by Sam Crescent
He wrapped her hair up as well. “I’m clean.”
She didn’t want to say it, but she knew he wouldn’t stop.
“I’m clean.”
“Good. You’re going to keep saying that until you believe it. What those men did was fucking awful. They won’t come and hurt you anymore. Don’t let them take another moment of your life. They’ve already taken enough. Are you allergic to anything?”
“What do you mean?”
“Nuts? Gluten? Meat? Food?”
“No, nothing.”
“Good. I’ve bought us both something to eat. Follow me.”
She didn’t argue with him as he made his way out of the bedroom. The last thing she wanted right now was to be alone in a bedroom with a man she didn’t know, even if he had saved her. That didn’t mean anything to her, not anymore.
The scents of the food made her stomach ache. She used to love food, but right now, she wasn’t sure if she could even stomach anything.
The boxes were Chinese takeout, and as she glanced inside them, she saw noodles, dumplings, rice, and other things.
“You’ve got to try and eat something.”
Picking up the carton with the noodles, she held the chopsticks and tried to eat. The first taste of food made her stomach recoil, but she didn’t stop. Taking another bite, she glanced over the rim of the carton to see him staring at her.
“That’s good. Don’t stop.” He urged her to eat more.
“Do you always do this?” she asked.
“Force a woman to eat?”
“No, save women. Take out the bad guys.”
“You can’t say anything about that to anyone.”
The deadly look on his face made her tense up. It was like he was two different people.
“Who would I tell?”
“You’re going back to your parents, Charity. Whatever went down here, you don’t know. Got it?”
She nodded.
“Say it.”
“I got it. I totally get it,” she said, nodding her head at the same time. She didn’t want to upset him. He’d saved her tonight. The last thing she wanted to do was to tell anyone what had happened here. It was too humiliating. “I promise. I won’t tell anyone.”
“Good. After tonight you’ll never see me again.”
“And if I do?”
“Depending on which side you’re on, you’ll either be dead or wishing you were.”
She stared at him, not sure what to make of that.
Clearly being taken against her will had fucked with her head because she wasn’t afraid. This man had risked his life and brought her out of that hellhole.
She ate her food, all the time watching him as he ate his. He was fascinating, his large muscles on full display, the fact he’d not changed his pants even though they were wet. It was almost as if he didn’t feel it.
“The doctor’s going to be arriving soon.”
“The doctor?” she asked.
“Yeah. Don’t worry. He’s a man I trust, and I wouldn’t just let anyone alone with you.”
That didn’t exactly make her feel very comfortable. In fact, it did the exact opposite. “I don’t want to be alone with him.”
“Just relax, Charity. Nothing is going to happen to you.”
She tried to eat more food, but she just couldn’t. The thought of anyone else being near her, she couldn’t handle anything else. It was all just too much for her.
She gasped and put her carton down as the doorbell rang.
“That’s him,” Dwayne said.
She stayed perfectly still in her seat, refusing to move. This couldn’t be happening. She was panicking about seeing a doctor. A professional who’d taken a vow to care, to do no harm. In the past twenty-four hours, she’d seen an ugly side to life, and the thought of being vulnerable again scared her.
Dwayne returned with a man in his fifties.
“Charity, this is Richard. He’s a doctor, and he’ll assess all of your wounds.”
She shook her head.
“I know you’ve had a trying time, Charity, but I need to see everything,” Richard said.
She didn’t give a fuck what the good doctor had to say. The only person she was interested in and trusted was right there in front of her. Dwayne. The man who’d saved her.
“Maybe I should sedate her?”
“No!” she cried out at the same time Dwayne barked it out. That at least made her feel relief.
“You’re not sedating her. She’s fine. I’ll be there. You’ll let the doctor see you so long as I’m there.”
She nodded. “But … I don’t have any underwear.”
Dwayne sighed. “Come on. I’ve got something. Stay there.” He pointed at the doctor as he passed. Rushing to keep up, she tried not to think about the pain in her side.
“Do you always get what you want?” she asked.
“Most of the time. It’s a fear thing. People fear me so I get what I want.”
“And you like it.”
“What do you think?” He placed his hand on the doorframe and stared down at her. He was so much taller than she was that she just took a deep breath, not knowing what to say. “See, right now you’re afraid.”
“No, I’m not,” she said.
“You’re not?” His head tilted to the side.
“I’m curious about you. I’d like to be able to take care of myself, and you seem to be able to do that.” She shrugged. “You saved me. Why would I be afraid of you?”
“I could be a bigger monster than the men I brought you from.”
“That’s not true.”
“How do you know?”
She opened her mouth and closed it, not really sure how to answer.
“Just a bit of advice, sweetheart. Don’t trust every single guy that saves you. Believe me, some are worse than they look.”
She followed him into the room. “Do you know what it’s like? To be hurt? To be lost?”
His back was ramrod straight and she wanted to look him in the eye, but she didn’t dare demand he turn to look at her. “Let’s just say that I know what it’s like to be hurt by the people you trust. Now, stop asking questions. Boxers and a shirt. He needs to look around your tits, so just lift your shirt and rest it beneath.”
“Don’t leave me.”
“Want me to watch you getting changed?”
“You were in the shower with me. What difference does it make?”
He didn’t say anything, but stood by the door, arms folded. “Get dressed then.”
Was he testing her?
It didn’t matter as she dropped the towel and did as he asked.
Chapter Two
Dwayne followed the doctor out of the room, and it was hard to decide if he wanted to kill him or let him live, just because of Charity’s reaction, which made no sense to him. He didn’t even know her, and yet he wanted to take that kind of pain away. He’d seen the way Charity had flinched at every single touch of this man’s hands. She’d not wanted the doctor there, and if it hadn’t been for her injuries, Dwayne wouldn’t have allowed it to continue.
“She has bruising to her ribs, which will make it uncomfortable for her to walk. A possible concussion, so she needs waking up every two hours just to be safe. Quite a few bruises, and I would also recommend a psych evaluation on her.”
“Not going to happen.”
“Mr. Carson, she’s been through a traumatic experience, and that’s not going to go away easily. The next couple of months are going to be hard.”
“Do you have anything else to add?”
“The rape kit. I need to collect one.”
“Not going to happen.”
“Look, you’re being unreasonable.”
“She’s still a virgin, Doc. I don’t see her wanting you to play that way, not after the fear she’s been through. I got to her in time before they did anything or before she slipped through the cracks. You’ve done what you needed to do, now you can leave.”
He sa
w the doctor out and slammed the door closed. It wouldn’t be long before Beast and Caleb knew and they’d be wanting to talk to him again. He was getting used to their special talks. For the most part it was where he sat and listened to the two of them tell him he shouldn’t do stuff, and then in the next breath congratulate him on a job well done.
The Nightmare.
It’s what people called him now.
Not Beast’s nephew.
Or Caleb’s nephew.
He was his own man and without even his real name.
Dwayne hadn’t gone out of his way to earn that name. It had started some time ago, actually. Back when he was eighteen and pissed off with Beast for dating one of the girls he’d brought home. Hope hadn’t even been datable as far as he was concerned. She’d been too weird.
His anger had gotten the better of him one night as he walked the streets. He’d been trying to clear his head when he’d heard the feminine cry.
It had been subtle but the pain evident.
“Listen here, whore. You’re going to suck my dick. Take it deep into your fucking throat until you gag!”
His curiosity had been piqued. He’d moved down the alleyway, the streetlight casting enough of a glow to see the two people fighting.
The woman couldn’t have been any older than twenty, if that. The man, someone much older, was disgusting, and Dwayne had snapped.
In the back of his mind, he recalled all the vile things his own father used to throw at him. The way he’d treated his mother, and yes, he’d seen the way his father treated her. When he’d wanted to run to his room, his father had made him watch as he raped her. He’d never told another living soul the things he’d witnessed.
When Beast came to tell him he was living with him, his mother had been long dead. She’d died during one of his dad’s “training sessions” when he said she needed to learn her lesson, his massive hands around her throat, cutting off her air supply. Dwayne had witnessed her death, and it hadn’t been the only one either. Over the years, his father had killed several young women, whores, and others.
There had been no stopping him once he got on the warpath.
Again, he didn’t say anything.
Watching this woman’s abuse though, it was like being back in their home, his mother begging for her husband to stop, crying out, screaming for help.
He’d just stood there, a young kid who didn’t know what to do.
She’d told him to run.
His father had said that if he ran, he’d put the strap to him.
He hated that strap.
It hurt so much that it was like fire dancing on his back.
So, he stayed.
That time wasn’t the first or last time.
To make his son a man, to make him invincible, he was going to make sure he knew what he was dealing with.
At eighteen, watching a man force a woman who was crying and begging for him to let her go, Dwayne had withdrawn the blade he’d kept in his pocket. Moving toward the man, he didn’t make a noise. It was like his heart didn’t even beat as everything moved in slow motion. Nothing mattered, no one cared, and as he jammed that blade into the fucker’s neck, hearing him gurgle, something came over him.
Something profound.
He was so fucking happy watching the blood drip out of the man’s neck from the mark he made. He’d done it again. As the woman ran away, he’d watched the man die, and in doing so, he found his purpose in life.
Dumping the body had been easy. The piece of shit was wanted, as he later found, but that didn’t matter.
Every single week on a Friday night, he’d walk the streets, ridding the world of the vermin that walked. Rapists, murderers, child abusers, the works. There was a kid at school, Arnold, he’d gone to him, asking him to find them for him. Every single person who didn’t deserve to live on the streets. Some of them had been granted parole because of the people they knew high up.
He’d started to crave the violence, the danger. Training became a way of life, studying a thing of the past. Waking up at four in the morning, running, training, spending his day getting stronger, harder, faster, meaner.
He had no doubt that Caleb and Beast were aware of what they called him, but that didn’t matter.
Dwayne had learned the valuable art of not giving a fuck.
“Are you okay?” Charity asked.
He turned to see her in the doorway. The shirt she wore was way too big, but on her it looked really cute.
“Yes. How are you feeling?”
“Sore.”
“I think it’s time for you to get some rest. Tomorrow I’ll take you to your family.”
She nodded. “Thank you.”
He moved toward the spare bedroom. Pulling back the bedcovers, he turned the nightlight on and patted the bed.
“In you go.”
She climbed into the bed, and he tucked the blanket around her.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“Just across the hall. Get some sleep, Charity. You’re going to be fine.”
Leaving her bedroom door partially open, he made his way to his room. He left his door wide open just in case. He had several sensors around the apartment so if anyone tried to break in once he set them, he’d be alerted. Checking his stash of guns and knives, he put the ones he’d used today back in place. Tomorrow, when Charity was back with her family, he’d clean them.
Removing his clothes, he took a quick shower, changed into a pair of boxer briefs, and climbed into bed. He had weapons all around his room in case of intrusion. Picking up the reading book from the shelf, he began to read where he left off.
Now, this was a rare pleasure for him. He wouldn’t ever admit it to anyone else in the world, but he happened to love reading romance books. It helped him to relax after a long day, and the sex was kind of cool to read as well.
He was settling down for a really kinky bit when the first scream erupted.
Dwayne slid his bookmark into place and put the book on the cabinet beside his lamp. Listening for another scream, he was out of bed the moment he heard it and making his way across the hall just as yet another ear-piercing scream released.
Charity was up in bed, holding the bedding to her, looking panicked.
“They have me,” she said.
“They don’t have you. It’s a bad dream. No one is getting past me.” He stepped up to her, cupped her face, and forced her to stare into his eyes. “Look at me, Charity. You’re safe.”
“I’m safe.”
“Yes, you’re safe with me. I’m not going to let anyone or anything hurt you.”
“You’re not going to let anyone hurt me.”
He smiled. At least she was repeating everything he said, which had to be a good sign. He was going to see it as such.
“Get some sleep, Charity. It was just a bad dream.”
“Wait. Please.”
He’d already turned toward the door and paused to look at her.
“Please, stay with me.”
He looked at the bed.
“Not for sex. Just to … I don’t feel safe.”
“I’m just going to get something,” he said.
Grabbing his gun from the other room, and his alarm, he made his way back into her room. She was lying down, watching the door.
He placed everything within reach on the cabinet beside the bed and climbed beneath the covers.
Dwayne tensed up as her arms came around him, holding him like a fucking teddy bear. When the fuck did that happen?
He didn’t want to push her off, and slowly, as the minutes passed, he felt her fall asleep. Great, just fucking great. He was a pillow now.
****
Charity didn’t want to leave Dwayne, but she knew he had other things to do than take care of her. Her parents were waiting, and as she sat in his car, she should be running toward them.
“Your family is good, just so you know.”
“Good?”
“Yes. They’re not go
ing to hurt you.”
“I know.” She tucked some of her hair behind her ear. It was back to being blonde now after all the dirt had been washed out.
“What’s wrong, Charity?” he asked. “They’re waiting for you, and you’re sitting here.”
“I’m scared.”
“Of what?”
Her eyes filled with tears, and she hated that as well.
Being weak wasn’t her. Far from it.
“What if it happens again?”
“Being taken?”
“Yes. I don’t … next time they may not wait to, erm…”
“Rape you?”
“Yes.”
“I’m going to be watching.”
She turned to look at him, not liking that sudden jolt in her body. “You are?”
“Yes. You won’t notice I’m there, but I’m going to keep an eye on things.”
“I’ll notice.”
He smiled. “Men who are expecting me don’t notice I’ve arrived until it’s too late.”
“I’m not like most men.”
“No, you don’t have a cock or balls.”
She chuckled. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Get out of the car and go over to them.”
“No, I know about that. I mean about the rest. What do I do? I can’t … everything makes no sense to me anymore.”
She stared at her lap, not really sure what to say or what to do. Prolonging their time together was important to her.
“You forget about it. It didn’t happen.”
“But it did.”
“Then you’ve got to learn to ignore it. No one is going to hurt you because I’m going to make sure of it. Your parents got me involved, and they paid me handsomely for the privilege. You’re a strong woman, Charity. You can’t let them win.”
“What if they already have?”
“Not possible. You’re alive. You’re sitting here about to be reunited with your family. No one else can win. Only you can let that happen. Be strong and fight it.”
She nodded her head and released a breath, opening the door of the car at the same time. “Thank you, Dwayne, for everything. Thank you so much.”
“Don’t mention it. I hope I won’t be seeing you again, Charity.”
She giggled and climbed out of the car. “I can’t believe I just did that. I’m weird. Bye, Dwayne.”