Limitless (Journey Series) (19 page)

Caleb’s face was streaked with
tears and his arms were wrapped tightly around his little body. He stood there
silently staring down at the floor until I scooped him up in my arms, crushing
his body against mine, needing to know that he was all right. “I’m so glad
you’re okay,” I murmured into his soft curls. “Can you tell me what happened,
buddy? Do you know where Mommy is?”

He shook his head against me and
murmured into my chest, “No, we came home and Mommy told me to go into the
bedroom and lock the door. It seems like a really long time ago,” he added
quietly.

“I heard noises and yelling, but I
stayed right here like Mommy said. Is she hurt?” His brown eyes stared back at
me, but I really couldn’t answer him. “I think Shelia did something to Mommy
too. It’s all my fault for telling.”

“No, buddy, don’t say that. None of
this is your fault,” I sat him down on the bed and crouched down to his level.
“Now, I’m going to make sure Mommy is all right. I need you to stay in here
again, okay?” He nodded his head silently and tried to put on a brave face even
though I could see the fear in his eyes. He was just as brave as his mom. “I’ll
be right back, I promise.”

I locked the door behind me and
crept down the hallway. The house was silent but both Shelia and Leah’s cars
remained, so I knew they had to be here somewhere. I pushed open the garage
door when I heard a muffled sound and my heart stopped when I saw my wife lying
on the cold, concrete floor.

Her eyes were shut and her face was
so pale, it almost looked deathly, but I could just make out the slow up rise
of her chest, telling me she was still alive. There seemed to be so much blood
running down her head, into her face, that if it weren’t for the fact, I would
have instantly thought she was dead.

Shelia had her back turned to me,
hunched over Leah and apparently she hadn’t heard me come in. I felt a surge of
adrenaline rush through me when I saw what was in her hand and she pointed it
straight at Leah’s chest, trying to end the life of the woman I loved. I rushed
towards her just as her finger squeezed around the trigger, the sound of the
gunshot echoing off the walls, piercing my ears as I slammed into Shelia’s
small body.

Leah

After my phone call with Roy,
everything seemed to be a blur. I thought for sure Shelia was going to kill me
when she raised the gun and pointed it at me. But when I braced myself for it,
it never came. Instead, I felt something cool smash into my head.

The next time I came to, I could
hear Shelia’s panting breaths as she dragged my body through the house and
roughly down the steps that led into the garage. She was smaller than me; I was
sure she had to be struggling tugging my weight behind her.

 Every inch of my body was in
agonizing pain as she treated it like I was some sort of rag doll. I almost
wanted to give in and tell her just to get it over with, so I wouldn’t be in so
much pain anymore. I had no idea what she had in store and I probably didn’t
want to know what was running through that delusional mind of hers.

Once my body was situated against
the cool, concrete floor, she jabbed her pointy heel down, first into my
stomach, and then into my chest. I felt the breath woosh out of my lungs as she
kept her foot firmly planted there and I struggled to catch my breath.

“You know, things could have gone
much easier if you just would have cooperated. Now, I think you need to suffer
a little bit more for how much trouble you have given me.” Her fist connected
with my jaw, each of her glistening diamond rings digging into my sensitive
skin, causing me to flinch each time she pulled her hand back.

Now, that I was untied you would
think that I would be able to fight back. In a normal situation I could surely
kick this petite woman’s ass. Where was that surge of adrenaline people said
they felt when put in to these type of situations? Oh yeah, that probably only
happened when they hadn’t had the shit beat out of them and had control of
their limbs.

 I couldn’t move my head because of
the excruciating pain that was making me dizzy and when Shelia picked up a
stray wrench that was lying on the tool bench that Chase had yet to use, the
use of my wrist was quickly gone.

 I cringed when the pain radiated
up my arm, I felt vomit rise in my throat at the intense pain and I wasn’t sure
how much longer I was going to last. It was almost like Shelia planned to break
every bone in my body before she was done with me. 

“Is this your plan, Shelia?” I
groaned out, squeezing my eyes shut so I wasn’t seeing three Shelias through my
blurred vision. One Shelia would surely be enough to last me a lifetime. If I
even made it that far.

“Oh, don’t you worry about that,
dear. You may be a pretty thing, but you definitely don’t have the brains to
match. Do you seriously think I would tell you my plan this time?” She laughed
loudly, bending over at the waist to grasp her stomach, like I was the funniest
comedian in the world. I was glad my overwhelming pain was so hilarious to her.
I saw an opportunity when she was distracted though and I went with it. I
wasn’t going to go down with completely no fight. I just wasn’t that kind of
girl.

I kicked my foot up, hoping to make
some kind of contact with her body, thinking I could come at her with an
element of surprise. Instead, she caught my leg in mid-kick and twisted it
around at an unnatural angle. I screamed out in agony at the immense pain
radiating through my leg. This woman was truly torturous.

“And what did you think you were
going to do, huh? You can’t even lift your own head and you were going to
attack a woman with a gun? Wow, I guess you’re a lot dumber than I first
thought.” She let go of my leg and let it lifelessly flop against the hard
floor.

“Now, let’s make things a little
more interesting. You might not want to be awake for this part.” The overhead lighting
flashed off a different object in her hand and my body instantly went into
protective mode, but I wasn’t fast enough. Something cold and metal like
slammed against my head, and this time as I drifted off, I wasn’t sure if I
really would wake up ever again.

                                                                                    
**********

“Leah, baby, can you hear me? Are
you okay? Please, baby.” I inhaled sharply as the scent of Chase filled my nose
but my head was swimming, I couldn’t manage to form words to answer him back. I
could hear him, but I knew I definitely wasn’t okay.

I thought for a brief second that I
was in heaven since Chase was here, but I quickly shook that thought away.
First of all, Chase wouldn’t be there with me, he had Caleb to protect. And
second of all, I was guessing if I was in heaven, I wouldn’t still feel like I
was dying a slow death. “Caleb.” I was finally able to murmur without opening
my eyes.

 My jaw was so swollen that I could
barely move my lips but luckily Chase understood me. I felt his fingers lightly
run over my cheekbone and the sharp intake of breath as he examined my body.
“Don’t worry, just be quiet for now, baby. Caleb’s all right. You’re both safe,
I made sure of that. The police are handling the situation now. An ambulance
should be here soon, just hold tight.”

As soon as I heard Caleb was fine,
I was able to relax and shut off my mind from the worry that had been racing
through it. Caleb was okay, Chase was here to watch over him, and that was all
I needed to know before I let go.

Chase

Leah went unconscious again as soon
as I told her Caleb was okay. I think that was the only reason she fought to
respond to me. She had to be in so much pain. It looked like Shelia had been
trying to destroy her whole body. Her head had been bashed in, what looked like
repeatedly. Her left wrist was hanging limply at her side and I was no doctor,
but I could instantly tell it was broken just by looking at it.

When I had seen Shelia aiming a gun
right at Leah’s chest, I had instantly reacted, not even stopping to think. I
jumped her from behind, taking her by surprise since she hadn’t heard me come
in and somehow she landed right on top of the gun right as it went off.

Unfortunately, it didn’t kill her.
I knew that was wrong of me to think, but after everything she had put my
family through, I couldn’t help it. I heard the approaching sounds of sirens
and knew help was coming. Two police officers busted through the door, yelling
at me to put my hands in the air.

Luckily, Roy was right behind him
and explained the situation quickly. Someone looked up the information that Roy
had taken into the station about Shelia’s abuse of Caleb, and if she hadn’t been
lying there with a bullet in her shoulder they would have immediately taken her
into custody.

I quickly told Roy where Caleb was
and he rushed to get him. I knew he had to be scared and upset right now, but I
needed to be with Leah. Caleb was in capable hands when it came to Roy. I
couldn’t blame him for anything that had happened here. I knew he just wanted
what was best for Caleb and that was all that mattered.

The ambulance ride to the hospital
was intense. Leah hadn’t woken up again since she had asked me about Caleb. I
could understand why she fought through the pain with the need to know that
Caleb was all right. After all that Shelia had put our family through, I think
we finally deserved some happiness. Hopefully, Leah would pull through this
easily and we could get on with our lives.

I was pulled out of my thoughts
when I felt a small squeeze on my hand where I had it tightly wound with Leah’s
small one, and I looked down to see her eye lids slightly flicker.

“Chase,” she moaned out.

“I’m right here, baby. We’re on our
way to the hospital. You shouldn’t be feeling too much pain now.” I watched as
she winced and I knew that my words weren’t completely true. I was sure that no
amount of medicine in the world could truly cover all of the pain that she was
in right now.

I looked up at the EMT, who was
checking her vitals and he glanced over at me with a remorseful look. “We’re
giving her as much as we can right now. Once the doctor takes a look at her,
he’ll be able to figure out what plan needs to be put into place to lessen the
pain.”

I nodded in response and looked down
at Leah. I hated that she was in so much pain; she looked so fragile and
broken, pale against the stretcher. She looked like she was struggling to open
her eyes, but her body wasn’t responding. I leaned down to whisper in her ear,
smoothing back her matted hair as much as I could. “Shh, baby. Just relax, try
to go to sleep. You need rest right now.”

“I can’t…I just keep. Will you sing
to me?” I kissed her forehead, lightly laughing at the request. Of course, Leah
was asking me to sing to her in the middle of an ambulance. It was such a
random request.

 I glanced back up at the EMT, who
just shrugged his shoulders at me. “Go for it, bud. It might help, even if you
have a horrible voice. I’ll just tune you out.”

My lips curved into a small smirk
as I crouched down lower to Leah. If she was with it right now, she would be
telling this guy off for even questioning if I had a good voice. My lips moved
against her ear as I hummed a song that I had recently been working on in my
free time.

“My beautiful girl…wide eyes…sweet
lips…givin’ me one more reason to breathe…day after day…My beautiful girl,” I
hummed the rest of the chorus, not having completed the song but I could tell
it had the effect she had been looking for. Her upper lip had curved into a
smile and by the rise of her chest, I could tell she had finally drifted back
into a somewhat peaceful sleep.

The EMT gave me a small smile as
the ambulance pulled to a stop in front of the hospital and he crouched down to
open the doors. “Looks like it worked, huh? Maybe you could write a song for
me, help get my baby to sleep at night. Seems like it worked pretty good on
her.”

“Yeah, maybe, I do know a lot of
kid songs.” He patted my back after he and his partner wheeled Leah into the
emergency room. “Good luck in there, bud. She looks like she’s going to pull
through just fine. Unfortunately, she’ll be going through some pain in the
meantime.”

I thanked him before he left and
then once again focused my attention solely on my wife. I answered as many
questions as I could. I unfortunately hadn’t been there for most of what trauma
her body had been through. If I had, it certainly wouldn’t have gone as far as
it did.

The doctors quickly took over,
pointing me towards the waiting room where I did nothing but pace. I called
every single one of our family members, giving them the short version of what
happened, and within an hour almost every one of them was right there with me.

I instantly felt a little calmer
when Caleb was placed into my arms and nuzzled his small head into my chest.
Whatever happened with Leah, we would pull through this. She was one strong ass
woman and put up a fight with whatever was thrown at her in life. It was one of
the many reasons I had fallen in love with her so easily.

Leah

My eyes slowly blinked open and
instead of my husband standing over my bed, Ally’s blonde head bobbed into
focus, her blue eyes wide with excitement.

“Leah, are you awake, sweetie pie?
Blink once for yes and twice for no.” I rolled my eyes at her but couldn’t help
my lips to curve into a small smile. I could feel how swollen my jaw still was
so it didn’t go very far but Ally must have seen it because her face lit up
with a wide grin.

“If I wasn’t awake how exactly
would I have known to blink my eyes, Al?” I mumbled out, swallowing thickly at
the dryness in my throat.