Keep Healing (Fighting For Tomorrow #2)

CHAPTER 5

EVIE

We all stopped at the doorway to Zack’s room once we were upstairs, and watched as Nick tiptoed inside and checked on his adorable son, who lay peacefully in his crib. My heart about melted when Nick leant in and ever so gently kissed Zack’s forehead. I couldn’t understand for one moment why that man thought he wasn’t good enough to raise his son. From everything I had seen he was the most amazing, loving father and Zack adored him.

Kailan was the last one to walk into my room once we were sure Zack was settled. . We all kind of stood a little awkwardly and watched as Kailan closed the door quietly, then Nick moved first, placing Zack’s video monitor on the dresser, where we could all keep an eye on it.

“Tell us what you need, Evie. How badly are you hurt?” Aleks asked, pulling my attention back to him as he wrapped his arms around me even tighter.

“I’m okay. I just need to take a shower,” I explained, my voice sounding exhausted to even my own ears.

“Don’t underplay it, baby. We can all see for ourselves that you’re pretty far from okay,” Nick sighed as he came closer and softly brushed a hand over my aching, bruised face. I turned to nuzzle into his touch, needing the comfort of it and was relieved when he cupped my unmarked cheek and leaned in to kiss my forehead. “The truth now, okay? We’re all here for you. We just want to be able to take care of you,” he added in a quieter voice before he pulled back.

“I’m sore,” I admitted. “My head is throbbing and everything aches from the walking and the cold. I’m exhausted too, but guys; I’m here and I’m whole. I really am okay.”

“Please don’t ever scare us like that again, kochanie,” Aleks said as he looked down at me with so much fear and concern. I knew how he felt – how they all felt as I looked between them – because it was exactly the way I had felt too, alone in those woods. I had been so terrified I would never get to see any of them again. Never get to tell them how much they had already come to mean to me in such a short time.

I turned back to Aleks and placed my hand on his cheek as I looked right into his captivating eyes. “I’m not going anywhere,” I promised with determination. Not if there was a damned thing I could do to stop it.

Aleks nodded just once, and as I moved my hand away from his cheek he leaned in and kissed my palm, making me smile.

“How about one of us stays to help Evie, while the others do a quick sweep around the house and check the security?” Harris asked, breaking the moment between us all.

“Sweep?” I repeated. “Y-you think he’ll come here?” Panic consumed me as the temporary bubble of peace I had found was broken by a brutal reminder of reality.

“He can try, but there’s no way he can breach our security,” Aleks told me confidently.

“Aleks is right. If he thought he could get in here, he’d have already tried. Our security is too tight. That’s why he waited for you to go out to grab you,” Nick added, making me relax a little.

“We just plan to do sweeps as a precaution, make sure he’s not hanging around the property anywhere. We aren’t taking any chances now, Ev. We will keep you safe,” Harris said vehemently.

“Who do you want to stay up here with you, darlin’?” Kailan asked.

“Any of you,” I replied with ease. “I trust you guys. More than that. It seems being with you is the only place I feel safe right now,” I admitted shyly.

“Good, You should feel safe with us,” Kailan spoke up as he appeared before me and ran a gentle finger down my cheek until I looked up and met his eyes. “You are safe with us. We’re not gonna let anything happen to you. You mean too much to us all, sweet girl.”

“You’re all starting to mean a lot to me too…or already do,” I stuttered nervously. “I don’t know. I mean, I know the timing sucks and I…I’m a mess. There’s a killer chasing me, for fucks sake, but I…I just know that when I was scared and alone, all I could think about was the four of you. I was so scared I’d never see you again,” I sighed as I ended my senseless ramble.

“Aww, I think she likes us, guys,” Kailan joked, making us all laugh, and breaking the tension and some of my embarrassment.

“Sweetheart,” Harris pulled my attention to where he stood off to my side. “We don’t give a shit about timing or any of that other shit you just spouted. We’ll deal with whatever comes next, together. None of it will ever alter the way we all feel about you, and if you’re starting to feel the same in return, then all any of us are gonna be is over the fucking moon.”

I shyly looked to the others, then felt a goofy smile filling my face when they all grinned widely and nodded in agreement.

“It seems like we have a little to talk about, but how about we shelve it all for now? Evie feels cold again. She needs to get cleaned up and sleep for a few hours at least,” Aleks suggested and I wasn’t arguing. As happy and excited as I was about the guys in that moment, I was also cold, in pain and in desperate need of some aspirin and a snooze.

“Aleks is right,” Nick agreed as he threw me a wink. “I’ll patrol with the love sick puppy over there.” He nodded to Kailan who was just looking at me with a huge dopey smile on his face.

“Fuck you. Just because you’re too scared to show any actual human emotion!” Kailan threw back playfully.

“I should check the security system, make sure there’s been no attempts to breach it,” Aleks added.

“You guys will be careful, right?” I asked anxiously. “He’s dangerous. I don’t want any of you to get hurt.”

“Trust me darlin’, if he’s anywhere near this house, he will be the only one getting hurt,” Kailan assured me.

“He’s right. We know what we’re doing, Evie. We were trained for far more dangerous shit than this fucker,” Nick agreed.

“Just try to get some rest, okay? Don’t worry about anything. We’re all gonna be safe,” Aleks told me as he leaned in and kissed my cheek softly. I caught his face between my hands as he pulled back and drew him closer again, placing a soft, but chaste kiss on his lips. I couldn’t resist. I wanted to know how his lips would feel against mine.

Aleks pulled back just enough to study my face and when I smiled happily, he did too.

“I’ll stay with Evie and keep an eye on Zack,” Harris said, breaking the moment between Aleks and I.

“Will you…would you all come back up here? When you’re done whatever you have to do, I mean?” I asked shyly, feeling awkward at the need I seemed to be feeling to have them all close.

“Of course we will, if that’s what you want,” Nick agreed easily.

“I just…I feel better when you’re all close. I know how that sounds, but…”

“Sshh,” Kailan cut me off as he stepped in front of me and placed a finger over my lips. “None of that. We all want to be close to you too, so it’s no hardship, right?”

“Right,” I agreed with an unsure nod.

“Don’t ever worry about telling us what you need, Evie. Be as strong as you need to be with everyone else, but here, with us, it’s okay to just be however or whoever you need to be. No matter what, we have all got your back, just like we know you’ll have ours,” Kailan went on, leaving me feeling tearful and emotional. How did he see me so easily, wounds and all? How did they all so easily see through the shield I tried so hard to erect, and right into my broken?

“Come on. Let’s get this done and get back up here with our girl,” Nick said as he threw me one last sexy as hell wink, then walked to the bedroom door. Kailan leaned in and landed a speedy kiss on my cheek, then headed for the door too.

“We’ll be back soon, maleńka.” Aleks had barely set me down on my feet before I felt Harris at my back, wrapping a supportive arm around my shaking body. I watched the others leave the room, the whole time the fear rising within me that Soloman would be in the house, and that he would hurt them.

“They’re fine, sweetheart. No one is getting on the property, and even if that fucker could, he wouldn’t stand a chance against a single one of them. We were really fucking good at what we did and we all still train hard. No one is in danger right now, okay?” Harris assured me firmly. “How about that shower?”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Clean would feel really good right now.” I tried to put aside the worry I felt for the guys as he ushered me through to the adjoining bathroom, but I couldn’t help feeling a sense of doom. I had been so lucky to escape Soloman as I had, and I knew it. I just had this feeling something was about to happen to make up for that good luck, and I was terrified it would happen to someone I loved or cared for. I only just found the guys – I couldn’t lose any of them.

I leant back against the vanity as Harris opened the large glass cubicle to set the shower running. As he turned back to me, he looked a little nervous, his hand rubbing anxiously at the back of his neck as he avoided eye contact with me.

“Do you…um…should I help? With your clothes, I mean. Getting them off…Can you manage or should I…?” he asked all at once, much to my amusement. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen Harris so flustered.

“Harris?” I paused until his eyes met mine. “Are you okay?” I laughed when they finally did and I saw how red his face was.

“Sorry. I just…I don’t want to over step or anything. You’ve been through so much and I don’t want to make it worse.”

“I’m not scared of you, Harris Orson. I never have been and never will, so you don’t need to worry, okay? I feel safe with you,” I assured him as I stepped forward and wound my arms around the back of his neck, reaching up on my tip toes to lie my head on his chest.

“Sorry. I don’t think I was this nervous our first time together when we were kids,” he laughed as he wrapped his huge arms around me and held me in return.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you nervous in all the years I’ve known you,” I agreed, refusing to release my grip on him. I felt so safe nestled against his huge form and I never wanted to move away.

“I’m usually better at hiding it. Mom and dad taught me well. Grooming me for the family business,” he laughed.

“Soloman…he never hurt me….not like that. He messed me up and left me with scars…but not in that way, Harris, okay? You don’t have to handle me with kid gloves,” I explained as I looked up and met his eyes. “I have so many issues from what he did to me. Don’t let him take this from me too.”

“I am never going to allow that motherfucker, or anyone else to take a damned thing from you again, sweetheart.” Harris lowered his hands to the backs of my thighs and picked me up, wrapping my legs around his waist so his hands were free to roam my back. “No matter what happens with all of us, I swear I will always be here for you, Evie. I’m never walking away again.”

The last word had barely left his lips before I smashed my own over his, attacking him with the ferocity of my kiss. The familiarity of it all as he took control and kissed me back was like a comfort blanket being wrapped around me. We were both older and changed, and yet that kiss took me right back to being a teenager, so desperately in love with this handsome boy who kissed like nothing I had ever imagined.

It was exactly what I needed. The events of the last twenty four hours, and all that had come before to get me to that point fell away as I wrapped myself in the comfort blanket that was Harris. My fears were forgotten, my worries erased as I gripped his ridiculously large shoulders and tried to climb even higher up his body, needing to be even closer.

Then we were in the shower, under the blissfully hot spray, the both of us still fully clothed and not for one second breaking the frenzied kiss between us.

Harris pressed my back against the cool tile, bracing me between the wall and his body. His hands found their way to my ass and he cupped my cheeks, kneading them as heat rushed through me.

“Jesus, Ev,” he gasped as he pulled back for a breath, then looked down at me with dark, hooded eyes. “You still got me under your spell, even all these years later.”

“Ditto,” I laughed breathlessly. He grinned a little, then stopped as he seemed to take me in from top to toe.

“Much as I’m desperate to continue this, you’re hurt and exhausted,” he sighed.

“I’m fine.”

“Sweetheart, your head is bleeding and your legs are shaking like Jell-o. I think we have to take a raincheck and take care of you, yeah?”

I reached up and felt the cut on my head, and sure enough blood was trickling from it slowly.

“Fine,” I pouted. “But you have to get out of here. I can’t concentrate on anything but climbing you if you’re in here with me,” I admitted.

“Climbing me?” he laughed.

“How else would it work? You’re freaking huge nowadays,” I pointed out.

“Oh, it’ll work, sweetheart. Don’t you worry about that.” He had a shit eating grin on his face as he lowered my shaky legs to the tiled ground and stepped back away from me, his hands remaining stretched out between us like he expected me to just crumble the minute he let go.

“Out!” I scolded as I pointed to the glass door. “No more sexy smirks unless you’re gonna back them up with action.”

“Fine,” he was chuckling as he held his hands up in surrender. “You sure you’ll be okay, though? You’re pretty shaky?”

“I’m sure.”

“I’ll wait outside, so just call out if you need me, okay?” he said as he leant in and kissed the end of my nose, making me smile again as he slipped from the shower cubicle, his soaked clothes leaving a trail of drips behind him.

I sighed deeply as I turned my body to face the warm powerful spray. Harris was right. I was exhausted and hurting. It wasn’t the right time for us to take things any further, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. After everything that had happened I had just felt so good in his hold, his lips on mine. I’d felt more like myself than I had in so very long and I just didn’t want to let that feeling go.

As if reminding me of my reality, blood trickled down my face from the cut on my head and the perfect bubble Harris had built around me was burst.

I set to work stripping out of the mud covered, bloodied clothes which were now sodden too. It was hard work getting the wet garments off, and by the time I was naked, I was also shaking so hard I could barely stand. Too tired to care I sank down the wall until I landed on my ass, the spray of the water crashing down over my head rhythmically.

For a long while I just sat there, watching the water flow away from me across the white tiles, stained brown from the filth that covered my body and then pink from the blood that wouldn’t seem to stop flowing from the cut on my head. I realized I must have somehow caused it to open again when Harris and I were frantically sharing our kiss.

My legs and arms were covered in bruises and scratches from my sprint and walk through the woods, and my face was throbbing from the punch Soloman had landed there. There was a deep gash on my arm too, which I barely remembered the cause of, but at least that wasn’t bleeding.

I was a mess, but I meant what I had told the guys – I was whole. I had to be grateful for that. God only knew what Soloman had planned for me when he took me from the daycare, but whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. At best he planned to end me. At worst he was taking me back to that hell to torture me again, and I never would have survived that all over again – that I knew for a fact. No, I had to count my lucky stars that I’d gotten away, and I would, over and over again.

“Ev? You okay in there?” Harris asked over the sound of the shower, startling me from my thoughts. I looked up, but the glass was so thickly steamed up I couldn’t see out and knew he wouldn’t be able to see in either.

Before I could find the words in my exhausted, scrambled brain to reply, the door of the shower opened just a crack and Harris peeked in. His expression filled with worry as his eyes landed on where I sat on the ground, surrounded by my soaking, ruined clothes.

“Hey,” he said more softly as he opened the door and crouched to my level. “Are you doing okay?”

“Tired,” I sighed as I looked up at him with what I was sure was a lame attempt at a smile.

“You’re still bleeding?”

“Won’t stop,” I shrugged. All I wanted to do was climb into his warm, strong arms and go to sleep.

“Can I help you out? Once we get you dry, Kailan can take a look at that cut and see what we can do with it,” he suggested, and I nodded as I forced myself to shuffle closer to the door and to Harris.

He stood to shut off the shower and grab a towel, then he was facing me again, looking to me with hesitation and concern.

“Sorry,” I whispered. “I’m just so tired. I think I crashed.”

“I think you’re allowed to be tired after the day and night you just had,” he assured me, then all of his hesitation seemed to leave him as he leaned in with the towel, and wrapped me in it. The second he stood with me in his arms, I lay the side of my head that wasn’t bleeding against his chest and my heavy eyes instantly started to close.

“Hey, no sleeping just yet, sweetheart. I want Kailan to check for signs of concussion before you sleep. Just stay with me, yeah?”

“Okay,” I agreed, but my eyes were barely open.

“Here Ev, hold this on your head for me.” He thrust a small hand towel into my hand before leaving the bathroom, so I shakily lifted it to the cut on my head and pressed it down, not wanting more blood all over me now I was finally clean.

“Is she okay?” My eyes snapped open at the sound of Nick’s voice and I looked around my room until I saw him and Aleks sitting on the end of my bed.

“Where’s Rush? Her head won’t stop bleeding,” Harris replied sounding way too concerned about a little blood.

“He went to find some pain pills for her headache. I’ll get him,” Aleks volunteered.

“You d-don’t need to. I’m okay,” I protested, but no one seemed to even hear me.

“I’ll find her some clothes,” Nick said before disappearing from my line of sight just as fast as Aleks had. I felt the need to protest about how much they were all fussing over me, but if I were honest with myself, I didn’t want them to stop. It felt amazing to know that they had me – that they’d take care of me because they wanted to, not because they had to. After the nightmare I’d lived the previous day and night it just felt more wonderful than I could express to be enveloped in their care.