Shelly
My mind keeps drifting between the past and the present. One minute I’m replaying the incident with Eli in the club, and the next I’m dreaming about Ryker and Mikey being by my side. Last night I woke up in a cold sweat from a nightmare. It started out replaying the attack but then it was so much more. Eli had gotten to my boy and kidnapped him after he beat my sister within an inch of her life. When I jumped up in bed, my ribs were screaming with pain and I had scared my buddy. I took a few deep breaths and when I realized he was all right, my eyes welled with tears of joy. I know it wasn’t the brightest idea, but I grabbed him from Mikey’s arms and squeezed him tight. All I kept saying was thank God you’re okay. He is my world, the air I breathe, without him I would suffocate.
Now I lay here in my bed, unable to sleep, staring out the hospital window. Mikey is passed out cold in the chair beside me. He’s still wearing the same clothes from yesterday, which are actually going on three days old now. He needs to shower and change. I chuckle, knowing he won’t listen to reason. He’ll stay right here by my side until he knows Eli is locked up. I’m thrilled that Ryker and Brea are coming back to visit today. Eric has to get to work for the day, but security will bring them over. I didn’t get to see him too much last night since I was so messed up from the medication they give me, but today I want to visit with my son, so I hope I can stay a little more alert.
I glance over at the clock to see it’s almost eight-thirty, and that means Cooper will be here any minute. I close my eyes to rest while I think about the statement he needs from me, and he said the sooner the better. I don’t want to relive the events from that awful night, but I have to if I want them to have what they need to put Eli away and Mikey sent him a text last night, letting him know that I was awake. Their conversation was short, but as soon as Mikey gave him the update, he asked if I could give the statement today. I closed my eyes, let out a slow calming breath, and nodded my head.
“Are you okay?” I jump, not realizing that Mikey was awake.
“Yeah, I’m just thinking about my statement to Cooper.”
“What about it?”
Like he doesn’t know. “Reliving it,” I respond with an attitude.
He licks his lips and stands from his chair. “Wanna talk before Cooper gets here?”
I roll my eyes. “And relive it twice? I do enough of that in my sleep, thank you.” I can see from the look on his face that he doesn’t know what to do with me right now. I’m being a bit of a bitch, and I don’t mean to be, but I’m tired and sore, and now I have to tell this wonderful detective what happen to me in front of Mikey. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to take this out on you, but you have no idea what it’s like. I was attacked and now I feel damaged…broken.” I shake my head. “I don’t know if I can get over this.” My words come out in a whisper as I fight past the lump in my throat.
“Oh baby, I promise you we will get through this together. You’re not damaged or broken. You’re beautiful and I love you.” He runs the back of his knuckles across my cheek. “Please look at me.” He commands and when I don’t he gently forces me to look into his eyes. “Let me help you through this.” A tear runs down my cheek and I manage a nod.
Cooper chooses that moment to come walking into the room with a bag and three coffee cups. “I can see I’ve chosen a bad time to arrive.”
I wipe away my tears. “You’re fine. Come on in.”
“I brought breakfast and coffee,” he says with a huge smile on his face. It’s infectious, causing me to smile as well.
“You’re a sweet man, thank you very much.”
He places the cup down on my table and slides it in front of me while Mikey helps me sit up in bed a bit more. “There’s cream and sugar in the bag, since I didn’t know how you like it.”
“Thanks, man.” Mikey shakes hands with Cooper. “Do you have an update at all?” he asks.
“Not really. We don’t think he’s gone far, but we haven’t been able to locate him. We know he had help because he left his burner phone in the apartment he was sharing with some other guys. The landlord told me he rented it in only his name, but has been having a bunch of people in and out.” He turns to me. “He has a ton of pictures of you and Ryker in his apartment. He’s been watching your every move for quite a while now. He only seemed to make his presence known after Mikey came along, and he has it out for him too.” Looking back at Mikey he says, “You two need to watch your back.”
“Do you have what you need to put him away?”
“We do, and I think he knew we were onto him and that’s why he attacked when he did. He had a timeline set up in his office, and on it he says he was planning to kidnap you and Ryker, but it wasn’t supposed to be until after you graduated. He has everything he needed in his apartment to give all three of you new identities.”
“That’s crazy. What makes him think I would just agree to be with him and take a new identity? Besides, he mentioned a girlfriend while he was attacking me.”
Cooper shakes his head. “I have no idea, but apparently he believes he could scare you or convince you to stay and live a new life.”
“He’s insane.” I shake my head.
“Don’t say that too loud. That could be exactly what the defense tries to use to get away with this.” My eyes go wide. “Trust me, we aren’t letting him get away with anything. I’m just saying.” I nod my head. “Now, I need you to tell me everything you remember from the other night.”
I go into the story, not looking at either man. I can’t do it. I stare off toward the window, but I’m not seeing what's outside. I’m only seeing that night replay in my head like a movie on a screen. I can’t look into their eyes and tell them how my ex attacked me and tried to rape me. I actually hadn’t known if he succeeded in the rape until I got here and they told me they had found no evidence of rape. I got lucky, and trust me, I believe it was nothing but luck. Something spooked him because I will never forget the look in his eyes as I fought that bastard off with every inch of my being, but he was just too strong and I lost. A tear runs down my cheek. I feel Mikey take my hand and give it a gentle squeeze. “He said something about ‘I’m not allowed to see my son but you’re shaking your ass like a whore.’” I exhale a slow breath. “That was when he dragged me into some closet. He said he was originally just going to kill me, but he decided to rape me first.” More tears I can’t control slip down my cheek. “I was so scared, but I wasn’t letting him rape me without a fight.”
“You put up one hell of a fight too. We took some skin samples from under your nails when they brought you in and we have him on camera dragging you off. There’s plenty to convict him but we have to find him first.”
My head whips back to his and my eyes meet his. With fear etched all over my face I say, “You don’t know where he is?” My body begins to shake uncontrollably.
Cooper shakes his head. “I’m sorry, Shelly. He slipped out of the club before we knew he got to you. When Sky came out of the bathroom and saw you weren’t there, she went to see if you had gone back to the dance floor, but you weren’t there either. All the girls went back to your section and when they discovered you weren’t there, they found Slade and told him they didn’t know where you were. At that point the music had already started to lower and the club started to empty out. They had bouncers at the door looking for Eli while Slade and a few guys searched the club for you.”
Slade comes walking in the room with some guy we don’t know. “Shelly, I’m sorry.” He looks down at me. He looks so sad. “I can’t believe he got past me.”
“Slade, I’m going to tell you like I told Logan. This isn’t your fault. He had a plan and it worked. You did what you had to do.” Mikey tries to make him feel better.
“When I heard there was a fight and they needed back up at first, I thought maybe it was him fighting with the bouncers, so I went over to make sure that he wasn’t causing problems. I would have immediately called the cops and had him arrested, knowing it would have helped you. It took us a while to break the fight up, there were eight people involved, and it was tough getting them apart and out the door. When I finally got back, the girls were looking for me in a panic because you were missing. We turned the club upside down looking for you, and the only reason we found you is because he left the closet door open when he left and Sky noticed it. She pushed it open and found you on the floor.”
“Well, we believe the two incidents are linked. Logan is getting me images of the fight so I can confirm, but once I know more, I’ll stop by. I have what I need for now,” Cooper announces. “You get some rest.”
“Thank you, Detective.” I give him a tight smile. It’s funny, everyone calls him Cooper, but I can’t bring myself to do it. He tries to correct me, but I’ve been calling him Detective from the beginning. He shakes hands with Mikey and walks out the door.
“Listen, I need to get back out there so I can watch over you, but I wanted to say that I was sorry for not taking better care of you.”
I give him my signature one eyebrow raised look. “You will not apologize for this. You didn’t attempt to rape me and you were doing what you thought was protecting me. I shouldn’t have left the bathroom alone and I should have paid more attention to my surroundings, but I got lost in the fun of the night. I just want him found so we can move on.”
“I promise we’ll find him.” He gives me a tight smile and goes back to standing outside the room.
A yawn escapes me and my eyes are getting heavy. Discussing what happened is exhausting, but I get a second wind when I see Ryker give Slade a high five before he runs into the room. “Mommy!” he shouts.
“Hey, buddy. Mommy misses you.”
Mikey picks him up onto the bed for me and he snuggles into my side. “I miss you too, Mommy. When can you come home?” He sounds so sad.
“Well, let me take a look at her chart and see if we can make some decisions on that,” a man in a white coat with a stethoscope says. “Hi, I’m Dr. Callahan. I checked in on you yesterday but you were sleeping. How are you feeling today?”
“Tired and sore. It hurts to talk and my side hurts, but other than that, I’m fine.”
“That’s all normal. I think we’re going to keep you another day or so just so we can keep an eye on your progress, and as long as you continue to heal okay and you have no problem eating, we can send you home. For now, I’m going to put you on a soft food diet. It will be a lot of liquids, but you can have eggs and things like that too. If you have no problem eating that, we’ll try something else, but I’m worried about your throat affecting your eating.”
“Sounds good, Doc.”
“What do you say? Does that work for you?” the doctor asks Ryker.
He shrugs. “I guess so.” We all start laughing. The doctor goes on to ask him how old he is and things like that. The doctor lets him listen to my heart after he does. Ryker thought it was so cool. “My mommy’s going to be a doctor too,” he brags.
The doctor looks at him, surprised. “Oh really?” He nods his head and the doctor asks me about my schooling. I tell him that I’m almost done, and then I just have to finish my clinicals and then go onto my residency next year. The doctor smiles at me proudly. “Well, I wish you lots of luck with it. I’m sure being in here isn’t helping you, but I’ll get you out of here and back to your studies as soon as I can.”
“Thanks, Doc.”
“You’re welcome,” he says before he turns to Ryker and adds, “And you, young man, take good care of your mommy.” He holds his hand out and Ryker shakes with him.
“I will.” He smiles at the doctor.
“I’ll be back later to see how the soft food diet went.” I give him a gentle nod and he exits the room leaving me with my family.
“Well, that sounds promising.” My sister steps closer to my bed.
I can tell she’s trying to sound positive for Ryker, because the reality is I may be healing, but if they don’t catch Eli we are all still in grave danger. I have no doubt in my mind if that man has the chance, he’ll kill me. There will be no fighting to take me first. I’ll be dead and he’ll get to Ryker. The thought keeps playing with my head. His words repeat themselves over and over. “I’m gonna fuck you and leave you dead in this closet. Then there will be no one to stop me. I’ll get Ryker and hit the road. No one will ever find us.
“Shelly.” Brea touches my arm, tearing me from my thoughts and bringing me back to the present.
I shake my head. “Sorry, what is it?”
Her brows furrow. “Are you okay?”
Ryker is half asleep in my arms. The poor kid looks like he’s not sleeping well, worried about his mommy. I run my fingers through what’s left of his curls and I kiss him on the head. He curls in deeper and dozes off. I look up at my sister and give her a tight smile. “I’m okay. I was just remembering something from the other night. I wish I couldn’t remember, but I do. I remember every fucking minute of what I went through.” Tears begin to stream down my cheek. I exhale a deep, cleansing breath but it doesn’t help. Eric and Mikey notice I’m upset and they come to my side.
“Shhh, baby. I promise you, I will never let him near you again. I need to talk with Slade about how we’re going to manage this with school once you’re healthy and ready to go back.” I close my eyes, taking in his words, secretly praying that he’s right and he can keep me safe. The thoughts are exhausting. My eyes are heavy, and before I know it I’m dozing off with Ryker in my arms.