Chapter 187
1080 Words
Kat opened her apartment door and gazed up at Dean, Dallas and Chris. They stared right back down at her, their hard eyes taking her in, looking for damage. She stepped back, suddenly not at all sure that this was a good idea. She glanced at the suitcase.
“Hey,” Chris said softly. “How are you, hon?”
“Oh, fine.” She swallowed her nerves. “I mean, you know. Fine.”
The men stepped into the open living room space, exchanged glances with Jim. He brought over some bottles of beer that he and Kat had bought when they had gone shopping that morning, and they all sat. Kat perched on the very edge of her chair, looking for all the world like a bird about to take flight. She turned her bottle of beer around and around in her shaking hands.
The guys sat quietly, just looking at her. Waited for her to start talking.
“I – I don’t know where to begin,” she said helplessly.
“That’s OK,” Jim said. “Maybe with this: you told me you’re from Oregon. That’s true?”
“Yes. Born and raised.”
“When did you leave?”
“Four years ago.” She cleared her throat. “I ran four years ago.”
“Where’d you go first?” Dean asked.
“First? Wisconsin.”
They blinked at her.
“That’s quite a ways away from Oregon,” Dallas commented.
“Yeah. That was the point.” She took a sip of beer and for the first time in her life, she understood the term ‘liquid courage’. “If I’d had the cash, I’d have gone farther. All the way to Florida, if I could have.”
“OK. And after Wisconsin?” Chris said.
“Uh, let’s see. Michigan. Alabama. Oklahoma. Kansas. Texas. Arizona. Then Colorado.”
“All that moving in four years?” Dean said. “And you’ve been in Denver for what – a year, right?”
“More.” Kat bit her lip. “I never stayed in one place longer than five months, but Denver’s been different. I – I really love it here. And Emma got sick so I stayed to help her, but I planned to leave before Christmas last year. Then what happened to Olivia happened, and I couldn’t imagine leaving her like that, so I stayed. Then Jenny decided to… to face what happened to her, and I knew she needed my help. So I stayed a bit longer. Time’s just… passed.” She looked down. “Now I feel like this is my home. I don’t want to go.”
“Well, we don’t want you to,” Dallas said lightly. “Why do you feel like you have to leave again? I mean, it’s been four years since you ran. Isn’t that enough time? He’s probably lost you, or given up finding you by now, don’t you think?”
“No.” She shook her head. “He hasn’t.”
“How do you know?” Dean said.
“Because he’s a monster.”
The men looked at each other, stunned at the pain and fear in her voice. Each one of them felt their natural protective instincts rise now; they were the kind of men who made a point of taking care of people less-strong than themselves. Seeing Kat like this made them want to keep her safe, at any cost.
“What did he do?” Jim asked her. “To make you run?”
Kat shook her head. “I – I can’t. I’ve never talked about it, not with anyone.”
“Nobody?” Jim said. “Your parents?”
“No.”
“Do they know where you are?”
“No.”
“You have no contact with them?”
“I do, but I never say where I am. It’s safer for them that way.” She looked up at the men. “We have burner phones, and I change mine every time I move. We communicate by short calls only, and delete the call histories right away.”
“No texts?” Dallas said.
“None.”
“Uh-huh. E-mails?”
“No. No written evidence at all.”
Dallas sighed. “Who is this dickhead, Kat?”
She froze, and then suddenly started to shake.
“Hey.” Jim crouched down in front of her. “Come on, baby. You’re safe here with us. You know that, right?”
Kat nodded. “I just – I’m scared to talk to you.”
“Why?” Chris said gently.
“I don’t know.” She half-laughed. “Maybe because if I do, it’s all real.”
None of them had anything to say to that. They all knew about trying to ignore the nightmares, in the hope that pretending they weren’t there would make them less powerful. Make them not have happened. The four of them had spent years not talking about Afghanistan, years denying that any of it had been real. Kat’s train of thought made perfect sense to them, and none of them were going to judge her for having it.
“OK, let’s take this slow,” Dean said. “Tell us about him.”
She shuddered.
“He can’t get to you.” Jim touched her arm. “He’d have to get through us first.”
“But he’s dangerous,” she said.
“So are we. We’re totally lethal.” Dean grinned at her, trying to set her at ease a bit. “Don’t let the nice-guy personas fool you.”
She didn’t smile back. “No. He’s not just some guy who works in an office or something. He’s like you. He’s – he’s trained.”
That stopped them.
“He’s ex-military?” Chris said.
“Yeah. A former Marine.” She bit her lip. “He’s just like you. He’s one of you.”
“The f**k he is,” Jim ground out. “If he hurts women, he’s nothing at all like us. We have nothing to do with assholes like that, Kat, and you damn well better know it. Don’t put us in the same group as him.”
Stunned, she raised her eyes to his. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean…”
“Forget it.” Jim stood up, moved back to the sofa. “So, he’s an ex-Marine. Anything else?”
- Writer
