’s voice filled the room.
“Grant? Are you home? How is she?” She asked all at once, sounding just as worried and frantic as Grant had looked when he walked in.
