Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Wren was nervous. Today was the day. She was going to meet her biological father. After so many years of thinking he was a deadbeat and a horrible person, finding out he was a normal, respected member of his Mission Viejo community was still a surprise.
The first time she’d spoken to him over the phone, with Bo at her side, holding her hand even though she was leaving marks in his skin with her fingernails because she was squeezing him so tight, had been awkward for several tense minutes, but the more they talked, the more she relaxed.
He seemed…nice. And heartbroken that he hadn’t known about her, and that she’d had such a horrible childhood.
The plan was for Bo to work a half day, then they’d drive up to southern LA with Remi and Kevlar and have a late lunch/early dinner with her father and her half-brother. If that went well, they’d discuss having another get-together with her other brothers, her nieces and nephew, and her stepmother.
Wren’s head was spinning. It was so hard to believe that she’d gone from being completely alone in the world to not only having a large family, but having Bo’s relatives and teammates in her corner. It would’ve been overwhelming if it wasn’t so awesome.
After quitting her job with BT Energy, she’d not heard a word from her ex-boss. Not from any of the men she’d been through hell with either. No one reached out to make sure she was all right. They’d all just presumably gone back to work as if nothing had happened in South Sudan.
She’d gone to the memorial services for Luke and Aaron but felt awkward and out of place. No one said anything rude to her, but she’d gotten a lot of side-eyes from her former coworkers.
Now she was trying to move on, and with Bo’s help, she felt as if each day was getting better.
But Wren was very nervous about today. Even though the few phone calls with her father had gone well, she still had worries that he’d reject her. That he’d somehow see whatever it was her mother had seen in her and walk away without a backward glance. Bo reassured her over and over that her mother was a bitch, and that everything she’d done had nothing to do with Wren as a person, but it was hard to shake the feeling that the way she’d been treated had somehow been her fault.
She was lost in her spiraling thoughts and panicking about the upcoming trip north, so when a loud knock sounded on the front door, Wren jumped in fright .
She frowned. Who would be knocking so forcefully? It wasn’t as if Bo got a lot of visitors, and he certainly didn’t get any solicitors.
Wren had been so surprised by the knock, she didn’t immediately go to the door to answer it. She was in the middle of reorganizing their pantry—because who didn’t do that when they were stressed?—so she was still standing in the kitchen when the first loud thump sounded.
Jerking again, Wren was confused for a moment. But when the sound happened again, she realized what was happening.
Whoever was out there was trying to kick the door in.
Wren lunged for the counter where her phone was sitting. Her first thought was to get help. She didn’t know who was outside, trying so desperately to get in, but nothing good could come out of someone kicking in a door.
She managed to hit the button that would call 9-1-1 just as the door burst open.
Wren let out a small scream of fright and backed farther into the kitchen.
The last person she expected to ever see again was standing in the foyer.
Matt.
No. His name was Barry. He was wearing a dirty pair of jeans and a long-sleeve T-shirt. His brown hair was greasy and slicked back, and his eyes narrowed when he spotted her.
“You bitch !” he exclaimed as he stalked toward her.
“Help!” Wren said into the phone, praying someone was on the other end. She knew from watching crime TV that even before the operator answered, the call was recorded, so she hoped that someone would hear what she was saying.
“Barry Simpson broke into my house! I have a restraining order! I’m at 432 West Oak?—”
Before she could finish what she was saying, Barry smacked the phone out of her hand. It flew against the wall before clattering to the floor. The screen was cracked and dark, the fall obviously breaking it.
Before she could do or say anything else, Barry grabbed her arms and threw her against the counter. The granite bit into her side, but Wren didn’t feel any pain. Adrenaline was coursing through her veins and she knew if she didn’t get away from this man, she’d be as good as dead.
She tried to duck and run around him, to get out of the house through the front door he’d stupidly left open, but he grabbed her before she could manage more than a few steps.
Wren fought like hell. She kicked and punched him where she could, but he was too strong. He towered over her five-foot-five frame by almost a foot. And he was big, muscular. Once upon a time, Wren had been impressed by his physique. But that was before he’d drugged her so he could try to violate her, and before she’d learned about his violent past.
“You had me arrested!” he hissed as he wrapped his hands around her throat and pressed her back against the counter.
Wren frantically tried to push him off her, to pry his hands off her neck, but it was no use. He was too strong and too tall for her to get any leverage. Her feet slipped on the tile as she struggled to keep them under her, but he just bent her backward farther over the counter.
Looking up into his black eyes—Wren realized this was it. She wasn’t going to be able to meet her father and half-brothers. She’d miss out on getting to know Bo’s family. Seeing him with his mom and sister. Miss out on an entire lifetime with Bo.
Visions of their unborn kids flashed in her brain…
And anger replaced fear deep inside her.
No . This was not how she went out. She’d lived through too much shit for this asshole to kill her this way.
Throwing her hand out for something, anything, to use to try to get Barry off her, she knocked over something heavy on the counter. Desperately grasping for one of the knives in the block she felt under her fingers, Wren felt blackness creeping in at the sides of her vision. She was going to pass out in seconds, and if she did, this murderer wouldn’t hesitate to continue until he’d choked the life out of her. She knew that as well as she knew her name.
The same time she wrapped her hand around the hilt of one of the fancy, way-too-expensive knives Bo took such pride in using when he cooked, Wren heard what sounded like the roar of a lion.
Her mind wasn’t working right, probably because of lack of oxygen. There was no way a lion would be in her kitchen. But she had the brief vision of the big jungle cat biting Barry’s head off, right before she plunged the knife she was gripping as if her life depended on it—and it did—into the side of her attacker’s unprotected neck.
He screamed into her face, making Wren’s ears ring, but he instantly let go of her and brought both hands to his neck in shock.
Wren had no strength to hold herself up. She fell to a heap on the kitchen floor. Her last thought before she went unconscious was that she needed to stab him again. Make sure he couldn’t strangle her a second time.
Safe frowned as Kevlar pulled into his driveway. He’d offered to drive up to Mission Viejo, and Safe had gladly agreed, as he wanted to be able to give his full attention to Wren. To keep her calm on the way there and to discuss in detail how the meeting went on the way home.
But seeing his front door standing wide open made all that fly out of his head. He wasn’t sure what was happening, but his senses immediately told him something wasn’t right.
He vaguely heard his friend telling Remi to stay in the car, but Safe was out of the back seat and moving even before Kevlar had put the vehicle in park.
Racing to the door, Safe heard sirens in the distance but he ignored them, focused on getting inside and making sure Wren was all right.
The sound that escaped his mouth when he saw a man with his hands around Wren’s neck was a mixture of rage and despair. He felt Kevlar at his back as he charged toward the kitchen. His only goal to get the guy’s hands off Wren.
To his surprise, before he reached the man, he screamed and dropped Wren, who fell like a stone to the floor. Blood was spurting out of the man’s neck, all over the floor and counter as Safe grabbed him and threw him as hard as he could away from his woman.
The attacker landed hard on the floor. Before he could even try to move, Kevlar had him on his stomach with a knee between his shoulder blades and his hands secured at the small of his back.
“Wren!” Safe exclaimed, ignoring the blood spatter on the floor and all over the front of the woman he loved.
His life flashed before his eyes as he frantically tried to find a pulse in her neck. For a moment, he felt nothing, and he would swear his soul literally shriveled up and died. But after shifting his fingers, he felt it. A weak and thready thump thump thump .
“That’s it, breathe, honey. Breathe ,” Safe begged as he shifted Wren so she was lying flat on her back on the floor. He hovered over her, his gaze watching as her chest slowly rose and fell. Tears fell from his eyes onto her shirt as he kept his fingers on her throat, making sure her heart continued to beat.
“It’s Simpson,” Kevlar told him.
That got Safe’s attention. “What the fuck ? I thought he was extradited to Wyoming?”
Kevlar shook his head and shrugged.
“Yes, we’re at 432 West Oak Street. Someone broke into my friend’s house and tried to kill her. It looks like she managed to stab him, and her boyfriend got him away from her. Yes, my boyfriend subdued him. But there’s a lot of blood. I think she’s okay…unconscious. Yes, she’s breathing. But the guy…he’s not doing so well.”
Safe heard Remi’s voice as if from the end of a long tunnel. The sirens got louder until it was obvious they were right outside his house .
Remi ran out of the house, yelling about what happened and telling the police to get inside and help.
The next few minutes were nothing but chaos. The police came in with their weapons drawn, forcing both Safe and Kevlar up and out of the kitchen. Barry Simpson was lying motionless on the tile floor, way too close to Wren for Safe’s comfort. The only thing that kept him from losing his shit, and probably getting arrested, was that he could still see Wren’s chest moving up and down from where he was standing in his living room.
The paramedics arrived, and after a quick examination of Barry, they wrapped the knife still sticking out of his neck and loaded him onto a stretcher and carried him out of the house, a police officer at their heels.
A paramedic and EMTs were kneeling around Wren when she regained consciousness. She instantly began to flail on the floor, kicking and fighting against the men and women trying to help her.
Without thought, Safe charged into the now very crowded kitchen. “You’re okay, Wren! It’s me, Bo! You’re all right!”
Safe felt two cops trying to drag him away, but he fought them, needing to be at Wren’s side. To calm her.
“Bo?” she asked, stilling.
“Let him stay,” the paramedic told the officers sternly. Then, turning to Safe, ordered, “Get up by her head and stay out of our way.”
Safe wasn’t about to protest. He moved to where he was instructed and leaned over Wren so she could see him. He put his hands on her cheeks as he hovered over her. “It’s me. You’re good, Wren. Understand? ”
“It was Barry!” she croaked. Her voice was raspy and the sight of the already bruising skin around her throat made Safe want to hunt down the asshole who’d hurt her and twist the knife sticking out of his neck to make sure the fucker bled out.
“Shhhh, I know. You were so smart by calling 9-1-1. They got here just about the same time I did.”
“Did I get him?” she asked. Her brown gaze bored into his own.
Safe wasn’t sure if he should lie and tell her that she missed, or admit that she had most likely struck a fatal blow with the knife.
Her next words made the decision easy.
“Please tell me I got him!”
“You got him,” Safe told her. “He dropped like a stone. You did good, sweetheart. I just wish I could’ve gotten here a minute earlier. When I came in, and he had you bent backward over the counter, I—” He couldn’t continue. It was a sight that would haunt him for the rest of his days.
“I heard a lion…was that you?” Wren asked with a tiny smile.
Safe closed his eyes for a moment. This woman…she was so fucking strong, it was humbling. He opened his eyes again and looked down at Wren. “That was me. I was so furious. I wanted to yell at him to let you go, to stop, something , but all that came out was this sort of yell-scream.”
“It was hot,” she told him unashamedly.
“Sir, if you can stand back, we’re ready to go,” one of the EMTs told him.
“Can I come? ”
“Can he come too?”
Safe’s words came out at the same time as Wren’s.
“Sorry, it’s company policy not to allow family members inside the ambulance unless the victim is under the age of five,” the paramedic said as they transferred Wren to a stretcher.
Safe wanted to protest, but Kevlar touched his shoulder. “We’ll get you there. We’ll be right on their bumper the entire way.”
Safe nodded, then looked down at Wren. She was pale, her hair was sticking up all over her head, she had blood on her hands—thankfully not her own—and every time she swallowed, she winced. But she was alive. He was so damn thankful for that.
“I’ll meet you at the hospital,” Safe told her.
She nodded, then winced again and whispered, “Okay.”
Not able to stop himself, Safe leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Love you,” he whispered.
“Love you too,” she responded.
As she was being wheeled toward the door, Safe heard her tell the EMTs to stop. He rushed over to her. “What? What’s wrong?” he asked frantically.
“Nothing,” Wren said. “But my father’s going to wonder where we are. If we stood him up.”
“I’ll call him. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.”
“Thanks.”
“No need to thank me for that. Warning, Wren—you’re going to be very tired of me waiting on you hand and foot and not letting you out of my sight for the foreseeable future. ”
She let out a small huff of laughter. “Yeah, right. Okay, you go on believing that.”
Safe couldn’t believe he was smiling as Wren was wheeled out the door. He watched until she was safely inside the ambulance. After a few minutes, it slowly pulled away from the curb.
“Come on, we need to roll if we’re going to beat them to the hospital,” Kevlar said. “I’ve called Wolf and Dude. They’re going to come over and hang out until the cops are done with their investigation here. Preacher and the rest of the team, along with detectives who need to get our side of what happened, will meet us at the hospital.”
Safe nodded. Now that Wren was safe and he knew she’d be all right, the adrenaline that had shot through his system at seeing that asshole’s hands around her neck quickly waned. He was glad for the arm that Kevlar threw around his shoulders. He felt as weak as a newborn. That had been the scariest moment of his life, hands down.
“She’s okay,” Kevlar told him, as if he could read his mind. “When I found out Remi was missing, I felt the same way. I’ve got you.”
It was comforting to realize his friend knew exactly how he was feeling. Taking a deep breath, then another, Safe climbed back into Kevlar’s Subaru. He pulled out his phone the moment he sat down. He needed to call Tyler Farris and let him know what happened to his daughter.