Page 44 of Valor (Long Hot Summer: Christian Romantic Suspense #2)

LANI

I jolt awake, terror ripping me from sleep. Before I’m even fully awake, panic kicks in. They found me. How did my abductor find me? My hand is still free, so I reach over and rip the IV out. Pain shoots up from my arm, but it doesn’t matter. I can handle it. I can deal with it until I get help.

Pain is temporary.

Death is what I face if I don’t move now. All I see is darkness. There’s no light, not even a sliver from the door. Is it nighttime? Is it?—

“Lani!” Hands grip my shoulders and hold me down as that voice calls my name.

“Let me go!” I scream it, my voice hoarse. I fight, struggling against the hold. “Please let me go!”

The hands release me, slipping up to gently cup my face. “Lani,” a strong voice whispers, no longer distorted. “You’re safe.”

My vision clears, the darkness ebbing away until I can focus on Gibson’s face. He holds me, staring into my eyes, his own glistening with unshed tears. “Gibson?” I whisper, almost afraid to believe it. My throat burns as I try to keep from crying.

Is this a trick of my mind?

Some kind of psychological coping mechanism?

“I’m here,” he says. “You’re safe.”

“How— You found me.”

“I will always find you, Lani,” he tells me, expression serious. “I’m just sorry it took me so long.”

Someone else touches my other arm, so I look over and lose it when I see my mom’s tear-stained face. The sobs come fast and hard, completely uncontrollable. I’m no longer a woman in her thirties but a terrified little girl.

“Mom?”

She wraps both arms around me as Gibson releases me, and I cling to her. “I’m here, honey, you’re safe. You’re okay.” Relief and hope chip away at the remainder of my fear, but the darkness is there when I close my eyes.

Ready to drag me back down.

A few seconds later, she pulls away.

Gibson is standing just beside me, wearing dark jeans and a white T-shirt that’s stained with dirt and what looks like blood. Likely my blood. “Gibson,” I say his name again, a plea leaving my lips. He’s here.

My mom’s here.

I’m safe now.

He leans down and cups my cheeks again, then rests his forehead against mine. “I’m so sorry,” he whispers. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there.” Tears slip from his eyes. “If I had just waited. If I’d not left you?—”

“It’s not your fault,” I choke out. My throat is so raw. Everything hurts, every muscle in my body is sore, but with Gibson’s hands on me, I feel the first inkling of peace since I was attacked.

He pulls away and retrieves some gauze to press against my arm where I ripped out the IV. “We need to call them to put this back in.” He starts to reach for the call button.

I shake my head and lean back against the pillows, then use my other hand to replace his on the gauze. “I don’t want one.”

He stops. “Did you have one in before?” he asks. “Dr. Pierce said he thought you might have.”

I nod. “They kept me drugged.”

“They? There was more than one person?” Gibson remains standing at my side.

“I don’t know. They always had a mask and sunglasses on.” When I close my eyes for a moment, I still see them. “How long was I gone?” I ask.

“Fifty-six hours.”

“It felt like forever.”

“Can you tell me what happened?” He takes a seat on the edge of the bed.

I take a deep breath, and the hesitation must have been on my face because he reaches for my hand, taking it in his own.

“I’m sorry, Lani, but I need to know. I need to find this guy and make sure he can never touch you again.”

Even as I never want to relive the worst days of my life, I’d rather let Gibson handle my abductor with all the anger I see on his face right now. “I—I went inside, and they were waiting for me. They waited a few minutes before coming after me though,” I recall, replaying the moment over and over again in my head. “I think they were hiding in the kitchen. It was dark, so I didn’t see them at first. I hit them in the head, but they tackled me. I hit the coffee table.”

“Whoever it was stitched you back up,” my mom says. “Three different injuries needed stitches. Doctor Pierce said there were a total of thirty-seven stitches on your back. A few of them came open when you escaped, but he was able to get them closed again.”

I nod. “Makes sense. I hit it hard. They injected me with something right after, so I didn’t have time to determine how injured I was. I don’t remember anything after that, aside from waking up in a dark room.” It all comes rushing back, and my heart begins to pound.

The darkness.

The sweat on my skin.

“Breathe, Lani,” Gibson tells me.

“I’m trying.” I close my eyes. “It was a small room, barely large enough for the bed. I don’t recall even getting up to go to the bathroom, but there was no catheter line. I—I think they may have been cleaning me up while I was unconscious. There was always this stench of cleaner in the air.”

“Bed?” he growls. When I open my eyes and see the fury on his face, I know exactly where his mind went.

“I don’t believe I was sexually assaulted,” I tell him. “Granted, I was unconscious for a lot of the time, but I really don’t think that’s what they wanted from me.”

The fury on his face doesn’t ease. His body is shaking from the force of his anger, so I squeeze his hand.

“They cut my hair,” I say. “And when I asked why, I was told that I didn’t deserve anything I had.” I choke on the words, the lump in my throat making it hard to even breathe. “I didn’t deserve it,” I repeat. “What does that even mean?”

“Honey, it’s not true. None of that is true.”

“I know it’s not, I just—” I trail off, anger burning through the fear still clinging to me like a second skin.

“This was personal, then,” Gibson says. “And the danger isn’t over until we find out who did this.”

The door opens, and I’m absolutely delighted as all of my brothers rush in with my dad.

“Look who’s awake!” Tucker grins at me, then offers me the teddy bear I slept with all growing up. I take it and breathe easy as he hugs me.

“Thank you,” I say.

“Anytime, little sister.”

Bradyn is next, wrapping his arms around me. Then Riley, Elliot, and Dylan.

With each embrace from my family, a bit more of the darkness is beat back, leaving me feeling loved and warm inside. Mostly, anyway. There’s still a pit in my stomach. A cold, dark pit that reminds me this isn’t over.

“Thank you, guys, for coming home,” I tell them. “I know it must have been a stressful trip.”

“As if you have to thank us.” Tucker shakes his head.

“We’d move the moon for you, Lani, you know that,” Dylan says.

“Don’t think twice about it,” Riley adds.

Tears fill my eyes. So much love in this room. For me. Do I deserve it? What have I done to earn such loyalty?

My dad steps up to my side and leans down to kiss me on the forehead. “Lani, girl, you gave us all a scare.”

“I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you, too, Lani girl.” He kisses me on the forehead again, then steps back and turns his attention to Gibson. “Any leads yet?”

“We know it was a personal attack,” he says, turning toward my brothers. “Which means they’re coming for her again. It’s only a matter of time.”

“Then we better find them before they do,” Dylan says flatly. While I don’t know exactly what it is my brothers did back when they were Special Forces, I do know that they each have their own talents.

And I know that Dylan suffered weeks of torture at the hands of an enemy before the others were able to track him down and get him out. My brother came back changed. They all did. Is something like that going to happen to me?

Will I be forever different because of the actions of one person? Will I ever feel safe again?

The door opens again, and Doctor Piece comes in, a wide smile on his face. “Lani, it is good to have you back.”

“It’s good to be back,” I tell him.

“How are you feeling?” He eyes the IV I tore out of my arm but doesn’t say anything.

“Better. Ready to go home,” I tell him. Though I don’t want to go home—not really. I just don’t want to be here. The security of the ranch is calling me. The guest room in my parent’s house where Mom’s cooking waits and Dad is right downstairs to chase monsters out from beneath my bed.

“Given what you went through, I’m not surprised.”

“What did they drug me with? I’m assuming you ran a tox screen?”

He nods. “You had high levels of benzodiazepines in your system. It’s a drug type we use here in the hospital for certain procedures. But it’s also available as a prescription to treat anxiety and seizures.”

“They injected me with it,” she says.

“I figured as much. As soon as the results came in, I checked our inventory. We’re missing four vials of it.” His expression darkens, anger coloring his cheeks.

“How do four vials of a sedative go missing and no one notice?” Bradyn demands.

“They must have gone missing right after we’d done inventory. It’s completed once a week.”

“They meant to keep her a lot longer,” Gibson says, obviously putting the pieces together.

Fear ices through the relief I’ve felt since realizing I was here and not back in that cabin. “They’re really coming back, aren’t they?”

“They won’t get anywhere near you,” Gibson growls. “Not as long as I’m breathing.”