TORTURE ME_ The Bandits MC(56)

Fiona slowly walked forward, making her footfall as heavy as possible so Tori would know that she was heading towards her, but she still said, “Tori, honey, I’m going to come to you, okay? I’m going to help you. Just hold on.”



She reached the bloodied girl but didn’t touch her right away. Fiona didn’t want her to freak out and run away from them. That’s what I would do in her situation, Fiona thought, thinking back fifteen years earlier. I would run and run and keep running until my legs gave out.



“Tori? Sweetheart? You need to get to a hospital, okay? My friend and I were hired to help find you. We’ll take you to the ER, and they’ll make sure that you’re okay. I’ll call your parents right away, honey, alright? But we need to get you to see a doctor.”



Tori slowly turned around to face Fiona, her eyes glued to the pavement below her bare bloody feet. “Tori,” she said slowly, sounding out the syllables. “That’s my name?”



“Yes, yes, that’s your name, darling. Tori. Victoria Greenwood. That’s who you are,” Fiona replied before offering her hand. “Here, come here. We’ll keep you safe. I promise. I promise, darling, nothing bad is going to happen to you.”



Tori opened her mouth to answer, but before she could say anything, the door to the house behind them flung open, revealing a greying middle-aged woman in a nice pantsuit. “Oh, God! Oh, my God!” she cried out. This must be Mrs. Greenwood, Fiona thought, watching as the mother collided with her daughter, crushing her into her arms. Tori winced a little and went limp, like a ragdoll being embraced by a little child who didn’t understand that she couldn’t feel anything. “Oh, Jesus, thank you, Jesus, thank you, God!” Mrs. Greenwood cried out, tears spilling out of her eyes as she clutched her broken daughter closely to her chest.



“Mrs. Greenwood?” Gage said, stepping forward in front of Fiona. “Mrs. Greenwood, we need to get your daughter to a hospital. She must have broken free somehow, and we’ll figure out where she was kept, but first, we have to make sure she’s alright. She needs a doctor right now.”



“I’m not letting her go. I’m never letting her go,” Mrs. Greenwood sobbed, rubbing the back of her daughter’s head. “My baby, my baby!”



“Just give them a minute,” Gage whispered to Fiona, putting a hand on her shoulder and rubbing at Fiona’s skin, sending sparks of heat down into her bones.



But Fiona could only watch as Tori balled her hands into fists, keeping her arms stiffly by her sides as her mother held her close. “She’s suffocating her,” she whispered softly to Gage, looking on as Tori began to full-body tremble like electric shocks were being shot through her skin.



“Mrs. Greenwood,” Fiona said, a little louder and more firmly than Gage had spoken. “Mrs. Greenwood, I’m a victims’ advocate and a survivor of a kidnapper, just like your daughter. We need to get her to a hospital immediately, okay?”



At first Mrs. Greenwood just stared at her through tear-clogged eyes, sniffling and keeping her arms wrapped around her daughter, so Fiona spoke again. “The next hour is critical. We have to make sure she gets the help she needs right away,” Fiona said. What she was really thinking, but didn’t say, was that potential DNA from the kidnapper could be extracted from Tori’s clothes and skin, and the longer they waited, the more they risked losing that crucial piece of evidence.



“Okay,” Mrs. Greenwood said softly, keeping her daughter close to her body as she began walking down the front path. “Can you call her father, Mr. Preston?” she asked Gage. “Tell him to meet us at the university hospital. That’s the closest one to here,” she said as they walked over to the car in the driveway.



“Will do,” Gage said, taking Fiona by the elbow. “Come on, we’ll follow in our car.”



Fiona was tempted to argue with him, wanting to stay as close to Tori as possible, but before she could answer, Mrs. Greenwood already started up their car and pulled out onto the street, speeding away towards the hospital. “Fine,” she mumbled, heading back towards Gage’s car.



They rode over to the hospital in complete silence, Fiona fighting back tears as the images of the bloodied teenage girl replayed themselves over and over again inside her head. She looked so broken, Fiona thought. So defeated. But she got out, just like me. She fought her way out and made it home, just like I did. Fiona’s chest ached like she’d been shot, like a hole had been blown through her body. She needed to be by the girl’s side, no matter what, even if she couldn’t help, even if she could only watch. She had to see that she was okay. She had to see that that fucker hadn’t broken her, not completely.