Damon (2 page)

“No, I c
an see that you’re not, Connor.
I’m sorry. Next time I’ll be honest with you. Is your momma hurt too
?
Like I said, I’m a do
ctor. Maybe I can help her too. Can you tell me where she is?
And maybe her name?”

This time, when one of his brothers moved, he kne
w it was to make a phone call.
They would call their mom t
o come and help with this now.
Damon smiled at Connor.

“Yes, sir.
Charlotte Kirkpatrick, but everybody but
the bastard calls her Charlie. But I can’t take you to her.
She said that we had to s
tay off the grind and lay low.
I ain’t going…I’m not going back to that man and neither is my momma.”

Damon thought he meant off the grid, but thou
ght it best not to correct him.
He could see the hatred on Connor’s face and wondered if this “bastard” was
the one they were hiding from.
He pressed the scope to Connor’s chest and listened to his healthy-sounding hea
rt and then checked his pulse.
It was a little fast, but Damon figured it was because he was scared. He felt someone tap on his arm and turned to take the candy bar and bottled water from Jamie.

“You can have these as soon as I have a look a
t your back
. Y
our heart is fine and your pulse is a little slow but not dangerously so. I can see
that you’re bleeding, Connor.
Would yo
u mind turning around for me?”

He wasn’t sure he was going to do it, but he moved slowly, if not a little cautiously
, to face the wall.
There was a little blood on the coat, so Damon took it by the collar an
d pulled it off his shoulders.
The shirt beneath was saturated. Morgan hissed at the sight but said nothing. Damon didn’t want to hurt Connor, but the blood had dried in a few places and he was afraid it had stuck to whatever wounds were under it.

“Connor, are you bandaged up or does
your shirt lie on your wounds?
I need to take this shirt off, but I do
n’t want to hurt you to do it.
Some of the blood is sticking to you.”

“Momma taped me up with some white mater
ial when we came through Iowa.
She was hurting pretty bad by then, but s
he got worsted as we came over.
I didn’t want her to look at it no more. It made her cry.”

Damo
n took out a pair of scissors.
He decided that cutting t
he shirt away would be better.
He nodded to Morgan who was crying softly next to him.

“Morgan has some little boys about your size and she’ll give you one of t
heir shirts when I’m finished.
I’m
going to cut this one off you.
She’s going to go and see wha
t we can find up in my office.
There might be a shirt or two up there and if not, I got a few gowns we can put over you unt
il we can replace your shirt.”

Morgan’s twin sons were only two years old, not nearly big enough to share a shirt with this child, b
ut she needed something to do.
And Damon wanted the boy to think everything was going fine and that he’d leave as soon as Damon was finished with him.

Cutting away th
e bandage and shirt was hard.
The padding was thick and there wa
s a great deal of it.
When Damon finally got to his skin, it was everything he could do not to pull the little
boy into his arms and hold him.
He heard his brothers curse behind him and kne
w that they felt the same way.

The wounds were both fresh and o
lder.
Someone had taken a wide strap, probably a leather belt, to his back and had done
it hard enough to draw blood.
Some of the cuts oozed;
a few of them bled profusely.
There was bruising as well and a few of those had been caused by something wider
and more blunt.
Through all his examination, Connor never muttered a sound.

“He said he was going to hurt her more if I didn’t lay
still and take it like a man.
Men
don’t get beat up with a belt.
It’s okay that he hit me
when he wasn’t hurting Momma.
B
ut he lied.
He hurt her in pla
ces a girl shouldn’t get hurt.
If I ever see the bastard again, I’m gonna kill him dead.”

While Connor was still turned with his back away, Damon took out a syringe
and filled it with a sedative.
He didn’t want to harm Connor, but he needed him to be out when h
e had to stitch up the wounds.
But he stopped short of putting the drug in the water bottle when Connor struck up a deal.

“I’ll take you to my momma so you can help her, but you c
an’t tell no one where we are.
He’ll find us soon enough, she said, but if she is not hurting
so much then we can go faster.
I got me a bat hid out, but I’m just a little kid and maybe if you h
elp us both, we can stay gone.
He told us if we run again, he was gonna kill us anyway.”

“All righ
t
. Y
ou have a deal.
But Conno
r, I want something in return. A deal is two way, right?
I want you to tell me all you can about the bastard that d
id this to you and your momma.
Because if I see him first, I’m going to be the one killing him.”

Connor tur
ned and looked at him.
Then he looked a
t the men standing behind him.
He knew they were being sized up and he had never been more proud in his
life as he was at that moment.
Morgan came back then and she went into Nicky’s open arms and let him hold her.

“He’s a
mean bastard and he has a gun.
He
hit my momma with it one time.
If he com
es at you, he don’t play fair.
I don’t want nobody to get hurt ‘cause of us.”

“You don’t worry about us.
And once our mom finds out what he’s done, he won’t stand a chan
ce.
She’s about as mean as they come when it
comes to someone hurting kids.
Trust me.”

“Damon Grant, wha
t a thing to tell a young man. But he’s right.
And as soon as we can get it figured out, I’m going make him wish he’d never messed with what’s mine
. Y
ou must be Connor. My name is Margaret Parker.
Let’s go get your momma, shall we?”

~CHAPTER 2~

Charlotte Kirkpatrick drifte
d in and out of consciousness.
Glad one moment for the blissfulness of the darkness and cursing it because she’d left her a
nd her son without protection.
Not that she could do much in her current state, but she still had a responsibility toward her son.

Charlotte, Charlie to her friends, had gotten further this time than s
he and Connor ever had before.
All the way to Ohio before she had to have
them get off the bus and rest.
The sign with their picture
on it hadn’t helped either.
Anthony Ormond had gone all out this time. Posters being printed cost money. Something he hated to do was spend money on anyone but himself.

Charlie was just drifting out
again when she heard a noise. Connor was missing too.
She tried to call for him, but the bruising around her neck made it difficult and t
hen there were the broken ribs.
When she sat up to try and go find him, pain ripped through her like a knife and brought her back down again.

Voices
brought her around this time.
Harsh and male mixed with
the anxious voice of a woman.
The room where she and Connor had been sleeping for two days w
as dark and smelled badly too.
But there was a light nearby
and the spicy scent of cologne. Expensive cologne.
She was drifting out again when someon
e flashed a light in her eyes.
When she tried to pull away from it, a man spoke softly to her.

“Mrs. Kirkpatrick? My name is Damon Grant.
I
have your son with me.
Connor, com
e speak to your mother, please.
Assure her that you’re fine.”

“Momma? I had to bring them.
D
r. Damon is going to help you.
He said he’d keep us off the g
rind until we were all better.
He is real nice.”

“No.
We…we ar
e okay.
Must…we must
get moving…hurt but fine now.”
She hated that she sounded weak and waited for the slap that usually accompanied he
r speaking without permission.
But it didn’t come.

“You’re not okay
. Y
ou’ve three broken ribs and I’m sure a multitude of other wounds that nee
d immediate medical attention.
Connor has to have an a
ntibiotic and you need fluids.
I’m taking you to my house where I
’ll care for you and your son.
If you want to argue, then get up off this floor and show me how ‘okay’ you are.”

Charlie looked up at the man and wanted to get up for no other reason than to prove him wrong and t
o maybe punch him in the nose. “Bastard,” she mumbled.
His bark of laughter startled her.

“My mother would have words with you about that term, Mrs. K
irkpatrick.
She and my father were very
much married when I was born.
Right now she is upset with my brother Jamie because his lovely wife was very pregnant whe
n they got married last month.
Dane
is due in a couple of months.
In fact, all of my brothers had to beat the birth announcement with a wedding one within months of each other. Well, except for Byron, though I don’t expect it to be much longer for them either.”

“Not married. Never happening. Is Connor…he beat Connor
. Y
ou have to see to him fir
st.
Please, he’s my…please help my baby.”

“Connor is just fine. I’m going to put a few stitches in his
back when we get to my house.
He’s dehydrated too and he needs a good meal or two
to get him back up to weight. He’s a good boy. I’ll see to him.
I’m going t
o give you something for pain.
Th
en we’ll move you out of here.
Are you allergic to anything?”

“No, nothing.
Hurt bad, but Connor
…please, don’t let him see me.
He is too young for this.”

Charlie thought Connor knew more than she realized, but di
dn’t want to think about that.
In the three years they had been with Mr. Ormond, she had been beaten more t
han most people would believe.
This was the eighth time they had escaped and knew that if he caught them this time, Ormond would kill Connor just
to hurt her.
She decided she would kill him first.

The tiny prick of the needle sliding into her arm had her wince then as the doctor’s smooth voice spoke
around her, she slipped away.
She had no idea why she t
rusted his voice, but she did.
Connor must have as well or he never would have brought him to her.

~~~

Connor watc
hed the man pick up his momma.
She lo
oked so small in his big arms.
He didn’t even yell at her for being h
urt or bloodying up the floor.
He just wrapped her in a big cover and picke
d her up.

When they had set out for the building,
Dr. Damon had listened to him. Connor wasn’t used to that.
When he spoke to Mr. O, and that wasn’t often, the man would just backhand him when Connor wo
uld say more than three words.
Dr. Damon had been surprised that Connor had walked so far in the cold too.

“It’s nearly four miles f
rom my office to here, Connor.
I’m impressed, but you should never do that again. Someone cou
ld have taken you or hurt you
. Y
our mother would have been in real trouble had
that happened.
Next time you need something, you tell me and I’ll make sure you have it.”