Three Reasons to Love

by Keira Montclair

  She jumped up from her seat, recalling the conversation the guys who’d attacked her had carried on. A new memory had surfaced—a very important one.

  “Did you get that?”

  The leader had said that to one of the others. That could only mean one thing. One of them had recorded the attack on their phone. They’d taken a picture or a video.

  Her phone lit up again, the little jingle calling to her. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it was a message from Nate.

  Are you all right? We’re on our way.

  Not hurt. Scared.

  Why?

  Threatened.

  It took her three tries to type that one word into her phone close enough so the auto-correct would pick it up.

  The texts kept coming, each one easing the feeling of being alone and afraid.

  Ten minutes later, the EMT van pulled up in front of the quad, lights blazing. Or had it been twenty minutes…or five? She really had no idea.

  Hurry, Nate.

  She managed to stand and look in that direction. There was only one problem.

  Her feet wouldn’t move.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Nate was so worried for Lauren, he felt close to vomiting, but he forced himself to place the call officially so he could take the vehicle to campus. He’d be off at seven tonight and it was already well after five.

  He yelled to his brother, “Sam, you’re driving.”

  “You’ll allow me to drive? What the hell has gotten into you?”

  “It’s Lauren Grant. I want to keep her texting.”

  “Shit. Sorry.” They grabbed their gear and climbed into the truck. “Where?” Sam asked.

  “Science quadrangle at Cornell.”

  Once they left, sirens blaring, Nate continued the conversation with Lauren.

  Sam fired one question after another at him. “What happened? Is she hurt? Do we need to call the ED?”

  He began to wonder who was more worried about Lauren, him or Sam. “What the hell is the matter with you? I can’t answer everything yet.”

  “Sorry,” he said sheepishly. “I just know how much you like her, and she’s been through so much already.”

  “I know.”

  “First things first. Is she hurt?” Sam asked.

  “I don’t think so. She said she was threatened.”

  He punched another message into his phone, hoping she would stay with him. Stay where you are. Don’t move inside. Stay where others can see you.

  The sick feeling in his gut told him that Lauren was even more important to him than he’d realized.

  “You’re pretty hot on her, aren’t you?” Sam asked, serious for once.

  “Yeah.” He ran his hand down his face. “I didn’t plan on it, it just happened.”

  “Did she answer you?”

  “I didn’t ask her anything.” He gave Sam a look of exasperation.

  His message alert sounded. I’m in the middle of the quad.

  Alone?

  Yes.

  Anyone suspicious around you?

  Not that I can see. I’m scared because of something someone told me.

  Stay where you are. We’ll be there soon.

  “What did she say?”

  “She’s alone in the middle of the quad. No one suspicious around, but someone told her something that freaked her out.” He stared out the windshield. “What do you think that means?”

  “Maybe someone threatened her and took off. Or maybe she received a phone call that was threatening. Could be she recognized someone from the attack. I’ll bet that’s it.”

  He didn’t want to guess. He just prayed she’d be all right, that they would get there in time.

  “You in love with this girl?” Sam asked, his eyes going wide.

  He didn’t even know how to answer his brother. “I don’t know. Damn, the woman has the worst luck of anyone I know.”

  They pulled into the parking lot closest to the science quad, and he hopped out of the vehicle, hurrying toward the center of the quad. He didn’t grab anything, so he yelled to his brother. “Call it in and bring the bag.”

  He prayed she was okay, that she still hadn’t been hurt. He found her in the middle of the quad standing in front of a bench, staring at him with a look that broke his heart. “Lauren?”

  “Nate.” Her gaze found his. “I can’t move.”

  He stopped in front of her, trained not to touch anyone in case they were strapped to a bomb. “Why not? Tell me what happened.”

  “A woman gave me a message. She said that I have to speak to Ryan, get him to stop investigating the attacks on me, or they’ll hurt me and other women. The woman said they’re watching me, and then she ran off, and…”

  He held his hands up to her. “Slow down, hon. Slow down.” He could hear his brother coming up behind him. “Is someone watching you now?” He did his best to scan the area without being obvious.

  “I don’t know. I’m just so frightened that my legs won’t move. I was afraid to get on the bus,” her tears rushed out. “Afraid to go to the parking lot, or inside, or move at all.”

  “Where is she?”

  “She’s gone. She ran to the parking lot, so I was afraid to follow her. I thought they might be waiting there.”

  “I’m going to touch you, all right?”

  She nodded, reaching for him, but he took her wrist instead, catching her racing pulse as soon as he pressed on her wrist. “Sam and I will help you walk over to the vehicle.” He motioned for Sam to fall in on her other side. “Do you remember Sam from the party?”

  She nodded and grabbed Nate’s arm. “I’m so sorry to bother you, Sam.”

  “Not a bother,” he said with a grin. “We were so bored, we were glad for the call.”

  Nate put his hand at the small of her back and gave her a little push, angling his body behind her in case she collapsed. After a couple of slow steps, he scooped her up into his arms and carried her over to the truck, waiting for Sam to open the back so he could place her on the gurney. She was too upset to follow instructions. He had to keep her from going into shock. Though it was rare, extreme emotional trauma could affect the body so severely that she might faint, hit her head, or experience other serious side effects. He’d seen it happen before.

  Once they settled her inside, he said, “I’m taking you to your mother’s house.”

  “No. I need to talk to Ryan. I remembered something important about the attack. Where is he?” She still had her phone clutched in her hand, so she searched for Ryan’s number. “Take me to my apartment. Ryan will come to my place.”

  Nate nodded to his brother. “Head to the place on the lake.”

  Lauren sat up and shouted, “No. I want to go to my apartment. Don’t tell me what to do.”

  “Where is your apartment, Lauren?” Sam asked.

  She didn’t answer him.

  “Lauren,” Nate said calmly, “you need to be with someone. Do you know if Stacy is home? You shouldn’t be alone. Let’s go to the lake house.” Had she no sense of reason? She shouldn’t go to a place where she would be alone or where two of them would be alone.

  She punched in a message to Ryan, then glared at him. “If I go home, I’ll upset my mother, and I’m not going to do that. I don’t want to burden her. You don’t get to give me orders.”

  “I’m not trying to give you orders. I’m just trying to help you decide what to do.”

  “Yes, you are giving me orders. I don’t like that,” she snapped. “I’m sick of being pushed around.”

  Not wanting to upset her, he asked, “Let’s wait and see where Ryan is.”

  Her text sounded so she pulled out her phone.

  “Do you need a refresher course in trauma training?” Sam asked in an undertone.

  Nate countered his brother’s comment almost immediately, “She needs to think about what she’s doing. She shouldn’t be alone.” He didn’t like the way his own tone and voice had changed.

  “And what
’s wrong with the first part of that sentence?” Sam pressed, his voice calm and determined.

  Nate glared at his brother, annoyed because he was exactly right. Trauma victims had no sense. Their bodies were stuck in “fight or flight” mode, which pulled oxygen to the parts of the body that needed it most—the lungs, the muscles, the physical senses. The brain even changed, directing the body to focus on the perceived threat instead of the details. She wasn’t capable of thinking reasonably at the moment. He waited to see what Ryan said.

  She turned her phone to him so he could see Ryan’s response, as if she were afraid to hand it over. “He’s with his dad at the lake.” She turned around to look at Sam. “You can take me there. I need to see my brother. I’ll go along with you this time, Nate.”

  She turned her head away from Nate, something that broke his heart. He hadn’t intended to sound that way, like he was giving her orders. “I’m sorry, Lauren, but I’m worried about you. What exactly did the woman say to you?” He reached for her hand, clasping it with his, hoping she wouldn’t pull away. He wanted, no, needed to comfort her.

  She took a deep breath and said, “She said she’d been kidnapped by guys in a frat. They blamed it on me, and said they’d continue to attack women, including me, unless Ryan walked away from the investigation.”

  “What was her name?”

  Lauren eyes seemed to go even wider. “I don’t know. She never told me… It happened so fast. I called after her, but she didn’t answer. She said she was leaving campus today because she was so scared.”

  “She was as frightened as you are.”

  “This has to stop. We can’t place other women at risk.”

  “I agree, but Ryan can’t back down. It’s more important now than ever for us to stop the people who are doing this.”

  She stared at her hands when her face lit up. “Oh, I remembered something about the attack. I heard the leader of the group ask another one of the guys if he’d gotten it.”

  Nate’s heart leapt to his throat. Could that mean… Would they have been stupid enough to film what they’d done? “Tell me exactly what he said.”

  She closed her eyes and said, “He asked, ‘Did you get that?’”

  Somewhere, there was a video of Lauren’s attack.

  He’d find it. He’d find it, and he’d make them pay.

  ***

  When they pulled into the driveway, Lauren glanced at Nate. He was upset, she could tell. “Nate, I didn’t mean to yell at you. I was upset. I’m sorry.”

  He opened the doors and hopped out, “It’s all right. I was worried about you. But I have to admit, I’ve been worried about you ever since you moved in with Stacy. Until these guys are caught, I think you’d be better off here.”

  “Nate, please…don’t. I can make my own decisions. I like living with Stacy, and it’s nice to be closer to campus. I don’t want to let them decide how I live my life.”

  “Can you walk?” He held her wrist, probably checking her pulse so she did her best to stay still for him, something that was nearly impossible.

  “Yes.”

  As soon as she stepped out of the EMT vehicle, the door to the house opened, and Ryan flew out, followed by their parents. “Lauren, are you all right? What happened?”

  “I’m fine, but I need to speak with you, Ryan.”

  Ryan gave her a hug and said, “Of course, I’ll help you in any way I can.”

  He ushered her toward the house and Nate turned to his brother. “It’s almost time to clock out. You can go back. I’ll have Ryan give me a ride home. Sign out for me? Talk to the chief?”

  “Sure.” Sam clapped him on the back. He closed the vehicle’s back doors and climbed back inside, giving them a quick wave before he departed.

  Lauren headed to the back porch with Nate and Ryan, though she was so anxious she couldn’t stop her hands from shaking. Her mother ushered her into a seat, and she was extremely grateful when Nate sat next to her and grasped her hand, that small gesture giving her the support she needed so badly. She proceeded to tell Ryan and her parents everything, going into more detail now that the shock had worn off. When she got to the part about her suspicions about the video, Ryan leapt up from his chair.

  “Seriously?” he said. “Why do you think that?”

  She gave him the exact words the man had used.

  Ryan said, “Great job, Lauren. This is exactly the kind of lead we were hoping for. We checked their Facebook pages and all their social media for any pictures or references to your attack—or even to you—and we managed to get access to Randy’s phone. We didn’t find anything unusual on it.”

  “Maybe it was a different frat all along,” Ryan’s father said. “Or someone else recorded it and deleted it.”

  Nate said, “If they went to the trouble of taking the video, you can be certain it wasn’t deleted. Maybe they have a flash drive, or it’s stored in someone’s cloud account. They wouldn’t have recorded it unless they planned on keeping it.”

  “I agree,” Ryan said, still standing. He looked eager to start digging into the new lead. “It’s out there somewhere, and Lauren’s memory of the incident will allow us to pull a warrant for all the phones of every member and pledge in the two frats we suspect.”

  “What about the girl who spoke to me?” Lauren asked.

  “I’ll talk to the chief and see about setting a security watch on all the frats tonight. But without more information, we have no way of knowing who she is or where she’s gone. She could have flown halfway across the country by now. But we’ll put some pressure on them, let them know we’re watching.”

  “That’s exactly what they don’t want you to do. It could put her at risk.” Even as she said the words, she knew they couldn’t back off. They couldn’t give these men what they wanted.

  “I know, Lauren. But that’s not how we handle criminals. We have to keep moving in closer. We’ll do our best to be inconspicuous. But we have to be certain she was not taken back to one of the frats.”

  ***

  Nate wanted so badly to tell Ryan that Lauren had put a great deal of effort in recording the details of every attack that had happened in Summerhill in the last couple of years. She had details he was sure the police didn’t have. He couldn’t betray her, but he could do his best to convince her to turn the chart over to Ryan.

  “Lauren,” he said carefully, “are you sure you don’t have anything else that could help Ryan with his job?”

  “No, I can’t think of anything else. That’s all I remember.” She didn’t give any indication that she understood the reference.

  “Are you sure?” He gave her a pointed look, and this time she blushed, indicating she’d caught on. The look that crossed her face was not pleasant.

  “Well, what you’ve remembered will help us immensely,” Ryan said. “That’s more than we’d hoped for. If you don’t have anything else, I’m going to the department to speak with our chief, and then I’ll seek a warrant to go after their phones. I hope we find something.” He strode over to Lauren’s chair, leaning down to give her a kiss on her forehead. “Why don’t you stay here tonight? If I find out anything, I’ll let you know.”

  Lauren glared at him. “I suppose I’ll stay here.”

  Her mother said, “Good. Call Stacy and let her know what happened. She’ll understand. I’ll fix you something to eat. Ryan, Nate? Would you like a sandwich or something?”

  Ryan said, “No. I’ve got work to do. I’ll get something later.”

  Though Nate had a feeling Lauren was less than pleased with him, and he knew he should probably stay and talk to her, he needed to get a ride from Ryan. “Would you mind giving me a ride home?” he asked. “I sent my brother back to the station to return the vehicle.”

  “I can take you wherever you’d like to go. Do you want me to drop you off at the fire station?”

  Nate glanced at his watch. “No. I’m off the clock. Sam will get the truck. My house will be fine.” He leaned over an
d gave Lauren a quick kiss on her lips, but she didn’t respond.

  Well, shit.

  As Nate followed Ryan out the door, he heard Lorraine say, “If Lauren won’t thank you, I will, Nate. Thank you for coming to my daughter’s aid again.”

  Nate could tell the woman was close to tears, so he just turned to her and said, “You’re welcome, Mrs. Ramsay. Lauren’s had quite a month. I hope we’re reaching the end of this.” He glanced at Lauren, hoping for some sort of response, but she turned her head. Not knowing what else to do, he left.

  He couldn’t shake the voices in his head—Sam’s and Tristan’s and Mandy’s—telling him he was overprotective and bossy. Lauren had gotten a taste of that tonight, and it was obvious she didn’t like it. Well, what was he to do? He couldn’t change the way he was.

  Could he?

  Once they were on the road, Ryan asked, “Is something wrong between you and Lauren?”

  “No, she’s just had a traumatic day.”

  “I hope you’re right. I think you two are good together.”

  “I won’t give up. You think you’ll be able to do something with this new intel?”

  “Yes, I do. You’d be surprised how many criminals feel the need to record their attacks so they can watch them again. I’m guessing the video was saved for one or two people. Could be that someone required a pledge to record the incident. Sometimes students are asked to engage in risky behavior to get accepted into the fraternity. You’d be surprised what kind of things are required of them—not just at Summerhill, but in many schools across the country.”

  Nate thought about his for a moment, a sad testament to their college culture.

  Ryan interrupted his thoughts. “What exactly did you mean when you asked Lauren if she had something else she wanted to tell me?”

  “Nothing. I thought she’d said something else…” He was eager to tell Ryan about the chart, but he’d made a promise to Lauren. He couldn’t say her life was at risk yet. It wasn’t time to break his word to her.

  “Are you sure? Because she certainly was upset by your comment. If there’s something else that could help us, I’d like to know about it.”

  Nate sighed. “I made a promise.”