Left Behind (16 page)

‘I don’t like that.’
I signed.
‘That sounds like if you’re caught, they would leave you there to hang .’

“That’s a risk, Princess, but i
f not for teams like this
, a lot of the POWs would never get rescued. We would never all leave you at the same time…” Tory saw my face when he said that and realized he’d messed up.

‘So you think I’d say “sure go on Tory because I have two backups”? Is that what you think I think of all of you?’

“Now that’s not what he meant, Pea, and you know it.” Toby said sternly, but when I turned to glare at him, he shrank back into his seat.

‘We will be talking about this later, but now is not the time.’
I huffed out my breath as I signed this. I waited all of these years for them to finish their military careers, to have them all injured in some way and sent home, just to have them go back without the military to back them up? I so didn’t think so. I would not do the waiting at home for the phone call to tell me that one of them didn’t make it. Been there, done that, not doing it again. I had just now finally got them all back. If they left me again, that was breaking the promise Toby made when he first came home.

“I want to move back into my room.” Tory said out of the blue. “Let’s get this stupid bed out of here. I want things to go back to normal.”

“Nah, man. Give it a week or two.” Troy answered. “Let’s work out like we talked about, get you back up to par.”

“Yea
h
, I agree with him, you can’t be making all of those trips up and down the stairs every day right now.” Toby added.

“I’m not a damned invalid. I can get up on my own two feet; I don’t need all of this.”

I got up, walked over to the bed and got up in it with him. I sat facing him.
‘You are getting stronger, but you just woke up. Give yourself time to get better, or you’ll just strain yourself and end up worse.
I’ll be with you, and if it’s alright with your brothers, we’ll start training tomorrow.’

I knew he’d been upset that he couldn’t go with us when the fire happened earlier, and embarrassed that Toby had told Troy to stay with him. He didn’t want to think he needed a keeper. He had only brought it up to change the subject and try to get me to forget, but he was truly upset over it. I thought about it while I went to my room.

I took a shower, changed into my night clothes, and went back downstairs to the study. I think me sleeping with him every night was helping him as much as it was me. Toby and Troy always stayed in there with us, taking turn sleeping on the couch and floor. I was praying that it was a good sign for the future.

I couldn’t wait for the next day. I would finally be taking a step to getting my old life back, and I’d be able to help defend my family at the same time.

I don’t know how long I stood there and stared at the remains of my house. I had come after a morning workout with the trips. Tory had overdone himself, so he was out of commission on bed rest for the rest of the day.

As I stood there, I remembered my dad. He had lost himself when my mother died, but it healed him in a way. He had been an alcoholic before. It was the main bone of contention between my parents. He didn’t work or contribute to the household. She had provided everything for all of us with her disability check. She struggled, but she never let us want for anything. Daddy felt bad after she died, knowing he could have done more, and showed her how much she meant to him. He was too late to be able to do that, and it almost drove him to suicide, but he decided to sober up and take care of us like he should have been doing the whole time. All of my mother’s things that my father and I had kept over the years, and all of his things that I couldn’t part with, were gone. All of that was stuff that could never be replaced. Blain had taken so much from me, my virginity , my freedom, my piece of mind, and now my home with all of my worldly possessions with the exception of some clothes, my keyboard, and my bracelet that I never take off. All I have left are my brothers and the trips, and I would not lose them. It was time I stood up for myself and fought back.

Toby, who had come with me, came up behind me and slid his arms around my waist, bending down to rest his chin on my shoulder. “It’s going to be alright, Pea. We are going to make sure nothing else happens.”

I turned to him.
‘I was just thinking of all that man has taken from me,’
I signed.
‘But hearing and looking at you, I realize that though I can’t get most of that back, there are things, or people I guess I should say, who are more important. Material things can be replaced. I’
ll always have the mem ories of my parents, even if I don’t have their possessions in front of me . I will get my piece of mind back, eventually, but you guys and my brothers can’t be replaced, so I need to be thankful. I’m going to throw myself into the training, and maybe I’ll be able to protect all of you from the monster I brought into our lives.’

“If any of us can help it, you won’t have to worry about it.” He said. “I can’t promise because anything can happen, as it did here, but we will all do everything in our power to make sure Beckham never steps foot near you again.”

‘Train me up, Sargent, and we’ll protect each other.’

Toby just smiled and kissed me.

******************************************************************************

For the next week, we trained every day. Tory was slowly but surely regaining his strength and stamina. He didn’t try to take too much on after that first day. He had had to sit out the next day also because of it, so he didn’t want a repeat of that. We worked out first thing in the morning, followed by breakfast, and then shooting practice. I never liked guns, and still didn’t, but I was good at it. After two days, I was hitting everything I aimed for. Troy gave me one of his guns the day before telling me to keep it on me at all times. He’d been the main one working with me on shooting.

“We’ll still practice with guns a little every day, but I want you to start working with knives too. I think Toby is the best one to show you that, but I want it to happen. Something always could happen that you won’t be able to use your gun, so I want you trained up on a couple of different weapons, and we’re going to go through the house and I want you to point out to me what you think can be used as a weapon if nothing else is available , and I’ll be able to triple what you point out.”
I just nodded. I didn’t doubt it at all.

I had met all of the guys that T
oby and Troy had brought in, and they all looked deadly in their own way. I had been working with a guy named Luke, who had explained that he really wanted to help because he had lost his cousin, who was like a sister to him, to an abusive boyfriend, and he hated that he hadn’t been able to help her. He hadn’t even known anything was going on until it was too late, she hid it so well.

We headed in for lunch, and the kitchen was full of men. It looked like they had been having a meeting.
All of the talking stopped when Troy and I entered, so I knew it had to be about me or our situation.

‘What are you talking about?’
I directed toward Toby and Tory.

Toby looked at a man he called Stokes. “She wants to know what we were saying. Tell her what you found.”

Stokes turned to me and looked at me in sympathy. “Well, ma’am, Fosters and I extended our parameters during our patrol this morning, and we found a campsite right outside your property lines.” He said and looked over to the other man he’s been with, who started speaking.

“I did a search of the tent, and found some items that you’ll have to confirm, but I believe they are yours.” Fosters said. “We also found quite a few pictures of you, your brothers, Sarg and his brothers. I’m assuming it belongs to Beckham, and he’s been watching you for a while , but the most recent picture is of your shooting practice four days ago .
”

I stood there in shock. Even with all of the people here and the new security measures we had, he was still able to get close enough to be watching us. How the hell was that possible?
I wouldn’t be able to defend myself against someone like that. We had some of the most well trained men here, and he got past them.

I wouldn’t let it stop me. I would just have to step up training.
‘Ask Luke if he’s ready to come outside with me. I need to learn to fight. No more of the self-defense; I want actual fighting.’
One of the bad things about being around these strangers is that only one out of the bunch could speak ASL, and that was a man named Woods, and he was never around, so I had to have one of the trips speak for me unless I had time to sit with my keyboard. Of course I never had time for that. Woods had set up a sort of base camp type thingy in the storage building in my back yard. They wanted someone on each property at all times.

“You need to eat first, Princess.” Tory said, coming my way with a sandwich and some chips on a plate for me. “You’ll need the fuel.”

I sat down and concentrated on eating
, not wanting to make myself sick, but trying to hurry so I could get started.
As I was rinsing my plate to put in the dishwasher, Toby’s phone rang. I had gone to Luke and tapped his shoulder, to let him know I was ready, but Toby stopped me.

“And you’ve tried all the other numbers you have for her? Her parents or any friends?” He said into the phone. He listened to the reply and asked “So what’s your plans?” He nodded. At whatever the answer was. “Alright, I’ll see you in a few.” He said and hung up. He looked straight to me. “James can’t reach Shelby.”

‘She’s not in class?’
I asked. I knew the answer, but I wasn’t thinking properly.

Toby shook his head. “No, and neither her parents nor her roommate have heard from her since yesterday afternoon.”

There had to be some other explanation. It couldn’t be Blain. Why would he go for Shelby? How would he even have fou nd her?
We’d told her not to come ever since I ’d found the note. I didn’t want to put her at risk ; she was like a sister to me.

It had been four days since the last photo
of me, so he could be anywhere, doing anything.

******************************************************************************

It was seven that evening and I was still in the home gym working with the fighting mannequin. James and Jordan had left for New York along with a couple of Toby’s men, Bradley and Melbo u rne. They were going to try to find Shelby, though they had no clear idea how. Her parents had gone to the police, but they had been told that the person had to missing for forty -
eight hours before they could be reported missing. James was taking a copy of the reports from here, and he was going to explain the situation with Blain. He was hoping they would help search or put out an APB for her and Blain, once they’d seen that there was motive for a kidnapping. Jordan had just called Troy to let us know they had made it alright, and one of them would call hourly to touch base and keep us updated.

I had been in the gym all afternoon. Luke had shown me how to use the mannequin for practicing my defensive moves while turning it into an offensive move.

“When someone comes to grab you from behind, the first thing they are going try to do is immobilize your arms. They’ll grab you like this,” His arms went around me, pinning my arms to my side. “So you have to use your lower half.
Take your strongest foot and…”

I didn’t wait; I just stomped on his foot as h
a
rd as I could with all of my weight. As stupid as it sounds, I had seen it on a movie so I thought it would work.

He grunted, so I knew I’d hurt him, but his hold on me never faltered. “As I was saying, that move might hurt, but it’s not bad enough to make your attacker let you go. You’ll have to kick him in the kneecap as hard you can. The pain in that is so intense, it’ll take his leg out and make him let go of you.
You then want to elbow your attacker in the ribs if he’s standing or in the back if he’s bent over. We’ll take the scenario to where he was left standing.” He said and I worked with him in slow motion a couple of times, before he left for a patrol, moving me back to the mannequin for real time, strengthening practice.

My body was getting so worn out, but with the adrenaline running through my system
, I didn’t really notice. I was putting everything I had into the punches and kicks I was throwing. I was imagining Blain being the dummy I was punching. I was finally able to let loose ; all of the pent up feelings and emotions I had been hiding from everyone. The feeling of never being clean again. I still to that day scrubbed my body every time I took a shower. I could still feel his hands on me, and all of the ‘toys’ he’d use d . The sense of violation had never gone away, but at least being with the triplets made me feel like I was still worth something.
I had been so angry the whole time I’d been taken, but quickly learned to hide it after a few of his punishments. I was so angry at myself for not getting away, or fighting back, despite the punishments. I felt like if I had tried harder to fight back, it wouldn’t have happened. Self-loathing. That was the word I wanted. That was what I felt toward myself, and that made me angrier. I punched harder and harder, letting it all out until I finally collapsed. I couldn’t move after that, and I broke. I sobbed harder than I ever had. I allowed myself to grieve for all I had lost to that man, and now , I knew he had Shelby.
I couldn’t stand the thought that what was done to me, was probably now being done to someone else because of me.