in with the others, teasing Ashton.
They stopped their teasing as soon as the bathroom door opened up. The room went silent and all eyes went to Kaylee. Every man in the room felt something like a punch in the gut as they got a good look at her.
She put her hand to her face. "I know, it looks bad, huh?"
"It's a good thing Ashton nearly beat the man to death, because if he hadn't been so bad off, we all would have wanted to get a piece of him," Jayden said, and got up to hug Kaylee.
"You're still beautiful, Kaylee," Colton her, and hugged her when Jayden let her go.
"Yeah right, but thanks for trying." Kaylee had been shocked when she looked in the mirror. The whole right side of her face was black and blue from where that creep had backhanded her. She also had a huge knot on the back of her head from where he had slammed her head against the wall, not to mention the bruises that covered the rest of her body.
She sat next to her brother on the couch, and he put his arm around her. He took a deep breath. "Hey kid, I know this isn't what you want to do, but you need to go to the police station to give your statement, and they're going to take some pictures."
"I don't mind talking to the cops, but can't they come here? I don't want to walk into the police station, and feel like I've done something wrong." No matter what, anytime she stepped into a police station, she felt like they were going to accuse her of doing something wrong
"I'll give them a call, and have them come right over. I don't see why they can't come here - I'm sure they will understand. We'll get it done as soon as possible. Hopefully you'll be able to move on after all this." Noah flipped open his cell phone and dialed the numbers from the card he held in his hand.
Ashton went to get dressed, knowing that it wouldn't be a good thing to greet the police in his boxers. He wanted to make sure that he was around, just in case talking about what happened got hard for Kaylee. He had to be there for her, no matter what. It didn't even cross his mind that he might get into trouble for beating the man so severely.
The police showed up half an hour later and took Kaylee's statement. They showed her a bunch of pictures, and she easily identified her attacker. Turns out he had a long history of violence, and she wasn't the first woman he had tried to violate. A female officer took her into the lounge in the back of the bus and took pictures of all her bruises.
Back in the front of the bus, the male officer was asking a few questions about the attack on the man. "Who found Ms. Miles?" he asked.
Ashton spoke up, ready to face whatever wrath was thrown at him. It was worth it to save Kaylee. "I found them. Her boyfriend had been there watching the whole time and didn't do anything to stop him. The man had a knife and threatened to use it on Brandon and he got scared."
"So then you stopped the man?" the cop asked Ashton.
"Yes. I did what I had to do to make Kaylee safe." He raised his chin up in pride, ready to face the punishment for what he did.
"Well, unofficially, I want to shake your hand. Officially, no one knows who beat that man to within inches of his life. He's a dirt bag, and deserves everything you gave him." The officer held out his hand to Ashton.
At first Ashton was confused. He wasn't sure if he was in trouble or not. He shook the officer's hand, giving him a questioning look.
"All I got out of the interview is that some man beat the attacker while you rescued Kaylee. No one knows who the other man was, and he disappeared before anyone could catch him."
Ashton finally got it. The officer was letting him off. No charges were going to be brought against him.
"Thank you officer. That's exactly how I remember it," Ashton said, and a look of relief washed over his face.
"That's what I saw too," Jayden confirmed, even as he remembered the look in Ashton's eyes as he struggled to pull him off the man. It was a look that confused Jayden, since