“I know. I just need a minute,” I tell her. “Don’t fucking scare me like that ever again,” I whisper near her ear. She wraps her arms around my neck and holds onto me tightly.
“I’m sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault, and I’ll handle the driver,” I tell her.
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t worry about it. Let’s get you home,” I say as I finally let her down. She slips her hand into mine, and as we walk out, I tell the Doctor that she’s leaving. He doesn’t argue or say anything, just passes me a prescription for her. I stuff it in my pocket and lead her down the hall to where Wyatt and Megan wait.
“We’re taking them home,” I tell Wyatt. He nods and ushers Megan out as we follow them. Once I have her situated in the car, I take off toward her house. Megan and Wyatt talk amongst themselves in the backseat until we get there.
I climb out and walk around to open Caydence’s door and help her out.
“You can go. I’ll be fine. Thanks for coming, though,” she says as Megan moves to unlock the door.
“You were in an accident,” I state.
“No shit.”
“And you think I would leave you alone after?” I ask her. She looks up at me strangely, but it all makes sense. She always looks at me like that because she’s never had anything like this in her life. Anyone like me.
“I figured you were busy.”
“I’m not going anywhere, baby. Let’s go inside.” She nods her head, and I help her inside and up to her room. I send Wyatt for her pain meds while I help her into bed.
“I’m glad nothing was broken,” she sighs.
“Me too. But things have been broken in the past,” I remind her. She looks up at me quickly, her lips parting.
“How do you know that?”
“Caydence, there’s a lot you don’t know about me that you’ll learn in time. One thing you should know is that I always find out what I want to know, and when it comes to you, I want to know everything.”
“It was a long time ago.”
“Tell me.”
“You should already know,” she laughs. I nod my head.
“I do know, but I want you to tell me.” She looks almost afraid that I know these things, and maybe she should be.
“I was in foster care when I was a kid. I went to stay with this one family when I was fourteen. I was there until I was seventeen when I ran away.”
“He hurt you.” Already knowing what he did and already plotting his demise.
“Yeah. He … he molested and beat me.” Fuck! How didn’t I know she was molested? Anger rises like a tide inside me, and I’m having a really hard time tamping it back down. My hands are clenched at my sides, and I can feel my jaw as it ticks. My teeth are clenched together so hard I may break a fucking tooth.
“What?”
“He was abusive. I didn’t know what to do, so when I was seventeen, I ran away. I met a guy then, and it was the same. He was heavily into drugs and would hurt me.”
“And the last one?” She looks over at me with tears in her eyes, wondering how the fuck I know all of this.
“He … he broke my fingers. He saw me shake hands with another guy, and he said I was cheating on him. So he broke my fingers,” she whispers as the tears roll down her face. I hate this for her, but I have plans for them. Plans she doesn’t need to know about right now.
I move closer, taking her face gently in my hands so as not to hurt her.
“Never again, baby. No one is ever going to hurt you again.”
“I just …”
“Shh. You don’t need to say anything else. No one is going to hurt you again, I promise.” She nods her head as more tears fall down her face. Just like I intended to do, I lean down and run my tongue along her cheek, clearing all her tears.
