Until Ashlyn
Page 72

“Dillon.” I lift my head and watch Lilly walk toward me. “Why don’t you go on home and shower, I’ll sit with her while you’re gone.”
“I’m good,” I mutter, pulling my eyes from hers when Ashlyn’s hand resting under mine tenses. Sliding my hand up her chest to her cheek, her body relaxes and I study her beautiful face, making sure she isn’t having another bad dream. For the past four days, sleep for her has been a struggle and I finally convinced her a few hours ago, after getting word that Trent was arrested, to take a sleeping pill. Thankfully, it seems to be helping.
“Honey, you need to shower and you need to eat something,” she says gently, almost pleadingly, and my jaw clenches.
“I’m not leaving her side.” I try to keep the bite out of my tone, but it can’t be helped. The woman I love is lying in the hospital, having suffered from a fractured larynx, two broken ribs, and hypothermia, after being kidnapped by a serial killer and hiding in the cold over night, wearing nothing but the T-shirt she went to bed in.
“Honey.” Lilly’s hand rests lightly on my back.
“He took her from our bed and I couldn’t do one goddamn thing to stop him.”
“He drugged you,” she reminds me quietly. “He drugged both of you.”
“I watched him take her, I watched him take her right from my arms and I couldn’t even move.” My throat burns as I think about the moment I saw him lifting her limp body from our bed. I thought it was a bad dream. I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. I could only watch him carry her out of the room while I lay there completely helpless to do anything to save her.
“Stop,” I hear whispered hoarsely, and my head flies up. “Pl—ase.” Ashlyn’s voice cracks and I reach over, grabbing her cup of water then holding the straw up to her mouth. Watching her take a few sips, I pull the cup away when she’s done and set it down.
“You’re not supposed to be talking,” I remind her gently, running my hand over the top of her head, pressing my lips to hers softly.
“Some—one h-as to stop yo-u from be—ating yourself up,” she croaks, patting my cheek. Turning my head, I kiss her palm then link our fingers together.
“She’s right you know,” Lilly says quietly, walking around to Ashlyn’s other side, taking her opposite hand. “It’s absolutely horrible what happened, but there is nothing you could have done.” Even knowing she’s right, my mind won’t allow me to accept the fact that she is. I should have left town with Ashlyn the moment the FBI approached us. I should have taken her away where she would have been safe. “You heard Agent Torres yesterday, Trent Denton knew what he was doing. He knew the alarm codes for both your houses, he knew the lay outs and your schedules. I hate to say it because he took my baby and hurt her, but it was just a matter of time before he did what he did,” Lilly says, and I watch her eyes fill with tears then watch as she struggles to breathe. “If Kim’s sister…”
“Don’t.” Ashlyn shakes her head at her mom. “Pl—ease don’t.” Tears fill her eyes, and I carefully gather her against me. The moment she got away and was finally able to find help, she told the police about who she thought was Kim still being there. When the police finally found the abandoned building where Trent had taken her, the body was missing. She didn’t know at the time, none of us knew at the time, that it was actually Kim’s identical twin sister, Kelly, who was there with her. “S…she sav…ed me,” her voice cracks as her tears wet my neck.
“I know baby,” I say, gently stroking my hand down her back, then hear her inhale sharply as she moves to hold me tighter. “You need to lay down. This isn’t good for your ribs,” I whisper, placing a kiss to her ear and she nods. Adjusting her back onto the bed I take a seat in the chair and watch as Cash comes back into the room, followed this time by Sage and Jax. I swear, every time he leaves he comes back with someone who wants to check on her for themselves, since the hospital won’t allow more than a few visitors at a time.
“H… how’s Kim?” she asks, looking at Sage as Cash comes over to kiss her cheek, and Jax waits to do the same.
“She’s okay, she wanted to come see you but…”
“It… It’s okay.” Ashlyn tears up once more and his face softens. “Tell her I lo… love her.”
“I will.” He comes around the side of the bed and bends to kiss her forehead. “I can’t stay, I need to get back to her,” he says softly, and her eyes close as she whispers,
“Take care of her.”
“Always.” He states with determination as he stands, then reaches over to pat my shoulder before saying a quiet goodbye to everyone and leaving the room.
“Did they find Kelly’s body yet?” Lilly asks Jax as he takes a seat next to me, and he shakes his head.
“They’re still searching, hopefully the police can convince him to tell them where he dumped her,” he says quietly while Ashlyn’s hand around mine tightens almost painfully. “Sorry.” He looks away, and I watch his eyes get wet. I know he’s thinking exactly what I’m thinking. I know he realizes that we could be out searching for Ashlyn’s body right now instead of sitting in a hospital room waiting for her to recover enough to go home.
“I love you all,” Ashlyn whispers, and I run my fingers down her cheek then look at her mom and dad and Jax. We may have had a rough start, but like family does, we worked through our shit and we will be stronger because of it.