Scarlet Guard (House of Scarlet #2)

"So she touches and kisses the people she trusts to get emotional support. She does it a lot because she remembers what happened a lot. There's a video. Raw doesn't even begin to cover it. It was bad. The picture is from the video. It's the third time she's been attacked by someone trying to rape her. So she's a little insecure. For good reason I think."

"So, if it's not that, then your job is . . .?"

"To be there. To be someone she can talk to. About anything. Someone to have coffee with. Window shop at the mall with. Laugh over stupid jokes with. Run errands for when she's too busy. Stuff like that."

"That's all? Not sleeping with her, sex I mean?"

"No. I told you, she's straight. I just do things for her. Like, I bought this cute sleeper outfit for Violet's little Daniel as a gift. I sent it to her with a card from Karen. I had Karen put on some really ruby red lipstick and kiss the card." Callie giggled.

"We had to practice to get the impression right. Karen was kissing card paper for nearly ten minutes. She'd sign her name and kiss the paper. She got chapped lips. There's even a contract in the files that has her signature and a lipstick kiss on it 'cause she forgot after we got Violet's card finished. She kissed the paperwork after she signed it. It was funny."

"And Maria? What's up between you and her? Or shouldn't I ask?"

Callie's chest got tight. It was really too soon for her to talk about it, but Rose had a right to know. She'd been there while Callie needed her. She'd seen it. Been part of it.

"I . . . we . . . they . . . had a problem. Some things were said and done that neither she nor Karen meant. They hurt each other because of it. I . . ." Callie couldn't continue past the pain in her chest. She wrapped her arms around herself to try to hold it inside where Rose couldn't see how much it hurt.

T Rose quickly got up to sit next to her sister on the couch. Hugging Callie tightly she began to talk to her.

"Hey, hey. It's all right. I'm here. You're ok. Everything is fine. I love you."

It wasn't enough. It HURT!

* * * * *

"What do you mean she ran away again?" Karen's voice hitched with fear as she collapsed into her chair.

"She's gone! She was on the couch. I got her a pillow after she had this crying fit but she seemed fine once she stopped. I went in to go to the bathroom. When I came out, she was just gone! I looked everywhere. She's not here. She's not in the hallway outside. Or the stairs. Or the elevator. Or the lobby." Rose's voice was ragged.

"I ran down the block in each direction screaming her name. Everyone thought I was crazy. I didn't see her. I asked people. No one saw her."

"Did you call the police?" Wolfe asked in a flat tone as she held herself rigid. Suppressing the shock and fear that they might lose Callie all over again.

"Yes. They said they won't do anything until she's been missing for twenty four hours. Just like last time."

"Ok. We'll be right there. Maybe we can find her somehow. Maybe we can get lucky again."

Karen stared out the window as the car moved along the roadway. Urging Erik to drive faster wasn't going to help find Callie any quicker. Even though she really wanted to scream at him for driving too slowly.

Another stoplight made them wait. It seemed like they'd hit every stoplight in town so far as they tried to hurry back to Wolfe's apartment building so that they could start searching the area nearby. It was frustrating. Karen wanted to scream at the stoplights too.

The light turned green for them and the car started to roll forward. Karen looked out the window once more. Half hidden on the bus stop bench across the street was a dark haired girl in pink holding a pillow. She looked like she was heading to a slumber party. It was cute. Karen turned her head to look at her as they began picking up speed again.

"Stop the car!" Karen suddenly yelled as she unbuckled her seatbelt. "Stop! STOP! ERIK, STOP THE DAMN CAR!"

Erik slammed on the brakes nearly causing the car behind them to rearend them. Karen opened her door, tumbling out of the car before it came to a full stop. Cars in the next lane swerved to avoid hitting her. Running across the traffic lanes Karen started screaming at the top of her lungs.

"CALLIE! Oh my God! CALLIE!"

Bouncing off of one car, slamming her hands onto the hood of another as both drivers skidded to a stop to avoid running her down, she dashed across the boulevard toward the bus stop. Karen sank to her knees in front of the bench. Callie was hugging the pillow. She had her eyes closed.

"Callie?" Karen placed her trembling hand on Callie's knee.

Callie opened her eyes. She smiled sleepily as she recognized Karen. "Hi."

"What are you doing here?" Karen asked gently with her heart in her eyes.

"Going to work. Where you go, I go. Remember? I got tired."

Karen drew a shuddering sobbing breath in relief. Wolfe appeared on the bench next to Callie. Callie looked over at her.

"Missed you." Callie placed her hand over Wolfe's heart.

They had Erik carry Callie back to the car. Traffic wasn't happy about the snarl from the big limo being parked in the street blocking the lane. Nor were other drivers very understanding when two women, and a man carrying another woman, walked across three traffic lanes without looking to see if the crosswalk signal said they could or not. There was a lot of shouting, horn honking, and a few rude gestures to match. Karen whacked one car with a particularly aggressive driver across the car's hood with the pillow. Yelling back at him as he shouted at them to get out of the street.

After Erik deposited Callie into a seat, he looked at Karen. "Where to Ma'am?"

Karen thought a moment. "Back to the office. She's safe enough with us."

At the office, they had Erik bring Callie upstairs. He put her into the wingback chair. Wolfe dialed her apartment. T Rose answered.

"She's here. She's fine."

"What happened?" Rose's voice cracked as it came through the phone speaker.

"She wanted to be with us. She said she missed us. She tried walking but didn't make it the whole way. We found her sleeping on a bus bench on Broadway."

"She's ok? Really?"

"She's fine. Just tired. We'll bring her home tonight."

They could hear Rose blow out a huge breath. "God! I don't know that I can take much more of this."

"Rose. She's fine. Relax."

"You don't understand. Callie's perfect. She's never been in trouble. Never needed anything. We never had to worry about her. For anything. Ever. Now she's like, I don't know, some kind of dependent adult you can't let out of your sight."

"Rose." Karen said the name gently. "Callie needs everything you do. She just doesn't know how to ask for it. Because she's different in the way she expresses herself, you didn't pick up the signals.

"That doesn't mean she didn't, or doesn't, need the same things you do. She just needs them in a different way. Like someone likes strawberries and someone else prefers chili peppers. It's just a preference. Right now, she's a little bit beyond what preferences she can hide from everyone."

"I don't understand. She doesn't have to hide anything from us. We're her family."

"Rose, she's a lesbian. She doesn't just like girls, she wants to find someone to love. Someone who will love her back the same way she loves. Someone female. No one in your family seems to understand that. She doesn't believe she's accepted for who she really is. So, she suppresses everything. And, I mean everything. Right now she's not strong enough to do that again. That's all. As her physical and emotional strengths return she will go back to being the same as she's always been."

"How do you know that?"

"Trust me. I have years and years of therapy to rely on. She'll be the same. It'll just take time."

"You're sure?"

"I'm positive. She'll be fine." Karen tried to reassure T Rose as she looked over at Callie sleeping in the chair. Callie's hair was tousled, but she was just sleeping. Not like when she was feverish and thrashing. Karen ran a gentle hand through Callie's hair before caressing her face lovingly.

"She'll be perfect again. I promise."