Hers to Protect

by Nicole Disney

  Kaia looked down at her shoulder for the first time. Her entire sleeve was soaked in blood, and it hurt like hell. The stab wound in her chest hurt even more, but she couldn’t bring herself to look.

  “I think one may have made it through the vest, too,” Kaia said. Reid frowned and tried to peek under the vest, but she waved him off. “Just a graze if it did.”

  Adrienne pulled up Kaia’s sleeve to get a look at the accessible bullet wound. Worry filled her face.

  “It’s just my shoulder,” Kaia said.

  “Let’s get the hell out of here,” Adrienne replied. “You need a hospital.”

  “There are still some out there,” Reid said.

  “A few ran when I tried to take down the last group out back,” Kaia said to Adrienne, who hadn’t been able to see.

  “We can’t stay here,” Adrienne said.

  Reid took another look at Kaia’s shoulder. He seemed troubled by the blood now dripping from her over-soaked sleeve. “All right,” he said. “Let’s make a break for the car. Hopefully, they’re long gone. They’re obviously scared of us and probably Anna too now that they ran on her. I don’t think they’ll be a problem anymore, but we’ll be careful.”

  They loaded themselves down with every weapon in sight and cautiously ventured into the night air. The temperature had dropped even more and they were not properly dressed.

  “How far?” Adrienne asked.

  “Maybe a mile.”

  “Shit.” Adrienne’s concern was plain on her face as she wrapped her arm around Kaia to steady her. Kaia was in pain but overall fairly convinced she was going to be okay, though the looks on Adrienne’s and Reid’s faces were making her doubt herself. Was she losing too much blood? Pale? Not acting normal? She couldn’t tell, but as Adrienne took some of her weight she realized she was lightheaded. She couldn’t do much to watch their backs or scan the woods; all she could focus on was walking through the pain, putting one foot ahead of the other and refusing to think about how much farther was left. Reid had his gun raised and was looking almost manically in circles, but he didn’t seem to see anything suspicious.

  Kaia couldn’t say how long it took, but they were approaching the car. Adrienne opened the back door and climbed in with Kaia. Reid got in the driver’s seat and pulled onto the dirt road. None of them spoke as they drove down the road, forced to pass by the barn yet again as it was the only way back to civilization. Finally, the drive smoothed out and Kaia realized they were on paved road again.

  Kaia felt unbearably heavy. She couldn’t hold herself up. Even as she was aware she didn’t need to exert anything to simply sit in the car, she felt exhausted by the effort of being. She slumped into Adrienne, who cradled her. She felt Adrienne’s fingers in her hair, touching her face, caressing and comforting her. Kaia breathed in her smell and relaxed into the pain. At least the fighting was over. The relief that Adrienne was safe was enough to overshadow every bruise, cut, and puncture. They’d done it. They got her back.

  Sleep pulled at her and though she was afraid to fall into it, it took her.

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Adrienne sat by Kaia’s hospital bed. She hadn’t worried that Kaia fell asleep in the car, but when they couldn’t wake her at the hospital she’d about gone into a panic attack. The hospital staff had pulled her from the car and whisked her into the emergency room in a flurry that was both comforting and disconcerting.

  They’d taken her into surgery without consulting anyone, which told her Kaia was in danger of dying, but by the time they filled Adrienne in, Kaia was already stable again. She’d been waiting for her to wake up all night with no signs of change.

  Cops had been coming and going, trying to check on her, but they’d mostly stayed in the hallway, receiving their updates from Reid. They had left Kaia’s room to her.

  The nurses urged her to go home, to get sleep, to eat something. It seemed as much a part of their patient care as actually tending to patients. They were always telling family to take care of themselves though they had to know it was futile.

  Reid was right by Adrienne’s side most of the time, calming her down when the panic threatened to take hold again. She knew he was afraid too, but he’d been a strong and steady force in the face of her anxiety.

  “She’s tough as nails,” he said. It seemed to be his mantra that got him through the hours of waiting.

  Adrienne turned to him and put her hand on his shoulder. “I know.”

  He smiled. “So are you.”

  “We all are.”

  “You should have seen her when she showed up on my doorstep. She had a Goddamn knife sticking out of her chest and all she could think about was you.” He laughed. “I thought she was insane. I mean she literally had a knife in her chest.” Reid motioned to where the knife had been on his own chest, shaking his head in disbelief.

  “I know,” Adrienne said. “I saw Anna do it. It was horrifying. I thought she was gone for sure.”

  “I don’t think anything could have stopped her from coming to get you.”

  Adrienne smiled and looked back to Kaia’s serene face, deep in medicated sleep. “I would have done the same for her. I hope she knows that.”

  “She does,” Reid said. “You may not have had a knife in your chest, but she knows you risked your life for her when it counted. You killed for her when it counted.”

  Adrienne smiled and gently rested her head on Kaia’s thigh. Reid squeezed her shoulder and left them alone. Adrienne brushed the stray hairs from Kaia’s face and rested with her.

  She didn’t realize she was drifting into sleep until Kaia’s cough stirred her awake. Kaia struggled for breath, seeming panicked by the tubes attached to her.

  “You’re okay,” Adrienne said, rushing to stand up and reassure her. “You’re okay,” she said again. The pain and fear crossing over her face broke Adrienne’s heart. “You had surgery, love. You’re probably really sore, but you’re okay.”

  Kaia grabbed Adrienne’s hand and slowly calmed down. “I had surgery?”

  “Yeah. They had to. We couldn’t wake you up when we got here. You lost a lot of blood and you were pretty torn up.”

  “Wow.” Kaia seemed shaken by the information.

  “You’re okay now.”

  “What about you?” she asked. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. They checked on me.”

  “Reid?”

  “He’s better than either of us. Don’t think he has a scratch he didn’t already have.”

  “Glad one of us came out unscathed.” Kaia smiled. “Has anyone talked about what happened yet?”

  “Yeah, Cruz and Davis were both here. Reid handled it.”

  “What do you mean handled it? There are like fifteen bodies in the woods.”

  Adrienne shrugged. “He’s handling it. They were more worried about you than the bodies, honey. You’re a mess. You have a stab wound and two gunshot wounds. My face is more purple than flesh tone. They know we did what we had to to get out safe.”

  “It’s got to be more complicated than that.”

  “Doesn’t look like it. And if it is it will be later. For now they just want you to get better.”

  Kaia smiled weakly and closed her eyes. She looked like she might doze off again, but she opened her eyes and reached for Adrienne’s face. Adrienne moved into her touch and let Kaia pull her into a careful kiss.

  “You sure you’re okay? All of you?” Kaia patted Adrienne’s chest by her heart.

  Adrienne had been struggling with the images, Gianna’s cracked skull, Anna plunging the knife mercilessly into Kaia’s chest, the feeling of forcing Christina’s finger to pull the trigger on herself, all the blood. It had been trying to overwhelm her, but just looking at Kaia made her feel safe again.

  Adrienne looked Kaia in the eye and smiled. “I will be. I never thought I would see that much blood or death, but I would do it again in a heartbeat to save you.”

  Kaia kissed her forehead. “Me too.�
�

  “I would do anything for you, Kaia. I was so afraid I lost you. Over and over again, I kept thinking you were gone. I thought it was going to kill me. I was more afraid of that than I used to be of Gianna, or Anna, or dying or killing, any of it. None of it felt like it feels to lose you. Or to think I did.”

  “I know.” Kaia touched her face. “I felt it too. I thought I lost you. I thought I was going to be too late. It took so long to get back to Reid and then to find you. It was torture thinking of what they were doing to you, and I couldn’t do anything to stop them. I was so afraid I was going to do all that and end up just finding your body. I—” Kaia choked up. “I just thought I was going to be too late. That it was going to be revenge, not a rescue. I thought I was going to fail you.”

  “You could never fail me.” Adrienne kissed her. “I know you’re in a dangerous line of work, but if you could please not almost die for at least a few months my psyche would really appreciate it.”

  Kaia laughed and wrapped her arms around her. She pulled Adrienne close, overriding Adrienne’s fear of hurting her. “I don’t want to do anything for the next few months except get better and love each other.”

  Adrienne relaxed into her embrace. “We can do that.”

  About the Author

  Nicole is a lifelong storyteller who is most happy when exploring the hidden corners of life. She lives in Denver, Colorado, where she is a collector of jobs that inspire her writing. She has worked as a 911 operator, police dispatcher, EMS dispatcher, and martial arts instructor. Most recently, she and her wife started a music video production company and love working together as producer and director.

  Website: http://www.nicoledisney.com/

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