Page 12 of Her Saviors

Getting up, I take a deep breath and follow her. Just before going through the door, Cricket gives me a nod of encouragement.

“Let’s start with your weight and vitals. Then I’ll send you for a urine sample so we can do a pregnancy test,” the nurse says, her kind voice helping reassure me as I continue to follow her down the narrow hallway.

Stepping on the scale, I don’t allow myself to look at the number flashing. Weight has always been a hard thing for me to accept. With Bennett and my parents constantly telling me I was fat and needed to lose weight, there’s nothing the scale can tell me that I don’t already know. As soon as I can step off the thing, I do and take a seat so the nurse can get my blood pressure, pulse reading, and everything else she’ll do before I enter the bathroom on my own to leave a sample for them.

After washing my hands and leaving the little cup where it goes, I open the door to find the nurse waiting for me. She leads me to an exam room and proceeds to ask me a million questions. I answer each one honestly and tell her I don’t need one of the STD tests done because I recently had one. Jayce is gonna talk to Doc so I can have the results in my hands. That’s the only way it will be real to me. I trust the guys when they say Bennett didn’t give me anything, but seeing the results of the test with my own eyes will help make it real. It’s an unfortunate product of the abuse I’ve endured because I don’t trust what I’m told, I have to see it in black and white. Thankfully, both men understand, and while they verbally express how they feel, they go one step further and show me so it sinks in.

“Someone will be right in with the results of your pregnancy test. If you’re not pregnant, they’ll talk to you about birth control and what you’d like to be put on,” the nurse informs me, a smile on her face as she grabs her tablet and prepares to leave me alone in the room.

Sitting in one of the chairs in the room, I look at all the posters covering the wall. There’s ones on pregnancy, birth control, birth, and a few others related to female health issues. Before I can look at them all in detail, there’s a knock on the door and it opens. A young woman walks in the room. She’s got purple scrubs on under one of those white lab coats doctors wear. Her blonde hair is up in a ponytail and there’s no make-up covering her face.

“Good afternoon, Brooklyn. I’m Dr. Rainer and I volunteer here at the clinic. I’ve got the results of your pregnancy test and it’s positive,” she informs me, watching me closely for a reaction. “Based on the results, I’d say you’re approximately two weeks along. There really is no point in performing an ultrasound at this point to confirm since it’s far too early. I suggest making an appointment with an obstetrician and they can perform one for you. For now, I’ll prescribe you some prenatal vitamins to take. Do you have any concerns at this point I can help you with?”

“I don’t think so. I’ve been feeling a bit nauseous and that’s why my friends convinced me to come in today,” I answer her.

“Morning sickness is normal. If it gets too bad, make sure you mention it to whichever doctor you choose to see. You don’t want it to get too bad and have to be admitted to the hospital because you’ve gotten dehydrated. If you don’t need anything else, I’ll leave the script at the front counter for you to get filled,” Dr. Rainer says as I nod numbly at her with the fact that I’m pregnant filling my mind.

Dr. Rainer leads me from the room and I wait for a few minutes in the waiting room to be handed over a script. Cricket and Ophelia don’t say a word as they wait with me. The two of them offer me their silent support and comfort as I take the script from the receptionist and we leave the clinic. The girls lead me back to the SUV and we head for a store that has a pharmacy inside. While Ophelia and Scorch walk around to find something to satisfy her craving, Cricket goes with me to get the prenatal vitamins. All I want is to get back to the cabin where I can process this news and figure out how to tell the guys I’m pregnant.

Chapter Seven

Wheels

SOMETHING IS GOING on with Brooklyn. I’m not sure what it is right now, but she’s keeping some secret or news from Soul and I. It’s been three days since my Little Warrior, Cricket, and Fee had their girl’s day and that’s when she started acting weird. She’s lost in her head more often than not and when Soul or I try to speak to her, we almost scare her because she’s not paying attention to anything around her. That’s definitely not Brooklyn—she’s one who always watches her surroundings and knows who’s around her. Soul’s noticed it too and we’re both getting really worried about her. Especially considering she rushes to the bathroom at the most random times and won’t answer us when we try to check on her. What makes it weird is that she has water running every single time this happens so we can’t hear what she’s doing. I’ve seen her body enough to know she’s not harming herself in any way, but there’s only so many reasons she wouldn’t want us rushing into the bathroom after her.

Baker’s has been busy as hell the last several weeks. It seems like any time we get all the cars done and ready to be picked up, half the town needs something done to their vehicle. Plus we’ve gotten some custom orders in and are slowly trying to work on them. It’s not often we take custom orders for bikes, but when we do, it’s all hands on deck. Anguish has also been approached by someone in town who wants his old muscle car fully restored and we’re debating taking on the job. It’s only going to add to our workload, but that’s okay. The money we earn from all the custom jobs and what we’ll make from the restoration if we take it on will be worth the amount of time I’m away from Brooklyn. Especially over the last week when business has gotten even busier.

“Wheels, get Brooklyn’s SUV in and on one of the lifts today. I want to know exactly what’s goin’ on with it before we figure out what to do next,” Anguish tells me as I finish working on the van I’ve had in my bay for the last two days.

“On it. I’m about to finish this van and then I’ll bring it in. I’ve already taken this for a test drive and everythin’ is good,” I assure my President as I slam the hood closed after making sure all the bolts and screws were tightened down and nothing was left out of place.

I’ve always double checked my work before returning a vehicle to a customer. The less chance I have of messing something up only takes a few seconds to double check a few things depending on the job I’ve just finished doing. Most of us here do the same thing because if we don’t take a few seconds to double check that we’ve tightened everything down, we could cause an accident, make more work for ourselves later on down the road by creating massive problems for the customer, and any number of things could go wrong. I’d rather be safe than sorry and everyone else would too.

Getting in the van, I back it out of my bay and park it in the parking spots reserved for customers to pick their vehicles up. Heading into the office, I drop off the keys and paperwork so they can be billed correctly before going over to grab the SUV. Theo and Creed help me push it in the bay and up on the lift. When it’s in place, I put the SUV back in park and prepare to lift it in the air. Something stops me in my tracks as I close the driver’s side door though. Bending down, I notice the front tire looks like it’s losing air. It’s not completely flat yet, but it’s lost enough air for me to realize something is going on. These are brand new tires and shouldn’t be losing any air. Hell, nothing should be wrong with it at all seeing as when we bought it, I went over it from stem to stern. It might have been a repo, but it’s a newer model, so there wasn’t much that we needed to fix.

Bending down, I inspect the tire the best I can. When I get almost to the bottom, I hear a small hiss that’s barely heard over the other sounds in the shop. Running my hand over the tire, I feel the air leaking out. I turn on the head lamp I keep around my head while I’m working and find the smallest hole in the tire. I’m not sure what punctured it at this point, but I’m guessing it’s not because one of us ran something random over in the road based on where the hole is located. This is something that was done to Brooklyn’s SUV. Shaking my head, I grab the notebook I keep in my pocket when I’m at work and jot down a note before grabbing the chalk and circling the hole in the tire.

Making my way to the end of the lift, I press the button to raise it in the air. When I have enough room to maneuver under the SUV, I let go and walk underneath to start checking out what’s been done to my girl’s vehicle. The first place I go is to the brake lines that were cut. It’s evident someone used a sharp as fuck knife to slice through the line and let the brake fluid leak out so it would cause Brooklyn to get into an accident. Or one of us if we were driving and didn’t realize anything was wrong. Yeah, Soul and I know how to slow down a vehicle that doesn’t have any brakes, but it’s a pain in the ass and would still scare Brooklyn if she were with us. Shaking my head, rage once again fills me with the thought that Bennett is so desperate to get his hands on Brooklyn that he’s willing to risk hurting or killing her. He’s a fucking moron and deserves to be put down like the asshole he is.

I let my mind wander for a minute, thinking of all the ways I want to torture and hurt him. I’ve seen the scars on my Little Warrior’s body and know she’s suffered from his touch and her parents. Her parents might not have ever laid a hand on her, but they sure as fuck knew what Bennett was doing and did absolutely nothing to protect their daughter from him. Not only that, but their neglect of her while she was growing up left her with deep emotional scars; she believes she has no self-worth at all, but lately, we’ve both noticed that she’s starting to show that she’s overcoming some of that past. They aren’t parents in my fucking book. They’re enablers for a person they believe will have their backs when it comes to money and getting their next fix when they don’t have any other way to buy drugs or alcohol. Brooklyn is better off without any of them in her life. Soul and I will provide her with a new family. People who love her and want her in their lives without using her for their own reasons. We’re all ready to show Brooklyn a new way of life where she can grow and be the woman she’s meant to be regardless of who she becomes.

Shaking my head, I clear the intrusive thoughts and start looking through the rest of Brooklyn’s SUV. Anguish and I pulled off a tracking device after she got left the note on it when she went to the grocery store. We haven’t really checked for any since that day. The two of us searched her entire vehicle and only found one of them. Someone has already placed another device and I shake my head when I find it attached to the undercarriage. This isn’t the only one, I have a feeling deep in my gut that tells me I’m right in this assumption.

“Find anythin’?” Anguish asks, walking up to me and looking at where her brake lines were cut.

“Well, you can see where her brakes were cut. This fucker knew what he was doin’ and made sure to cut all the way through so she’d lose all the brake fluid before she got out of work. I’m sure they didn’t realize Soul drove her in that night and he’d know what to do to keep them from crashin’. It would’ve been scary as fuck for Brooklyn, but she’d be safe. If she’d been on her own, she wouldn’t know what to do and would have gotten into an accident,” I tell Anguish as he makes his way over to me and I point out the tracking device I just found.

“Another one?” he questions, his voice full of incredulity because it hasn’t been that long since we found the first one.

“Yep. My gut is tellin’ me this isn’t the only one I’m gonna find on it either,” I answer him, going through the rest of the SUV as he follows me around. “There’s also a small hole in the front driver’s side tire. It’s lost enough air already that I could immediately spot it was soft. I’ve circled it with chalk so I remember where it is. These are brand new tires. Yes, I know shit happens, but this was done intentionally. Not somethin’ we ran over or a defect from the tire company.”

“Fuck. They’re really tryin’ to make sure they hurt her,” he hisses out.

After making sure nothing else is on the bottom of the SUV, I move to the back and start looking by the rear tire on the driver’s side. Nothing is there. Anguish still follows behind me and double checks to make sure we don’t miss anything. When I get to her back license plate, I find another tracking device. This one is so fucking small and if I weren’t actively searching for it, I would’ve missed it.

“Fuckin’ hell. Here’s another one,” I inform Anguish as Theo steps up next to us and looks at what I’m pointing at.

“That stupid fuck wants to make sure he’s able to track her location at all times. He’s got somethin’ planned and isn’t gonna let her get away from him. Brooklyn doesn’t fuckin’ go anywhere other than work and the compound. It’s one route she’d take so I’m not sure why exactly he wants to go for the overkill with two tracking devices this time. Unless the one in the undercarriage is meant as a distraction so we’d think that was the only one and wouldn’t look for a secondary tracker,” Anguish says, his logical side coming out as Theo looks at the passenger back tire.

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