Broad Daylight

by A. M. Wilson

  “I’ll fill you in later,” I manage to croak, needing to be alone and not ready to share all the devastating details.

  After a hug from my mom that barely penetrates the numbing fog, my family leaves the room.

  The doctor busies herself with reviewing my information on the computer until my family is gone. She closes the door firmly behind them.

  “How’s your pain?” she asks as she rounds the bed to my injured side.

  “It’s okay. Not too bad actually.”

  “As the meds from surgery wear off, that will change. Be sure to let someone know if you’re in pain. There’s no reason to act tough when we can help you through it.” She smiles to soften her words, though I’m guessing she sees straight through my tough cop act.

  “I want to send in someone to talk to you who can help you set up a regular therapy schedule.”

  “How bad’s my shoulder?” I skirt around the idea of therapy. I’m not naïve to the fact I’ll need to undergo a full psych eval before I can return to work, but I’m not in a hurry.

  “The impact of the bullet shattered your collarbone. It’s a pretty intense injury. You’re going to need several weeks to heal, followed by physical therapy.” She adjusts the dressing on my shoulder.

  “Got it,” I mumble, taking it all in. Mental therapy. Physical therapy. Trussed up in this sling without the use of one arm. At least I’m alive.

  “We’ve started you on antibiotics,” she keeps talking. “The wounds on your back haven’t been healing well, and we dressed the few that were still open. There are signs of infection.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You need to rest. There are people who need to talk to you, and I can only keep them away for so long.”

  The thought of giving my statement to a colleague sends shivers down my spine. I might have only transferred a few weeks before the kidnapping, and I don’t know these men well, but the mere idea of divulging all the details and having to work with them again after? No, thank you.

  I add it to the list of many things I need to consider.

  “I think I’ll take a nap.” My eyelids feel heavy from the narcotics, and it seems she’s said all that she can right now.

  “One more thing, Dani.” The soft note of Dr. Toland’s tone does nothing to abate the nerves in my stomach. She waits until she has my full attention before continuing. At her hesitance, I brace.

  “Would you like us to perform a sexual assault forensic exam?”

  The breath evaporates from my lungs. “What?”

  “You only have about seventy-two hours post assault to collect viable DNA evidence. We wanted to hold off for your consent.”

  “N-No,” I stutter as my mind tries to wrap around what she’s saying. “I wasn’t…I mean, I was but not like that.”

  “I only want to help you make an informed decision. Is there any reason to believe we should have you tested for sexually transmitted infections?”

  Suddenly, I’m back in that room, feeling Reece touch me. Reece enter me. Reece forced to do things to me as I was forced to do things to him.

  I swallow back the lump in my throat and nod. “But only STI testing and prevention. Not for prosecution.” I hold her gaze as steady as I can. She breaks first with a nod.

  “I’m waiting on a few more of your labs. Why don’t we get that taken care of now and get it over with?” she asks gently.

  I will my mind to go blank. To force this into the box with all things Reece. This isn’t about him. It isn’t about him being unclean or what he had to do to me. This is about protecting myself, inside and out, before I’m able to pick up the pieces.

  And I will fight like hell to be able to move on.

  29

  Reece

  My shoes squeak on the linoleum floor as I walk down the hallway toward Dani's room. If I'm lucky, she'll be alone this time. She hasn't been since that first day when she woke up after surgery. While I'm glad she has her family to lean on, it's time she and I had a talk.

  It's been five weeks since we were rescued from Bolt's clutches. Two days after we were admitted, I was told I had mild sepsis due to the infection from the marks on my back. It took ten days and several different antibiotics to clear the infection out of my system. I was released three weeks ago.

  Because of the infection, I wasn't able to see Dani until I had the all clear. The doctors didn’t want to chance me coming into contact with anyone since my immune system was down due to the infection. Since I've been released, I've been by the hospital every day, and each time her mother, father, sister, or a combination of the three have been there.

  A week after Dani’s surgery, she developed a pulmonary embolism from a blood clot in her leg and her infection was getting worse. Although it’s not uncommon for patients to develop blood clots after surgery, many will break free on their own, and the person is never the wiser. Some, though, end up traveling to the lungs and can cause serious damage and oftentimes even death. When I was told this information by my doctor, I went ballistic. I was still confined to my room, unable to see Dani. I fought the doctor and the two nurses who came into the room when they heard the commotion. Once again, I was given a sedative.

  The doctors were able to treat the clot in time before it did any major damage, but she’s been going through complication after complication.

  Since then, her shoulder seems to be healing nicely, which has calmed my worries in that regard. It's her mental state I'm more concerned about now. She claims she's fine, but no matter how much she tries, she can't hide the haunted look in her eyes. Hell, even I'm struggling with keeping the nightmares at bay. Almost every night, I've woken in a cold sweat, and the memories of what we went through still linger in my head.

  Not only do I see the darkness in her gaze but I also feel the wariness when I'm around. It's gotten worse over the past week. She's pulling away, and it both pisses me off and scares me. I'm the only one who knows what she went through. I was there for every second of it. I suffered through it with her. She should be leaning on me. But instead, she's closing herself off, determined to separate herself from me.

  I've got news for her. I'm a stubborn bastard and can be just as hardheaded as her. There's not a chance in hell I'll let her push me out. Not after what we went through, not after having her back in my life.

  I pause outside her room and take a moment to reinforce my patience. Our last conversation yesterday didn't go over well. It ended with her kicking me out of her room when I suggested she talk to a therapist. I know her parents supported my suggestion, even if they stood by her bed quietly, not saying a word. I was fine with being the bad guy. Dani needs someone to believe they are on her side, and her parents are those people.

  Roughly scrubbing the back of my head, I reach out with my other hand and push open the mostly closed door. My steps falter when I find the room empty. With a frown plastered on my face, I spin on my heel toward the bathroom, already knowing I’ll find it empty too. I go to the closet next. The small duffel bag that Dani’s parents brought for her to the hospital is gone.

  Worry and anger fight for dominance in my head. A part of me isn’t surprised Dani left without telling me. Before I came into her room yesterday, I overheard the doctors telling her that she should be released soon, but I didn’t know that it would be as soon as today.

  A part of me is hurt. We haven’t outright talked about our feelings, but she has to know things are different between us now. Back when we were teens, we had planned a future together. I royally fucked that up, but she knows why I did what I did. I never stopped loving her, despite telling myself for years that I did. And I know damn good and well she never stopped loving me either.

  I have no doubt she’s running scared. Scared of her feelings for me. Worried she’ll get hurt again. What she doesn’t realize is, I’d do anything, say anything, to keep that from happening. What I told her that first day in her room while she was still out from the meds was true.

  Now that
I have her back in my life, I’m never letting her go. She’s my one true chance at happiness, just as much as I’m hers.

  Spinning around, I stalk out of the room and head straight for the nurses' station. There’s only one behind the desk, and she has the phone to her ear. She must be new to the department, or she’s filling in because I’ve never seen her before. I wait impatiently as she finishes up her call. The receiver hasn’t even touched the cradle before I’m demanding answers.

  “Where’s the woman in room 524? Danica Lawrence.”

  The nurse looks down at her screen and presses buttons on the keyboard. A moment later, she looks back at me. “With her doctor’s approval, it looks like she checked out earlier this morning.”

  My teeth gnash together so hard my jaw hurts.

  “Do you have her contact info? An address where she was going?”

  “What’s your name so I can see if you’ve been approved to receive that information?”

  “Reece James.”

  The mouse clicks a few times before she’s looking back at me. I know what she’s going to say before she opens her mouth.

  “I’m sorry, sir, but you’re not on her list of contacts.”

  With a grunt, I turn and walk away, knowing I’ll be wasting my time if I start arguing with the nurse.

  Whipping out my phone, I head toward the elevators. I wait until I’m on the ground floor before I pull up the phone number Dani gave me months ago when she first started investigating my stalker. The small device creaks in my hand when the robotic voice tells me the number is no longer in service.

  An irritating pounding starts in the top of my head and radiates to my neck. I twist my head from side to side, trying to relieve the ache. Something tells me it’s not going to go away until I know where Dani is.

  Walking through the sliding doors, I head to my truck. I don’t know where she lives, but I get the feeling she wouldn’t be there anyway. There’s only one place I know to look.

  Fifteen minutes later, I pull into the driveway of a modest home. It’s been years since I’ve been here, but it strangely looks the same. It’s almost like no time has passed. Dani’s parents were always sticklers about keeping their home and yard as perfect as possible, and it looks like that hasn’t changed, despite them getting on in years.

  I eye the car in the driveway as I walk up the steps. The newer model is the only thing that has changed. They even have the same porch furniture they had twenty years ago.

  My knuckles pound on the door, and I wait with my hands shoved in my pockets. There’s a creak on the other side of the door before it’s pulled open, and I come face-to-face with Dani’s father. Instead of the walker I’ve seen him use at the hospital, he’s leaning heavily on a cane. When I first saw him weeks ago, I understood why Dani came back to Westbridge. Both of her parents have aged, and from the hunch of their shoulders and the frailness in their features, neither one is doing well. It’s not surprising, seeing as how they didn’t have Dani until they were in their early thirties. Madison came a couple of years later. They should be in their mid-sixties now.

  “Reece, what can I do for you?” Timothy asks.

  “Do you mind if I come in?”

  “Sure, sure.”

  He steps back, allowing me to pass him. I wait in the foyer as he closes the door behind him. Afterward, he slowly leads me into the family room. I pause for only a second when I find Laura and Madison seated on the couch. Both pairs of eyes are on me, their features showing no surprise that I’m here.

  “We’ve been expecting you,” Timothy says, walking over to the couch and taking a seat beside his wife.

  “If that’s the case, then if you could tell me where Dani is, I’ll be on my way to see her. We have things we need to discuss.”

  “I’m sure you do.” Timothy shifts on the couch, taking Laura’s hand and placing it on his lap. “You know we’ve always liked you, Reece. Even when things went the way they did when you were kids, we knew there had to be more to the story. You loved our girl hard. And as painful as your own experience was in that basement, we’re so grateful she had you with her. Dani refuses to talk about what happened, but we have no doubt you protected her the best you could.”

  The blunt edge of my nails leave marks on my palms, and the pounding in my head gets worse. I hated every second in that basement, but I agree with what Timothy said. I’m glad I was there with Dani. I can’t imagine her going through what we did on her own, even if I wasn’t able to protect her from Bolt and the insidious things she made us do.

  I jerk my chin up in acknowledgment.

  “And that’s why this is so hard to say, but we can’t give you Dani’s whereabouts.”

  My knees lock, and I have to force back the growl wanting to leave my lips. Back in the day, I had a good relationship with Dani’s parents, but right now, with what Timothy just said, anger heats my skin.

  “Why not?” I grit out.

  Laura’s eyes soften, and she gives me a sad smile. “Because Dani made us promise not to.” She gets up from the couch and approaches me slowly as if she knows I’m precariously close to the edge. She lays a hand on the bunched muscles in my forearm and squeezes. “Give her some time. You two are the only ones who really know what you went through. People handle traumatic experiences differently. Let her figure out her way of dealing.”

  For some reason, Laura’s words have my throat closing. Is it too much to ask to want Dani to need me to help her with what happened to us? If not me, then who? I know exactly what she’s feeling, what her nightmares entail.

  “But what if it’s her I need to help me deal with everything?” My voice comes out a cracked whisper.

  Tears fill Laura’s eyes, and her fingers tighten around my arm. All of a sudden, I want to pull the frail woman into my arms. She, Timothy, and Madison are the closest connection I have to Dani. Every day when I go home from the hospital, I leave a part of myself behind. Mom and Dad have been staying at the house even though I’ve long since told them they can go back home to Florida. They refuse to leave. Tori’s been staying in the house Niko and Aislin are renting short-term. They come by almost every day. Even when the house is full of people, I still feel alone. The only time I don’t is when I’m with Dani. She makes me feel whole and quiets the dark voices and visions in my head.

  “Oh, Reece. I have to believe she’ll be back. She just needs time to herself.”

  “And what if she doesn’t?”

  “Then we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

  That answer isn’t good enough for me. Laura was right when she said people deal with traumatic situations differently. But I know Dani. Her leaving isn’t her dealing with the situation in her own way. It’s her running and avoiding it. She needs me just as much as I need her.

  “I hated you for a lot of years,” Madison says, pulling my attention to her. Her gaze is guarded as she tilts her head to assess me. “You almost broke Dani when you did what you did. I had no idea the reason, and I didn’t care at the time. All I knew was you broke my sister’s heart, and there was no excuse for it. Dani and I talked while she was in the hospital, and she told me what happened that day. While I still think you’re an asshole for purposely hurting her, I kind of understand. Niko was three years below me, but I remember how he changed after Aislin was taken, so I can see why you wouldn’t ever want to go through something like that yourself.”

  She gets up from the couch and comes to stand beside Laura, placing a comforting arm around her shoulders.

  “While we can’t break her trust and tell you where Dani is, we also can’t stop you from finding her yourself. My sister likes to act tough, but she’s in a vulnerable situation right now and won’t let anyone help her. I’m hoping, and I know our parents are too, that you’ll be the one person she finally lets in. But she’s fragile, Reece.” Her voice turns hard, and sparks fly from her eyes. “Hurt her in any way, you’ll have me to deal with, and I promise you, it will be far from
pleasant.”

  The second the words leave her lips, I pull both women in my arms. Laura’s shoulders shake with her silent tears, while Madison remains stiff in surprise for the first few seconds before she relaxes.

  A moment later, I pull back, and Laura cups my cheeks in her arthritic hands. “I’m sorry we can’t help you more, but the three of us are here if you need us in any other way.” She pulls my head down to press a kiss against my forehead.

  “What about her doctors?” I ask belatedly, just now remembering Dani is in physical therapy. “Who will oversee her care?”

  “She’s had her records transferred to a doctor where she is.”

  “Is she safe?” I quietly ask the question.

  Laura smiles tenderly at me. “She is. She’s known the person she’s with for years, and she trusts them. So do we.”

  I nod and take a step back from her and Madison, raking a hand through my hair. “I’ll do what I can.”

  “And that’s all we can hope for.”

  Walking in my front door forty minutes later, I’m bombarded by a delicious aroma. I drop off my keys in the bowl beside the door and go to the kitchen. Soft music plays on the stereo system I installed on one wall. Dad’s sitting at the bar, newspaper spread out in front of him, while Mom and Tori are over by the stove. Mom notices me first.

  “Hey, honey. We didn’t expect you back for a bit longer.” She wipes her hands on the dish towel hanging over her shoulder. “How’s Dani today?”

  I set my phone on the bar top and go to the fridge for a much-needed beer. “No clue,” I toss over my shoulder. “She checked herself out of the hospital and left town without telling me.”

  It still smarts she would do something like that, but I push those feelings aside. My sole focus right now is to find out where she went.