Love Me (Trust Series #2) (39 page)

The moment Damien sees I’m conscious, he immediately ends the call and is kneeling by my side. I think the pain is getting worse each time I wake up. I just want to go back to sleep to make it go away.

“Baby, we are headed to the hospital to have you checked out. Do you need anything?”

There’s a softness in his eyes, but his shoulders are taut with worry. He’s barely hanging on himself.

My head lolls to the side as I respond, “I’m sleepy. He gave me something before he left.” I feel my eyes start to flutter again. I’m so exhausted.

His hands are stroking my face, and I lean into his touch.

“Alli, we are about to be at the hospital. What did he do to you? You can sleep once you tell me, baby. I need to tell the doctors.”

I push my eyes open, willing myself to get this out before I fall back under. “Rope on hand. Head was hit. Stomach and ribs hit, too. Arms. Hips. Sedative.” I know my voice is more staccato with not enough detail, but that hopefully lets him know that nothing else happened. I start to close my eyes and welcome the sleep because I don’t hurt when I’m asleep.

“Alli, is there anything else?”

The plea in his voice causes me to resurface slightly, and I respond, “No.”

At least, I don’t think there is.

“Okay, rest now. You are completely safe, baby.”

“Mmmkay.” I fall under once again, not able to take any more questions.

I awake, and I’m back in the blue bedroom with Ben. He’s moving around the room, cleaning things up. He turns my way, wearing the same jeans and sport shirt he was in earlier.

Was I dreaming that Damien had come for me?

My chest hurts at the awareness that I’m not really out of this situation.

“Oh, good, you’re awake, sweetheart. I’ve got the test for you to take. Let’s get this over with.”

He’s calmer than he was before, but any wrong move on my part could cause him to snap. He strides toward me with a knife, and I start screaming and thrashing about. He takes a menacing step at me as if he’s going to cut me, and I immediately silence my screams.

“Good girl. You’re learning. I’m going to cut you free, but if you try anything, it will not be good for you. Understand?”

I nod my head.

“If you’re right about not being pregnant, I’m going to reward you, Allison. I wasn’t planning on making love to you until we got married, but this will definitely be a celebration.”

My veins instantly turn cold, and my stomach roils. There is no way I can have sex with him. I will not give my body to him. My look of disgust must show because he grabs my chin to the point of pain, making me meet his muddy brown eyes.

“You will make love to me if you’re not pregnant.”

He might as well kill me now.
“No! You can beat me to a bloody pulp, but I will never let you touch me like that.”

He puts his lips to mine, forcing his way into my mouth. It’s the most wretched feeling I have ever had, having someone force himself on me. All I can think about is getting his tongue out of my mouth. He’s holding my face so hard that I can’t move it to dislodge his locked lips. I do the only other thing I can think of and bite down—hard.

It does the trick, and he’s shouting, “Fuck!” over and over again.

I start to thrash as he comes toward me, his intent obvious with his raised hand. I’m not stopping this time because I would rather be dead than have him touch me.

“You’re going to have to kill me before you touch me. You hear me? I’d rather be dead.” I’m whipping my body so hard that my hand might fall off from how tight the rope is on my wrist.

“Alli! Alli, baby, wake up. You’re safe. Oh, baby, please wake up.”

My eyes shoot open as my body simultaneously jolts forward.
Holy hell, the pain that goes up my side has my vision going blurry for a second.
My chest is heaving, and I’m damp with sweat. I’m trying to get as much air into my system as I come down from my adrenaline rush.

Damien is right there, holding me delicately. He’s trying to continue to calm me down with his steady voice and loving touch. “Easy, Alli. You’re in the hospital in Atlanta.”

I let out one big breath.

“Lie back down, baby. You’re hurting yourself.”

The pain continues to shoot up my side, causing me to grunt.

I’m still tired, and I just don’t feel right in the head, but at least I feel like I can keep my eyes open for more than just a few moments.

“Let me call a doctor to check on you first.”

He’s more of a wreck than he was at the hospital after the Brad incident. The bags under his eyes look like he hasn’t slept for days. He’s still wearing the last thing I saw him in, khakis and a button-up blue dress shirt.

“Damien, please.”

He ignores my feeble protest as expected. He signals and hits the call button at the top of my bed. “My wife is awake. Please come immediately.”

My eyes start glancing around, trying to take in my surroundings now that some of the pain has subsided. The room looks similar to the time I was here before. Well, I think all hospital rooms look the same—white, sterile, bleach smells, and unfriendly.

He’s touching me in some way the entire time. Knowing he’s right there keeps me calm after what I’ve just been through.

It’s over. I’m safe.

Dr. Ferguson comes into the room. “Good evening, Allison. How are you feeling?”

It’s the same doctor that attended to me when I was in here after being drugged at Sam’s sorority party. I smile at the familiar face. The years of what I assume is stress wear clearly on his wrinkled face. His graying hair adds to my assumption.

It’s hard to even narrow down where the pain begins and ends. “I hurt all over, and my head is really fuzzy.”

He nods. “That is to be expected. You have a mild concussion, a couple of cracked ribs, mild to severe bruising, and a deep laceration on your right wrist.”

Damien flinches beside me and rubs his forehead with his free hand. Looking at my wrist, I see it’s bandaged. I hadn’t even noticed the bandage until the doctor was basically roll-calling all the things that are wrong with me.

A nurse walks in and hands the doctor a file. “Dr. Ferguson, here are the results of the rape kit.”

My anxiety accelerates as I watch the blood drain from Damien’s face.

Does he look at me differently now?
I’ve been in a room with two different men, Brad and Ben, and Damien has no idea what happened with either of them.

Dr. Ferguson opens it and reads it. Closing it, he says, “The results from the rape kit are negative.”

Damien closes his eyes and lightly squeezes my hand. “Thank God.”

When he opens them, the relief in his deep blue depths is apparent. My eyes are starting to get heavy as the doctor starts telling Damien about things to watch for. I can’t focus on what he’s saying.

A needle comes to my arm, and I jump.

The nurse responds, “Mrs. Wales, it’s a mild sedative to help with the pain and sleep.”

“No, I don’t want it.” My voice is so weak. It barely has any bite to it, but I continue to pull away.

Damien lays his hand on my arm. “Alli, it’s safe. You need to rest. Let them do what they think is best for you.”

He would never let someone harm me.
Numbly, I respond, “Okay.”

Damien gives me a small smile. I’m tired of being injected with things. It makes me feel as if my body isn’t my own right now, like the foreign substance is violating me.

The doctor excuses himself, and I lay my head back and momentarily close my eyes.

“Baby, do you want to go back to sleep?”

Hearing the pain in his voice, I want so badly to reach out and comfort him, but my limbs are becoming heavy.

My body protests as I try to stay awake, but I have one pressing question I need to have answered. “I’m so tired. I just need to know…how long was I gone?”

He gently rubs the side of my face, and my head involuntarily leans into the touch. It’s warm and comforting.

“Just a few hours. It’s early evening.”

It feels like it’s been days.
As he continues to stroke my face with a velvet touch, I murmur, “I knew you would find me.”

The world starts to drift away as I hear Damien say, “I will always find you, Alli. There is nothing in this world that would keep me from finding you.”

What is that noise?
I can hear some low heated arguing in the distance.

Before I open my eyes, I take stock of my body from head to toe, not wanting to have to be in a confrontation with anyone at this point. I still hurt like hell. Ben did a number on me. I never imagined such violence from him. Rebecca never had a chance. I wouldn’t have had a chance if Damien didn’t find me when he did. Ben would have killed me. I know it. I would have been dead within a few days at how violent Ben got with me so quickly.

The pain meds are still fogging my brain, but they are slowly burning away. There’s a low, dull ache, but it’s manageable.

The voices sound like Damien and Sam.

I don’t want to deal with this stress right now as I feel like I’m barely hanging on by a thread myself. They are just going to have to work out their problems without me for the time being.

Barely opening my eyes, I see Damien is dealing with the little ticking time bomb otherwise known as my best friend. She is seething. I imagine her green eyes could turn someone to stone on the spot. From here, I can see her profile, and her arms are flailing as she is giving my husband a piece of her mind.

Closing my eyes, I pretend to still be asleep before she looks my way. I feel guilty for avoiding her, but I’m so overwhelmed at the memories of what I’ve just been through. Later, I’ll deal with that emotional fallout. I’m sure I look fake, trying to breathe in and out like I’m asleep, but if it’s enough to keep her at bay for now, I’ll live with the humiliation.

After what seems like a millennium, I hear the door slowly creak shut followed by someone’s soft thump of footsteps toward my bed. I’m going to take a chance that it’s Damien because I can’t imagine him leaving me for a second. I open my eyes to see he’s watching me intently. Fear and worry are etched over my beautiful man’s face.

I croak, “Hey.”

“Hey, baby. Do you need some water?”

I move my head a few inches downward for yes. Moving, period, does not feel good and causes some kind of pain to shoot from muscles I didn’t even know I had. He has the cup and straw to my lips before I can even process what he’s doing. I take a pull, and I am rewarded with refreshing, ice-cold water that slides down my throat.

“Thank you. Is Sam still here?”

“No, I’m sorry we woke you. I couldn’t leave you for a second. She’ll be back after a while. I let her know that I needed some time with you first. She doesn’t have any details, and she is furious as hell.” He puts the cup back on the table.

I try to lighten the tension I feel from Damien. “I’m glad you survived it. She’ll be fine as soon as we talk.”
At least, I hope she will be.

His lips quirk up only halfway, and it doesn’t reach his eyes.

“Damien, I’m okay. You found me.”

Soon, I’m sure I’ll be able to get a handle on how violated I feel. I just need to fake it until I make it, so Damien and Sam will stop worrying.

I’ll be okay. It’ll pass.
To me,
being kidnapped by Ben is affecting me differently than the incident with Brad because I remember everything with Ben. I know they were both horrible, but this one is impacting me deeper to the core. It’s like a fissure has opened up within me, and I can’t close it right now. I feel exposed and hollow, similar to how I did when my parents died.

Damien bends down, and he gives me a kiss while touching both sides of my face. His lips, his hands, the way he is breathing are so soft that it’s as if a feather is touching me. I can feel the intensity of his emotions zinging with the small bit of contact.

Because of my stupidity, we could have been torn apart…forever. The truth of the situation causes my chest to tighten, and a heavy feeling presses down on me. Tears start to form in my eyes as he continues to kiss me, like I’m going to disappear at any moment.

I need to stay strong.