A cry that sounds familiar.
Milly.
I try to lift my hand to fight, but I’m not sure if I can move.
I can barely make out the man straddling me, which is no surprise.His knee is digging into the ribs I’m pretty sure he’s broken.I’m seconds away from blacking out.
Then I hear something else.
Cars.
A lot of them.
And then growling.
Sweet, trembling, growling.
My head rolls to the side, unable to fight to stay conscious.
*** *** ***
Milly
Ishould have stayedin the cupboard I hid in.But I could hear Bear.MyBear.My best friend, the one who understands me.
The sound of the doggy whimpering had me crawling out of my hiding space to go search for him.I was an Addison, and we don’t leave family behind.We aren’t scared of anything.
When I got to the room, Bear was a sleep, but I knew it wasn’t one of his normal naps.It had been Hunter who had been making all those sounds, and he sounded hurt and upset.
They were hurting Miss Liza as I crept down the main stairs.They were hurting her bad, and it only got worse.The police were coming.Jaxon was coming.They promised they would come.
Like I promised to stay hidden.
I wanted to take the dogs and hide them so they didn’t hurt them, but I couldn’t move them.And that’s when I heard the door open.I thought the police were coming, that Jaxon had arrived.But then there was a loud bang like something dropped to the floor.Then I could only hear Liza crying for her son.She said a name but my ears hurt from the sound so I had covered them with my hands.I knew I should have hidden.I should have moved under the bed when I heard noises.Hunter stopped whimpering when the bad man came into the room I was in.It was the one near the front door.Hunter didn’t make any sound, not even when the bad man dragged me out by my hair.
My eyes widen on Reid sleeping on the floor, and before I can curse the rest of his life, I see the wet, dark patch on the back of his head.I want to scream at them to leave us alone, but the words are lost in my throat.
I move my gaze to Liza, who is also sleeping, lying on the ground with her trousers down.Images flash in my head, thinking back to the night I was supposed to run.Malia demanded I run but I didn’t want to leave her.They tried to remove her clothes too, and whilst I didn’t understand it, I knew it was bad.This is bad.Really bad.
Tears fall down my cheeks as another man gives me the same slimy smile the man who hurt Malia did.I shiver as he runs his fingers down my cheek.
“My, my, my,” he purrs.
Sirens echo in the air and relief fills me.So does the menacing growl coming from the hallway behind me.The man drops me on the floor and I fall next to a knife on the kitchen floor.Hunter sprints inside, going for the man who dragged me in here.Once I see his teeth clamped around the arm, and everyone’s attention is on them, I reach for the knife.I don’t want to be scared anymore.Hunter isn’t scared.Liza wasn’t scared.I heard her fighting back.Malia hadn’t been scared either.
I turn to the man above Liza, the nice lady who makes me feel like Malia does.Like I have a mum again.Or what a mum should feel like.I never felt like this with my mum.Other things interested her more than me.
I crawl the small distance toward him, and thankfully, everyone is still paying attention to Hunter and the man he has brought to his knees.Adults like them always forget about me.Before I can chicken out, I stab the knife into the femoral artery of the man above Liza and twist.He roars out in pain, backhanding me until I fly across the floor.But it’s too late, even as he tries to apply pressure to the wound on his thigh, nothing will stop what will happen.
A door crashes nearby and then men rush in through the back, making me whimper.“Sir, we need to go now before our exit is blocked.”
“Grab them,” he orders, pointing to me and Liza.
Hunter growls, sitting on Liza now as the man who was hurting her grips his leg to stop the bleeding.The other holds his arm that is pouring with blood.
“Sir, I am not going near the dog,” he announces, moving toward the back door.
“Just grab the girl,” the man in charge yells.“Put her in our car.”
