Page 78 of Lorna's Savior
“We don’t know, we don’t think so, but they’ll have to do a rape kit when they examine her. She’s in and out of consciousness. Patch said it’s because off the blood loss. The fucker had her trussed up, hanging by her wrists in chains. And there were three other women there as well.” Andy paced in a tight circle, then after several minutes, he drew in several deep breaths, and looked at Ronnie. He quickly bent over to grip his knees, trying to catch his breath at the enormity of what had happened to the woman he loved. When he lifted his head, he had tears in his eyes.
“I love her so much. I want to trade places with her. Take her pain away.” Ronnie wrapped her arms around him, and Marvin placed his hand on the younger man’s back.
“Son, we’ll fix this, no matter what it takes, we’ll fix this.” That was how Finn found them.
Brian took Andy’s shoulders and brought him around to face him. When he had Andy’s attention, he said firmly, “You got this. We’re here for you.” He paused then took Andy’s chin in his fingers and lifted it. He looked him directly in the eye, when he asked, “Do you want me to call your family?”
“I’ll probably regret it, but please.”
“Consider it done.” Brian passed Andy off to Grover and Lucky. Together they all went into the hospital with Marvin. After pulling his phone out, he held his hand out to Finn and shook it. “Thank you for your help.” Then, he walked away and dialed.
“How bad?” Ronnie asked after several minutes of her and Finn standing there in silence. She felt ten feet tall when he wrapped his arms around her and used her for support.
“Bad. He cut her, Veronica.”
“That’s what Andy said. But how bad?”
Finn used his finger and drew a feather light line down the middle of Ronnie’s cheek. “From the corner of her eye, down to the corner of her mouth. On both sides. Then from the back of her hand down to her elbow. Again on both sides. There was blood all over her blouse in the region of her stomach, but we didn’t open it to see how bad it was. They might have in the ambulance, but I didn’t know if the blood came from more cuts, or from the others. The fucker had her trussed up, and she was covered in blood.”
“We’ll get through this.” Ronnie hugged him. “We’ll have to be there for Andy, as well as Lorna. Did you really get the guy?”
“Yeah, we let the Special Ops guys take him down, we were their backup. Let them get the collar. I felt myself a little rusty for a few seconds at the beginning.” He sighed and hugged her tighter. “It made me realize that I’m glad I don’t do that shit for a living anymore.” He was silent for several moments, soaking up his woman’s strength. “Kristen?”
“Arrested by the FBI, but they’re going to have to bring her here.” Ronnie giggled. “I know it’s not a laughing matter, but I broke her face.” They looked up as a car pulled in behind the ambulances. “That’s her.” Ronnie buried her head in Finn’s chest and hid her giggles when she felt Finn’s intake of breath.
“Damn.”
“Yeah, she’s not pretty anymore. Not that she was, but now she’s a twisted joker.”
“Please tell me you got pictures so you can show Lorna after she’s recovered.”
“I did.” They shared a laugh. Waited several minutes after the FBI led Kristen inside, and then instead of going in, they walked across the street and grabbed coffee for everyone. When they returned, it was to pass out the coffee, sit in the waiting room, and give statements to the FBI. It was a long, long night. It turned out that Brian and his buddies were called back to their base after giving their statements to the FBI. Finn took them back to Andy’s apartment, so they could gather their belongings. Finn locked up after them, and waved them off, before heading back to the hospital.
Chapter 31
Andy sat in the chair in a hospital room and stared at the empty bed. He had no idea what he was supposed to do when they had taken Lorna down for yet another surgery. It had been two days since she’d arrived at the hospital, and this was the fourth surgery to repair the cuts that fucker had given her. Not only had he cut both her cheeks, and arms, but he’d cut her stomach several times, as well as her thighs. But not just the outside of them, but the insides, as well as her buttocks. The only saving grave for Andy was that she hadn’t been raped. One of the FBI agents had come to talk to him and said that Rio had admitted that Kristen, Lorna’s mother, had told him to cut the fat off her daughter’s body. Rio had taken her literally. Shaking his head, he jumped to his feet and actually remade the bed, tidied up the area, then sat back down. He looked up when he heard something, and jumped to his feet.
“Mom, Dad,” he said, and hugged them. As soon as his mother’s arms closed around him, he burst into tears.
“Christ, why can’t I stop crying? This is the second time in two days.”
“Because, the body can take only so much, Son,” Levi said. “It’s its own way of allowing you to cope. Can you tell us what happened? The only thing Brian said was that we needed to be here for you. Your brothers and sisters will be rolling in later today, or early tomorrow. They had to get people to cover for them. What happened?”
“My girlfriend was abducted, held hostage, and sliced all to hell. She’s in her fourth surgery as we speak. They’re trying to sew up all the places that fucker cut her.”
“Holy,” Sunshine couldn’t finish the statement. She wrapped Andy to her and held on tight. That was how Ronnie found them.
“Hello?”
Andy broke away from his mother, and smiled at the newcomer. “Ronnie, please, come in. These are my parents, Sunshine and Levi Ball. Mom, Dad, this is Lorna’s best friend, Ronnie Parker.” They shook hands, and when Ronnie asked where they came from, they began talking about their business. At one point, Ronnie frowned, and studied Andy with a peculiar expression on her face.
“What?”
“Pure Sunshine? Isn’t that the products that Lorna uses?”
“Yes, why?”
“Which ones?” Sunshine asked in excitement. When Ronnie told her, and Andy named some other things, she grinned. “I’m not saying this as gospel, but those products have vitamin E and coconut oil in them. It’s to cut down on scars, and improves the elasticity of the skin.” They looked up when a doctor walked in, ahead of the gurney that held Lorna. She was still asleep.
