Page 89 of Protecting Josie
Though, it seemed as ifNatehad lost his words. He simplynodded, then put his hands on her cheeks and stared deeply into her eyes.
“I’m okay,” she whispered, grabbing his wrists. They sat like that for several heartbeats, before the sound of a scuffle had them looking toward the side of the house.
Nate tensed, wrapping an arm around her.
“Hey! We saw what went down! They were trying to leave through the alley behind the house…figured that wouldn’t be cool. So we pulled them out of the car and brought them back here.” Four men held Gen and Millie between them. The women were struggling and trying to escape, swearing at everyone, but the men—who Josie could only assume lived in the area—had tight holds on both.
“A few of us have called nine-one-one,” a woman called out from the street.
“I recorded it all on my phone!” a boy who looked to be in his late teens said. “Well, I missed the first gunshot, but I got everything else. That was so fucking lit!”
“You need help?” another man asked.
Before Josie knew it, the neighbors had come closer and were all talking at once. A couple knelt on the grass to assist Preacher and Smiley. The others stood around, talking excitedly as they waited for the police to arrive. Sirens were getting louder and louder as vehicles raced toward the scene.
Nate went to help Josie stand, and she moaned when the movement hurt her shoulder. He froze. “You’re hurt?” he asked in a panicked tone.
Josie rarely heard him sound anything but calm and controlled. That, more than anything else that had happened,freaked her out. “I’m okay,” she reassured him quickly. “It’s just my shoulder. I think I landed on it wrong.”
The next twenty minutes were a blur. The police arrived, guns drawn, and for a minute or two, Josie was afraid Preacher and Smiley were going to be shot. But the bystanders made sure the cops knew who was a good guy and who wasn’t. Gen and Millie attempted to claim they had no idea what was going on, but the young man with the video was happy to share what he’d recorded with the officers—including Gen and Millie desperately trying to get away from the helpful bystanders, proving the two women were involved up to their eyeballs.
Nate had carried her over to the ambulance when it arrived, and an EMT looked at her shoulder and managed to massage it back into place, then put a brace on her arm. She was currently standing in the street, leaning against Nate, who had his arm around her. Josie soaked up his presence.
Eventually a detective arrived, and, after talking with the police officers who’d first reached the scene, he walked toward them.
“Mr. Davis and Ms. England, right?” he asked.
Josie didn’t have time to do more than nod before Nate spoke. “I know you want to talk to Josie, but I need to get her to the hospital to be checked out more thoroughly. She’s probably hungry and thirsty, and I really just want to get her out of here.”
“I understand, but we need to figure out what happened here tonight,” the detective said.
He reallydidlook upset that he had to ask her questions. His compassion and understanding over the fact that she’djust been through something traumatic made Josiewantto talk to him. The faster she got this done, the sooner she could go home. To Riverton. With Nate.
“It’s okay,” she told Nate, putting a hand on his arm.
“It’snotokay,” he said fiercely.
Ignoring the detective, Josie slipped around so she was facing Nate. She lifted her good hand and wrapped it around the back of his neck. “Look at me,” she whispered.
It took him a second or two, but finally, he tilted his head down to meet her gaze.
“I knew you’d come for me,” she told him. “That you’d find me. That you wouldn’t let them get away with it.”
“Spirit,” Nate breathed.
Josie shook her head. “Even if that man had managed to take me away, I would’ve held on…foryou. I love you, Nate. In a way I’ve never loved anyone else in my life. I wasn’t going to let them win, not when I’d finally found everything I’d ever wanted. You, Nate. I foundyou. Or rather, you found me. I’m okay to talk to him. I want to. I want to make sure Gen and Millie don’t get away with what they’ve done.”
Nate closed his eyes, then nodded.
Josie turned to the detective. “I’m ready.”
“If you wouldn’t mind coming to sit in my car, it’ll be more comfortable for you.”
“I’m coming with her,” Nate told the man firmly.
After they’d gotten as comfortable as possible in the back of the detective’s vehicle, and he’d gotten her permission to turn on a recorder, Josie told her story. From the beginning. How Gen had shown up in disguise and kidnapped her, had beenwearing an adult diaper so she didn’t have to stop to use the restroom…about the gas, the phones, and how Millie was in Vegas sending texts on them to provide an alibi. How they’d kept her in that closet in the basement—and the scratches she’d left inside, as proof—the story about selling her to the man for a thousand dollars, and what Gen said would happen to her.
Finally, she explained thewhy—that they blamed her for Ayden’s death, and hated her for it.
