“I know.” I whispered, but I was terrified. I didn’t want the people I loved getting mixed up with the bastard who had tortured me, and killed Chris brutally. I couldn’t lose anyone else.
“How bad are your injuries? Should we take you to the ER?” He asked.
“EMT said she has a mild concussion. Kade told us to wait in the car with her. He and Kyle are gonna wrap things up here, then we can go home.”
“That’s good. There’s a good chance CPD will catch up to the kidnapper after this. He didn’t have much of a head start from what Keira said. They could catch him.” I liked the sound of that. I hoped like hell they caught him and found info on him to lead them to wherever he was keeping little Hailey. I hoped it would all be over by that night.
“Let’s hope so.” Cole sighed.
CHAPTER 20
I woke up the next morning, having only slept for a total of around one hour, with Evie wrapped around my right arm and quietly snoring. She had refused to leave my side since we all arrived home the night before, and had ended up sleeping in my room with me.
The guys, who had also seemed unable to let me out of their sight, had also slept in my room, on mattresses on the floor, and I could hear Cole snoring to my right. I glanced around and found Matt on the left, also out cold, but Kade and Kyle, and any sign of where they had been laid all night, had now gone.
Kade had been up and down all night, talking to his boss and his team, who were all working on chasing down The Shadow. They had caught up to him a few blocks from the dance studio and chased him down for over a mile, but he had gotten into a van, the van he had thrown me into all those years ago when I was taken, and he had slipped the police chase just outside the city.
They had lost him completely, but had his license plates and some surveillance footage of him. Kade had assured me they were working on finding out who exactly he was and there were alerts out on his vehicle. They had a lot more than they had to work with just a day before, and yet The Shadow had still slipped from their grasp.
I hadn’t dared to sleep that night. The flashbacks of The Shadow were bad enough whilst I was awake, playing on repeat over and over after I had once again had to face him. I was terrified of what would seep into my nightmares if I let sleep take a hold. So I had fought it, despite my fatigue, all night until I simply couldn’t anymore, then I had slept for about an hour, awoken by a heart pounding, terror inducing nightmare.
Knowing there was no way I was going back to sleep, and back to the hell that awaited me there, I slid my arm carefully from Evie’s hold and sat up. I was short of breath from the panic of the nightmare, and it took me a few moments to gather myself.
Once I was calmer, I got up, tiptoed past Cole to the closet, grabbed some clothes, then passed Matt and shut myself in the bathroom.
I took a deep breath as I turned on the shower. I had spent enough time wallowing in my fears. I needed to get it together and find some inner strength.
The Shadow came for me, and I escaped. I fought him off long enough to survive and get away. That was a victory, and I needed to be grateful for it. I needed to do whatever it took to not let the sight of that monster set me back. I needed to cling to the strength I had found within myself in recent weeks, and remember that was who I was. I needed to make sure I didn’t ever let myself become the frightened child I had been in The Darkness, ever again.
I gave myself the length of my shower to do what needed to be done to get over what happened and pull myself together. For the first few minutes, hidden away in the steam and the sound of the pounding water, I just allowed myself to let the last of the tears and anxiety run free. I pressed my forehead to the cool tile, and just let out all of my fear, anger and past horror as I sobbed hard.
Once I had let it all out and my throat too much to go on, I took huge deep breaths to calm myself down, then had a marathon long mental pep talk, in which I commanded myself to get a damned grip. I needed to be strong, for me, for the guys, and for the family. I needed to prove to myself that The Shadow couldn’t break me any more than he already had.
It was over an hour later when I stepped out of the steam filled bathroom, clean, dressed and feeling a lot more like myself.
I was surprised to find the guys and their makeshift beds now gone from the floor, and my bed empty. Instead Kyle sat at my desk, his cell in his hand as though he had been reading something on the screen.
When I stepped further into my room he was watching me, with a gentle smile on his face.
“Hey.” I said, returning the smile.
“Hey Baby. How are you feeling?”
“Better. The shower helped.” I replied as I crossed the room to go to him. More than anything I wanted to feel the safety of my guys holding me. “Where is everyone?”
“Cole and Matt are in the gym. Kade’s at the
