Chapter 16

Krom was talking to the night duty nurse at the Nurses station when the screams began. He tapped the counter and nodded to the charge nurse before breaking into a fast walk to Trixie’s room.

She was thrashing around on the bed, and if the rails hadn’t been raised, she would probably have ended up on the floor. Her mouth was wide open, and tears tracked down her cheeks as the high pitched wailing continued.

He dropped the rail and pulled her into his arms. She fought him, but he kept his hold tight and tucked his face down into the crook of her neck and shoulder. He sat on the side of the bed with her cradled in his lap and turned them so he was reclining, but not lying down on the puffy pillows.

Her screams became whimpers within minutes, and he continued to hold her even after the dreams quieted. What bothered him the most was the way she held her stomach as if she was in horrendous pain while she had been experiencing the worst screaming. The more that he thought about it, the more certain he became that she had more secrets to share with him.

The shrink that he’d been forced to see when he’d come home told him that sharing a bad memory or experience often helped the one suffering from flashbacks and nightmares. He refused to talk about the death and unnecessary hatred that the different sects of the same religion held for one another. He had been one of the lucky ones if the truth were told. Seeing the school that had been bombed to hell and back had given him a very real hate on for the terrorists that thought nothing of taking children as human shields and considered them to be collateral damage.

The reason that he considered himself lucky was that the bodies had been removed by the time his unit had shown up. Coupled with the loss of the little boy, the blood stained floors and walls gave him nightmares even before he came back stateside

He believed in God. He had seen too much not to have a healthy respect for the Almighty. It was the organized hatred of people that believed differently than the other groups that disgusted him.

He shifted Trixie so her ass was supported on the mattress, while her upper torso was lying over his chest. He kissed the top of her head and adjusted his hold to a more comfortable position and closed his eyes. She was not going to be easy to convince that he was seriously interested in a real relationship. He had listened earlier when she told him not to play with her.

He knew that he had hurt her time and again, but telling himself that she was hard enough to let his insults slide off was inexcusable. Maybe he should just hand her his Sig and let her shoot him with his own gun. If she didn’t shoot to kill, then she might feel sorry for him and nurse him back to health.

The flip side of that would probably be that she would decide to take a second shot to make sure that he was put out of her misery.

He fell asleep with the woman that his heart told him it wanted, safe and secure in his embrace.

He was awakened by squeezing fingers digging into the flesh of his arm as her legs began to thrash around. The sounds coming from her throat were chilling, and Krom bent his head to whisper calming words in her ear but got the back of her head colliding with his teeth instead.

It took every bit of patience that he could muster not to shake her into consciousness. He tightened his arms and kept telling her, “I’m here, baby, it’ll be alright. Shhh, it’s alright.”

Her hands went to cradle her stomach and the tortured, “Sorry, baby,” gutted him. Either she had miscarried a baby, or- No, there was no way that he would believe that she’d gotten rid of it on purpose. Not Trixie.

*****

Trixie woke up feeling worn out, but warm, and safe. Safe? Where did that come... She moved her arm and encountered a warm body spooning her from behind. What the hell? She tried to reach over to lower the railing in front of her, but the thick, hairy arm surrounding her ribcage was not moving.

She didn’t know what to do or say. What was Krom doing here, laying in her hospital bed of all places? He was not snoring exactly, but he was certainly breathing loudly. She would give a lot to wake up with him surrounding her like this for the rest of her life, but she knew that that was not going to happen.

Once he woke up, he would run from the room like a scared rabbit, just as he’d done so many times in the past. Those many times had only happened because he had been drinking too much before they had sex, and once his sexual needs were taken care of, he’d fallen asleep.

The Lodge had three bedrooms that some of the girls stayed in if they were too tired or the weather was bad. Clients were not allowed in those rooms, but the occasional male friend was not a client, and they enjoyed the benefits of the reserved space. Trixie had never been invited into his home, and the Lodge was the place that he felt most comfortable enjoying sex. At least when he was with her.

She knew that he hadn’t been faithful to her, unlike she had been. Her friend told her about Krom being serviced by this passaround or that slut. Clara was a club girl. She was a biker groupie and loved nothing more than to be wanted by a biker or three. She was a beautiful woman with huge tits that were as fake as the red in her hair. She spent more on makeup and pencil heeled boots than most women spent on meals for a month.

Trixie hoped that her friend would grab onto that perfect biker that Clara wanted. Sadly, in the years that Trixie had been around the area, so many women had come and gone from the club groupie numbers that it was not possible to count them all. Those women hung around the club in the hopes of snagging a ranking bad ass in the club. Nomads were okay, but Sergeant of Arms or Vice would do if they had no hopes of grabbing onto the President.

Those women did the dumbest things to prove themselves worthy of the exalted titles that they aspired; it was disgusting. After talking to Snort’s old lady, Trixie knew that the smart men didn’t nest up with women that the entire club had fucked. They found women with jobs and a little pride in their selves.

Lying in that cellar had given her an entirely new outlook on her life. She screamed and cried. She had gone over her entire life and memories and wondered what she had done in her life to be punished like that. Thinking back on Gleason and the baby that she’d lost had been hard to revisit. As many times as she thought of her years of regret, there was nothing that she might have done differently.

Her parents were bitter old people with hatred in their hearts for the entire world. She had gone back to attempt to reconnect with them. They acted as if she was going to steal the silver. Seeing them after all of the years that she’d been gone made her appreciate the life that she now lived.

Hilda wondered why she had been the recipient of a large box of chocolates the day after Trixie had returned from the trip. Telling her that she was appreciated just made the older woman smile and hug her.

The memories of Krom and his lovemaking had played over and over in her mind. He was so tender at times and fierce at others. He liked to smack her ass at times, and she liked it. He never expected her to pleasure him without him making her enjoy at least one orgasm.

She had a drawer in her little jewelry chest back at the farmhouse filled with bracelets and gold chains. He had fastened the longest chain around her waist one night and told her how much he loved seeing the golden strand against her creamy skin. His request for her to have her nipples pierced had been considered and rejected. That would be a painful commitment, and she was not ready to let him believe that he only had to ask for something and she would comply.

He had given her the pinky ring that she wore on her right hand most of the time. She had been wearing the ring the night of her abduction, and the entire time that she’d been in that cold, damp place, she had twisted the ring around and around praying that the ring would help her connect with Krom. She knew that the ring was just a trinket that he’d found on the bottom of the ocean or river when he was working. Knowing that he had polished it up and thought enough about her to gift it to her was what made it special. It was a simple band of white gold, and there was a very tiny carving of a flower in the smooth metal.

She had tried to poke a hole in the ceiling of the room and considered attempting to start the gasoline from the bike on fire. The fire could have been a disaster as far as getting attention from the outside.

From what the policewoman told her, Krom had unearthed the door of the basement with his bare hands. With all of the trash and shit that had been piled on the doors, the smoke might not have escaped through the door cracks, and she would have died of smoke asphyxiation.

Taking stock of her aches and pains was hard to do when she had two urges. One was to use the bathroom, and the other urge was to turn around in Krom’s arms and hold him and demand for him to tell her that he would be there to protect and love her for the rest of their lives.

The imprisonment must have done a number on her mind, and she knew it. She wanted- she wanted things that had never occurred to her that she might want. She wanted to dance in his strong arms. She wanted to drive a fucking minivan for chrissakes. That was ridiculous. Maybe an SUV, but not a damn van. She wanted kids, and she wanted to be loved. She deserved to be loved for the person that she was.

She was going to have that. If Krom didn’t want the same thing, then she was going to solidify those plans to move from here with Friendly, and they could start over in Iowa. She would find a man that could value her.

She lifted his arm, pushed it over her hip and rolled over to lower the railing. It was time to get a move on the day.