Page 19 of Lost In The Dark

“Tell us what you need, Addy?” Eli asked. I looked up at him and tried for a smile, but I was so exhausted and I knew it fell short.

“Sleep,” I whispered. “I’m just so worn out.” I couldn’t help but feel a sense of peace wash over me at being with the two of them.I had known them for less than twenty four hours, and yet they made me feel so safe.

I knew part of why I was trusting them was the state I was in. I was in pain, more exhausted than I had ever been, and terrified of what came next. I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly or rationally, but all I knew was that I had been terrified since the moment I woke in that hospital, cuffed to a bed and unable to remember a thing that had happened. Eli and Asher – they eased some of that fear and allowed me to take a breath. I needed that and there was no way I was going to listen to the rational side of my brain and let them go. I needed them, probably more than I had ever needed anyone at my side before. My instincts told me I could trust them, and that was all I had to go on.

ASHER

I stood looking down over the strip from the window of the hotel room, a glass of scotch in my hand. I didn’t drink often, not more than a beer anyway, but I needed it. Seeing Addy that way – hearing her screaming as though she were in such agony – it had killed me. Now I was terrified that we were doing the wrong thing bringing her home with us. She was going to need so much help and care if that were just the first of many memories that would return to haunt her and I just wasn’t sure we were capable of giving her that, or of giving her anything she would need. I just didn’t want to fail her. She had already been through so much. How was a fucked up mess like me going to make any of it better for her?

“Ash?” I looked up at my brother as he came down the last few stairs towards me. I had left him to take care of Addy. She had been so shaken and she seemed to relax more with Eli than with me. It made sense. I knew I could be an intimidating fucker on first appearances. Most of the time it worked to my advantage,but I never wanted Addy to be scared of me. I wanted her to be a huge part of our lives in the future and we needed to get off on the right foot. “You okay?” Eli asked me.

“Don’t worry about me.” I waved my hand dismissively. “How’s Addy?”

“Sleeping. She wanted to take a shower, but she was way too exhausted to even try. I washed her face and hands and she managed to brush her teeth, then she just collapsed in the bed. I think she was scared to sleep though. That memory she had has terrified her,” he explained as he got to the bottom of the stairs and headed right for the bar. I watched as he pulled a beer from the mini fridge and popped the cap. He never touched the harder stuff.

“It terrified me too,” I sighed. I moved over to one of the armchairs and flopped down into it. It had been over thirty six hours since either of us slept, but there was no way I was going to try yet. I had a hard enough time dealing with my own nightmares. I just knew they would now be punctuated with the screams of my sister.

“What do you mean?”

“That was just one memory, Eli. There will be many more to come. I’m just worried we won’t be able to take care of her in the way she’s going to need,” I admitted.

“We can, Ash,” Eli told me confidently as he perched on the coffee table opposite me. “What she needs most of all is to be surrounded by people who will care for her, and look after her. We can do that, and not just us. Adam and Jordan will help us too. We can give her a home where she can feel safe and we can protect her.”

“She’s going to need more than that. She’s going to need real, professional help. She was kidnapped and sold, Eli. We can’t even begin to fathom what that could mean – what has been done to her in the years she can’t remember.”

“Then we get her professional help. We can find a therapist who will come to the house if we need to. I know we can’t give her everything she needs alone, but we have the money and resources to get anything we can’t give. Most of all though, I think she just needs to know she’s not alone, and we can definitely give her that, can’t we?”

“Do you feel it too?” I asked as I rubbed at my chest and looked over at him. “Do you feel this insane need to protect her?”

“I do.”

“What is that? We only just met her. We don’t even know anything about her.”

“I think we recognize that she’s blood, that she’s our little sister, and its waking our protective instincts,” Eli reasoned. “She’s so fragile right now too. I think even if she weren’t related to us, we’d feel this need to help her and take care of her. She seems so innocent and sweet. She needs someone at her back, and now she has us.”

“I called Adam while you were upstairs. I’ve asked him to prepare the room between the both of ours for her. It has that big claw foot tub. I think she’ll like that,” I explained.

“Good thinking. We need to get her away from here and back home. I don’t like having the hired security that we don’t know, when she’s with us. I want our guys surrounding her and keeping her safe.” I was shocked to hear that from Eli. He nevermuch worried about practical things like security, but it seemed Addy really was bringing out his protective instincts.

“I spoke with Kane too. He’s going to meet us off of the jet with a security team. I’ve asked him to personally guard Addy when she leaves the house. I don’t trust anyone else with her,” I explained. It wasn’t that I didn’t have faith in the security personnel I had hired. They had been thoroughly vetted and were all highly trained ex-military guys. But Kane was the best of them all, and the only one I felt confident enough about to trust with the safety of my sister. He was also a part of our family, and I knew he’d be the one member of our security who would be in our house and get to know Addy. I had a feeling she was going to need to be able to trust anyone she found herself alone with.

“What did Kane say?”

“That he’d protect her with his life. He understands how important she is to us. He has a little sister of his own,” I explained, and Eli nodded.

“Do you think she’ll be okay?” he asked before taking a huge gulp from the beer he was nursing.

“Not for a while, no. She has a lot to deal with, but she won’t be alone. We’ll be with her every step of the way. We’ll get her all of the help she needs and give her plenty of love and support. Eventually, as time passes, I think she’ll find the peace she needs to move forward. There won’t be any quick fixes here though, brother. It’s going to take time,” I told him honestly.

“I have plenty of time,” Eli assured me, and I agreed wholeheartedly. In the space of twenty four hours both of our priorities had changed and Addy now came at the top of our list.

“Lets order some food. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving,” I suggested, and Eli nodded, but he seemed thoughtful. I guessed it was hard not to be when everything had changed so much in such a short time. We had a sister. Nothing that had happened, or could happen, would change how happy we both were about that. Now we just had to hope we really could be a part of what she needed to get strong and heal.

CHAPTER 6

ADDY

“No! Just st-stop,” I whimpered to the beast of a man that dragged me from the back of a rusted out old van and into a building that looked like a warehouse of some kind. It was dark out all around me, and freezing cold. “This is a mis-take! You c-can’t do this!” I cried desperately, the words barely coming out because of how violently my entire body was trembling, and how hard I was struggling to get air in, in my panic.

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