Higher Love

Chapter Sixteen

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I'm here without you baby
But you're still on my lonely mind.
I think about you baby
and I dream about you all the time.
I'm here without you baby
But you're still with me in my dreams
And tonight girl, it's only you and me.
* 3 Doors Down - Here without you*

***

BRADLEY' S POV

There in the dark is sitting my nightmare. He just lays his forefinger on his lips, showing me not to make a noise, with the other hand pointing a gun towards us.
Then he points towards Emily and whispers: "Wake her but make her quiet!"
In his voice I can hear how serious he is.
I shake Emy at her shoulder: "Emy? Emy, wake up!"
"Oh no, let me sleep..." She shoves my hand away.
"No, Emy, serious, wake up and be quiet. Don't make any noise."
"What? Why? What's wrong?" Slowly she gets herself up and her gaze drifts away from me to the two people in our bedroom. Her eyes go wide, her mouth opens...
"Oo..."
Fast I lay my hand over her lips and shake my hand. She closes her eyes to let me know she understands. Instantly tears fills her eyes.
"Good girl and now..." the intruder waves the gun through the air, "... get out of the bed, slowly!"
Emy looks at me, but all I can do right now is nod my head, so she does what that man wants from her.
She slowly gets up and steps beside the bed. Thank god, we dressed ourself last evening and she is in full pj's.
I want to get up from the bed too but: "No! You stay where you are!" He points his gun at me again.
The second man gets nearer to Emily and starts bonding her hands behind her back. I move instinctively until I feel the gun on my forehead.
"If you want her to survive, stay where you are!"
Emy shoots me a look, tears running down her cheeks but she shakes her head.
The second guy brings her down on her knees, staying behind her with a gun in his hand, but not pointing at her at the moment.
Emy tries everything to not let her hear her sobs, but not very successful.
"What do you want?" I ask.
"Oh, I want to play a little and of course do my justice!" he says with an evil tone in his voice.
"Justice? You don't even know what that is!"
He just grins. He just wants to finish the job the others were stopped the last time
"Oh and thank you for turning off the microphones in here, it made it so much easier for us to get in."
F*ck, panic sets in, even more then before. I forgot to turn them on again, and the door is closed, so I doubt the Agents hear us through the other microphones.
Think, Bradley, we need some noise!
But right then, the door opens. A glimmer of hope rises inside me, only to be destroyed in the next second.
"Is it done?" the guy with the gun asks the one who just entered the room.
"Yes boss!"
They nod at each other and he starts talking louder now: "So, then I think we can stop this whispering shit. Just so you know, all microphones are turned off now, so you don't even need to think about making noise or scream."
F*ck, there is no chance the Agents hear us, it's dark and we have no chance to get some attention to the house.
The man behind Emy pulls her up to her feet and drags her out of the door. She whimpers, her head so low between her shoulders.
"Where do you bring her?" I ask instantly and get up from the bed, finally, but immediately have a gun at my head again.
"You move, she's dead." he shouts at me.
I held my hands up, to show him I will do what he says.
Emy looks back at me, over her shoulder. Her cheeks are wet from tears and the blank panic is written in her face. She is dragged further to the stairs, maybe she will be brought to the living room.
"Bond him on the chair." he nods at the other one and he grabs me, sits me down and bonds my hands behind me.
The Intruder sits himself on the bed, right in front of me and starts talking again: "So, about my justice or revenge or whatever you want to call it... You wrote some really bad shit about me and my men. We aren't the bad guys here, you know that?"
I just shot him a glance, still trying to figure out how to get out of this situation. But I'm not a soldier, Agents or whatever, I never learned how to deal with something like this.
"And we just want you to pay... but don't worry, we will make it slow, just like we like it..."
He nods to the other man and I feel his fist in my face, hard and fast.
My head bangs to the side, I feel my lip bursts open and I can taste blood. My jaw hurts like hell. Tears of pain fills my eyes. Slowly I turn my head back. It's like in the warehouse and I don't know how long I can start this torture again.
The next punch goes directly in my stomach and takes all the air out of my lungs. I can't bend enough, sitting on this chair, to compensate the pain.
Over and over again, the fist hits my face, my ribs or my stomach. Fast my left eye is swollen and my vision is clouded. But I need to stay in the here and now, I don't know what will happen to Emily when I pass out.
Right before I thought I can't stay awake much longer, one of the men opens the bonds around me and gets me to stand up. Half fainting the carry me more than anything else out of the room, down the stairs.
From the direction I think we enter the living room. I can hear Emily sobbing when we enter.
"Noooo!" I can hear her screaming.
"Shut the f*ck up!" one guy yells at her.
The man who holds me, lets me go and I fall to the ground. I can't move, my whole body hurts, I can barely see. I can feel someone near me. It has to be Emily, she still seems to be handcuffed.
She whimpers quietly: "Oh my god, oh my god, Bradley... Bradley???"
"I told you to shut up!" and then I can hear how she got slapped. She whimpers again.
I try to get myself in a sitting position but it's not that easy, handcuffed and in that pain. When I finally managed to get up, I lean myself against Emy, because I can't hold me on my own.
"Oh my, Bradley, I'm so sorry..." She whispers.
I just nod and ask her: "Did they hurt you?"
"No, just that one slap."
The three men talking, not paying much attention towards us
"Bradley," she goes on whispering, "I think I can get my hands free, the knot is not very strong."
I try to think clear, what that would mean. If they caught her, they will definitely do more to her than just a slap, but if she could manage to get me free...
"Maybe I can manage to switch a light on or something?" She looks at the lamp on one of the desks in the living room.
I nod saying: " But...you, you need to get my hands free. I can't move fast, but just in case..."
"What the f*ck are you two talking?" we hear one of the guys saying and fast he closes the distance and pushes me away from Emily. I fall to the ground hard. It feels like my ribs are breaking and I scream in pain.
"Shut up... I really think we played enough now. Get rid of him and take her with you."
Emy shoots me a look, panicked and I scream again: "Noooo! Take me, do whatever you want, but let her go! She has nothing to do with this.
"Well, now she has!" And he kicks me in my side again. I bend over, coughing.
With one eye I can see Emy move, her hands still behind her back, towards a lamp on a little desk.
Ok, I need to get her some time
I get on my knees, somehow, try to hold my head high, face to face with the intruder. My head feels like I'm in a way to fast carousel, everything seems to move.
"Let...her...go...." I mumble.
He just laughs."If not, what? What would you wanna do? You can barely stand on your own."
The three men start laughing. But that's enough time for Emy, to complete the move to the lamp, she grabs it and smashes it over the head of the guy, nearest to her.
Then everything happens so fast.
The second guy lifts his gun, I smash myself as good as possible on the Intruder, try to tackle him to the ground.
Then I hear a shot, a scream and the door bursts open. Agents run inside, guns held high, another shot, the second man goes to the ground.
I feel two strong hands around my arms, lifting me up, pushing me away, pointing a gun at the floor. My ears are deaf, all I can hear are blurred voices and a beep. My senses seem to fade, but then my gaze falls on a small body on the floor, a few steps away from me.
One Agent is kneeling beside the body and it took me a few seconds to realize it's Emily.
"EMILY!!!"
I stagger towards her, when I feel someone opens the rope around my wrists.
I got turn around and can barely recognize Scott
"Bradley you can barely stand, wait..."
But I just slap his hands away: "NO!" I fall to my knees, beside Emily's body. Her shirt is covered in blood. My trembling hands hover over her body, her eyes are closed.
I want to grab her shoulders, to shake her, but again, Scott grabs my arms: "No, don't move her, we don't know if the bullet is still in her and where exactly."
I lean my head on the floor beside her, tears floating down my face. My fist hits the ground more than once.
"Bradley, she is still alive, the paramedics are on their way and my men stopped the bleeding." He pulls me up and looks at me. "F*ck, you look like shit. You need a doctor too!"
I hide my face in my palms: "I don't need anything! Just..." I grab Scott's arms, "...save her!!!!"
My gaze finds her face again, she is so pale and there are drops of blood on her face. I gently caress her hair, lean down and whisper in her ear: "Don't leave me, please, Emy, stay..." I lean my forehead against her cheek.
I don't feel my physical pain anymore, just the mental one. My heart feels like it's ripped out of my chest, no more air in my lungs. I start to hyperventilate, I could just not stop.
"Bradley, hey hey, Bradley, look at me..."I barely hear Scott talking to me so he starts to shake me: "BRADLEY!!! For f*cks sake, I would slap you when you wouldn't have been beat up already."
First when someone shoves me away from Emily's body, I come back from my outtake. The paramedics are finally here. They put Emy on a stretcher and push her out of the house.
Then a face appears in front of me and fingers touch my face. I want to shove them away, to follow Emy in the ambulance, but Scott pushes me down again.
"You can't help her now, she is in the best hands and you need medical help too."
"I don't need..."
"YES, you need! You need to heal again, for her! You don't help her when you are in this condition!" He is almost screaming.
I slump down on the floor, maybe I really needed this. The paramedics get another stretcher for me, help me to get on and with the ambulance we drive to the hospital. Scott is with me in the ambulance, while the paramedics take care of my injuries.
All my thoughts are with Emily right now: "How bad is her wound?"
"I'm not exactly sure, all I can say is there was a lot of blood, but one of my men was able to stop the bleeding, but we have to see where the bullet is and what the bullet hit."
"F*ck... if I wouldn't have forgotten to take on the microphones again..." I reply, leaning my arms on my forehead.
"The microphones were off??" Scott shouts out.
"Only in the bedroom!"
"But, when the rest were on, how did they get in?"
"I don't know, I heard nothing, they were just in the bedroom in the middle of the night, they turned off the rest of the microphones by themself."
"How the f*ck is that possible? My men always were in their places and listened all the time... I will find out later and you... don't blame yourself! It's not not your fault!"
Before I could answer we arrived and I was brought to the ct scanner. It's almost not bearable for me to lay here still and don't know what is happening with Emily
After a few minutes the Scans are done and I'm in a patients room in a bed, hanging on transfusions with pain killers, again. I have no idea how my body could stand that beating again and I really hope I have not internal bleeding, because this time the beating was much worse and longer.
A few minutes later a doctor enters the room: "So, Mr. Davis, I ..."
But I interrupt him: "What about Emily? I mean Dr. Adams?"
"I'm sorry Mr. Davis, I don't know at the moment, she is still in surgery..."
My head falls back into the pillow, closing my eyes, letting the tears fall down.
"Mr. Davis, all I can say, is that she is in the best hands and as far as I know, her injury wasn't that bad. Listen, after I gave you an update about yourself, I will see if I can get any information about her, ok? Is she your fiancé?"
I just nod
"Ok, that's good! So, now about you, the Scans were all good, no injuries on the brain, no internal bleeding! And that, I have to admit, really surprises me, when I look at your face and your upper body! But everything will heal!"
"Thank you doctor!"
"So, now we wanna see after your fiancé, I will come back as soon as I can."
He leaves and I'm alone again, hanging in my thoughts. Thanks to the painkillers, I started drifting in a dreamless sleep and I wake up, when I hear the door close.
The doctor and Scott standing on my bed.
"What?" I starts to bring myself in a sitting position
But Scott pushes me back, he has a stern look on his face while he says: "Bradley, listen, it's Emily!"