Emily's Protectors

by K. L. Donn

  Feeling a presence at her side and a hand land on her shoulder startled her into jumping and nearly falling off the step of the ambulance. “Just me, baby girl,” Dane whispered, gathering her in his arms and sitting back down with her in his lap. “Baby, they need to know what happened.” He tried encouraging her to talk when what she really wanted to do was give Kenny her life back. She wished she could crawl into a hole never to be bothered again.

  Looking into his deep blue, worried eyes, she shook her head no and laid it against his very hard chest, rubbing her cheek against his pecs, breathing in his manly scent and closing her eyes. Accepting in that moment she was safe, protected. Nothing could touch her.

  Listening to Dane’s heartbeat calmed her racing heart. The strength it represented gave her the courage she needed to open her eyes and nod her head for the questions to start again, but not before asking, “Where’s Cooper?”

  “He’s checking on Kenny, baby. He’ll be right here,” Dane explained softly in her ear.

  “They’re dead, right?” she asked looking one officer straight in the eye. He was older and had caring, soft brown eyes, with lines all around his face that made her believe he laughed often. On the tall side, he still had a bit of a belly that she bet if he had young grandkids, they probably loved pretending he was Santa at Christmas. He reminded her of her own Grandpa, always smiling and laughing, dressing up as whatever character the holiday was. She never let on that she knew it was him because she knew he loved doing it as much she loved him doing it.

  Leaning down so they were eye level, he squeezed her fingers that were holding onto Dane’s forearm tightly. “They’re dead, sweetie, they can never hurt you again, or anyone for that matter,” he told her gently.

  Looking to Kenny, she nodded her head at her friend, saying sadly, “They’ll hurt her forever, though.” Watching as the paramedics push her gurney inside the ambulance, followed by Linc and Creed.

  Siren’s wailing and police cruisers, as well as Nate and Ty in their SUV, followed them; they were out of sight in seconds. Watching as Coop walked closer to her, she saw a change in his body language she didn’t like. His shoulders were hunched forward slightly, almost in defeat, and his head was down. She could see the creases in his forehead from his deep thoughts. “Cooper?” she asked softly, not sure he would hear her until his head popped up and his gray eyes met hers. Shocking her with their intensity, they were so light they almost shined like the brightest star in a dark sky at night.

  When he came running to her, she got up from Dane and threw herself into his arms, needing to know he was ok. She knew they were as close to Kenny as brothers. They had known her for years and loved her. Emily’s guilt was ten times worse, knowing she was the cause of so much pain for so many people.

  “Will she be ok, Cooper?”

  “I don’t know, baby girl, I don’t know.” He breathed in her ear with tears clogging his throat. “Her folks will be at the hospital waiting for her to arrive,” he explained.

  Nodding her head, she pulled back to look at him and tears streamed down her face. She waited for the accusation that if she’d never been in their lives this wouldn’t have happened to the young woman. On that thought, deep sobs racked her body so intensely that they stole her breath. Her knees went weak, she slipped from Coop’s arms to the ground as she curled in a ball and cried for everything that had happened. Wishing she’d just given in to him. Let him have her years ago. Wishing that everything that had happened to Kenny had happened to her instead.

  “Oh God!” She screamed loudly, her voice hoarse from the power and emotion behind it. “I’m so sorry! I wish it were me, make it me, please,” she whispered like a prayer lost in the wind, just like her wish, never to be heard or granted.

  “Baby, no, this isn’t your fault. You can’t do this to yourself.” Coop tried reasoning with her, sitting on the cold hard ground beside her and trying to pull her into his arms. But she wasn’t having it. She didn’t understand how they didn’t blame her when she did? Kenny must. With what happened to her, who wouldn’t?

  “Emily don’t,” Dane told her harshly from behind, pressing himself against her. He grabbed her shoulders, giving a little shake until she looked up at him. “This is not your fault. Never could anyone have guessed that this would happen; and if they did, then we should have been the ones to figure it out, not you.” He emphasized. “This,” he waved his arms indicating their surroundings, “has not one fucking thing to do with you, Emily. And I, no, we won’t allow you to believe for a single second longer that it was. You could not have stopped these maniacs on your own. And baby, if you hadn’t come to us for help, then we never would have met,” he said so softly, with a twinge of hurt in his voice like he thought she regretted meeting them when he couldn’t be further from the truth.

  Reaching her hand out to him she told them both. “I could never regret us, but letting go of the guilt over Kenny will be hard. It wouldn’t have happened if she didn’t know me. I brought this to her. I will always feel the blame for that. I just hope, one day, she will be able to forgive me. That woman hurt her so bad. The things she did… how can Kenny come back from that? How could anyone? And he just watched it happen, let her… he enjoyed it. I always grew up with stories of how protective my daddy was of Mom and me. She told me that any man worth his salt would never allow a woman to be hurt, and I believed it. I will continue to until my last breath. You’re bigger, stronger; but he got off on hearing her scream, seeing her bleed with every slice.” She sobbed out. The thought of her mom not knowing what was happening breaking her heart all over again; she missed her so much.

  “C’mon, baby girl,” Coop said offering her his hand. “Let’s get you to the hospital and looked over, and we’ll check on Kenny, ok?” At her nod, they helped her up and into the back of the ambulance, telling the officer, “When we get to the hospital, she will answer your questions. The guilt is eating her alive right now; she won’t be able to tell you anything, anyway.”

  Nodding his head, he agreed, “I’ll have a few officers bring you and your friend’s SUVs behind us.”

  Arriving at Bay City’s hospital, Matagorda General, thirty minutes later, they waited in the hall while the doctor and two nurses checked Emily over. Dane was reeling from the idea that she thought any of them would blame her for what happened. They all knew it was the psycho couples fault. He couldn’t bring himself to say their names; he was so disgusted with what they had done to countless women all across the country.

  “Did you get a hold of her mom, Coop?” Dane asked.

  “Yeah man, she was a mess. She’s got a few things to share with Em once she gets here, but she feels terrible that this all happened.” He explained.

  “She know about us?”

  “Yup.” He smiled proudly. “She was a little leery at first, but I think she’s mostly just happy our girl’s ok.”

  “Good. She’ll see when she gets here that we’re good for her, and she’s perfect for us.”

  Watching the hospital staff bustle about the hallways made him nervous; too many unknown people. And even though the threat to her had been neutralized, he was still nervous about letting anyone near her.

  Seeing Creed and Nate coming towards them, he stood up from his leaning position and met them halfway, along with Coop. “How’s Kenny, man?” He worried.

  “She’s been sedated again. Woke up just before we arrived and freaked the fuck out, man. The paramedic almost lost an eye, she scratched him so hard,” Creed explained. He had a noticeable tick in his jaw that had never been there before, and Dane could clearly see the stress around his friend’s eyes. Deciding not to dwell on that, he listened as they explained the extent of her injuries; how they had to basically sew her back together. Her jaw was being wired shut because it was broken, she had two broken ribs on the left side that had to be wrapped. The lacerations in her wrists from struggling against the ropes were so deep she would need stitches all the way around them, and the
worst— they had sodomized her with something wooden and large. They had to remove splinters from inside her and sew her back up. The last made him want to vomit for the pain she must have been in, and to go back to that cabin and torture them both.

  “Fuck!” Coop nearly yelled.

  “They’re talking about putting her in a medically induced coma so she can heal. Because every time someone comes near her, she flips her shit,” Nate told them, the devastation clear in his voice. “She did something to her larynx, too, from all the screaming. It’s not looking good for her, man. She has a long road ahead of her.”

  Placing his hand on his friend’s shoulder, he brought him in for a hug and patted his back. “She’s got a great family, and she’ll back to harassing us all in no time at all.” He tried lightening the mood but knew it wasn’t working when Nate just nodded before heading back to her.

  “You alright, Creed?”

  “No, man. That girl…” He trailed off, making them think there might be more to his anger than he was letting on. “She went through hell. The shit she was mumbling when she was out, though, it’s gonna give me nightmares for years to come,” he told them just as the doctor exited Emily’s room, coming towards them. “Go ahead, guys, I gotta find Linc. He was pissed as fuck,” he told them as he walked off to find his brother.

  “Gentlemen.” The doctor greeted. “She’ll be fine. She has some bumps and bruises that we’re not sure if they’re from the explosion or the abduction, and a few stitches, but either way, she’ll make a full recovery. I do have one of our top psychiatrists coming to see her soon, though, because she’s going to need someone to help her work through her guilt about her friend and eventually, her own capture. I think she’s choosing to focus on her friend to avoid her own nightmare. Be patient boys, she has a long road ahead of her, and I suspect so will you. Now get in there because she is eager to see you both,” he told them shaking their hands.

  “Thanks, doc,” Coop said, slipping into her room.

  “Thanks a lot, doctor, for everything,” Dane told the other man sincerely, going in to see her.

  A sense of déjà vu niggled at his mind, walking in to find Coop lying beside her in the bed with his body wrapped around hers. “Dane,” she whispered. “Coop won’t tell me anything. Is she ok?” she asked, referring to Kenny.

  “With time, baby girl, she will be. It’ll take her a while but with support, I think she’ll get there.” He tried to soothe her fears, not wanting her to know about all of her injuries because she would only stress herself over it; and she didn’t need to worry herself sick.

  Nodding her head in acceptance that they weren’t going to give her details, she started to explain everything that the doctor already told them, but they wanted to get her honest opinion on things, figure out where her head was at with everything.

  Once she was done, Coop asked her, “What do you think about the psychiatrist? Are you willing to take that kind of help?”

  After he’d laid down so that he and Coop were both on their sides facing her and she was flat on her back between them, he watched her face closely and saw the indecision run across her troubled features before acceptance finally settled in its place.

  “I think I need to. I know it will help me learn to cope with everything that happened before and after, but also with this guilt. It’s like a living entity growing inside of me. I feel it running through my veins, with every beat of my heart, and when I close my eyes? Even for just a second, all I see is that woman slicing Kenny’s flesh open and the blood gushing out. I need those images resolved in my brain,” she explained to them in such a way that Dane understood why she felt how she did. Watching someone you love get hurt so brutally was an endless torture in your mind.

  “Is that ok?” she asked them hesitantly, not looking at either of them. It was like she thought they wouldn’t want her to get the help she wanted and needed to ease her fears.

  “Baby girl, of course, that’s alright,” they told her at the same time.

  “When can I see her?”

  “Probably not until we get home to Austin. Her brothers and parents are getting her transferred there as soon as they can arrange it, and you need to heal some first. Baby steps, baby,” Dane told her. At her yawn, he instructed her to get some rest and they’d be there when she woke and to scare off any nightmares she may have.

  Watching Emily sleep for a few hours while he and Dane laid and watched with nearly nothing said between them, soothing her fears anytime she would whimper from a nightmare, left Coop with a bad taste in his mouth. He was so angry she’d been taken, that they’d both been taken, he was having a hard time containing his anger so she wouldn’t see it. She would think it was at her, and that couldn’t be further from the truth; he was pissed that he hadn’t been able to protect her.

  He couldn’t help feeling as if they’d been there when the girls were taken, it wouldn’t have happened. He knew it wasn’t Eric and Chad’s fault. They never thought her stalker would get so ballsy, and they would live with that for the rest of their lives. But he also felt like they could have somehow prevented it from happening, too. Irrational he knew, but he felt it all the same.

  “Coop,” Dane whispered his name, making him look over and meet his friend’s eyes. “This shit? What happened to the girls; we can’t blame ourselves. So for her sake, and yours, don’t go there. Don’t dwell on the what-ifs and what could have beens. What’s done is done, and as fucking horrible as it was, we couldn’t have known, let alone done anything different, okay?”

  It made sense, he knew that, but he had a hard time just letting it go until… “Cooper? I don’t blame you.” was whispered against his stubbled cheek, followed by a light kiss.

  Pulling her closer to him, he kissed her lightly on the forehead telling her, “Okay, baby. For you, I won’t either.”

  After spending the night in the Bay City hospital, Emily had been released with instructions to seek counseling and talk whenever she felt things muddling her brain, making her lose focus, or she felt increasingly depressed over everything that had happened to her. She was home now, at Coop and Dane’s house. Which they told her rather than asked her that she was moving into. She had been secretly thrilled that they still wanted her. It had been one of her biggest fears. Having it knocked out of the park had lifted a heavy weight off her shoulders that she hadn’t realized she carried.

  Coming home to have her mom there had been a huge and welcomed surprise. They had cried tears of happiness for what felt like hours, sitting on the porch talking about everything that happened since she left home. Her mom had been terrified for her and missed her something fierce, but she always held faith that she would find a way to come through it.

  The biggest surprise had been that her mom had met a man and fallen in love with him, and they were now engaged. But her mom refused to get married until she could be there. So one month after the whole ordeal, there they stood; her mom and her almost step-dad, Bruce Hawkins, at the alter saying their vows to each other, with Emily standing in as her mom’s maid of honor, a place of pride for her.

  She was so happy that her Mom got her happily ever after, finally. Looking into the crowd her eyes immediately landed on Dane and Coop, both wearing dark suits with their collars opened at the top and their eyes fixated on her.

  Watching them gave her goosebumps and made her skin buzz with anticipation of the night to come. They had been afraid that making love to her after everything that happened would somehow trigger a panic attack, which she still sometimes had. Or she would somehow reinjure one of her now- healed wounds. Having seen the doctor just the day before and telling them both that they were free to continue any bedroom activities had them all buzzing with excitement. But what they didn’t know about was her tattoo that she’d gotten that life-changing day because some days they acted like they thought she’d leave. So she waited for the perfect moment to show them. Hiding it hadn’t been easy, but the fact that they wouldn’t make love to
her until now made it slightly easier, and she couldn’t wait.

  Kenny had been put in a medically induced coma because even after being brought to the Austin State Hospital, she went into debilitating anxiety attacks when someone would touch her, and she had ripped out her IV many times, as well as the stitches from scratching or just ripping them out, period. Everyone was extremely worried about her. While she couldn’t talk because of her jaw being wired shut, she refused to try writing to communicate with anyone, and she fought the nurses so hard when they would try to give her pain medication. When Creed suggested that it was because it would make her so sleepy she probably had nightmares, it was the first and only time she had communicated with anyone by nodding her head yes.

  After that, though, she was silent again and would just stare off into the distance. When Kenny was brought home from the hospital, she started hurting herself purposely by rupturing the stitches in her wrist and then pulling and clawing at the skin and nearly tearing her veins apart. She was deemed a suicide risk and her parents were put in the position of either losing her or putting her into the coma so she would heal. They’re one hope was that the nightmares wouldn’t follow her. Unfortunately, from the description Linc and Creed had told Dane and Coop when they thought Emily was asleep on the sofa one day, the nightmares had indeed followed and were owning her body, mind, and soul.

  Linc and Creed admitted they were attracted to Kennedy and had this not happened, they would have pursued her, but now they just wanted to help her through it. Watching her thrash and scream every night without being able to do anything was slowly killing them inside. Emily noticed it every time she saw them; the dark circles under their eyes, their surly attitudes. Even though they always apologized, she felt their pain.