Foster Siblings 3: Brokedown Hearts (42 page)

Blessedly, a little while ago, David had briefly found a spot with a phone signal and had attempted to send Brittany a text message. Before he could finish typing, the motorbike had sped close by his hiding spot, so David had blindly sent what he’d written, hoping it was enough. But now, as his legs trembled, too weak and unsteady to allow him to get up, he feared the message had transmitted too late to save him.

In sending that message to Brittany, David had hoped to keep Ben from worrying about something he couldn’t fix from halfway around the world. With Ben’s fears and concerns about Mikael, David hadn’t wanted to put another burden on his shoulders. Now David wished he’d taken those precious seconds left on his phone to send Ben a good-bye text, to assure the man he was loved and to thank him for the wonderful time they’d spent together.

Thank you for seeing the real me, Ben
. Tears slid down David’s cheeks onto the dirt, and as snot clogged his nose, he let his heart send the message his phone no longer could.
Thank you for loving me and giving me the best time of my life. Thank you for showing me your soul and helping me see the truth in mine. Take care of Elsa for me. Let her and Mika help you heal.

Before, when David had confessed to thinking he was falling in love with Ben, way back during the first time Ben had pushed him sexually, those feelings had truthfully only been growing attraction and infatuation. This pain crushing David’s heart now, this fear inside for how Ben would handle finding out what had happened to David—this, David now understood, was what true love felt like. Spending all that time together, each of them confessing to secrets and fears, both of them opening up about some of their wishes for the future, and even the battles, which David now embraced because they’d led to something better between him and Ben—all those moments added together equaled real love. Now David realized that anything he’d felt before and called love had been a misunderstanding of the word on his part. This didn’t have anything to do with worry or sadness for himself, but rather everything to do with praying with his last breath that God would listen and help Ben be okay.

You gave me that too
. David pressed a kiss to his dirty hand and sent it out into the universe, hoping Ben would feel it touch his cheek.
You opened me up, opened my world and my eyes, and helped me learn how to love. Thank you for everything, Ben.

With that, David went limp, exhaled softly, sank into the earth, and let his muscles give up the fight.

Just as David relaxed, just as the screams of pain in his body went silent, just as he welcomed the thought of a true heaven back into his life, the hum of an engine ripped through the night like a siren’s song.
That’s not a motorbike engine
. Spiked with a second life, David pushed onto his hands and knees, and this time the pain piercing through him fueled the fire sparking anew in his core.

Fast on the heels of the first engine filling the darkness, another, and then the distinct sound of a third cut through the air, and each grew louder with every second that passed.
Cops
. Elation swept through David, and he choked on a gut-wrenching cry.
It has to be them. Brittany got the message.

Flooded with a rush of fresh energy, David shot to his feet, shifted into a sprint, and ran in the direction from which he thought the cars came. Disoriented, David hopped over fallen trees and sidestepped branches swinging wildly in the wind, all the while praying his ears and the endless mass of forest weren’t tricking him and sending him in the wrong direction.

With each thump his socked, damaged feet made with the earth, David sucked in air and kicked his legs in a run faster than any he’d done in his life. Hope of rescue lit dynamite under his feet and kept him moving. Suddenly he could clearly see a break in the trees fifty feet ahead, and impending victory sent him soaring.

“Yes.” Wheezing, David found another gear and ran even faster. He remembered this break from before; just beyond lay the patch of trampled road. The police had to be on it. “Please.”

The heavy drone of car engines became almost deafening, and David knew he would reach the road at the same time the cops would drive past toward the cabin.
I’m free.

A final surge of adrenaline pumped through David’s veins, but just as he launched himself over a pile of dead branches and leaves, an arm clotheslined him from the left, ripped a sharp cry out of him, and sent him flying into the side of a tree. David crashed into the base of the pine, onto his wrist, and the knife slipped from his hand.

In an instant Dr. Fariday jumped onto David from behind and wrestled him into a choke hold. To David’s right, the motorbike whipped across the ground and crashed into another tree, where the wheels spun in the air.

“Son of a bitch,” the doctor uttered. On David’s back like a clamp, Dr. Fariday slammed David facedown into the ground and then smashed his hand over David’s mouth and nose. “You’re starting to be a lot more trouble than you’re worth.”

So focused on the cars and finding the road, David hadn’t heard the doctor zooming up behind him.
Doesn’t matter now
. With rescue so close by, David bucked like a bronco under the doctor, clamped his teeth around the fleshiest part of the man’s palm, and bit down hard. Dr. Fariday howled, and David screamed like a banshee and bolted to his feet. Before David could get two steps, Dr. Fariday grabbed his ankle and yanked him like a bag of bricks back down to the ground.

David collided with the ground with a bone-rattling thud, but without giving himself a chance to shake off dizziness, he rolled to his side and tried to get to his feet again. At the same time, the doctor shoved David onto his back, crawled on top of him, and smothered his scream once more.

“Keep fighting me,” Dr. Fariday warned, “and I’ll punish you by killing your cat.”

Oh God, no
. His heart seizing, David froze.

Through the doctor’s dirty glasses, his gaze snapped with knowledge and menace. “Yeah, you didn’t know I had little Elsa, did you? For all I’ve taught you, your lack of insight surprises me, David. You told me all about your rescue kitten. Why wouldn’t I take her?”

Oh sweet Jesus. If he tortured her because of me
… David’s eyes swam with tears, and he mumbled around the doctor’s hand, “Please tell me you haven’t hurt her.”

Dr. Fariday’s rounded features softened, and he smiled gently as he brushed David’s cheek. “Of course I haven’t.” The man’s touch surged bile into David’s throat, but David swallowed the bitterness down and didn’t tremble.

Caressing David’s face like a lover would, Dr. Fariday said, “Elsa was to be a reward for your progress in retraining. And she still can be.” Putting a fast, punishing grip on David’s arms, the doctor dragged David to his feet. “Get on the bike, listen to me the way you should, and I’ll let you see her to prove my good intentions toward you are true.” When David didn’t jump instantly, Dr. Fariday jerked him toward the motorbike. “Move. Now.” He held on to David with one hand and stooped to grab the cycle with the other. “Get on. We don’t have a lot of time.”

No. No. No
. David couldn’t go to another location with the doctor; it would be suicide. He’d almost made that mistake once in his life already.
You don’t get to end this life for me, Doctor, not when it’s just starting to fit me like a glove.

Assessing the situation, waiting like a whipped puppy for a heartbeat, the moment after Dr. Fariday shifted his full focus to righting the motorcycle, David leaped into action. Praying for forgiveness from Elsa—he didn’t have a chance of saving her if he couldn’t save himself—David launched himself onto the ground in the direction of the knife, grabbed the thick black handle with a sure grip, and did a tuck-roll that landed him in a squat on his feet.

Before David could push to stand, Dr. Fariday tackled him and wrestled him onto his back. He wrapped David’s wrist in a vise-tight hold and twisted his hand backward, trying to pry David’s hand off the knife. David screamed as acute, burning pain stabbed into his wrist, and Dr. Fariday cursed and backhanded him across the face.

Blood poured out of David’s cheek, and pain radiated down into his jaw, but Dr. Fariday hissed, “Shut up,” and slapped David again, cutting open his lip. “I made you. You owe me.” A righteous glint full of smoky topaz fire claimed ownership of the doctor’s stare. “You don’t have a right to exist without me.” He grabbed a fistful of David’s hair, yanked him into a sitting position, and then drove his head back into the ground.

David’s skull rattled, multicolored dots danced before his vision, and what little he had in his stomach hurtled toward his throat. Without pausing, Dr. Fariday swung his fist, punched David in the head, and sent fast-moving vines of hurt all the way through David’s face and brain.

Already exhausted and broken, David knew if he suffered one more hit, he would not live to suffer through the recovery. With each blow the doctor had delivered, more and more of David’s body had gone numb in the aftermath, but the fire engulfing his wrist reminded him he still had the knife in his hand.
Please, God. I can’t leave Ben yet
. David’s heart banded with even more pain than his arm, and the soul-deep hurt fueled his most important reason to live.
Ben. It’s my only chance.

Dr. Fariday spit in David’s face. “You’re a defect.” Open disgust replaced the rage mapping the doctor’s boyish features. “I should have seen you were rotten and never brought you back to life.” Then, as Dr. Fariday reached in and closed both hands around David’s throat, David cried out like an animal being ripped from its mate, blindly swung his arm in a downward arc, and plunged the knife into the doctor’s thigh.

The doctor screamed and flopped to his side, and David rolled with him and jammed the knife deeper into the side of Dr. Fariday’s leg, all the way to the handle. The doctor reared and scratched all the way across David’s face, tearing through skin. David turned away, and his hand slipped from the knife.

Then, as if Dr. Fariday couldn’t feel the six-inch blade in his thigh, he threw himself on David’s back and wrapped an arm around his neck. David sucked in a gulp of air, struggling for oxygen, and flailed his arm down in an attempt to grab the knife. His fingertips grazed the handle, but before he could get a grip, a bloodcurdling cry, a familiar one that reached into David’s core, tore across the star-filled sky. A moment later, Ben launched himself at Dr. Fariday and flung him against a tree.

David clutched his throat and chest, gasping for air, but Ben didn’t pause for a blink of an eye to look at David. He lunged at the doctor, grabbed him by the shirt, and slammed his fist into the man’s face. Again and again, like a machine, Ben punched and kneed the doctor, primal, guttural sounds erupting from him with each hit, his focus trained on turning the doctor into dog food.

Crimson sprayed everywhere, and a hunk of the doctor’s hair tore off in Ben’s hand. Without hesitation, Ben took hold of Dr. Fariday again and slammed his fist into the man’s throat. The doctor gurgled and coughed up thick blood, but as if Ben couldn’t process it, he hit the doctor again and flattened the man’s nose against his cheek.

“Ben…” His heart tearing in two, David shifted and whimpered as he tried to crawl to Ben. Because they’d shown each other so many of the dark places inside them recently, David knew that right now Ben was caught in a vicious loop of love and fear and anger, and he needed help to get free. “Ben…”

Clearly lost in his emotions, Ben did not respond to David.

Leading a pack of uniformed officers from the direction Ben had come, in a fast run, Braden Crenshaw dived onto Ben’s back. “Stop it now,” he ordered. “You’ll kill him.”

As if Braden weighed nothing more than a rag doll, Ben shoved the detective off him. The sound as rough and gritty as if it originated in the very depths of hell, Ben uttered, “I know,” and drove his knee into Dr. Fariday’s gut once more.

Braden pulled his gun and trained it on Dr. Fariday. “You’ll go to prison, Ben, and you’ll lose everything you’ve just found.” Stepping closer, Braden put the tip of the weapon right against the doctor’s skull. “I have him.” Without looking away from the doctor, Braden shoved Ben with his leg. “Let him go. It’s over.”

His throat terribly sore, David whispered, “Ben,” again and tried to reach across the dozen feet between them. Ben suddenly swung David’s way, and when David saw the wet green shades owning Ben’s hazel stare, his heart cracked all over again. “I’m okay.” David knew he was bloody, but he didn’t dare shake or cry and let Ben see how broken and bruised he felt inside. He lifted his hand to Ben and swore, “I’m all right.”

A gut-wrenching, hoarse noise cut up the air, and Ben scrambled to David’s side. “David…” Ben pulled David onto his lap. Cradling David’s upper body, Ben whispered, “Christ.” Caressing David’s face, assessing with darting glances, Ben sucked in a ragged breath. “Look what he did to you.”

Head swimming, focus blurry, David took Ben’s hand and pressed his lips to each bloodied knuckle, tending to his loving, damaged man. “It’s okay.” He held their twined hands against his chest. “We’ll be okay.” Blinking, trying to get Ben’s face to solidify from three wavy lines, David mumbled, “You’re back so fast.” He couldn’t get steady, so he clutched Ben’s hand tighter to him. “How’s Mika?” One thing David knew for sure, Ben would not return without his brother.

“Mika is fine.” Ben pulled David up, pressed a kiss to his forehead, and said in a much surer voice, “We’re gonna get you to a hospital, and you will be too.”

Through the haze in David’s brain, panic spiked and fueled a brief burst of energy. “Elsa.” Squeezing Ben’s hand, David struggled to sit up. “The doctor took her.” Everything else the doctor had told David rushed back too, and he grabbed Ben again. “And when he had me at the cabin, he said something about wanting to help fix me even more than the others.”

“Braden!” With an arm wrapped securely around the small of David’s back, Ben twisted the upper half of his body to look toward the group dealing with Dr. Fariday. “Get the location of the kitten out of that bastard right now. And get the Gainesville guys looking into that man’s other patients. David might not be his first victim.”