Page 12 of Four Times Saved

"Tell me," she pleaded, her brows trembling, her clavicle bones tight against her skin. At five feet two inches tall, she met me just below my chest. Her dark brown eyes were big, and a strong hand gripped my heart and tightened around it.

"It's Lily," I grunted, preparing her for her conversation with Ryan.

Without waiting a second longer, she put her ear to the phone. "Lily?!" Her voice held the echoes of pending doom.

My large hand rested around her small shoulder, cupping and stroking. As she received the news I just had, she stumbled backward, into my arms, shaking.

"Come." I led her back into the office and placed her into the soft-backed antique metal chair in front of a writing desk.

I barely knew Lily myself, but I knew what she meant to Ann. If it wasn't for the bond the two of them shared, meeting at that Women's Shelter, neither of them would be where they were today. And for that reason, seeing the way this news had affected my Ann, I wanted to help find Lily and take care of the asshole who had dared to mess with my wife's best friend.

Pacing up and down the office, I watched as her hand trembled over her lips and she choked on her words. I talked myself down from my honed instincts, to go out and hunt the animal to be blamed for the tears streaming down my wife's face and teach it a lesson. To ride in on a horse like my wife's knight in shining armor, with Lily resting on the back of it, so I could see my wife smile again at her friend's safety.

In the past, I was brutal. But I always had a soft spot for women and children. Most people have their moral limit. That was mine. And I'd always found the men who overpowered women to be scum. It was the initial reason I killed my wife's captor, and I'd take great pleasure doing the same to the asshole who took Lily. But I had to fight my urges, because I promised my wife I'd never go back to that life.

Ann-Marie

Oh my goodness, it had happened. He said it would, but I didn't believe him. Lily's ex-boyfriend, Marco, stuck to his word. Those were my first thoughts when I heard what Ryan had to say. I couldn't even process the idea of her dating four men, but that paled in comparison to the news of her going missing. In fact, I couldn't hear anything else he was saying. My face was numb and tingling, my body light as a feather and floating away as my husband moved like the Energizer bunny before me, blurring my vision.

My pulse was so loud, it drowned out Ryan's voice. My own thoughts bounced around my head like dull, mocking echoes. Marco's face appeared to me like the monster Lily described him as. After five whole years, he had followed through with his plan. I couldn't blink fast enough to rid myself of the images of Lily, trapped in a dark bedroom somewhere, hell knows where, chained to a bed or something. A cold shiver ran through me at the memory of my own kidnapping, and the blood pounded behind my eyes like the red flashing lights of alarm bells going off.

"Did Lily tell you about her abusive ex-boyfriend?" I rushed my words, hoping that the faster they left my mouth, the closer we'd get to bringing Lily home.

"Yeah. What does he have to do with this?" He paused his speech to ask me.

"Everything. After she left him the first time, he found her and threatened her life. I don't know why she made his threats scare her into going back to him, instead of calling the cops on his ass. He only got worse, saying how if she ever tried to leave him again, he'd track her down and kill her. But when she finally worked up the courage to leave for good, she thought the opportunity to go back home to look after her mom was the perfect excuse to change her location from the Women's Shelter closest to him. I moved with her, needing to escape my own demons..." I recalled the need to escape the dangerous feelings I was beginning to develop for Tyler back then.

All those years ago, he scared me, and I was scaring myself now as I looked at him. He gave that life up for me, but...

Pulling my eyes away from his nervous pacing, I continued, focusing my attention on Ryan. "She was a wreck, worrying about whether or not he'd make good on his promise. But when five years passed, we assumed he'd forgotten all about it and moved on. Apparently, not. What are we going to do?" I panted, gripping my chest as panic set in.

The world around me spun and the expansive room became too small for me. Time was of the essence. Lily's life was in danger. Marco promised to punish her for leaving him. To be specific, he promised to kill her. He obviously made good on his promise to find her and take her. What was to stop him from following through with the rest? At the thought that we might already be too late, my body vibrated, shaking out of control. I heard myself crying before feeling the tears slipping down my cheek. My husband was already across the floor, kneeling before me and wrapping me in his arms.

I gripped the back of his ironed-out black shirt and burrowed my face into his neck, soaking his collar. He pressed me close to him, stabilizing me. His strokes across my back helped the air back into my lungs.

"It's okay." He whispered several times before pulling back to look at me.

"Do you have an address for him? Hello?" Ryan's distant and desperate voice on the other end of the line startled me. I forgot I was still hanging on to the phone as something more than numbness took over my body.

My eyes shifted to the phone, but my husband took my head in both his hands, turning my gaze toward him. With his thumb, he stroked the tears away as I blinked my eyes to focus on him. His dark gray eyes were hard and serious, almost black as he searched my own. He didn't need words; I knew that he was reminding me of his skill and resources and he was seeking my permission.

What horrified me was that I wanted to give it to him, but that made me a hypocrite. I could leave Ryan to try and locate Marco himself. But we'd be lucky if he was still at the same address. I doubted Marco would've taken Lily back to the same place. If anything, he would have moved to be closer to Lily or was staying in a motel or something. Even if that was the case, what were the odds of him keeping her in a motel?

My husband rested his forehead on mine, stroking my temple with his rough thumb. His breathing was heavy and I knew he was waiting for an answer. Leaving it to Ryan to find Marco and find Lily could be met with several dead ends if a professional didn't handle this. And apparently, the police were too busy judging the case to work the case. Lily's life was in danger. She needed help. She needed my help, specifically, because I had the means to help her. A husband with a dangerous past and the ability to hunt down anyone. I knew that savage still lived within him and he fought it for me. And I was horrified that I was considering awakening that part of him.

"Hello? Ann-Marie? Damn it!" Ryan swore before there was a dial tone. My husband took up the receiver that had fallen out of my hand. Yes, we still had a 'house phone', or more specifically, an office phone. My husband had traded in the mob life for the life of an honest businessman. Well, as honest as a businessman could be. He preferred to work from home, behind the scenes if you will. Plus, he was super protective and liked to be able to keep an eye on me. With him being home all the time, he could do that which worked out great for me. I liked having him here.

Once the phone had been reunited with its other part, he sat on the desk and faced me. His jaw clenched and unclenched beneath his beard. He ran a hand through his short blond hair.

"Ann, all you have to do is say the word. What do you want to do?" he came right out and asked.

He had scared me before, when he was a mob boss. I couldn't let myself love him. I couldn't bring myself to marry him unless he walked away from that. Even then, I couldn't trust him. It took a long time for me to understand that he'd do anything for me. Now, the thing I wanted him to do for me was the exact thing I'd asked him to give up. Lily wouldn't approve of this. But Lily wasn't here to approve, was she? She could curse me out once she was out of danger and standing in front of me. For now, my head was clouded and I couldn't think of another option.

"I want you to do whatever it is you need to do to bring Lily home," I exhaled as the words left my mouth.

Tyler followed my eyes when I dropped them and he tilted my chin back up to him. "Are you sure?" he asked.

I didn't know. The only thing I was sure about was that Lily needed me to come through for her right now. So, I nodded, hoping that I wasn't making a horrible decision.

---