Hearts on Fire 9: Her Shadows of Light(27)

“Wake up. It’s time for more training,” he whispered against her ear and licked the lobe.

She turned her head away from him. “No,” she mumbled, her lips so swollen she couldn’t talk. Her eyes wouldn’t open completely because they were swollen, too.

She lay motionless, and it obviously pissed him off.

“Wake up. Wake the fuck up now.” He shoved at her body, and she lay still.

She heard the click of a knife. She saw him standing over her, looking wild and rabid.

“I’ll cut you up. I’ll hurt you worse if you don’t cooperate.”

“Screw you, asshole.”

She spat at him, and he slashed her skin with the knife right over her rib cage. He came down again and slashed the other side deeper. She screamed at the top of her lungs and then heard a door slam open. She looked up toward the lighted doorway. Like shadows of light in a room of pure evil and darkness, figures appeared. Stark stood up and knocked over his table of items and torturing tools as those shadows descended the stairs. A fire started in the corner when he yelled and threw something at it. Flames emerged, shining the whole room, but he charged with the knife toward the shadows as she screamed.

She heard the multiple gunshots then a large thump. There was yelling and then voices she recognized.

“Jesus, look what he did to you. Oh God, baby, please. I’ve got you. Please be okay,” Rusty said to her. She cried and sobbed uncontrollably.

“There’s nothing to put this fire out. We have to move, now,” Reece yelled to them.

“He’s dead, baby. He can’t ever hurt you or anyone else again,” Pat said to her as he and Tobin began to slowly cut the bindings on her wrists.

They could hear the sirens blaring in the distance.

“Tobin? You guys in here?” someone else’s voice yelled from upstairs.

“Down here. We need a fire extinguisher,” Reece yelled up.

Someone caressed her cheek.

“We’re going to get you to the hospital, baby. You’re going to be okay now. I promise, baby. I’m so sorry this happened. So sorry,” Tobin said to her.

She cringed in pain as they undid the bindings and slowly brought her arms down. Others came down the stairs. She could feel so many people down there.

“She’s cut on both sides. A knife did the damage there and there,” Rusty said, and she blinked her eyes open as she moaned.

“It’s Mercury, sweetheart. We’re going to get you bandaged up and then onto a stretcher. It’s going to be okay.”

Someone was caressing her hair from her cheeks and her forehead.

“We’re never going to let you out of our sight again. This never should have happened,” Tobin whispered, and she felt his lips against her forehead, and she sobbed.





Epilogue




“How is she really?” Buddy asked Tobin when he stopped into the department to sign some papers. He’d taken the next several weeks off to spend with Brighid and his brothers. They needed the time together. They needed to process what had happened, to help her heal and feel safe, and work on their plans for the future.

Tobin sat forward in the chair in front of Jake’s desk. Buddy, and Trent were there, too. .

“She has nightmares, needs to take some medication for that. The stitches come out tomorrow, and we have an appointment with a great plastic surgeon that Kyle St. James recommended. I think if we can get those marks from the knife wounds to disappear then she may be able to mentally heal better.”

“How about the other bruises and welts? All gone?” Trent asked.

“Still visible but her ribs are wrapped up so the bandages hide them. It’s fucking crazy. I just want to take all her pain away.”

“That’s understandable, and it will take time. I heard that she started seeing that therapist Michaela and Serefina recommended. That will help a bunch too,” Jake said to him.

“It will. This whole community has been amazing and supportive. People keep dropping things off and offering assistance. Thank God that cousin of yours saw that van that day, Trent, Buddy. I don’t even want think about if he hadn’t,” Tobin said, and Buddy smiled.

“Billy is a good kid. A bit of a wiseass now and then, but he’s very alert and in tune to his surroundings. He wants to be a cop someday too,” Trent stated.

“Well, he might just make a really good one. I’d better get moving. I want to pick up some stuff for lunch and head home. Thanks for everything.” He shook their hands.

“Take your time, Tobin. There’s no rush to get back here. You’ve got a lot of vacation time saved,” Jake said as they all walked him out.

“Don’t worry, I will. My brothers and I need to work out a schedule. None of us will be leaving her alone for quite some time.”

They smiled and nodded in understanding, and Tobin headed out to get home.

Things had changed so much. The safe and secure feeling he’d always had in Treasure Town had been tainted by some madman who wanted to cause havoc and pain. He needed to make Brighid and his brothers feel safe again. He needed to hold her in his arms and know she was protected. He hurried up to get home.



* * * *



Brighid knew they were surprised that she wanted to take a walk by the beach. She had been inside for more than a week now, and she hated it. She wanted to start living and putting the traumatic event behind her.

She closed her eyes as Rusty helped her get dressed. She made it simple by putting on a sundress that slid right over her head. His lips kissed every bit of skin they could as he assisted her. Her men were so empathetic and caring. They took every opportunity to hold her, kiss her, and make love to her slowly. Her ribs were still sore, and the stitches still needed to be removed, so making love was difficult, but they took their time and loved her one by one.

“Are you ready?” Rusty asked her, holding her by her hips as he stared down into her eyes.

“In just a minute. You go downstairs, and I’ll meet you.”

He squinted at her. They had never left her side. Not since that day she was abducted and tortured and they had saved her.

He slowly left her, but his eyes, his body language, indicated that he wasn’t happy about it.

He left the room, and she looked into the mirror as she brushed her hair.

The bruising was faint but still noticeable.

She took a deep breath and felt the emptiness of the room, that anxious feeling instant because her men weren’t by her side. She needed them so much her heart ached to not have them right there with her.

She took a deep breath and walked down the stairs. As the sun cast light through the room where they all stood waiting for her, she paused in awe.

Just as that day when she’d felt there was no help and she would die there in the darkness at the hands of a serial arsonist, her body aching, her heart, her will to live being tested to the very last ounce of determination, she saw them. Her shadows of light at the top of the stairs ready to come to her aid and rescue. They were her lovers, her best friends, her everything. They were what kept her fighting, her needing, wanting to survive so she could be with them.

The tears stung her eyes, and instantly Tobin was there, pulling her into his arms from the last two steps of the staircase. She wrapped her arms around him, and he held her close as he brought her to the others. They gathered around her, touched her, caressed her body and laid kisses to her shoulders, her head, and her arms, infusing their love, their healing capabilities into her, and she loved them for it.

She pulled back to look down into Tobin’s eyes.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I just love you all so much. I need you so much. Even being away from you for a minute makes me feel anxious and nervous.”

“We won’t ever leave you, baby. We’ll always be right nearby.” Rusty kissed the top of her hand. She chuckled.

“I don’t want to be clingy. It won’t always have to be this way. Where I’ll need to feel your hands on me, holding me, touching me. Feel your lips against my skin and smell your cologne. Let your scent fill my nostrils and make me feel safe and complete.”

“Why the hell not? We need the same things from you. To feel you close, to take from this body and give of ours to you,” Pat said to her.

“To smell the scent of your shampoo and your perfume that lingers in a room after you’ve been there,” Rusty said.

“To smell the pillow on the bed and know you’re right next to me when I awake in the night with fear or uncertainty that you’re really ours,” Tobin told her.

“We love you so much, baby. It’s going to take time to get through this, but we will, and one day, it will be but a distant memory. You fought so hard, and you’re a survivor. Survivors live on. They never quit, they never give up or give in. They triumph, and we’ll be here to witness it every day for the rest of our lives,” Reece told her and kissed her arm.

She felt the tears roll down her cheeks, and Tobin wiped them away and smiled.

“How about we pack up some sandwiches and turn this little beach trip into a picnic?” he suggested.

She smiled wide and felt the excitement, the encouragement to do something so damn normal.

“Yes.” She kissed him, and then he set her feet down on the floor, and they all worked together to make sandwiches, pack up a cooler, and grab all the things they would need for a nice picnic on the beach.