by Becca Van
After showering and changing into some sweats and a tank, she hurried to the kitchen and tried to figure out what to cook herself for dinner. When she saw the packages of ramen noodles, she grabbed one and cut up a few vegetables to toss in the wok. She sautéed them and added some sweet soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and then added the softened noodles and the flavoring. A few minutes later she was sitting on the lone stool and eating her meal.
Just as she finished eating she glanced out the kitchen window and frowned when she thought she saw a shadow move. She squinted her eyes and stared for a long while, but when she didn’t see anything, she once more put what she’d thought she’d seen down to her fears.
These suspicions were getting more frequent and even though she didn’t have the money to spend on medical bills, maybe she should talk to someone before she completely lost her mind.
After cleaning up the kitchen, she moved to the small living room and the secondhand recliner chair and the stack of secondhand romance novels she’d picked up at a garage sale and began to read.
Enya had no idea how long she’d been reading but she glanced up when the hair on her nape stood on end. She shivered with trepidation and shoved to her feet. She hurried through the small two-bedroom house checking all the windows and closets, making sure the doors and windows were locked and that no one had gotten in while she’d been distracted.
She was definitely losing her mind. There was no one here but her.
A quick glance at her watch told her it was later than she thought and she was so tired, she could hardly keep her eyes open. She grabbed the book from the arm of the chair and walked toward her bedroom and got ready for bed. A sigh of despondency escaped her lips as she stared down at the mattress on the floor. It was water stained since it was a factory second and while it had been a steal at only a hundred dollars, it wasn’t the most comfortable mattress. It didn’t matter that it had never been slept on besides her. It was one of the hardest mattresses she’d ever had. Enya would have preferred a saggy bed rather than a hard as rock one, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.
Maybe when she’d finished paying Delta what she owed for her portion in the diner, she would save up for a queen-sized bedroom suite and new mattress, but from the way she was going, it would take at least five or more years.
After turning off the overhead light and turning on the lamp she’d also bought at a yard sale, Enya sank to her knees on the mattress and crawled into bed. Her intention was to read until she was so tired she couldn’t keep her eyes open, and hopefully she wouldn’t have to suffer through her nightmares, but she wasn’t about to hold her breath.
She was in that floaty place between being awake and asleep when she heard a noise outside her bedroom window and she jerked upright. She held her breath and listened intently and her heart slammed against her sternum after skipping a beat. She shivered as a cold sweat sheened over her skin and tried to remember where she’d left her cell phone. When she envisaged it on the kitchen counter, she flung the covers aside and shoved to her feet.
She’d only taken a step and then she was screaming. Something smashed against her window, breaking the glass. The light cotton curtains moved as glass flew in all different directions and there was a loud thud as whatever had been thrown through the closed window landed on the floor.
Enya ran, uncaring that whoever was outside would be able to hear her fast thudding footsteps as she raced toward the kitchen and her old-style cell phone. She flipped her cell open and punched in 9-1-1.
As soon as the dispatcher came on line she started babbling over the top of the poor woman. “Someone just threw a rock or something through my bedroom window. I think they’re still outside.”
“Calm down, ma’am. I’ve contacted the Slick Rock Sheriff’s department. They’ll have someone at your house in minutes. What’s your address, ma’am?”
Enya gave the dispatcher her address.
“Are your doors locked? Can you hear the intruder?”
“Yes, my doors are locked, but that won’t stop them from getting through the window.” Enya sobbed a little hysterically. “All they have to do is reach in, unlock it and push it up.”
“Take a deep breath for me, ma’am. The deputies are almost there.”
Enya didn’t see the point in talking to the dispatcher anymore and hung up. Other than trying to keep her calm, there was nothing the woman could do. She crouched down in the kitchen, wedging herself into the corner of the cupboards and hoped the law officers would be there soon.
She swallowed down the bubble of hysterical laughter that formed in her chest. There was a consolation from being woken up. She hadn’t had that dreadful recurring nightmare.
When she heard a car pull into the gravel driveway alongside the house, she sobbed with fear again. She tried to get her mind to work as she shoved to her feet but she was too scared to think coherently. She stumbled and hit her hip against the counter and when she placed her hand on the cool linoleum surface, she knocked her knuckles against the knife block. It was an automatic response for her to grasp the handle of the large carving knife and remove it from the wooden holder as she turned to face the kitchen entrance.
When someone knocked on the door she startled so badly her feet left the floor and her grasp on the knife loosened. She didn’t even notice when the handle slipped through her hand until she felt it against her inner forearm and without thinking, she tightened her grip. The sharp blade sliced through the palm of her hand like hot metal through butter. It took a few moments for the pain to register in her brain and when it did she knew it was far too late.
She dropped the knife and opened her hand. Blood poured from the long cut across the palm of her hand but she didn’t have time to worry about her injury. There was someone at her door and it sounded as if they were pounding on it with their fist.
“Enya? Open the door!”
Tears of relief welled and rolled down her face at the familiar voice. One of Violet’s deputy fiancés was calling out to her. She grabbed the clean dishtowel from the rack, wrapped it tightly around her hand and hurried toward the door. Reaching out with her left hand and her right hidden behind her back, she unlocked and opened the door.
“Are you okay, honey?” Deputy Wilder Sheffield asked.
She nodded, too scared to answer verbally. She still had adrenaline coursing through her veins and she hadn’t even noticed she was quaking until she’d gone to open the door.
Wilder walked over the threshold and gently clasped her elbow. “Let’s get you inside, Enya. Cree and Nash will be in after they search around.” He led her over to the lone chair and helped her sit down. She sighed with relief because she wasn’t sure her legs would have held her up for much longer. Wilder glanced around the empty cavernous room and while she could see him taking in how little she had, when he met her gaze again, there was no expression on his face.
“Can you tell me what happened, Enya?”
She nodded and squeezed her eyes closed. Her cut hand was throbbing like a bitch and she was beginning to sweat from the pain, and though she had no idea why she did it, she kept her wrapped hand down by her side under the loose folds of her way-too-big track pants. She cleared her throat and told him what had happened. She’d just finished when Cree and Nash entered the house.
Cree glanced her way, nodded his head and turned toward her bedroom. Nash headed toward the kitchen and the small laundry room which led to the small courtyard sized back yard.
Wilder squatted down beside her chair. “Do you have any idea who’d want to scare or hurt you, honey?”
“No,” she finally managed to answer, now that her heart wasn’t beating at a hundred miles an hour and the shaking had waned slightly.
“Have you seen anyone watching you? Dealt with any disgruntled customers at the diner?” Wilder frowned.
“No.”
“All clear,” Cree said as he came back into the living room.
“Same,” Nash said as he en
tered from the kitchen.
“Any signs of lock tampering?” Wilder asked.
“None,” Cree and Nash answered simultaneously.
“Did you find anything outside?”
“There were footprints in the dirt under the bedroom window. Whoever threw that rock was male. The depressions were way too big to be a woman’s. They looked like the ones from steel-toed work boots,” Cree explained.
“Enya, you can’t stay here by yourself with a broken window,” Wilder said. “It’s not safe. Why don’t you go pack a bag and you can stay with us? Tomorrow you can contact your landlord to get the window replaced.”
Even though she didn’t want to be a fifth wheel by staying with Violet and her men, there was no way she was going to stay here where she felt so vulnerable, so unsafe. She nodded and licked her dry lips before saying, “Thank you.”
Wilder stood and held his hand out to her to help her to her feet. She didn’t even think and lifted her right hand toward his.
“What the fuck?” Wilder snarled as he gently clasped her wrist and studied her wrapped palm.
“Shit!” Cree took a step closer.
“Fuck!” Nash frowned.
“What happened? That towel is soaked through with blood,” Wilder said.
Enya glanced down at the towel and swayed on her feet when she saw that Wilder was right. The towel was soaked through and bright red with her blood. She blinked as her vision grew blurry and stumbled when her knees began to buckle.
“Call one of the docs and tell them we’re bringing her in,” Wilder ordered.
“No hospital,” Enya managed to rasp out.
“What the hell, Enya?” Cree snarled.
“No hospital,” she repeated just before she passed out.
Chapter Three
“What?” Axel answered his cell phone and tried to get his mind to wake up.
“You and Phoenix need to get over to Enya’s house, right now,” Camden ordered. “I’ll meet you there.”
Axel rolled to his feet, fully alert. “What’s going on?”
“Wilder called. He and his brothers got called to her place because someone tried to break in. I don’t know how it happened, but she’s sliced her right palm open.”
“Why aren’t they bringing her to the hospital?” Axel asked as he pulled on jeans and a T-shirt before heading to Phoenix’s room. He hurried over to the bed, putting his cell on speaker phone, before he nudged Phoenix’s shoulder. Phoenix blinked up at him and frowned. He held his finger up when Camden began talking again.
“She refused to come to the hospital. I’ve got a medical bag packed with everything we’ll need, but I want you two with me.”
“Is William all right with being left on his own?” Axel asked.
“It’s been quiet tonight. He’s okay with me taking the rest of the night off. He said he’d call if he needed me,” Camden explained.
“We’ll meet you there in five,” Axel said and disconnected the call.
“What’s going on? Is the she Camden was referring to, Enya?” Phoenix flung the cover aside, stood and grabbed his jeans.
“Yes. Someone tried breaking into her place and she ended up cutting her hand. From the urgency in Camden’s voice, I suspect it’s bad.”
“Let’s go,” Phoenix said after shoving his feet into his boots.
Axel pulled his truck keys from his pocket and raced toward the front door. He and Phoenix scooped up their medical bags by the door just in case they were needed and hurried out.
Five or so minutes later Axel parked the truck and they were jogging toward Enya’s front door.
Camden arrived seconds later and followed Axel and Phoenix into the house.
“Where is she?” Axel asked as he glanced about. It barely registered how little furniture there was in the living room. He was too anxious to see Enya to take much in right then.
“Bedroom down the hall,” Cree answered.
Axel entered Enya’s bedroom with Camden and Phoenix on his heels. One of his friends gasped at the sight of their woman curled up into a tight ball on the mattress on the floor.
Axel’s heart surged with relief when he saw that she was alive and breathing. He hadn’t realized how tense he was until he set his gaze on Enya.
Camden nudged him aside with his shoulder and knelt on the edge of the mattress. Axel sucked in a deep breath as he went to his knees and crawled up the mattress until he was behind Enya.
She didn’t move or flinch when he gently clasped her shoulder.
“How long has she been out of it?” Camden asked as he opened his bag and began pulling things out.
Phoenix kneeled on the mattress near Enya’s feet and placed the tips of his fingers against the pulse point near her ankle bone. “Her pulse is regular and steady.”
“She’s got a light sheen of sweat on her face and she’s way too pale.” Axel brushed the strands of hair away from her forehead and cheek.
“You said she fainted?” Camden glanced at Wilder.
“Yeah.” Wilder frowned as he glanced at his watch. “That was fifteen minutes ago.”
“She’s had those dark smudges under her eyes since the first time we saw her,” Phoenix said.
“We’ll just have to keep an eye on her,” Axel said as he reached over and clasped her wrist in his hand. He held her firmly in case she woke up while Camden was working on her. He didn’t have to be a genius to tell that she was going to need stitches. The blood soaking the dishtowel wrapped around her hand was testament to that fact.
Camden donned surgical gloves and then began to unwind the towel from around her hand. They all sucked in noisy breaths when they saw the sliced skin across the entire length of her palm.
Anger surged into Axel at the wound. If the intruder had cut Enya he was going to find the fucker and rip him a new asshole. The cut spanned from one side of her hand to the other and would need a lot of stitches. She wasn’t going to be able to work while she healed and it would no doubt be hard going for her to do the easiest of tasks since she used her right hand, which was the hand with the wound.
Camden ripped open the antiseptic wipes and then placed a small absorbent pad under Enya’s hand on the mattress.
“Do you want me to open a bottle of saline solution?” Phoenix asked.
“Yes, but I’m going to give her a local before I do anything. The saline and the antiseptic is going to sting like a bitch otherwise.”
“It’ll still hurt,” Axel said in a quiet voice.
“Yeah, but not as much, hopefully.” Camden prepped the shot and was just about to inject it when Enya moaned.
Axel tightened his grip on her wrist and pressed it harder into the mattress, but not hard enough to hurt her or mark her skin. “Easy, honey. You’re safe.”
She blinked a few times and then groaned. Axel’s breath hitched in his throat at the pain-filled sound. When he stroked a finger down her cheek he felt the sheen of perspiration on her face and knew she had to be hurting bad.
“Look at me, sweetheart,” Camden demanded.
She lifted her gaze to his and then glanced at the syringe in his hand. “What-what are you doing?”
“Your hand is sliced open, Enya. I need to stitch it closed. This”—Camden lifted the needle—“is a local. Once your hand is numb, I’ll suture the cut. Okay?”
She nodded and then squeezed her eyes tightly closed. When she paled Axel realized she had a phobia of needles and decided to distract her. He cupped her chin and angled her face toward him and then lowered his lips to hers. He started off slow and gentle, testing the waters, but when she sighed and her lips parted, he couldn’t hold back. He’d been dreaming of this moment for three long months, and though he hated that he was getting his wish at the detriment of his woman because she was hurt, he wasn’t about to pass the opportunity up.
Axel deepened the kiss, delving slightly inside of her mouth until the tip of his tongue rubbed against hers. This time when she moaned the sound was full
of passionate hunger as her body took over pushing the pain receptors to the back of her mind.
He felt her flinch against him and knew that Camden had or was giving her the shot, but he was too caught up in her blissful taste to stop anytime soon. He angled his head and went deeper, gliding his tongue along before twirling around hers and then sweeping the interior of her mouth. Axel was so lost in her taste, her pleasure, he forgot where he was and who was with him until someone cleared their throat.
With a sigh of resignation, he eased the kiss back until he was sipping at her lips and then he finally lifted his head. Her eyes were still closed, but they weren’t squeezed tight. There was more color in her cheeks from her heightened desire and she was panting. He glanced at his friends and saw heat and envy in their gazes and couldn’t stop the smile from curving his lips up.
When he caught movement near the doorway he met Wilder’s gaze. The deputy was smirking but there was also a determined light in his eyes. Wilder shifted his gaze to Enya before meeting each of theirs before locking gazes with Axel again. He pointed to Enya and then to himself and Axel knew he was warning them. It wasn’t necessary because he and his friends had no intentions of hurting their woman, but he was glad that Wilder and his brothers were looking out for her, just like all the other men in the polyamorous relationships would do.
Axel shifted his eyes back to Enya when she exhaled loudly.
“Is your hand numb, sweetheart?” Camden asked, as he tapped on the skin of her palm close to the cut. “Can you feel it when I do this?”
Axel sighed when she shook her head.
Phoenix caressed up and down the outside of her calf. “You need to hold real still, baby. Camden is going to clean the cut and then sew your flesh back together.”
Enya gnawed on her lower lip as she glanced at Phoenix and nodded before she closed her eyes again.
“You don’t like needles, honey?” Axel asked the obviously rhetorical question hoping to distract her.