Kennedy's Redemption (The Protectors 3)

Please don't take my sunshine away.

“You remembered?” Creed asked her sounding amazed. Looking at him, she saw his eyes alight with happiness, so much happiness she had to look away. It was painful to see. To know she’d never feel that same way again was devastating.

Gazing at the watch on her wrist, she noticed it was later than she thought— nearly dinner time. Getting up she walked to the back door. Turning to look at their hopeful gazes made her incredibly sad because she couldn’t stand to be around anyone right then. She needed space. More than they were probably willing to give her.

Turning back around, she watched as the sun started to dip in the sky making the horizon a gorgeous hue of reds, oranges, and yellows. Like a fire. The horizon was so low it was almost like an escape. Grabbing her sketch pad and charcoal, she ran to the beach before dropping to her knees in the sand and starting yet another sunset. Trying to purge the hope from her broken mind.

·?•? ?•?·

“What the hell?” Linc whispered as Kenny ran out the door with what looked like drawing materials. Following her, they watched as she dropped to the ground and her hand worked furiously to draw whatever she was seeing.

With the sun kissing the horizon it left a glow around her, making her look angelic, almost peaceful. In that moment in time, she didn’t look like she wanted to crawl out of her skin and run away. She had a serene aura to her as she put the pad down and ran her fingers through the sand, looking towards the sky. He felt hope bloom in his chest for what could be but may never happen.

“Sit down Linc, she ain’t going nowhere,” Creed told him as he sat in one of the Adirondack chairs on her small back porch. Following suit, his eyes didn’t leave her.

“How are we gonna fix this, Creed? We didn’t even get to have her and yet, she feels like she’s already lost to us.”

“We’ll figure it out, man. We need to take things at her pace, though. Move when she moves. It’s like the tango, two steps forward, two steps back, and she’s leading the dance.” Listening to his brother explain so perfectly what they were going to do with her, he wasn’t sure how he felt about it, though. He knew it was going to be an uphill battle; there was no doubt about that. But they were going to have to watch her struggle through the emotions as they all moved forward together because they weren’t leaving her behind for anything.

She was it for them; he felt it in his bones. Over the past few months of not seeing her daily, he hadn’t realized how tense he’d been. But from the moment he was told she’d made contact, he felt like he could breathe for the first time again. Seeing her now, it was a breath of fresh air and he wasn’t sure she was ready for them. On their best days they were pushy and arrogant, on their worst they were complete assholes. He was afraid one or both would set her off. Trigger a bad memory or send her back to hell.

“She looks so peaceful.” Looking up at his brother’s words, he watched her again. She did look at peace. Sitting on the beach just at the water’s edge, she was gliding her hands over the water, creating a slight ripple before she smoothed it out. She reminded him of a graceful water nymph rising from the sea, her copper-red hair hanging down her back in loose waves, gently blown by the light breeze. Her ripped shorts and tank hugged her lithe body like a second skin. He’d never seen anything so beautiful… Or broken.

When she looked up at them, her eyes spoke volumes. Fear shone brightly. Whether it was fear of them or fear of what they represented, he wasn’t sure. There was something else he couldn’t quite figure out, but thought maybe it was hope. If she still had some hope, it was possible they could bring her back from the brink. Show her life was worth so much more than she’d been dealt.

They watched as she stood up, looking around at her surroundings like she expected something to jump out at her. That cracked his heart just a little bit. When she made no move to come closer, Creed stood up and walked slowly to her. He watched in fascination as she took in every move his brother made. From his steps to his hand movements and back up to his eyes.

She seemed to freeze the closer Creed got to her. When he was finally just a foot away, he stopped and waited. Linc wasn’t sure what for, but as she looked towards him, he got up and slowly walked to her too. Not taking his eyes off hers, he watched her face change expressions so often he could never identify anything more than the lingering fear in her eyes.

It felt like a make it or break it moment. Stopping beside Creed, she looked between the two of them, sizing them up, comparing them, their sizes, their differences. They were fraternal twins so they looked a lot alike but the most distinct differences were their eyes and hair color. Where he was lighter in hair and had light brown eyes, Creed had nearly black hair and his eyes were so dark blue they could almost be called black.

Linc had a scar that separated his right eyebrow too, and others along his body from various injuries over the years. Hell, so did Creed. He didn’t look forward to explaining those to her when she eventually saw them. She tried to act cool and aloof but he knew she would hurt for them. Little did she know they probably deserved them.

As the night grew darker, she seemed to draw more into herself as they had this strange stare-off. The change was magnificent and had she been a hardened soldier, he might have admired it. But she was young, broken, and she shouldn’t

have had that dead look in her eyes like she was expecting the enemy to come knocking on her door at any second.

“Sunshine,” he whispered. “Let’s get you inside.”

“You’re leaving?” she whispered so quietly he almost missed it.

“Only if you want us to,” Creed answered.

“Where are you staying?” she asked while they walked back to her villa.

They hadn’t figured that out yet. All they’d been concerned about was finding her. Realizing they may have to drive back to Rome pissed him off for two reasons— the first being they’d have to leave her. The second was having to drive another four fucking hours to that crazy-ass city.

“We’ll probably have to go back into Rome. I assume anything here would be closed by now.”

“Florence is only two hours away,” she suggested. Her voice sounded strained. Like the idea of being alone terrified her.

“I suppose—” Creed started when she interrupted him. “Or you could stay here. I don’t have an extra bed but one of you can take the couch and the other the floor.” Her words sounded rushed like she had to force herself to say them.

“Is that what you want, Sunshine?” Creed asked her gently.

Pondering his question, they watched as she fidgeted and the uncertainty entered her eyes before resolve hardened them. “For tonight anyway. It’s a long drive either way. I don’t want you to get in an accident or something.”

Following her inside they watched as she puttered around her tiny cabin, grabbing pillows and blankets, trying to make them as comfortable as possible. When she was left with nothing else to do, she stood at the bottom of the stairs to her loft looking ready to bolt. One foot on the bottom step and both hands holding the railing. She was tense as hell too. He couldn’t stand for her to be so uncertain around them.