The Rescue

Damon did not remember crossing the room. One second he was staring at his phone, listening to Naomi’s trembling breath and the unmistakable edge of another woman’s voice in the background, Soonie’s voice, and the next, he was barking orders at Patrick who seemed to have sensed something was wrong and had come rushing in.

“Sir, is everything okay?”

“Track her location. Now,” Damon snapped as he shoved his phone into Patrick's hand.

“Who?” Patrick asked gently, knowing he could get cursed out for his question.

“My wife God damnit!” Damom snapped in anger.

Patrick stepped out almost immediately to hand the phone over to the security detail in charge of the house. Minutes later, he returned with news just as Damon was shrugging into his jacket.

Patrick didn’t waste a second. “Sir, her call pinged from a residential block on Aster Lane. Apartment 5B.”

“That’s Soonie’s apartment,” Damon muttered, voice tightening at the edges. He had men watching the apartment when Naomi decided to leave the last time. They should still be stationed there.

“We have a team still stationed there, sir as per your last instructions..”

“Send them in. I’ll be right behind.”

Patrick nodded and immediately began coordinating the security unit on his telecom. Damon was already out of the house, heart pounding so hard it felt like it was rattling his ribs.

Naomi’s voice, afraid, shaking, replayed in cruel loops through his mind.

“Damon… help me…”

Those two words hollowed him out and every inch of him was filled with a desperate need to get her safe.

He gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles bleached white. Naomi had gone there alone, without telling him. How could she have told him? He would have made it difficult and she simply just wanted to meet up with her friend.

He had no idea what had happened between her and Soonie earlier, but whatever it was, it wasn’t harmless, not after what he'd heard her say. He should’ve seen the signs, he should’ve asked more questions, he should’ve…

No. This wasn’t the moment to drown in guilt. He stepped on the accelerator.

He wasn’t losing her. Not again, not ever.

♡

Naomi’s breath trembled as she lifted her head. The tightness around her wrists was painful, cutting deep into her skin and causing it to bleed. And her ankles tapped firm enough to keep her stuck in the wooden chair Soonie had forced her into.

The air smelled faintly of detergent and old lavender, scents she used to associate with comfort whenever she visited Soonie but now they only made her stomach twist.

Soonie paced in front of her with a shaky kind of stillness, as though holding herself together only by force. Her eyes, usually warm, were wide and unsettled.

“You weren’t supposed to choose him,” Soonie whispered. “You were never supposed to choose Damon.”

Naomi swallowed. “Soonie, please… let me go. We can talk, but not like this.”

“You don’t understand,” Soonie insisted, shaking her head. “I loved you long before he ever came into the picture. And then one day, you just… shifted. Suddenly everything was about Damon.” Her voice cracked. “Do you know what it felt like? Watching you fall for him? Watching you slip away from me? Watching you look at him the way..the way I always wished you’d look at me?”

Naomi’s chest tightened. She had never… never imagined Soonie saw her that way and the reality of it made her heart ache in fear. Hell, she was tied down to a chair with Soonie twirling a kitchen knife carelessly in between her fingers.

“Soonie… I care about you. I always have. But not—”

“Not enough.” Soonie’s voice turned sharp. “Never enough!”

She walked closer, her hands trembling as she pointed the knife to Naomi's neck. “If I let you go now, you’ll run straight back to him. And you’ll forget me. Again.”

“I won’t forget you,” Naomi whispered. “Please…let's talk about this properly…”

She had no clue what to do but she knew she didn't want to die just yet. She had to talk her way out of this and hopefully Damon was on his way to her.

Soonie blinked rapidly, and something shifted in her expression, something unstable and hurt. “If I can’t have your love… then at least I can keep you here..”

She stepped even closer.

Naomi’s pulse quickened.. “We could go to my hometown tonight, rent a small cabin in the woods, adopt children if we want and I ... .I can finally be your first. It will deepen our connection and…”

“Soonie, please..” Naomi cried, tears pooling in her eyes. This was the Soonie she knew, this wasn't her best friend, this was someone different and terrifying.

Soonie’s eyes went dark. “You slept with him already.” she asked, stepping closer as her grip on the knife tightened.

Naomi shook her head violently, “Please..”

“You did! You bloody whore!” Soonie screamed. “After everything I did for you! Every fucking thing!”

Before she could finish, Soonie froze.

A sound echoed through the hallway outside the apartment. Footsteps storming up to her door.

Soonie’s eyes shot to the door.

“No…” she breathed.

Outside, Damon’s security team positioned themselves by her door quietly. They moved across the hallway, communicating with hand signals rather than sound. In seconds, they had surrounded the door.

“Sir, ready on your order,” the team leader said into the comm.

Damon’s voice came through the speaker like cold steel.

“Get my wife out of there.”

The door burst open.

Soonie screamed and stumbled backward, startled out of her spiral. She made no attempt to fight as several men rushed in, securing her roughly and preventing her escape. The knife fell to the ground before she could gather herself.

“Let me go! You don’t understand!” Soonie shouted, her voice breaking. “She’s mine! She was supposed to be mine!”

Naomi squeezed her eyes shut. Even hearing it was too much. The men released her from the chair, speaking gently to her.

“You’re safe now, ma’am.”

Her hands were freed, and the moment she could move, she pulled them to her chest, breathing through the shock. Her entire body trembled with adrenaline, fear, and grief all at once.

She barely heard the chaos around her.

Soonie sobbing and screaming as the guards are escorting her out. Seconds later the sound of police sirens echoed through the entire street.

The apartment door is swinging open again just seconds after Soonie was escorted out.

“Naomi!”

He rushed in with a force that filled the entire room. His eyes swept the space, frantic until they landed on her.

“Naomi.”

Her lip quivered.

She didn’t say a word as Damon reached her in two steps, pulling her into his chest. His arms closed around her with a kind of desperation that made her knees buckle. She clung to him, finally letting the tears she had been holding back slip free.

“It’s okay,” Damon murmured into her hair. “You’re safe. I’m here. I’ve got you.”

She nodded against his shoulder, but the shaking wouldn’t stop.

“You were right..I'm so sorry. I was so scared,” she whispered.

“So was I,” he confessed, holding her even tighter. “Thank God you're safe..”

He gently lifted her face, scanning her for any signs of injury, fingers brushing the soft skin of her jaw, then her cheek, then her wrists. “Did she hurt you?”

Naomi shook her head, voice barely a breath. “Just… scared me.”

“I should have made it in sooner” Damon muttered, eyes darkening with protective anger. “She won’t come near you again. I promise.”

A medic from the security team stepped forward quietly.

“Sir, we should get her checked. Just to be sure.”

Damon nodded, wrapping an arm around Naomi’s shoulders.

“Let’s go.”

He guided her out of the apartment, shielding her from the flashes of police lights outside. Soonie was already in custody, sitting in the back of a patrol car, still crying though Naomi couldn’t hear the words from where she was.

Damon didn’t look at Soonie, his focus was entirely on Naomi.

He settled her into the passenger seat of his car, adjusted the seat belt carefully, then knelt beside her briefly, leaning one forearm on the frame of the door.

“You’re okay,” he whispered again, more to reassure himself than her. “I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise you.”

Naomi nodded, her fingers wrapping around his sleeve.

“Take me with you,” she said softly. “Don’t let me out of your sight.”

“You don’t have to ask,” Damon replied immediately, standing up and closing the door gently. “I’m not going anywhere.”

He rounded the car, got into the driver’s seat, and started toward the hospital. Naomi leaned into the seat, finally exhaling just as his hand gripped hers tight.