Dillon

You don’t always know what you have until it’s gone…

 

 

 

Once I have a free moment and listen to Ariel’s voice message, I literally feel my heart stop beating for a second or two. I scroll through my phone until I find the on-call doctor’s phone number, I explain to him I have a family emergency and have to leave, he agreed to come in. I have to wait for thirty long stressful minutes for him to get here. I have tried to call Ariel back several times with no answer, so when my back-up arrives, I run out of the hospital and get into my car. I run a few red lights along the way and am surprised when I don’t get pulled over and given a speeding ticket. I have tunnel vision and all I can think of is getting to her and making sure she is safe and sound. When I pull up to her street and see her driveway and yard littered with bikes, knowing there is only one club in the area, I’m relieved that they are here taking care of her.

I know most of the guys in the club, I’ve gotten in trouble with a couple of them a time or two when we were younger. I’m younger than Tic, but I spent plenty of days and nights with Carson and Levi, who are more in my age group. Levi was always antagonizing me and Carson to do his crazy biddings. Being young and dumb, I took every single one of his challenges to heart. The first time the three of us got into trouble together, my father was the officer called to the scene, we’d had been having some fun with spray cans and did some art work to the side of the pharmacy. We were having a blast and nowhere in the back of our minds were there consequences to the action. My dad got me home and beat the ever-loving shit out of me, I missed a couple of weeks of school recovering from his ‘teaching me a life lesson’ needless to say, we were more careful after that with our adventures, doing everything we could to not get caught.

The other two times we got busted, Carson and Levi hid me, so my father would never find out I was involved. They took on the responsibility of what we did, after the first time they vowed to never let me get hurt like that again. If they only knew, he didn’t need an excuse to beat me into submission. I park my car at the end of her driveway and run inside of the house, or I attempt to, but Levi stops me at the door. I have some words with him until I hear the sweetest voice holler out to let me in. I have no hard feelings towards him, but nothing, not even him was keeping me from getting to her. Friendship aside, I would’ve thrown down with him if I had to.

Once I have her in my arms I feel settled and calm, by the time I’m informed of everything that’s been going on I’m angry and determined to get to the bottom of this, I know I don’t have the resources to do it myself, so for now I’ll let my friends do what they’ve gotta do. But if they think, even for a second, I’m going to sit back when they find this son of a bitch, then they have another thing coming. Club business be damned, Ariel is mine, therefore I will not sit back and let them take care of this all by themselves. I make a mental note to call Levi later on and ask him to talk to Wasp or Tic on my behalf.

When everyone finally leaves, I go over to the back door to let Sassy in, she’s been going crazy at the back door for a while now. When I open the door she shoots through it like a rocket and goes straight for Ariel. I swear that dog must think she’s a lap dog because she jumps up on the couch and lays her head and front paws in her lap.

“You need anything from the kitchen, baby?” I ask her.

“I need to get up and put the groceries away before they go bad,” she says getting up. Sassy jumps down and follows her the entire way. She sits down on her hind quarters while Ariel and I put her groceries away, never once moving from her protective position.

“How do you think he got her outside without her attacking him?” Ariel asks me.

“I have no idea, baby, but we better be on guard if he was able to get past her.”

“I’ve never felt unsafe with her here before,” she tells me.

“I can see that, but babe he figured out a way, I think we need to check into getting you a security system. You need one regardless with you being a single woman living on her own.”

“I know you’re right, but this town has always been safe, it never crossed my mind to get one before.”

“We’ll make a few phone calls tomorrow and get one set up for you.”

“Normally I’d argue with you for stepping in and taking control,” I go to argue with her, but she stops me before I get the chance. “But in this case, I’m happy to step back and get as much help as I can.”

“For the time being, when I’m off I’ll be with you wherever you are, whether it’s here at home, the shop or the hospital.”

“But...”

“I’m not backing off on this one, Ariel, I’m sorry, but your safety is my upmost priority right now. Just let me do this please.”

She sighs but eventually rumbles out a, “Fine.”

“Thank you, it will help me sleep easier at night if I’m not constantly worried about you and your safety.”

“I get it, I’m just not used to it.”

“I need to call the hospital to check in, why don’t you go take a bath and we’ll get some dinner started. Looks like you’ll be able to make it for me after all,” I say giving her an encouraging wink.

“Cheeky bastard,” she says as she heads to the bathroom to start what I’m assuming is her bath. I make my phone calls to check in then head towards the back of the house to check on her. I find her standing at the foot of her bed looking at the rose pedals gracing her bed.

“Get in the bath, baby, and I’ll get rid of all this.”

“Okay,” is all she says—sounding defeated, pissing me off even more than I already am. As she walks over to her dresser and gets some night clothes out—I itch to go over to her and comfort her, but she quickly dashes into the bathroom and shuts the door. I bring out my phone and snap some pictures of the bed, in case no one else had thought to do it. It angers me that someone invaded my woman’s safe place. I go into the kitchen and look under the sink where I saw her stash her trash bags away and grab one out of the box. I go into her room and start getting rid of the evidence from her bed, making it as if he was never even here. Once they’re all gone, I decide to walk this to her outside trash can so that when she opens the one in the kitchen she doesn’t have a constant reminder of today’s events.

I sit down on the couch and turn on the television in hopes that the background noise will drown out all my thoughts of murder invading my mind. I mute it when I hear a noise coming from the back of the house, unsatisfied with what I can hear, I get up and walk that way. Once I hit the bathroom door I can hear her crying and sniffling, unable to help myself I open up the door and walk in.

“Baby, please don’t cry, you’re breaking my heart.” She lifts her head from where she has it lying on her knees and looks up at me. Her red-rimmed eyes let me know just how long she’s been sitting in here crying all alone. Following my instincts, I remove all of my clothing and get into the bath sitting behind her. Once I’m settled I pull her against me and hold her as tight to me as I can without hurting her.

“I feel so violated!” she wails out.

“I know you do, baby, I wish there was something I could do to make it better.”

“You, being here with me, holding me like this is helping.” She turns her body to where she’s sitting sideways and buries her head between my shoulder and chin. I lay my head down on top of hers giving her as much comfort and sense of safety as I can.

“My bed is forever tainted by him.” I wondered if she’d ever be able to sleep in that bed again.

“We can either go out tomorrow and get you a new one, or we can make new memories on the one you have—erasing the fact that he was even here in the first place.”

“Mmmm…. I like your second idea, but I really think I want to get a new bed either way.”

“We can do that, we’ll head up to Dallas in the morning and get you a new one ordered and delivered, or we can go by my place and grab my truck and get it while we’re out as long as what you pick is in stock.”

“Can we do that, grab your truck I mean?”

“We can definitely do that. Let’s get you washed and out of here, the water is cooling, and I don’t want you catching a cold.” I grab the washrag from the lip of the tub and get her body wash and lather it up. I start washing her body, and if the moans she’s giving out are any indication I’m doing a damn fine job. Once I wash her body I begin rubbing shampoo into her head and rinse it, then repeat the process with the conditioner. Once she’s clean I stand up from the tub and step out grabbing the towel from the counter. I wrap it around my waist and ask her, “Where do you keep your towels baby?”

“Under the sink,” she replies.

I grab two, one to dry her off with and the other so she can wrap her hair in it like I used to see my mom do. She grabs the first one I hold out and does exactly that, when she goes to take the other one from me I pull my hand back. “Let me take care of you, baby.” She nods her head in acceptance and I step up to her and dry her body from bottom to top. By the time I’m done, my lower region is standing at full attention. I turn from her not wanting her to think I want sex from her while she’s dealing with everything, and quickly dry off grabbing my scrubs bottoms from the floor and pulling them on, foregoing the underwear. They’d do nothing to hide the state I’m in anyways, and when I’m not working I don’t wear them. I’m a commando type of guy normally—better she knows it now, no use in hiding any parts of who I am…she’s not getting rid of me.