Page 147 of Vacancy

I’d found my way home.

“Damien,” I sighed, melting against him and thankfully able to start settling down now. I rested my head on his shoulder and wrapped my arms around him like glue.

He held me back just as tightly, saying, “It’s okay. I’m here. Shh... Everything’s okay now.”

36

DAMIEN

Ididn’t know what to expect when I was awoken by the doorbell peeling repeatedly partnered by the incessant knocking in the middle of the night. Maybe one of the guys—Thane drunk and missing Nova, Parker drunk and missing his parents, or Foster anxious about the big game he had coming this weekend.

But when Hudson reached the door just a few steps ahead of me and Alec and Keene, I was definitely taken aback by the hysterical Oaklynn who came flying through the entrance and latched herself to him as she shrieked my name.

“What the…?” I hurried forward, and Hudson met my gaze over her shoulder as he turned her into the room.

“Here’s Damien for you,” he said as kindly as possible before he relinquished her into my waiting arms.

“Oaklynn?”

She didn’t answer, simply curled herself into me so willingly that I closed my eyes and cupped the back of her head, holding her to my chest with everything I had.

She was finally home.

But she was also delirious and wildly upset, shaking hard enough to rattlemyteeth. Her tears soaked my shirt, and she didn’t seem to have any idea that she was barefoot and wearing nothing but a spaghetti-strapped camisole and pink panties.

I stroked her hair, needing her calm. “Shh…” I soothed as gently as possible. “It’s okay. I’m here. Everything’s okay now.”

And over the next few seconds, her hold on me loosened and her hiccupping, stuttering breaths began to even.

“Dude,” Keene spoke up as he glanced down at her legs. “She’s bleeding.”

“Fuck.” I bent and hooked my arms under her knees before picking her up off the ground. “Oaklynn,” I murmured as I carried her into the kitchen and sat her on the table so her legs were hanging down and I could step back and see where she was hurt.

Scrapes coated both knees and shins. A handful of deep scratches were gouged into her right ankle. Blood dripped off her elbows. Her cheek looked scuffed. And red was soaking through the front of her cami at her abdomen.

I cupped her face tenderly in my hands and forced her to look into my eyes. “Baby, what happened?”

But she couldn’t seem to focus on my face. Her lips were trembling, her eyes were still glazed with shock and trauma, and she merely blinked at me repeatedly.

“She can’t talk yet,” I told the others as I pulled her back to my chest and hugged her. She burrowed against me and wrapped her arms around to grip fistfuls of the back of my shirt.

My friends gathered close, all of them also in their nightwear with their hair askew from sleeping. But their eyes were opened wide with worry.

“Alec,” I said, hitching my chin in the direction of my room. “Get a shirt or something for her, would you? And Keene…” He stepped forward eagerly, ready to help. “Find the first-aid kit.”

As he rushed off behind Alec, I added, “Hudson…”

All I had to do was glance at him for him to nod and start backing from the kitchen. “Calling in reinforcements,” he promised before he also raced away, leaving me alone with Oaklynn.

Smoothing a hand over her hair, I exhaled roughly, not sure what was going on, but glad she was here and alive.

“Any better yet?” I asked as I pressed my lips gratefully to the top of her head.

She nodded and finally found her voice. “I… I’m sorry for coming here. I didn’t know where else to go. Actually, I didn’t even think... After I got in the car, I just ended up here.”

“Hey, no,” I assured, smoothing a hand over her hair. “It’s okay. You did the right thing. I wouldn’t want you to go anywhere else.”

“I got a shirt and shorts with a drawstring from your room,” Alec announced as he breathlessly rushed back into the room.

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