Page 26 of Avenging Laura

Once she’d cried herself out in the shower, she got out and wrapped the big towel around her. Looking at herself in the mirror, she saw the dark circles under her eyes. She was a mess. She wasn’t sleeping. She wasn’t eating. She barely existed. No wonder Highlander volunteered lately for the assignments they went on.

She jumped when she came out of the bedroom and saw her husband sitting on the bed in his uniform, elbows on his knees, staring down at his hands. She wasn’t sure what to do since he didn’t acknowledge her as she came out of the bathroom.

She stood there for several minutes, holding onto her towel, debating if she should go put on her robe. She watched as he fiddled with his ring on his finger.

“How long have ye been getting those photos?”

“When did you get home?” Laura changed the subject.

“I asked a question, Laura. How long have ye been getting those photos?”

Laura hesitated to answer. His calmness scared her. She would have preferred it if he was visibly upset.

“Since the week I woke up from the coma,” Laura answered quietly, wrapping her arms around her middle.

“Four months, Laura. Four fucking months, ye have been getting photos of everyone sent to you. Photos of me and myteam on a mission. Photos of ye team. Photos of my parents. Ye brother. My brothers.Ourfucking children!” Highlander shouted at Laura, getting up from the bed to glare at her.

“I know!” Laura shouted back, tears streaming down her face.

“Why have ye not said anything then? Do ye not realize how much danger ye have put our children in by not saying anything? I get why ye didn’t with the others. I understand that. But our children? That is the part that I just can’t understand why ye have not said anything about. Explain that to me, Laura. Help me understand why ye have chosen not to warn me, or any one where the children were concerned,” Highlander screamed, throwing his hands in the air.

Laura couldn’t. That was just it. She couldn’t give a good reason why she didn’t say anything where the kids were concerned. The adults, yeah, she could. Just not the kids.

“I can’t.” Laura sighed as she slid down the bedroom wall with tears in her eyes. “I kept telling myself it was their way of scaring me. That if I reacted then that would be their cue to make their moves. That as long as I did nothing, said nothing, everyone was safe.”

“The ones of the kids, when did that come in?” Highlander seethed through barely clenched teeth.

“Cody was two weeks ago. The other three were last week,” Laura admitted, refusing to look at him.

“And ye just told no one?” Highlander asked, his voice rising in anger.

“A-Ash found out last week. He made sure your brothers knew and to keep an eye on your parents and themselves. He also made sure the details on the kids were aware and to monitor anyone getting close to them,” Laura admitted, looking down at her hands.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

“Is what ye captain said true? Ye were just thinking of up and running when ye got the set of photos today?” Highlander deflated as he sat back down on the bed.

“I honestly don’t know what I was going to do. Yes, a part of me was considering it. I felt that you and the kids were safer without me here. That if I just left then they would focus on finding me and leave you and the kids alone.”

“Do ye not trust me enough to protect ye or our children? Did the fact I didn’t sleep a moment until I knew ye were safe make sense to ye? Does it not sink into ye thick skull that I can’t even sleep now because I can’t hold ye without ye pulling away from me? That I’m utterly hopeless on how to help ye when ye wake up screaming in the middle of the night from the nightmares that plague ye? Am I doing that shite of a job as ye husband?” Highlander asked, looking her in the eyes, breaking her heart.

“No! I don’t know what I’m doing! I just feel like I’m putting you in more danger being here!” Laura yelled at him, trying to get him to see her point of view.

“Do ye not realize how fucking ridiculous that sounds? Ye trying to martyr yourself? That would leave us open for them to make a move to draw ye arse out into the open. They know thatthe only way to hurt ye the most would be to harm me or our children. Ye running away, like ye have in the past with this shite is exactly what they want ye to do,” Highlander yelled out at her, standing above her now.

Laura shrunk into herself. She knew he was right. She always ran thinking they were better off without her. She felt that Highlander and the kids deserved better than her.

“Hey, enough. I get it. Ye are mad at ye wife. But, brother, this isn’t the way.” Ash pulled Highlander back as he came through the bedroom door.

“I don’t know how else to get it through her head that her thought process is wrong. I thought what we’ve shared these last seven years would prove to her how much I love her and what she means to me. Now I’m wondering if my children and I are enough for her,” Highlander landed that last blow before walking out of the room.

All of the air left Laura’s lungs at Highlander’s words. Without realizing what she was doing she laid down in the floor and sobbed. Tears she thought had dried up flowed freely as she painfully cried her heart out on the bedroom floor, empty, cold, and alone.

Had she actually meant to do all that? Did David and Maria finally win? They accomplished something she promised herself she would never knowingly do. They broke her. Inside and out. Physically, mentally, and emotionally.

“Fuck!”

Even hearing Ash’s muttered words as he squatted down to pick her up and place her in the bed did nothing to her. All she could do was scream and cry for everything she’d done.

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