Page 88 of The Hero
“Marlowe!” he yelled.
To his surprise and relief, her eyes popped open, and she gasped. Then she began to thrash and fight. Her arm flew up, and her fist popped him right in the eye. It hurt like a mother, but Bob didn’t back away.
“It’s me!” he shouted. “Kendric!”
She was lost in her terror, and either didn’t hear him or didn’t understand. She tried to sit up, but Bob grabbed her shoulders.
“No! Nononononono!” she yelled as she fought and kicked.
Even as he struggled to subdue her as gently as possible, Bob couldn’t help but be proud of her for fighting with everything she had. “You’re safe! It’s me, Kendric. He can’t hurt you anymore, you’re good,” he reassured her.
It took several more seconds of his calm words to break through her panic. Before she finally stilled and looked up at him.
“Kendric?” she croaked.
“Yeah, Punky, it’s me. You’re safe. I’ve got you.”
Bob expected her to burst into tears. Instead, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and simply nodded.
“Marlowe?” he asked gently, concerned about her unexpected reaction.
“Did you get him? Did they get all that on tape?”
“Yes, and I’m assumingalsoyes.”
“Good. Can we please go now?”
Worried that she was suffering from shock, from the idea that she’d almostdied, Bob lifted his head to look at Chappy, who was crouched in the back door opposite him, the same concern reflected in his gaze.
“In a second,” Bob reassured her. “Can you sit up?”
She nodded and slowly sat up. Bob moved to sit on the seat next to her, his arm around her back. “Do you feel dizzy? Light headed?”
“No,” she said. “Although I could use some water or something. My throat hurts.”
Of course it did. West had his damn hands around her neck. Bob could see dark bruises already forming on the skin of her throat, and it made him want to finish what he’d started when he’d hauled the asshole out of the back seat.
He forced himself to stay next to Marlowe as he said, “Yeah, Punky, we’ll get you a water real soon.”
She looked down at her hands then, and frowned. She held them up. “I scratched him,” she said.
Bob saw blood under her fingernails. She’d done more than scratch West. She’d gouged the hell out of his skin. He took hold of one of her hands, and to his surprise, found his own eyes filling with tears. His lip began to quiver.
He’d never been as scared as he’d been in the seconds between realizing something was wrong, and when he’d reached the car.
He’d almost been too late. He’d promised to have her back, that he’d keep her safe, and yet, West had almost killed her with his bare hands.
A sob escaped, and Bob frantically tried to stop the others that wanted to follow. Marlowe was alive, but she wasn’t all right. She was acting as if she was in a fog. She was clearly in shock, and it was the most distressing thing he’d ever witnessed.
But when he made another choked sound, Marlowe turned to look at him. She stared for a beat, then blinked.
And that seemed to be all it took for his Marlowe to return. One blink.
“No,” she said firmly, shaking her head.
“No what?” Bob managed.
“You don’t get to feel guilty. I knew you would. As I lay there under him, and he was choking me, Iknewyou’d blame yourself. It was my last thought. Stop, Kendric,” she begged. “You got him. You saved me. We’re going to have a ton of babies and live happily ever after. Got it?”
