Chapter Twenty-Eight
T he sound of the door opening woke Daniel. He groggily lifted his head to see Keira’s sister in the doorway with a horrified expression on her face.
Layla’s hands covered her mouth, holding back a cry. “Oh, my God. Logan.”
Logan tightened his arm around her waist. “The nurse said she woke up and is recovering. Don’t cry, you might scare her.”
Layla’s hand latched onto his wrist as she took a deep breath and wiped the tears from her cheek. She straightened and walked slowly to her sister’s bed. She let her eyes roam over her whole body before coming to rest on the man at her side.
She wanted to cry again at the devastation on this man’s rugged face. He looked like he’d been through a war and back. Her sister had more color in her complexion than Daniel had at this point. The age lines he’d had on his face before they’d left on their honeymoon had deepened into creases that showed the turmoil he’d been going through. “Daniel, have you been here the whole time?”
Daniel stood still, not releasing his grip on Keira’s wrist. “Yeah. I couldn’t leave her alone.”
“Jesus, man, you look like crap. You’re going to terrify her when she wakes up again.”
“No, she’s already seen me when she woke up earlier.” His attention stayed locked on Keira.
“The nurses said you were having a few people bring you clothes and food?”
A muscle twitched on Daniel’s face as he tried to pull in a calming breath. “Like I said, I’m not leaving until she goes home.”
Layla gripped the bed railing as she turned her gaze back to her sister. She wasn’t going to push it anymore. “Tell us what happened.”
Daniel ran a hand over his face. He looked first at Logan and then swung his gaze to Layla. “It started before you left on your trip.”
Shock ran across her face before a scowl pinched the skin between her eyebrows. “What? And why didn’t she or you tell me?”
“First, I didn’t know about it until after you left, and I imagine Keira either didn’t realize she was being stalked, or she didn’t want to ruin your honeymoon.”
Logan wrapped a supporting arm around his wife. “I’m guessing the later.”
Daniel went through everything he knew about, watching more and more color leach from Layla’s face.
“Then what happened?” Layla asked.
Daniel swallowed, getting more shaken as the story came out. “She applied for a gun permit.”
Layla and Logan gasped in shock.
“Keira has never liked guns. She’s always been kind of afraid of them.”
“She had to have felt desperate at that time,” Logan surmised.
Silence stole across the room for several long moments.
Layla swallowed. “Go on.”
“He attacked her in her home.”
Layla turned into Logan’s arms as sobs tore through her.
“How did the cops get there so fast?” Logan tightened his arms.
“Conner or I sat outside her home every night.” Daniel caressed Keira’s cheek with his thumb. “For some reason, she wouldn’t let me protect her or even let me anywhere near her, so I had to watch her any way I could. I put up cameras outside her house. I put in sensors on all the doorways that would buzz me if someone entered her house. I had the police on alert, so they drove past the store and her house several times a day.”
“And the night she was attacked?”
“I was coming home from a job, but I was like an hour away. I wanted someone as close to her as possible. Conner said he’d watch her house until I got there. He saw her go into the house. I called him to make sure it was she who set off the sensors.”
“But if you had sensors on all the doors, how did he get in?”
Daniel sighed. “He was sneaking in through the attic.”
“I didn’t know that house had an attic,” Layla said as she glanced at Logan. She was shocked. She’d lived there for a year and hadn’t known.
Logan frowned in confusion. “I didn’t either. Where is the hatch or door to it?”
“It’s a little hatch inside the guest bedroom closet. If you weren’t looking for it, you wouldn’t see it.”
Layla’s eyes stayed locked on her sister. “How did she get away from him?”
“She had a knife on her and used that until her screams got to Conner and he came through the door.”
“He did this much damage in just a few minutes?”
“She fought hard. She got him, too. Conner said by the amount of blood at the scene, she got him pretty good.”
Layla nodded. “Good, I hope he rots in hell.”
“We all do.”
Layla narrowed her eyes at Daniel. “You love my sister, don’t you?”
“Hell, yes, I love her,” he didn’t hesitate to answer. “I still feel responsible for part of this. If I had made her, oh God, I don’t know, I would have helped her more. Just something.”
Logan said, “If the bastard wanted her that bad, you know there are ways he could have gotten to her.”
“How much does she know?” Layla asked as she brushed a few strands of hair off her sister’s forehead.
“Nothing. She can’t remember anything yet. Dr. Paulson sounded certain she would get it back, he just didn’t know when.” Daniel sat back down. “Why the hell didn’t she trust me?”
Logan sent a look to Layla before she turned to Daniel. “Daniel, what I’m going to tell you is going to make the situation more difficult for you, but I want you to know what you’re up against because of her childhood.” She took a deep breath.
“You already said you two were put into separate foster homes.”
Layla nodded, walked around the bed, and headed toward the windows, moving away from Keira, indicating that Daniel should follow. She continued in a whisper so as not to disturb her sister.
“Yes. So, not only were we orphaned, but they also separated us. I ended up in a pretty decent home. I had less than a year, so I just kept quiet and stayed to myself. Keira’s first home ... the...” Layla paused and took a breath. “The man molested her over the few weeks she was there. She ran before he was able to rape her. The problem was she told her caseworker, and she didn’t believe her. She thought Keira was acting out. She’d known these people for years and had never had any bad reports about him.
“Keira ran and was on the streets for a day before the cops found her and took her back to the social worker’s office. She threw such a fit when her caseworker wanted to take her back. She threatened to run again. The caseworker put her in another home. This one was better, it was a nice old couple. They pulled her from their house when it was decided they were too old to take care of a troubled teenager. The third house was okay. She got bullied but was never physically hurt. When I turned eighteen, I tried to get guardianship over her, but they refused because I wasn’t established in a job and didn’t have a home for her. So, we waited until she was eighteen. It helped that we could keep in touch, and we saw each other a few times a week. When she was old enough, we moved away, she went to college on a scholarship, and I started working at a women’s shop in the same area.”
Layla took a deep breath to steady herself.
“We lived in a small apartment off campus. I worked full-time, and she worked part-time around her class schedule. I remember waking up at three in the morning and seeing her studying for a test or working on a paper. She worked so hard so we could have a better life. One night, she went to a party with a few friends. I remember being excited for her. She never let herself have any fun, so I pushed her to go. A few hours into the party, she decided to leave and went to find her coat from the stack in a bedroom. She was grabbed from behind. Before she knew it, an older boy had her flat on the floor and was tearing at her jeans and keeping a hand over her mouth so no one could hear her screams.”
“Son of a bitch.”
She could tell Daniel was ready to lose it but wanted him to know everything.
“Luckily, another boy walked in and pulled him off of her. She went to the authorities at the college to report it. They sided with the guy. He was a rugby player for the school and helped them generate a significant amount of money. The sad part was they took her scholarship from her and ‘invited’ her to leave their college. They didn’t want any trouble or bad publicity.”
Daniel turned and looked out the window, and put his hands deep in his pockets. “She’s never going to trust me, is she?”
Layla curled a hand around his upper arm and leaned against him.
“Oh, I think you’ll be surprised. Just give her time.”
“And you? Will you be able to forgive me for not doing better than I did to help her?”
“There’s nothing to forgive. I know my sister and how closed off she can get. I was the only one who could have gotten through to her then.”
“Thank you.” He laid his hand over hers and squeezed.
“You know, we later found out the man in the foster home was caught touching another child, and the rugby player was finally kicked out of school and charged with rape. That girl wasn’t as lucky as Keira about getting away from him.”
Daniel didn’t say anything, just stood looking out the window for several long minutes. She let him be.