Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men Book 9) (42 page)

The police showed up next. They radioed for an ambulance, assuring us someone would probably give her a tranquilizer to put her to sleep so they could get her help. Then they forced us back, away from the crime scene and affirmed that her kidnapper was most definitely dead.

Colton and Noel arrived just before the paramedics did.

As my brother raced forward, I turned to intercept him. “Hey, don’t—” I tried to hold him back so he couldn’t see the gruesome sight, but he pushed me out of the way and plowed past.

“Is she okay?” he demanded, hurrying a few steps forward before slowing to a stop and gaping in horror. “Oh, Jesus. Baby doll?”

Julianna lifted her face, ignoring the two officers who were flanking her and had been trying to get her to respond to them. “Colton?”

He rushed the last few feet to her and fell to his knees, where she launched herself into his arms and clung to him as if he were the only thing left on the planet to hold on to.

C
OLTON’S
C
HAPTER
|
35

S
ometimes it was better not to think. As a frozen, blood-covered Julianna shivered and whimpered in my arms, smelling of piss, mildew, and all manner of gross, I watched the police cover the dead body lying five feet away with a tarp, and I tried to process what I was seeing. But I’m pretty sure my brain wouldn’t let my thoughts travel far or I would’ve had a meltdown right then and there.

I was shaking as much as Julianna was. Or maybe she was trembling so much for both of us it just felt like I was too. She was like hugging an ice cube.

“Blanket,” I said, lifting my face to address anyone from the horde of people gathered around us, standing there and gawking like dumbasses.

Juli’s dad immediately began to shed his coat. Somewhere in my head, I wondered why I hadn’t had the forethought to take off my own coat for her, but then, I wasn’t all that sure I was able to stop holding her long enough to do so. I snatched the coat as soon as it was held down to me, and after I fumbled to wrap it around her shoulders and tugged her back against me, she tucked her face just under my chin, croaking a barely discernable word that sounded like
water
.

“Water,” I ordered, glancing up again. This request wasn’t so readily available. There was a mad scramble before a clear half-empty bottle was shoved in front of me. In the wait, I tucked my face close to her cheek and asked, “Where does it hurt most?”

Though her coat and clothes were freezing cold, her cheek was burning hot.

A shudder wracked her body. “E-everywhere.”

I closed my eyes and kissed her hair. We clutched each other for a while, blocking out the rest of the world. I was only vaguely aware of family and emergency workers milling around us, talking and trying to figure out what had happened. At the moment, I didn’t care about any of that. Julianna was alive and in my arms, and that was all that mattered.

When the ambulance finally arrived and they started to wheel a stretcher toward us, I returned to reality and began to pull away from her, knowing she needed to be checked out.

“I think she has a fever,” I told them. But as soon as I stepped away and two paramedics crouched in front of her, she freaked.

“No…
Colton
.” She reached for me, her breathing immediately picking up, eyes huge with fear, and tears gushing, so I stepped toward her, except the paramedic waved me back.

“Sir, we have this.”

I gritted my teeth and shot the woman a look from hell. Julianna needed me. I wasn’t going to leave her if she wanted me close.

I didn’t have to say a word, though. Julianna’s dad’s voice spoke up, commanding, “Let him stay with her. She gets hysterical otherwise. He’s the only one who’s been able to keep her calm.”

I kind of loved him in that moment.

He had such a powerful presence, the woman nodded reluctantly and waved me forward. “You’re going to have to stay out of our way though so we can take care of her.”

“I understand.” Taking Juli’s hand, I kneeled by her again, moving in close so I could kiss her temple. “Baby doll, these people need to check you over and make sure you don’t have any wounds that need to be immediately taken care of.”

She nodded as she pressed her cheek against my chest. “Okay.”

As long as she could touch me, she let them do their thing, flashing lights in her eyes and taking her blood pressure, temperature, and such. She even answered their questions, though she gripped my shirt in one hand hard as she did so.

“There’s a lot of blood on you, Juli,” the female paramedic said kindly. “Do you know if any of it’s yours?”

“Maybe,” Julianna croaked. “I think so. Stabbed.”

“You were stabbed?”

When she nodded, I breathed, “Jesus,” and closed my eyes.

They asked her where, and Juli lifted her shirt enough to show them her abdomen, where two nasty slashes were still oozing blood.

I whimpered.

The EMT examined it before nodding. “Good news is it looks like you were slashed and not penetrated. Probably just surface damage, but we need to get you into the ambulance so we can clean and patch you up, okay?”

“Okay.”

About three of us helped her to her feet. Her legs were unsteady, but she finally gained her equilibrium enough to hold on to me tight as she took her first wobbly step forward. But as soon as they started to help her onto the stretcher, she freaked, diving back to me and clutching me hard, hiding her face in my coat.

“It’s okay, baby doll,” I assured her, picking her up and simply carrying her to the ambulance, despite the protest of the emergency workers.

Again, they didn’t want me in the ambulance with them, something about policies and liabilities, but Julianna’s dad once more talked them into letting me stay.

We finally got her to sit, but she wouldn’t let go of my hand all the way to the hospital, and I had to say, I didn’t mind. It was nice to feel her alive under my fingers. I didn’t want to be apart from her, no matter how hard it was to witness her agony and only imagine what she’d gone through these past few days.

At the hospital, she was still resistant to being rolled in on her back. She wanted to walk, except she was like a new colt, her steps stuttering and uncertain. So we got her to compromise with a wheelchair.

I think we broke a ton of hospital rules. She didn’t want anyone cutting her clothes off her, she begged for a shower, she refused to take a rape kit, saying there was no need (thank God), and she wanted no one but me to assist her through all this. Considering what she’d been through, they pretty much let her have her way.

So after I helped her strip down and turned on the shower water for her, she took one look at the tiny cubicle and turned away, burrowing into me as a fresh sob wracked her body.

“Shh… it’s okay,” I murmured into her hair. “You don’t have to go in if you don’t want to.”

If I were her, I doubt I’d ever want to step foot into a small space again either.

But she shook her head. “No, I want…” Her voice broke, going hoarse. She looked up, her eyes begging. “Come with me?” she whispered, pleadingly.

I nodded immediately. “Of course.”

The nurse standing by, waiting to assist, said, “I’ll find you something to change into, sir. You have blood all over your clothes, anyway.”

As she took off, I stripped down as well and took Julianna’s hand before helping her into the shower. She grabbed my wrist when I went to close the curtain, but when I looked at her, she eased her grip and nodded.

My heart broke. She was scared but still trying to be brave. My brave fighter.

I helped her rinse off and soap up and rinse again. Once the water was off, I found a towel to wrap around my waist before scrubbing her dry with another. She just stood there, shivering. The nurse and I dressed her in warm socks and a hospital gown as quickly as possible before leading her to the bed, where they had to redress her wounds that had gotten wet. Her fever had spiked to a hundred and six, so they set her up with an IV full of medicine and fluids.

She had scrapes and abrasions and bruises all over, but the knife slashes on her stomach were the worst of it. I was grateful for that, and yet still worried out of my mind, because I knew her true injuries were ones that couldn’t be bandaged.

While the nurse fussed over her, getting her more water, I stepped back into the bathroom to pull on the scrubs they’d found for me to wear. After I was clothed again, I paused a moment to look at my face in the mirror.

It felt strange to look at my reflection and see the same face I’d always seen. Everything felt different now. I should’ve looked into the mirror and seen a stranger. But it was still me, which was so freaking bizarre.

When my hands began to shake because the reality of what had just happened to her started to set in, I quickly left the bathroom, unable to deal with that just yet.

Julianna’s father had arrived while I’d been changing. He and I shared a brief glance and respectful nod before I turned my attention to my girl.

“You look like a doctor,” she said, blinking at me. Her voice was getting stronger, less rough. I swear she’d been drinking water by the gallon since we’d found her, so maybe that was helping.

I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively as I approached to sit in the chair across the bed from where her father stood with his arms crossed over his chest.

“A sexy doctor?” I asked, taking her fingers when she held out her hand to me. The ends of them were bandaged in white gauze.

The corners of her lips tipped up in a smile, the first hint of a smile I’d seen from her in three days. “Of course,” she answered, her bruised eyes sparkling with mischief right before she added, “almost as sexy as Dr. Hamilton.”

Gasping as if hurt, I pressed my hand to my chest. “Oh, baby doll, you wound me.” But honestly, I was grateful she was able to tease.

Closing her eyes, she kept smiling as she gripped my fingers. “As if.”

I kissed her scraped knuckles and blew out a shuddered yet relieved breath just as a tap came to the door.

“Sorry for the intrusion.” The two detectives—Wilson and Hall—stepped into the room, nodding respectfully to Julianna. “But we were wondering if Miss Radcliffe was able to make a statement now.”

Julianna’s father and I immediately protested, but Juli waved her hand. “I want to get it over with.” But she tightened her grip on my fingers, letting me know she wanted me to stay.

So I sat there and listened to her entire account.

And while the officers began their questions, I fought the urge to tell them to fuck off every time she had to pause because her voice went too hoarse. She winced while she swallowed and had to take another drink, continuing. They didn’t have many questions because she was pretty detailed and chronological about the series of events, a fact that made me increasingly sick to my stomach and equal parts awed.

I had one badass girlfriend.

After her abductor had waited for her to crawl fully out of the storm shelter where he’d kept her with no food or water for nearly three days, she’d fought him with nothing but her willpower. She’d been feverish, half frozen and nearly starved to death, shaky from fatigue and exposure, and he’d been twice her size, brandishing a knife. She explained how she’d had to let him get in close first and then preoccupied him with removing her coat before she’d fought back. I don’t think she was even sure how she’d accomplished it, but as I took a moment to try to imagine what it’d had to feel like for her attacker’s breath to waft across her face while his lifeblood poured through her fingers, I shuddered, not sure if I would’ve been able to do what she’d had to do to survive.

I glanced to the side because the haunted look in her eyes as she spoke made it twice as hard to listen to.

Once she’d realized he was dead, she’d had to search his pockets for his cell phone and call for help. When they asked her why she hadn’t called 911 first thing, she shook her head.

“I don’t know. I just…I wasn’t thinking. I only wanted Colton, except I couldn’t remember his number. I couldn’t remember any number except my work number. So I called there, knowing they could get him. I…I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“You did just fine, baby doll,” I murmured, kissing her knuckles. “You did perfect.” She’d gotten help and that was all that mattered.

The detectives didn’t stay too long after that. They could see on Juli’s face how exhausted she was. But they did stay long enough to tell her the name of her attacker and confirm that the story he’d told her about his mother’s death matched what they knew about him.

Once just the three of us were left in the room again, Julianna looked up at me. Her eyes were wide with fear as they sought reassurance.

“It’s okay,” I told her, kissing her forehead. “All that’s over now. You can sleep.”

“You’ll stay?” she asked.

I nodded. “Of course.”

Finally, feeling safe enough to close her eyes, she curled onto her side and tucked her hand up by her face. I swear she passed out a second later; she was that exhausted.

I sat there, still holding her hand and watched her sleep peacefully.