HELLO BEAUTIFUL

Rating: NC17  for violence, murder, gunplay, adult themes. For safety’s sake, this will apply to ALL chapters. There will be no smut in this fic. There will be references, but references only, to rape, murder, mutilation in places

Copyright © January 2007 xxxevilgrinxxx

Ch 17

‘Kim’ cowers against the car door, bundled in the blanket from the back seat, still terrified. She shivered and occasionally would left out a muffled sob, but was otherwise quiet, her wide eyes watching me carefully. She didn’t cry anymore, her eyes glassy with shock, and I watched her carefully.

I took back roads on the way to Danno’s place; the last thing I needed was to be pulled over with a beaten, naked girl in the car. It would be worse to explain how she got there. So I drove down back alleys with the lights off, until I could pull into the alley behind Danno’s apartment.

I could hear her heart race in the car when I killed the engine; her hands clutching the thin blanket around her, holding onto the door handle. There’s no way for her to trust me, no matter what I had done to save her. I would be surprised if she ever trusted anyone again.

I moved slowly so that she wouldn’t bolt, and turned to face her, keeping my hands where she could see them. “I don’t think ‘Kim’ is your real name, what can I call you?”

The young girl eyed me carefully, and her voice shook when she finally spoke. “M…my…Candice.” She looked at me expectantly, what she expected I doubt even she knew.

“Candice, I need you to know I’m not going to hurt you.” She looked at me intently, every fiber of her being focused on me. Her mouth opened to speak but she just nodded when the words wouldn’t come on their own.

I got out and rounded the front of the car to her side, with Candice watching me the whole way. I tried to act natural in case we were spotted; it was a long shot at this time of the morning, but you never knew. Not exactly a natural situation.

My arm draped carefully around the young girls’ shoulder as I swept the alley and the back door to the apartment building. Two steps out of the car I realized that she was barefoot, her feet nearly blue as she crossed across the rain puddled asphalt. I wanted to hit something, to kill something, at the sight of her freezing in the drizzle of rain.

She let out a short squeal and then jammed her fist into her mouth, terrified, when I picked her up and carried her the rest of the way to the back door. The only other woman I had ever done that with was Adriana, on the night of our honeymoon. “It’s okay, Candice, I’m not going to hurt you, it’s just too fucking cold.” Carrying a woman like this could probably be easier to explain too.

Down the hall to Danno’s apartment without a sound, and then I set her down and took a step back, my hands up again. So she wouldn’t be afraid. “I’m going to find you something to wear, Candice. Did you want a shower?” I winced as I said it, and then continued. “Do you need a doctor? Maybe we should do that first?”

Candice pulled the blanket against her and after a couple of starts, managed to speak. “It’s not, I mean… I’ve been through that before. I’ll be okay; I don’t want to go to the hospital, I just…”

She blinked back tears and I stood there, impotent in my rage. What I wanted to do was hold that little girl and tell her it would be okay, but there wasn’t a damned thing I could do. I moved to the boxes I had packed earlier and dug out a towel for her and left it on the edge of the couch while I found her something to wear.

I could almost see Danno smile at me when I reached into the box and pulled out the green shirt with its tiki heads along the bottom.  A pair of chinos that were going to be too big for her. I couldn’t do much about shoes, at least for now. I’d try and pick her up something acceptable tomorrow.

Candice looked from the shirt back up to me, the fear gone for a moment as she looked at that damn crazy shirt. The snort of laughter was out of her before she could get her hand over her mouth to stop it. If Danno was in front of me now I would have kissed him for it.

Holding the incredible bright shirt up in front of me, with the chinos, I turned around in the living room. “What? It doesn’t match?” Candice laughed again, a short surprised sound yanked out of her, and she reached out to take the clothes and the towel from me, and turned towards the bathroom.

She stopped before she got there and turned back to me. “Thank you. Thank you for saving me.” Her chin dimpled, and she bit her cut lip once before she winced and stopped, crying again, but the terror was gone.

I waited out on the balcony for her, my elbows on the railing and tried not to think about what had just happened. Not feeling bad, not even a bit. That was a little unexpected, but I felt nothing for the men I had shot and killed. Candice was a part of that; knowing what they were going to do to her balanced out anything I had done in return. It wasn’t a part of any book or training manual out of the agency; it was what was right. It was justice.

The water in the bathroom stopped and I waited a little longer until I heard the door open and Candice’s bare feet pad out into the living room again. I turned to face her and it nearly broke my heart again. She really was so young; it was just wrong. With her whorish, tear-streaked make-up washed off, and her blonde hair tucked behind her ears, she looked even younger than she had in the bar.

How could I help but look at her shirt, which of course made her do the same, and we both started to laugh again. The girls’ nerves were too frayed for it to last long though, and her tears started again, which she fought, and turned to go back to the bathroom.

“Candice.” I didn’t want to grab her, or touch her, because after what she had gone through it would scare her. She stopped and turned and walking slowly, I crossed the living room to stand a step away from her. Her blue eyes brimmed with tears and she swiped at them quickly and tried to stop, but too much had happened for that to be possible.

She was so frail as I held her, and her shoulder blades jutted from her back as she cried, her face in her hands. “You’re safe now, Candice, no one is going to hurt you anymore. You’re going home now, where you belong.” She sobbed hard, breaking at the last, and I held her tighter and let her cry. Adriana was very emotional, so I knew that sometimes a woman just needed to cry. I held Candice until she had cried herself out, exhausted.

She pulled back when she was ready, and I let her. The fear was gone, for the most part. I didn’t know how long it would take for it to be gone for good, if it ever would be. Her belly growled loudly, and she looked up at me startled, with a nervous giggle right behind it. She was thin, and I didn’t picture the men that kept her would give a shit whether she was hungry or not. I cared.

It didn’t matter what time of the day or night it was, food could be found at Hernandez’ place; he lived beside the diner, and he hadn’t slept well in years. “Let’s go get you something to eat, Candice.”

Her belly rumbled again in answer, she thanked me quietly, and we headed back out into the rain, for breakfast.