Page 3 of Her Hero Daddy

By the time she realized she was on the freeway, Haylee was completely numb. Her vision blurred as tears filled her eyes. She needed to call Ally. She needed to hear her voice and hear something that would pull her out of the looming panic attack that was near the surface. Pulling her phone from her back pocket, she found Ally’s name in her phone and hit the call button, placing it on speaker on her lap. It only took two rings before she picked up.

“Haylee! Oh my gosh, I’m so happy to hear from you!” Ally squealed excitedly.

She opened her mouth to speak, but a loud sob escaped and then another one.

“Haylee? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Another sob.

“Haylee, I’m putting you on speaker. Luke’s here. What’s wrong?”

She nodded silently, trying to breathe. Traffic became a blur as tears streamed down her face.

“I had to get out of there, Ally. I don’t know where I’m going to go!”

“What happened?”

Another sob escaped her before she spoke. “He beat me up. Really bad this time.”

Ally gasped loudly over the phone, and then it went quiet.

A man’s voice spoke. “Haylee, honey, this is Luke. My friend Kane is here too. You just get yourself here, and we’ll take care of you. He will never hurt you again.”

Another male voice spoke, this one was hard as stone, and it caused a shiver through her entire body.

“We will never let him hurt you again.”

“Haylee, honey, where are you?” Luke asked.

“I… uh… I’m not sure where I am… My boyfriend… ex-boyfriend… I tried to leave when he was at work, and he showed up, and he… uh…” She trailed off, releasing another loud sob.

“Take a breath, Haylee. Tell me what happened. Can you pull over to the side of the road, please?” Luke asked gently.

She nodded silently, looking for a place to pull over. As soon as she put the car in park, she looked in the rearview mirror to make sure he hadn’t followed her and caught her reflection in the mirror. Her cheek had a dark bruise and had already swollen, and blood had trickled down the side of her head where it had been bashed against the wall. She paled, feeling the nausea rising again.

“I… uh… I pulled over… Shit… I’m bleeding.”

“Haylee, where are you bleeding?”

Her hand trembled as it touched the blood.

“My… my head. He… uh… he slammed it against the wall.”

“Okay, honey, if you have something you can use to put pressure on your head wound so it doesn’t continue to bleed, do that now.”

Digging through her glove box, she found some tissues and applied pressure. She hissed at the pain.

“I’m so sorry I’m bothering you guys,” she sniffled.

“Haylee, you’re not bothering us. It’s my job to protect you, even if you aren’t in my town. Now, tell me where you are,” Luke said firmly.

She looked around, realizing she had driven for at least an hour before she’d calmed down enough to make the call.

“I… I’m like an hour outside San Bernardino. I was planning to drive to Oregon after I left… I was planning to come home.”

She could hear Ally crying in the background, causing her to start crying again.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, Ally,” she whispered.

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