Page 67 of Forever Found

“We’re on the highway right now, Addy,” Kane called to me.

“Oh God!” I cried. “Stop please. I have to get out. I have to get out!” I was almost screaming by the time Kane pulled over to the side of the road. I leant forward and wrenched the sliding door open, leaping out and landing on the hard verge on my knees just in time to throw up everything I had left in me.

Tears flooded my face and I fought through my agony filled sobs to wipe at the spit around my mouth. My stomach was still churning, and I retched again, but there was nothing left to come up.

“I’m here, Addy. I’m right here. I’ve got you,” Jordan told me as he dropped down behind me to his knees and wrapped his arm around me, holding my back against his chest as he used his other hand to pull back my hair. I sank against him, completely finished in every single possible way.

This hell – my personal hell – it had no end. Would my entire life be the same as that moment? Would I risk another nightmare which I would never know was truth or fiction every single time I closed my eyes? Would I ever know the full extent of what had been done to me? And even if I did, how could I ever make it all get out of my head? How could I ever drag myself from the darkness I was trapped in when it was so thick and strong, and it held me so tightly and unrelentingly? There was no escape. There was no end. There was just this – what remained of me – broken fragments, soul destroying fear and loss, and the continual despair that I would never ever be whole again.

“Jordan,” I whimpered as I turned my head and pressed it to his chest, my whole body quaking violently against him.

“I’m here, Addy. Right here,” he soothed as he picked me up and stood with me wrapping myself around him as much as I possibly could, clinging to him and praying his touch would keep me there with him. I was drowning and I didn’t know how to stop it from happening anymore.

“D-don’t let me…go,” I pleaded brokenly. “Please Jord…hold me so I d-don’t drown.”

“I’m never letting you go, princess. We’re safe here. It’s just you and me, remember? No one else can touch us. Just you and me here right now,” he uttered close to my ear.

“Y-you and me,” I whimpered as I clung on to him. I remembered. I remembered the peace of the time we spent in my room at the cabin, when all of the darkness was gone and the memories forgotten as I lost myself in him. Just him and me and nothing and no one else. I needed that. I needed that peace back before I lost myself completely.

KANE

Adam and I stood frozen, just watching as the woman we were both in love with crumbled before us. Addy was more broken than I had ever seen her, and I couldn’t even go to her like my body was desperate to, because I’d fucked it all up.

Adam and I both knew at least part of this was on us. On top of everything Addy was trying to deal with, we’d both treated her like assholes and pushed her away when she had been begging us both to pull her closer. She needed us and we’d been too lost in our selfish bullshit to help her. Now we were losing her before our very eyes and there was nothing we could do.

Asher moved very slowly with the coat he had shucked off, then wrapped it around Addy’s quaking shoulders. Jordan was holding her to his front, her legs wrapped around his waist and she held him like she truly was drowning and he was her life line. He was rocking her side to side like she were a child, and in that moment, she looked like one – a terrified, broken, innocent child.

I could hear her whispered words every now and then. ‘You and me’ over and over again between her muted sobs and her gasping breaths.

“Just you and me, princess,” Jordan repeated back to her every time, his tone soft and soothing. I didn’t know what it meant – obviously, something between them – but it seemed to be working as Addy seemed to calm down and crash in his arms.

All I wanted in that moment was for her to be inmyarms. I wanted to be the one who could soothe her the way Jordan was, but I couldn’t do that. I had a feeling it would be a while before she trusted me like that again, if ever.

Instead I took a deep breath and made myself move. I couldn’t be there for Addy in that moment, but I was still the security forher and her brothers, and I could damn well do my job and keep them safe.

I moved around the parked car, assessing our surroundings. Luckily, the highway was quiet, since it was getting late, but there were trees off to the right of where we stood which posed an issue for security. If anyone had been following us, they had a good spot to hide there. I instinctively moved my hand to where my gun was tucked at the small of my back. Usually when I was working I wore it in my holster at my hip, but we’d left in such a hurry to get to Addy, Eli, and Jordan that I’d just shoved it in the back of my jeans.

“Did she pass out?” I heard Adam ask quietly and I looked to Jordan as he smoothed back Addy’s hair and studied her face. She was still now, her breathing calmer, and her eyes were closed.

“I think so,” Jordan nodded.

“We need to get back in the car. We’re too open here,” I warned as I looked from the woods to Asher.

“He’s right,” Ash agreed as he too seemed to take a look all around us for threats. “Will she be alright if we get moving again?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen her that bad. She was so scared,” Jordan said as he looked up to the sky and blinked furiously. “I don’t think she can take any more, Ash. I’m terrified about what she might do if anything else happens.”

“Nothing else is going to happen. We’re going to get her home and lock that place up tight, right?” Adam said as he turned to me for the answer.

“Right,” I nodded. I’d already hired several new guards, and I’d vetted their backgrounds to the point of obsession. The new security system at the house was impenetrable too. It was the safest place for us all to be with this threat looming. Asher had already agreed the plans for the demolition would have to wait.

“We won’t leave her alone, Jord. You, me, and Eli can take shifts to be with her for now. You two need to try and work things out with her, but if you do anything to upset her further, I will fucking kill you both,” Asher threatened.

“Just get in the car. You can threaten us later,” I growled. Something felt off and I didn’t like it. I had been checking for a tail since we set off. The car was a lease, since we had needed something bigger to get everyone home, so it couldn’t be traced to us with out a ton of work to connect us to my sister, who I had asked to arrange the lease for me, but I had this feeling that was putting me on edge.

Asher and Eli followed Jordan to the car, helping him as he tried to ease into the back seat without jostling Addy. Still she jolted awake as he sat and looked around in a panic.

“Easy, Addy. I’m here. We’re just getting back in the car, okay? Get some more rest for me,” Jordan soothed and I had to admit, he was way better at that gentle shit than I was.