Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four

Savage

ENTERING THE ROOM my kitten was being held in was every nightmare I’ve ever had come to life. Seeing her broken, beaten body is something I’ll see every day for the rest of my life. Her eyes are so swollen, I’m surprised they’re open and that she can see anything. Bruising covers her entire face and I’m not sure if it’s from the asshole in the room with us or something else. I spot the telltale bruising of the seatbelt locking across her chest as if she was in an accident at some point. Maybe that’s how the fucker got to her. There’s more bruising and cuts filling several parts of her body and I don’t see a single spot where her once flawless skin hasn’t been marked in one way or another. Including her lush lips that are cracked and covered with dry blood.

When I finally spotted the blood coming from between her legs, I lost my shit. My vision turned into nothing more than a red haze. Before I even realize what I’m doing, I’m standing over the asshole who has hurt my girl. He’s broken her in ways none of us will ever know or understand. I mean, our moms might understand depending on the situations they’ve been in over the years, but I’ll never be able to truly know the depth of the pain she feels or the demons that will haunt her moving forward from this experience. I’ll have my own demons to battle knowing I didn’t do everything in my power to protect Zoey. I should’ve made sure someone else was following her instead of letting her go to school on her own. This is all my fucking fault and no one will ever change my mind about that shit.

“You fucked with the wrong girl. I told you if you fuckin’ touched her again that I’d gut you where you stand. Did you think I was fuckin’ lyin’? I’m not. You not only took my kitten from me, but you killed our babies. She’s fuckin’ bleedin’ and that’s on your fuckin’ ass!” I yell in the face of the man I’m about to kill because he took what doesn’t belong to him and put her through fucking hell.

It doesn’t escape my notice that Zoey was definitely able to get her own hits in on the fucker. He’s got several wounds on his body that have been bandaged in a crude manner that doesn’t really do anything to protect him from getting an infection or helping the wounds start to heal. His wounds from my kitten aren’t what has my full focus and attention though. Nothing honestly does in this moment except for the need to fucking destroy this stupid, cock-sucking, motherfucker who has hurt countless women and will only continue to do so if we let him leave here alive today.

Grabbing the knife I got from my dad, I begin to plunge it repeatedly into his body. Everything in the room around me fades to nothing as I take out all the rage and pain I’m feeling on the scumbag on the floor in front of me. Over and over again, I raise the knife and then slam it into his body. I barely hear his grunts of pain and don’t have any intention of stopping until I know for a fact that he’s taken his last breath.

“Savage, that’s enough,” a voice finally manages to break through the fog surrounding me as I look down at the piece of shit in front of me. “Zoey needs you. Get her the fuck out of here while we deal with what’s left of this piece of shit. Our girl doesn’t need to see this shit and she needs to be at the fuckin’ hospital.”

I look up to find Tank standing behind me with his hand on my shoulder. Anger fills his eyes as he keeps them away from where his daughter lays on a filthy mattress, naked as the day she was born. Realization fills me that we’re not the only men in here and they’re all able to see my kitten naked and the most vulnerable she’s ever been in her entire life. I rush to her side and have to hold myself back from touching her. My hands clench into fists at my side as I take in every inch of skin on display while cataloging each and every injury Zoey’s suffered since she was taken from me. From her family and everyone who loves her. The only place I don’t look is between her legs where the blood is leaving her body. It completely destroys me to know I fucked up so tremendously and now our babies are the ones who are paying for my mistake with their lives. Lives they didn’t even get a chance to begin living.

We’ll never hold them, hear their little feet pattering across the floor when they begin walking, hear their laughter fill the room with joy, or watch them as they grow and become the independent men and women they’re meant to be. They won’t get to experience the joy of finding their true love or getting married and starting a family of their own. I won’t get to watch the love of my life be there to comfort her children when they get hurt, nurse them through any sickness, or love them when they suffer through a heartbreak. Zoey was made to be a mom and it”s been ripped from her because some fucking man can’t accept that someone doesn’t want him. He”s taken so much from both of us and there’s nothing more I can do to make him suffer for the crimes he’s committed against my kitten.

Sliding my cut from my body, I lay it in my lap before ripping my tee-shirt over my head. I truly don’t want to move Zoey a single inch, but in order to cover her body from view, I have to. As carefully as I can, I move the tee-shirt over her head and then help her put her arms through the sleeve holes. She tries so hard not to cry out in pain, but it’s written all over her beautiful face. I’m going to have to pick her up from the mattress she’s been laying on and I know that’s going to hurt her even more than me moving her body the least amount possible so I could cover her up with my shirt.

“I’m sorry, kitten. This is gonna hurt, but I’ll be as careful as I can be,” I say, tears filling my eyes as I do absolutely nothing to stop them from falling while lifting her in my arms because the hurt I feel is nothing in comparison to what I’m sure my girl is feeling.

“Argh!” Zoey screams out as her pain consumes her. I feel the men in the room with us go completely still as they take in her pain and know there’s nothing they can do to help her.

Tank is immediately at our sides as I make my way out of the room and through the house to get my kitten’s broken and battered body to the SUV so we can get to the hospital. I barely register all the men surrounding us as they come to a complete stop and bow their heads while I move past them with Zoey in my arms. Most of these men watched Zoey grow up and become the amazing woman she is today. Now, they’re seeing her broken, vulnerable, and wrecked as she buries her face in my chest. Someone has my cut and I don’t really care where it is at this point because the only thing that matters is the woman in my arms. My dad Cage rushes up to us and lets me know he’ll drive as Tank opens the back door of the SUV while he’s on the phone to get Dr. Morris to us as soon as possible.

The entire drive, I hold Zoey close to me and let her cry or do whatever else she needs to. My entire focus is on her as she screams and whimpers with every move her body is forced to endure as my dad speeds away from her prison and toward safety. The ache filling me is quickly turning into a numb void because there’s nothing I can do to help my girl. Not when she’s completely lost in her own misery about our babies and everything that happened to her while the stupid fuck had her in his clutches. I don’t register anything as I lean over my girl and whisper in her ear not even knowing if she hears a word I say to her. But, I have to do something to try and reach her and bring her from the hell she’s living in right now.

We’ve been at the hospital for hours now. The second my dad pulled the SUV up to the doors of the hospital, Tank helped me out and I rushed inside with my girl in my arms. We were quickly surrounded by a ton of medical personnel as we were directed straight back through the doors separating the waiting room from the back where patients are seen. No one bothered to try and stop me from going with Zoey as I laid her down on the hospital bed in the room we were ushered into. Her screams of pain echoed off the walls and I’m sure they heard them in the waiting room as she tried to curl up on herself and wrap her arms around her body. It took everything in me to remain against the wall closest to her as she was surrounded by doctors and nurses yelling at one another and asking questions I answered the best I could. Zoey didn’t say a word the entire time they were poking and prodding her.

The doctors have been doing one test after another on Zoey to ensure there’s no internal damage we can’t see. They’ve inspected and cleaned every scrape, bruised area, and part of her body before telling me she doesn’t need stitches at all. The wounds are all superficial and not deep enough to warrant them stitching her skin up. This doesn’t mean she won’t have scars as her body heals. It just means they won’t be as bad from the stitches that would’ve been used to piece her body back together if the wounds were any deeper.

One of the first things the doctors did was perform an ultrasound. Again, no one tried to kick me out of the room when it was done as Zoey blindly reached out and I took her hand. Neither one of us took a breath as we waited to learn the fate of our babies. Zoey was silently crying, waiting for the horrible news she was expecting to hear. However, the sound of the babies’ heartbeats that filled the room, shocked the hell out of both of us. Zoey looked from the screen next to her bed on the opposite side from me up into my eyes as I looked back down at her. Smiles broke out on both of our faces even though we were still trying not to get our hopes up because the technician wasn’t telling us a damn thing.

Right now, Zoey’s laying in the bed as we wait for Dr. Morris and the other doctor to come in so we know what the hell is going on. All we know for sure is that she’s dehydrated and has been hooked up to an IV so they can give her fluids. Zoey’s eyes are closed and I know it’s because she doesn’t want to talk about anything. For now, I’m gonna give her this because she’s been through hell and there’s no way I’m gonna make it worse for her. She can try to sleep so her body heals. My girl needs her rest and who am I to deny it to her because I want to know what the fuck happened to her.

“How are things going in here?” Dr. Morris asks, walking in the room as Zoey’s eyes snap open and I slowly turn my head to face her.

“Am I gonna lose our babies?” Zoey immediately asks, her voice weak and wavering with the emotions filling her.

“No, I don’t think you will. I think the reason you’re bleeding is because of the stress your body has been through. You’ve been in an accident from what I’ve been told and then beaten by your kidnapper. The heartbeats of both babies sound steady and strong. There’s nothing on the ultrasound to make me believe that you will lose either one of the babies. To help ensure that you keep the babies and give you peace of mind, I’m going to put you on bed rest. The only time I want you out of bed is to walk very slowly to the bathroom, and then getting back in bed. I don’t want you sitting in a living room or anything else. You can sit up when you’re in bed though. If you feel any pain in your stomach or the bleeding continues or starts again, I want you in my office immediately. For now it appears as if the bleeding has stopped. We’re gonna admit you to the hospital for a few days. I want to keep a close eye on things and have immediate medical care there if something happens,” Dr. Morris answers as I move to stand next to Zoey and hold her hand in mine.

“I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure I don’t lose our babies. Can I do schoolwork online instead of going to the campus for now?” Zoey asks her as I squeeze her hand tighter in mine.

“I’ll permit you to work on schoolwork for an hour a day, Zoey. I don’t want you under any stress or putting too much of anything on your body. So, that’s the best I can give you until we’re completely sure nothing will happen,” Dr. Morris answers, a small smile on her face as she looks between the two of us. “This also means no showers or baths for right now. You’ll have to have sponge baths in bed. I’m sure Savage won’t have a problem helping you with that.”

“Okay. What else do we need to know?” I question both doctors as they stand in the room with us.

“Everything is coming back negative on the testing we’ve done. There is no internal bleeding and all the cuts and bruised areas have been cleaned. We’ve started you on antibiotics through your IV to ensure no infection sets in. That will only complicate matters. We’d rather have you take the medicine and not need it, than not give it to you and you end up having a horrible infection given the circumstances of everything. We’ll continue to draw bloodwork and make sure your HCG levels don’t start dropping from what they are today. The next few days you’ll be kept on the IV so we can ensure you’re getting enough fluids and aren’t dehydrated. If you feel nauseous, we’ll give you medicine to help combat that. You’ll have regular meals and can eat anything you want to. If there’s something your family wants to bring in, we’ll allow it,” the second doctor informs us, his voice full of warmth as he looks between the two of us and doesn’t keep his eyes on my girl and only her. “This is a sensitive question, but it has to be asked. Were you raped when you were held hostage?”

“No. He attempted to, but I didn’t let him get close. That’s the one thing I did prevent from happening to me,” Zoey answers, fear filling her as she avoids looking at me and quickly drops her eyes as if I’m going to be mad at her or something.

“Okay. We weren’t going to perform a rape kit unless it was needed. Since there’s no reason for it, that’s one less thing we’ll have to put you through. We’re in the process of securing you a room upstairs. As soon as we have one, we’ll get you moved and your family can come in and see you,” he states, looking anywhere but at Zoey right now after asking her such a personal question he knew she wouldn’t want to answer.

“Thank you. Both of you for workin’ so hard and fast to keep my girl safe. I might step out to let our family know what’s goin’ on. Is there someone that can sit with her? I don’t want her alone for a single second,” I question the doctors as a nurse walks by the room. It’s one of the nurses Zoey has had since we got brought back.

“Of course,” Dr. Morris says, turning to face the hallway. “Amanda, can you come in here please?”

The woman stops walking and enters the room with a smile on her face. “How can I help you?”

“Can you sit in here for a few minutes? He’d like to go inform their family of what’s going on and doesn’t want Zoey left alone,” Dr. Morris asks her as Zoey grips my hand even tighter than before.

“Absolutely,” Amanda answers, her voice full of happiness as she steps around the bed opposite of me and pulls up a chair to sit in.

Leaning down, I press a gentle kiss against Zoey’s lips. They’re still cracked and I don’t want to cause her any pain where her bottom lip is split. “I’ll be right back. Let me just tell them what’s goin’ on and I’ll return. I promise you I won’t be gone very long at all.”

“Okay. Please hurry back, Jameson,” she murmurs, her voice breaking once again right along with my heart.

Nodding my head, I follow the doctors from the room and head straight for the waiting room. Tank and the triplets are immediately in front of me. Maddie pushes past the men in her life as more people step up so I can tell them what’s going on. In seconds, I’m surrounded by our family and friends. Members and ol’ ladies from all three clubs are mixed together and it pulls at something deep inside my soul to know that we have so many people here for us.

“How’s my baby girl? How are the babies?” Tank questions as Maddie and the other ol’ ladies gasp in shock at the news we’re gonna be parents.

“The babies are okay for now. Zoey’s bein’ put on bedrest for the time bein’. She can literally only get out of bed to go to the bathroom and back again. Dr. Morris said their heartbeats are steady and strong and nothin’ on the ultrasound indicates that she’ll lose either one of them. Neither one of us are gettin’ our hopes up. At least we’re tryin’ not to. She’s got no internal bleedin’, doesn’t need stitches, and they’ve started her on fluids through an IV along with antibiotics so she doesn’t get an infection. She’ll be permitted to do one hour of schoolwork a day while remainin’ in bed and can sit up against the headboard, but that’s all she can do. I know she’s gonna go insane before too long. They are admittin’ her to the hospital for a few days. Right now, they’re tryin’ to get her a room so she can be moved upstairs. Once she has her room, you guys can come in and see her,” I answer Tank as he stares at me with pain filled eyes.

“Has she said anythin’ about what happened?” Hawkeye asks me, his hands clenching into fists at his sides.

“No. The only thing she’s said is that she wasn’t raped. She stopped it from happenin’. When the doctors aren’t in the room, she keeps her eyes closed because she doesn’t want to talk about it right now. I’m givin’ her that because I know she’ll want to talk to all of us at one time so she doesn’t have to continue repeatin’ the hell she was just put through. She’s got a nurse in there with her right now, I just wanted to update you all. I’m gonna head back in. I’ll send a message when we learn of what room Zoey will be in. It goes without sayin’ that I’m not leavin’ here until she does. And, she can eat whatever she wants when she wants. I don’t honestly know if she’s hungry right now, but I’ll find out when I go back in. I’m not sure how long it’s been since she’s actually had anythin’ to eat,” I answer him before turning and leaving our family and friends in the waiting room once more.

Getting back in the room where my kitten is lying in the hospital bed, I take a seat next to her and thank Amanda for sitting with her. I take Zoey’s hand in mine again and press my lips to the back of it before leaning my head on the side of her bed. Neither one of us speaks as we get lost in our heads. I know I need to find out if she’s hungry or needs anything else, but for now, I am just savoring the feeling of her hand in mine and knowing that she’s here with me and no longer with the fucker who couldn’t leave her alone. We both need to soak up this time because once she gets moved to a room upstairs, our family will come in to see her and it will be a while before we’re left alone again. So, no words are needed as we hang onto one another and don’t let go.