Chapter 18

Holly was torn.

She sat in the restaurant’s office, staring at the last weeks’ figures. Though she tried time and time again to make comparisons, the numbers kept slipping from the forefront of her mind.

After about half an hour, she glanced at the clock – which read about one in the morning – and finally put her pen down, allowing memories from the past forty eight hours to wash over her.

Everything was wonderful.

There seemed to be something awfully, terribly wrong with that, considering how much pressure she’d been under for the past year. First, the trauma of Tommy’s death, then finding all the debt he’d left behind for her. Dealing with Maddy, finding Shane all over again, and she couldn’t forget Kirk Luckston’s biweekly visits. Just a few short weeks ago, it seemed like the entire world weighed down on her and that she wasn’t destined for happiness…or even contentedness.

But, now, here she was.

What had changed? Certainly, Maddy was behaving better. The restaurant was thriving. She still had Luckston’s extortion to fear and the pressure of coming up with the money to give him…but after spending a whole two days in Shane’s arms, it was like she was walking on air.

After they were together the first time, the man hadn’t let her lift a finger for the rest of the weekend. He woke her early with kisses and caresses and Holly, too sleepy to protest, had let him work her into a frenzy of desire that ended with him making love to her for the better part of any hour. While she’d still been delirious with pleasure, he got up to make breakfast and wake Maddy.

When she showered and dressed, Holly was surprised to find her daughter up and in the kitchen with Shane, chatting away. While she had worried that Maddy might ask all kinds of questions, but the girl had just seemed happy to be the center of attention as he chatted away about school and her friends. The meal they enjoyed had been effortless –so much so that Holly seemed almost forced to relax.

And the rest of the weekend had continued in much the same way. Shane kept Maddy occupied, or else he played with both she and Holly at the same time, never complaining when the eight –year-old wanted to watch Barbie movies and use her Easy Bake oven. In the rare moments that Madison occupied herself, Shane held Holly, kissed her, and even gave her a backrub that had put her to sleep on the sofa.

And when Maddy had gone to sleep, he carried her to bed and fucked her so hard she was forced to muffle her screams against the pillows.

Nothing fancy had happened. Nothing earth shattering – just the simple normalcy that Holly craved. The normalcy she had feared she might never have again.

She wanted that with Shane. Today, tomorrow…for as long as she could have it, she wanted him to fill the void within her. Strangely, the void wasn’t one that Tommy had left, but rather one of her own creation, from years and years of forgetting what it was that she really wanted.

Sighing, she closed her eyes, trying to make sense of the deluge of emotions that assaulted her.

All this, and she was supposed to be getting figures and scheduling done for the week.

With a frown, Holly looked up at her computer screen, where she was faced with a half-finished schedule. She had started the document earlier in the day before her attention was dragged away from it, and now she tried to remember why. There were few things she disliked more than going back to a schedule once she’d tried to finish it beforehand.

Peering at the twenty lines of staffing, Holly bit her lip as she tried to concentrate. She made it through most of the wait staff before she realized that Kelly’s lines were still blank. Arching a brow, she remembered that the blonde had told her that she was going out of town for the weekend with Rob.

Holly had only found the request a little odd when Kelly told her. The blonde didn’t usually go on trips with men she deemed to give the time of day, but she had seemed particularly excited about this escapade. She claimed that Rob was going to wine and dine her and that she was going to spend three days getting sexed out of her mind.

Of course, Holly smiled and urged her to go.

But that had been almost five days ago – and she hadn’t heard from Kelly since she left.

If anything, that was the most unusual thing about the entire scenario. If Kelly was getting sexed out of her mind so thoroughly, she usually wanted to call Holly and give her every juicy detail, but this time, there had been complete radio silence. Holly had been so wrapped up in her own weekend of sensual intrigue that she hadn’t checked on Kelly.

And now, she found a prickle of worry at the back of her subconscious.

She reached for her cell phone, dialing Kelly’s number as she brought the receiver to her ear. The phone rang the customary five times without an answer, and then Kelly’s message picked up.

“Hi, you’ve reached Kelly. I’m not available to answer your call right now. Leave a message and I’ll get back to you.”

Holly hesitated only a moment before simply hanging up.

Where the hell was Kelly? It wasn’t like her not to check in. It wasn’t as if Holly couldn’t cover her shifts, but she wasn’t as worried about the roster as she was about her friend in general. She called the blonde twice more, leaving a message the final time before finally replacing her phone in her purse. She made sure that her ringer was on so that she would hear the moment Kelly called her back.

Hopefully, she’d hear from her friend before she went to bed. Holly didn’t know if she’d be able to sleep unless she knew Kelly was alright. Hopefully her rich boy toy hadn’t wined, dined and sexed her into a coma.

She forced herself to finish the schedule before going through several more pages of figures – until she was nodding off over the work she had left. When she looked at the clock again, her eyes widened in surprise at the time she read.

It was close to three in the morning.

Maddy would have been long in bed, and the sitter no doubt asleep on the couch. After the weekend they’d spent together, Holly wanted to give Shane a bit of a breather. It wasn’t as if she didn’t appreciate all the time he spent with his niece, but he wasn’t Maddy’s round the clock guardian.

So she knew how hard it was to get burned out as a parent.

Though, Holly had to admit…one day, when Shane did have children of his own, he would be an amazing father.

He had a way with Maddy…it was hard to describe. As if he instinctively knew what to do, despite the fact that he promised her he had no experience with children at all. He humored her, he was patient, he was caring – and all despite what people might assume about him. Taking in Shane’s massive, tattooed form, one might think that those muscles of his were made for inflicting damage, but Holly had only ever watched him cart her daughter around the house unceasingly.

And she had smiled at the sight.

One day, Shane would make another woman, and his future children, amazingly, wonderfully happy.

At the thought, her stomach twisted in discomfort and she immediately rose from her desk, pushing the notion to the back of her mind. She couldn’t think about that now. She wouldn’t. She was exhausted and worried about Kelly. If she allowed herself to think about the future she wouldn’t have with Shane now, she’d fall apart, and she was too damned tired of falling apart.

And so, instead, she packed up all her papers, shoving the folders into her briefcase before leaving the office. She needed to see her daughter and she needed some sleep – After all, atop all the other issues she had, tomorrow marked another visit from Kirk Luckston. And for that, she would need her strength.

Holly locked the restaurant up tight before heading home for the evening. She blasted some unknown rock station as she drove home in order to keep herself awake and all but stumbled through the front door, startling the sitter. With a weary smile, Holly paid and thanked her before sending her home. Then, she set her things down and made her way upstairs to poke her head into Madison’s room.

Her angel was sleeping, wrapped tightly in her Dora the Explorer sheets, her dark hair haloed out over the pillow. With a small smile, Holly shuffled her way over to the bed, kneeling beside it to run her fingertips gently over her daughter’s cheek. Madison stirred ever so slightly in her sleep as her mother stroked her downy skin and Holly’s heart swelled. All the fear in her heart was overcome by the love she had for her daughter, and, in that moment, she was at peace.

At least, until the doorbell rang.

Immediately, Holly straightened, her heart leaping into her throat in surprise.

What?

It was close to four in the morning. Who the hell would be coming to visit at four am? For a split second, she thought she might have imagined the sound – but then it came again. Frowning, Holly cast a last glance at Madison, ensuring that she was still asleep before leaving her room to hurry back down the stairs. Despite how tired she was, she was very suddenly wide awake. Callers in the wee small hours could do that to one.

At the foot of the stairs, Holly paused in the foyer, her heart fluttering, every muscle in her body tight.

Somehow, she had a bad feeling about this.

A really bad feeling.

Slowly, she advanced on her front door. Through the frosted glass pane, she could see a dark figure, but the details were blurry. Taking a deep breath, she stepped up to the door and yanked it open.

Almost immediately, the figure on her doorstep collapsed into her arms, drawing a high, shrill sound of alarm from her as she dodged to the side. The figure slid to the floor and Holly’s back slammed against the nearest wall, her breath coming in short, sharp gasps.

The reached blindly for the switch to the foyer light, and within two seconds, it snapped on, making her squint at the brightness that flooded the small space. Once her eyes adjusted, Holly stared down at the figure on her foyer floor.

And screamed.

It was Kelly – but the blonde was barely recognizable. She wore the same blue dress that she had the day she’d left on her trip, but the garment was so ripped and bloodied that it was in absolute tatters, revealing large patches of bruised, pock-marked skin. There were round, dark burns where cigarettes had obviously been put out, long, precise shallow cuts that marred the blonde’s deeply tanned skin, and her face was so swollen that her features were barely recognizable. As she lay on the floor, her eyes swollen shut, Holly started to shake until she was trembling so violently that her legs couldn’t hold her weight.

A choked sob escaped her as she slid to the floor, gasping for breath.

Kelly…Dear God, Kelly…

What the hell had happened to her?

The next hour was like something straight out of the deepest, darkest pits of hell. Holly called an ambulance and Kelly was whisked away to the hospital with her and Madison following in her car. Of course, her daughter was terrified, woken by her mother’s screaming and asking incessantly what was going on, even as Holly tried to shield her from the true horror of the nights events.

At the hospital, Kelly was pronounced to be in critical condition and rushed into emergency surgery while Holly watched, trying to keep her head. With the chaos of the emergency room swirling around her, Maddy clutching at her skirt, and the image of her best friend collapsed in her front hallway burned in her mind, Holly had to remind herself to take deep breaths…that falling apart in that moment would do absolutely nothing for her. She had to be strong.

She always had to be strong.

And so, Holly locked everything away inside. She forced herself to manage the situation as doctors came at her one after another, and all with her daughter by her side. She started by calming Maddy down as well as she could, getting her hot chocolate and some very early breakfast before reassuring her that Kelly was going to be alright. Holly didn’t want to lie to her daughter, but at this point, she had to put a little faith in the idea that there was power behind her words.

Once her daughter had settled down, Holly fielded first the doctors’ questions, and then those of the police. They wanted to know what time Kelly had shown up on her doorstep, if she’d anyone else around her property when Kelly had arrived, if she knew anyone who would be capable of committing such a crime. Of course, Holly kept her mouth shut about the latter. She did know someone, but as far as she was concerned, Kirk Luckston was happy with her. She let him assault her every two weeks and gave him his money, and that was that. And even if he had hurt Kelly, Holly’s lips were sealed.

They had to be.

The thought was enough to make her blood boil – to make her sick with anger – but there was little she could do.

And so, she stood, her expression blank, as the doctors informed her of exactly what state her best friend was in.

Kelly had been severely beaten, over the course of several days, by what was probably a group of four or five men. She had marks from everything from cigarette burns to knife lacerations marking her formerly pristine skin, and it would be weeks before the swelling in her face went down.

But that wasn’t the worst of it.

Doctors were grave when they told Holly that Kelly had also been raped, repeatedly. She had some damage to her reproductive organs that would have to be prepared, and she’d probably have to be kept heavily sedated for a week. She might never have children.

Holly managed to keep from being sick until all the doctors and police had gone. She kept her spine straight all the way to the bathroom before collapsing inside it, heaving until her stomach was empty.

Dear sweet God, who would do such a thing?

Holly hadn’t been able to give the police much information. After all, she had no idea where Kelly had gone, and couldn’t tell them anything more about Rob then a loose physical description. Apparently, when the cops searched her phone and contacted him at the number she had for him, the man had been just as horrified as Holly was that something had happened to her.

Meaning that she had never met up with him.

“Kelly…” Holly breathed, tears blurring her eyes as she trembled. “Fucking God, Kelly…”

Holly needed to know who had done this. She needed it more than she’d needed anything in her life.

They would fucking pay.

And it was that thought that kept her from crumpling when she was finally allowed in to see her friend.

Kelly lay there, in her hospital bed, half her body covered in bandages, attached to more machines than Holly had ever seen in her life.

Holly could only stare, feeling as if someone had ripped her heart out through her throat.

In that moment, more than anything, she wanted to call Shane. To have him come, take her in his arms, and cry until she was too exhausted to do anything other than sleep. But she knew that wasn’t an option. If she called Shane, he would, no doubt, lose his mind. He would take what had happened to Kelly as an immediate threat to her – which might or might not be the case.

And he would bar her from the restaurant.

That couldn’t happen. Not with her next meeting with Kirk Luckston in only a few hours time. Holly had already failed to show up once. If she missed another appointment, there was no telling what Luckston might to her.

Or to Maddy.

No, telling Shane about this just now would only put him in danger. Knowing him, he’d probably shoot of the mortal coil and go on his own little vendetta – and there was no way Luckston wouldn’t notice the rage of a man like Shane.

No.

Holly had to keep it inside. At least for the next twenty four hours.

Exhaling a long breath, she took Kelly’s limp hand in hers, her eyes sliding shut. “Twenty four hours. Just twenty four hours.”