Chapter Two
Eloise
I really had to choose which of these things was a lesser evil. Blade and his odd friends or the police who would find out I was a missing person. I had come only an hour from my hometown and knowing what an evil man my ex was, I hadn’t come far enough. The mere thought of the hell he would unleash on me if he found me was enough to make my choice. Flipping the ID over, I quickly memorized the information on the identification.
“Howdy, folks,” an officer said, walking into the room. He was an older man with a portly belly. A younger officer stood slightly behind him.
“Hello, Officer Haddock,” Rogue said, shooting him a sweet smile.
“Well, hello, darlin’. How are you doing today?”
“I’m good. Thank you for asking. How is Ms. Haddock? Did her surgery go okay?”
“It did. She’s already back up and riding that damn horse.”
Using Rogue’s distraction, I studied the information a bit more.
“This is my friend, Farrah,” she said, introducing me.
Looking up, I smiled and stuck my hand out. “Hello.”
Officer Haddock shook my hand and smiled. His shoulders lost some of their tightness and his eyebrows weren’t furrowed anymore.
“Hello, Farrah. I think you’re just the woman I wanted to see.”
“Oh?” I asked, playing stupid.
“Yes, we got a call from the cashier at Shorty’s Gas and More saying that one of the employees here abducted a woman in a yellow shirt and jeans from the parking lot.”
Forcing a giggle, I played into the part.
“Abducted me?”
“Yes. Is that not what happened?”
“No. I got too hot and I fainted. Blade caught me before I seriously hurt myself and brought me back here to cool off.”
“Elliot is going to come by and check on her,” Rogue added.
“Oh, well, that’s very different from what was reported, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“So you’re safe and here willingly?”
“Yes, sir.”
Rogue giggled and Office Haddock looked over to her.
“It’s a little silly,” she explained, giggling again.
Office Haddock nodded before laughing. “You’re right. It is funny. I’m glad everyone is okay. I guess we’ll be heading out then, as long as you're sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, Sir. I promise I am fine, but thank you so much for coming to check on me,” I said, flashing my best smile.
“Well, that is my job, isn’t it? It was nice to see everyone again. Rogue, tell Bash I said to stay out of trouble, yeah?”
“Yes, sir. I’ll do my best,” Rogue answered.
They left and we all sat quietly until we heard the shop door close. I let out a heavy breath.
Bash came out of the closet, looking disgusted. “Tell Bash I said to stay out of trouble,” he mocked. “Fucking asshat.”
“Good job, Eloise. I know that was scary but you did a great job,” Blade encouraged. “And you really distracted him, Rogue. So much so that he didn’t even check her information. Thank you,” he added, looking at Rogue.
“I know that was scary and I’m sorry you’re going through all of this, but Blade is really a good man and we’re all here for you. Can you tell us what’s going on?” Rogue asked, moving from the desk and sitting on the floor in front of me.
“I ran away from an abusive relationship and I’m a missing person,” I explained lamely. How did I summarize months of terror into a few sentences?
“Elliot is about five minutes away,” Leland said, coming into the office and sitting on the side of the desk beside Blade.
“Thank you all for your help, but I can’t stay here. It’s putting you all at risk. My ex, Billy, is a really terrible man and he will destroy you just to punish me,” I explained.
“He can try, darlin’. He won’t succeed,” Bash declared from where he was standing.
“How about you let us worry about us, and you focus on telling us what’s happening,” Leland said.
“Yes, like who you’re running from and why he shot you,” Blade agreed.
“She’s been shot!” Leland yelled.
“Just a tiny bit ,” Blade said, making me snort at the absurdity of my own words.
“I am running from my ex. He’s…” I shivered before continuing on. “A very bad man. He didn’t shoot me, though. I was looking for cans in the woods over by the big cabin with the broken windows, and...”
“Fuck,” Leland groaned, rubbing his forehead.
“Old Man Driggers,” Rogue said, shaking her head.
“I’ll handle that,” Bash said, walking out of the office.
“Wait!” I yelled.
Bash came back into the room.
“He didn’t mean to. He didn’t know I was there. Hell, I didn’t know he was there. I got scared when I heard someone moving around in the cabin. I didn’t mean to trespass. I was running off the property and he fired away from me. I heard the bullet hit something else and then I was hit. It had to have ricocheted off of something because I only heard one shot.”
“Old Man Driggers is an old man who is used to teenagers damaging his property more than it already is. He usually just shoots to spook them. I’m sure it was an accident that he hit you, but we’ve talked to him about this before,” Blade explained, “and he still fucking shot you.”
“I’ll handle it,” Bash said again.
“Bash!” Leland yelled.
Bash poked his head back into the office.
“Handle it without your fists.”
Bash sighed.
“I know, but we live in this town, okay?” Leland said.
Bash nodded.
“Is Old Man Driggers going to be okay?” I asked. I didn’t think he was with the way Bash looked.
“Bash is just… passionate,” Rogue explained. “He won’t kill him... Maybe...”
I rested my head on the back of the chair. Everything hurt and I was too tired to figure out if Bash was a murderer or not.
Loud footsteps filled the hall and then a man carrying a medical bag came into the room.
“Oh, I’m not here for Bash this time?” he asked, looking around.
“No. This is my friend and Old Man Driggers shot her,” Rogue said.
“What the fuck?” He sighed, shaking his head.
“Please don’t write my name down or make me go to the hospital,” I begged, swallowing a sudden wave of nausea.
“Okay, I will do my very best not to let that happen,” he answered. He sat in the swivel chair Rogue had pushed over to him and walked it until he was in front of me. “My name is Elliot and I promise I am going to help you and keep you safe, okay?”
***
Blade
Elliot often rescued us from needing to leave a paper trail. Sometimes we… maybe took justice into our own hands. The world wasn’t fair and the justice system was shit. We did what we needed to.
“Where were you shot, honey?”
“My leg,” Eloise answered, reaching down to lift her pants leg. “It’s really not so great,” she warned.
“I can handle it,” Elliot told her.
She studied him for a moment, before lifting the fabric away to reveal a stained bandage. “I change it every morning and night but it still bleeds some.”
“You’re doing a great job by changing the bandage. That’s smart,” Elliot said.
“How long ago did this happen?” Leland asked.
“Five days. I got the bullet out myself and I’ve been treating it with antibiotic cream.”
I clenched my jaw and ground my back teeth tighter as I watched Elliot slowly unwrap the wound. The closer he got, the sicker I felt. Eloise had to have been in pain for a while and yet she stayed so strong.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered into the silent room.
“Oh, honey, you don’t have to be sorry for anything. You didn’t do anything wrong. We’re all so sorry this happened to you,” I said before anyone else could say anything.
“Yeah, it’s not your fault your ex is a twat,” Rogue said, making me snort.
Eloise shot her a small grin.
“Little girl,” Leland warned.
“Daddy, if she’s scared of him, he has to be a twat.”
Fuck.
Rogue’s eyes went wide and Leland winced at their slip-up. Leland was Rogue’s Daddy Dom and although they were very open with it, they definitely hadn’t meant to show that side of themselves to our new friend.
“Daddy?” Eloise asked.
“We...” Leland started.
“Like a Daddy Dom?” Eloise interrupted.
“Yes,” Rogue answered after taking a shaky breath.
“Oh. Cool. That’s really sweet,” Eloise said before looking back down to her leg.
Oh cool? Really sweet? Well at least it went well.
“Oh, I bet that hurts, huh?” Elliot asked.
She nodded. The skin around the area was red and angry and just by looking at it, I could tell it was infected. She winced as Elliot felt the area.
“I’m sorry, sweetie,” he apologized.
“He was a twat,” Eloise said, agreeing with Rogue’s original statement. “If we were in a zoo, he’d be a hippo-twat-a-mus,” she added after a few moments of silence.
Rogue dissolved into a puddle of Little girl giggles and I let out my own guffaw. That was freaking hilarious.
Leland turned his head, probably to hide a smile and Elliot’s shoulders shook with laughter.
“Alright, honey. Your leg is infected. You were smart, though, because if you hadn’t been keeping it clean, it would be much worse.”
“What do I need to do?”
“I have a setup at my house and we can take you there. You can get the care you need and we can keep it all private,” Elliot explained.
I knew he’d help us, but I had no idea he treated people from home too.
“You need IV antibiotics for several days and I’m going to flush out the area,” he continued. “Luckily, very luckily, it wasn’t deep, definitely a ricochet, and you’ll feel much better in a few days.”
“That sounds really expensive.”
“I’ll cover it,” I told her at the same time Elliot said, “It’s free for you.”
Elliot looked at me, smirked, and turned back to Eloise. “It’s my cutie-patootie discount. My Little one gets it all the time,” he said, winking at her and wrapping her leg back up with a new bandage.
A low growl filled the room and I didn’t realize it had been mine until Rogue giggled again.
Fuck.
“Where is your house?” Eloise asked, either ignoring my territorial growl or not hearing it.
“It’s about twenty minutes from here. I’ll give you a ride, yeah?”
“Uh…” She hesitated.
“No. We’ll take her. Rogue can help her get settled,” Leland said.
“Uh,” she said again, looking more panicked.
“No. I will take her. She doesn’t know y’all,” I said, annoyed they hadn’t considered that.
“She doesn’t know you either,” Rogue said, placing her hand on hip.
“Yeah, you kidnapped me,” Eloise said, as equally sassy as Rogue.
I had a glimpse of my future if the two of them teamed up together and it gave me a headache.
I shook my head, trying not to strangle them, and tried again. “I would like to take you if you’re comfortable riding with me.”
“I can take the bus.”
“Actually, the bus doesn’t go out that far. You could take it to the edge of town, but then it would still be a long walk,” Elliot explained, securing her bandage and pushing his chair back.
“I want to go ahead and get some bloodwork now to drop off on my way home and I definitely want to give you a fever reducer, okay?”
“Yes, Sir.”
Elliot drew her blood quickly, but I didn’t miss the way she flinched when he inserted the needle. Poor Little one. Blood draws were never fun and even worse when you felt as badly as she did.
“You did great, love.”
Elliot handed her the medicine and she quickly swallowed it before saying,“Thank you and thank you for your help.”
“Oh. I love a Little girl with good manners. Let me get you some stickers,” Elliot said, making me want to shove the stickers up his damn ass. Between his terms of endearments and stickers, I wanted to rip him limb from limb.“So, you’ll be coming to my house, right?”
“Would you take me, please, Rogue?” Eloise asked.
I wanted to argue, but it was easy to understand her need to be with a female. We didn’t know what her ex had put her through and I couldn’t blame her for wanting to be cautious.
“Sure. I’d be glad to,” Rogue said with a smile.
I swallowed my panic at Eloise being away from me.
What the fuck? Get it together, man.
“Do you need to go get anything?” Rogue asked her.
“No. I have everything.”
Rogue nodded, but I could see the hurt in her eyes. Eloise only had her small backpack. Leland stepped forward and rubbed Rogue’s shoulder. His gaze met mine and I nodded. I was going to do whatever I could to ensure she had a better life from here on out.