Theirs to Keep

by Maya Banks

  “I think that’s pretty obvious,” Cade said gently.

  Merrick frowned. “What do you mean, you don’t know what happened to you?”

  She closed her eyes, turning her battered face away. She was a pretty thing, even with all the bruises, the bedraggled hair and the torn clothing. There was an air of vulnerability about her that immediately riled Merrick’s protective instincts.

  There weren’t too many things that could get him all worked up in a short amount of time, but an abused woman would do the trick every single time.

  “I can’t remember,” she said, her voice cracking in a low sob.

  Merrick and Cade exchanged worried glances.

  “Please, just let me go,” she begged. “I won’t cause you any trouble.”

  “Where the hell would you go?” Cade demanded.

  Merrick sent him a silencing look. Then he turned back to the woman. Before he could say anything, panic filled her eyes.

  “You’re not going to have me arrested are you? Are you going to take me to jail?”

  There was no faking the terror in her voice and in her eyes.

  “Honey, listen to me,” he said, pitching his voice purposely low so he wouldn’t seem threatening. “Nobody’s going to take you to jail. You’re hurt. You’re bleeding. You’re cold, and you look like you’ve missed more than a few meals. Let us take you to the hospital to get you checked out, okay? Then we can call the police and nail whatever asshole did this to you.”

  Her pupils dilated, and she went stock-still until he wasn’t even sure she was breathing anymore. She was already pale, but she went white as a sheet, and if possible, she made herself even smaller than before.

  “No,” she choked out. “No, no, no! I won’t go. No hospital. No cops! He’ll find me. He’ll kill me. Oh God, he’ll kill me.”

  She finished on a low moan, her hands protectively covering her head. Hands that were bloodied and cut and only made her look even more fragile.

  Cade blew his breath out, but Merrick knew he was pissed, and it wasn’t at the woman. Neither man had any tolerance for a guy who’d brutalize a woman, and it was obvious someone had done a number on this lady.

  “Please, just let me go. I didn’t steal anything, I swear it. I just wanted someplace warm to sleep. I just needed to rest someplace warm. Someplace he wouldn’t find me.”

  Her voice was thick with tears, and the knot in Merrick’s gut grew bigger. He just wanted to take her into his arms and swear to her that nothing would ever hurt her again.

  Knowing how intimidating he’d look to a woman like her, he took a huge risk and touched her arm. She immediately flinched as if he’d burned her, and she shrank away, trembling violently.

  Her pupils became even larger, and she stared at him like a cornered animal who had no way out.

  Son of a bitch but someone had scared the shit out of her, and it was pissing him off more and more with every passing second. She should be in a hospital, warm and dry, eating a hot meal instead of skulking down a dark alley searching for a safe place to get warm.

  He glanced at Cade, knew Cade wouldn’t like what he was about to say, but at this point, he’d do damn near anything to get her out of Hank’s store and someplace she could be taken care of.

  Making damn sure his voice was soothing, he tried again. “All right. No cops. No hospital. I know a doctor who runs a clinic. He’s a good friend of mine, and he can be trusted. Let us at least take you there so you can have those hands tended to and let him take a look at your other injuries. I swear to you that we won’t do anything you don’t want us to.”

  She stared back at him, her blue eyes huge in her thin face. She was scared out of her mind, but she was also desperate and at the very end of her rope. He could sense her need for shelter. Just something as simple as a place to lay her head for an hour or two. It only made him that much more determined to make sure he didn’t leave without her.

  “Y-y-you p-promise?”

  Cade took over then, his expression one of utter gravity. “We only want to help you. You’re hurt. You need medical attention. Let us help you.”

  She closed her eyes, and for a moment, Merrick thought she’d passed out. But then she opened them again, wide and troubled.

  “Okay,” she whispered. “My hands hurt.”

  Cade reached for one, being careful not to move too suddenly. He grimaced as he inspected the deep cuts. “I suppose they do.” He gingerly pulled a sliver of glass from one of her fingers and flung the shard away.

  She started to shift, but grimaced. It seemed her every movement caused her pain. Impatient and unwilling to watch her suffer, Merrick simply reached in, curled his arms underneath her and plucked her from the cabinet.

  Her entire body went rigid, but he didn’t give her an opportunity to protest. He started for the back door where he and Cade had come in.

  “I’ll call Hank’s manager and have him come in and do cleanup so Hank won’t have a mess in the morning,” Cade said as he followed behind. “I’ll make sure we have someone out to replace the broken glass.”

  Merrick carried his slight bundle to the Hummer and eased her into the back seat. He climbed in beside her and tossed the keys to Cade. He wasn’t taking any chances she would get any crazy notions and bail out of a moving vehicle before they got to Dallas’s clinic.

  She wilted into the heated seat and sagged precariously to the side. The man sitting beside her caught her and eased her into his side so she could lean on him.

  The two men scared the daylights out of her, and yet, at the same time, there was something about them that made her stupid. It was evident she’d lost all sense because she was blindly putting her trust into these two men. Two huge men who could easily snap her like a twig if they had a mind to.

  And here she was alone in a vehicle with them. They could take her anywhere at all. No one would know differently. She didn’t even know who she was, so how would anyone else know?

  Despair filled her heart, aching and heavy. His grip tightened around her as they sped down the damp streets. The rain had stopped, but the cold was settling in for the long haul.

  She began to shiver, not because she was too cold, but because she no longer had any control over her composure. She tried to stop shaking, but it seemed the harder she tried to make it stop, the harder she shook.

  The man beside her cursed and then pulled her onto his lap. He wrapped a huge leather jacket around her body and put both his arms around her in an effort to keep her warm.

  The jacket smelled heavenly. Warm. Spicy. So very masculine. It reminded her of something. She frowned. The fleeting remembrance was gone before she could place it. But it felt so very familiar to her. Comforting. It was a good memory that had been triggered, and those were so few and far between that she wanted to weep for losing it.

  For just a moment, she forgot her paralyzing fear. Forgot that this man could harm her, that she shouldn’t trust anyone. She felt…safe. Here in his arms, pressed to his massive chest.

  She could feel the steady, reassuring beat of his heart. She absorbed his calm like an addict needing a fix.

  None of it made sense. She was sitting on the lap of a guy who looked like he could be a drug dealer or, at the very least, a gang member.

  He was a mountain of a man, solidly muscled, bulging arms and a massive chest. Both arms were tattooed, and his hair was long and unruly. Everything about him screamed dangerous, and yet his touch was gentle, his words were soothing, and he looked at her with kindness and compassion in his eyes.

  “What’s your name?” she found herself whispering.

  He stiffened. In surprise? Then he touched a strand of her hair, trailing his finger downward.

  “Merrick. What’s yours?”

  Pain flashed through her head. She raised a hand to press into her temple in an effort to alleviate the excruciating pressure.

  “I don’t know,” she said in agitation. “I don’t know!”

  “Shhh,”
he soothed. “It’ll come back. You’re just scared and under an enormous amount of stress. You’re cold and hungry and in shock. I’d be surprised if you did know your name at this point.”

  Relief took hold. He was right, of course. Everything would be better after she recovered. Once she got warm and had something to eat. Maybe even some sleep. Then she’d know who she was and who had done this to her.

  C H A P T E R T H R E E

  DALLAS CARRINGTON STEPPED OUT OF the exam room, a grim expression on his face. Cade pushed off the wall where he and Merrick had been waiting. They’d put in the call to their friend, and he’d met them at his clinic in a matter of minutes.

  Though Dallas ran a walk-in clinic in a poorer neighborhood, he also acted as Merrick’s personal physician and often traveled to Merrick’s fights. He’d monitored Merrick’s recovery after his knee injury a year ago.

  Cade, Merrick and Dallas had gone to high school together and had remained steadfast friends since their childhood.

  “The son of a bitch who did this to her should be shot on sight,” Dallas bit out in a pissed-off tone.

  “Tell us,” Merrick growled.

  Dallas ran a hand through his hair and blew out his breath. “Hell, this is a mess. I probably shouldn’t tell you anything, but this is hardly an official medical visit. The problem is, she doesn’t have a clue who she is or what happened to her. She’s deeply traumatized, and since she consented for you two to bring her in, I’m considering you the closest things she has to relatives.”

  “She really doesn’t know who she is?” Cade asked skeptically.

  Dallas nodded. “It’s deeply upsetting to her, and it sets off another round of panic every time she tries to remember. Now, I don’t know a lot about amnesia. It’s mostly bullshit you find in fiction novels or movies. I’ve never actually seen a clinical case of it, though I’ve read a few case histories on the subject. I don’t know if hers is because of a head injury or if it was trauma-induced and her mind has shut down in order to protect her from the horror of what happened to her.”

  “What exactly happened?” Merrick demanded.

  Dallas held his hand up. “I’ll get to that. If it’s memory loss caused by an injury to the brain, then it could be permanent. Hard to say. If it’s trauma-induced, it could be temporary. Hard as hell to say since there really isn’t a medical diagnosis for not wanting to remember.”

  “It all sounds damn crazy,” Cade muttered.

  “Just get to the part where you tell us what happened to her and how badly she’s injured,” Merrick cut in impatiently.

  “Someone beat the hell out of her,” Dallas said bluntly. “That’s the least of it.”

  Cade shot him an incredulous look. “What the fuck? That’s the least of it?”

  “Your girl has been through the ringer,” Dallas said quietly. “This bastard beat the hell out of her. He raped her. And he shot her. Twice.”

  Merrick’s jaw dropped, and then his eyes narrowed to menacing slits. “He shot her? I didn’t see any sign of a gunshot, but then hell, she was a mess. It would have been hard to see over all the other blood.”

  “I had to sedate her to examine her,” Dallas said. “She was hysterical the minute I touched her. Look, the law requires a rape kit and for me to report this. I mentioned that to her, and she went ballistic. I was afraid she was going to hurt herself. Oddly enough, she had less issue with me examining her than she did with me reporting this to the police. You even mention the cops and she goes batshit crazy.”

  “Yeah, we know,” Cade said grimly. “It was the same when we told her we wanted to take her to the hospital and call the cops. She flipped out, said no hospital, no cops. We were barely able to convince her to let us take her here. I don’t want to abuse her trust by throwing her under the bus.”

  Merrick’s arms came over his chest. “Don’t report this, Dallas. At least not yet. Did you find anything when you did the rape kit? Anything that could be used as evidence?”

  Dallas slowly shook his head. “It wasn’t recent as in the last day or even two days. And really, it could have been nothing more than rough sex, but given everything else going on with her, I highly doubt that was the case. There was vaginal bruising and tearing but no semen. He either wore a condom or it’s been long enough that there’s no viable semen sample. No DNA trace that I could find, and I was careful. I’d love to see the bastard who did this to her hang.”

  “You and me both,” Cade ground out.

  “And the gunshot wounds?” Merrick demanded. “What did he do, beat the hell out of her, rape her and then try to kill her?”

  Dallas nodded. “That’s my guess. And before you completely discount her fears of going to the police, there’s something you should know. The bullet I dug out of her shoulder? Looks like a nine-millimeter hollow point. Now, it’s not to say there aren’t a lot of assholes floating around using that caliber, but it’s a pretty standard police issue. Could explain her irrational terror anytime the word cop is mentioned.”

  “Holy shit,” Cade breathed.

  “Yeah,” Merrick muttered. “Christ, what the fuck are we supposed to do with her?”

  Dallas sighed. “Well, right now, what she needs is a place to rest and recover. She needs to feel safe. She’s scared out of her mind. She’s been traumatized and brutalized in the worst way a woman can be victimized. The other bullet only grazed her head. I gave her a few stitches, and that’ll heal up good as new. The shoulder is another matter. She needs to be in bed. She needs hot food, and she needs someone to take care of her. Now I can call a shelter and see what arrangements I can make, but if they get wind of her injuries, they’re going to turn it over to the police faster than you can blink.”

  Merrick scowled. “We’ll take her home with us.”

  Cade whipped around to stare at his friend. “Are you out of your mind? Merrick, think about this. What the hell are we going to do with her? You have a fight to get ready for. If you win this, you’re next in line for the title shot. You can’t afford any distractions.”

  Merrick glared hard at Cade, his expression murderous. “Are you really going to leave her in some damn shelter to fend for herself? What if the asshole who did this to her comes looking for her when her body doesn’t show up like it should? He left her for dead.”

  Cade didn’t like it any better than Merrick did, but this spelled trouble with a capital T. The woman was jumpy as a frog. She wasn’t going to like going home with two big-ass men who likely scared the shit out of her just by looking at her.

  “Maybe you should go check in on her before you make your decision,” Dallas suggested. “Let me know what you decide. But hurry, if you don’t mind. I need to write some prescriptions for painkillers and antibiotics, and I’m also going to give her some sedatives so she can sleep. She’s wound tighter than a spring, and when they’re that wired up, you have to give them something to make them sleep.”

  Not waiting for Cade, Merrick barreled through the door to the exam room, leaving Cade to follow.

  As soon as Cade laid eyes on her, he knew he was an absolute goner. All of his earlier bluster left in the blink of an eye. Looking at her now, he could well understand Merrick’s fierceness when it came to her.

  She was curled onto her side, her injured shoulder wrapped and her arm lying limply over her hip. Her knees were drawn protectively to her chest, and she was dressed in one of those skimpy hospital gowns that didn’t cover much of anything.

  Both hands were bandaged where she’d cut them breaking the glass.

  He’d never seen a more vulnerable-looking female in his life, and it hit him right where he lived. It was damn hard to breathe when his thoughts were doubly occupied with murdering the son of a bitch who’d abused her so terribly and also the overwhelming compulsion to surround her with support, tenderness and whatever the hell else she needed to get back on her feet.

  Merrick looked back at him challengingly as if to say, what now? Cade only sighed and no
dded his agreement. There was nothing else to do for it. She was going home with them.

  C H A P T E R F O U R

  WHEN CADE PULLED TO a stop outside their house, Merrick gently took the woman in his arms and positioned his coat over her body to shield her from the cold rain. He ducked out of the backseat and made a dash for the front door. Cade had gone ahead and was holding it open.

  “Take her into the living room,” Cade directed. “I’ll build a fire, turn up the heat, and I’ll see about getting her something to eat. We have some soup somewhere.”

  Merrick took his precious bundle into the living room and eased her onto the couch. The sight of her, barefooted, in the soaked hospital gown and the bandages covering parts of her body, made his gut clench.

  She was such a tiny, fragile-looking thing, and he couldn’t imagine what would possess a man to hurt such a woman. Any woman, for that matter. It made him irrationally angry, and he had to control his expression because he didn’t want to set her off again.

  “I’m going to get you something to wear,” Merrick said gruffly. “I’m also going to get you some blankets so you’re warm. Are you hungry?”

  She slowly nodded, the shadows deepening under her eyes.

  “When was the last time you ate?” he asked in a more gentle tone.

  Her eyes saddened. “I don’t know. It feels like forever.”

  “Do you know how long ago you were…hurt? What’s the last thing you remember?”

  She looked down, staring at her bandaged hands. “Two…three days maybe. I woke up on a riverbank. I was cold. At first I didn’t really hurt. I just felt numb. And everything was so blank. Can you possibly understand what it’s like to wake up facedown in the mud and not remember who you are or how you got there?”

  Merrick frowned, his gut tightening harder. “No, I can’t.”

  “And fear. Most normal people would call for help. Go to the police. Try to do something. But all I knew was that I had to hide. It’s the only thing I know. I may not know my name or what happened to me, but I know that I can’t let anyone know about me.”