by G N Wright
The sad truth is, I’ve prepared for this, trained for it. I know exactly how to stem his bleeding and what drugs he’d need to stop his pain, yet I can’t force myself to move and do any of it. Z always taught me to expect the unexpected, that way you can never be surprised. I got cocky, overconfident, and now I’m paying the highest fucking price imaginable.
My heart hammers against my rib cage as my body attempts to shut down in terror. I struggle to just keep breathing, every inhale feeling like glass shards are shredding their way down into my lungs. I watch my fingers as they tremble against the escaping blood seeping from my brother's body. I can’t lose him; I need to save him.
If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be here. He changed everything, my family, my blood, my life, all of it would be nothing if it weren’t for him. He became my anchor when I thought I lost everything.
I think back to the night we met when I climbed into a car with him and drove away from everything I had ever known. It was just me and him, two strangers with no past, yet he didn’t let me slip away. It’s just us two again now and I need to save him like he saved me.
The Rebels are going to walk in here any minute and find us... Will a minute be too long? Will the Devils of this town change my life forever again, in just one night?
Zack jolts beneath me and I bring my gaze to his. His eyes are a worse sight than all of his blood. There isn’t just pain there, but devastation, panic, pure and utter despair. I would give anything to take it away.
“It’s okay Z, just hang on for me okay?” I plead with him.
He tries to reply, but he is struggling to even breathe. When Arthur and Zack walked me through basic first aid and some advanced stuff, I thought it was ridiculous. Now, as my brother's blood soaks into the carpet, I’ve never been more grateful in my life. His shortness of breath and where the bullet has hit his chest makes me think it’s a collapsed lung, not always life threatening, but with the amount of blood he’s losing it isn’t good.
The stab wound in his leg is another thing entirely. It doesn’t seem to have hit any major arteries, or he’d already be dead, but this is so fucking bad. I try to concentrate, think about what I need to do to save his life, but I can’t keep my mind from my daughter.
Cassie.
Her name is a whisper in my mind playing on repeat. Piercing my heart over and over, every second. I thought I knew what fear was, thought I had felt it that awful night. I thought waking up drugged, beaten, raped, and tied down would be the worst thing that would ever happen to me. I was wrong. This is worse. They have her. I’d go through every single moment of trauma again just to have her back.
My shining light, the very reason for my existence has been taken and I wasn’t here to protect her. I’m drowning, suffocating, spiraling into the depths of a void I won’t ever recover from. I let them find her, let them take her, and now I am nothing. With her, I am strong, powerful, have everything I will ever need. Without her? I’m an abyss of emptiness that can only be filled with the blood of my enemies.
They have my baby girl. My daughter is with her biological father for the first time in her life and I’ve never felt the terror that I feel now. Is she alive? Have they touched her? Will I ever see her again? Will I survive long enough to avenge her?
The bile clogs my throat as every disgusting crime the Donovan’s have ever committed flashes across my mind. Is she going to pay for the crimes I have committed against them?
Please don’t hurt her, not my baby.
I struggle to control my own body as I choke down the vomit. The impending panic attack attempts to overpower me entirely. My heart threatens to burst inside my chest and my hands begin to tingle with numbness as I try my hardest to keep firm pressure on Zack’s wounds.
I want to shut down. I need to. I want to forget. To not exist in a world where my daughter isn’t by my side. But I can’t. That won’t bring my daughter back. No. The only thing that will do that is blood, death, and murder.
Oh, there is going to be so much fucking murder. They think they hurt me before. That I wanted vengeance before? That was nothing. A fucking blip on the radar compared to what I feel now. I wanted their blood for what they did to me, but that wasn’t enough for them. It’s never fucking enough. Now they have taken my only reason for survival and I will make it rain fucking crimson to get her back.
I lock eyes with Zack again. Not once since the day I met him have I ever seen pure terror in his stare. Not even the night we met, and considering I was naked and bleeding it would have been expected. But no, not even then. Now though, now he looks like the world has fucking ended. If we don’t get Cassie back, it just might. I’ll make it.
I try to center my panic and focus my thoughts on the only thing that is in my control right now, and that’s Zack’s life. He’s pleading at me with his eyes, but I am too focused on trying to stem the blood flow and not spiral into a fucking frenzy. But even amongst all the chaos I don’t miss the cocking sound of a gun. It echoes in the deafening silence.
Fuck.
Fuck!!! My panic left my back open to vulnerabilities. I forgot the most important rule of my training; check the threat has been neutralized. My gun lies discarded and useless next to Zack's body, just out of my reach. My knives are still embedded in my dress, but they won’t help me now. I freeze and Zack closes his eyes in defeat, he doesn’t want to watch what is going to happen next. He knows. This is it, the time for my death, our death. I am going to die right here next to him, failing to save him. Failing to save my daughter.
We won’t get to see Cassie again or any of our family, I won’t get that future I had started to picture with Marcus and the Rebels will have to deal with the loss of one more person in their life. I try to take a deep breath, but I'm suffocating, and as the cry catches in my throat, I finally register the tears spilling down my face.
How the fuck did we get here? We were so careful, and it was all for nothing. Every possible future I had imagined for me and Cassie is about to die right here with me. I think about everything I am going to miss; her first day of school, graduation, her wedding day, when she has kids of her own. All of it causing me more pain than I’m about to feel in my death. I say a silent prayer that Ash will get our baby girl back, he has to. I close my eyes so I can see the image of Cassie in my head, I want her face to be the last thing I see.
Cassie, I’m so sorry, baby girl. Mommy loves you.
That is the last thought I have before the presence behind me speaks. “The Donovan’s send their regards.”
The bang of the gun roars into the night. My entire body flinching, awaiting the impact, but it doesn’t come. Instead, a body drops next to me with a hard thud.
“Regards.” Asher's pained tone hits my ear and I whip my head around, letting out a gasp of breath. I see whoever the shooter was is face down in his own blood with a hole in the back of his head. The cry I was so desperately trying to hold in bursts out of me. Shakes wrack my entire body so hard that they force Zack's body to tremble along with me. I never thought about the true danger that I put myself in. I’ve been close to death multiple times, but never without the ability to fight back.
I never wanted to be the weak little girl that was taken and abused again. I promised that for both mine and Cassie’s sake, I would fight until the end. Yet when faced with my end, all I wanted was to close my eyes and accept my fate. Not because I didn’t want to fight, but because it was pointless.
Asher staggers towards me and falls to his knees, gripping my face in his hands. “You okay, baby girl?”
He looks almost as bad as Zack. His face is bleeding and swollen, one arm lies limp by his side and he’s barely holding himself against the table. I shake my head in response. I will never be okay again, not if my brother dies, not if I don’t get my daughter back. Before he can say anything else all three Rebels burst into the room.
“What the fuck?” they yell in unison.
I don’t get to respond before Ash speaks aga
in. “Where is Cassie?” His tone is dark, harsh, and completely menacing, as his eyes plead with mine to put him out of his misery and tell him that she’s fine.
I feel the stares of all four of them burn into my skin at his question. How can I answer a question I don’t know the answer to? A question I fear the answer to. Where is my daughter?
I flick my eyes to Marcus and then back to Ash, the former looks fierce and ready to take on the world, the latter, so far past the edge of reason I doubt he knows the way back. I know they know the answer, they can see it on my grief-stricken face, but they need to hear it to know it’s true.
“They have her. We’re too late.”
Ash collapses backwards like the words have impacted his full body. Panic and devastation staining his face, as a look I’ve only seen once before appears. In this moment he isn’t the stealthy, cunning, and dangerous Asher Donovan that has been making moves against his family. No. He’s a kid, just like me, defeated in a game played by awfully bad men. He is wearing the same shattered expression that I saw that night when I first came out of my drug haze. Heartbroken, anguished, and utterly helpless.
I wish I could help him, say something, anything, to make him feel better, but it's pointless. The despair he feels, I feel it too. I am living it right alongside him, and I know there is no relief in sight. My best friend is breaking apart right in front of me and I don’t have the power to put him back together. He's been my rock for the last four years, and the one and only time he has ever needed me in return, and I am powerless.
The need to break down and give up is fucking paralyzing. But if I break, they win. If I break, we lose. If I break, my brother dies. If I break, we won’t get our daughter back.
I can’t break.
I have to ignore his despair and focus on Zack. I suck in a deep breath through my nose and wipe my cheeks against my shoulders to scrape away the tears.
“I need towels, alcohol, and the first aid kit from the kitchen,” I shout out at the Rebels. None of them move, they are frozen to the spot taking in the scene.
The blood-soaked carpet, my blood-soaked dress, my blood-soaked brother, just so much fucking blood.
“Are you fucking deaf!” I scream. I don’t miss the tears that continue to spill down my cheeks. “I need help!” My voice breaks on the last word.
Marcus is the first to spark into action as he disappears to find what I need. Jace remains frozen to the spot, like the sight of blood has cemented him in there, and Lincoln is looking between Zack, Asher and me.
“Get my phone,” I yell at them both.
“Elle,” Linc starts, but I cut him off.
“Lincoln, get my fucking phone.” He picks up my discarded purse and pulls my phone out. “Dial number one on my speed dial and put it on speaker.”
The dial tone fills the room, and it feels like it takes forever for someone to answer, before Arthur's voice fills the room.
“Hi, sweetheart. How was the pa--”
“GSW to the chest, no exit wound.” My voice is unsteady as I struggle to hold in my emotions. I’m losing it. I can’t lose it.
“Who?” he asks immediately. I wish I could keep it from him. Save him from the heart ache he is about to feel, but there is no way I can lie to him right now, not about his own son.
“It’s Zack,” I choke out through a sob, still barely believing that this is happening.
I hear his sharp intake of breath, like he just took a hit himself before he speaks. “Okay, you're gonna need someone to keep pressure on the wound. Go to my office and in the bottom drawer of my medical cabinet you will find a needle and a long tube.” His voice is a lot steadier than mine, but I can hear the pain along with rustling and movement as I’m sure he exits wherever he is to make his way back here.
He continues to ramble off supplies and Lincoln stalks away, my phone still in hand to retrieve whatever we need. I feel Jace’s presence as he kneels beside me and covers my hands with his. It isn’t until I feel his touch that I realize I’m still shaking. “I got this, princess,” he declares, but it lacks the confidence he usually delivers.
I look at him properly for the first time since he came in, he’s staring at me with the most serious look I’ve ever seen on his face. He squeezes my hands tightly. “Let go, Elle. I got this. I promise.” I slide my hands from beneath him as he closes the small gap.
Marcus comes back holding a stack of towels, a first aid kit, and two bottles of vodka, dumping them next to Jace. Lincoln is here in the next second with the stuff that Arthur listed off, as he continues to instruct them on what to do in order to keep my brother from leaving me.
I’m as cold as ice, goosebumps covering my entire body as I watch them fight to save my brother's life. Still slumped next to me, Ash looks just as lost as I feel as he watches Zack’s blood with an unwavering stare, completely ignoring his own injuries.
How the fuck did we get here?
Marcus grabs my face, pulling until my eyes meet his. “Baby, what happened? Where is Cassie?”
My words are barely a whisper. “She’s gone.” I barely hear them, but I feel them. In my aching heart, in my crushed soul. My daughter is gone, and I don’t know if I will get her back.
Chapter 2
ASHER
I’m empty. Hollow. Void. Completely, fucking desolate. The feeling of defeat has cracked through my steel shell. I can't breathe. I'm trying, but the air keeps getting trapped in my throat, never destined to reach my lungs. Is this what drowning feels like? What happens when you lose all hope?
I don’t feel the terror that should be wracking my body. In fact, I don’t feel anything. I must be in pain. My cheekbone is close to shattered, my wrist snapped, and at least three ribs are broken. I’m sure that when I finally wake from this nightmare, I’ll be in a world of hurt. Yet none of it compares to the fucking gaping hole in the center of my chest. I’m fairly sure the assholes that jumped me didn’t land any hits there, but it’s the only pain I register right now.
I knew something wasn’t right the moment I saw Greg at the party tonight, I felt it in my gut, in my fucking bones. But I did nothing. I let him remain there and for what? To cover myself from my own lies. Lies I told to protect the only things that matter to me. And to what end? I still failed. Failed Elle, failed Cass, failed myself.
It was all for nothing.
I thought the dread of finding Greg in a room with Elle would be the worst of it. I wanted to let it go, allow the rest of the night to wither away until I could get back home. Nothing is ever that simple though, is it? I saw it in his eyes, the sick little gleam of him knowing something I didn’t. Of having one up on me. So, I followed him, thinking that the worst thing that would happen, would be to witness more of his fucking horrific crimes. I’ve seen enough of them to last a lifetime, but I could have handled them. I could have handled anything I would have seen, except this.
What I didn’t see coming was the fucking thugs who jumped me as soon as I made it to the back of the parking lot. Four of them and I still held my own. I may be injured, but the way they came after me I knew I was meant to be near dead. In hindsight, I got off lightly. They didn’t.
When I got rid of all four of them, I staggered to my car and floored it here as fast as I could, all the while praying for time. More time with Cassie, more time with Elle, hell, more fucking time with the four pieces of shit I just murdered in the parking lot. Just more fucking time.
Once again, I was too late. Just like I was too late to save Elle that awful night. Had I been a second later with my arrival, I would have lost her for good. Not that it matters. I've let her down again. My only salvation is the bullet I put in that fucker’s head before he could do the same to her. Yet do I feel it? No. I feel nothing but defeat.
They took her. They took my daughter. My worst fear has finally come to light. We did everything right, tried so fucking hard and for what? They still got her anyway. Every careful step, every meticulous plan, all a waste of fucking t
ime. My shining star has been engulfed in darkness and without her I am nothing. Feel nothing. An empty shell of the man that once existed.
I don’t register anything going on around me, I can’t. My very reason for breathing is gone and I don’t know if I will ever see her again. What else matters?
A door slams open and a second later Arthur storms into the room followed by Helen, and when she locks eyes on her son she bursts into tears. Lincoln moves from Jace's side so Arthur can step in next to Zack and try to save him. Ironic isn’t it, he isn’t even his father, at least not by blood, and he would give his life here and now if it meant saving his son.
My father? He’s just no doubt had a hand in the kidnapping of my daughter. Not to mention attempting to have the living fuck, kicked out of me.
What the fuck am I doing? Why the fuck am I still here? I need to get her back.
I focus and quickly take stock of the room. Marcus is comforting Elle and Helen, both of whom are laser focused on Jace and Arthur. Zack continues to lie motionless in a puddle of his own blood and Lincoln is typing away furiously into a laptop he got from lord knows where.
I push up off the floor and the pain overtakes my entire body, but in comparison to the void in my heart, it does nothing to stop me. I don’t care about anything right now, not even death. I don’t care if the grim reaper himself comes to drag me to the pits of hell, just as long as I get my daughter back to where she belongs first.
Elle will take care of her brother, and I will take care of mine.
I manage to slip out of the room without notice and almost make it to the front door until I am being hauled back. The touch on my arm makes me hiss in pain, but his grip doesn't let up as he pushes me into the wall.
"Where do you think you’re going?" Blackwell's voice is calm, like fucking always. It fucking infuriates me I can feel his stare boring into the side of my skull, but I can't look at him. At anyone. I don't want them to see the defeat in my eyes. The same truth is on repeat in my mind… I failed them.
