Flaming Hearts (Beyond Reality Book 2) Read online

  They’d also spit on her. Over and over. Calling her names and saying she wasn’t worth the ground she walked on. At one point she thought she remembered them having a contest to see who could hawk the biggest loogie and hit her in the face with it. She shuddered with revulsion.

  She sobbed once and then ruthlessly choked it back. If she started crying, she didn’t know if she’d be able to stop. She continued to take stock of her body. The writing on her skin wasn’t physically painful, only mentally so. She was sore from being held down and fighting them. She could walk, so her legs weren’t broken, but she thought she might have a broken collarbone. It hurt like hell. She’d once broken her collarbone when she was little. A cast wouldn’t work. All they did was put her arm in a sling and told her to be careful.

  Becky thought about what she should do next. If she took a shower she’d probably wash away any physical evidence Derek and David left on her, but would anything happen if she went to the police? She’d probably have to testify, and the last thing she wanted to do was see the twins again.

  The hell with it. She slowly got up and stripped off her clothes. She was in a state of shock, she knew it, but she couldn’t deal with anything right now other than taking a shower to get clean and getting the hell out of there.

  The shower was longer than she’d planned, but she just couldn’t get clean. She scrubbed at her face to get the feeling of their spit off of her. It hurt, bad, but she didn’t stop. The marker wouldn’t come off her skin no matter how hard she scrubbed. She used the washcloth and rubbed her skin until it was red and raw and she could still see the words. Cow. Bitch. Cunt.

  She couldn’t stop remembering the laughs and the taunts and the pain as the men took turns holding her down and writing on her. As they swore at her as they tried to get it up. They hit her when they couldn’t and blamed her for being butt ugly and a cow.

  Their words haunted her.

  Finally, she made herself get out of the shower. Becky knew she’d ruined her best chances of the men paying for what they did, but it was hard to think. She did take the trash can liner out of the can and put the clothes she’d been wearing in it. She figured it might be better than nothing if she decided down the line to press charges, but that was as far as she could go in trying to preserve any evidence.

  She got dressed again, jeans and a long sleeved shirt to cover her arms, and a sweatshirt. She couldn’t get warm. She knew it was shock, but she didn’t stop to think about it. She packed up the rest of her belongings and left the room. She didn’t even tell the front desk she was leaving. The hell with the show, the hell with Eddie, and the hell with the hotel.

  She went out a side door and walked to the nearest fast food restaurant. She asked the manager to call a cab, and as a testimony to what her face looked like, he didn’t even question her other than asking if she was all right.

  Ten minutes later she was in the cab. When the driver asked her where she wanted to go, Becky’s mind immediately flashed to Dean and his family. She shook her head. She couldn’t go there in her mind yet. But she did want to say goodbye to Star. Something pulled her toward the little coyote and Becky wanted to make sure she was okay before she left. She gave the driver directions, put her head back on the seat and closed her eyes.

  * * *

  Jonathan tried to call his brother a few times after his shift on the show was over, but he wasn’t answering his phone. It wasn’t necessarily unusual because he knew Dean was up in the mountains and most of the time there wasn’t cell service up there. But Jonathan was worried about Becky. After she left in the limo, Eddie decided that Marissa had to choose two men to leave rather than only one more, as it would’ve been originally.

  Marissa pitched a fit. Jonathan heard her yelling at Eddie behind a closed door. She was stomping her feet and wanting to change her original choices as a result of Becky leaving. Eddie refused to let her.

  Jonathan knew Marissa was heartless, but he hadn’t realized she didn’t have a speck of honor in her body when he heard her tell Eddie without a speck of remorse, “Fine, David and Derek will have to go then because it’s no good to only have one twin. They’re only good if they’re together.”

  He knew the contestants who were no longer on the show were brought to a hotel to wait out the show. Jonathan stopped by last night after filming to see if he could get a hold of Becky, but there was no answer when he was transferred to her room by the hotel operator.

  They, of course, wouldn’t give him her room number so he had no way of getting a hold of her and thus no choice but to leave. His instincts were telling him something wasn’t right, but he had nothing to go on and he couldn’t get a hold of Becky. He decided he’d keep trying to call Dean and would get a hold of Becky the next day. If he had to he’d get his dad involved and see if he could get a hold of Dean, somehow.

  * * *

  Becky opened her eyes when the cab stopped near the front gates of the refuge.

  “Ya want me to pull in, lady?” the driver asked gruffly. He’d seen how badly she’d been beaten and felt sorry for her. He’d wanted to bring her to the hospital, but Becky refused. She wasn’t ready.

  She quickly answered, “No, please, just pull over here…and…if it’s not too much to ask…can you wait for me? I promise I won’t be long…I just…there’s something I have to do.”

  The driver turned around and looked at the pathetic woman in his cab.

  “You’re not going to do something illegal, are you?” he asked sternly. “Or hurt yourself?”

  “Oh, no!” Becky answered quickly. “I just have to say goodbye to someone before I leave town.”

  The driver gazed at the woman for several moments and once again tried to urge her to let him take her to a doctor. When she refused he finally gave in and said, “Okay, but the meter’s runnin’.” Becky nodded. Thank God cabs took credit cards nowadays.

  She stepped out of the cab and walked a little ways down the fence line along the gravel road. She went around a small corner and sat on the ground gingerly. It hurt too much to crouch.

  She very softly howled and yipped just as Dean had taught her what seemed so long ago. She really wanted to see Star. She wasn’t sure why, but she just wanted to be sure she was all right and had been eating.

  After a minute or so she heard movement in the trees surrounding the fence. Suddenly the coyote was there. She walked straight up to the fence with no hesitation and whined. Becky stuck her fingers through the fence. Again, maybe not the smartest thing she’d ever done, but hell, nothing could make her feel worse right now. What was a dog bite added to everything else?

  “Hey, girl…you okay? I wanted to come and see you again…before I left…”

  Becky felt a tear fall down her face. She sniffed. “I’m gonna miss you, girl. Have you been eating? And making friends?”

  The coyote stared at Becky and tilted her head. It was as if the coyote could really see her, could really understand her. She whined again and licked Becky’s fingers through the fence.

  Becky’s tears fell harder. “Oh God, Star…” Becky’s voice trailed off. The coyote had gotten a hold of the sleeve of Becky’s sweatshirt and was pulling on it…as if to say, “follow me.”

  Becky pulled back on the material, and heard it tear. Ignoring her torn clothing, she looked over toward the bend in the road where she hoped the cab was still waiting on her. She knew another car could come by and catch her…and she didn’t want anyone in Dean’s family to see her looking like she was. She wished she was braver and could go to Steve and Bethany and ask for help. But she was embarrassed and humiliated and didn’t want anyone to see her, especially the awful words that she couldn’t scrub off her body.

  “I have to go, Star,” Becky said, finally tugging her sleeve free. “I wish I could stay. I wish I could be a part of this family, but I can’t…” The coyote whined. “You just don’t understand, Star…I can’t go to him…he can’t see me…” Her voice trailed off. Through her tears she
managed to say, “You be a good girl. I’ll miss you.” She slowly stood up, wiped the tears from her face and made her way back to the cab.

  * * *

  The same afternoon Becky said goodbye to the little coyote, Dean arrived back into town and went straight to the refuge. The security job hadn’t been tough physically, but it’d been torture for Dean mentally. He’d seen what the stalker had done to the woman and he’d made it his mission to make her feel as safe as possible. He’d patiently gone over and over the codes to the alarms and explained how they worked, just so she’d feel okay about her safety after he left.

  Satisfied he’d done all he could, Dean made his way back home and to his One. He’d missed her terribly and felt bad he hadn’t been able to talk to her while he was gone. He never liked being out of touch with his family for long periods of time, but there was no way he was going to leave the woman alone up in the mountains until he’d set up all the security systems.

  He’d listened to Becky’s phone message earlier and at first couldn’t think about anything else but about how she’d told him she wanted to give them a chance and wanted to stay here with him. His heart leapt with joy. It wasn’t until he couldn’t get a hold of her when he’d called her back that he’d started to get concerned. He wondered if whatever happened on the show had something to do with it. He didn’t like not having all the details and he definitely didn’t like not being able to reach her. It made him twitchy, especially coming off of the job he had.

  Now, heading to the refuge he still hadn’t been able to connect with Becky. It was making him more than a little uneasy. He wanted to be able to see her and hold her to be sure everything was all right. He’d gotten used to being able to talk to her every day. He wanted to hear about what happened on the show and to make sure she was all right. He knew Becky had been having issues and desperately wanted to leave the set, and it killed him that he couldn’t help her. All he could do was listen and try to support her from afar.

  Dean pulled up to the house at the refuge center to talk to his dad and decompress. Helping with the animals was the best therapy he’d ever found, even if helping was mucking out the barn, and he was glad to be home. He cut the engine on his truck and massaged the kinks out of his neck. He’d been traveling a long time and wanted nothing more than to see and talk to Becky and possibly go for a run, in that order. He headed toward the house. The sooner he talked to his dad the sooner he’d hopefully see his woman.

  The house was in chaos when he opened the door. The hair stood up on the back of his neck. All thoughts of being tired disappeared and he quickly walked over to his father. Steve saw him when he walked in the door and went over to intercept him.

  “What’s going on?” Dean asked quickly as he approached.

  “Becky’s missing.” Steve told him without beating around the bush.

  “What?” Dean roared, feeling dizzy. How could she be missing? What did he mean?

  Steve steered his son toward a chair and motioned for the other employees to clear the room. Dean finally noticed Jonathan standing near their mother.

  “What happened?” Dean asked again firmly.

  Jonathan answered, “We don’t know, bro’. She took herself off the show and then she disappeared.”

  Dean’s head spun. Was this what she’d wanted to tell him that night?

  “Start from the beginning,” Dean ordered tightly.

  Jonathan recounted the events from the other night. How Becky had enough of the show and essentially voted herself off. He explained what went down after she left with the twins and Marissa and how he went to the hotel after he was released from the set and couldn’t get a hold of her. He explained how the next day, when he finally convinced a hotel employee to check on her, her room was empty. She’d left. They’d tried to track her down, with no luck. No one had seen her leave and they didn’t know where she’d gone.

  * * *

  Dean sat in front of his brother and parents and tried to think about what to do next. He worked in security for a living, he should know what to do, but he couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that his One had just left…it felt like she’d left him. Had she not wanted to be with him after all? She said on the phone message she wanted to stay, had she changed her mind?

  He thought he’d made it clear he wanted to be with her, that she was his. Had Dean come on too strong? Had Becky decided he was too protective, too controlling? Too many questions were chasing through his head at once. He shook his head as if to clear it…and realized the noise he heard wasn’t coming from inside him, but from outside in the pen, it was a coyote…howling mournfully out in the yard. Howling like that was unusual for a coyote. They were much more likely to communicate by yipping. He looked out the window, then back at his dad.

  “She’s been doing that for a while now. We can’t get her to come near us, and she won’t stop howling,” Steve said.

  Chills ran down Dean’s back. It was Star. He knew it. She knew something, she was trying to communicate with them, but he hadn’t been home. He knew how hard it was for the little coyote to trust. People generally didn’t give animals enough credit. They knew when something was wrong. There were so many stories of dogs predicting earthquakes and other bad weather. Had Becky come back to see “her” coyote before she’d left? She had to have. How else would the coyote know to be upset?

  He stood up so fast the chair he’d been sitting in was knocked to the ground. He strode toward the door, Steve and Jonathan following close behind. He went toward the gate and let himself into the enclosure. He walked toward the sound. Steve and Jonathan stayed back at the fence to watch. They’d both tried to get close to the little coyote with no luck. Every time they’d tried, the coyote had run off into the bush, only to return and start howling again once they’d left. Perhaps Dean could get near her. It was worth a shot.

  Dean knew it wasn’t like he’d be able to talk to the animal, but maybe he could at least calm her down. It was breaking everyone’s hearts to hear the little coyote howl so mournfully.

  Dean strode through the enclosure toward the tree line. He followed the sound of the coyote’s howling. He slowed down when he saw the little coyote. She was sitting staring at the fence that lined the road to their refuge. Becky had to have been here. Why else would the coyote be sitting right there?

  He said softly, “Star, what is it? What’s wrong? Do you know what happened to my One? Where is she?”

  He didn’t know what to expect. He didn’t think the coyote would suddenly stand up and start talking, but he sure didn’t expect her to come running toward him and leap at him. He automatically caught her as he fell backward. Dean hoped she wasn’t attacking him. He’d hate to harm her, but he’d protect himself.

  As he lay on his back the coyote just stood over him. Staring at him. Staring into his eyes. Dean repeated more urgently, not even thinking about how silly it was to be talking to an animal as if it would answer him. “You know what happened, don’t you? Oh God, I wish you could talk, where is she?”

  Star backed off of Dean and kept backing up until she was a distance away from him. She howled again. Another mournful howl. Dean sat up and watched the coyote as she turned toward the fence once more and trotted over to it. She picked something up from the ground with her teeth and brought it over to where Dean was still sitting on the ground.

  It was a piece of fabric. A small one, but it proved to Dean that Becky had more than likely been there. This coyote was smart. Dean looked at her again, closely. It dawned on him for the first time that she was probably mixed with some sort of dog. Many times coyotes would mate with feral dogs or even neighborhood dogs that were out and running around. Maybe that was why she was more willing to play with Becky and why she had such a close bond with her.

  He stood up slowly, the material clutched tightly in his hand. Something was terribly wrong. He knew it. Becky wouldn’t have come to say goodbye to the little coyote if she was coming back. Something had happened. Dean’
s stomach got tight, if she’d been hurt…enough of this bullshit. He had to do something. Becky wasn’t leaving him without a word. He’d find her and fix whatever had happened to spook her.

  Dean turned and started back toward the house. Surprisingly the coyote followed him closely, as if she knew he’d take care of her new friend.

  When Dean arrived at the gate to the pen, he turned around and kneeled to face the little coyote. He held out his hand and she came to him without hesitation. Dean scratched her ears and bent toward her, saying for her ears only, “Thank you, Star. I’ll get her back, I promise.”

  He then stood up and left the enclosure, heading back to where his family was standing. He saw that his brother was talking on the phone and listening intently to whomever was on the other side. Finally, he hung up.

  “I had a hunch and called around to a few taxi companies. If she did leave the hotel she had to have gotten a ride from someone. She doesn’t have a car here, so I figured she’d take a taxi somewhere.”

  The others nodded and Dean impatiently gestured for him to continue. He wasn’t usually so brusque, but this was his woman and he was beyond worried about her.

  Jonathan continued, “I got lucky and the second company I called had a record of picking up a woman from a restaurant near the hotel around the general time I figured she’d left. I got even luckier and got to talk to the driver himself.” He paused and looked at his brother. “You’re not going to like what he said, Dean.”

  Dean nodded. “I don’t like any of this. Go on.”

  “He said she looked like she’d been beaten up,” Jonathan said bluntly, knowing now wasn’t the time to sugarcoat anything. They had to get to the bottom of what happened to Becky and find her. “She did come to the refuge. The driver said she asked to come here and he stopped outside the gates. She asked for him to wait and she went around the corner where he couldn’t see her and was gone about ten minutes. When she came back she was crying. He tried again to get her to let him take her to a doctor, but she refused.”