Hide, Don't Seek

Chapter 17~

Charlie and I are just running around the corner when Danny goes flying through the air, lifting the prick off of my girl. Her scream almost brought me to my knees, but thankfully, Charlie moving in front of me reminded me that she still needed us. That it”s not too late.

Even’s already knocked out the screaming little bitch on the ground and is making his way toward us as I slide into the branch pit. Dirt lifts around me like a fog. I vaguely register that Charlie’s helping Danny but all I can see, all I can think about, is Beatrice.

My heart gets caught in my throat as I slow my movements, trying to make sure I don’t startle her but desperately wanting to get her away from here. “Bea. Bea, come on. Let’s get you home.” I try to sound confident and sweet but I can hear the trembling in my voice as my brain unhelpfully shares pictures of what she probably looks like. Stupid nighttime.

She doesn’t stir. In fact, I’m not sure she’s even alive until I put my fingers against her pulse point. It’s faint, but it”s there. “Hey Queen Bea, I’m gunna get you out of here. Beatrice? Can you hear me?” My voice trembles with anxiety as I try to rouse her calmly.

I hate myself for touching her without her permission but we’ve got to go. My breaths are coming in short pants as I notice the pale skin of her legs, thighs, and stomach illuminated by the moon. My stomach lurches at the thought of her being exposed against her will and my eyes fill with tears.

“Stu, we gotta go.” Even’s calming and authoritative voice brings me out of my panic. With a nod, I tug my shirt off my body and wrap it gently around hers; tucking it behind her as I slide an arm behind her back. Then, I do my best to flip her flowy skirt material down enough to cover her, before sliding my other arm under her knees and lifting her up.

It takes a beat, given the deep slope of the dirt pit we’re in, but I finally get us both out. With a quick look around, I see Even has one guy thrown over his shoulder, Charlie has the other guy, and Danny is pacing like a caged animal.

With a whistle from Charlie, we swiftly make our way back through the woods.

My heart is beating out an erratic rhythm in my chest as the woman I’ve loved for years hangs limply in my arms. As we get closer to the car, I realize that the safest thing to do next is probably going to piss her off. But, she needs help, and we need a safe place to take these assholes.

Dingleberry 1 and 2 get dumped into the trunk as I slide into the back seat with Bea, carefully cradling her head and ensuring all her major parts are covered.

Four doors slamming, one after another, signal we’re all ready. Charlie gets his phone out and starts the car. “Doc, we need your help. Meet us at-”

“No!” I yell over him.

Everyone freezes, knowing I never raise my voice or intervene in our leader’s decisions. I feel 3 pairs of eyes bore into me as I stare down at Bea and wince, praying my next decision doesn’t end our friendship forever.

With a resigned sigh, I look Charlie in the eye and rattle off her address—the one two minutes from where we are, the one she doesn’t allow anyone but me in.

Fuck. Please don’t hate me, Bea.

Thirty minutes later, we have the Dingleberry twins tied up in Bea’s dungeon, and we’re all standing around like a bunch of dumbasses in her kitchen, anxiously waiting for Doc’s report.

Doc showed up almost fifteen minutes ago. By then, I had laid her on her guest bed, assuming she wouldn’t want to taint her own with this mess. Knowing the assholes in the trunk probably won”t stay knocked out, I had Danny watch after her as I helped the other two unload the bodies into Bea”s dungeon. I could tell Charlie and Even had questions, but it was definitely not the time.

Bea’s skin was cold and clammy. She trembled in my arms the whole way here. Once we were in the car, I removed the mask that was sitting sideways on her face; carefully removing the pins in her hair without hurting her further. It was then that I realized her eyes were open. Her breathing was shallow and weak but she was alive. Sort of. It’s like she was here physically but completely checked out mentally. I honestly can’t tell if that’s a good thing or not. Even her panic attacks look different; like she’s just temporarily spaced out. But now, her eyes are dimmer, duller, void of any emotion at all.

Danny’s pacing from the kitchen to the living room and back again. Even and Charlie are talking in hushed tones at Bea’s little kitchen table, and I’m just leaning against the counter, praying she”ll be ok.

I’m about to tell Danny to sit the fuck down because he’s driving me nuts but I hear Doc clear his throat as he approaches. All of us instantly rush toward him. Doc lifts a black brow and rubs his salt-and-pepper beard. “I’ve cleaned her up the best I could. I was able to pop her shoulder back in and put it in a sling. She needed some liquid stitches in a few places on her back from what looked like branches stabbing her but none of them were too terribly deep. Either way, I’ve left her some antibiotics and pain pills on her nightstand. She’s not concussed but has several lumps on her head; none of them needing much more than glue and ice. Her ribs on the left side are cracked and are already bruised, so I wrapped those up for her, but I left the bruise balm on the nightstand, too.”

He shifts uncomfortably, darting a look at each of us, looking for God knows what.

“Fuck’s sake, Doc, spit it out!” Even’s outburst isn’t completely unusual, but he’s usually much more professional with Doc and Charlie. Bea really did a number on him, huh?

Doc levels a look at him causing Even to back down and apologize before rubbing a hand across his face.

Clearing his throat, Doc continues, “The, uh, the bite mark on her shoulder…” He trails off, gauging our reactions. I feel the blood drain from my face and sway a little. None of us are angels, but this is Bea. Sweet, badass, Bea, and this fucker bit her?!

Danny’s menacing growl brings my attention back to Doc as he finishes whatever he was saying, “...check in a couple of days to make sure it’s healing correctly.”

I blink my eyes a few times, having completely missed whatever he said. “She’s currently in a dissociative state so I wasn’t comfortable with a rape kit-” Again, Danny growls but, this time, Even joins in.

Doc holds up a hand to halt their inner beasts before continuing. “If she wants one, she is free to call or message me, and I’ll get the tests run ASAP.”

He sighs heavily, likely exhausted by the hour and the circumstance.

“But, I will say, your girl fought hard. Her knees, her knuckles, even her fingers had clear signs of defensive wounds.” He chuffs a humorless laugh.

After a brief silence, he frowns, confusion painted across his face. “Were there any liquids there? Not red like blood but something else? Her right hand had a thin layer of a liquid substance I couldn’t immediately identify. NOT semen, but not saliva either…”

I frown as I think back to the scene we stumbled upon. I didn’t see anything necessarily wet or whatever.

“Eyeball?” Charlie questions. Doc raises his brows in disbelief and intrigue.

Charlie scowls thoughtfully before mumbling, “The guy I knocked out… he was screaming and holding his face before I silenced him. When we tied him up in Bea’s, uh, room,” He hesitates, glancing around to determine if he should say more about the “room” our bastard friends are hanging out in. With a gentle shake of my head, I ask him to keep his mouth shit about it.

Clearing his throat, he looks back over at Doc, “Anyways, his whole eye was fuckin’ missing and his face was swollen and red. Even his nose. But, not like she busted it. It was almost like it was stretched and on the same side of his missing eye. I didn’t think about it when we tied them up but, is that even possible?”

Silence blankets the kitchen for a long moment as we consider the sweet, sassy woman in the other room potentially being able to do that. I mean, I know what she does in that room. I help her find the assholes to begin with. But, can you pull out someone’s eyeball with your bare hands? With her thin, delicate, little hands?

Doc shifts uncomfortably, likely done with all of us and this strange-ass night. “Maybe. It’s possible, but it would have to be intentional, with a lot of force. It’s really not as easy as people may think.”

He sighs heavily and walks over to the sink to wash his hands. Once he’s done, he turns around and says, “Well, like I said, if she needs anything, let me know.” He levels each of us with a hard glare. Like an overprotective Dad, he’s not happy about a woman being mixed up in our violent lives. Little does he know…

Charlie stands to his full height, grasps Doc by the hand, and shakes firmly with a nod. “Thanks, Doc. We’ve got her.” Then he moves and leads Doc out of the kitchen and into the garage.

We’re all silently contemplating the turn of events. I vaguely process the closing of the garage door and then the opening and closing of the mudroom door. Heavy, booted footsteps return to the kitchen before stopping somewhere off to my left.

For an eternity, we stand there in silence, staring off into space and thinking about everything that’s happened in just a few short hours.

A loud, painful scream cuts through the air, ending our silent reverie. My blood turns to ice but my feet automatically move through the house. Fear zaps through me like lightning bolts and my heart feels like it’s going to break through my chest.

I barely cross the threshold of the room before slamming my left hip into a dresser. I dismiss the pain as my eyes quickly scan the room for danger. But, what I see, instead, is painfully familiar. Her body is damn near convulsing, fighting off invisible attackers. Her hair is plastered to her face with sweat and tears.

My body moves on auto-pilot as I kick off my shoes and crawl into her guest bed. Distantly, I can feel the gazes of the other three men as they take in the scene before them, but I don’t have time to explain. She’s lost in her head and needs help coming back out.

I defensively block her punches and a few kicks as she screams like a banshee. Her face and arms are mottled with bruises but her anguished expression forces me to move faster. Leaning over her, I wrap my arms around her back and plaster my chest to the front of her body. She wails in terror and kicks with all her might, but I plaster myself around her like a spider monkey and turn us so we”re lying on our sides.

“Back off!” Danny roars violently. I barely spare them a glance knowing they all look seconds from ripping my dick off and shoving it in my skull.

“I need the heavy blanket. Where’s the big, blue blanket?” I scream out, hoping that my voice projects that I not only know what I’m doing, but I fucking need help.

Charlie steps forward and walks to the end of the bed. His brows are furrowed in concentration but heat swirls in his eyes at the possibility that I’m hurting her.

“Charlie, you know me. She gets like this sometimes. She needs pressure. Get me the fucking blanket!”

At my harsh tone, Charlie’s brows raise comically high, then he shakes his head quickly. Finally, the big doof searches around.

“Not in here!” I bark. “Her room. Across the hall.” I motion with my head to make my point, and he and Even quickly move out.

I feel blood trickling down my head where she banged hers against mine. I also know for a fact that my thighs and shins are going to be torn up. One thing about my girl is that she’s a fucking fighter. Any other time, it may get me hard, but not when she’s like this. Never when she’s like this.

Even rushes back in with her heavy-ass blanket, grunting with effort. Once he gets to her side of the bed, he struggles with the blanket for a second, before grumbling and lifting it up and over our bodies.

The blanket”s heaviness presses us further into the mattress, and I begin softly shushing her, firmly rubbing her back with one hand and gently squeezing the back of her head; making sure I don’t press on any bumps. Her face is now pressed up against my neck, just at chest level, and I shutter as I slowly feel her breathing settle.

It takes almost thirty seconds before her upper body relaxes, her arms release the tension she was holding, and her legs finally stop shifting around. Her heart-breaking screams have now lowered to soft whimpers.

Finally, she takes one deep, restorative breath. Then, I feel her snuggle deeper into my chest with a contented sigh.

Knowing she’s finally coming down, I lift the pressure from the back of her head and gently run my fingers through her matted hair. I mean, as much as I can. I feel my eyes drift shut as I gently sway us and let everything around us melt away.

When I”m convinced she”s finally fallen asleep, I begin to untangle my limbs from around her body; hoping she”ll be able to get some sleep. As I lift the blanket off of me from behind, trying to make sure she stays completely surrounded, she sighs sweetly, snuggles deeper into my chest, and purrs quietly, “I love you, Stu. I wish I was good enough…”

Soft snores are the only sounds in the room, and blood whooshes in my ears as I stare down at this crazy, sweet, badass woman and wonder if she meant the words or if she was just dreaming. A wide, dopey grin splits my face as I realize that I don’t care. If dream me could make her smile softly and love me like that, maybe the real me could do the same.

Shaking my head out of my own dreams, I look down at her in wonder. Then, I lean over and brush a fleeting kiss on her temple before sliding backward off the bed.

Even looks down at her form from the other side of her bed, and Danny leans against the dresser next to the door. Charlie stands stock-still in the doorway, looking like he’s seen a ghost. It’s not the worst thing we’ve ever seen, so I’m not totally sure why he looks like someone just killed his dog.

Filing that nugget away to ask about later, I turn my head and stare at the ceiling. With a heavy sigh, I rub at my chest before scraping my hands through my hair; tugging just a little at the roots. Then, with a final glance at Bea, I nod for the guys to head out.

Quietly, we all file out and I flick the lights off before silently shutting the door behind me.