Page 12 of Lost In The Dark

“What?” I asked. “What is it?”

“God, Addy. I don’t want to add to everything you’re going through, but we have more to tell you,” Eli sighed with real regret.

“Just tell me. I can handle it,” I assured them as I sat up straight and clutched the water bottle even tighter in an attempt to still my shaking hands.

“On the flight here, I got a report from Kane – our head of security. I had asked him to look into your home, knowing you may wish to go back,” Asher began, but he didn’t need to finish. I was so stupid! How could I think my house would just be there as I left it, waiting for me? I had been gone for two years! Two years in which my rent would have gone unpaid. My landlord was an asshole who would have cleared out my place and relisted it as soon as possible.

“My things?” I asked hopefully.

“Kane is still looking into it, but the landlord told him he’d sold what he could to make up for the rent you owed. The rest he threw out. I’m so sorry, Addy.”

Tears filled my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I’d lost everything. Every single item I had worked so very hard to put in my little one bedroom home. It hadn’t been much, but it had all been mine and it had been hard earned.

“And my job?” I asked.

“The library ran out of state funding last year and was closed down. I’m so damned sorry I don’t have better news,” Asher told me, sounding frustrated.

“So I…I literally h-have nothing?” I squeaked as the tears got free and slipped down my cheeks. My whole life was gone! All that I had been left with was two completely blank years, duringwhich I had apparently been trafficked, sold, and abused.God, life really loved to kick me while I was down!

“Not nothing. You have us. I know it doesn’t make up for all you lost, but we’re here and we would really like you to come and stay with us as soon as we get you out of here,” Eli told me, his hand still on my knee, offering comfort.

“Come home with us, Addy. Let us take care of you while we all get to know one another. We can help you work out your plan for the future while you get strong again. We can be here for you, and maybe you could be there for us too. Our lives are about to change drastically with the death of our father, and we could use all the help and support we can get,” Asher added.

What choice did I have? I literally owned nothing. My bank account may still exist, but if it did it would be as empty as it had been the day I was taken. I had no phone, and no one to call even if I did. No car. Not even the clothes on my back were my own. I was a wreck and I knew it, and I also knew it was likely to become much worse when the memories of what I’d been through returned to me – as the doctor had told me they were likely to.

What would I even do if I walked away from these two kind men? A shelter maybe? Live rough on the streets? I wouldn’t last a night. I wasn’t a strong person. I never had been. My mother had ground me down to nothing in the years I had cared for her, and the years since she passed had been lived quietly and privately. I kept myself to myself and never looked for trouble. It was the way I had wanted my life to be, until trouble came and kidnapped me.

“I…I don’t know,” I told them shakily. “How c-can this have all happened?” A sob burst from me, followed by many more. Howhad my whole life fallen apart and I couldn’t even remember how or why?

I felt large, strong hands around my waist, and then I was in the air. I looked up, startled, and found Asher lifting me into his arms. He sat on the chair I’d been in and settled me in his lap, pulling me against his chest, then resuming the stroking of his hand up and down my back. I felt awkward at first, but I needed the comfort, if I were honest, and in moments I had leant into his front, wrapping myself in his warmth and strength as I fought to get myself together.

“I can only imagine how scared you are right now, but I promise you, Eli and I will take care of you. I promise everything will be okay. We’ll make sure of it,” he told me softly.

“I…I’m so scared,” I whimpered.

“We’re all a little scared right now, Addy. This is all new to us too, and we don’t want to fuck it up,” Eli told me from where he still crouched below me. “But maybe we can work together to find our way through it, huh?”

“Maybe,” I agreed as I looked to him with a very watery, wobbly smile. I knew I had to at least try with the two of them. They were family – something I had longed for so many times. I just hoped they were as genuine and good as they seemed, because I had a feeling I had one hell of a rocky road ahead of me. A road I wasn’t so sure I had the strength to travel alone.

CHAPTER 4

ADDY

I was dozing in and out of sleep, laid across the two uncomfortable chairs again, a while later, when the door to the room was thrown open violently. It smashed hard against the wall and I leapt to my feet with a squeak of fear.

Both Asher and Eli were instantly on their feet, placing themselves in front of me, between whoever was coming into the room and me.

“I’m detective Rankin,” A deep voice announced, and instantly my legs felt weak as my hands began to shake once again. I had only just got them to stop – or Asher had when he held me in his lap for a while and made me feel safe for long enough that I’d managed to calm some. I hadn’t wanted him to put me down, but I knew it had to feel weird, me sat in his lap clinging to him, when he barely knew me.

But I recognized that voice. He was the detective who had screamed and yelled at me for hours in the interview room already.

“Quite a show you made of your entrance there, detective,” Asher commented dryly.

“I need to take Miss Brooks for questioning,” The detective rumbled, ignoring Asher.

“Her attorney needed to step out to make some calls. You’re not questioning her until he comes back,” Asher said firmly. He crossed his arms over his chest and he cut quite an imposing figure.

“She still needs to come to the interview room. She can wait there.”

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