Read Discovering Daisy for Free Online Page B

his friends.” Her breath caught as she relived that moment. “They were hurting her, raping her, and he just sat there and drank and ate. He didn’t care. I wanted to get to her, to help her, to protect her but someone grabbed me from behind before I could move.”
    She shuddered and he ran his hand up and down her spine in slow soothing strokes. “I will kill any man who dares to try and touch you,” he swore and she shuddered again this time in relief. “Who had you?” He needed to know.
    “He took me to a cabin that I hadn’t realised was even there,” she said. “When he let me go I turned around and almost died of fright.” She looked him straight in the eyes before continuing. “He was an Indian. An older man and I had heard all the horror stories about what they were capable of.”
    He swore under his breath. “But he didn’t hurt you?”
    “No,” she said and smiled for the first time since she had first spoken of her parents. “He saved me and he taught me how to survive. He was my friend, the only one I had.”
    “So he taught you what?” Jacob wanted to know.
    “He taught me how to live off the land. How to cook, how to trap, how to fight.” She looked Jacob in the eyes. “He taught me how to defend myself.”
    “And?” He wanted to know about that night, about the bodies and what she had lived through.
    “And there came a time when they came back and I didn’t leave. My sister was pregnant and I didn’t trust them to leave her alone. So I stayed.”
    “What happened, Daisy? What did they do?”
    She seemed lost in the past, in that day. “I went out for water and I heard her scream. I ran back and there were two men pawing at her, ripping her clothes from her and saying that they had never fucked a pregnant woman before.”
    It tore him up to hear such a vulgar word escape her lips but she didn’t even seem to realise that she had said it. She seemed trapped in that day, that moment and he just held her to him.
    “Clancy grabbed me and pulled me against his body. He said that he was finally going to take me that way he’d wanted to since the first time he’d seen me. He carried me back to the bedroom and shut the door. I could hear her screaming and I couldn’t get to her. I couldn’t get to her.” She shuddered and he held her, just held her trying to soothe her with his touch. “He threw me on the bed and climbed on me. I fought him. I fought him and caught him by surprise. He didn’t think that I would know how to fight. But I fought and fought knowing that I had to get out there and help my sister. Amelia needed me and I had to get to her. I hurt Clancy and he reached for his boot. I knew he was going for something, a knife maybe, and I beat him to it. I remember the feel of the knife in my hand. I remember stabbing him, the look of surprise on his face as he stilled. I remember thinking I should feel something, some remorse as he died. But I didn’t. I killed him and I didn’t feel a thing.”
    She seemed shaken and confused by this. “You did what you had to do to survive. No one, man or woman could ever fault you for that. You saved yourself when there was no one else there to protect you.” He tilted her head up to his. “I promise you that you will never be alone again. I promise you that even should I not be there, one of my family will be, and you will never stand alone again.”
    She nodded her head and more tears fell. She had cried so much that he wondered that she had any fluids left inside her. “The silence was the first thing that I noticed. Amelia wasn’t screaming anymore. There was no noise at all. I shoved Clancy off and went to open the door. I saw the bodies of two men, the two who had been attacking my sister and then I saw her. She was so still, her eyes open. I could see the bruises forming on her. I ran to her and tried to get her to focus on me, to breathe, to speak. But I was too late. I was too late to save her.”
    “You did what you