Chapter 31
Preston
There was a bangon the door to the panic room, causing everyone’s heads to swivel toward it. I’d been here for less than an hour, but it felt like an eternity while we sat silently, knowing Lucy’s life hung in the balance.
More knocking, this time more rhythmically, and whoever was out there must have known the secret code because one security agent cocked his gun, training it on the steel door, as another opened it carefully.
Liam burst through the doorway, carrying Lucy’s limp body. I vaguely heard Liam tell his father to remove the women and children from the room as I stumbled to where he placed her down on a couch.
Kneeling next to her unconscious body, I cupped her face with both hands. “Lucy, baby. Please wake up.”
I had been so relieved to see her that I didn’t notice the blood splattered across her face and upper chest.
Looking to Liam in question, he quickly explained, “It’s not hers.”
Caressing the soft skin of her cheeks, I winced at the ugly-looking bruise forming at the edge of her jawline, noting another under her eye. Scanning the rest of her body for injuries, I saw the jacket of Liam’s dress uniform draped across her legs. Thinking he was trying to keep her warm, I removed it, revealing the tattered remains of the lower half of her dress.
The breath froze in my lungs at the sight. Liam replaced the jacket over her bare thighs as I stared at her in shock, praying with all my might that I could erase whatever happened to her in those tunnels.
Liam had to physically pull me away long enough for the royal physician to examine her. Not straying far, I pulled a chair to the edge of the couch, keeping her hand held in mine.
“How was she when you found her?” the doctor asked Liam.
Liam spared me a glance, hesitating, and I could see the regret written all over his face.
“Tell him,” I demanded.
Running a hand through his dark hair, he sighed. “There was a man on top of her.” Fuck. Hearing him confirm it drove a dagger into my heart. “I took him out with a bullet to the head; that’s the blood splatter you see. She was struggling to breathe by the time I got his weight off her chest. She passed out not long after.”
Using a stethoscope, he listened to her lungs. “Her breath sounds are good. We’re not looking at a collapsed lung, so it’s possible she fainted due to shock.” Pausing, he looked between me and Liam. “Shall I examine for signs of a sexual assault?”
“No!” I roared, gripping my head against the pain yelling caused. “Don’t you fucking touch her!”
Liam put a hand on my shoulder. “I know it’s hard, man. But we need to know for sure.”
I wanted to rip him limb from limb. It was my job to protect this woman, and the idea of some other man putting his hands on her, forcing himself on her . . . It made me physically ill.
Just as I was about to grant permission, her tiny hand squeezed mine, and my heart leapt. “Lucy?”
She squeezed again, harder this time.
“Luce, can you hear me?”
Those blue eyes fluttered open and locked on mine. Relief washed over me like a tidal wave as her voice croaked out, “Preston?”
Knocking the doctor out of the way, I sat on the couch, pulling her into my arms. I was never going to let her go ever again. “I’ve got you, Princess.”
Her body began to shake at the use of her special nickname, and I felt wetness soaking through my shirt. Before I knew it, tears fell from my eyes and into her dark hair. The feeling was bittersweet as I wept with her in relief that she was safe but also in heartbreak at the horrors she was forced to endure at the hands of her own brother.
Lucy pulled her face off my chest, her sad blue eyes glassy with tears. Placing both her hands on my cheeks, she whispered, “I thought I’d never see you again.”
I knew how she felt, but I needed to push my fear to the side. What she went through was far worse, and I was determined to support her in any way I could.
Wiping the tears from her cheeks with my thumbs, I whispered, “I’m right here.”
Lip trembling, she nodded. “Don’t leave me.”
“Never.” I shook my head.
