Chapter 17 #2
He eased himself into a chair near her head and put his hand on the uninjured side of her face. “It’s just a precaution.”
“But was I?” she asked. “I can’t remember anything. I don’t hurt…down there. Did someone touch me when I was unconscious? I don’t think I would’ve gotten drunk in the middle of the day…but I guess I did?”
“Shhh, sweetheart. Don’t get yourself all worked up.”
“I can’t remember!” she repeated in a tone full of agony.
“They took blood. They’ll find out what you were given. Until then, you can’t panic, Di.”
Gillian squeezed her eyes shut and did her best to control her breathing as the nurse put her legs in stirrups and began the rape test.
“I’m not Wonder Woman,” Gillian whispered. “I’m scared to death. My head and neck hurt, and apparently I was tied up. How come I can’t remember any of it? That makes no sense!”
“You being scared doesn’t make you any less amazing or kick-ass, Gillian. And not remembering makes sense if you were given something to help you forget,” Trigger soothed.
“But why?”
“Why what?”
“Why didn’t they kill me?”
Trigger had been wondering the same thing, but he didn’t let on. “Maybe because whoever took you realized how amazing you are, and killing you would put a black mark on his soul he’d never recover from.”
For the first time since he’d caught her eye as she was being wheeled in, Trigger saw something in her expression other than absolute abject terror. “Yeah, I’m sure that was it. Must’ve been my wicked sense of humor.”
Trigger was overwhelmed with gratitude that his woman had managed to break free of the tight hold fear had on her.
“We’re going to figure this out,” he told her, looking intently into her eyes as he said it, so she’d believe him. “Brain and the rest of the team is on this. I want you to come and stay with me until whoever did this is caught.”
“And if they can’t catch him? It’s not as if I can give any information about what happened,” she said.
“Then you’ll just have to stay with me forever.” Nothing felt as right as the thought of going to sleep every night with Gillian by his side and waking up to the same.
“If you’re feeling responsible for whatever happened to me, and that’s why you’re asking, then my answer is no,” she told him.
Trigger opened his mouth to protest, but she went on before he could.
“But if you’re asking because you truly want me there, if you might think you could someday love me as much as I love you, then my answer is yes.”
They were in the middle of an emergency room. A nurse had just put Gillian’s legs down after doing a rape test, and Trigger was overwhelmed with her bravery.
“I love you. When I realized you were missing, it felt as if my heart had been ripped out of my chest. It only started beating again when we got word that you’d been found and were alive.
I want you to live with me so I can see your smiling face every day.
So I can feed you coffee and doughnuts every morning and hear your sigh of contentment.
I want to laugh with you and argue as well…
simply so we can make up afterward. And yes, I want to keep you safe, but eventually this hard time will pass, and I’ll still want to wake up to your gorgeous face every morning. ”
“Damn, that was beautiful,” the nurse mumbled as she busied herself off to the side, preparing slides for the labs.
Gillian huffed out a laugh. “I’m not quitting my job. I’ve still got events to organize and finalize.”
Trigger frowned, but nodded.
“How about this—I finish with the events I’ve got planned right now, then I switch my focus to the Killeen area. That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop working in Austin, because I have a lot of contacts here already and repeat clients, but I’ll do my best to stay closer to home.”
“I’d move if I could,” Trigger told her honestly.
“I know. But what you do is important, and you have to be as close to the base as possible.”
She hadn’t said anything that wasn’t true, but it still smarted. He nodded.
The doctor came back into the room. “How do you feel, Ms. Romano?”
Gillian shrugged. “I’m okay.”
“On a scale of one to ten, where ten is the most pain you’ve ever felt in your entire life and one is no pain whatsoever, where would you put yourself right now?”
“Three?” Gillian said with a shrug. “My head and throat hurt, but that’s about it.”
The doctor nodded approvingly. “You’ll need to talk to the detective when he arrives, but I don’t think there’s any need to keep you overnight. Your pupils are still a bit dilated, but other than not remembering what happened, you don’t seem confused or disoriented.”
“I’m not,” Gillian told him.
“Do you have someone who can stay with you?”
“Yes, she does,” Trigger said immediately. “She’s going to be staying with me. I’m in the Army and have enough medical knowledge to watch over her. I can bring her to the hospital if her condition or pain level changes.”
The doctor nodded again. “Good. I hope they find whoever did this to you.”
“Me too,” Gillian said.
Then the doctor smiled distractedly and spun on his heels and left the room, his attention already on his next patient.
Trigger knew they needed to wait for the police detective to get there, but he wanted nothing more than to wrap Gillian up and take her home.
He was well aware that he’d almost lost her.
He had no idea what happened, but he had a gut feeling it had to do with the hijacking.
Someone wanted information, and they’d decided to snatch one of the people who might have it.
He made a mental note to call the FBI agent and make sure the other passengers were on high alert.
Gillian had been kidnapped, probably questioned, then given something to make sure she didn’t remember anything before being dropped off at a random location, largely unhurt and unmolested. It was more than odd, and it didn’t make sense…which made it all the more worrisome.
The rest of the afternoon and early evening was spent talking with Gillian’s friends and making sure they knew she was all right and where she’d be living for the foreseeable future.
The detective also arrived, and it was painful and frustrating—on all their parts—to have to listen to Gillian say over and over again that she didn’t remember anything about her abduction.
The detective left with no more information than they’d had before. He’d also confirmed Trigger’s suspicion that if they didn’t get any DNA from her clothes, and if she hadn’t been assaulted, there wouldn’t be much the police could do to find the perpetrators unless Gillian remembered something.
Trigger knew she was frustrated and exhausted, and when the doctor finally signed her discharge papers, he couldn’t get her out of there fast enough. She was wearing a pair of scrubs a nurse had scrounged up and she fell asleep almost the second he started driving north.
His teammates had been there with him the entire time. Bringing them food for dinner and doing their best to keep Gillian’s spirits up.
Lefty and Brain were with Trigger. The others had left with Doc, back to the parking garage to retrieve Gillian’s car, which they’d drop off at Trigger’s apartment complex.
“I’ve been researching,” Brain said after they’d been driving for fifteen minutes and they were all sure Gillian was asleep. “The doctor suspects Rohypnol, and I agree. In some cases, people are able to remember bits and pieces of the time right before they were dosed.”
Trigger grunted. It would be helpful if Gillian remembered something, but it wouldn’t change what had happened to her.
“Who do you think is behind this?” Lefty asked.
“Honestly?” Trigger asked.
“Of course,” Lefty said.
“Sinaloa,” Trigger replied with no doubt in his voice.
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too,” Lefty confirmed. “Roofies are easy to get in Mexico. They’re legal down there, so it wouldn’t be hard to put some into a drink and force her to ingest it.”
“But kidnapping her doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Brain added. “Why now? I mean, they’ve had months to make their move and take her out if they wanted. And why release her without any real harm?”
“I’m guessing they heard about her visit with the FBI. Maybe they wanted to know what she told them. If she knows who the seventh hijacker was,” Lefty mused.
“And when they found out she had no clue, they decided it wasn’t worth the risk to kill her,” Brain concluded.
Trigger’s jaw ticked in frustration. Everything his teammates were saying made sense, but he hated that it was Gillian they were talking about so unemotionally. This was what they did with every mission. They talked it through…but it felt wrong this time.
“Guys?” he asked.
“Yeah?”
“What’s up?”
“Can we please drop it for now? The last thing Gillian needs is to subconsciously hear us talking about her,” Trigger said tightly.
“You’re right, sorry,” Brain apologized.
“Yeah, sorry, we should’ve waited,” Lefty added.
Trigger took a deep breath and tried to relax, which was impossible.
“So…you’re moving her in, huh?” Lefty asked, and Trigger could hear the smirk in his voice even if he couldn’t see him from the driver’s seat.
“Yup.”
“She realize that she’s never going back to her apartment in Georgetown?”
Trigger smiled for the first time in hours. “Don’t know. Don’t care.”
His friends chuckled.
“You need help moving her stuff from her place to yours?”
“Would appreciate that,” Trigger said gratefully.
“She gonna lose her mind when we show up with her shit?” Brain asked.
“Don’t know,” Trigger said again. “But in the long run, she’ll be okay with it.
I love her, she loves me back. She was meant to be mine.
There’s no way she’s living anywhere other than by my side until I know for sure she’s safe from whatever is threatening her.
And afterward, I’m hoping she’ll be so comfortable, she won’t even think about leaving. ”
“Your place is pretty small,” Brain observed. “I bet you could find something bigger. Maybe a three- or four-bedroom condo or something.”
“It’s on my radar,” Trigger admitted. Just last week, he’d perused the internet looking for places to rent around the base that were bigger than his apartment.
“But for now, my place will do. It’s small but safe.
And I’d rather not worry about being distracted with moving until the threat to her is over and done. ”
“Agreed. Happy for you, Trigger,” Lucky said.
“Thanks.”
“I’d complain about things not being the same, now that you’ve found a woman, but after seeing Ghost and his team fall—and fall hard—and how their relationships have all weathered the changes, I don’t mind so much,” Brain said.
Trigger agreed. The other Delta team had proven that, with the right women, having a family and a life as a Delta soldier could go hand in hand. He hadn’t been looking for love, but it had fallen into his lap, and he’d be damned if he’d give up Gillian because of fear of making a relationship work.
His and Gillian’s souls were linked and nothing was going to take her from him. Nothing and nobody. He’d do everything in his power to make sure of it.