by Lara Jones
As carefully as they could, they stripped the clothes from her, leaving her in a bra and her panties. Both men looked at her arms and down her legs, as much of her back as possible without turning her all the way over and couldn’t find anything that resembled a cut.
“Where the hell is it?” Alec asked frustrated.
John spread her legs a bit more. “Wait…hold on, fuck.” He sucked in a stunned breath at the red and swollen jagged cut.
Alec leaned over to see where John was indicating and just about lost his mind at the pain she must be feeling.
John held one of her legs out farther to find the injury was a two-inch-long gash hidden toward the back on her inner thigh. They would have seen it right away if they’d turned her all the way over. They could tell it was infected by the pus and blood that slowly seeped from it.
“Go get a warm washcloth. We need to clean this as much as we can and then well press warmer clothes to it. Alec, it might have to be opened.”
Alec paled. “Goddammit.”
“I know. I’m going to hate to see her in pain, but if it’s not opened up so it can drain better, it will get into her bloodstream.”
Alec knew what that meant. He would do whatever he needed to get this woman healthy.
“I thought I heard a car. I’ll go let her in.”
John nodded. “I’ll keep at this.”
Chapter 5
Alec came through the bedroom door, followed closely by Sherice. John listened as Alec brought her up to speed on what was going on.
“All you know about her is her name?” Sherice stared down at the prettiest woman she’d ever seen. She opened up the bag she brought and started pulling things out. “Let me see the wound, John.”
John moved away and waited.
“Oh damn. You guys, this isn’t good.” Sherice quickly pulled on rubber gloves and poked and felt around the wound. “It’s pretty infected. I suggest we take her to the ER.”
Both men shook their heads.
“We promised her we wouldn’t. She’s deathly afraid of hospitals,” Alec stood over Lily on the other side of the bed. “I know if it comes right down to it we might not have a choice. Do you think you can do anything?”
Sherice probed at the wound again.
“It concerns me she hasn’t woke up when I poked at her injury. This has got to be excruciating. Has she spoken to you recently?”
John nodded. “Yeah. We asked her a few questions ten or fifteen minutes ago, and she answered. From the darkness under her eyes, I would say she’s exhausted.”
Sherice doused a sterile pad with a liquid and pressed it on the wound.
“You said she’s been on the streets. Do you know how long?”
“She’s been sighted in town several times over the last two weeks. We don’t know where she was before.” Alec sat next to Lily and covered the top half of her body with the blanket. “The thought of her on her own tears me apart.”
John watched as Sherice took out a syringe and filled it.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a heavy dose of antibiotics and painkiller.”
“Good. She shouldn’t be in pain.” John sat by Lily’s head and smoothed the stray hair from her face.
Sherice looked at both men and hid a smile. It was quite obvious they were both taken with her. Then her eyes centered on the small woman. There was a lot of information missing about this girl. Sherice just hoped she could make her well and that she could stay in town. It would be nice to see these two men happy.
“Okay, guys. I’m going to need a few towels, a bowl of hot water. I’ll wash up in the bathroom and put on another pair of sterile gloves. I don’t want anything touching the wound that hasn’t been sterilized.” They all scattered and were back within a few minutes. “Okay, you both might want to go out until I call you back in.”
Both shook their heads.
John looked up at Sherice. “We’re not leaving her. Tell us what you need to be done.”
“All right,” she sighed. “I need one of you to hold her torso down and the other to hold this leg down.”
Alec paled. “What are you going to do?”
“I need to open it up so it can drain.” She was impressed when, although they looked like they were ready to pass out, they did what she asked. John took her top half, and Alec held both of her legs down. The injured one he tilted, so it was more accessible.
Sherice put gloves on and pulled out a sterile scalpel and quickly cut a half-inch slit into the infected wound.
Lily jerked and whimpered but otherwise stayed asleep.
“There we go,” Sherice said as red tinged liquid dripped from the wound onto the towels she put under her. “I’m going to let it ooze for a minute, I’ll clean it really well, and then I’ll need the hot compresses.”
The men continued to hold on to Lily as Sherice cleansed and disinfected the wound, smeared on antibiotic cream, and wrapped it. Both men continued to croon softly to her when she whimpered or showed other signs of distress.
Sherice sighed and pulled off her gloves.
“All right. It looks good, guys. I’m going to leave it open to drain. I’m planning on coming here at least once a day to make sure it’s healing. There is still a slight chance it could get worse.” She started packing her things away. “The shot I gave her will help with the fever a bit. We don’t want to stop it because it’s fighting the infection, but we don’t want her so uncomfortable. Give her two Tylenol every four hours. If it starts to spike even with the Tylenol, call me right away. If she acts or says her wound is starting to hurt worse, call me.”
Both men stood and hugged her.
“Thank you so much,” Alec said.
“I’m glad to help. You two need to get some sleep. You look awful.” Sherice said as she walked out of the bedroom.
They both laughed
“John why don’t you go shower, and I’ll stay here with her and call Liam to fill him in and ask him for some time off for both of us.”
He nodded and pulled himself away from her. John couldn’t seem to keep his hands off her and hated to leave her for even a moment.
“I’ll be right back.”
Alec nodded as he dialed the phone.
“Liam, it’s Alec. We found her.”
“Thank God. Where is she now?”
From the sound of his voice, he knew he’d woke him.
“At our house.” Alec told him about her name, the injury, and Sherice’s help. He asked for some time which Liam approved instantly.
“I’ll stop by tomorrow…”
“Can you wait until we call? She’s terrified of men, and we don’t want to overwhelm her.”
“I get it. I’ll wait, but try to get as much information as you can. I want to know if I should be looking for a missing person’s report.”
“Got it, boss. Night.”
John came through the door, rubbing a towel over his head and dressed in sweatpants and a T-shirt.
“I’m done. Go take your shower. I’ll lay down beside her.”
Alec took one last look at Lily before he pulled himself away from her.
“I’ll be right back.”
Chapter 6
Lily pulled open her eyes and then squinted at the light that came in through the window and looked around. Nothing here seemed familiar. Under normal circumstances, she would have freaked out, but the fact she hadn’t felt this good in a long time, and she was still extremely lethargic, kept her calm. Frankly, she didn’t have the energy to do more than turn her head to look around because her limbs felt weighed down.
She tried to turn on her side, but something heavy prevented it. She reached down to push it away. Her fingers encountered a large arm across her waist. Her eyes flew to the left and right. She had a man on either side of her, both asleep and both with their hands on her in some way.
The arm across her waist she found belonged to John. At least that’s what she thought his name was. The large h
and wrapped around her upper arm. Her eyes scanned his face, and her brows puckered. Alec, that was his name.
She stared at the first one and then the other. They were both such handsome men. Alec had blond hair that was longer than John’s. She turned back to John. He was darker. Dark skin and hair.
Shouldn’t she be terrified that she was in bed with two men? Large men that she didn’t know? She’d never been close to men, period, and never seen them this big before. Lily took stock of the rest of her.
She still felt exhausted, and even a little feverish, but her thigh felt ten times better than it had. She lifted her head to look at it but found she was covered in a blanket, then became alarmed when she realized she was in her underwear.
Stark terror raced through her. They’d undressed her? What else had they done when she was asleep? Lily moved a little to see if anything else was sore, but all she felt was her leg with the cut on it.
Would she feel it if they had touched her other places? Places she wouldn’t have wanted them to touch? Was she, in fact, pregnant at this very moment?
“What’s got you revved up, Lily?”
She turned toward John. How do you ask someone if they got you pregnant? Would they even know yet?
“Answer John, baby girl.”
Lily jerked toward Alec. Now they both were awake, and their entire focus was on her. A trembling started in her legs and worked up.
John slid his hand over her stomach.
“Settle down, Lily. Nothing’s going to hurt you here.”
Oh, she wished she could believe them, but she’d been taught early on men weren’t to be trusted.
“Lily, answer John.”
“Am I pregnant?” she blurted.
Both men froze.
Alec wasn’t sure he heard her right.
“Did you just ask if you were pregnant?
Lily nodded.
“Is there a chance you could be?” Just the thought of another man touching her sent anger through him.
John pressed on her stomach.
“Has a man touched you, Lily?”
“What? No. I’m asking if you…you know.”
Now Alec was getting pissed off but knew he had to bite it back.
“Are you asking us if we had sex with you while you were unconscious and impregnated you?”
Lily didn’t like the anger he tried to hide but couldn’t, but nodded anyway, then flinched when John said a harsh word under his breath.
“I don’t know that word. What does ‘fuck’ mean?”
John fell back against the pillow and looked up at the ceiling.
“Alec, tell me she’s kidding.”
Confusion and fury clouded Alec’s brain.
“First of all. We would never, under any circumstances, take a woman when she was asleep, drunk, or against her will. Do you understand, Lily?”
She nodded. “It’s just I woke up.” Her hands waved. “Like this.”
Alec shook his head. “You mean in your underwear?”
Lily bit her lip.
“John, get her one of our button-down shirts.” Alec held his tongue until John came back and handed her the shirt. “Do you need help?”
Lily gripped the blanket and the shirt to her chin.
“I can do it if you could close your eyes.”
Both were astounded at her innocence but nodded and closed their eyes. John even turned around to give her extra security.
“You can open your eyes now.”
They opened their eyes to see the shirt on and buttoned to the top, and the blanket still gripped against her chest.
“Lily, can you tell us how old you are?”
She frowned at John. “Of course. I am twenty-three and six months.”
“Now tell us where you’re from, Lily.”
Lily eyed John, suspicious, and pressed her lips together.
“Why won’t you tell us?” Alec asked.
“Because I’m too tired to think clearly. I don’t know if someone will come for me or if you’ll tell them I’m here.”
John lay back down but propped up on his elbow.
“Lily, we promise you right now, no one, and we mean no one, will ever take you from us.”
Her brows puckered. “I don’t understand.”
Alec cleared his throat to get John’s attention and then jerked his head to the side.
“John, it’s time for her to take some Tylenol.”
John’s clenched his teeth. “Got it,” he said and rolled off the bed.
“Look at me,” Alec said and used his hand to cup her cheek. “John’s right. No one is going to take you from us unless you want them, too.”
“I still don’t understand?”
“Hold on, here comes John.”
Alec helped her to sit up, bracing her against his chest, and watched as John handed her the pills and a glass of water. He noticed she didn’t move and just stared down at the capsules in the palm of her hand.
“Do you know how to swallow pills?”
Lily shook her head as she bit her lip and looked from one to the other.
John sat down at an angle facing her.
“You put a pill on the back of your tongue and take a few drinks of water to wash it down.”
She still looked confused. “You don’t chew it?”
They both shook their heads.
“What is it for?”
John looked shocked. Jesus. Had she lived on Mars?
“It’s to help you with pain and help your fever.”
“But the fever is making my body heal.”
John nodded. “Yes, but you got medicine from a friend of ours to help your body heal, so you don’t need the high fever anymore.”
Alec steadied her glass when she started shaking.
“I’m getting scared. Someone else saw me like this and touched me?”
Alec pressed his cheek against the side of her head.
“Don’t be scared. Listen we had a physician’s assistant come here. She cleaned the wound and gave you a shot of antibiotics. That’s what going to help you heal.”
“What’s a physician’s assistant? Is it kind of like a healer?”
“Yes,” John said with relief. “Exactly like that. Her name is Sherice, and she’ll come and see you later today to check your wound.”
“What did she do to it?”
John patted the blanket over her legs.
“She cut it open and let it drain before cleaning it really good and putting cream on it.”
Lily nodded. “Good. That’s exactly what I would have done.”
Alec looked at John, then back.
“Are you some type of medical person?”
“I think I know what you’re asking. I’m what my people call a healer. They would have come to me as your Sherice did for me.”
“They would have…”
Lily relaxed back against Alec as her energy started going again.
“I started to help my granny with healing people. Granny taught me the things I needed to become a healer, but after she passed, I had to leave.”
John laid a hand on her blanket covered knee.
“Why, Lily?”
“Because people, men, thought if they possessed me, they would have a long life and be sure to get into heaven. They think I’m a sort of angel. My mother and grandmother and great-grandmother and so on had my distinctive coloring. Only the women in my family get it. It’s been told through the generations that men will try to take us because we’re different.”
“Where is your family?”
“They’re gone mostly. I have some aunts and uncles, but they don’t want to deal with the problems that follow me. I have one cousin I know well, but I had to leave before I could talk to her.”
Alec gritted his teeth. Family didn’t do that shit.
“Your mother?”
“She died birthing me.”
“Oh, baby, I’m sorry,” Alec hugged her to his chest and kissed the top of her
head.
Lily shrugged. “She willed it to happen.”
“What?” John choked.
“My mother was taken against her will.” Lily wiped the tear that slipped down her face away. “I am the product of rape.” She had to stop and swallow several times. “She couldn’t take the shame and the damage they did. She wasn’t disfigured, but my granny said she would have carried scars inside and out for the rest of her life.”
“Did they ever catch the man or men that did it?”
“My granny said they probably didn’t care because we were mountain folk. It had been told to me several times, if my mother hadn’t gone to town, it never would have happened.”
“That’s one of the reason’s you were so afraid of us, and you hid yourself?” Alec asked.
Lily nodded.
John grabbed onto the glass as it started to slip from her fingers.
“Do you want to try to swallow these?”
Lily looked at the two small pills. “I want to try.” It took four attempts before she got them down.
“Good girl.”
Lily smiled at John.
Alec lifted her enough to lay her back down. They watched as her eyes started closing right away.
Lily suddenly grabbed their shirts, her eyes wide but unfocused.
“You’ll stay here right?” she asked desperately for any kind of security.
John pulled her hand up to his mouth and kissed her palm.
“We won’t ever leave you, Lily. Now go to sleep.”
“You promise?”
“Yes,” Alec whispered.
Chapter 7
Lily awoke to voices out in the hallway. She recognized the men, but the woman was new. She guessed it was the healer they had told her about. A ball of nerves was starting to form in her throat at meeting her, but at that moment she needed to pee really bad.
Lily sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She needed the outhouse. She shook her head. No, it was called the toilet. She needed to remember that.
Lily took a deep breath. She knew if she tried to stand too fast she would be on her face.
She let her feet touch the ground and then slowly stood. Lily took one step before John startled her and she started going down.