Free Red Noon by Capri Montgomery Page B

brushed my teeth since I left my house.”
    He winked. “No worries. I have a toothbrush and paste for you in the bathroom.”
    She nodded. “I should put on some clothes.”
    “Yeah,” he walked over to the bag they had dropped off last night and pulled a few things out. The dress seemed the safest because the fabric felt soft to him so maybe it would feel okay against her body. He didn’t go for a pair of the pants because he thought that much fabric on the damage to her body that he had just seen might hurt her more. He got a pair of panties for her and then pulled out a bra and held it up to see if she wanted that one.
    She shook her head no. “A bra would hurt too much right now. Good thing I’m only an A-cup. I don’t think anybody will really notice if I don’t have on one.”
    He put the black lace bra back and handed her the panties he had picked out—something soft in fabric that he hoped wouldn’t hurt her too much. “Need help?”
    “I think I can get it.” She took the panties from him and maneuvered under the covers again. He heard the strained sounds of her anguish as she pulled the panties up. She was completely naked under those covers because the nurses had wanted to let the injury have a breather from as much fabric as they could.
    She took the dress from him next. She sat up and made sure her back was to him before removing the sheets. The damage was still glaring at him like a wolf daring him to attack. Find the bastard and kill him is what he heard, but the saner side of his mind told him to follow the law. That was his job, was it not? Protect, serve, obey the laws not break them.
    Sheila was doing okay but she had difficulty with the dress so he helped get it over her head and arms. There was no way he couldn’t get a look at those “girly parts” while doing it but fortunately he was a man who could think with the northern head and not let the southern one take over. She didn’t need a lover. She needed a protector.  He helped her stand and watched her go to the bathroom where she closed the door but not before asking him not to leave her alone. He sat down on the edge of the bed and looked up to the ceiling. “Mission accepted,” he said to God. “I am not going to let the bastard get to her again. I hope you won’t hold it against me if I break some laws in the process.” He would be her protector by whatever means necessary.

Chapter Five
    S helia sat on the bed with her legs cushioned on top of pillows. She made sure the black and gold dress they had brought from her home was still covering at least some of the bruises but she couldn’t cover all of them. The just below knee length flaring skirt and the scoop neck top of the bodice to the dress showed off some of the wounds.
    Both detectives were from the Scottsdale location so she now knew the extent of how many cities were cooperating with each other on this case. She had to say that was pretty amazing seeing as though she hadn’t thought anybody was coming for her at all. She was thankful for all their hard work. She still didn’t know how they found her. She and Takahiro hadn’t really talked about all that because she was still coming down from a rush of fear while trying to deal with all of the physical and mental tormenting that had been done to her.
    She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly as one of the detectives sat at the chair beside her bed while the other stood next to him. That was Takahiro’s chair and since one of them took it she knew he wouldn’t be beside her. No, he sat too far away on the couch across the room. It wasn’t miles away, but it felt like it.
    “Can you tell us why you were parked in the driveway?”
    “When I got home my garage door remote wouldn’t work. Since the door doesn’t have a handle to lift from the outside I went into the house. I planned to go back out and run to the store. I changed my mind and planned to just go move the car inside. I didn’t want to leave it out