“Evie! Come wash up for dinner!” Keira yelled from downstairs.
“Yes! Dinner!” She declared, as she instantly filled with energy again, and leapt up. “Come on!” She laughed as she looked down at me.
“I’m kinda stuck down here. Think you can send one of the guys up here to help me up?”
“You’re so silly Livia!” She laughed as she ran out. I hoped that meant she would send one of the guys up, and not just mock me.
“Brains? You ok?” Cole asked as he walked in a few minutes later. He was dressed in jeans and a black Henley, his face clean shaven and his hair styled as usual. It was so good to see him looking so much like the Cole I knew.
“Just stuck. I got down here, but I can’t get back up.” I laughed as I held out my hands for his help.
“How are you feeling? Did Evie wear you out?” He asked, as he bypassed my hands and slid a hand beneath my knees, and beneath my back, then lifted me up bridal style.
“I’m ok, a little tired. I’ll head to bed after dinner. You gonna put me down?” I asked with a smile.
“Nope.”
“What do you mean no? Put me down Cole. I can manage with the crutches!”
“No way you’re risking crutches on the stairs when I can just carry you down.” He said flatly.
“Cole! I’m gonna be in this cast for weeks. I need to get used to the crutches. You guys are not carrying me around like this all of the time.”
“Yes we are, Beautiful. Deal with it.”
I wanted to argue further, but knew he wouldn’t listen to me when I was curled up in his arms, so instead I just settled into him and let him carry me down to the kitchen where everyone was carrying food to the dining table and chatting loudly.
“Liv, you ok, Princess? How are you feeling?” Kyle asked as he dropped the basket of rolls he was carrying on the counter, and dashed toward me.
“I’m fine. I just needed a hand up, but Cole took that as an invitation to carry me off like a caveman!” I grumbled, annoyed, but also grateful that they all cared so much.
“How else would you have gotten down here?” Kyle smirked, annoying me even more.
“Same as I got up, with the crutches I have been given to use.”
“No. Not happening Liv. You can go around the house with those things if you must, but you’re not risking the stairs on them.”
“Put me down right now Cole!” I barked, seriously starting to lose my temper now. They were being too overbearing, and I hated it. Luckily for Cole, he heard my sharp tone and gently lowered me to the ground. I leant on the counter in the kitchen and glared at both of them.
“This is not happening guys.” I said calmly, but firmly. “You do not get to decide what I can and cannot do just because I got hurt, and if you keep on trying we are going to have a really big problem.”
“Livy…..” Cole started, but I cut him off.
“I know, you want to take care of me. I’m more grateful than you know that I have all of you to look out for me, but you have to let me have breathing space, guys. I have a broken ankle, that’s all. I’m fine otherwise, and I need to be able to take care of myself, to some extent at least. I don’t want to be a victim anymore, so I need you guys to stop treating me like one, and instead just let me be your girlfriend. Please, just understand what I’m asking for.”
“We do, we get it, but you need to understand too. We came so fucking close to losing you, and it killed us, all of us. We’re not letting that happen again. We will do everything we can to protect you, be that never letting you leave this house alone, or making sure you don’t risk your life on the stairs. We need to protect you, Princess, because we love you and we cannot go through what we just did, ever again.” Kyle said firmly, his crystal blue eyes not once leaving mine. He seemed emotional, his hands shaking slightly where he held them out in front of him for me to take.
“I love you too, all of you.” I whispered as I took his hands, and looked around behind him where Matt and Kade now stood too, all four of them surrounding me. “I get it, and I don’t want anything to happen to me again either, but I don’t want to just hide behind the four of you anymore. I need to be tougher and stronger, and I need you to help me along the way. You guys make me feel brave enough to fight for who I want to be. You’re the ones who made me strong before this, and I need you to do that again. I d-don’t want to be weak and scared anymore.” My last words came out as a squeak, as I fought the tears that threatened.
“You have never been weak Livy….never.” Cole reached out, his hand landing on my shoulder with a reassuring squeeze.
“We hear you, Love. We’ll try, ok? We’ll try to step back a little where we can, but we are not going to let you endanger yourself, and we do need to be careful. Your original kidnapper could still be out there.”
Kyle’s boss and the team they sent out near where I was found on that highway, so many weeks before, had been called back in on an urgent assignment, so that search had been halted, and so far had unearthed very little about The Shadow, or where he could have been keeping me. Kade had been working nights on it, but his team were still busy wrapping up loose ends with the
