“I just found her. Hang on.” He put the phone on speaker as he came around the bed. Ophelia was lying on her side, her hands bound with an electrical cord that had been ripped from a lamp off her nightstand. A dishcloth was stuffed into her mouth, and her face was bruised and bloody. Cuts and scratches covered her bare legs.
“Sir?” the emergency operator spoke to him.
Colt knelt and pulled the sock from her mouth, then checked for a pulse. His hand was shaking, and his blood was pounding so hard that it took a few seconds for him to calm down. Her pulse was steady but not as strong as it should be.
“My neighbor . . . she’s unconscious. They bound and gagged her. They beat her bad. Please, get that ambulance here,” he pleaded. Noah limped closer, sniffing at Ophelia’s sandal-clad feet. He whimpered softly before he lay down.
“Police and an ambulance are on the way. What is the status of the two men who attacked your neighbor?”
“Unconscious. I’m former military. I subdued them.” His tone reverted to how he would have spoken to his old commanding officer.
“Stay there. Officers are approaching the residence now.” The sound of sirens grew louder. Colt remained where he was on the floor of Ophelia’s bedroom, one hand on Noah’s collar and the other on Ophelia’s wrist to keep monitoring her pulse.
“Here!” he shouted when he heard officers calling from the doorway of the house. “We’re in here!” He waited for the police to enter, the flashlights on top of their guns suddenly trained on him. He already had one hand raised. “I can’t release my dog, not until he feels safe,” Colt explained with a nod to the dog.
“Understood. What’s your name, sir?” One of the officers approached.
“Colt Henshaw. I live next door.” He slowly stood and backed away so the officer could get to Ophelia.
“Rick!” the officer shouted, looking her over. “Check to see where that ambulance is. Now.”
“On it,” the other officer shouted back.
“Can you tell me what happened?” the officer asked Colt.
Colt had just finished relaying the events when the EMTs arrived. They knelt by Ophelia and checked her over, then loaded her onto a stretcher and strapped her down.
“I need to go with them.” He started to leave, but the officer held him back with a hand.
“We need to take a statement first.”
Colt looked to the man, his hands clenching. “You can do it at the hospital. She’s my girlfriend—I’m going to follow the ambulance as soon as I can get my neighbor to take my dog to the emergency vet.”
The officer’s eyes narrowed. “Girlfriend? You said she was your neighbor.”
“She’s both.” He whistled to Noah, who heeled by his side as they followed the paramedics. While the EMTs prepared to put Ophelia inside the ambulance, Colt knelt and checked out Noah’s injury which didn’t seem that deep.
“You okay, boy?” He murmured as he gently examined the injury. Noah simply panted softly, but he didn’t seem to be in a great deal of pain. Colt hated to have to choose between taking his dog to the vet and going with Ophelia, but Noah seemed in better shape.
“Colt! What happened?” Miranda ran up to him as she spotted him and Noah. He briefly told her what happened and she agreed to take Noah to the nearby emergency vet and call him as soon as the vet looked the dog over.
“Is she going to be okay?” Colt asked the paramedics as they loaded Ophelia into the ambulance. The two paramedics flashed him pitying looks.
“She’s stable, but we won’t know for sure until we get her to the ER.” The siren started up, and Colt rushed to his truck to follow them to the hospital.
Colt had only one look at Ophelia’s bruised and battered body on the gurney, and a pain far greater than any he’d ever experienced tore at his insides like a raging beast. He could lose her, when he’d finally been brave enough to open his heart.
Ophelia came awake in bits and pieces, drifting in and out like waves on the shore, pulling her closer to the surface. When she was finally able to open her eyes, the room was dark and hospital machines beeped softly. She didn’t try to move. Something inside her knew she would hurt worse if she did. Her dry lips were cracked, and she struggled to swallow.
A figure lounged in a chair near the bed. His face was silhouetted by the moonlight coming in from the window.
“Colt . . .” Her hoarse voice sounded like she’d swallowed gravel and it hurt to speak. Colt stirred awake and glanced at her. His eyes widened.
“Ophelia.” That single utterance, so full of hope and worry, dug into her heart.
“Water?” she asked.
He got up and picked up her plastic water mug and held it to her lips. She drank a little before he set the mug down and reached up to stroke her hair, only to freeze in place.
“God, I’m afraid to touch you,” he murmured.
“What happened?” Memories of what had happened were still fuzzy and came more in flashes than clear pictures.
“Two men followed you into your house. I saw them go into the garage. When Noah and I got there, they’d already hurt you. I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I should have been there.” He looked devastated, as if he were somehow responsible. Pain created black shadows in his eyes.
“What happened to the men?”
“Arrested. Both of them. The police suspect they’re responsible for half a dozen home invasions in the area.”
She closed her eyes for a moment. “Good.”
“The hospital performed a rape kit,” he said quietly. “I had to tell them we were dating and that we had sex earlier that day. Do you remember if they hurt you that way?”
She shook her head. She only remembered trying to crawl to the phone.
“The doctor doesn’t think they did, but we weren’t sure if you remembered anything. I was positive I got to them before anything happened, but . . .”
“Colt . . .” She didn’t know what she wanted to say. She was so tired and still in pain.
“God, Ophelia, I’m so damn sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.” She started to close her eyes. “I’m tired and need to rest.”
Colt started to stand. “I’ll go, then.”
“No, please stay.”
He moved his chair closer to the bed and laced his fingers with hers. It was like a lifeline in the dark storm of her body’s pain.
“I’ll stay.”
“Thank you.”
She managed a weak smile as she drifted off to sleep. She thought—or perhaps dreamed—that he said he loved her.
5
Ophelia peered out of the window of Colt’s truck as he pulled into her driveway. After a week in the hospital she was finally home, and God, it felt good not to have to spend another night in a stiff hospital bed. Noah sat between her and Colt, his tongue lolling out as he watched his owner open the driver’s-side door. The shepherd had a bandage around his upper leg and a few minor stitches, but like Colt had hoped, the dog’s injury had been more of a glancing scrape than a serious injury. Ophelia rested one hand on the dog’s shoulders.