Until Harry(64)

That sounded brilliant.

I heard the different voices of my family as they spoke to me and asked the doctor questions, but one voice stuck out, one pretty loud voice.

“Lochlan?” I heard Kale call.

“She’s down here,” Lochlan shouted.

“Quiet, please,” a voice chastised.

“I got here as fast as I could – oh, my God,” Kale breathed. “Lane. Oh, sweetheart.”

I’m here, I thought.

“I’m going to fucking kill the prick,” he growled.

“Drew,” my father said. “What happened?”

My brain chose that moment to fade into darkness, and I was thankful for it because listening to Drew explain what she saw wasn’t something I wanted to hear. Experiencing it was more than enough.



Four days later, I was still in hospital, but I was awake and fully alert to my surroundings. The first three days after I was brought to hospital, I was in the ICU because I didn’t regain consciousness after I conked out in the emergency room. My doctor assured my family it was due to some very minor swelling on my brain and that the rest would only do my body good as it began the process of healing. The MRI scan and other tests the doctors ran came back clear, which was good news. All of my injuries were simple flesh wounds and a couple of bruised ribs – which I thought was the sorest thing I had ever experienced. It hurt to breathe.

My right eye was still swollen shut, and I had a pretty nasty cut through my right eyebrow that took six stitches to close, and one on my left cheekbone that needed three stitches. All in all, I was expected to make a full recovery, with only a small scar or two to show for it. So the doctor said anyway. But he was wrong. What Jensen had done ran deeper than physical scars. What he’d done would stay with me for life.

“Lane?”

I looked to my nanny when she called my name.

“Hmm?” I murmured.

She frowned at me. “I asked if you were okay, sweetheart?”

“I’m okay, Nanny,” I assured her, then looked to the doorway as my uncle suddenly barrelled into the room, looking the worse for wear. This was the first time I had seen him in three weeks. He’d been on a business trip in Asia and wasn’t due home for another week at the earliest.

He took one look at me, and his face turned red.

“I’ll kill him,” he snarled.

My brothers, father and Kale, who were in the room with me, my mother and my nanny, grunted in agreement. I had never seen my uncle look so angry before, so I raised my eyebrows at him and just stared. He quickly came over to my side and let out a puff of breath at what he was seeing.

“Darlin’.” He swallowed.

I winked with my good eye. “I’m okay; you should see the other guy.”

My uncle appreciated my jab at humour, and he chuckled, but nobody else in the room did. They hadn’t cracked so much as a smile since I’d woken up this morning. It was starting to grate on my nerves. I knew what had happened to me was very serious, and I definitely knew it wasn’t a laughing matter, but I was okay. I was going to recover from my injuries, and the piece of scum who caused them in the first place was in police custody.

Jacob was right when he said Jensen couldn’t hurt me anymore.

“Have you spoken to the police?” my uncle asked after he kissed my forehead.

I nodded. “They were here a few hours ago. They came after I woke up.”

Drew and her friend Jack had already given their eyewitness report of what they’d encountered a few days ago in Jensen’s apartment. Early in the afternoon I gave my statement. It was embarrassing and shameful, but I had to tell them how I knew Jensen in the first place. My father feared Jensen’s defence would play on that and somehow get him off the hook, but the officers assured us that he was tied up by the balls with the eyewitness reports and the condition I was found in.

They informed us that he was being charged with assault, attempted rape and attempted murder. He was refused bail and wouldn’t even get a formal trial because the evidence against him was too great – that and the fact that he was caught red-handed. Drew’s friend Jack had subdued Jensen until the police arrived and they took over. The most Jensen would see of a courtroom was the day he’d be taken for sentencing.

He couldn’t deny what he did – well, he could, but that wouldn’t help him. He would get locked up for what he did to me, and the sentence wouldn’t be light.

I was very happy about that.

My father filled my uncle in on what happened with the police, and Uncle Harry was delighted that justice would come to Jensen, though he was gutted he wouldn’t have a chance to break every limb on his body before he was sent to prison – his words, not mine.

“How was your trip?” I asked, changing the topic to something that didn’t turn everyone’s stomach.

My uncle smiled. “It was great, but it will be my last. I’m getting too old for those long-haul flights.”

I nodded in agreement. “I don’t know how you’ve done so much travelling. I can barely sit still long enough to watch a television show.”

That made the room laugh and relieved me greatly. Their sense of humour hadn’t died off after all!

“Have you had many visitors?” my uncle asked as he sat next to me.

I nodded. “Kale’s parents came to see me today. So did Lavender and her boyfriend, Daven. She blames herself for what happened because she dropped me off at his apartment, but I told her that was stupid. If she’d come in with me, God only knows what he would have done to both of us.”