Free To Hell and Back by Leigha Taylor Page A

We take the elevator down to the main lobby in silence. She rolls me outside and helps me out of the chair, saying, “Good luck, honey. I think you’re going to be just fine.” She winks at me and heads back inside.
    Carson’s car is just pulling up as Claire disappears back into the building. My stomach is doing some crazy kind of dance in my abdomen and I’m feeling every emotion I can think of right now.  I know that the moment I leave with him, it’s like my life begins all over again.  I’m starting that life with a guy I barely know and not much else.
    My purse and its contents were evidence in the crime against me, but Chief Davis dropped off my wallet to me yesterday.  He said he figured I might need it more than they do and asked if I had remembered anything else.  I didn’t have to think very hard before telling him I had remembered nothing new.  So everything I own right now comes down to the clothes on my back and the wallet and flowers in my hand.  The outfit is something Claire pieced together for me from things left behind by other patients.  My clothes from the night I came in are also considered evidence, and my father definitely didn’t bring me anything else to wear.
    The grocery money I had in my wallet is gone; Hank probably removed it before the police and ambulance arrived.  He wouldn’t have let his whiskey money leave with me.  There is an emergency stash of forty dollars in a hidden pocket that he didn’t know to take.  It’s not much but it’s something.  I feel a little sick when I realize just how dependent I’m going to be on Carson. I know he said he knows what he’s getting into and that he’s all in, but I can’t help feeling like I contribute nothing to this budding relationship. 
    Carson parks the car right in front of me and gets out to help me into my seat.  He even helps me buckle before planting another kiss on my forehead.  When he gets back into the driver’s seat I feel like I should say something, anything, but there are just no words.  How do you say thank you to someone for saving your life?  To someone who just three weeks ago was a stranger?  Someone who, in that short time, has already changed your whole world?
     
     
    Carson
     
    I slide into the driver’s seat and close the door. I cannot believe that Brielle is mine. I’ve only known this girl such a short time, but I don’t understand how no one has rescued her before this. From the first moment I saw her I felt protective of her.  Just the thought of someone laying a hand on her makes me blind with rage.  I want her to know without a doubt that she has done the right thing by placing her trust in me.  I want to take care of this girl who is so fragile and broken, yet willing to put herself out there and try.  She’s so much stronger than she knows and even though my heart breaks at every bruise and every broken bone she’s had to endure, I know she’s a survivor.
    I put the car in drive and head for Mrs. Hanley’s.  I talked with the warm, grandmotherly woman last night after dinner and asked her what she knew of Brie’s situation.  Unsurprisingly, she knew more than she had ever let on, or at least she suspected more. It seems like everyone in this town has some idea of what Hank Douglas is really like, but they all agree with Brie that trying to bring him to justice is a hopeless cause.
    I told Mrs. H that Brie was finally ready to break free of her father and take a chance at her own life.  She was incredibly kind and told me she saw no reason to involve anyone else in the matter.  She said Brie could stay there with me as long as either of us would like and no one would have to know a thing.  She even baked chocolate chip muffins this morning. 
    Neither of us has said a word on the drive here. I know I’m nervous as hell to finally have time to just be with her, time to relax and get to know each other.  I worried all last night that she may just end up thinking