by Susan Stoker
Benny tried not to peel out of the parking lot, but he heard the tires squeal as he did a U-turn and turned right toward the emergency room. He wasn’t going to take any chances. Jess looked like crap and he didn’t like the distant look in her eyes. She said she hurt everywhere, well the doctors could make sure that nothing was broken and that she wasn’t bleeding internally. She hadn’t said she was assaulted, but maybe she was embarrassed and ashamed about that. Maybe she didn’t feel like she knew him well enough to admit it. Just the thought of her being hurt that way made his adrenaline spike.
Benny pulled up to the emergency doors and reached over and gently put his hand on Jess’s cheek. “We’re here.”
Her eyes had been closed the entire time they’d been driving, and now she turned her head to look to see where “here” was. Benny watched as her face blanched. “No, please. I don’t want to.”
“I’ll be right here. You have to, Jess. You know it.”
She was silent for a moment and when she didn’t protest further, Benny knew she was hurting more than just a little bit. He wanted to kill Brian. He didn’t know what he looked like, or even where he was at the moment, but he didn’t want to kill anyone as badly in his life, as he did Brian right now.
“Come on, gorgeous, let’s get you inside.”
Benny helped Jess out of the car and when she faltered with her first step, he simply picked her up. He felt something inside him melt when she wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder.
Benny strode up to the reception desk. “We need a doctor.”
“What’s the problem, Sir?” The woman managed to sound business-like and bored at the same time. Benny ground his teeth together.
“The problem is that my friend has had the shit beaten out of her. She’s in pain and she needs to be checked out to make sure nothing’s fucking broken inside and she isn’t going to die of internal bleeding or anything.”
Taken aback for a moment, the lady stared at Benny.
Benny felt Jess’s hand curl around the back of his neck to try to calm him, and the goose bumps that followed her movement shot all the way down to his toes. That had never happened to him before . . . and to happen now, in this situation, was almost unbelievable. He tightened his hold on her and held her a little closer.
“Okay, Sir, if you would just follow me down the hall we’ll get her settled and a nurse will be in to examine her as soon as possible.”
Benny ground his teeth together at her obviously fake polite tone and held Jess tightly as he followed the receptionist down the hall.
He placed Jess on the bed carefully then went to sit in the chair next to it.
The receptionist made a tsking noise and said, “Sorry, Sir, only relatives are allowed to be back here with the patient. You’ll have to wait out in the waiting room.”
“Oh hell no,” Benny said impatiently. “I’m staying.” He sat in the chair and reached over to grasp Jess’s hand. He kissed the back of it and ignored the sputterings of the woman still trying to get him to leave.
When she finally left, Jess turned to Benny and said with the first hint of a smile he’d seen since he’d found her earlier that night. “You’re going to get in trouble.”
“I don’t care. I’m not leaving.”
Five minutes later, a nurse pulled back the curtain and a security guard was standing next to her.
“Sir, you’ll have to step out into the waiting area while we take a look at your friend,” the nurse explained.
“No.”
“Sir . . .”
Benny broke into her explanation and looked at both her and the security guard as he spoke. “I got a text from my friend, Jess, tonight,” he gestured at Jessyka on the bed with his chin and continued. “She said she needed me. She has no immediate family in the area. The girl she loves like a sister killed herself today. Her roommate and ex-boyfriend beat the crap out of her, as you can see. She’s in pain and frightened, and she called me. I’m a Navy SEAL and I can protect her. I’m not leaving her side. I’ll plug my ears and sing a song if there’s medical shit you don’t want me to hear. I’ll do whatever it is you want me to do . . . except leave.”
His voice lowered as he pleaded with the strangers to let him stay. “Please. She needs me.”
And she did. They could all see it. Jess’s hand was gripping his tightly and she looked between Benny and the security guard apprehensively.
“Ma’am? Do you want him to stay?”
Benny knew they had to ask, but it still pissed him off. He knew they probably thought he was the one who beat her up, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t leaving, no matter what they thought.
Jessyka obviously knew what they were thinking too. “Yes. God, please, let him stay. I feel safer with him here. If he’s here I know Brian can’t get to me. Please . . .”
The nurse glared at Benny. “Okay, but if you cause any problems I’ll kick you out so fast you won’t know what hit you. Navy SEAL or not.”
Benny could only nod jerkily. They were letting him stay. He immediately dismissed the nurse and looked back at Jess. “You’re damn right he won’t touch you while I’m here. Just relax. They’ll make it so you don’t hurt anymore and then I’ll get you out of here. Hang in there for me.”
Benny sat with Jess, while the nurse, then the doctor, examined her. He moved when they told him to, but he never lost touch with Jess. Benny kept a hand on her head, then her arm, then her foot, then back to her head. Wherever the doctor wasn’t examining, Benny was there, touching her, reassuring her that she wasn’t alone.
Now that they were in the light, Benny got a good look at Jess’s neck for the first time. It took all he had not to stalk out of the room and hunt Brian down. She had bruises on her neck in the shape of fingers. The bastard had choked her. It was obvious they were a few days old, so it hadn’t been done tonight. No wonder she’d been wearing a turtleneck when he saw her last.
Benny took some deep breaths and tried to stay in the moment. He couldn’t go off half-cocked when Jess needed him.
When the doctor was done with the exam, Benny sat in the chair he’d originally been sitting in and took hold of Jess’s hand again.
“It looks like nothing is seriously wrong. You were lucky, Jess,” the doctor said gently. “Your face will probably bruise and you’ll most likely have a black eye. I don’t feel any broken ribs or anything. That spot on your back will be painful for a while, but I’ll get you some pain killers and if you take it easy for the next couple of days, you’ll be able to be up and around with no issues.”
“She needs to speak with the police before she goes,” Benny told the doctor.
Benny thought Jess might protest his words, but she merely nodded as if she’d already resigned herself to the inevitable.
“Okay, I’ll be back with the Sergeant and those pain killers I promised. Just relax.”
There was silence in the room for a moment after the doctor left. Benny raised the hand that wasn’t clutching hers and brushed it lightly over her forehead. Then her cheek. Then her shoulder. Finally, he brushed each bruise on her neck with the back of his hand.
“I wouldn’t have let you go back there if I’d known.”
Jess obviously was on the same wavelength as he was because she responded, “I know.”
“I hate he did this to you.”
“I know.”
“You’re not going back there.”
“I know.”
Benny smiled for the first time that night. “Is that the only thing you’re going to say?”
“Maybe.”
He got serious again. “I meant what I said tonight. Brian won’t touch you again.”
Benny didn’t hear her response because a police sergeant entered the little room. For the next thirty minutes Jess rehashed what had happened that night.
Finally when she was done, the cop asked her, “Can I talk to you for a moment alone?”
Benny knew what that mean
t. Like any good cop, he wanted to make sure Benny didn’t have anything to do with what had happened and that it wasn’t actually him that had beaten Jess up.
Benny saw Jess was about to protest. Needing a moment to get himself together after all he’d heard, Benny stood up and leaned over Jess. He kissed her on the forehead and said softly, but not so softly that the police officer couldn’t hear him. “I’ll be right outside, gorgeous. No one’s getting past me. Okay? Finish up here and we’ll leave.” He leaned up and met her eyes confidently. Whatever Jess saw in his eyes obviously was enough, because she nodded and said softly, “Okay.”
Benny nodded at the officer as he left the room. Doing just as he told Jess he would, he leaned against the wall outside her room and waited. He closed his eyes, hearing her words echo in his mind. He knew he’d never forget them.
“He told me it was my fault.”
“He punched me in the stomach and told me I was ugly.”
“He wouldn’t let go of my throat even though I was gouging my fingernails into his wrist.”
“He kicked my hip saying that it wouldn’t matter since I was already a cripple.”
Benny clenched his teeth and pulled out his phone and clicked on Wolf’s number.
“Hey, Benny.”
“Wolf, I have a situation, I need a couple days leave.”
Wolf’s voice changed from laidback to serious in an instant. “Of course. I’ll clear it with the Commander. Anything we can do?”
“Maybe. I’ll keep you up to date. Remember Jess, the black haired waitress from the bar?”
“Of course.”
“She called me tonight. I’m at the hospital with her and will be taking her back to my place. I know Ice and the others will want to . . . just give me a couple days before you set them loose on us . . . okay?”
“Of course. Anything we can do on our side?”
”Yeah, get with Tex on a Brian Thompson.” Benny gave Wolf his address. “He beat the shit out of Jess tonight, and apparently has been doing it for a while. He has a sister. Her kid killed herself today.”
“Fuck, Benny. Are you sure you don’t need us over there?”
“Thanks, man, but I got it. Cops were here tonight, but I don’t need that asswipe getting any ideas and deciding to try to get revenge or to try and find Jess.”
“We’ll take care of it for you. Just call if you need anything else.”
“I will. And, Wolf? Thanks.”
“Anytime. It’s what a team is for.”
Benny hung up feeling a bit better, but still way too jacked up. Jess’s words still echoing in his brain. “He kicked me” . . . “He punched me” . . . “He wouldn’t let go of my throat” . . .
Jess was a hell of a woman, and he knew a lot of strong women. Benny knew Jess wouldn’t think that way about herself, but he had to make her see it.
The police officer stuck his head out the door, and seeing Benny standing there, told him he was finished talking with Jessyka. Benny nodded and went back to Jess’s side.
After another ten minutes, they were on their way home. The doctor had come in and given Jessyka some pain killers along with a prescription for more if she needed them and a few more warnings to take it easy.
Jess had insisted on walking out on her own, but Benny was right by her side the entire way. They slowly made their way to the waiting area, where Benny, seeing she was fading, plunked her in a chair and ordered in a gentle voice, “Wait here.”
Benny knew Jess was still in pain when she didn’t argue with him, but only sat where he’d indicated.
He rushed out and got the car he’d had to move earlier, and went back inside to collect Jess. She was sitting on the chair clutching the sides so hard her knuckles were bone white.
“Come on, gorgeous. Let’s get out of here.”
Benny bent down and gathered Jess into his arms, and he sighed, pleased when she didn’t protest.
He strode out of the hospital with Jess in his arms. He settled her into the passenger seat and headed for his apartment.
“What hotel are you taking me to?” Benny heard Jess ask groggily from beside him.
He whipped his head around to look at her incredulously. “You’re not going to a fucking hotel. You’re coming home with me.”
“But, Kason, that’s not fair.”
“Did you not hear me in the hospital when I said I wasn’t leaving your side?”
“Kason, you can’t stay with me all the time. I knew you just meant while we were there. And I appreciate it, I do, but this is crazy. You don’t know me.”
“I wish you’d fucking stop saying that. I know you Jessyka, with a y-k-a, Allen. I know I can’t keep you by my side 24/7. It’s not practical for either of us. But for the next couple of days I can. We’ll talk through what happened with you. We’ll talk about Tabitha. You’ll cry and let me hold you while you do it and my team will make sure Brian knows he’s never to contact you again. Once that’s done, we’ll figure out what to do about your living situation. But for now you’re coming back to my apartment and I don’t want to hear anything else about it.”
Benny took a deep breath and looked quickly at Jess to see what affect his words had on her. Incredibly she was smiling.
“What are you smiling at?”
“Thank you, Kason. I had no idea where I was going to go tonight. So thank you for taking that burden from me for the moment.”
“You’re welcome. Now shut your eyes and relax.”
“I’ve heard that before.”
“Yeah, well this time when you open them we’ll be at my house instead of a park.”
Jessyka did as Kason asked, and was asleep within moments.
Chapter Five
Jess came awake slowly. She turned her head and opened her eyes only to see Kason watching her from the driver’s seat of the car.
“Oh, are we here?”
“Yeah.”
When he didn’t say anything else, Jess asked, “Are we going in?”
“Yeah. You just looked so peaceful and relaxed, I didn’t want to wake you up.” Kason lifted a hand and brushed Jess’s hair behind her ear. “Stay put. I’ll come around.”
Jess could only nod. Kason had a weird look in his eyes. She couldn’t really place it, but it looked an awful lot like tenderness. Jess couldn’t remember the last time someone had looked at her like that. She liked it a lot.
Kason opened the door for Jess and held her elbow as she got out of the car. He leaned in and grabbed her purse and helped her to his apartment. It was on the lower floor and he had the door opened and her shuttled inside before she could really get a good look around the complex.
“I thought living on the first floor was more dangerous than living on an upper floor?” Jess asked, blurting out her thoughts without really thinking about them. She watched as Kason smiled at her.
“For a single woman? Yeah, it is. For me? Not so much. Besides, I’m not really comfortable living in a building with other people. I don’t know what they’re doing and if they burn the place down, I want to be able to get out without having to jump off a balcony or something.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.”
Kason laughed and encouraged Jess to keep walking into his apartment with a hand on her lower back, careful to keep away from the large bruise on her back from where she’d been pushed against the coffee table earlier that night.
Jess looked around. Kason’s apartment was nothing special. She hated to even think it, but it was true. The walls were white and he had, of course, a giant TV attached to the wall. There was a huge sectional couch with a beat up coffee table sitting in front of it. The kitchen was behind the couch. It was pretty typical for an apartment. Fridge, four burner stove, microwave, dishwasher and a small bar-type counter with two stools. Jess could see two pans sitting on the stove. One had water and noodles in it and the other was filled with some sort of red sauce.
She turned to Kason. “I interrupted your dinner? I’m so s
orry!”
“Not a big deal, Jess.”
“No, really. I’m sorry.”
Kason had gotten Jess to the sectional and he helped her ease down into it. He’d placed her in the middle of one of the sides and after she’d sat down, he picked her feet up and swung them on the cushions.
Without a word he unlaced both shoes and put them on the floor, under the coffee table, out of the way. Benny grabbed a throw pillow from the side of the couch and helped arrange it under Jess’s head. Once he was done, Benny leaned in and put his hands on either side of her. His voice was low and controlled.
“I don’t give a fuck about dinner. I can re-make dinner. I can’t re-make you, Jess. So yeah, if you text me and say you need me, I don’t care what I’m doing, I’ll always drop it and come to you.” He paused, as if he was letting his words sink in. “Got it?”
Jess could only nod. She wasn’t sure she did get it, but it was obvious Kason had strong feelings on the subject, so she let it go.
“Are you hungry?”
Jess shook her head.
“Are you in pain? Can I get you anything?”
Jess shook her head again.
“Okay, get comfortable. I’ll be right back.”
Jess watched as Kason stood up and headed down a hallway off of the living room. She closed her eyes, trying desperately to stay in the moment and not let her mind go back to what had happened that night.
Kason was back a couple of minutes later. He was now dressed in a pair of badly cut off sweat pants and a T-shirt that looked like it had been in its prime about twenty years ago. His feet were bare and his hair was mussed, as if he’d run his fingers through it a few times. He was carrying two pillows and a fuzzy blanket. He put them on top of the coffee table and went into the kitchen, still without a word.
Jess heard the faucet running and the refrigerator opening. Kason came back around the couch and she could see he was carrying two glasses of water. He put them on the coffee table as well. Then he turned and looked down at her as if trying to decide where to sit. Finally he went to her head and gently lifted the pillow so he could sit down. Then he propped the pillow on his leg and gently eased Jess’s head back down. Benny’s hand came to rest on her forehead and stayed there. Every now and then his thumb would move in a small caress over her hairline, but otherwise he was still.