“How is she doing?” I look up, surprised to see Blade walk in and head for the coffee.
"Figured you'd be sound asleep."
“I slept a few hours after tossing and turning but finally gave up, and here I am.”
"Roadblock was in my room with his sleeping bag and refused to leave her side after I got out of the shower. He offered to let me sleep while he took first shift watching her. I woke four hours later to find him sleeping next to her, holding her hand.”
Blade spins around so fast he spills some coffee. “Mother fucker! That was hot.” I let out a chuckle. After he cleans up his spill, he pours more coffee and sits down across from me.
“He was holding her hand?” he asks with his eyebrows raised practically up to his hairline.
“Yup. Never seen anything like that out of him. Shocked the shit out of me.”
"Wow, I gotta say it actually gives me some relief to know he has a heart," he says, slowly shaking his head.
"No shit. She somehow got under his armor."
"Pretty sure she got under all of ours. Gotta say, I feel this insane need to protect her, too. I can’t shake it, man. I mean, we came across battered, raped women many times on our tours and missions, and even though it always broke my heart, I never felt…. drawn like this before,” he says.
“I know what you mean. I felt it, too, as I was carrying her down that road. I can’t explain it, either,” I reply and shake my head.
“Couldn’t sleep either?” Blade asks Checkmate as he walks in.
“Nope, my brain wouldn’t shut off, was on repeat of the fucked up things she went through. Then, it would switch to different ways that might satisfy my need for vengeance then ways to protect her from any more assholes out there," he says and shakes his head.
“Sounds about right. Me and Blade here were just discussing our strange need to protect her as well,” I say and take a drink of my coffee.
“Little strange for us all, considering how much we’ve seen. Wonder why this one is so different that she got under our skin,” Checkmate says, sitting with his coffee.
"Her fever is down. She feels cooler, and her pulse is stronger. The drugs must be working," I mention.
“Good. So it looks like she’s no longer knocking on heaven’s door. Now what’s the plan?”
"Plan hasn't changed. Keep her here, and get her to the point she can talk. See if she can point us toward who did this, and then we decide if it's safe to take her to a hospital. I was searching Missing Persons but didn't find any locals at all. Not surprising, given how tiny these towns are. There were some smaller kids closer to the big cities but certainly way too young to be her."
They both nod.
“Any idea what the brand was or what it means?”
"Not sure. It's still pretty inflamed. Hard to read it. Not sure if it was done just to be cruel or if it was meant as ownership for some sex slave trader, but I've never heard of any of that around here."
"We need to figure out if anyone suspicious lives in a five to ten mile radius of where she was found. And we need to find out if she was dumped there or if she ran there and was left to die there,” Blade says.
"I can get on that right away, but we know there are hunting cabins littered all through these parts. Even if we decide to investigate before getting answers from her, where do we start?" He asks
“First, just in case she got to her location on foot which, given the scratches from branches, is most likely the case, let’s check within a closer radius, under a mile, and see what we find. Either way, she was already in too bad of shape of have run real far in an attempt to escape.”
"Okay, I'm on it. I'll let you know what I find," Checkmate says and gets up with his coffee to go to his computer den.
Me and blade both about jump out of our skins when we hear a blood-curdling scream from my bedroom that has us both looking at each other for a second before we run for my room.
I make it through the door first and find her holding the sheet tight against her and cowering close to the edge of the bed while Roadblock is standing against the opposite wall with his hands up in a gesture of surrender. He's talking softly to her, letting her know she's safe and that no one will hurt her.
I step very slowly through the door and put my hands up in the same way, drawing her attention, which has her head whipping back and forth between Roadblock and me.
"Shh, it's okay, sweetheart. You’re safe. We're ex-military. We rescue people. We don't hurt them. We found you with two giant grizzlies fighting over you while we were hunting for a bear. We wanted to take you to the hospital, but you woke up just enough to beg us not to do that. You told us ’they’ would find you, so we brought you here and tried to patch you up,” I say quietly.
Her eyes are wild and filled with pure terror, and she is cowering and shaking violently.
"This here is Roadblock, and this is Blade, and I’m Hom... Hunter,” I tell her, pointing to each of us.
“What’s your name, Butterfly?" Roadblock asks in the softest voice I've ever heard him use. And… Butterfly? Who the fuck is this guy?
She just stares at us, not speaking.
“I'm gonna walk over and turn the lamp on so it's not dark in here, okay? I promise no one will harm you. You’re safe here." I slowly move along the wall and turn the light on, and she inches to the middle of the bed.
“There now, that’s better, right? You can see us now. Just try not to rip the IV out, okay? You need fluids.”
It isn’t until I mention it that she looks at her hand and notices the IV in it. Then, her eyes raise up to the bag hung next to the bed from the coat rack.
“He's a medic. He's trained to heal people in combat. He's only trying to help you, Butterfly," Roadblock says.
“We didn’t remove your clothes because you... didn’t have any when we found you. I’m sorry. I should have thought to put one of my shirts on you. Would you like one?” I ask.
After a few more looks between Roadblock, me, and Blade, she gives the smallest of nods.
I make my way over to my dresser and grab a pair of clean boxers and a t-shirt and hand them to her.
“We’re gonna turn around, and you can slip the boxers on, but you might need help getting the shirt over the IV bag. I can help.”
We wait for her to say something, and finally, she says in a hoarse voice, “Okay.”
I turn around and give her a reassuring smile before I unhook the IV bag from the coat rack, feed it through the sleeve so she can put her arm through, and then hang it back up.
"Do you mind if I sit?”
She nods, and I slowly sit on the edge of the bed as both my brothers back up a few steps to help her feel less threatened.
"Would you like bottled water or some juice?"
“Water,” she chokes out in a voice that sounds like it’s almost gone from screaming as well as from being dry.
I look to Blade, and he nods and walks out of the room, returning seconds later with a cold-water bottle he opens in front of her. He hands it to me, and I cautiously reach out to hand it to her. She grabs it and chugs it down. We all back up to give her some room. "Bathroom is in there if you need it," I say with my hand stretched toward the door.