by Carol Dawn
“Whatever do you mean, Trig?” she asks innocently.
“He’s probably referring to that time you told me that you would only be happy if Trigger accompanied us, Chains, Laura and all of her children to the zoo,” Bear says through his laughter. “He was chased by a monkey who wanted to mate with him.”
I chuckle at the memory. My sister’s kids tell anyone who will listen that Uncle Trigger has a monkey girlfriend.
“Or the time you needed help baking cookies and Trigger was the only one around,” I say as I finally stop punching the bag and down a bottle of water.
Ink is laughing so hard that he falls off the stool he was sitting on before managing to say, “I walked in on him wearing a pink frilly apron and holding about six sheets of cookies. He was glaring at them so hard.”
“The pans were hot,” Trigger muttered.
“No, they were not,” Rose says with a kind smile. “You were upset because you wanted to eat the biggest cookies before anyone else got to them, but your hands were too full to grab any.”
For a moment I allow myself to enjoy the moment with my family. Laughing at the expense of Trigger is always a fun thing to do. As long as you’re fast enough to run away when he’s had enough, that is. Unfortunately, none of us are. He may be big, but that fucker is fast.
If he wants to catch you, you’re caught.
It’s best to always stay on his good side. That’s why when the low rumble of his frustrated growl starts, we all zip it. Except for Rose. He wouldn’t so much as raise his voice to her and she knows it.
“I’ll come, too,” Hawk says as he puts away the weights he was working with. “Trigger can be your backup in case, Jack, the ass shows up.”
“And, why do you want to come?” I ask.
“Simple curiosity,” he shrugs.
“I think I can handle Jack the ass just fine, but you both are welcome to join me. We’re leaving in five,” I say before I walk away.
I’ve told the guys all about my girls. Including what little I know about Jack. He’s been dubbed, Jack, the ass. Why didn’t I ask Arabella more questions? Why is she running from him? What is his last name? What is her last name?
Man, I’m a fucking idiot. My brain was frozen stupid on the fact that I found my soul mate that I didn’t really have a clear picture of what was going on. And then what do I do? I let her leave so she wouldn’t feel trapped. More afraid than she already was.
If something happened to her or Sophia, I’ll never forgive myself.
***
It takes us a little under an hour, but we finally arrive in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
“Small town,” Hawk says from the back seat of my truck. “We just got here and I’m pretty sure I see the end of it up ahead.”
“Rose would probably call it a village,” I say.
Trigger grunts his agreement from the passenger seat.
“It’s a good thing we stopped at the supermarket in Lebanon before we left because I’ve only seen one gas station and two autobody shops,” I say.
“Maybe vfey only drink vfe blood from vfe occasional tourist, zo vfey have no need for any zupermarketz,” Hawk says in his best ‘vampire’ accent.
“Or, maybe you’ve been spending way too much time with Ink,” Trigger grumbles.
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Hawk says in agreement. “Or maybe you’re just trying to keep your secret identity a secret, Mr. Dark and Broody.”
“You wouldn’t be able to handle my secret identity, boy.”
“Wait, do you really have one?” a confused Hawk asks. “I knew you were hiding something. Let me guess, you’re a secret ninja?”
“Hawk,” Trigger growls.
“Yes,” the idiot answers.
“Shut the fuck up.”
Sighing, I turn into the gas station. “Hawk, go inside and ask where Brighton street is before you get dead. Bear will kill me if Trigger kills you.”
“Why?” he asks. “Because he can’t kill Trigger?”
“I’d like to see him try,” Trigger mumbles as Hawk hurries into the store.
“I’ve got a bad feeling,” I tell Trigger. “Something’s wrong.”
“I feel it too, brother,” he says. “Even Hawk does. That’s why he’s being a nut. He’s trying to keep your mind multi-focused, so you don’t lose it.”
I feel like I’ve already lost it. My mind is all over the place.
“It’s just around the corner. The road isn’t marked, though,” Hawk says when he opens the back door. “The old man said he knows exactly the place we’re looking for. It’s an old abandoned trailer on some partially hidden land. Years back the family that lived there moved away without selling the property.”
Hawk squeezes his body into the small backseat before saying, “He also said we aren’t the first ones asking about it. Two others stopped by. The first was about a week ago. A young woman with a child came in asking for directions using the old owner’s names. He gave them to her and said he hasn’t seen her since. A few nights ago, a middle-aged man came in with the same address and the story that he was thinking of buying the property from the owners. The old man got a weird vibe from him. Told the man he wasn’t sure where it was. That doesn’t mean someone else didn’t tell him.”
Before Hawk finishes his last word, I have my truck flying out of the gas station.
“Just around this corner,” Hawk says as he leans in the front. “He said to be careful or we’ll miss the road.”
Slowing down as I round the corner, I look around closely until I spot a small dirt road right at the edge of the curve. Making a sharp right, we head down the path. It doesn’t take long to spot the trailer.
And Arabella’s car.
“Is that her car?” Hawk asks.
“Yeah.”
“Something feels off,” Trigger says.
“Yeah, I’m with Trigger on this one,” Hawk says.
Without another word, the three of us get out of the truck and head for the trailer. Raising my fist, I knock on the door. Once. Twice. Three times.
No answer.
“Arabella, it’s Blake,” I say loudly.
“Blake?” Hawk asks. “Since when do you go by Blake?”
“Baby,” I yell, ignoring Hawk. “We’re coming in.”
The doorknob turns with no resistance.
It wasn’t locked.
I was expecting the inside of the trailer to be as run-down and broken as the outside, but surprisingly it’s nice and tidy. It’s definitely old, and just from looking around I can tell that a few things need immediate repair.
The door opens straight into a small living room. There is a stained couch against the back wall with an old wooden coffee table sitting in front of it. On the other side of the room is a small stand with an old box television set sitting on top. The carpet is a thin layer of multi-colored brown and the wall is adorned with flowered wallpaper.
However, it’s not the design of the home that has me worried.
It’s the silence.
“Arabella, it’s Blake. Are you here?”
“Her things are still here,” Trigger says as he walks out of a room down the hall.
“Maybe she just went for a walk,” Hawk suggests.
“I don’t think so,” I say. “There’s still snow outside. I don’t think she would take Sophia out in this weather. She’s only a week old.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Hawk agrees. “Let’s check every room. If she’s not here, we will wait and see if she comes back.”
There aren’t many rooms to check. The kitchen is connected to the living room, so we know she isn’t in either of these rooms. I head down the hall where Trigger found a bedroom. Nothing seems out of place. The bed is made. She even has her and Sophia’s clothes in the chest of drawers.
Beside the bed is the bassinet that I insisted she take with her.
Leaving the room, I walk to the next one. This room is bare. There are a few boxes in the corner,
but that’s all.
“FUCK! CHAINS,” Hawk yells from another room.
Instantly, my heart slams against my chest. What the hell am I about to walk into?
Running from the room, I head in the direction of Hawk’s voice. He’s in the room at the end of the hall. The first thing I notice is that Hawk is on the floor and his feet are sticking out of the door.
For a split second, I freeze.
Hawk stands and turns to look right at me.
“Dammit, Trigger, I’m going to need you in about one second,” Hawk yells.
Without another thought, I rush toward the room, shove Hawk aside and am destroyed by what I see.
Arabella is on the bathroom floor. Her face is completely unrecognizable. I only know it’s her because of the shirt she’s wearing. The same shirt I put her in when I brought her to my house. The same one I know she secretly packed away when she left.
Her body is colder than it was when I found her in her car. The urge to gather her in my arms and run is strong. I hold back, but only just. There’s one more thing I need to check before I completely lose it.
“The baby,” I manage to say around the lump in my throat.
“I’ve checked every room, Chains,” Trigger says. “All the closets, cupboards, even drawers. The baby isn’t here.”
That’s the last thing I hear before a loud rumble blasts through the room. It’s so loud that my ears ring from the sound of it. I slam my eyes shut and let the vibration from the sound give me as much comfort as it’s able.
I only realize a few moments later, as my back is pressed against Trigger’s chest and his arms a vice around my body, that the rumbling sound is coming from me. I release another roar with every bit of agony in my soul.
I found my beautiful soul mate. The woman that was born to be mine. And she was taken from me before we even had the chance to see what a beautiful life we could have.
I’ll get my revenge. And, I know the exact person to look for.
Fucking Jack!
I hear distant voices.
“Dammit, Chains. Shut the fuck up and listen to me.”
Opening my eyes, I see a panicked Hawk looking right at me.
“What?” I croak. Only then noticing that I was on my knees and no longer in Trigger’s hold.
“She’s not dead,” he says. “I feel a pulse.”
“I called an ambulance,” Trigger says. “And Bear. He says he will meet us at the hospital.”
She’s not dead.
My woman isn’t dead. I feel like I can breathe just a bit more.
She’s not dead.
But someone will be.
Chapter Six
Chains
There wasn’t enough room in the ambulance for me to ride to the hospital with Arabella. She still hasn’t woken up. She didn’t even make a sound when they moved her around. Hawk wouldn’t let me drive, so I’m sitting in the passenger seat with my eyes glued to the ambulance.
The closest hospital is about twenty minutes away. We make it there in ten.
I’m worried sick over Sophia. I can only hope and pray that her father simply wanted her because she is his blood and won’t cause her any harm. Of course, that isn’t going to stop me from getting my girl back and breaking his fucking face.
He’s going to learn really quick that Arabella and Sophia belong to me. And no one fucking harms what’s mine.
“I threw Bella’s purse in the backseat, Chains,” Hawk says.
“What do I need that for?” I ask.
“Do you know her last name?”
Well hell. Reaching to grab her bag I dig through it until I find a billfold. Opening it, I grab her ID and put everything else back in the backseat.
Arabella Michaels. My beautiful, perfect, Arabella.
Hawk pulls the truck into a parking spot and we get out and rush inside.
“Hello,” says an older man sitting behind a desk beside the emergency room entrance. “What can I help you young men with?”
“The ambulance that just pulled in, I need to get back to where they took the woman,” I say.
“Her name?” he asks.
“Arabella,” I answer.
“Your name?” he asks.
“Blake Hunter,” I say through gritted teeth.
“The woman they just brought in has been sent to the operating room for emergency surgery. I’m afraid I can’t give you any more information than that.”
“That’s his fucking wife,” Trigger growls. “He’s entitled to every bit of information you have on her.”
I could kiss that man right now. Wait, what? Emergency surgery?
“Why did she have to have emergency surgery for?” I ask in a panic.
“Just one second sir, I’ll grab your wife’s nurse. She can give you all the information they have,” the man says before standing and walking away.
“Where the fuck is she?” Is yelled from the same doors we came through. Turning around, I see Bear, Slim, Brick, and Ink walk in with equal amounts of pissed off looks.
“She had to have emergency surgery. Her nurse will be here in a few minutes to give us more information,” Hawk tells them.
“How the hell did you get here so fast?” I ask.
“Hawk sent me a text about an hour back saying you got some information about a man asking snooping around where your woman and baby were at,” Bear said.
“We didn’t waste another second,” Slim added. “Brick risked his life to get the keys, and we all squeezed in Trigger’s truck and drove as fast as we could.”
“We were almost to Yellow Springs when Trigger called about what was happening,” Bear finished.
“What the fuck, Slim?” Brick hisses. “Throw me under the damn bus will you.”
“Well, I wanted to specify who the key grabber was. I’ll break in two if Trigger even glances in my direction with that glare he’s giving you.”
“You may be built like a tank,” Trigger growls at Brick. “But I will make you wilt like a flower if you so much as breath near my room again.”
“We needed the keys, brother. You had the only vehicle that would fit us all. What were we supposed to do, hotwire it?”
“Bear has a key,” Trigger growls.
“What the fuck?” hisses Brick.
Ignoring the guys, Bear walks up to me, grabs the back of my neck, and slams me into a hug. One of the things I love about being a brother of this MC, it is the pure definition of family. No one is afraid to express how they feel. Man card be dammed.
***
The nurse wasn’t able to tell us anything other than Arabella was taken straight to the operating room the moment she got here. We’ve been sitting here for over two hours now, waiting to hear any new information. I’m about to go fucking insane.
“Mr. Hunter,” a female voice says.
“Yes, right here,” I say, quickly standing.
“Hi, I’m Doctor Shelby. I have some information about your wife. If you want to follow me somewhere more private so we can talk,” she says as she eye’s the brothers.
“No, you can say anything in front of them. They’re our family,” I tell her.
“Alright,” she says in a calm and soothing voice. Fuck, that voice is never good. “Your wife had elevated Intracranial pressure. When she was attacked, her head was hit with enough force to cause traumatic brain injury. The impact caused her brain tissue to swell,” she pauses as if giving me a moment to process what she’s just said. To process what she’s about to say.
“In order to relieve some of the pressure, we had to do what is called a decompressive craniectomy.”
“English, Doc,” Inc says.
“We had to remove part of her skull so that the brain has room to swell.”
“What the fuck?” Brick breathes out.
“What do you mean you had to remove part of her skull?” I ask, barely able to contain my rage.
“She was dying, Mr. Hunter. We didn’t have time to wait for your permiss
ion. If we didn’t remove that part of her skull, then she would be dead by now. She isn’t out of the woods. I’m going to keep her in a medically induced coma for a couple more days to let her brain heal itself some. Then we’ll try and wake her up and see where we are from there. Her recovery will be a long one. Your wife was badly injured.”
“Can I see her?” I ask.
“You can, but one at a time and only family. She will be in the Intensive Care Unit for a couple of weeks. There are strict visiting hours in the ICU. There’s a family waiting room just down the hall from her room where you can stay when visiting hours are closed if you like.”
“Thank you, Doctor.”
She nods and walks down the hall. I tell Bear that I’ll be back, and I follow the doctor to my woman’s room. I enter her room and my heart breaks. The room feels cold, dark, and sterile.
There are multiple machines around her that are connected to cords that run to her body. Her head is wrapped in a thick layer of white gauze. She has a breathing tube running down her throat. Her face is swollen and bruised.
And she’s still. So still. I know the doctor said that she was in a medically induced coma, but she looks dead.
I’ll never get this image out of my head.
I move a chair to the side of her bed and gently take her hand in mine.
“I’m so fucking sorry, baby.” I can feel the damn tears pouring down my face. I waste no effort in wiping them away. More will just take their place. “I let you down. I let you and babygirl leave because I didn’t want you to feel trapped. To feel scared. And because I wasn’t smart enough to hold on to you while I had you, you could die.”
I lean down and kiss her cold hand.
“Sophia’s gone. But I swear to you, baby, I will do everything I can to get her back. I have a pretty good idea who has her. And, he will pay for taking her. For hurting you. It’s not just me he has to worry about, Arabella. You and Sophia have been adopted by my family. And they are a bunch of scary mother fuckers. Well, except Slim. He’s a tiny male, hence the name. But you put him behind a computer screen, watch the fuck out.”
I know I’m just rambling, but I don’t know what else to say. I have to keep saying something. The silence will only let my mind wander to Jack and the pain I plan to inflict on him after I get my babygirl back. I need to stay focused on Arabella while I still have visiting hours.
