Redeemed (2 page)

He returned to his task, ignoring her once again. The reprieve was welcome.

Ashley lowered her eyelids to small slits and watched him rummage around the room. She hated to completely let her guard down while he was in the house out of fear. But the drugs were making their way deeper into her bloodstream and soon she would lose the fight.

Damon dropped something, the crash dragging her back to the surface of lucidity. Whatever it was, he picked it up and flung it across the room in her direction. She couldn’t move a muscle to get out of the way. It was large and heavy and it was about to hit her in the face...

A
shley screamed. She screamed so loud she shook herself out of a deep sleep and sat upright in bed. The thick layer of covers weighing her body down were too heavy and claustrophobic and she kicked at them to remove the pressure from her legs as she continued to scream. “No. Get off me!”

The door to her room slammed open and she jerked her gaze to the entrance, fully expecting to see Damon standing there, a syringe in his hand.

Instead she found her mother running across the room, tugging on a robe. “Ashley,” her voice was firm and loud. “You’re okay. You’re home. You’re safe. No one is going to hurt you.” She plopped onto the mattress beside her daughter and set a hand on Ashley’s shoulder before Ashley could recover her wits and absorb her surroundings.

Eyes wide, she glanced around her childhood room, exactly as she’d left it four and a half years ago when she’d been kidnapped and dragged across the country by Damon Parkfield.

It was a dream from years ago. She was home. She’d been home for six months now.

She heaved for oxygen as her mind wrapped around her new reality. Yes, she was home. Indeed, she was not in that dank basement or any of the other places he’d kept her over the years. But she was far from safe… No, that bastard would never let her go. Until he was dead and buried, she would never be safe again…

•●•

Damon sat bolt upright in bed and glanced around the darkness at the hovel he’d called home for only three weeks this time. What had woken him?

A piercing ring yanked his gaze to the bedside table. His phone.
Fuck
.

Phone calls in the middle of the night were never good news. They usually meant it was time to move again.

He grabbed the device and pushed the talk button before it could make that God-awful shrill again. “What?”

“Time to move. Get your shit together and be out of there before sunrise. I’ll call back with directions when I have them. Get on the next bus to wherever and we’ll go from there.”

“Seriously?” He pushed the sheets away from him and stood, running a hand through his hair. “Again? I haven’t fucking unpacked yet from the last move.”
Why bother?

A few moments of silence passed before the caller continued in his deep serious voice. “You want to get caught?”

Damon didn’t reply.

“Listen, you know we’re sorry you got such a bum deal here. And we’re doing everything in our power to fix the situation, but you have to be more cooperative. Without us, you have nothing. Who the hell is bankrolling your ass? Do you hear me? You are one lucky bastard that we don’t hang you out to dry and wipe our hands of you.” His voice rose with each syllable. “Now, if you want to keep living as a free man, you’ll get your ass out of bed and do as I say.”

A click sounded and Damon flinched. He tossed the fucking cell on the bed and paced the room. The asshole was right. Whoever he was and the goddamn people he worked with who referred to themselves as the Romulus, when they said run, Damon said how fucking far this time? He had no choice. He couldn’t prove anything. People were looking for him. He didn’t know who they were, but if they found him it couldn’t end well.

He had no idea who was behind this…thing. And he wouldn’t be able to prove a word of his ridiculous story if he was hauled in for questioning. Who would believe him?

He was an idiot. He never should have agreed to this fucking farce in the first place. He’d been fine living alone. Why he’d ever succumbed to the temptation of taking on a woman he would never know. But when these fuckers came to him years ago, promising him a mate, descendants, hope to start his own pack—well, he’d caved and taken the bait.

Now he could kick himself every single day. He had no idea who had caused this clusterfuck, but he was stuck now.

If he gave up, there was no telling what fate awaited him. Whoever was following him so diligently from place to place was determined. They could be from The Head Council. Or maybe someone Ashley’s family hired to find him after she’d escaped. Or, hell, as far as he knew, the very bastards who’d set up this disaster could be the ones driving him mad with their antics. Maybe no one was chasing him at all.

Whatever the case, he needed to move and move fast. He had no one to trust except the mysterious callers. To do otherwise could be detrimental.

He took a deep breath and began gathering his shit, what little there was. He hadn’t been kidding. Most was still in the duffle he carried from place to place.

All he could do was hope these people weren’t jerking his chain and were true to their word. So far they’d done nothing but fuck with his life. They had better come through with a new mate and a permanent home and fast…

“Ashley, how have you been feeling?” Dr. Parman’s soft voice shook Ashley from her reverie.

She’d been staring out the window of the tenth floor office in a daze. She turned her gaze toward the sweet, middle-aged brunette woman who sat across from her in the plush burgundy armchair. “Okay, I guess.”

“More nightmares?”

“Yes.” She glanced at her lap and tucked her legs under her a little tighter. “But they’re spreading out. Only about once a week now.”

“It’s normal, you know. It’s called posttraumatic stress disorder. It’s common for soldiers returning from war or anyone who undergoes a trauma such as yours.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’ve read all the research.” Ashley fiddled with her fingers in her lap, popping her knuckles at every joint imaginable.

“I wish you’d reconsider joining a rape survivor support group. I think it would help you to share with others who have lived through similar circumstances.”

Ashley shook her head. “No one has a story like mine. And besides I don’t want to rehash this over and over. I want to move on.” She attempted a grin.

Whatever the drug was Damon had given her for four years, it had left her discombobulated on many occasions. The bastard was such a coward he preferred to fuck Ashley while she couldn’t fight back.

“It’s true that I can’t say I’ve met anyone who has undergone the level of abuse you have, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t people out there who could empathize with you.”

Ashley said nothing.

Dr. Parman changed the subject. “Have you gotten out of the house?”

“No.” And there was no fucking way she was going anywhere until Damon was found and arrested. Fear held her captive. A very real fear that couldn’t be denied, not even by Dr. Parman. If Damon was lurking anywhere nearby waiting for her to leave the house alone, he was going to have to wait until hell froze over.

“You can’t live your life in limbo, Ashley. Eventually you are going to have to face the fact he may never be found and go on with your life.”

No, I don’t
. As far as Ashley was concerned, she’d been living in a sort of suspended animation for six months, ever since her brother and his mates had barged into her apartment and rescued her from the hell she’d been living for so many years she no longer really remembered her life before Damon.

Dazed and confused from the strange cocktail she’d received via syringe, she’d barely understood the implication of her rescue. An analysis of her blood had shown she’d received a strange blend of Rohypnol no one was familiar with. Even though the blood samples had been studied by doctors in the shifter world, none of them had ever seen a concoction quite like it before.

Whatever it was, it left her tired and disoriented for several days after an injection and then malleable for weeks. As she’d begun to comprehend the effects of the drug, she’d played along with the game, faking fealty to Damon to avoid the next injection and actually managing to postpone each dose until they’d grown farther and farther apart.

Dr. Parman continued when Ashley didn’t respond. “Is your brother still asking you to come to his house for dinner?”

“Yes.” He’d nagged her for months. But she wasn’t ready to venture out at night. Most days she remained in the house with her mother while her father worked. She managed to come to the appointments with her psychologist, but that was about it. No trips to the store and no nights out on the town.

The less exposure she had, the less often she hyperventilated. The only reason she’d agreed to visit the psychologist was because her family had found one who was a member of the wolf-shifter community.

“Perhaps if he picked you up and returned you home, you’d be able to take that step?”

“I’ll think about it.” She bit her lip and stared at Dr. Parman. She knew she was a tough case, not easily cracked. The evidence of her difficulty sometimes presented itself in the corners of her doctor’s eyes. But the woman never gave up.

“Have you shifted since you’ve been home?”

“No.” Ashley shook her head. She hadn’t shifted in several years in fact. She was beginning to worry if she even could.

Dr. Parman leaned forward and set her elbows on her knees. “I’m sure your brother and his mates would be willing to take you someplace secure and assist you with the transition.”

“I’m not ready,” she deadpanned.
I may never be ready
.

“Let’s talk about the dreams. Has anything changed?”

Ashley took a deep breath and began to describe last night’s episode of “Who wants to make Ashley crazy while she sleeps?”

•●•

Josh reached out in the dark of night and wrapped his arms around his mate. Samantha snuggled in closer, her warm breath wafting across his chest as she buried her face against him. Nathan slept soundly on the other side of her, oblivious to the turmoil disrupting Josh’s sleep. In fact, Josh smiled as a soft snore filled the silence from Nathan’s side of the bed. At least one of them could rest easy.

Josh hadn’t rested well in years, not since his sister had disappeared from The Gathering and called home the next day from the road claiming she’d run off with her mate. Josh hadn’t attended that Gathering, or any other for many years. Not since he’d been a child. But his family had been there. Whatever Ashley had said to his parents that fateful Sunday morning from the road had been convincing.

It wasn’t altogether unusual for wolves to mate and run off together. They didn’t often leave without saying goodbye, but wolves in the midst of a claiming could be incredibly selfish and single minded. It wasn’t impossible to conceive.

Josh grinned. He’d been in that exact scenario six months ago when he’d met Samantha and then Nathan the weekend he’d finally located Ashley and rescued her from hell with the help of his PI, and now good friend, Evan.

Thank God for Evan. The man had worked tirelessly night and day to find Ashley and he’d come through after months of searching. Josh knew without a doubt he’d been undercharged for the job, but Evan had insisted finding Ashley and helping in her escape had been so gratifying they were even.

Josh and Evan had grown close over the course of months of working together. Unfortunately Evan had been knee deep in work ever since the rescue and barely had time for more than a chat on the phone. But Josh was bound and determined to lure the man over with the promise of good food as soon as possible. If he was lucky, perhaps he could get Ashley out of the house at the same time and introduce her to the man who’d essentially saved her life.

“You’re thinking so hard, I can’t sleep.” Samantha’s sweet voice was deep and hoarse from slumber.

He kissed the top of her head and then tipped her chin up to look into her eyes. It was darker than usual in the room, the moon absent, but his wolf senses didn’t keep him from seeing Samantha’s clear blue eyes and the smile that spread across her face. “Sorry,” he whispered, not wanting to wake Nathan. “Didn’t mean to wake you.”