Page 6 of Tethered

“Can I help you?” Riggs asks Dawn, offering her the crook of his arm.

She looks at me, almost as if asking for permission. I nod and watch as she slips a shaky arm through his. Riggs walks her inside, leaving Hannah and me to follow. He leads her into the sitting room before helping her to sit.

“Hey, Hannah. Want to come to the kitchen and help me get you and your mom a drink and some snacks?”

Hannah looks at Riggs, biting her lip, unsure.

“Do you know why Riggs lives here with me?”

Hannah looks at me and shakes her head.

“When I first came back here, I was scared. Riggs keeps me safe, and he takes his job very seriously. But it’s not just me. He protects everyone in this house. Now you’re here, he’ll protect you too.”

“And my mommy?” Her voice comes out barely above a whisper.

“Absolutely.”

She looks back at Riggs before wriggling to get down. I let her go and watch as she walks over to Riggs and slips her small hand into his much larger one.

He swallows before looking at me and then Dawn. “We won’t be long.”

“Thank you,” Dawn says softly.

I wait for them to leave before I turn back to Dawn. “Are you hurt anywhere other than what I can see?” I know her ribs hurt, but I’m wondering if there is something else.

Tears fill her eyes, but she looks away. “I’m okay.”

I walk over and crouch in front of her. “I can help. You just have to trust me. I know that’s hard, but you have to start with someone. Let that someone be me.”

Her eyes slip closed as she silently starts crying. My heart breaks for this woman. It was hard enough for me to deal with,but I couldn’t imagine trying to survive that kind of life with a child in danger, too.

“He’ll kill me. I don’t know when or how, but I know it will be at his hands. And then what will happen to Hannah?”

I reach up and wipe the stream of tears from her face. “The most dangerous time for a woman in a violent relationship is when she leaves,” I tell her, a statistic I’m sure she’s already familiar with. “But then most women don’t have a ranch with a top-of-the-range security system to hide out at. They don’t have Riggs, who was born to protect and spent years serving his country doing just that. They also don’t have me. I have more money than anyone in this town and a lawyer who would love nothing more than to tear this motherfucker apart with her teeth.”

Her lip wobbles as she looks into my eyes, reading the truth of my words.

“So, I’m gonna ask you again, are you hurt anywhere else?” I ask softly.

She nods, but when she doesn’t offer any more information, the darkness swirls inside me again, and a picture forms in my head. The house must pick up on my mood because it groans ominously.

“Let’s get you upstairs and cleaned up. I have clothes you can borrow.”

“Okay.”

I take her hand and help her to her feet. I don’t let her go, worried she’ll turn and flee at any moment. Instead, I lead her upstairs to my bedroom and walk her right into the bathroom. I turn on the shower and gather every girly product I can find and make sure it’s in reach for her. She watches me with a brittle, detached stare as I collect a couple of large soft towels and a smaller one for her hair.

Once I have everything, I turn to her and take a deep, steadying breath. “Do you need help undressing?”

She shakes her head, but she doesn’t move, and a part of me gets it. It’s taking all of her energy just to stand upright.

“I’m gonna help you anyway, okay? If at any point you want me to stop, you tell me.”

“Okay,” she chokes out as I carefully start to undress her.

By the time I have her bra and T-shirt removed, I’m fighting back tears of my own at the vivid bruising that covers her torso and the savage bite mark at the top of her breast. Feeling her tremble, I don’t linger. I hook my fingers into the waistband of her sweatpants and glide them down her legs. I crouch to help her step out, which is when I see the smears of blood between her thighs. I swallow the urge to scream that she’s now a member of the club no woman ever wants to be indoctrinated into.

I get to my feet and focus on her face. “Do you want to leave your underwear on or do you want me to take them off?”