My Own Nightmare (Shattered Lives Book 1)

by Barb Shuler

  “Oh, holy God… Gabe!” my panicked voice filled the cab of the SUV.

  “I see it, kid. Jackson, get us as close as possible.” Gabe ordered.

  “Holy crap...is that…” Derek’s words were laced with fear. The kid may be scarred for life after this.

  “Hush, kid. Do yourself a favor and just stay inside this truck. Got it?” Jacks’s voice was tight as he spoke.

  “You know the plan. Take Nicole down by any means necessary. Get my kid the fuck out of there.” Gabe’s words were tight. The fierce look in his eyes said it all. If you had to kill the bitch, then do it.

  The moment Jacks slammed on the brakes, I was out and running. Him and Gabe were right behind me. All I could focus on was Dani Lynn. She was screaming at Nicole. The words didn’t mean anything to me as I could only hear my heart pounding in my ears.

  “Put the knife down, Nicole!” Jacks’s words rang out as everything around us went silent.

  “What’s the fun in that? Hmm…” Nicole’s words were trailed by that cackle I had come to loath. I wanted to charge them, wrap my hands around her neck and squeeze until her eyes literally exploded from the pressure.

  I hadn’t drawn my weapon, Gabe and Jacks had theirs out, so I was no threat to her. Yet. My mission was to get to Dani Lynn. I cut to the left from them and Nicole grabbed Dani Lynn, pulling her in front of her. She looked so pale and was covered in blood. I swear my heart stopped. Her neck, face, her arm - which was already wrapped up in something - was steady dripping. Fuck! I came to a stop about ten feet from them and held my hands up.

  “Dani Lynn, look at me baby,” I kept my voice calm as she turned her head slightly, her eyes moving my way. I gave her a small, tight smile. “I love you, you know that right?” She gave me a slight smile in return since she couldn’t move her head anymore. Not with that knife at her throat, the beads of blood rolling along her dirty, pale skin. I took a step closer, stopping when Nicole moved the knife, making Dani Lynn jerk as she cried out. More fucking blood.

  “Nicole, let my daughter go and move the fuck back!” Gabe was on the verge of losing it. I had to make a move, and quick. I wasn’t risking my girl any more than we already were. I saw Jacks holster his gun and knew it was time. If he tackled Nicole before she moved that knife… no, I wasn’t going there.

  “Baby. Hey, Dani Lynn, look at me, darlin’.” I gave her a little smile. “Trust me.” She blinked once and I looked at Nicole. “Can you sing for me?” The self-defense maneuver I had taught Dani Lynn years ago was all I could think of to get Nicole distracted enough to take her down and get my girl away from her.

  Nicole looked around and as soon as the knife moved a bit Dani Lynn’s eyes flickered and she moved. Elbowing Nicole in the solar plexus, the knife nicked her again as she stomped on Nicole’s instep. Before she could do anything else, Nicole dropped the knife, and all hell broke loose quickly. Dani Lynn slammed her hand into Nicole’s nose - which looked like it had already been hit - cried out in her own pain, stumbled and fell forward. A loud scream, curses and loud talking rang through the area as I fell to her side, grabbing her just in time to keep her face from smashing into the dirt road. “Baby! Fuck, stay with me!”

  It only took Gabe a minute to join me on the ground. His eyes followed mine and roamed Dani’s beaten, and bleeding body.

  “My God. Carson! We need a bus, right the fuck now!”

  I grabbed her hand and brought it to my lips as her eyes started to close again.

  “Princess, come on, look at me.”

  “Daddy?” her voice was nothing more than a croak.

  “Yeah, princess. I’m here. You didn’t think you could have all the fun, did ya?”

  “Some fucking fun.” Her words turned to a sob as we tried to assess her injuries.

  “That gash is deep. I can see bone here,” I snarled and wrapped my shirt around a part of her arm that wasn’t already covered and then used my belt as a tourniquet. Shit. This was a lot worse than I thought. My girl was in shambles and I was helpless to do a fucking thing about it.

  “Her fucking ring finger is cut down to the bone. God damn. I need something…. Thank you.” I watched as Jacks tore a piece of his shirt off and Gabe used it to wrap her almost severed finger. I was feeling sick as I watched him.

  “We have to move her, now.” Jacks met my gaze and I saw it, he was feeling my freak out and it was about to hit the “I’m gonna tear your head off” level of crazy.

  “No. The chopper is two minutes out. She needs a lift and two of you can go with her. It’s our Search and Rescue chopper so there’s room. No time to get a life flight. The closest one is a half hour away.”

  “And she doesn’t have that long,” Gabe ground out through clenched teeth.

  “Go, I’ll stay here and do what needs to be done,” Jacks said as he handed his extra pair of cuffs to the officer before him and I sighed. “Secure her ankles too.”

  “Okay, but can someone take the kid to... anywhere but here?” I said just as Derek peeked around Lieutenant Carson.

  “No. I’m going with you,” his eyes pleaded with me and I couldn’t say no to him.

  I nodded and rubbed my cheek against Dani Lynn’s temple as I whispered. “Stay with me, baby. I need you here with me, please.”

  The chopper finally arrived. We got her inside and were off to the closest hospital. The only thing we could see injury-wise was her finger and her arm. Fuck, her arm was the worst of her injuries. It made my stomach clench at the thought of what Nicole had been doing to her. After getting her into the ER she was examined and rushed upstairs to surgery. Gabe dutifully filled out all of the paperwork while I paced, and paced, and paced some more for good measure. It wasn’t until a hand landed on my shoulder that I stopped and looked up. Seeing that man I used to call a father standing there I shoved him back, my body clenching, ready for a fight.

  “Son, listen... I’m….”

  “I told you, I am no longer your son. You are nothing to me. Now get out of my face before I do something I may not regret.” My words were said through clenched teeth. When he moved back to sit on the other side of the waiting room I went back to my pacing. My legs hurt, my mind raced and each time I glanced at Derek, who was curled up in a seat across from Gabe, my heart clenched more.

  While we had been looking for Dani Lynn, his grandmother had kicked him and his mom out of her house because his no good father showed back up. Drugs really could ruin a family. That same afternoon his father had held up the gas station, which landed both parents in jail. Again. This time they would both be there for a very long time. Gabe and I had been talking earlier and knew we had to do something to help the kid. Without his help we wouldn’t have found Dani Lynn.

  As I looked up at the clock I started to pray. I prayed like I never had before that my girl would be okay. I needed her like I needed air. She was the other half of my soul. Without her… I’d have nothing. I’d be nothing. She had to be okay.

  Jackson had arrived not too long after Dani Lynn was taken back to surgery. My heart was hurting and he was the rock I needed right then. As twins we always felt what the other was feeling. It was weird to some, but for us it was just normal. He kept glaring at that man and when Katie and Ma arrived all kinds of hell broke loose.

  “What are you doing here?!” Katie hissed. “Don’t you think you’ve done enough?”

  “This is not my fault. You’ll watch your tone with me, young lady.” The moment he started speaking I made my way over and pulled Katie from his grasp.

  “Do not touch her. You are no longer welcome here. You need to leave.”

  The arguing from that point on got much worse. And louder. It was bad enough that security had to be called. Stephen, the asshole, was escorted out, which most likely saved him an ass whoopin’ that he desperately needed. We were all done with him.

  It felt like hours had passed after that before the doctor finally came through the door of the w
aiting room. “Cartwright family?”

  “Yes. Yes, I’m her father.”

  “Well, sir, your daughter has suffered multiple lacerations, as you are aware. We got the bleeding in her arm stopped and sutured, after we cleaned out some foreign debris. She was lucky, there was no vein or artery damage. Her finger was a deep cut, as you saw. But other than the cut there was no permanent muscle damage. They should both heal just fine. There are multiple bruises and a few cuts on her lower extremities. Some look a few days old, and they are not as deep as the ones on her arm and hand. She has a couple of cracked ribs.

  How she was managing with all of that before the incident today, I am not sure, but you have a healthy, strong girl in there. She should recuperate. She’ll have a few scars, but they are much better than the alternative. Looks like the drugs she was given have worn off, all but the Xanax. That is still in her bloodstream, but it shouldn’t cause any permanent issues. It may have actually helped her deal with the stress of the situation. You’ll also be pleased to know the baby is fine. The obstetrician has looked her over and there seems to be no harm to the fetus. She is in recovery now. As soon as she is awake and moved to a room you can see her.”

  “Baby?” Fetus? “What the fuck?” I cursed.

  “And, you are?” The doctor's tone made me bristle.

  “I’m her fucking fiancé,” I snapped at him. I didn’t care - I needed to know what in the fuck he was talking about.

  He nodded as he spoke. “Ms. Cartwright is about eleven weeks along in her gestation cycle. We found it when we did the blood work. I am not sure if she was aware of it, some women know early on, some don’t, according to Dr. Horton. If you would like to speak to him, I’d be happy to send him this way.”

  “A baby…” At that, the world went dark.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  A Traitor Among Us

  Gabe

  I THOUGHT SEEING my wife’s pale, lifeless body after her accident and then having to bury her almost ten years ago would have been the hardest thing I’d ever do in my life. I was wrong. So very wrong. Learning my only daughter was missing, with only cryptic note left for us to find was unbelievable. Heart pounding. Gut wrenching. Then finding cameras and other surveillance equipment in her house... My world started to fall apart. Gaining the knowledge that she was in the hands of a mentally unstable woman happened to be only the tip of the iceberg.

  I wasn’t sure if I was losing it, or if I was going to be able to get through this and get my daughter back. I was ready to do anything I could to make the latter happen. The road was rocky. It was as if the fates were not on our side. Every damn time we got close, it came up a bust. Every department was doing their best. No matter the forward movements of the case though, it was fucking frustrating. We were counting down the hours, then days that Dani Lynn was gone… and we all knew, the longer she was gone the less chance we had at finding her… alive. That was until Derek figured out we were in the wrong part of Oklahoma.

  We had been worried that we’d not find her. We thanked the stars she was only a couple of hours away. Once we got a lock on the area she was in, things moved faster. Then, we got that call. The one that made my heart simultaneously break and race with excitement. She was alive. She was running for her life, but she was alive. We were going to save her.

  Finally getting to her, being only feet away from her as she stared down a killer, and almost being too late - now, that would be a memory that would haunt me until my last breath. It was engraved into my psyche. Every time I close my eyes I see her beaten, pale, bloodied body lying on that dirt topped road. That fiery helpless anger flows through me again, and it is taking every ounce of willpower to not go upstairs and kill the woman that hurt her. Her mother and I promised her the day she was born to always keep her safe. I vowed to protect her with my life. I had failed.

  In the last two weeks my life has been turned upside down, inside out, and in the end forever fractured with guilt. The only thing I am grateful for is that my daughter, my sweet princess is back with us. She may be bandaged and sore, but she is safe. And she will not be out of my sight for the foreseeable future. It killed me when I lost her mother. A part of me truly died then. My heart has never been the same. Hearing someone tell you, “I’m sorry. We did all we could, but she didn’t make it” rips out any hope of forever you had. It crushes you. I never wanted to hear those words again.

  The last twenty-four hours since we’d gotten Dani Lynn back have been emotional, to say the least. Finding out Dani Lynn was pregnant not only took us all by surprise but caused Drew to pass out. It had to be a combination of everything going on. That news sent his brain into a tailspin and he dropped like a sack of sand. It also caused him to become a patient for a few hours because not only did he crack his head on a chair, he landed wrong and the blood gushed from the still stitched wounds on his hand. He was not a happy camper when he woke in the ER. It may not have been so bad, but when your brother tells you, “you fainted like a chick, dude. Nice job.” it raises your hackles. It was the light heartedness that we needed at the time.

  The distraction his moment of faintness caused afforded us all a distraction until Dani Lynn was moved. Now that Dani Lynn was in a regular room, here I sat. Not only watching over my daughter, but my grandchild. No, I still haven’t slept. I don’t want to leave her. Drew is no better. He is so out of it I had to order him to sleep. He, like me, refused to leave her side, so he took up residence in the reclining chair. The moment his head leaned back and he got comfy, he was out. My eyes finally closed as I laid my head down and gripped her hand in mine. I just needed to feel her heart beating to know my kid was safe.

  <><><><>

  “Daddy?” The minute I heard her hoarse voice I was wide awake. I jerked up and blinked the sleep from my eyes.

  “Princess,” I gave her hand a squeeze.

  “Hey,” she sounded a little more awake but I could see the pain in her eyes.

  “You okay? Need something for the pain?”

  “Water, please.”

  I turned to the tray behind us and got her a small cup and pulled out the straw the nurse had left to help her drink. “Take a slow sip, we don’t want you choking.” As I watched her I felt a calmness wash through me. She really was going to be okay. “You need anything? More pain meds? You need to piss or whatever?”

  “Ugh, Daddy…” she cringed as she laughed and I frowned when pain ran through her. I frowned seeing it.

  “Shit. Sorry, kid.” I chuckled nervously and leaned over to kiss her cheek. “But really, do I need to get a nurse?”

  “Hey, if anyone gets nurse duty, it’s me.” I snorted as I looked up to see Drew and Derek coming in with coffee and donuts. Real coffee, thank God.

  “Don’t start, Landry. You can play nurse when I get back to my house,” her words were light but the silence that reigned through the room was suffocating.

  She couldn’t go back to her house. Not yet, at least. As I took a sip of the coffee Drew had handed me I winced. She wouldn’t be safe there until we knew more about how those damn cameras got in there. Or when for that matter. I met Drew’s furrowed gaze but before I could say anything Derek piped in.

  “I haven’t located the camera feed’s destination yet. You can’t go home.”

  “Derek!” Drew’s voice was a hiss and the kid shrank back as he sat in the chair in the corner. It wasn’t his fault, but damn, he had a knack of not having a sense of when to shut his trap.

  “Drew?” Dani Lynn’s voice held a questioning tone to it, but her eyes were on Derek. Her frown said she was reading his body language in the same way we were.

  “You can’t go home, baby. Not yet. There was… your house….”

  She cut him off by speaking to Derek. “You’re Mrs. Morris’s grandson, right?”

  “Yes ma’am,” he mumbled.

  I watched her. She refused to meet our gazes. Derek had her attention. Maybe she wasn’t ready
to add any more bad shit to her thoughts. I couldn’t blame her. When Derek looked up at her with big, wide eyes she smiled at him. “If I remember from what I overheard last night or this morning… whenever it was, you are a big part of why I’m here and not... you know,” her voice cracked and I squeezed her hand, again. “Thank you.”

  His face flushed and I chuckled. “I was glad to help… even if Drew threatened to kick my ass if I didn’t.”

  I raised a brow at Drew as one shoulder shrugged. Dani Lynn’s gasp made me look back over at her. “Andrew Christopher Landry!” She was glaring at Drew as he grinned down at her. Cocky bastard.

  “I told you last night I would have done anything to find you. Derek is a good kid, I knew he’d help, even if my disposition at the time was less than desirable.”

  “He’s a kid!”

  “Excuse me, but I’m not a kid, Ms. Dani Lynn.”

  “Princess, I’m with Drew. We had to find you. Though, we might need to talk about how to handle things in a stressful situation later,” I said, looking up at him, daring him to argue with me as I motioned to his hand.

  “It’s okay, Ms. Dani Lynn. I had a lot of fun doing what I did… I could have done without the blood... But I did the right thing,” his face paled at the thought of the blood and I thought he was gonna hurl again. Poor kid had a hard dose of crazy to handle in the last twenty-four hours.

  “So… it’s all over. Right? I mean,” when she took a deep breath I glanced at her hand in mine and nodded.

  “There is more to be done on our side, but yes, it’s over, princess. She is locked away and will be that way for a long time.”

  “Apparently there was a lot about Nicole no one knew, baby. A lot of....”

  “Messed up stuff…” Derek whispered when Drew trailed off and I shook my head when the kid slumped over a bit to rub his face.

  “Hey, why don’t you go splash cold water on your face, D, before you get sick again. Baby, I need to borrow your dad for a minute. We’ll be right back. You okay with that?” At her slight nod he leaned in and kissed her lips and I gave her hand another squeeze. “Derek will stay with you. Right, kid?”