Davis, Keyonna - Nowhere to Hide [Pine Valley] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (23 page)

He watched, but Ali didn’t move. He knew she was awake, and he could see her whole body trembling. Why was she so scared of him? Didn’t she know that he would never hurt her?

“Sam, don’t touch her
.
S
he has nothing to do with this.”

Sam could feel the rage as it coursed through his body. Turning, he stomped over to Cane and saw as her eyes widened.

Yeah, you should be scared, he thought.

“You bitch! What have you done?” he yelled as he grabbed her by the shoulders and hauled her up. He let her scream wash over him and fuel his fury. He pulled out the gun that he had been carrying and pointed it at her. He wanted her torture to last longer, but he couldn’t let her fill his angel’s head with her lies any longer.

* * * *

“Sam! Don’t!” Cane sobbed.

She knew he hated tears and crying, but she couldn’t stop them. She didn’t want to die, not like this. She had never seen Sam like this and knew that he was serious about killing her. She could see Ali sitting up on the bed with tears in her eyes and knew that she had to do something to stall Sam until the guys arrived. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed while she was out, but she knew that they had to be close. Shifting to keep his attention on her caused fire to shoot up her arm, but she also realized that at some point Ali was able to get the handcuffs open. As long as Sam didn’t realize they were gone then she would have the element of surprise, and that could be the one thing that kept her and Ali alive.

Just keep him talking and distracted, she thought to herself.

“Sam, you don’t have to do this, just leave Ali out of this, and I will do whatever you want. I will even go back with you, and you can do whatever you want with me. I promise, let’s just get in the truck right now and go.”

She tried to stop the sobs before they came out, but she couldn’t. She was scared to death
.
S
he never thought Sam would go this far.

“Shut up, you whore!” Sam yelled in her face. “I should have killed you a long time ago, but I didn’t because I loved you. Now you have turned Ali against me. She is scared to even look at me, and it’s all your fault,” he screamed as he pointed the gun at her.

Cane didn’t have time to think. She had just enough time to lunge at Sam and push his hand away before the gun went off. She could hear Ali screaming in the background, but it sounded like she was about a mile away. She barely heard wood breaking and
the
other voice shouting as she struggled to get the gun away from Sam, knocking them both over in the process. She thought she heard Duncan calling her name, but she couldn’t answer him because she had to use all her strength to keep Sam from shooting her. She closed her eyes as a fist flew at her face, but opened them again when she heard another gunshot.

Oh God, no, she thought, he shot me.

But she couldn’t see through the blackness that was creeping at the edge of her vision. Closing her eyes again, she could swear that she could hear Duncan and Logan screaming her name, but she didn’t have the strength to open them again to see if they were really there. She smiled, thinking that at least she got to hear their voices again before she died
,
and let the blackness wash over her.

* * * *

Duncan felt numb all over as he watched the paramedics load Cane into the ambulance.

They were too late, he thought. Now she was hurt because they didn’t protect her.

If only they could have gotten there five minutes sooner, then they could have kept Cane from having to shoot the bastard. She was able to shoot him as they struggled over the gun, but it wasn’t enough for Duncan. He wanted to kill him with his bare hands for what he did to Cane. Looking over, he watched as a second set of paramedics loaded the body bag with Sam’s body in it. Duncan knew there would be questions, but they could wait. His top priority was to make sure Cane woke up at the hospital with them at her side. He knew that he wouldn’t have survived if he had lost her. Looking over at his best friend, he knew that Logan wouldn’t have survived either. They both loved her more than life itself. Once the ambulance was loaded with Cane and Ali, who they made go to the hospital as well to have her head checked out, Duncan followed on autopilot. The whole way he prayed that Cane forgive them for not keeping her safe like they promised.

“She is tough,” Logan said, more to convince himself than anyone else as they stood in the emergency waiting room. “She survived eight years with him
.
S
he will pull through this, and we will be there to help her.” Duncan couldn’t answer past the lump in his throat. He felt tears in his eyes and couldn’t stop them as they trailed down his face. He hadn’t even cried when his parents died, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself now.

“Come on, Duncan, you have to hold it together,” Logan said as he pulled him into a hug. “You are supposed to be the strong one and keep me sane.”

Duncan could hear Logan’s voice crack and knew that he was on the verge of losing it, too. He dried his face and took a deep breath. He just wished someone would let him know how Cane was doing. They had been here over an hour, and all the nurses would tell them is that the doctor would give them an update when he was able to. The waiting and not knowing was the hardest part. They promised to protect her, and they failed. He wondered if Cane would ever forgive them for not being there when she needed them.

About two hours later, Dr. Barnes walked through the door and Duncan held his breath.

“Dr. Barnes, how is Cane? Is she going to be okay?”

“I won’t lie to you guys,” he said
,
eyeing him and Logan. “There was a lot of damage to her arm. The bone was broken in several places, which took several screws and pins to repair. She made it through surgery, and we put a cast on her arm, but she is not out of the woods yet. It is going to take time and a lot of physical therapy for her to fully recover.”

He patted Duncan on the back and shook Logan’s hand. “She is going to be in a lot of pain, so we are going to keep her sedated for as long as possible to keep her comfortable and help her heal. I’m sorry you had to go through this, but I will stay here overnight and watch over her.”

“When can we see her?” Logan asked.

“She is still in recovery right now, but when they put her in a room you can go in and sit with her. If you want, you can go see Ali until then. She is okay, just a small concussion, but we will keep her overnight for observation. I am going to put Cane in the same room to make it easier for you.”

“Thank you, Doc. We really appreciate everything.” Duncan couldn’t help but to feel a little relieved
.
S
he made it through surgery, and he and Logan would do everything possible to make sure Cane completely healed from this.

Ali was sitting up in the bed when Duncan and Logan entered followed by Riley and Chase. “Hey, Squirt, how are you feeling?” Duncan asked as he hugged her. Ali didn’t answer until she was done being hugged by all the guys.

“I’m okay, but how is Cane? Is she going to be okay?” Duncan explained everything that Dr. Barnes told them and also let her know that she would be sharing her room with Cane.

“Ali,” Logan said as he rubbed her leg, “we need to know what happened. Do you feel like telling us?”

“I feel so guilty,” she cried as tears bean to stream down her face. “It’s all my fault. I wasn’t paying attention when I took the trash out at the diner and he hit me over the head with something. She went with him to protect me and she let him beat her so that he wouldn’t turn on me. She made me promise not to move and I just lay there and listened to him hitting and kicking her. I should have help
ed
.”

“Listen to me
,
Ali,” Duncan said as he sat on the bed and held her face. “None of this is your fault. It is all Sam’s
.
H
e was crazy and you are not to blame for that. Cane did what she had to do to protect you. She knew Sam better than any of us and I don’t think she could have lived with the guilt if she allowed him to lay a hand on you. Please don’t blame yourself, Cane wouldn’t want that.” He hugged Ali and allowed her to cry out all her tears. Buy the time she was done crying the medicine that the doctor had given her kicked in and Duncan laid her back on the bed so she could sleep.

After another hour of pacing, they finally wheeled Cane into the room. Duncan was afraid to touch her. She was bruised all over and bandaged. She had a cast on her left arm and wires and tubes everywhere. Duncan reached out to touch her and didn’t even realize that his hands were shaking really bad. He stood on one side of the bed while Logan stood on the other. The only place that didn’t seem bruised was her hair so he stroked it and leaned down to whisper in her ear.

“Cane, don’t worry, Logan and I are going to take good care of you. You are safe now.” Logan also rubbed her hair and leaned in to whisper, “We will be here when you wake up
,
baby.” They both kissed her and stroked her hair as they settled in for the long night ahead.

Chapter 18

The steady beeping was driving Cane crazy. She wished Duncan would turn his alarm clock off. How could he sleep with the thing beeping like that? Why did her body hurt so much? Cane felt like somebody hit her body over and over with a sledgehammer, and her arm didn’t feel much better. She tried to clear her head
,
and suddenly the memories of what happened with Sam all came rushing back. Oh no, where was she? Had the guys found her? Where were Ali and Sam? She opened her eyes but had to immediately shut the
m
again because the light was blinding. How long had she been out? Lifting her hand to shield her eyes, she groaned. That small action seemed to take all of her strength. She jumped and groaned again when she felt a hand in her hair.

“
Shhh
, it’s okay, sweetheart. You are safe now.”

She knew that voice and opened her eyes again. She saw Duncan and Logan standing over her with smiles on their faces looking like they hadn’t slept in days. “Hey, baby,” Logan said. “We were so worried about you.” Cane thought she could see tears in Logan’s eyes, but it could have been the tears swimming in her own affecting her view. She knew she was safe and relaxed.

“Where is Ali?” she croaked.

“She is at home. They let her go the day before yesterday.” Duncan said as he rubbed her leg.

“Day before yesterday? How long was I out and what happened to Sam?”

“You have been out for three days
,
and don’t worry
.
” Logan smiled
.
“Sam will never hurt you again. You shot him while you both struggled for the gun.”

Duncan frowned. “You scared us half to death, sweetheart. When you passed out right after the gun went off, we thought he had shot you. I swear I didn’t breathe again until we realized you were just unconscious.”

Cane lay on the bed and stared at her two men. It was finally over. She was free and she didn’t know what to do first.

“Are you hurting? Do you need some medicine, sweetheart?” Cane looked at Duncan and smiled
.
“I hurt all over, but I don’t want to go back to sleep.”

“Baby
,
you need something for the pain. We will be here when you wake up
.
W
e aren’t going anywhere.”

“Yeah,” Duncan said
.
“You need to take the medicine so you can get better. The sooner you are better, the sooner you can get out of here and we can marry you.”