“Oh, Sunshine…” Creed trailed off. She loved the sound of his voice. It was dark like the finest of chocolates. Smooth like the most luxurious silk. It calmed her in ways she never knew a voice could.
“Creed, I’m so numb,” she whispered, her voice cracking at the end. As if she’d swallowed shards of glass.
“Kenny… Fuck. Ken… Sunshine, I gotta pick you up.” He sounded sad and angry about that. Like having to touch her tainted body was a bad thing. Lord only knew she hated it, so why wouldn’t they?
She was damaged goods now. No wonder they kept looking at her with pity in their eyes. Who would ever want to be around her, let alone touch such disgusting, vile trash like her again? Half the time she wanted to crawl out of her own skin, but never more so than right in this moment. The regret in his voice was loud and clear. He didn’t want to put his hands on her any more than she wanted him to.
She felt more than heard Linc come back in the room. They both seemed to have this air about them; when they left a room it became cold and bitter but when they were around it was filled with warmth and safety. She wanted to feel safe again. She wanted them to be able to make her warm again, but sadly, her spirit was too broken. How could they ever want someone like her? How could she ever be with someone after what had happened to her? She was a jumbled mess of regret and baggage that no one should ever have to take on.
“Kennedy!” Creed snapped at her. Forcing her eyes open, she gazed into his dark pools of heat. He was fired up and pissed off. Smooth Kenny, piss off the huge man. Great idea, girl. It sounded like… No, it couldn’t be... She felt a stirring in her gut to almost defy him. As quickly as it came, it faded away. For a moment, she felt like she could have the old her back. The defiant one; the girl who kicked ass’s and took names later. The one who was forever tormenting her brothers and had her dads wrapped around her finger. But like her old life, that girl was gone.
·?•? ?•?·
He could hear her mumbling, rambling about being dirty and tainted, that they looked at her with pity. When Creed heard the word broken he snapped at her, needing to get her out of her head. To understand that they were there because they wanted to be, not because of some misplaced feeling of sympathy. For a quick minute, he saw fire in her eyes and waited with baited breath for her to snap at him and tell him to fuck off the way he’d been told she used to do all the time.
He’d gotten so sick of hearing about the old her, about what she used to do, how she used to be. They hadn’t had the pleasure of knowing the happy Kennedy. They were tasked simply with making this new Kennedy happy. It was as simple and complicated as that.
She wasn’t who she used to be, and Creed didn’t think her family understood that as well as they needed to. They wanted the old her back, but what they weren’t accepting was that the old Kennedy was now a broken, scared, and scarred girl who was fighting to find her place in the world again.
She felt lost and alone, like no one knew what she was going through. Probably stuck in her head more often than not, and he could understand how she would feel like she was suffocating at home. How running might have been her only option. But after the previous day’s breakdown and telling them how she felt when they left had him more determined than ever to make her happy and whole again.
He and Linc both knew she’d never be the same girl she once was; she’d be a shell of her former self. Finding it hard to laugh, hard to trust, and more often than not hard to live. They were ready to help her through it all. He had no idea why they had both been immediately drawn to her but they were. As soon as she’d let them touch her when she wouldn’t let anyone else, he knew that they would have something special. He just hadn’t known what.
Watching Kenny now as she struggled to come out of her mind and fight her way back to reality, he was both worried and proud— worried she was slowly losing her grip and proud because she kept on fighting. Reaching a hand into the tub he gripped one of her arms as Linc grabbed the other, slowly helping her to her knees then feet. Seeing her wobble, Linc slipped in behind her sucking in a breath as he saw her back. Meeting Creed’s eyes he shook his head at him not to ask.
For now, he’d let it go. He didn’t want her anymore insecure than she already was. Knowing, though, that she still bore the marks from her torture left him reeling. They only knew some of her injuries, nothing about the actual lasting damage, though. He didn’t think any of her family did either. Or if they did, they didn’t understand just how it fucked with a person’s mind in the aftermath.
As they helped her dry off, her shaking never stopped or slowed; her fear was bone deep it seemed. Leaning down so he was eye-level with her, he waited until she met his stare. “Sunshine, we gotta get you warmed up, alright?” When he got no response his worry was amped up ten-fold. She’d been non-responsive with nearly every person she’d been in contact with since her attack except them. So the fact that she had basically checked out had him caused concern about where her mind was at.
Patting her body dry with the towel he’d taken from Linc, he dropped it in the wicker hamper she had under the sink and slipped his shirt off over his head and onto her. He maneuvered the shirt as Linc stuck her hands in the arm holes. All this with still nothing from her. Sharing a concerned look with his brother, he sat down on the closed toilet seat and pulled her into his lap. Grabbing her brush off the counter, he handed it to Linc indicating for him to brush her hair.
“Well shit, when did I become the hairdresser and not the spa boy?” Linc tried to joke, drawing a smile from Creed but still nothing from Kenny.
“I’ve always been better with my hands,” Creed said while rubbing them along Kenny’s bare thighs. Her near nakedness was starting to affect his libido now that he knew she wasn’t in any physical danger. His heart rate increased as she cuddled into his chest, giving a small wiggle on his lap making his cock stir when he really, really didn’t want that to happen just yet. She didn’t need to be more terrified than she already was.
Closing his eyes, he tried not to moan out loud at what was a form of sweet torture when she melted against him as Linc finished brushing her gorgeous red mane of hair. It was silky smooth as it fell in waves around her, landing on his arm as he cradled her to him.
Cupping one arm around her back and the other under her knees, he followed Linc out to her room where he pulled her big blanket back and slowly climbed in with her as Linc dropped down on the other side, jostling them all.
“Couldn’t have been less graceful, could ya?” Creed asked, his voice laced with sarcasm.
“Nope. My body only knows hard and fast,” was his smart-ass retort, making them both chuckle.
Once they had the blankets surrounding them and Kenny firmly between their bodies, they watched as she closed her eyes with a look of relief crossing her features quickly. “Please don’t leave me again,” she asked as she fell asleep.
Kissing her temple, he promised, “Never again.”
“Wild horses couldn’t drag me away,” he heard Linc tell her while rubbing her pale cheek softly with the pads of his fingers.
·?•? ?•?·
Watching the waves lazily crawl to the sand before pulling back out to the surf, Kennedy felt a moment of relief. She didn’t fully understand the connection s
he held with Linc and Creed but after the previous night and waking up between them that morning, she felt relief. They’d stayed. She’d asked this time and they’d actually stayed.
She knew it wasn’t reasonable of her to hold it against them when they left because they had no way of knowing how much she needed them. But still, she held some anger for their going away. Which is more than she’d felt in months. For the first time since her nightmare began, she felt a tingling of hope start to bloom in her chest.
Crawling out of bed that morning, watching as Linc and Creed slept peacefully, admiring their similar yet different looks, she could almost feel her walls crumbling. Those men, those strong, capable men were there for her. To help her in ways they probably didn’t even know they were helping. A little over twelve hours in their presence and she felt her world shifting again. It scared the shit out of her at the same time as it was giving her the faith that she needed to face her demons.