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We met Dad at the nurses station, and he wrapped an arm around my other side, as we left the hospital, both of them supporting me and sheltering me from the many people we passed in the crowded corridors.
Panic attack averted, we reached the car park and Dad led us over to the right where I could see his brand new, shiny black Range Rover parked. I paused a few feet away when I noticed the huge, muscular man who stood beside the driver’s side door, watching the three of us with absolutely no expression on his face. He was young, maybe in his early thirties, with thick, dark hair that hung just a little too long and flopped over the aviator sunglasses he wore. He was huge, at least as tall as my dad, and then some, with a hulking muscular frame under the jeans and leather jacket he wore.
“It’s okay,” Trent assured me when I looked to him with worry. “He’s with us.” He pushed me forward and I moved, feeling safe sandwiched between him and my dad, but still not taking my eyes from the mysterious stranger.
“Blake. Meet Luca Russo. He’s a security consultant I’ve hired to be with us for the time being,” Dad said as he held a hand out toward the man, who was taking a few steps our way.
“Security consultant?” I squeaked. “Why?”
“We can discuss it when we get home. There are some things I haven’t told you yet. I didn’t want to worry you while you were recovering,” Dad told me, and I instantly felt panicked. What hadn’t he told me? Were we in danger? Was this because I reported Terry, or….oh God!
“Is it them? From th-the cellar? Are they here? Are they c-coming for me?” I asked between desperate gasping, panicked breaths. It had to be them. If my dad felt the need for security, something bad was happening, and I was sure it was those monsters, coming after me to finish what they failed to do the first time.
“Blake. Just breathe, tiny,” Trent gasped as I wobbled on my feet and fell against his side as my panic just continued to rise.
“No one is coming for you, sweetheart. You’re safe. I’ve made sure of that. Just do as your brother says and take some breaths. No one is going to hurt you,” my dad added as he took my hand between both of his and rubbed it over and over, warming my frozen fingers.
“Let’s get her into the car. We can discuss this later. Right now we need to get home,” Trent suggested and Dad nodded in agreement.
“Is everything alright?” the stranger, Luca, asked as he came even closer and looked to me with a mix of confusion and concern.
“We need to get my daughter home. Is the car safe?” Dad asked as he and Trent herded me toward the Range Rover.
“All good,” I heard Luca reply. “I’ll be following right behind you.”
Before I could hear whatever he was saying next, Trent lifted me from my feet and set me into the back seat of the car. He leaned in and grabbed my seatbelt, pulling it across me and fastening it.
“Keep breathing, short stack. Slow, deep breaths. I’m just going to get in the other side,” he told me before he closed the door.
I instantly felt a little panicky being shut in the car alone. I had barely spent a moment alone in the last week and it was an unsettling feeling. My hands were shaking and I was still gasping for breath, my whole body suddenly feeling frozen through.
Then the back passenger door opened at my other side and Trent was there, closing the door again and shuffling over to the centre seat right beside me.
“I’m here, Blake. Keep breathing. You’re doing great,” he told me as he put an arm around me and pulled me into his side. I leaned in, resting my head on his shoulder and closing my eyes, just trying to calm my racing mind.
It took almost the entire fifteen minute drive home for me to calm down enough to get a breath in, and even then the images of those three monsters torturing me wouldn’t stop playing on a loop in my head. What would I do if my dad told me they had followed me there? That they had come for me? I couldn’t go through that again, through what those bastards did to me. I wasn’t strong enough. I wouldn’t survive it again.
The door at my side clicking open pulled me back to reality, and I let out a cry as I jolted hard in fear, throwing myself into Trent in a desperate bid for safety.
“Hey. It’s okay. It’s just me, tiger.” I looked up through my tears and found Declan stood there, leaning into the car. He had trimmed the thick beard, which he had been sporting all week, and now had just his usual covering of dark stubble. He also looked a little less tired and drawn, some of his colour having returned to him since the first time I saw him after I woke up from the coma.
“Declan,” I whimpered as I held my hand out to him. My fears and terrifying memories had found a way to seep into my consciousness and I couldn’t seem to push them back out, but having him so close instantly began to soothe me.
“What’s going on?” he asked as he bypassed my hand and leaned in to unfasten my seatbelt. In a matter of seconds I was lifted from the car and wrapped in his arms, my face buried against the soft cotton of the black button-down shirt he was wearing as he cradled me against him.
“She met Luca and it freaked her out. We need to tell her everything. She’s fearing the worst,” Trent told him. I assumed he was out of the car now, because his voice followed us as Declan carried me into the house.
“No one will hurt you, Blake. I’m never going to allow that to happen. Never again,” Declan whispered close to my ear as he strode into the house. His words helped to calm me a little, as did his strength surrounding me, and the cosy heat and familiar smells of home.
“I’m okay,” I tried to reassure him as I pulled back my tears and glanced up to him. “Just tired,” I added when he looked doubtful.
“Why don’t you take her to her room for a rest?” Trent suggested. “Dad has a conference call in fifteen minutes anyway. We can all talk at dinner.”
“That okay with you, beautiful?” Dec asked.
“Will you stay with me?” I asked, hating the fear I could hear in my voice. It had just been so long since I was alone and I wasn’t ready to start at that moment either.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he promised.
