Page 135 of The Road Less Traveled By

I didn't lose her.

I rip the duct tape off slowly, and she starts coughing immediately. She has marks on her neck like the ones Ralph gave her before, and just seeing that is making me want to finish what I started with the fucker.

“G-get…me…out,” she coughs through her words, her voice barely audible.

“Holy shit,” I hear Nico mumble from behind me, the scene in front of him settling into his mind. We’ve protected some high-level people, but neither of us has seen anything like this before.

It’s going to haunt us forever, and we didn't even experience it. Bree did.

God, it hurts.It really fucking hurts that I can’t take any of her pain away right now.

“Fuck, angel, one second,” I say as I scramble for the handcuff keys. “W-where are the k-keys? Someone find the fucking keys!” I scream.

“Here, boss,” Emerson says as he hands me them. “They were on the table.”

Yeah, that makes sense.Yet another taunt. The keys to her freedom were sitting two feet away from her, and she could never reach them.

I undo all the cuffs as fast as I can, but not before seeing the red marks on her ankles and wrists. My heart lurches; she fucking fought him. She fought against him hard, so hard that she’s bleeding from where he bound her.God, what the fuck.

Her body is shaking as I hold her in my arms, her head tucked into my shoulder, as if she can’t bear to see anything else in this room.I’ve got to get her out of here.

“I’ve got you, Bree. You’re safe,” I say as I pick her up and take her outside, the area surrounded by ambulances and some news vans pulling up.Fucking hell.This is going to be all over the fucking internet by tonight.

Can't they give her some time to recuperate before they start blasting her trauma everywhere? Do these people have any fucking courtesy?

Bree shakes in my arms as I set her down in one of the ambulances, a female EMT immediately coming over to check her out. I don’t leave her side for a second. I can’t, because I’m afraid she’ll slip through my fingers if I let her out of my sight. I know Ralph is done. I know he’s out of the picture now, but the fear is still there.

Bree could vanish at any moment, and I’ll lose her again.

I could’ve lost her tonight, and I fucking failed at protecting her. Ralph somehow managed to get through our fucking defenses. Just asI mention the fucker in my head, his body—still alive—gets dragged out of the house. I notice his hands are cuffed in front of him, and Nico comes over to me.

“He’ll live, but he won’t see anything but concrete for the rest of his life.”

“Good,” is all I manage to get out.

“Can you tell us what happened, ma’am?” an officer asks Bree.

“W-well, I was…” Bree trails off, still coughing, and before she tries to speak again, I answer for her.

“Can’t you do this another time? She can barely fucking talk.”

The officer nods at me before leaving. Nico pats my back as my guys filter in and out of the house. Bree starts to talk, but I can’t understand what she’s trying to say.

“Liv,” is all she can say. “A-and T-Teags.”

“What about them, princess?” Nico says in a soft tone.

“Shooters,” she scratches out before coughing a few more times. “Watching th-them and y-you.”

“I found the phone, princess. Don’t worry. Those were from a few days ago when Ralph was casing your house. I found the same stolen car outside Liv’s place and the West house on the same day. They’re okay.”

She nods at me before someone calls out her name.

“Bree! Where the hell are you?” I recognize Liv’s voice just as she locks eyes with me, her gaze shifting to her sister, who sits on my right. “Oh, fuck.”

Liv and Tristan rush over to us, and Liv hugs her sister, Bree’s arms shaking as they slowly go around her body. Bree’s wrists and ankles now have gauze wrapped around them, the bleeding and scrapes covered in ointment so they can heal.

But there’s no gauze for her mind. There’s nothing anyone can do—besides Dr. Anna, maybe. Ralph terrorized her again tonight. Justlike before, he’s left invisible marks in her mind and memory that she’ll never forget.

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