“You look like hell.” Bradley sat at the foot of my hospital bed, a wilted bouquet of flowers in his hands, looking every bit as strange as he did, sitting in the puke pink colored room.
I narrowed my eye at him. The other one was still swollen shut. “Thanks.”
He winced at the sound of my voice. Franklin had tried to crush my windpipe and my vocal cords had suffered for it. It would all heal in time. The doctors weren’t worried about my injuries. Just my mental state, apparently. Everyone who came in to see me looked like they were talking to a person on the edge.
“You sound like hell, too.”
I tried to smile but my lips were swollen, as well. “Again, thanks.”
He looked around the room and frowned. “We’re all ready for you to be home.”
I nodded. I was ready, too. I’d been in the hospital for a few days and it was already too much. I’d spent a night in a hospital in Mexico before getting flown back to Texas by a private plane, belonging to Crimson Security. My parents had been in to see me multiple times and I’d had several visits from police officers, trying to figure out what happened and trying to see if I could identify the girls I’d seen.
The girls. They were still missing. Shipped ahead in the line of traffickers. They’d found payment for them in Franklin’s possession. Two million for around twenty girls. I was told that young American girls went for more. To me, it didn’t sound like enough. How do you put a price on the life of a girl?
From what I’d been told, Crimson Security was using its vast sources to follow the link. Also from what I’d been told, Jagger was heading up the mission.
Bradley sighed. “I think you’re frowning, but your mouth is all…”
I flipped him off and tried to sit up more. My ribs protested, but I ignored it. “Are you trying to make me feel worse?”
He shook his head and stood up. “I’m sorry. I feel horrible, Lacey. I should’ve gone with you. I should’ve been there with you.”
I pushed out a frustrated breath. “So Kenneth could’ve sucker punched you, too?”
“That son of a bitch.”
Kenneth was a son of a bitch, but he was the only reason I was back home and not being forced into sex with Franklin and his friends. Jagger realized I was missing about the same time he finally found proof that Kenneth was the one messing with his system. Dad told me Jagger beat the shit out of Kenneth until Kenneth finally confessed to everything. He told Jagger where Franklin crossed over the border and where he was going. Jagger had been able to use more Crimson Security resources to locate me beyond that.
Without the bastard Kenneth, I’d be dead.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t beyond glad the asshole was in jail. He’d been participating in Franklin’s fun games for a while, apparently. And he’d learned to enjoy them enough that he was willing to ruin the ranch and kill me for them. I still couldn’t fully wrap my head around the fact that he’d betrayed the family that way, or that he was a sick pervert, just like Franklin.
“I heard stock in Franklin’s company is crashing. People are running from that place as fast as they can.” Bradley picked up a teddy bear that Dad had dropped off and held it up. “Dan’s a wreck.”
I closed my eyes and gave up on sitting up. I let my head fall back and grunted before giving up on being comfortable completely. “Dad needs to relax. He’s going to give himself a heart attack at this rate.”
“His daughter was kidnapped and taken across the border by a fucking lunatic sex trafficker who tried to beat her face in. I think he has a right to be a little tense these days.”
I stared at Bradley and raised an eyebrow, the only one I had that would work right then. “You okay?”
He threw his hands up and shook his head. “Of course I’m not okay! You almost died! You’re my best friend, Lacey. I don’t know what I would’ve done if something had happened to you. Something more, I mean. Jesus, I don’t know how you’re so calm. My heart hasn’t stopped racing since I realized you were missing.”
I swore and jabbed at the hospital bed, making it elevate me. It creaked and groaned, but finally, I was sitting up. “Bradley, I’m okay. You can relax, too. I’m alive. Franklin is dead. It’s over.”
“You’re really okay? It would be understandable if you weren’t, Lacey.”
I swallowed. “I’m not writing on the walls, yet.”
“Be serious, woman.”
“I don’t know. I think I’m okay. I’m having nightmares, but it just happened. I guess that’s normal. I’m angry, Bradley. Franklin died too easy for all the things he’d done. In my dreams, he’s still alive. I kill him again and again and he keeps coming back. I saw him die, right above me, but it’s like my brain doesn’t trust it.
“I’m not scared while I’m awake, but at night, I wake up screaming. I feel okay, though. They say the frustration and eagerness to get the hell out of here is normal.”
He sat down at the end of my bed again and rested his hand on my knee. “I’m sorry, Lace. Dan told me you made him book a cruise for a few weeks from now. I’m going to move into the house with you.”
I shook my head. “You’re going to stay in your house, with Anna. I’m going to be fine, Bradley.”
He blew out a big breath and looked over at a big vase of roses. “Dan?”
I laughed. “Dad’s never picked out flowers a day in his life.”
“Then who?”
I gripped my hands tighter together. The never too far away ache in my chest reared its ugly head and let me know it was still there. “Jagger. They’re a nice parting gift, huh? Two dozen red roses. Must’ve been the tongue thing.”
Bradley stood up and grabbed the card. The same card I’d read once and then tossed aside. “I’m not running. I’ll see you as soon as this thing is over. Jag.”
I rolled my eyes and growled as the stupid heart monitor told on me.
A nurse hurried in and looked at me. “Honey, you okay? Your heart monitor just soared over a hundred and twenty.”
Bradley laughed and came back over to me. “She’s okay. Just thinking about her boyfriend.”
The nurse grinned at me and winked. “He must be one good-looking man. Holler if you need anything, honey.”
Bradley barely waited until she was out of the room to laugh at me. “Damn, Lace. He’s got you all twisted up, huh?”
I gritted my teeth and stared at the TV hanging from the ceiling across the room. There was nothing playing on it, but I didn’t mind staring at a black screen to ignore talking about Jagger. My pride was wounded. On top of being beat up and emotionally shaky, Jagger had run from me as fast as he could, despite what the damn card said. I didn’t need to talk about it. It hurt enough as it was.
“Come on. It sounds like he’s just as hung up on you. I can’t tell you how scary that man got when he found out you’d been taken. It was like he Hulked out. I’ve never seen anyone as bad off as Kenneth. He’s lucky Jagger didn’t finish him off. He looked close.”
I wanted to plug my ears and yell over him. I didn’t want to hear anyone else sing Jagger’s praises. I was mad at him. Dad had damn near started a religion in honor of Jagger and Mom just kept talking about how handsome and strong he’d been while racing out to save me. I got it. Jagger was amazing. I knew that.
He’d risked his own life to save me. If he hadn’t been able to get some of his buddies across the border in time, the men chasing us that day would’ve killed us. Letting us go meant leaving a link in their pervert chain exposed. He’d risked everything to make sure I was okay. He’d held my hand and carried me into a hospital.
He’d put me on a plane back home without saying goodbye.
He was off, chasing bad guys. He was the definition of a hero. He was going to find those girls and stop the trafficking ring. I knew it. Anyone who really knew him knew it.
I was just selfish enough to still be angry, though. A non-goodbye and a few roses weren’t enough. He should’ve talked to me. He should’ve said something, said goodbye. He’d done just what Dad had said he was going to do and didn’t that just burn me alive?
“I don’t want to talk about him.”
Bradley grabbed my hand from where my fingers were working my cuticles to the quick. “Okay. We can talk about something else. About how you managed to know Franklin was a bad guy from the start. You helped stop a really big part of a really big trafficking ring, Lace.”
I thought about what Franklin had been doing again and closed my eyes. He’d tormented my family with the knowledge from the newspaper article about Jason and information only close family would know, Kenneth. He’d played on Dad’s fear of the cartel to get him to stay close to me, on the ranch. He knew that Dad wouldn’t break the lease, out of a sense of loyalty to him, or his father. Either way, he knew that if Dad retired, his little piece of pie along the border would be ruined. Thinking about how he’d messed with my family, by using Jason, made me yearn to feel his face under my nails again.
“I doubt Mom ever recovers from this.”
“She’s excited for the trip. I think being away from everything will be good for her.”
I nodded. She needed to be away from what had become the site of so much negative shit. The cruise would be good for her. It might help Dad breathe again, too.
“You remember John Gains?”
I blinked at the change of topic and nodded. “Yeah. He worked on the ranch for a summer when I was growing up.”
“He lost his job with the factory closing up in Blue Moon. He’s looking for work and I offered him a job. He’s got a few buddies who need work, too.”
I tried to switch my brain into work mode. It wasn’t as easy as it should’ve been. “Good. We’ll need the help. Can you run background checks on them? I’d like it if we never had this issue again.”
He patted my hand and stood up. “Sure thing. There’s also a bigger church out of Dallas interested in the clubhouse.”
A church. Surely, we could trust a church. I looked up at Bradley and smiled. “Better run a check on them, too.”
He laughed and backed away. “You better believe I already had it in the works. They’re letting you out of here tomorrow?”
I nodded. “I’ll be a free bird as soon as the doctor signs the papers.”
He grinned. “Then I expect you at work.”
“Goodbye, idiot.”
“See you later, brat.”
I lifted my hand to him in a wave and sighed as the door closed behind him. Finally, some peace. I’d had visitors and hospital staff in and out of my room nonstop. I just wanted a moment of peace to try and breathe again.
I hadn’t been lying to Bradley. I felt okay. The doctors warned me that I would probably be dealing with PTSD from what’d happened, but I felt fine, besides the nightmares. I just wanted to get back to work and forget everything. I knew it was selfish and I judged myself for it, but I couldn’t do anything for those girls. I didn’t want to obsess over them and see their faces when I closed my eyes. I wanted to go back to normal.
That would start if I could just get a moment or two of peace. I motored my bed back down and closed my eyes. Sleeping during the day wasn’t as bad as when I woke up from a nightmare in the dark. I’d just take a nap and when I woke up, I’d be able to deal with things better.
“I got a damn ticket!” Dad’s loud voice boomed into the room. “I was barely speeding! I’m going to call that cop’s boss tomorrow and tell him a thing or two. It’s the end of the month and they’re just trying to meet a damn quota!”
I sighed and motored my bed back up. It was going to be a long night.