Luke's PoV

I woke up around six in the morning when Kira came to bug me to be let out to use the washroom. I let her out and saw Julie pulling clothes out for work which is probably why Kira had woken up.
"Hey good morning, do you need a ride to work?" I asked half awake.
"Oh you don't have to, I can get the bus, sorry I woke you!"
"It's fine, I don't mind, I'll put the kettle on, what time do you have to be there by?" I asked, pushing my hair back out of my face.
"Um not for another hour, around 7.30, I usually go early just in case the buses are delayed because of the snow".
"No worries, I'll make breakfast, let me know if you need help with anything"

I let Kira back inside, gave her breakfast then started going through the fridge while the kettle boiled. I decided since we had over an hour to burn I would go all out and went to turn the oven on. I started placing some bacon on a tray to go into the oven. Next I began carving up fruit. We had left over rock melon, some strawberries, bananas and black berries. Once the kettle was done I made us both an instant coffee with frothed milk and sprinkled chocolate on top. Then I started frying eggs and toasting hash browns.

Julie had joined me and tried to offer to help but I directed her to sit down with her coffee and enjoy. Kira had left to go find a quiet bed to sleep in, probably Reggie's since he had the warmest room. We sat down to a full plate of English muffins, fried eggs sunny side up, bacon, hash browns, with sliced fruit.
"Hey how does your hand feel? Do you want me to cut anything up at all?" I asked awkwardly, realizing I made something that might be hard to eat with one hand.
"No it's fine, the pain has mostly gone thankfully, they said that I could use it more today any ways and that I should be fine to tie up my own shoes and work just to take it easy and if it hurts too much to stop" she replied with a warm smile.
"Well that's good, well since you still don't have your phone, do you wanna take mine today so we can contact you? It's fully charged and I changed the password to your birthday, just put in the date and your month. That way if you need to get a hold of us or you want a ride home we can come get you, we don't do much throughout the day, mostly work on music and such" I asked.
"Yes please, that would be amazing thank you so much! Are you going to grab my stuff today?"
"Yeah if that's okay, we were thinking of going while you were at work, is there anything special you want us to look for? From memory most of your stuff was in your room right? I remember a few things, the jewelry box that was your mothers and the wooden chest with her clothes in it. Other than that it was just your clothes, your phone, and anything that looks like yours right?"
"Yeah that's right, my jackets and boots are by the door but everything else is in my room and please don't forget my mothers stuff".
"Don't worry I wont and if we miss or forget anything we can always go back"

"Hey Luke?" asked Julie after a few minutes
"Yeah Julie?"
"Thanks for doing all of this, not just for breakfast but for taking me in, I really appreciate it and i'll make it up to you guys when I can I promise"
"Hey no it's okay, you don't owe us anything, we are just sorry we didn't notice sooner. I had started questioning a few things a few weeks ago. You were out on one of your power walks and you never saw me but you were crying while you were walking, I tried to catch you but you were gone before I even had my shoes on. I know how you feel, I felt the same when I ran away from home for a while, but you don't owe us anything, just breathe, relax and let us know if there is anything we can do to help your happiness." I said while holding her hand.

After breakfast, I quickly did the dishes while she got her stuff ready to go. I had the car preheating in the garage so when we hopped in it was toasty warm. It had snowed overnight so the roads were busy with snow ploughs. Once we arrived at her work I double checked that she knew how to unlock my phone and she giggled slightly at the cute photo of Kira playing in the snow. I said bye with a small side hug and drove home.

Once I was home I went to wake up Alex and Reggie to help me get Julie's stuff from Bobby. They grumbled a little especially when they could smell bacon and there was none left. Both of them sat very unhappily with their cold bowls of cereal while I filled them in on what I cooked for breakfast.

I had commandeered Alex's phone for the day and texted Julie that she could find me through Alex for the day then I called Bobby to wake him up and informed him we would be over around eight thirty. I drove the car over so we could load it up with all of Julie's stuff, with Alex riding shotgun and Reggie in the back.
"I still can't believe he burnt her hand like that, how long was she living like that? How did we not see?" asked Alex.
"I dunno, I think it has been happening for some time though, it's not my place to say but she has a few marks on her arms that look like cigarette burns and some are old while others look fresh" I replied.
"We're jerks for not noticing, I wish she had told us but I get why she was so scared. She doesn't have any other friends right, not even at work" Reggie asked.
"Not that I know of, so outside of telling her family or us there wasn't anyone she could talk to" I replied.

We arrived at Bobby's place and saw Bobby waiting outside for us.
"Help yourself to her stuff, i'm going for a walk, just lock the door on your way out" Bobby replied as he passed by us. That suited us fine as we were probably not coming back so Alex could grab his drum set and our guitars while Reggie and I tackled their room.

About an hour later, we had Julie's stuff loaded up with Alex's drum set, our guitars and all of her clothes. I was doing a quick look around, we had found her phone on the coffee table and it was currently in my pocket. I had pulled some of her favourite mugs that I was pretty sure was hers as well out of the kitchen and her favourite chocolates that she snacked on when she was high. I was pretty sure we had everything of hers and her mothers. Suddenly I felt Alex's phone ring in my pocket, it was from Julie.
"Hey Julie, how's your day going? We are just at your house, I think we have everything".
"Luke! Bobby is here at my work! Can you come get me please, I don't want to talk to him but I'm due to go to work in a few minutes" Julie said. It sounded like she was crying and frantically breathing also.
"Okay calm down, breathe, in and out, I'm on my way just breathe okay I'll be there in five minutes, I'm already in the car" I said as I ran out the door without a word to Alex or Reggie.
We hung up then I filled Reggie in as I drove as fast as I legally could. They were going to walk home with the last of Julie's stuff, I had the heaviest in the car anyway.

When I arrived I found Julie sitting down at a table with Bobby outside, this surprised me as I thought Julie had to be working not sitting down. As I headed towards her though after locking the car I realized something was off, her eyes looked like a deer in a headlight.
"Ah good of you to join us Luke, please sit down" said Bobby.
"Why would I sit down, I'm taking Julie home, come on let's go" I replied.
"Ah I don't think that's a good idea" said Bobby as he pointed to his hand which was holding something in his pocket that could be the shape of a gun.

I sat down next to Julie and gave her a gentle side hug before finding her hand to hold. She was trembling with fear and was holding onto my arm for dear life.
"So you go from a loving boyfriend to an abusive one and now your ready to go down this route, your life isn't looking promising Bobby"
"Shut up, we are going for a drive, you're going to drive where I tell you to and nowhere else, I'll be in the back with Julie and if you try anything well you know what will happen. Do you understand?"
I clenched my teeth and squeezed Julie's hand a little tighter as I nodded. This wasn't good, Alex and Reggie would expect me to be here and when I didn't come home with Julie they would look here first and not know where to go afterwards. We stood up and were instructed to walk first, I opened the door for Julie and gave her another small hug before going around to get into the driver's seat. As I did I dialed Reggie's number on my phone before climbing in. Bobby wasn't watching close enough and was busy getting in next to Julie. Reggie picked up and I hid his voice by slamming my door closed then asked immediately what direction to head in.

Reggie immediately fell silent and was probably busy putting his phone on speaker for Alex. I had Alex's phone which meant they would have to call for help from a landline, I just hoped they did it quietly. I stole a glance back at Julie as I reversed out of the car park, she had tears silently falling down her cheeks but met my gaze. I tried to not clench the steering wheel too hard as I started driving following Bobby's instructions. He was leading us to the pier where there were a lot of abandoned warehouses. I tried to help Reggie out by clarifying what Bobby was saying. I hoped they had a map somewhere.

"So you have all your gear I see, your kicking me out of the band after everything I did, offered you a roof over your head when you ran away as well as a place for us to play in" sneered Bobby.
"We don't want anything to do with you after what you've done to Julie so yes, your out of the band" I replied through clenched teeth. He had been there for me once but he was no longer that person.

We had arrived and were instructed to get out, Bobby had pulled Julie out by grabbing her hair roughly and yanking it then pushing her over in my direction where she lost her balance and nearly fell. I had caught her and pulled her into my chest wrapping my arms tightly around her, there wasn't a soul in sight for anyone to hear us.
"Walk" Bobby commanded and pointed with his gun to a warehouse that had their door open. I gave Julie a small squeeze before releasing her and pulling her along holding her hand. I still had Reggie on call in the pocket of my hoodie. They also would have realized by now that they can track my phone and are probably calling the police with our location now that we stopped moving. All we had to do was get by till they arrived.

We walked inside and Bobby closed the door. It was an empty floor with a few steel benches and floor to ceiling poles.
"Luke over there, Julie over here" Bobby commanded, indicating opposite sides of the space. He then pulled out handcuffs and cuffed me to a pole.
"You realize I can break these easily right?"
"Break them and I'll break her" he said with a menacing look.

Come on Alex and Reggie, where are the police, they had to be close. I tried to remain calm for Julie. Bobby then pulled her over to a steel table and cuffed her hands to a steel bar that was connected to the table forcing her top half of the body to be flush against the table with her arms stretched to connect with the bar. She tried to pull away but he just slapped her on the face bringing more tears to her eyes. I strained against the cuffs for a moment till I was cut off.
"Remember, break them and i'll break her Luke, it seems you care way to much about her, let me remind you who she belongs to"

Bobby then began to slide her pants down despite her crying and trying to get away, she tried biting his hand but he just pulled a knife out and sliced her face. I wanted to tell her to stop fighting but I didn't want to give the game away and she had a right to fight, it was her body. He started fucking her from behind while holding the knife to her throat in case she got any ideas, I looked away and started assessing what was around that I could use.
"Please Bobby, stop, your hurting me" she pleaded and I fought the urge to break the stupid hand cuffs and race over to punch Bobby. He could kill her before I even broke them and it would be for nothing.

"What are you trying to prove anyways Bobby, that she's yours? She isn't property and I don't think she will ever want to be yours again after the way you have treated her. You can't even take her like a man, you have to hide behind a gun and knife to get what you want. What happened, you used to be so in love with her and we were all jealous that you had a girlfriend before us, now look what you've done" I taunted. Maybe if I made him mad enough he would leave her be. It had worked, he had stopped and pulled out of her leaving her crying on the table.
"You're a coward Bobby, you always will be, a spoiled cowardly brat" I said, dragging out every last word with a smirk.
He came over to me and held the knife to my throat.
"What did you call me?" he whispered.
"A coward, a spoiled cowardly brat" I replied. He was expecting me to cower in fear but I wasn't going to back down and was rewarded with a right hook to my face. I knew he wouldn't have the guts to actually kill me. My face hurt but I could hear distant sirens getting closer and closer.
"Ah hear that Bobby, are you ready to run like the coward you are?"
"Fuck you Luke" he said in anger and ran to a window to get a better look at what was happening outside. He then contemplated his options, they were pretty limited.
"Would a coward do this?" Bobby said as he shot me in the leg before racing out the back entry way. Damn that hurt, I broke my hand cuffs immediately and started hobbling over to Julie who was crying with relief. I broke her hand cuffs and pulled up her pants before sitting down with her against a wall pulling her into my arms. She was crying into the crook of my neck and applying pressure to my leg with her uninjured hand but all I was concerned about was her wrists and her face, the cut was deep and there were already red marks on her wrists. I tried rubbing circulation into them, he had made sure mine were tight so I'm guessing hers were too, Julie just swatted my hand away however and continued applying pressure to my leg.

Five minutes later the police came in, took one look at us and sent us a medical unit. They managed to patch me up on the spot since the bullet went right through and out the other end and someone took a look at Julie's cut. Half an hour later Reggie and Alex were lingering in the background waiting for us to be released after giving our statements. Bobby wasn't found but they had an address for him as well as many photos of him. Once we were released Julie helped me walk over to Alex and Reggie who rushed forward to hug us both.

"Good thinking Luke for calling me, we were confused at first but once you started talking to Bobby we put two and two together, I'm so glad you guys are okay, let's go home and get cleaned up?" said Alex.
"Yeah lets, you're going to have to drive though" I said as I passed him the keys. Reggie moved to my other side to help Julie take my weight to the car and once inside I pulled her close after our seat belts were on. Her hands weren't trembling any more but she had gone into shock and was almost in a zombie state. All the adrenaline had rushed out and now her body was choosing to shut down rather than deal with what just happened. Someone had mostly cleaned the blood off of her hand but it was still all over her clothes and stained under her fingernails. I tightened my grip around her, I had one arm over her shoulders and the other snaked around her torso with my head resting on top. I didn't want to over step as her friend when she felt vulnerable but I also wanted to offer support that she clearly needed. She snuggled in closer to my chest annihilating my doubts and that was where I dozed off for a few minutes in the back of the car.