Somewhere in His Arms (66 page)

             
“How old
are
you?”
he asked in a panicked whisper.

             
The long lashes fluttered briefly on pale cheeks before she answered: “Seventeen.”

             
Gavin’s eyes closed in agony and he rolled off her and the bed in disgust. Harvey had done it this time, the sick fucker!  “What are you doing here?” he demanded angrily. When she didn’t answer, he opened a dresser and flung a shirt at her. “Dress yourself!”

             
Connie pulled her dress over her breasts and pulled the shirt on. She was terrified. She was supposed to please him and now he was angry. They would punish her for sure. “P-Please don’t tell,” she wept, “they’ll kill me if they find out.”

             
His fury was slowly dying at the girl’s obvious terror. Gavin went into the bathroom and wet a washcloth. He came back and sat down beside her. “Here,” he said, handing her the cloth. “Wipe that slap off.” He watched as she took the cloth with trembling hands and began removing the heavy layers of makeup. The young girl who emerged did in fact look younger than seventeen. Connie handed the cloth back to him and sat up against the pillows, trembling in fear. “Now, who’s going to kill you?”

             
She shook her head, trying to keep it in, but it all gushed out in a torrent of desperation. She told him of the village she’d lived in before leaving to work at a hotel in Mexico City. And she told him of the woman who had promised to find her work in Dallas, only for that innocent dream to end on a dirty mattress in a desolate ranch in Laredo. She told him how she was sold to the highest bidder and how she eventually ended up in L.A., just one of many girls who were chosen to service rich clients and celebrities at parties. When she finished, he was as pale as she was and visibly shaking. “P-Please, don’t…tell them I didn’t please you.”

             
“Tell?”
he choked back in outrage, getting off the bed and marching over to Harvey’s dresser. She watched as he yanked out one drawer after another, the clothes piling into an untidy heap on the floor. Gavin reached into the pile and pulled out a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. He flung them at her. “Put these on.”

             
“What am I supposed to do with these?”

             
“You’re going to put them on,” he said, and went to the door. He glanced back at her as she dressed. “Did you come with anyone?”

             
“They brought us in a car. They’ll be back soon.”

             
“Hurry!” he urged and had to suppress a laugh when she stood up. Harvey’s clothes swallowed her whole. Gavin whipped off his belt and threaded it around her waist and cinched it. He had to do something about her hair. Spying a baseball hat amongst the heap he grabbed it and plopped it on her head. “Stuff your hair into it,” he instructed and went to turn off the lamps.

             
“What are you doing?” she hissed in the darkness and nearly screamed when he bumped into her. He steered her towards the windows and flung open the drapes. Connie suddenly realized what he was about when he unlocked the window, pushed it open, and peered down into the darkened street below. “A-Are you mad?” she whispered, tugging at her hand.

             
“Don’t you want help?” he hissed back and began pulling her with him. “I know someone who can help.”

             
“No one can help me,” she said sadly and began to cry. “What makes you think
you
can do anything?”

             
“We’ll talk on the way,” he insisted and hopped onto the ledge. He held his hand out. “You can go back to them or come with me.”

             
Connie thought quickly and made a decision. She took his hand and followed him out onto the ledge. “Careful,” he warned. She nearly slipped in her platform heels, and she kicked them off feeling for the edge in bare feet.

             
Gavin pulled her along until they reached a ladder and he climbed down and leapt off. “Come on!” he whispered urgently. “It’s safe!”

             
“Dios Mio,”
she muttered to herself and climbed down, her feet searching for purchase on the slippery rungs and slipped. A frightened yelp emerged as she fell back and landed on something hard. Stunned, she lay motionless for a moment before she realized what had broken her fall. He groaned in pain and pushed at her shoulders.

             
“I think we should wait until you’re older to get this close,” he said dryly.

             
“Sorry,” she mumbled in embarrassment and leapt off him. He lay sprawled at her feet and held out a hand.

             
“Help me up,” he grunted and when he stood upright, he brushed the dirt off and had a look around. Harvey had picked him up, but there were several cars sitting all by their lonesome. “Come on,” he said, taking her hand.

             
She allowed him to pull her along like a lost puppy, but she wasn’t entirely certain that this was a good idea. They had threatened her mama and sister. What happened when they found out she was missing? They always did a head count at the end of the night; she could only imagine what they would do to the other girls. She was about to tell him that she’d changed her mind when she saw their truck. “It’s them!” she gasped in horror and tried to flee.

             
But he held fast and refused to let her go. He crouched down low and led her to a yellow Porsche near the driveway. “You got a hairpin?” he hissed and grinned when she fished one out of her hair and handed it to him. “Let’s see if I can remember how this goes.”

             
It took some jiggling but he finally managed to unlock the door and pushed her in while she clucked to herself about how he was going to get them killed. Gavin ignored her and felt beneath the steering column. He yanked them out and touched the wires together until the engine choked to a start. “Put your seatbelt on,” he told her and shut his door.

             
Connie crossed herself for the hundredth time that day.
“Dios Mio!”
she mumbled and did as she was told. Then she heard an awful commotion as they figured out she was missing and came tearing out of the house. They spied them in the Porsche and started towards them. “They’re coming!” she shrieked.

             
“Hold tight,” he growled and stomped on the gas. He tore out of the driveway like a bat out of hell, the tires burning rubber, and leaving skid marks on the asphalt. Gavin peered into the rearview mirror and saw them following close behind. He swore and sped up in a fruitless attempt to outrun them. Whoever they were, they were hell bent on retrieving their property. “Who
are
these guys?”

             
“You don’t want to know.” She turned in her seat to try and see how close they were and turned towards him. “Why are you doing this? They’ll kill us!”

             
“You’re asking me
now?”
He reached the highway and put pedal to the metal. Connie was flung back into her seat. “Let’s just say I’m open for some redemption.”

             
“You speak in riddles!” Then she shrieked as they pulled along side them and one of them whipped out a gun and fired. The first shot shattered the window and the second hit Gavin in the shoulder. He was hardly aware of her screams or the blinding pain that crept slowly down his arm. “They’re shooting at us!”

             
“No, shit!” he shouted and rammed the car into theirs, making them swerve into a guardrail with a spectacular display of fiery sparks. “Get down!” he ordered and Connie unbuckled her seatbelt and slid to the floor, cowering low and wondering why she put her faith in a complete stranger who was probably going to get the both of them killed.

             
“Dios Mio!”
she mumbled again and crossed herself. She screamed as more shots were fired at them, this time shattering her side window. Pieces of glass rained down and cut her face.

             
“Keep your head down!” he shouted again, peering anxiously into the rearview.
Where were the police when you needed them?

             
This time when the bastards pulled along side them, Gavin floored it and sped past a semitrailer, barely making it by the skin of his teeth. He could hear their enraged screams and bullets flying at the car in a last ditch attempt to retrieve Connie. When they were at a safe distance, he breathed a sigh of relief, and that’s when he noticed he was bleeding. A lot.

             
But he couldn’t stop now; he had to get to Alec.

* * *

             
After an exhausting day of packing for the move to London, they’d all decided to retire early and were dead to the world when the pounding ensued. Pat was dreaming of endless wheels of cheese when someone started flinging the enormous rinds into the air and slipped through his fingers when he attempted to catch them. They hit the ground with an ungodly rumble, and Pat fell out of bed when he reached for a gigantic wheel of Wensleydale. He woke up hurling a slew of curses at the nightstand and that’s when he heard the pounding that he’d heard in his dream. Someone was at the door at one in the morning!

             
He unfolded his bulky frame from the floor and wandered barefoot into the living room and promptly banged his shin on the coffee table. “Hell and damnation!” he bellowed as he flicked on a lamp. “Keep yer knickers on! I’m coming.”  Pat flung open the door to find a tiny brunette struggling to keep a bleeding Gavin on his feet.

             
The boy’s lids fluttered open, and he trained glassy eyes on his stepfather. “D-Dad?” he slurred, squinting through a narrow tunnel. “Is that… you? Why’d you go and shave your… head…” the last word slid out of his mouth at the same time he slid out of the girl’s arms and into Pat’s sturdy ones.

             
Pat started screaming for Alec, who soon tore out of the bedroom with Lucy in tow. “My God!” they blurted in horror at Gavin’s unconscious form hanging limply in his stepfather’s arms. “What happened?”

             
“I d-don’t know!” Pat cried and noticed the blood. “He’s bleeding!”

             
Lucy took one look at the young girl and Gavin’s shoulder and acted fast. “Get him into the kitchen and put him on the table,” she commanded and had to repeat the order when Pat and Alec stared at her as if she’d spoken in Swahili. “
Do it now!”
she shouted at the both of them and hurried along, feeling as if she were right back in the emergency room. “Put him on the table,” she said and turned to Alec. “Get my stethoscope in the top drawer. “ She gave him a little shove and turned to the young man lying supine on the tablecloth, which was fast becoming crimson.

             
Alec hurried back and practically flung the stethoscope at her head. Lucy caught it and wrapped it around her neck. She reached and flung open Gavin’s shirt to make sure the bleeding wasn’t coming from his chest. Then she spied his left shoulder and grimaced. She pointed at Pat, “Hold his legs.” Then to Alec she ordered; “Get the pads from the bathroom and some duct tape!”

             
Her husband raced to do her bidding while Lucy assessed her patient. It was a bullet wound all right, and there was no exit wound. She listened to his chest. He had a strong heartbeat that was slowly becoming erratic as he went into shock from the blood loss. She glanced up at Alec who had returned with the pads. Lucy went about placing a few of them beneath the jagged hole and on top, securing it with a kitchen towel held in place with a strap of tape. “We’ve got to get him to a hospital,” she told them. “He needs an IV.”

             
“No…hospital…” Gavin smiled weakly and pointed to his companion who was standing nearby with both hands on either side of her mouth, looking as if she were going to faint. “Tell them…Connie…”

             
They all turned to her and she flushed in embarrassment and shame. He wouldn’t be in this situation if not for her. “It’s true,” she said finally. “They will check hospitals first.”

             
“Who’ll
check hospitals first?” Pat nearly shouted and made the poor girl flinch in terror.

             
Lucy gave her a reassuring smile and urged her into the spare bedroom while they worked on Gavin. She came back and thrust a piece of paper at Alec. “I need some stuff for an IV.” He nodded as if in a trance, still in shock over what was transpiring and hurried out to the car. While her husband went to fetch supplies, she took Gavin’s vitals and placed a cool cloth on his head and instructed Pat to keep steady pressure on his shoulder. Then she called Carlos. She was going to need him.

              She had a hard time inserting the needle as Gavin was dehydrated, but finally she got it in and hooked the IV bag up onto a hatrack. With that done, Lucy kept vigil over her brother-in-law while Pat and Alec stood by feeling helpless and were more in the way than actually being helpful. “Alec,” she said at last, “go and see to the girl and find out what’s going on.” To Pat she told him to go and get drunk. She didn’t think she’d ever seen a man so pale and there wasn’t anything he could do for Gavin anyway. Then she tried for the umpteenth time to get Carlos on the phone.