Chapter 4
CHAPTER 4
Ryan slowly came to, and only opened his eyes a slit as he took in his surroundings. They were still driving, and he asked quietly, “Are we there yet?”
“Nope,” the redheaded woman beside him said with a laugh. He realized then that everything that had happened earlier was true. He heard a sound and struggled up in his seat. He brought the box to him and opened one flap to look in to spy the kittens.
“How much further? Do you think we should stop and get supplies for these little ones? I don’t think they’re old enough to eat dry food.”
“Do you have the feature to call people on this truck?”
“Yes.” Ryan leaned over and pushed a couple of buttons, and spoke loud and clear. “Call Clark.” He looked at her with a grin when they could hear a phone ringing through the speakers of the truck.
“Riceman,” came the barked reply into the phone.
“Hey, it’s Pru, we’re about ten minutes from home. Your friend woke up, can you ask Naomi if we have any small bottles or eye droppers at the barn? We have three little kittens here that might need milk. If not, then can you stop and pick up some squishy canned food?”
“Squishy?” Ryan asked with a small smile.
“I can, how’s he doing?”
“I’m alive,” Ryan said, and left it at that. “Is Reid getting my burger?”
“He is,” Clark chuckled into the phone. “Do you need anything else?”
“No, I should be good. I want to make sure these babies are fed when we get to wherever we’re going.” He looked around, then turned back to speak into the dashboard. “I forgot how desolate it was out this way.”
“Yeah, we’re at the store now, we’ll be about an hour behind you. Is there anything else you need?”
“Nope, just my burgers and some kitty food.” They hung up, and Ryan settled back against the seat with a heavy sigh, he had his hand in the box and was mindlessly rubbing one finger over the kittens. When he heard purring coming from the box, he smiled.
“Can you do me a favor when we get to wherever we’re going?”
“Sure, I’m Pru by the way, it’s nice to meet you. I remember how the guys reacted when Clark got the word that you had been taken.” She continued to drive, then glanced over at him. “I have to say, it’s been some time since I fought like that, I think the last time was during BCT.”
“BCT?”
“Basic combat training.”
“You’re military?”
“Former. Air Force.”
“Well, for whatever it’s worth, thanks for the assist.”
“Not a problem. Now, what favor do you want me to do?”
“When we get to wherever we’re going, I forgot since I was here years ago, but one favor is that I’m going to need some help getting out of the truck. The second favor is that there’s a brown duffel bag in the back seat. Give that to Denver, tell him he’ll know what to do with that. I’m sorry.”
“For?” Pru asked as she slowed to pull into the driveway to Erin’s Way and looked over at him. “Don’t be dead,” she whispered as she drove slowly down the lane. “Please don’t be dead, I can’t deal with that again. Not again,” she kept repeating it over and over. When she got to the cut off that led to the cabins where she lived, she sighed in relief when she saw Virgil standing there beside his truck. Pru slowed down enough to roll down her window.
“What’s up, Clark called and said to wait here for you.”
“Is anyone with you?”
“Wendel went down to the cabins already, and Floyd’s in the truck. What’s up? Who’s that?” Virgil asked as he looked past her and saw the man passed out in the passenger seat. “Is this his truck?”
“Yes, and this is Ryan Carter. The guy that was captured before Christmas. He’s passed out, I’m going to need help getting him in my cabin.”
“Why not one of the other cabins? Why yours?”
“Because if I’m going to take care of him, I want him close. I have a spare room. If he cries out in the middle of the night, I can’t hear him if he’s in the other cabin.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” Pru said, and sighed in relief when the older man nodded, turned on his heel and walked to his truck. She followed him through the muddy path and with some moving of vehicles, they moved hers out of the way, and she backed Ryan’s up so his door was closest to the door of the cabin. The older men pulled the man out, and while Pru hurried forward to open doors, she came back to help bring him in. It took almost fifteen minutes to get him inside the house and onto the bed in the spare room. She sighed in relief when Floyd reached up and removed the guy’s shoes.
She left him there, and ran out to the truck to bring the box of kittens inside. “Do you guys know how old these little ones are?” She opened the box and the men looked in. As they looked, Pru explained what had happened at Gunny’s and they shook their heads.
“I’d give them some canned food with extra gravy, or mix some up with some milk,” Wendel said as he picked up one of the cats and grinned when the little bugger tried to hiss and extend its claws. “This is what they call a tuxedo cat, and he’s a male.” He smiled at Pru as he put that one back, and picked up another one. “This one is solid black, a female.” He returned that one, and picked up the next one. “Another female, and as you can see, she’s a ginger, which is rare.”
“How?”
“You do know that a ginger is another word for an orange cat?”
“Yes.”
“Well, a female ginger is rare. Nine times out of ten, gingers are male. Are you going to keep them?”
“They’re not mine, they’re Ryan’s, he’s the one that rescued them.” She told them again what had happened, and they all looked up when several vehicles stopped outside her cabin. It had turned dark on the way home. She stood her ground when several men rushed into her cabin.
“Where is he?” Lloyd demanded.
“Wait,” Pru stood there with her hands on his hips. “He told me something before he passed out. You need to know what it is.”
“What’s that?” Perry demanded as he looked around wildly.
“He said that he has a brown duffel in the back of his truck that Denver needs.”
“Fuck me,” Denver said as he turned on his heel and rushed out. By then the women had come inside, and they looked at the men in confusion.
“What did he mean by that?” Pru asked in general.
“If it’s what I think it is, that brown duffel is a first aid kit. If I know Ryan, and if he hasn’t changed over the years, then that pack would contain an entire hospital’s supply of bandages.”
“But why have Denver use it?” Opal asked in confusion as she got them all bottles of water. She didn’t know whether she should make a pot of coffee or not.
“Because Ryan and I were the medics on the team,” Denver said as he entered carrying the large brown bag. He looked at Pru. “Where is he?”
“In my spare room,” she said as she led the way. Once they entered, she stood off to the side as the men slowly approached the bed. With the lights on, they studied the sleeping man, when they called his name, he didn’t wake. Denver put the bag on the side of the bed, opened it, and pulled out something. Pru wrinkled her nose when she smelt the ammonia packet that was broken open and placed beneath Ryan’s nose.
“Fuck!” Ryan screamed as he jerked awake. He looked around wildly, then settled back against the pillows. “You’re an asshole,” he said as he looked at Denver.
“Yep, now, why do you need the bag?”
Ryan looked around, then spotted Pru. “Do you mind leaving? I’m about to get naked.”
“I’ve seen naked men before. No offense, but you’re in my house. I volunteered myself to be your nurse. I’m going to need to see what I’m dealing with here. I’ve seen worse.”
Ryan glared at her with his one good eye, and when she refused to back down, he shrugged. He turned to look at his friends. “I need some bandages changed, but I need help getting my shirt and pants off.”
The men didn’t say a word as they helped Ryan sit up, and after he unbuttoned his shirt, he held his arms out so they could remove it from him.
“Fuck,” Pru heard the men say, and they blocked her view of his upper body.
“Where are your clothes?” she asked.
“In my sea bag behind the passenger seat,” came a weak reply, and she turned on her heel to go get it. Once outside, she got the bag out, and looked up when another vehicle approached. It was Clark and Naomi. Pru waved Clark inside, but told him to take the sea bag with him, and she reassured him that she would get Naomi inside. As soon as Clark entered, the women inside came out. Opal took the bag Naomi handed her, and said it was for the kittens. Ten minutes later, Naomi was sitting at the table, and they watched as Wendel fixed a dish of food for the kittens.
“We bought some kitty litter, which is still in the truck.”
Virgil went out to get it, and in no time the new arrivals were set up with food, water, and a place to go to the bathroom.
“Do you think they’ll bother my chickens?” Pru asked at one point.
“They shouldn’t, and if they do, you could always take them to the barn,” Floyd said. They looked up when Reid rushed into the kitchen. He held a bag in one hand and looked around wildly.
Pru pointed, and said, “Spare room.” They all watched as he took off at a run. Erin entered and Pru shook her head. “I can understand their concern about their friend, but why the urgency?”
“Clark called their former commanding officer, then called Reid. We went to Mattie’s for the hamburgers. On the way home, Clark said that Ryan and his team were missing for twenty days before they were rescued. Their captors killed one of the SEALs, starved them, tortured them, and his missing eye is a result of that torture. Ryan’s only been out of the hospital for about three weeks.” Erin looked around wildly, and because it was something to do, she immediately went over to the coffee pot in the corner and started making it. She didn’t know how long any of them would be there. After it started brewing, she turned back to the women. “Reid also said that Ryan was not only his swim buddy while on the team, but they also shared an apartment together.” She shook her head and looked directly at Pru. “I have a feeling you’re going to have a fight on your hands as to who is going to be watching over Ryan. My gut is telling me all the men will be in and out of here until he kicks them out. I’m not saying you did anything wrong, but that’s my opinion. It might have been better to put him in the larger cabin if the men will be in and out of here.” Erin shook her head and began pouring cups of coffee when the pot finished brewing.
“Shit, and he drove here from San Diego?”
“Probably.”
Pru took a cup from her and because she was curious, she went over to the spare bedroom and slipped inside unnoticed by the men surrounding the bed. She jerked when she heard an unfamiliar voice, but realized it belonged to Ryan.
“Careful!” Ryan yelled at his friends.
“Tell me that the fuckers that did this to you are dead,” Clark said from the foot of the bed.
Pru was able to move so she could look at the man between the bodies of the other men. She sucked in her breath when she saw all the scars, some fresh, some in varying degrees of healing. She looked up and saw him looking directly at her. She didn’t flinch as she returned his stare. It was like he was talking directly to her when he spoke.
“Yeah, at least that’s what I was told after I came to in the hospital. We were held for twenty days with no food, no water, and we had to piss in the corner of the room we were being held in. At first, it was the four of us, I didn’t find out what happened to the other two members of our team until I was rescued.”
“What happened to them?” Lloyd asked as he used his gloved hands to take the bloodied bandages being handed to him and stuffed them in a bag.
“They were killed in the ambush before we were captured. The fuckers captured us for information.”
“What type of information?” Clark asked again.
Ryan broke eye contact with Pru to look at the men before he drilled holes into Clark with his one good eye. “Information we didn’t have. No matter how many times we told them we didn’t know, they continued with the torture. After a few days, they broke us apart. We were initially held in one room.”
“Who was with you?” It seemed like Clark was doing all the questioning, and before Pru could object, she realized that he had been the commanding officer of the rest of the men. It was like a debriefing. She also realized that he wanted answers, as did everyone else, so they left the questioning to him.
“Broome, Sanchez, Gould, and myself. After the first couple of days, they’d question and torture us together, then they broke us up. Broome and I were together, and Sanchez and Gould were down the hall. After they split us up, I never saw them again until we were in the hospital after being rescued.” Ryan shook his head and Pru immediately stepped forward and offered him her cup of coffee, he looked at her gratefully and took a healthy sip.
“Thank you,” he said, then looked at Reid. “Burgers?”
“Here,” Pru said as she grabbed the container Reid had entered with. She passed him the bag and watched as he practically devoured the first one in about three bites. He sighed and sipped his coffee again, only wincing a couple of times when Denver and Perry worked on his back.
He leaned back and pointed to his stomach. “That’s going to need stitches.”
“What the hell?” All the men yelled at him.
“Got it in the fight earlier.” He had looked at Pru while he’d said it, then ate another hamburger as Denver got the supplies he needed and stitched Ryan up.
“How much weight did you lose?” Reid asked as he took the empty container from him.
“About fifty pounds. I remember from Operation Gold Rush that the doctors wanted us to beef up our protein to heal. Hence the burgers.”
No one said anything for a few minutes, and Pru stepped forward to stand beside Clark. “What condition are the others in?”
“Sanchez and Gould were still in the hospital when I was discharged and left. If you want to get technical, I’m in the best condition of all of us, Broome is the worst.”
“What happened to him.”
“I don’t want to offend you by saying.”
“Nothing can offend me. You’d be surprised what I’ve seen and been through.”
Ryan shook his head, but when she didn’t look away, or pale when Denver stitched him up, he sighed heavily. “The motherfuckers disemboweled Broome right in front of me on Christmas Day.”
The entire room froze at his words, and because it felt right, Pru walked around the bed, sat down gingerly by his good side, took his hand in hers, and said clear as day, “Well, you’re home now, and no one will be hurting you ever again.”
The others agreed, but it wasn’t long before Ryan showed signs of exhaustion. Pru stood as the men helped him undress the rest of the way and get a pair of sweats on him. He climbed beneath the covers and thanked everyone before he looked directly at Pru.
“Thank you for letting me stay here. I’m going to apologize in advance if I wake you in the middle of the night with my screaming.”
“No need, I’ll try not to wake you with my own nightmares.” She felt all the men turn to look at her, and she only shrugged. It seemed creepy at first, but they all stood around and watched until Ryan fell into a fitful sleep, then they gravitated toward the kitchen where the others waited for them.