Chapter Ten
The sound of someone jiggling the handle on the back door of the cabin made Persephone’s blood run cold. She’d foolishly convinced herself that she and Nick had gotten away from those crazy militia guys and this cabin was a safe place for them.
Even after all she’d been through, hope still insisted on making a fool of her. So much for wishful thinking.
Nick pressed the back of his body against hers and whispered, “If someone comes through that door, don’t worry. I’m not going to let them get to you.”
Terrified, she pressed her hands to his back and felt the muscles in his shoulders coiled tightly together as he waited to see if whoever was outside would try to come in. For the first time, she saw him holding a gun. Part of her couldn’t help be thankful he had one, but another part of her worried if the person outside came in shooting, they’d all end up dead.
“Please don’t get killed, Nick,” she whispered behind him.
He didn’t respond. A second later, the door opened and she saw a figure she recognized standing there. The light from the lantern barely showed his face, but she’d know those horrible tattoos anywhere.
“You should have run farther, man. It took nothing to find you,” Drist said in his usual terrifying tone that made her feel sick to her stomach.
“Turn around and leave,” Nick said flatly. “There’s nothing for you here.”
Drist closed the door behind him and waved his gun in front of his face. “I’ll tell you what. I don’t have to kill you, Nick. I get it. You fucked her and now you want to protect her. I don’t get why you give a fuck about this one, but I guess I get it. But she’s got to come back. We need her. You know that.”
Nick stuck his arm behind him to squeeze Persephone’s hand. “You can’t have her. Go now or you’ll end up with a bullet in your head.”
For a moment, Drist looked surprised to find a gun in Nick’s hand. Then his eyes narrowed and he shook his head. “I had a feeling you were too good to be true. You’re not one of us, are you? Her daddy sent you in to get her, didn’t he?”
Persephone clutched onto Nick’s shirt and felt his body expand beneath it as he took a deep breath. “Leave now or you’ll be leaving in a body bag. Whichever, but you can’t have her.”
Drist took a single step into the cabin and aimed at Nick standing in front of her. Instinctively, she closed her eyes tightly as the sound of the gun going off was met with another from the gun in Nick’s hand.
She didn’t know how long she stood there cowering behind him, but when she opened her eyes, he was still there standing in front of her, protecting her. Had he been shot? Had Drist been shot?
“Nick! What happened?” she cried out as she clutched tightly onto his shirt, afraid to let go.
Slowly, he turned around to look at her. His eyes focused on her face for a long moment, and then he said flatly, “We need to get out of here.”
Her attention moved from him to the body of one of the men who’d held her hostage for the past two weeks. Drist lay on the floor just inside the back door in a pool of blood.
“Are we just going to leave him there? He might still be alive,” she said, fighting every instinct she had as a nurse to attend to his injuries.
“He’s not alive, Persephone.”
“How do you know? If he’s still alive, we have to find him help. No matter how evil he is, we can’t leave him if he can be saved,” she said as she watched Drist’s chest for any sign he still lived.
“He can’t be saved. I shot to kill,” Nick said quietly without a hint of emotion in his voice.
Rushing around him, she ran over to where Drist lay. Crouching down, she pressed her fingers to his throat to check for a pulse. She felt nothing. The amount of blood and brain splatter on the door behind him told her Nick had been right.
“We have to go, Persephone. Leave him there.”
Torn between not caring at all that one of her captors lay dead next to her and her duty as a nurse to care for people who were hurt, she remained next to Drist. That Nick had killed him didn’t bother her, but leaving him there to rot felt wrong.
“We can’t just leave him there. Can’t we bury him, at least?” she asked, walking over to where Nick stood staring at her with a look of confusion on his face.
“Sure. You hang out here while I did a grave. It shouldn’t take me longer than an hour or two. Meanwhile, we can put the light in the window to let the rest of those bastards know you’re here for the taking.”
Sarcasm dripped off every word, but it didn’t seem right just leaving Drist’s dead body there on the floor. “We shouldn’t leave him like that.”
For a long moment, she watched as what she said filtered through his brain, but then something snapped inside him. He stormed over to where she stood and grabbed her by the shoulders.
“This guy would have happily killed me and then taken you back to that house so he and his buddies could take turns raping you. You want us to take precious time out of escaping from those guys, who are likely very close by, to respect his dead body?” he barked at her.
His use of the world raping stunned her. It came out of his mouth with such rage. That single word that held such a loaded meaning between them made her emotions spin out of control, and she couldn’t stop herself from crying suddenly.
Hanging her head, she sobbed as he took her by the arm and led her out of the cabin into the darkness outside. After everything that had happened, the way he said that single word broke her.
Nick held her wrist as he began running, and she struggled to keep up with him. A pain in her side stabbed at her with every step she took, but he didn’t slow down so she couldn’t either.
Persephone didn’t know if they were running away from Drist’s dead body, the truth of what happened between them, or the other men of the militia group that might be close by. All she knew was Nick seemed possessed by the devil himself to get away from that cabin as fast as possible.
Gasping for breath and barely able to run another yard, she begged him to stop. “I can’t go anymore. We need to slow down.”
He looked back at her and shook his head. “We can’t. I can’t let them find you.”
She tore her hand from his hold and stopped dead, unable to go another step. “No! I can’t keep up with you!”
Nick stopped running. “If they find you, they’re going to take you back there. I won’t let that happen.”
Looking around, she saw no one in the woods with them. “They’re not here. Maybe Drist came alone. I don’t know, but I can’t keep running like that.”
He hung his head and avoided her gaze. “I can’t let them find you. I can’t.”
“I know, but they’re not going to. You’re right here. They aren’t going to get me,” she said as she slowly walked toward him to take his hand.
They stood there together, their hands joined, and she knew what he was running from. But no matter how far they ran or how fast, the truth of what he did would always be there. She could forgive him for what he did, but he couldn’t forgive himself.
* * *
The black town car pulled up to the curb, and before it even fully stopped, her father opened the passenger side door and stepped out. Opening his arms wide, he smiled at Persephone.
“I’m so happy to see you again, honey.”
She ran to him, happier than he could ever imagine to be back in his arms. He hugged her tightly to him like he might not ever let her go again.
“Thank you for sending Nick to rescue me, Dad,” she said as she pressed her cheek to his chest and heard his heart racing just like hers was. “I wouldn’t be here with you if it wasn’t for him.”
Above her, he said, “Thank for bringing my daughter back to me. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you for this. Money just isn’t enough for what you’ve given back to me.”
“You don’t have to thank me. I did the job you hired me to do, Mr. Gilmore,” Nick said in a strangely distant voice that made her look back at him.
He avoided meeting her gaze and focused on her father instead. “She’s been through a rough time. I’d suggest putting a security guard or two on her and your other daughters for a while. The National Equality Militia is still out there.”
“About that. They brought in Clayton Berger a couple hours ago after the FBI raided a house where most of the group was staying. His men didn’t take long at all to roll over on him and tell the whole story about what they did for the past few weeks. You two must have gotten out just before the raid.”
Persephone watched Nick wince as her father explained the men in the house had told everything about the kidnapping. She knew what he was thinking.
Would he ever be able to forgive himself for what he did?
“I want to go home and take a long bath, Dad.”
Her father smiled and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Of course. Mr. Hanson and I can talk when we get to the house.”
He returned to his seat next to his driver, leaving Persephone and Nick to sit in the back seat of the town car. Even though her father rarely said much at all since he tended to be a quiet man in his private life, he seemed to have words to spare now as he carried on a conversation with Nick while the car rolled toward the Gilmore estate. Persephone wanted a chance to talk to the man who saved her life, but her father never came up for air, so the opportunity never presented itself.
When the car pulled up in front of the house, she reluctantly got out without saying what she wanted to and Nick exited the car to go into the house with her father. Her mother and sisters ran out to greet her, full of hugs and tears on her return, so she was forced to watch him walk away before she could pull him aside to tell him what was on her mind.
He never looked back once.
A voice next to her asked, “Persephone, did you hear me? Are you okay?”
She turned her attention to her mother. She’d seen her a few nights before the kidnapping, but now as she looked at her, she saw the past few weeks had changed her. Still stunning with shoulder length warm brown hair and the same brown eyes as all three of her daughters, now worry seemed permanently etched into her normally delicate features.
Wishing she could erase that from her beautiful face, Persephone forced a smile for her benefit. “I’m fine, Mom. I swear.”
Cradling her face, her mother searched her eyes for the truth, not believing Persephone was truly okay. “Are you sure? I thought I’d never see you again, honey. Thank God you’re back safe with us. Your father told me to trust in the man he hired. He said he’d bring you back to us. I wanted to believe him, but I was so worried.”
Her sisters sobbed in happiness to see her safe and sound again, but all Persephone could think about was how she would get a chance to see Nick before he walked out of her life forever. She couldn’t let him do that before she could speak to him once more.
After rushing through a shower to wash away every remnant of her captivity, she hurried down to her father’s office at the back of the house and waited outside for Nick to come out. She heard voices inside, so she hoped she hadn’t missed him. Pressing her ear to the door, she strained to hear the conversation, but all she heard sounded like her father talking on the phone to someone.
Finally, after waiting fifteen minutes, the door opened and Nick walked out into the hallway. Surprised, he immediately stepped back away from her.
“What are you doing here, Persephone?”
She couldn’t help but smile. “My family lives here, Nick.”
“I meant here outside your father’s office when I came out.”
She took a step toward him and stopped. “I wanted to talk to you before you leave.”
He didn’t say anything, but his expression told her he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear what she needed to tell him. Before the past couple weeks, that may have stopped her, but now she needed to speak her mind.
Reaching out, she took his hand in hers and pulled him toward the back door to the garden. “Come with me so we can talk in private.”
He reluctantly agreed and walked out with her without saying another word. She guided him to the gazebo at the far end of the gardens and sat down just as the sun began to rise. Nick remained standing and folded his arms across his chest.
Confused by his standoffish behavior, she asked, “Is something wrong? Did I do something that makes you think I deserve such coldness?”
He shook his head and softened his body language, but still he remained standing. “No. Nothing’s wrong.”
But everything about him seemed wrong now. Gone was the kindness he showed her all those times he came into that room to feed her. Gone was the concern for her. Gone was everything in him that had given her hope.
“Then why won’t you even sit down next to me again?” she asked, hurt from the way he insisted on staying away from her.
“Your father’s driver is supposed to be taking me home. I’m sure he’s waiting for me right now.”
God, his words sounded so hollow now! Why was he acting like this?
Her hands shook as she tried to find the words she wanted to say. “I just wanted to say thank you for everything you did to protect me. I told my father this and I meant it. You’re the reason I’m home alive again. Whatever he paid you isn’t enough.”
Instead of accepting her thanks or saying anything kind like he had all those times when she sat there tied to that chair in front of him, he merely nodded but remained silent. Persephone didn’t understand why he was treating her like this—like they didn’t know one another any better than two strangers.
Anger and hurt rose inside her until she couldn’t stand it anymore. Jumping up, she walked across the gazebo and stopped in front of him. “Why are you acting like I don’t even deserve a kind word now? What happened to the man who was back there at that house with me? Where did he go?”
She watched as he narrowed his eyes and stared down at her, wincing as she finished speaking. All she wanted were the answers to those questions. She deserved those answers.
“Persephone, you’re home safe now. Don’t fight your father when he tells you he wants you to have security. You’re strong. You’ll forget everything that happened someday. Have a good life.”
He moved to leave, but she grabbed his arm to stop him. That’s all he had to say?
“Have a good life? You have nothing else to say to me? You were the only lifeline I had day after day. I came to depend on you, and you give me some throwaway Hallmark card greeting after all of that?”
Sheepishly, he looked down at where her hand sat on his arm and said, “I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“You killed a man to protect me, Nick. How can you act like I’m some meaningless stranger to you now? Why won’t you even look at me?”
He lifted his head and she saw such pain in his eyes that her breath caught in her chest. “I can’t do this, Persephone. Have a good life and stay safe.”
With that, he pulled his arm from her hold and walked out of the gazebo and out of her life. She watched him leave and didn’t understand what had happened. She’d told him she understood why he did what he did.
Why wasn’t that enough?