by T. S. Ryder
Now, Charity paced from one end of the room to the other, wringing her hands. Devin had to sit, his leg stretched out in front of him. Sweat still peppered his face, but the discomfort was starting to lessen. It was a clean shot, and the adrenaline from fighting with Honor was helping to encourage healing. He wished he could do something to comfort Charity, though. He wished he could comfort Leo, too. His brother sat beside him, staring at his hands and shaking.
How could anybody do this to their own sibling? How much hatred had to be seething inside of Honor’s soul to make her hate them so much that she would go after her own sisters? It was beyond reason, and his mind churned as the events played over and over in his mind.
All three of them looked up when a couple of police officers entered the waiting room. Devin got to his feet, eyeing them warily. They glanced around, and with an expression full of self-importance, headed straight for him. Both of them had their hands on their guns. Devin held up his hands to make sure they knew that he was unarmed.
That didn’t stop one of them from punching him in the stomach. They threw him to the floor. Charity screamed. Devin tried to tell Leo to go to him, but there was no air in his lungs. The cops twisted his arms painfully behind his back.
“Devin Luthor, you are under arrest for the assault of Charity Gatiss.”
“He didn’t do anything to me!” Charity screamed.
Devin couldn’t see anything that was going on above him, but the rough hands cuffing him paused.
“You are Charity Gatiss?” one of them asked doubtfully.
“Yes! Look, here’s my ID.”
A couple more cops came in. The ones arresting him dragged him to his feet while one of the newcomers went to Charity. Leo stood next to her. His face was very pale, but he didn’t speak. Devin caught his eye and shook his head slightly, trying to indicate that he needed to stay put and keep his mouth shut. Somebody had to stay with Charity to protect her.
The cops looked at Charity’s ID and grunted. “We’ve been looking for you. Your parents are worried sick.”
“My parents have no idea what is happening here.” Charity put her hands on her hips. “Devin is my boyfriend. He did not assault me or rape me or hurt me in any way, no matter what you were told. I left the island because of my younger sister. She’s trying to kill me because she’s against shifters and I’m pregnant with a shifter baby. She came after me just an hour ago and shot my twin.”
The cop frowned as he handed Charity’s ID back to her. He glared at Leo, who dropped his gaze but didn’t move. “Why would this sister attack your other sister, then? Is she pregnant, too?”
“She was helping me. That’s enough for Honor. She’s psychotic.”
The cop pulled her away from Leo. When Leo opened his mouth to protest, another of the cops roughly grabbed him and threw him into one of the chairs. Devin’s first reaction was to snarl and try to throw himself forward. He managed to curb it to only a grunt and a twitch. He couldn’t be arrested for resisting arrest.
With any luck, Charity would be able to resolve this. And if they weren’t lucky? Well, then he’d have to figure something else out.
“Miss Gatiss,” the cop whispered in a low voice he probably thought that Devin wouldn’t be able to hear. “If you’re afraid of what the shifters might do to you in retaliation, we can offer you and your family complete protection.”
Charity’s nostrils flared. “What I need protection against is people who attack me and my boyfriend. And from my bigots of parents who decided that because I’m sleeping with a shifter, that means that he’s raping me. If you want to help me, then you will find Honor and make sure that she can’t attack me again!”
“Look, there is no call for that attitude.”
“My boyfriend is in handcuffs because you’d rather believe my parents at their word than bother asking me what is actually going on. I think that’s call for a bit of attitude.” Charity’s voice lowered. “If you’re interested in actually doing your job, you will release him and apologize to all of us.”
“We can’t just assume that he’s innocent—”
“Because that’s how the justice system works, isn’t it?” Leo interrupted. He didn’t move from where he was sitting. His eyes burned, though. “You’re talking with the girl who was supposedly assaulted, but you’d rather assume the shifter is guilty than listen to what she’s really saying.”
Devin was grateful that his brother was standing up for him, but the last thing he wanted was for his brother to be arrested with him. As the cops turned toward Leo, he shook his head.
“Leo, that’s enough. Charity? If they are going to arrest me, I’m going to go quietly. You need to stay here for Hope. Okay?”
Both Leo and Charity looked shocked. One of the cops started to pull him away, but another stopped him. He was pushed into one of the chairs, and the cops gathered together. In low, angry voices, they started to argue with one another. Devin was surprised that they were actually discussing it. To his relief, in the end, reason won out.
The cop who had cuffed him removed the cuffs, glaring the whole time. “Don’t think this is over, shifter,” he muttered in Devin’s ear. “I’m going to get her to tell the truth, and then you’ll regret ever going after a human.”
Devin was silent at that. The cops got a description of Honor and left the hospital. Charity dropped to one of the chairs and hid her face in her hands. Devin put an arm around her. He found himself trembling, but focused on getting himself back under control. That could have gone a lot worse. At least they had listened to them . . .
“Why were you going to just let them arrest you?” Leo looked at him over Charity’s head. His gaze was troubled and betrayed. “You were just going to let them . . . Where would the pack be then?”
“Better off than if I had more charges added to it. Or worse, if they had decided to shoot me in the middle of a hospital.” Devin kept his voice low. “It wasn’t the time to fight back.”
He put an arm around Charity. Part of him wondered if it would have been better to fight back from the beginning, to demand his rights be listened to. The other part knew that him being a shifter, it was unlikely that it would have done anything but escalate the situation. They were lucky that Charity had managed to get them to listen to reason. If all the cops had been like the first two that came in, chances were that all three of them would have ended up in jail, if not worse.
Life was a constant battle. It sucked, but it was the truth. They barely listened to Charity, the human. There was no way they’d have listened to the shifters.
It was several hours later before they got an update on Hope’s condition.
“She’s going to pull through,” the doctor said.
Charity let out a cry of relief and threw her arms around Devin. She buried her face into his shoulder as her whole body trembled. He held her tightly, whispering reassurances into her ear. The doctor went on with some technical language about Hope’s injuries that Devin didn’t understand and finished up by saying that they had contacted Hope’s husband and parents.
The doctor left and Charity pulled back. Tears streaked her face, but she held Devin’s hand tightly. “Hope is alright. We should leave. My parents are going to be coming, and I don’t want you to have to deal with them on top of everything right now.”
“You have to stay with your sister.”
“She’s going to be fine. You heard them.”
He pressed a finger to her lips. She still trembled, and he wondered how badly all this stress was going to affect the baby. “You will not be satisfied until you can see her and know that she’s fine. I know that you want to stay. So we are going to.”
Charity hesitated a moment. “Then you have to go, at least. My parents . . . they already nearly got you arrested. If you’re here, it’s just going to end up with more accusations thrown around.”
Devin shook his head. “Look, it doesn’t matter what they think or say. I am going to stay here with you. W
e don’t know where Honor is, and I’m not going to leave you alone here.”
“I’m in a hospital and a couple of the cops are still hanging around. I’ll be safe here. I promise.” Charity cupped his face in her hands and kissed him lightly. “I’m just afraid that my father will attack you and you’ll get arrested for it.”
Devin glanced over at his brother. Leo didn’t meet his eye. Clearly, this was for him to decide on his own. He kissed Charity again. As much as it pained him to be taken from her, she had a point. Her father had already all but attacked him once. Now, with Hope having been shot and Honor being the shooter, chances were that her parents were not going to be in a forgiving mood. No, they would be looking for any way to lay the blame for this on his feet.
Charity would be safe here. She’d be protected in the hospital. But him and Leo? The cops were probably just waiting for an excuse to arrest them. He couldn’t protect Charity from jail.
“You’ve got my number in Hope’s phone now,” he said to Charity. “Call if you need anything.”
She nodded. Devin stood. Leo stood with him. Each step felt like dragging his feet through mud, but Devin managed to get himself out of the hospital and toward the jeep. His heart pounded and his stomach churned.
“Where are we going to go?” Leo asked him.
“Back to Alice’s place. We’re going to find Honor.”
Chapter Thirteen – Charity
With every step that Devin took, Charity wanted to run after him. It was silly, she knew that, but her stomach cramped and she kept wondering if this would be the last time she’d see him. After all, Honor was still out there with her evil plans. Who knew what she was cooking up now? The only thing that stopped Charity from running after him was knowing that if her parents came, he would end up being arrested.
The cops glared at him as he left, and one of them sent her a furious look. She resisted the urge to glare back and sat down instead. Perhaps waiting for her parents wasn’t the best idea. She wasn’t sure if she was going to be able to hold her temper when they walked in and she remembered that they had nearly gotten Devin arrested for something he didn’t do.
At the same time, she knew that Devin was right. She needed to be here for Hope. Whatever Honor was after, it was clear that she had shot Hope to get at her. Perhaps Hope was trying to stop her. Perhaps Honor had thought Hope was her. Whatever it was, Charity wasn’t going to be able to think about anything else if she left the hospital before she was able to see and speak with her sister.
Unable to sit still, Charity took to pacing again. When the sound of her feet hitting the floor became too much for her, she marched over to the nurses’ desk and leaned on it. The nurse looked up with a kindly expression.
“Can I see my sister?” Charity asked.
The nurse shook her head. Apparently, she had been expecting this line of questioning. “I’m afraid not, my dear. She’s just come out of surgery and is still heavily sedated. I will let you know when you can go see her.”
“Thank you.” Her voice sounded oddly cowed to her own ears, but Charity didn’t spend any time as she retreated back to the uncomfortable chairs. There wasn’t even a TV in the room to distract her from her thoughts.
Leo’s soft question returned to her. Why were you going to just let them arrest you? She shivered as she considered it. Was it her? Had he stepped back, ready to sacrifice his freedom and the wellbeing of his pack because he didn’t want her to get caught in the crossfire? She didn’t want that from him. If she was the reason that his pack fell apart, then how was she meant to be in his life?
Her hand drifted to her stomach. She wouldn’t regret her relationship with Devin, nor the child growing inside of her. But he couldn’t give up everything he’d worked so hard for, just for her. As touching as it was, it wasn’t good for either of them.
No. Once they were able to talk again, they were going to have to have a serious conversation about this. And she was going to help him every way she could.
***
Hope was still unconscious by the time her parents arrived. Hope’s husband was with them. Charity stood to greet them, and Hope’s husband got right into her face.
“This is all your fault!” he shouted. “You go and get yourself mixed up with a shifter, and then you get my wife tangled up in it, too. As if it’s not bad enough that you’ve gotten yourself knocked up. You’ve put her in danger, and now look at what’s happened! Where is he? I’m going to kill him for hurting my wife!”
“Devin didn’t hurt anybody.” Charity’s hands clenched. Her nostrils flared as she struggled to gain control of her temper. “Honor shot Hope. Devin had nothing to do with it.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” her father said. “Honor wouldn’t hurt a fly. That shifter has brainwashed you. I can’t believe that a daughter of mine would be so stupid! First you let yourself get wrapped up in this business, and now you won’t see plain, simple truths. That beast is dangerous!”
“Devin isn’t the one who shot Hope! That was Honor!”
Her mother let out a long, plaintive wail that made Charity flinch and cover her ears. Part of her wondered why she was even trying to reason with any of them when they clearly weren’t listening.
She was proven right with the next words that came out of her mother’s mouth. “That shifter is tearing this family apart. Oh, Charity. You were going to be our little star. We had such high hopes for you, going off to college. You had so much potential. And you’ve thrown it all away on a shifter? I never thought the day would come . . . and now my family has fallen apart.”
“If you’re looking for someone to blame for ripping this family apart, maybe you should look at Honor, who shot Hope. And him!” She pointed at Hope’s husband. “He’s cheating on Hope. But you wouldn’t care about that, would you? Because as long as he wears that cross around his neck, you don’t care what he does. You’re all a bunch of hypocrites.”
“Charity Gatiss, don’t you dare talk to your mother like that,” her father started.
“I will talk however I damned well please!” Her voice rose to a shout. The cops started to head over her way. She didn’t care. “You want to know who tore this family apart? Look in a mirror. Then pick up a bible and read what it actually says.”
The cops were right there by this time. Charity ignored them as she headed for the exit. She didn’t care about them or her parents or any of them. She had made Devin leave because she knew that her parents would attack him. Obviously, she should have been more worried about herself. Staying was a bad idea.
Tears flooded her eyes as she left the hospital. As much as she wanted to stay for Hope, she couldn’t. She couldn’t just be there, waiting with them. The decision had already been made, but this only made it more obvious. She had to cut them out. She couldn’t keep going on trying to battle their hate. She didn’t have the strength.
She pulled Hope’s phone from her pocket, intending to call Devin. But as she rounded a corner of the large brick building, something heavy hit the back of her head.
Darkness consumed her.
***
When consciousness returned, the first thing Charity realized was that she was tied up. Her head pounded as she lifted it. Her arms were secured behind her back and ropes wound around her stomach and legs. Dark splotches still moved over her eyes as she glanced around. She was in a dank little motel room. It looked like it had been decorated in the 60s and ignored since then. Charity wouldn’t have been surprised if she saw rats.
Her gaze landed on Honor. Charity tensed at once.
Honor smiled coldly at her. “Welcome back to the land of the living, sister. I hope your head doesn’t hurt too much.”
Charity glared back at her.
“How is Hope? I heard that she came out of surgery, but I couldn’t find out anything else.”
“Like you care.” Charity tested the ropes holding her. There was no give to them. Her hands and feet were both numb. How long had she been tied up here? �
��You shot her! She could have died because of you, so don’t you dare pretend like you care.”
Honor’s face fell into a deadly glare. “Pretend? Of course I care. She’s my sister. I love her. Poor Hope, she’s just a bit stupid. Too easily pulled into whatever web of lies you’ve woven around yourself and that shifter. The bullet was meant for you. But she was going to warn you. It’s your fault.”
“You shot her. That is nobody’s fault but your own.”
Honor tapped her fingers on the little desk she sat next to. “Still as unreasonable as ever. Always acting like it’s somebody else’s fault. You betrayed our family. Threatened to undo all my hard work. What was I supposed to do? Shifters are destroying the human way of life. They want to steal everything from us. And you? You’re helping them.”
There was a large knife beside Honor’s fingers. Charity’s blood ran cold as she saw it. Her heart pounded. As hard as she struggled not to show fear, she felt it radiating from every pore in her body. Swallowing hard, she looked back at Honor’s face. There was no pity or remorse in her eyes.
Did she even believe what she was saying? Or was there just something broken inside of her, something that demanded blood and pain? Had she merely decided that this was the justification she’d use to feed her lust for killing?
“I’ve calmed down now.” Honor actually smiled at her. “And I have come to a decision. I am going to offer you your life, as well as the life of your unborn child. That’s what you want, right? I’ve heard that a mother’s love for her baby gives her strength to do things she wouldn’t otherwise do. Maybe it’ll give you the strength to be reasonable.”
“Honor, I’m not the one who shot our sister.”
Honor’s face dropped. She slapped Charity hard across the face, making her cry out. Honor stood, hands clenched as she paced back and forth. But she didn’t reach for the knife. That was positive, at least. Charity swallowed hard. Trying her best to keep her voice soothing, she spoke again.
