Chapter 11

The next day everything went smooth. Wednesday went just as uneventful. Annie and Spencer tried to be an obvious item every chance they got without being too obvious. Wednesday night Annie fixed a special dinner to celebrate Walt’s cast coming off the next day. Boyd and Dave would come help Annie with the milking in the afternoon so Spencer could take Walt to the doctor. They headed out about 11:00 and Annie headed in to start lunch. Boyd and Dave would be here any minute and after lunch they would help her clean out the milking room and get set up for the evening milking. Spencer and Annie had finished up the morning milking earlier than expected; it was almost silly for Boyd to come over, but Spencer didn’t want Annie there alone. He had talked about sending her with Walt to the doctor but decided that Ron’s thugs would probably go after her if she did, so he decided to take him. The appointment was less than an hour and only about ten minutes from the farm, so this was the best solution. Annie had lunch ready and waited for Boyd and Dave, but they still hadn’t shown up. Finally, Dave showed up and explained that he had gotten a message that Walt’s appointment was changed to a later time and not to come to the farm until later. He had eaten so Annie fixed herself a plate and while eating, she tried to reach Boyd. There was no answer; maybe he was on his way. After putting the lunchmeat and fruit back in the fridge, Annie went out to help Dave in the barn. They were hosing down the milking room when they heard a car pull in, it must be Boyd. But it wasn’t Boyd who called her name. When she turned around, she could see two of the men that had been watching her standing in the doorway.

“Hey, look the boyfriend left a kid here to protect her.” And the two men laughed.

Annie moved slowly toward Dave. The two thugs moved closer. They had guns and all she had was the hose, but it gave her an idea.

Grabbing Dave by the wrist, she whispered, “When I say go, run to the office and lock yourself in.”

“No, I won’t.”

“Do it Dave or they’ll kill you.” Just then she aimed the hose she was holding at the two men and pushed the trigger. The water caught them off guard and they fell back. “Go Dave! Go!” she yelled, and he did. Annie tried to get out of the barn but was stopped by the big guy waiting at the car.

“I got her, I got her, get out here.” he called to the others.

Suddenly the man let go of her and fell to the ground.

“Annie, get behind the car a voice yelled”

She did as ordered. She knew that voice. It was Sloan. He didn’t know that there were two more in the barn. She had to warn him. But it was too late; when she stood, he already had them facing the barn wall.

“Sloan are you ok?” She asked.

“Yea, I’m fine but could you call the Sheriff to come get these guys.”

The phone in the house was dead but Sloan had a cell phone on the front seat of his rental, and she called with it.

The sheriff arrived in just minutes with Spencer and Papa right behind him. The sheriff called for transport and handcuffed the three. Walt was holding on to Annie for dear life.

“Girl are you ok?” he asked.

“I’m fine but ... Dave, oh my God I forgot about Dave. I told him to lock himself in the office and he’s still in there.”

Spencer laughed and went to get him. He was ok too, just a little scared.

When he gave his statement to the Sheriff, he made Annie sound like a hero. “She told me to lock myself in the office and then she hosed those guys good. You should have seen them.” Annie smiled but she was still trembling. When it was all over and the transport van had taken the guys away, Pete took both Annie’s hands in his and said how glad he was that she was safe and that he could be there for her. Then he looked at Spencer and let go of her hands. This was not a fair fight; he knew it was one he was not going to win. He could feel the passion between Spencer and Annie, and he knew it was already over. They finished the paper work and Pete left. When the house grew quiet, Annie crossed the room to Sloan. With tears in her eyes she hugged him.

“Thank you, Sloan, if you had not gotten here when you did, I would probably be on a plane headed for Ron right now and we all know how that would have ended.” With the last word she started to sob. It had finally hit her; just how close they were to taking her back to Ron.

Walt went to the phone to call Boyd. “Where the devil is he, why wasn’t he here like he promised?” Walt questioned as he slammed down the receiver.

“I don’t know papa, but that isn’t like Boyd, maybe someone should go over and check on him,” Annie said.

“Your right honey, Boyd would not just forget, something must be wrong. I’ll jump in the truck and run over to see what’s wrong.”

“Listen Walt, maybe I’ll just run over with you, if something is wrong you might need help.” Spencer offered.

The two men nodded.

Papa walked over to where Annie was sitting and leaned down to kiss her. “I’ll be back soon. Why don’t you just rest for a few hours and we’ll go out for dinner tonight.”

Annie stood, “I’m fine papa but feel terrible that I didn’t even ask about your leg. Let me see. How does it feel? What did the doctor say?”

“Oh, honey its fine. I need to take a little physical therapy but then it will be as good as new. The doctor said I had strong bones for an old geezer.” Annie smiled.

“Now go lay down for a while so I can go check on Boyd.”

“Ok, but you two be careful.” She called as they went out the front door.

“Annie if it’s ok with you, I’ll just go out, close up the barn and head home for a while. If Walt wants me to come back and help with the milking tonight, just tell him to call. I don’t have any other plans and you might want to just rest this evening. Just ask Walt to call me, ok?” Dave asked.

“Sure Dave, and thanks if you hadn’t been here today, they may have taken me, and no one would have even known.”

Dave smiled but Annie could tell he was still upset. That was a lot for a boy his age to be involved in.

“See you later, Dave.”

The house was really quiet again. Annie had flopped down in a chair and Sloan sat quietly on one end of the sofa. They just sat in silence. Finally, Sloan could see that Annie was nearly asleep.

“Come on honey, I’ll take you up to your room and maybe you can get a nap. While you’re resting, I can have a hot shower. I worked through the night and caught a standby flight to get here this afternoon, I really need a shower.”

Annie laughed and Sloan helped her upstairs.

By the time the shower started Annie had drifted off. The monster was after her again, she was running, she was getting away, when the feeling of a warm hand clamping over her mouth woke her up. As her eyes fluttered open, she saw Ron’s face only inches from hers. The scream was muffled, and the running water of the shower only silenced her that much more.

“Hello Annie!”

She struggled and twisted trying to get away, but he was much stronger and had a good hold on her.

“Where’s your new boyfriend?”

Annie stopped struggling and only stared at Ron.

Now that’s much better, there’s no need to fight me. I just want what’s mine.”

Annie knew that look in Ron’s eyes. If possible, her heart started beating faster. He had promised to kill her and now there was no one to stop him. The shower was still running and there was no one else there. She thought for a moment that she heard the stairs creak but knew that was not possible.

Ron leaned in even closer. “I came in here looking for you when my guys went out to the barn so when everything went wrong, I just waited. I had a feeling that we would be alone soon and here we are. Isn’t this nice.” Annie turned her face quickly and bit the edge of Ron’s hand. Although it wasn’t enough for her to break free, it was enough to get a small scream out. But nothing. The shower had stopped but the fan was running, and Sloan would never hear her over that. Blinking for only a moment Annie refocused on Ron who was now very angry. The look told her to brace for impact because he was going to hit her, and he did. She could feel her lip split and the warmth of the blood. These were feelings she knew well. But before she could scream, he wrapped his hands around her throat, and she couldn’t breathe. It hurt but she still struggled. The air from her lungs was gone and the room was spinning. She knew she was passing out and then a loud boom happened, and Ron took his hands away. Then his weight was gone but she still couldn’t see. Her lungs were trying to take in air, but it wasn’t enough and then there was another loud boom. And Annie passed out.

Dave had closed up the barn and locked everything up but, on his way, out he had found a gun that had been kicked out of sight, when Sloan had fought with the guy at the car. He didn’t want to leave it in the barn, so he took it to the house, but when he went in the house was quiet. He could hear the shower and was just going to leave the gun with a note and then heard Annie’s weak scream. With every ounce of courage, he had, Dave went upstairs to see what was wrong. When he saw Ron strangling Annie he panicked. Without even thinking, Dave raised the gun and fired. It broke the bedroom window but more importantly it got Ron away from Annie. Ron jumped up and saw Dave holding the gun and went after him, pushing him down in the hall and then trying to get the gun away, it went off again. The gun fell between the rails of the balcony and fell downstairs. Ron slugged Dave and Dave just laid there. Sloan had heard all the shots and had gone out in the hall just in time to grab Ron and they started wrestling around and fighting. Sloan quickly placed himself between Ron and Annie’s room leaving the staircase open. Ron gave Sloan a strong shove, knocking him back in to Annie’s room and then took off down the staircase and out the front door, and he was gone. Dave got up and started for Annie.

“Sloan do something, she isn’t breathing, and I think she’s dead. Look she’s bleeding.”

Sloan was torn, he knew he could catch Ron but if Annie was seriously hurt, he had to help her.

“She has a pulse and her breathing is very shallow, but she is alive, go call an ambulance. I don’t want to move her there could be other injuries.” Sloan ordered but Dave just stood there beside her bed. “Ok Dave, just stay with her, I’ll go call for help.” Sloan ran downstairs to get his cell phone because the house phones were still dead.

The Sheriff and rescue arrived together. One of the EMT’s looked Dave over and called his parents to come get him. The Sheriff and the other EMT went up to Annie. She was still unconscious and barely breathing. After just a few minutes, they loaded her in the ambulance and took her to the hospital. Dave and a deputy waited at the house for Dave’s parents and in case Walt and Spencer came back any time soon. About ten minutes later Walt and Spencer followed Dave’s parents down the lane to the house. When Dave’s mom got out of the car, she was fighting mad. She started screaming at Walt as if he had hit her son, but when Dave came out of the house to see what all the yelling was about, she started to cry and hug him.

“Walt, we have been friends a long time but when you put my baby in danger like this, well it’s just unforgivable. He quits. He was hired to help milk not fight off killers and guard Annie. He will not be coming back.” Dave’s mom was saying between hugs.

Spencer was going to interrupt but Dave had not had that black eye and the Deputy had not been there when they left. They had only been gone about 30 minutes, what had happened.

“Mom, mom, calm down I’m fine. I love this job and I don’t want to quit. It’s only a black eye and if I hadn’t been here Annie would be dead now.”

“Where is Annie?” Walt asked finally catching up with what the boy was saying.

Spencer looked at the deputy standing on the front porch. “What is going on? Where the hell is Annie and why isn’t Sloan here?”

Before the deputy could answer, Dave did. “Sloan rode in the ambulance with Annie to the hospital. That man attacked her and she’s unconscious. I found a gun in the barn; it must have been from the three guys earlier. I took it in to leave for the police, but the house was quiet, so I was just going to leave when I heard Annie scream. It wasn’t a real scream, but I knew she was being hurt so I went upstairs. Sloan was in the shower and couldn’t hear her but when I looked in her room, that man was on top of her and was hurting her, so I shot at him. But I missed and broke the window. That’s when he came after me and we fought for the gun, it went off again and that’s when he slugged me. But before he could do it again, Sloan was on him and they were really fighting. The guy got away and Sloan wanted to go after him, but I could tell Annie wasn’t breathing so he stayed to help her. I don’t remember too much after that, I think the EMT said it was shock ... They all just stood there looking at him like he had dreamed the whole thing.

“Anyway, they are at the hospital and Annie still wasn’t breathing very well.” With that Dave walked over and got in his parent’s car.

Dave’s dad gently patted Walt on the back and said “if Dave’s truck isn’t in the way, we’ll just leave it tonight. I’ll drop him off bright and early in the morning.”

It looked like a parade when they all left the house, one right after the other, but when Spencer’s tires hit the pavement; he left the others in his dust, even the deputy.

At the hospital Sloan was waiting out in the hall.

“How is she?” Walt asked.

“I don’t know anything yet, people come and go, but none of them tell me anything.” he said running his hand over his chin. “Did you talk to the deputy?”

“Yes, but Dave was the one with all the info. Pretty tough kid.” Spencer said with a smile.

“I’ve been kicking myself ever since it happened; I was in the shower and didn’t even hear him come in. If Dave hadn’t come back, I hate to think what might have happened. I’m really sorry it just all happened so fast.”

Spencer could tell that Sloan was really feeling bad; it was obvious that he blamed himself. Walt could see it too.

“My God man, you were in the shower, how can you blame yourself?” Walt offered.

“Thanks Walt but I do.”

Just then the door to Annie’s room opened and a doctor came out.

“Doctor, how is she, what’s going on in there?” Spencer asked.

“Are you family, sir?” the doctor asked.

“No.” Spencer stammered.

“But I am!” Walt said stepping in the doctor’s path. “How is my girl, when can we see her?”

“Well we are still running some tests. Family members can see her when we are finished but you need to know that she is still unconscious.” And with that the doctor turned to walk away. Walt took another step and blocked the doctor. “How long do you think she will have to stay in the hospital? Is she going to be all right? And one more thing doctor, we will all be going in to see her so unless you can accept that, you better call someone to restrain these two because that’s what it will take.”

“Ok,” the doctor said looking past Walt, “She may be here for at least a few days and until we finish our testing, I really can’t tell you anymore” and with that he moved on.

It was quite some time later that another doctor came out and walked over to where they were sitting. Walt immediately stood and asked how she was doing.

“Are you the grandfather?” the doctor asked.

“Yes, I’m Walt Geyer. Please call me Walt.”

“Ok, thank you Walt, I’m Dr Henderson. I have been examining Annie and was told you wanted to know anything as soon as possible.”

“She’s my baby, doctor; I’ve raised her since she was six months old, if anything would happen to her...”

Dr. Henderson could see Walt was getting very emotional.

“Well now Walt, you can calm down. She is going to be fine. She is going to have some nasty bruises and maybe some swelling. It may be difficult for her to even talk in the beginning until all that heals but I think physically she’ll be just fine. Emotionally I can’t say, going through an attack like this is never easy to get over. She is a strong, healthy, young lady and I’m sure she’ll be back to normal in just a few days.”

“Is she awake yet doctor?” Spencer asked.

“She was just starting to come around before I came out. If I give you five minutes with her now, will you all go home and let her rest tonight?”

Spencer was going to put up an argument, but Walt agreed so quickly that Spencer didn’t even have a chance. The doctor walked over to the door and pushed it open. He called into the nurses to give her family a few minutes of privacy and before he turned away, he reminded them five minutes, she really needs to rest.

Walt was at her side instantly.

“Oh baby, don’t try to talk, you’re going to be alright and we’ll take you home just as soon as we can.”

Annie was just waking up. She was groggy but she knew they were there. Spencer stood at the foot of her bed so she could see him. Sloan went to the other side of her bed and picked up her hand.

“Annie, I am soooo sorry. I don’t know how it happened. I was only in the shower a few minutes, I never heard him come in. Dave saved you.”

Annie tried to shake her head, but it hurt, and she moaned. That’s when they all got a good look at her neck. It had started to bruise; you could make out his actual handprints. Something twisted deep inside Spencer, sorrow, anger, no it was hate. He had despised Ron from the very beginning but now it had turned to deep hate. Spencer couldn’t remember ever hating anyone before, but this felt right.

When Annie tried to speak, he refocused his thoughts on her.

You could tell it hurt her to even try but she wasn’t giving up.

“He,” came out but the rest was silent.

“What honey I don’t understand, go slowly.”

She tried again.

“Oh my God! He was in the house the whole time.” Spencer said he had made out that he was in the house by watching her lips, those sweet, tender lips that were now split and showed signs of bleeding.