“Shit! No! Please,” he begs. “I have a baby girl. She’s almost two!”
My heart stops from his confession and my throat feels as if it’s closing up. I’m losing it. I’m fucking losing it.
“That’s why I did it. I needed money to get my wife out of here and somewhere safe. She was already nine months pregnant and I did what I had to do to get the money. It wasn’t safe here for my family.”
I lean my head back and shake it, letting the cold rain drip down my face. “Shut up!” I bring the knife down to his throat and slightly puncture the flesh, twisting it. “Don’t fucking talk! I don’t want to hear that shit.”
“Please! She’s sick and she needs her father. She has leukemia. Her name is–”
“Stop!” I quickly stand to my feet and kick him back over to his stomach, not wanting to hear another word from his mouth. I place my boot on the back of his head and shove it into the dirt, pissed as fuck about what I’ve just learned. “Fuck! What did I say? One more word and I’ll cut your fucking throat out!”
I drop to my knees and grip at my hair, before running a hand down my face. So much shit is running through my head that I can’t decide what to do next. This is not how the fuck I planned this.
“Please don’t kill me. I only came here to visit my mother and get some more money for my daughter’s treatments. She’s so sick,” he cries. “Please. Her mother can’t work. It’s only me.”
Guilt overwhelms me to the point of suffocation. I feel like ripping his fucking heart out the more he talks, but the thought of Hadley being here, sick and losing her father, eats at me, making me vulnerable and sick to my stomach. I would die for my family.
“I’m sorry! If I could take back what I did I would.” He crawls up to his knees and laces his hands together, begging me. “Please don’t take her father away from her. She’s just a little girl.”
“Fuck!” I scream out. “Shut the fuck up!”
We both look over as Blaine comes rushing over, soaking wet and out of breath. “Shit, man. I got a message from Jax. Some shit went down.”
Fear consumes me at the thought of anything bad happening to Avalon, and suddenly all I can think about is rushing to her. I can’t fucking let anyone hurt her. The thought has me quickly rising to my feet. “Fucking hell!”
My eyes land on Brian on his knees pleading. All I can see when I look at him is a man begging and doing anything in his power to provide for his child. I’d do the same thing.
Walking over to him, I take my knife and cut his shirt open, before placing the knife to his fast rising chest. “Never fucking forget the lives that were lost because of you. Every time you take off your shirt and look in the mirror, you will remember them. It will fucking haunt you like it does me.”
Grabbing his neck, I dig my knife into his flesh, causing him to close his eyes and scream out as I slowly carve an O on the left of his chest and then move over to carve an H onto the right side. It’s so deep that there’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll be hurting for a while, before scar tissue forms making it permanent.
When I’m done, I stand back and look at his bleeding chest as the rain mixed with his tears runs down his grateful face. “If you do anything to fuck up that little girl’s life, I will come after you and I will fucking kill you. I will carve your fucking heart out and watch as your life slowly drains from your lifeless eyes. That is a promise.”
He nods his head and falls forward, gripping the ground as I walk away.
“Let’s go,” I say, while brushing past Blaine.
Blaine nods his head. “Give me one sec.”
I nod my head in understanding and jump into Blaine’s truck. Worried about Avalon, I power my phone back on. I turned it off to get rid of any distractions. I usually do that when I need to keep my head together.
When it finally turns on, multiple messages and missed calls pop up from Avalon, making my chest fucking hurt in fear. I feel like fucking exploding as I call her phone and it goes straight to voicemail.
Blaine hops in the truck, grabbing at his fist. I grab him by the shirt and shake him. “What the fuck did Jax say? Where is she?”
He releases a breath. “Your brother practically fucking kidnapped her. Jax got her out of the car, but she has a pretty bad bump on her head that is causing her some pain. They’re at the hospital about thirty minutes away from town.”
“Fucking bastard. He finally grew some fucking balls all of a sudden.” I quickly back away from Brian’s car and hit the road, with my hands shaking and my heart racing out of control.
All I can think about is getting to her and making sure that she’s safe in my arms; no one else’s.
My brother will be seeing my ass later . . .
MY BLOOD IS FUCKING BOILING the whole way to the hospital. Between thoughts of letting Brian live for the sake of a precious little girl and thoughts of choking my brother out, my mind has been consumed the whole thirty-minute drive.
That piece of shit will learn to never fuck with my girl again. He was lucky as shit to even get his chance with her when he did, but she’s over him now and has moved on with me. I have no problem with beating that info into his pretty little head.
“What floor is she on?”
I pull into the hospital and hurriedly search for an empty space to park. There’s so many damn parking spots here that it’s making me anxious. She could be anywhere in that fucking building.
Why in the fuck are there so many cars here?
AFTER COMPLETING THE BRAIN SCAN THAT the hospital recommend I get done, I rush back into my room in hopes that Jax has heard back from Royal or Blaine.
I could barely lie still when they took the X-rays because all I could do was worry about Royal, scared shitless that he may have gotten himself into some kind of trouble. Between that and my nerves from being in the hospital, I was a complete shaking mess.
Jax has been in my room throughout the whole thing, trying to keep me calm and assure me that Blaine would never let anything happen to Royal. I want to believe him, but it’s hard without any solid proof. It’s driving me insane.
“Have you heard from them?” I ask, causing Jax to look up from his phone. “Please tell me they’re okay. I need to hear something.”
Jax immediately stands up from his chair beside the bed and helps me get comfortable beneath the sheet on the shitty mattress. “Fuck, you’re shaking, girl.” He sits on the edge of the bed and starts rubbing my shoulders and arms to warm me up. “You really care about him, don’t you?”
I nod my head. “Of course I do. He’s all I ever think about, Jax. I haven’t been able to get him out of my head since that night I walked in on him in the basement. It hurts me so much to ever think about losing him. He’s special to me. I don’t care what he says about himself. He’s good to me.” I grab his handsome face and pull him toward me so he can look me in the eyes. “Now, please tell me something before I rip your balls off, Jax.”
He smiles at me and leans in to kiss my forehead. “You’ve definitely been spending too much time with Royal.” Releasing my shoulders, he lets out a small satisfied laugh. “They’re on their way here. They should be close now.”
Feeling relieved, I throw the sheet off of me and sit up. “How long ago did they leave?”
“I don’t know. About thirty minutes ago.”