But for now we were safe, and The Shadow was dead. We could go home to our families and find a way to move forward. We had to be grateful for that, Everything else could wait to be worried about another day.
KYLE
Kade had barely stopped the car before I was leaping out, Cole right behind me.
Matt had called about twenty minutes before to tell us he had Liv and Hailey safe in his truck. I had fought tears at the knowledge that Liv was alive, and I knew I wasn’t the only one. The relief that she was safe, and that her kidnapper was dead had been like a ten ton weight lifted from my chest.
Kade had driven like a bat out of hell to get us to the location Matt was at, via the tracking app we had all installed on our cells. Rob was behind us in his SUV with Hailey’s parents.
Even though we had been clear when we set out, that we had no idea if Hailey and Livy were at the location we were headed to, where Matt had found the trail, they had insisted on coming, so desperate for any lead on the location of their daughter, who had been missing for almost a full month.
Now we knew Hailey was there with Livy, scared and hurt, we were glad they had insisted on coming. Their little girl would need them.
We had driven a crappy track leading through forest land, up to a small clearing in which sat a dilapidated hunting cabin. It was strikingly similar to the place where Livy had been held before, only now the place was crowded with two police patrol cars, and an ambulance, as well as Matt’s truck.
Cole ran beside me as we passed all of the parked cars and approached the ambulance which was closest to the cabin, with the back door wide open. Kade was right behind us, and Rob with Hailey’s parents at the back.
I rounded the ambulance first and almost fell to my fucking knees with relief at seeing Olivia looking up to me. She was clearly hurt and not in a great condition, but she was whole and alive.
“Liv…..thank fucking God!” I gasped, lost for words and barely able to even breathe. I had been so scared I had lost her for good.
“Livy!” Cole exhaled at the same time Kade came stomping up behind me and froze as he stared at her.
“Oh God! I n-never thought….I didn’t think I’d ever see you all again.” She whimpered, followed by quiet sobs. I wanted to go to her, but she sat on the back of the ambulance, with Hailey, the lost little girl, tucked terrified into her side. The horrified look on her tearful little face as she looked between us all just a few feet away from her, was enough to stop any of us from taking a step closer. We knew that look, and the way she shook uncontrollably. We had all been that traumatised child at some point, and as desperate as we were to get to Liv, we knew that little girl’s need to feel safe had to come first.
“We’re here Babygirl, and we are never letting you out of our sight ever again.” Cole soothed gently.
“Too fucking right.” I agreed with a growl. Twice we had almost lost the woman we loved. We would make damned sure that never happened again, even if it meant following her every move for the rest of our lives. She was everything to us, and we couldn’t lose her.
“Hailey!” The feminine scream from behind us, had us all turning, then stepping aside so Hailey’s parents could run to her. They were both crying as they went to her.
She jumped up at the sight of them and leapt from the step of the ambulance straight into her Dad’s arms. He clutched her tight as she silently sobbed into his coat, her entire body visibly relaxing into him as her Mom hugged the both of them.
“Oh Angel, we’ve been so worried. We missed you so much.” Her Dad cooed, while she and her Mom just sobbed.
I looked to Livy and saw the soft smile on her face, and the tears in her eyes. It was all she had wanted when she escaped last year, to see her parents again. I wished like hell we could have given her that, but we couldn’t. We could be there for her though, and I took that as my cue to very slowly approach her. I was desperate to have her in my arms, but we had no idea what she had been through, and I knew she may be wary once again, as she had been when we first met her.
“I need to hold you, Baby.” I told her.
“I need you to hold me.” She agreed with a half smile. It was all I needed to hear, and in a second I had swept her up, carefully, into my arms.
She was stiff at first, wincing as she curled her body into me and buried her face into my shoulder, and I knew she was in a lot of pain. I could see a shit ton of bruising on just the small areas of her body that were visible, and her face was swollen and black and blue. Her clothes, what I could see beneath Matt’s sweater, were ripped in places, and covered with blood and dirt. I guessed from her movements she had damaged ribs and likely some bad bruising and swelling around her torso.
That sonofabitch had obviously beaten her several times and I wished he wasn’t dead, just so I could kill
