Page 13 of Rescued By the Guard

“It’s a beautiful name, but you’ll always be my Bella.”

She cries harder and clutches my shirt tighter as she buries her face in my chest. I stand in between her legs, and she wraps herself around me and it’s the most heart-wrenching and mostwonderful thing to experience with her. I wish it was under different circumstances.

“You’ve been fucking this guy. It hasn’t even been a full twenty-four hours. I knew you were a whore, Amelia, but fuck.”

Bella and I stiffen, her with fear and me with anger, but I continue to soothe her and stroke her back. I whisper in her ear. “Don’t listen to him, baby. Whatever he says, it’s nothing, you hear me? Nothing.”

She nods against me, but she doesn’t believe it. I can tell. She’s only wanting to placate me and I vow to make her see herself differently. And for her life to be different. I’m not letting her go.

Not now, not ever.

She is mine, and now I need to convince her of it. I’m going to start by taking care of her.

“Come on, baby. Get settled in. We’re going to the hospital and we’ll call the police when we get there.”

Her body quakes in my arms and she shakes her head. “No, no, no. That’s a bad idea. He’ll be so mad.”

“He will, but I don’t give a fuck. We need to get him out of your life, okay? I’m going to be with you the whole time. And I’m not leaving your side, ever.” I cup her cheek and gaze into her eyes, but she’s far too stressed out and worried that she’s not accepting what I’m saying, so I’m taking the reins for a while. Just until she’s back to herself and can make her own decisions.

If she chooses not to be with me in the future it will gut me, but I’ll accept it. No matter how much it kills me, protecting her and getting her away from the douchebag is the most important thing right now.

“This needs to happen, okay? Charges need to be filed against him, but I’m here for you.”

A few sniffles leave her, and a little more clarity comes into her gaze as she studies me closely. “Promise?”

“I promise. I’m not going anywhere.”

She nods and hugs me again, tucking her face into my neck and she inhales deep. “Okay.” She whispers so softly I wonder if I’m hearing things, but then she says it again. “Okay.”

I hug her tighter and kiss her neck below her ear. “Thatta girl. You’re so brave.”

8

BELLA

The minutewe arrive at the hospital, it’s like time speeds up and everything happens so fast. Due to the head trauma, they rush me in and check me over and the battery of tests begins to make sure there’s no bleeding in the brain or swelling. Memory loss is extremely important apparently, but I don’t care about any of it because as soon as Dale tells them to call the cops, he’s taken away to explain why he has a man chained up in the back seat of his truck.

My heart pounds a mile a minute and the nurses struggle to get me to bring my blood pressure to safer levels, but nobody will tell me what’s going on with Dale.

“No, you don’t understand. He saved me. Please let me see him. He should be here,” I plead with the nurses, but everything is falling on deaf ears.

“Shhh. You need to calm down, honey. Once you’re settled, the police can take your statement and then we can go from there, okay?”

“No, it’s not okay. Please, I want Dale. I need him.”

The rush of memories has me in a more vulnerable state compared to not remembering anything at all. At least then Iwasn’t afraid of my own shadow, but flashes keep flooding in and it's one horrible thing after another. It’s not only mentally taxing, but it’s physically wrecking my body with the nervous shakes, profuse sweating and the need to run.

I can’t understand why I stayed with Wayne and why I put up with his actions. Now I know what it’s like to be around a good person. I can’t fathom ever seeing myself around people who are not wonderful and kind. There’s nobody like Dale and I miss him so much, and it’s only been a few hours. Only he can settle me right now.

The years of built-up tears want to fall, but I don’t let them. It was a massive breakthrough for me in the truck with Dale to release everything I did, but I’m safe with Dale. It also didn’t help that I had my whole life flood my mind and over stimulate my senses.

My younger years were amazing, with the best, fun-loving parents a girl could ever have. I never lacked for love or wanted anything. The hardships began when my parents died, but at least then I had my nana, who was a beacon of light in my life when I suffered through my darkest days. Not knowing I only chipped the tip of the iceberg.

It wasn’t until after nana died and I was alone that everything shifted to the worse. Wayne found me and prayed on my loneliness and heartache. I’ve always been more introverted and never had a lot of friends. My grief overtook me and the few friends I had turned out to be more like acquaintances as they fell away. All I did was work and go home.

Wayne came into the work one day at the diner and then it turned into the next day, then the next. At the time I thought he cared for me, but I see now he thought of me as his prey and swooped in and I didn’t stand a chance. He said and did all the right things and got me under his thumb. Before I knew it, I was a shell of my former self.

“Miss Brown,” one detective pulls me back into his questioning as I struggle to make my statement. The memories are overwhelming, and trying to sort everything out in proper order is nearly impossible, so I get frustrated with myself and shut down as I’m too tired to fight and wish for Dale to be here with me. However, they won’t let him in until I finish my statement. They need to line up our stories first before they want us talking to each other.

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