“Dead?” I croak.
Cash flinches from the word, and Duke looks a little peaked.
“Yes,” Duke answers. It is so bizarre seeing them together and being one side of a conversation. Not finishing each other’s sentences exactly but working so closely together to have this conversation that one seems to know where the other will need them.
“How?”
Duke rubs his neck. Cash fidgets a little awkwardly.
“How?” I ask a little more forcefully, but it still comes out weakly and cracking.
“I did it,” Duke whispers, almost too low to hear. “I’m sorry, Caroline. He hurt you and I lost control. I’m sorry.” His own tear drips onto the mattress near our joined hands.
“Come here,” I command, barely above a whisper. He leans down until he is close to my mouth, turning his head so I canget close to his ear. “Thank you.” I try to lift my arm to wrap around him, but I’m weak and so tired, so it just kind of bumps him and he chuckles slightly.
Lying my head back, I drift off to sleep.
The next few days pass in uneven periods of waking and sleeping. My neck feels better every day and soon I can talk in full sentences. Repeat tests show I’m healing well but it’s a long road. The police stop by and ask for a statement, which is hard the first day, but the memories return day by day.
By day four, I can remember every minute of the home invasion/attempted murder. Realizing he came all the way to Montana to murder me is a sobering thought; I never even considered this as a possibility. When all the information becomes clear, I can finally tell the guys what happened before they got there.
“I heard him knocking and it was getting scarier, so I texted you. I was also going to text Cash, but I never got that far.”
“Why would you think I would be at your house in the middle of the night banging on your door, Caroline?” Duke asks me, clearly perplexed.
“I didn’t. It was just, well, when he started knocking it was gentler, urgent but not scary. And since I really only know the two of you well enough to show up and knock on my door, it was just the only thing that made sense, I guess,” I tell him, confessing without words there are no other men who would have shown up. The slightly pleased look on Cash’s face indicates he understood what I didn’t say.
“Okay, so then what?” Cash leads me.
“After you replied back, asking why, I was trying to tell yousomeone was banging but he got through the door at that exact moment, and I was too scared to keep typing.” I remember it now, in such vivid detail, it’s as though it just happened moments before.
“How did he get in? When we got there, the door was closed and locked,” Duke questions.
“I’m actually not sure. I feel pretty certain I locked it, but I may not have. I don’t know.” I shudder, the fear of those moments snaking up my spine. “Once he was inside, he came upstairs and grabbed me.”
“How did he find you? How did he recognize me as soon as he saw me? He didn’t even know who Duke was.”
“It was so weird. He looked right at Cash, ignoring me completely. But if he had been watching you or something, he would have seen both of us.” There’s curiosity but also hurt mingled in Duke’s question.
“He saw us on TV. No idea why he was watching a rodeo from Lewistown, Montana but he said he saw you and I after the rodeo, when you won and told national television I destroyed everything…” I trail off, my voice softening.
Sadness fills Cash’s face at my mention of those events.
“I know I hurt you, Callie; you hurt us too. I never wanted to bring you pain, but I can’t apologize for it. I am sorry I dragged you in front of the camera, knowing afterward I was going to leave you alone. If I had been with you, or you with me, that night, things would have been different,” Cash says, spilling his heartache and pain onto my soul.
I see the opening, the gap, where I can confess and tell them I’m sorry. The time when I can smooth over the pain and heartache and explain myself. But I don’t take it. It isn’t fair to either of them if I give them a blanket apology. They each deserve the time to talk to me alone. So, I carry on with my story. “He grabbed my hair and pushed me to the floor,straddling me. He hit me across the cheek.” I saw stars when he did it and I thought he was going to knock me unconscious.
“Then he pulled me up and yelled for a while about the apartment and me leaving, and you, Cash. He punched me in the jaw at one point, which made me fall to the floor. I think that’s when you got there because he hauled me up by my arm and dragged me to the closet. You know what happened next.” I don’t tell them he kissed me, roughly, and threatened to make me his wife in all the ways that matter again since I had let another man inside me. It would hurt them more and I’ve done enough.
“The doctor mentioned yesterday he thinks they will discharge you in a few days so we will need to head back to Inspiration in the next day or so,” Cash informs me. My heart splits in half. I’m so grateful they came for me. So thankful they sat by my bed. “Why are your eyes filling with tears, Callie?”
“I am just so happy you came for me and that you’ve been here. Thank you. Do you think I could hire a car to drive me, or maybe someone would be willing?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Duke asks me, harshly.
“So I can get home? Although I don’t know where home is. Do you think I still have a place to live?”
Cash and Duke make almost identical faces, furrowing their brows before rolling their eyes.
