Page 103 of When The Mountains Held Us

“There you are,” she says, a small, sad smile gracing those perfect lips, and then I’m clambering off of the man beneath me and wrapping her in my arms.

She links her arms around my neck as best she can with her injured wrist and buries her face in my shoulder, inhaling deeply and shuddering as she lets her tears fall. I walk on shaky legs to the couch and sit down, exhaustion rippling through me as I arrange her on my lap. Her grip doesn’t loosen, not even for a second, and I breathe in the scent of her, savoring the feel of her small frame in my arms, my mind and body finally at peace after thinking I was going to lose her forever.

“Shhh, it’s okay,” I soothe, resting my chin on the top of her head, careful not to touch the wound on the side as quiet sobs rack her body. “I’m here, baby. It’s okay. You’re okay. He can’t hurt you anymore.”

Justin stands from the couch beside me and moves to the window, peeking through the curtains as an array of red and blue flashing lights fill the space around us. I should be worried, especially with the unconscious—dead?—man lying on the floor below us, but all I can do is cling to Oakley like the lifeline she is. A part of me wants to reach out and kick the fucker once more for good measure, but the woman in my arms takes priority over any lingering feral need of the beast inside me.

She is the only one that can pull me from the darkness, so I banish the beast back to the carefully constructed cage I’ve built for it within myself.

I don’t know what’s going to happen now, if I’m about to be hauled away to prison in the back of the sheriff’s car, so I hold on to Oakley for as long as possible, knowing that this might very well be the end of the road for us. The thought chips off another piece of my heart, and I plant a kiss on the top of her head and let the faint scent of my shampoo in her hair calm my racing heart.

“I’m so sorry, baby,” I whisper into her hair, my voice breaking. Nothing I say right now is going to change the fact that I wasn’t there when she needed me the most. I might be holding her in my arms right now, but I have no way of knowing exactly what happened and the effect it could have on her. I’m not going to ask though, despite my desperation to know every last detail so I can determine for myself whether or not she’s okay. The questions claw at my throat, but I swallow them down, murmuring apologies over and over again into her hair.

Justin gives me an indecipherable look as he strides towards the front door and out into the night, probably to meet his father and give him the rundown.

Justin’s dad has seen me like this before and picked up the pieces, but I was a kid then, and this is different. Worse. I wouldn’t blame him if he slapped a set of cuffs on me and dragged me out the front door. I wouldn’t even fight him on it.

My gaze lands on the man lying on the floor, beaten to within an inch of his life. I’m not even sure he’s breathing. I hope he’s not. Maybe it makes me a terrible person, but I don’t care. At least then Oakley would be able to sleep better at night knowing that her monster is gone for good and never going to hurt her again.

I’m not sure how long we sit there wrapped up in each other, but eventually, Oakley pulls away just enough to look up at me with tired eyes. I must look like a mess, a monster, covered in her ex’s blood and my own tears, but if the sight scares her, she doesn’t let on.

“I was terrified when I woke up and you weren’t home. And then realizing what must have happened, I—” I take a long breath “—I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you.”

“I’m okay. Thanks to you.” Her soft whisper is disheveled and broken, low and rough around the edges.

“I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”

She gives a short laugh but it doesn’t reach her eyes, and I smooth my hand over her hair, stilling the movement when I graze the wound on her head and she winces.

My eyes darken when I examine the cut and the dried blood crusted around the edges of it. “I’ll kill him,” I grumble.

“You might have already.”

“Then I’ll bring him back and do it again.”

She lets out another laugh at that, a real one this time, and I can’t help but smile back at her, despite the insanity of what we’re laughing at. We’re both going to need some extensive therapy after today. But for now, I bask in the feeling of having her clutched safely to my chest, and the shake of her body as she laughs.

“Hey, man, Dad wants to talk to you guys outside,” Justin calls from the doorway, shattering our small moment of levity and bringing the weight of the situation crashing down around us once again.

I give a resigned sigh and nod my head. “Be right there.”

Oakley climbs out of my lap, and I stand, grabbing her hand as we bypass the man on the floor and make our way out the front door and into the chilly night air.

“I guess it’s a good sign that they aren’t coming in to get you?”

Two paramedics carrying a stretcher and a first aid bag rush into the apartment, and I pull her closer to me to avoid her getting smacked with the bag.

“We’ll see,” is all I say as we make our way over to where Sheriff Hadley stands with his son, his hands on his hips as he surveys the scene with a severe expression.

“Sheriff.” I greet him stiffly, but keep my arm around my girl as apprehension licks its way up my spine.

“You’ve gotten yourself into quite the situation here, haven’t you, son?” He studies me with a quizzical expression, one I’ve witnessed on Justin’s face many times when he’s trying to solve a problem. It gives me a sense of unease, and the way he calls me son does little to assuage the feeling.

“Please, Sheriff, I can explain. It wasn’t Levi or Justin’s fault.”

I’m proud of the way Oakley holds her head high and speaks with a type of authority I’m not sure I’ve heard from her yet. A gruff “please do” is all it takes for Oakley to launch into the story of what happened tonight. Justin and I listen as she recounts the night’s events, and I have to try on more than one occasion to tamp down my anger when she fills in some of the blanks. When she mentions how Travis called her his wife, I let out an audible growl that has Sheriff Hadley shooting a look my way and Oakley rubbing soothing circles on the back of my hand.

When she’s finally done speaking, a heavy silence falls over the four of us, punctuated only by the chatter of the paramedics and the squeak of the stretcher wheels as they bring her ex out of the apartment. She drops her gaze to her feet and snuggles closer into my side, clearly not wanting to see what’s left of her ex. I don’t blame her. Looking at him from here, it’s hard to believe that I was the one to do that to him. Once he’s been loaded into the back of the ambulance and it’s taken off down the road, another paramedic approaches us.