Chapter 8 - RESCUED

I had made the woman in the bed wait long enough, but I also wasn't sure if I should touch anything before Lucian got here. Oh well, if I mess up he will just yell at me later, which wasn't any different than what he did all the damn time anyway.

I stepped to the side of the bed and knelt next to it and the opening that Scummy had revealed. I reached in gently and pulled the blindfold off her first. She closed her eyes and hid from the light, what little of it there was.

With her eyes uncovered I then moved to noise cancelling headphones she was wearing. As I was removing them I took a good look at her face for the first time. There was a lot of dried blood, smeared mascara, and dirt. And under those layers there was almost nothing but purple. He had hit her alot, and I knew she was going to be traumatized.

"Shh, shh." I soothed her as soon as the sound of the world had returned to her. "I'm here to help you." I did my best to calm her and reassure her at the same time. "He won't hurt you anymore."

Slowly, the woman turned her head to look at me, her eyes squinted open just a little. She looked me right in the eyes and seemed to calm down just a little.

With her a little calmer than before I started to remove her gag so that she could talk. With gentle fingers I undid the latch to the belt like strap. The bastard had used a ball gag on her. When the gag was out of her mouth she did her best to close her jaw slowly. But it snapped shut, like she had a lockjaw and couldn't control it. Whether she had had a lockjaw before this experience or not she had one now.

"Be careful, and talk slowly, you need to ease the muscles and joints into working again."

"Th-th-thank y-y-you." She stuttered, mostly because she was trying to get her mouth and jaw to work properly again. "Thank y-you for s-saving me." She looked so thankful then, her eyes full of emotions and brimming with tears.

"Think nothing of it, I'm just glad I could save you." I smiled softly at her. "Ezekiel." I called out to get his attention. "Get her some water."

"Right away boss lady." He saluted me before he reached into the bag I had thrown back at him. I always packed water into my bag if it held a change of clothes, you just never knew when you might need to clean yourself off after a fight.

While he got the water out of my bag I helped her into a sitting position and grabbed the sheet from the bed. I may not want to sleep on them, ever, but I don't think she would mind given the situation. Hell if I were in her position I would take the sheet as well.

I had wrapped her up and was tilting the water bottle against her lips when there was a pounding knock on the door. The woman jumped so much when she heard that knocking sound that some of the water spilled down her front, wetting the sheet.

"It's OK, that's a friend of ours, he's a detective." I smiled at her again trying to calm her down. "EZ let Lucian in please."

While I tilted the water for her again EZ opened the door, letting the angry sounding man into the room. He looked like he was ready to start screaming again but then he took a look around and all his tension and anger seemed to deflate. It was instead replaced with a professional look, the one he wore when he was at the office.

"What happened in here?" That was all he had asked.

"Lucian, say hello to Saul James, wife beater extraordinaire. And he seems to have graduated to kidnapping, torture, and enslavement."

"Who is she?" He asked, still straight to the point.

"I haven't asked her yet, I just got her sitting up and drinking some water." He seemed to see the bag in EZ's hand then and guessed I had taken the time to change.

"You delayed getting to her so you could dress like a cliche?"

"I was dressed like a different cliche before I had changed my clothes. A much more revealing one."

"She's right." EZ added. "Wanna see the dress? I have no idea how she even got it to cover all the vital points."

"No thanks, I will take your word for it." Lucian looked convinced, and a little less angry. "So what happened to him?" He asked, but I know he knew already.

"He swung first, and second actually. I was simply acting in self defense."

"Self defense my ass. You wanted to hurt him. You may not have gone all out on him but you didn't hold your punches either, did you."

"He needed to be knocked down a peg or twenty." I didn't bat an eye or even flinch at his words, what I had done was justified in my eyes, and even his. The problem is, he would have gotten into a lot more trouble for it than I will.

"I'll radio this in and get a couple buses here. They both look like they need a hospital."

"Yeah, you're right."

While he called for backup and an ambulance or two I broke the tape holding the woman's hands against her chest and then broke the tape at her ankles. When her limbs were free I tried to help her stand up but her body didn't seem to want to cooperate with us on that.

"Can I pick you up? I will sit you in that chair over there." I wanted to get her permission before doing this since she had been through so much.

She had nodded her head and then looked at me with wide eyes filled with awe. Clearly she was amazed that a woman could lift her at all, let alone so easily. But I had carried her as easily as if she had weighed no more than a baby.. She was light as it was, but I was strong enough that it didn't bother me at all.