Darcy's Downfall

by Erin Osborne

  Before I can do anything stupid, the main door opens and in walks the guys from the Phantom Bastards. There’s back slapping and guys ordering a beer so that we can make a plan of attack to get her back in our arms where she belongs.

  It doesn’t take us long to come up with how we’re getting in and getting Darcy out safe. Just as we’re ready to head out, armed to the teeth since we don’t know if anyone else is going to be in the house, Grim and the rest of the guys from Clifton Falls pull in. They turn their bikes around and sit until the rest of us start heading out of the gate. I’m sure that Gage is talking to them on his Bluetooth to let them know what’s going on, but if not, we’ll have to update them once we pull over about a mile or so from the house our girl is in.

  The ride takes us about an hour before we pull over to get in our groups and head towards the house on foot. There’s no reason to warn Gene of our arrival now so he does something else to hurt our girl. My adrenaline is pumping and I’m ready to go now. I have to tell myself continuously to stay here while Gage is talking to Grim and splitting his guys up among us. Crash, standing next to me, is bouncing on his feet so he doesn’t take off on his own. I know that’s what he’s doing. Everyone else, is waiting to head out, checking their weapons, and focusing on what’s about to happen.

  “You two ready?” Gage asks, directing his attention to Crash and myself.

  We both nod, not wanting to lose focus about what we have to do. Our task at hand is the most important one out of everyone as far as I’m concerned. Crash and I are to get in and find our girl, getting her out as quickly as possible. I can pretty much guarantee that we’re going to need to get her some medical attention if this douchebag’s rap sheet is anything to go by.

  After what seems like forever, we head out and start making our way to the house sitting in the middle of about six warehouses. There’s a ton of places for us to hide while we’re making our way there. The closer we get to the house, the more the adrenaline starts flowing through my veins. Crash is continuously clenching and unclenching his fists and I know he’s itching for a fight. The way that fight turns out depends on how bad Darcy is.

  Stepping up on to the porch, I can hear the screams of our girl radiating through the inside of the house. Looking at my brother, I know that there’s no waiting anymore. I step to the side of the door and try the handle. It turns without resistance and I know that Darcy is extremely close to the other side. Crash pushes the door open as she goes to pull it toward her.

  “Crash! Trojan!” she screams out, immediately falling to the floor just inside the door.

  We quickly rush to her side and take a second to look over the injuries that we can already see. My blood is boiling, and I can’t wait to get my hands on this slimy motherfucking scumbag. There are bruises over almost every inch of her body, her arm is swollen, one of her legs is swollen and at an odd angle, and I can make out handprints surrounding her once flawless and swanlike neck. Crash lets out a growl and scream like nothing I’ve ever heard before. The pain is finally coming out in the one way it can at this point in time. When we can finally get our hands on this fucker, the rest will come out.

  Crash and I carry our girl out and gently lay her on the ground after laying our tee shirts down. With every mark on her body, I don’t want to take a chance and her get some sort of infection on top of it all. I immediately drop to my knees next to her and check her pulse after dropping my cut over her naked body. Yes, she was just awake, fighting for her life. However, we don’t know what her injuries are and what she’s been through the last three days. It may not seem like a lot of time, but with the psychopath Gene is, there’s a lot that he can do to anyone he has in his clutches for that long. Hell, there’s a lot he could do in the span of a few hours.

  “Someone call an ambulance!” Crash yells out, to anyone standing near us.

  “We’ve already done it, brother,” Grim tells us, kneeling down next to him and going to reach out for her.

  “Please! Don’t touch her!” we both yell out. We just got her back, and no one is going to be putting their hands on our girl.

  Grim holds his hands up and nods his head to let us know he understands where we’re coming from. He was the same way when Bailey went through anything and we’re going to be the same now. It’s going to be tough as fuck for the paramedics to get close to her. If it weren’t for them being the ones that need to help her right now, they wouldn’t get anywhere near Darcy. Crash and I are just going to have to suck it up and let them in.

  Finally, after what seems like a lifetime, we hear the first wails of the sirens approaching us. Shadow, Gage, and Wood have already loaded Gene up in the van and started back to the clubhouse. They’ll make sure he’s put downstairs and held until we can get there to deal with him. Crash and I will be the one to end Gene’s stupid ass. Knowing how everyone feels about our girl, they’ll all be taking shots at him. Probably more than a few before we get the chance to lay our hands on him.

  Slim and Steel meet the paramedics and give them a story that Darcy was kidnapped, and we found her in the house. Alone. We don’t know who took her, no one else was around when we got here, and the few of us remaining here are the only ones that ever stepped foot on this property. Everyone else will stick to the story. Darcy can let the cops know what she remembers when she wakes up and we’ll go from there.

  It takes Steel, Fox, Tech, and Grim to pull Crash and I away from Darcy so that she can be loaded up on a stretcher and put in the back of the ambulance. There’s no way that both of us aren’t riding in there with her and I’m sure that Slim already mentioned that because no one puts a fight up when we head toward the back of the ambulance. The only thing we’re told is that one of us will have to ride up front. Knowing that Crash needs to be with her just the slightest bit more than I do since I was here when this all went down, I make my way up front and tell everyone to move their asses or I’m going to be driving the fucking thing myself.

  “We’ll meet you guys there,” Grim calls out, pulling his phone from his pocket and placing a call to someone.

  It doesn’t take us very long to make it to the hospital Darcy will be staying at. Once we pull in, nurses and doctors open the back doors and pull the stretcher out. They rush her into the emergency room and one unlucky nurse, leads Crash and I to the waiting room. We begin to pace the length of the room, scaring the shit out of everyone else sitting there waiting to be seen or make their way back to their loved ones.

  We’re still pacing twenty minutes later when our brothers begin to make their way in to us. Other than finding out that Darcy was being taken for tests to see what all the damage is, we haven’t heard a fucking word from anyone. I know I’m getting pissed the fuck off and Crash is even worse. Every time the door opens, we’re turning toward it and starting to head that way. It’s never for us though. This waiting shit is for the birds as far as I’m concerned.

  “Family of Miss Quinn,” a doctor calls out, standing on just this side of the door.

  We all move toward him and it doesn’t even phase the man that has us holding our breath. My heart is racing, and I feel like I can’t breathe waiting to hear what’s going on right now. He needs to hurry the fuck up before Crash lets loose too. He’s pale and I can see the sweat beginning to form along his face and chest. He’s holding so much in that he’s about to erupt.

  “Miss Quinn has several open cuts and wounds that we’ve stitched up after cleaning out. There’s bruising surrounding her neck and we won’t know the extent of the damage until she wakes up. The rest of her body is covered in bruises, especially her wrists and ankles. It looks like she was tied up to something. And, during an exam, we did discover tearing and bruising in her vaginal area. I’m going to say that she was raped multiple times. We’re getting ready to take her back to surgery so that we can set her leg and arm. Her arm was broken in three spots while her leg is broken, and her ankle is sprained. There is going to be risk to the fetus, but at this point, she
is my number one priority,” he tells us, pausing only for a second before shocking the shit out of every one of us standing before him. “I’m sorry that I’ve had to tell you all of this. I hope you catch the bastard that hurt her this bad and make him suffer.”

  With that, the doctor turns on his heal and makes his way back to see other patients. A nurse comes out as we’re standing there and lets us know that we can follow her to a separate waiting room until Darcy is out of surgery. Crash and I follow behind everyone, filled with pain, sorrow, and shock at learning that we’re going to be adding to our family. Doing something I haven’t done in an extremely long time, I send up a silent prayer that our girl and unborn child will make it through the damage that’s been inflicted on them and the necessary surgery.

  “You okay?” Crash asks, as we sit down in chairs away from the rest of our brothers. They’re giving us some space so that we can digest the information that we’ve just been given.

  “I don’t know how Darcy is goin’ to be when she wakes up from all this. No matter what we have to do, we’ll do it. And I can’t believe that we’re goin’ to be dad’s soon. We need to figure out how we’re goin’ to tell her this news,” I answer, not sure of what we’re going to have to do in the coming weeks, months, and years to help our girl but knowing that I’m all in no matter what. “You?”

  Crash takes his time responding. “I will be. How did this happen to our girl? And she still had the balls to fight and try to get away from that sick fuck? She’s stronger than we know and with help, she will get through this. I’m not leavin’ her side throughout it and I know you aren’t either. I love the fuck out of her and it’s the same for you. Let’s cross one bridge at a time. We’re goin’ to have to scale back on touching her and makin’ love to her.”

  “She’s goin’ to have to let us know when she’s ready for anythin’ again. I don’t give a fuck how long that takes either,” I tell him, meaning that down to my bones.

  Crash nods his head in agreement and we settle back in for the long wait before we can lay eyes on Darcy again. Every once in a while, our brothers come over to check on us, and we make small talk with one another and them. Neither one of us have our mind on anything else but our world that’s laying in that operating room being put back together.

  Chapter Eleven

  Darcy

  THE ONLY THING I CAN FEEL is pain radiating throughout my entire body. My eyes won’t open, and I don’t want to feel anything anymore. Normally, the pain wouldn’t bother me, but with the severity of it and knowing that more than likely Crash and Trojan will head for the hills as soon as they find out what’s been done to me, wants me to let the blackness blanket me. I want to let it take me away and not face living life without the two men that have come to mean so much to me.

  I’m not worried about the girls finding out and leaving my side. Most of them have been through their own torture and live with it on a daily basis. If anyone can help me through it, they will be the ones to stand by my side and hold me down when I need it. Crash and Trojan would do the same thing if they stick around, but even this might be too much for them to handle. I won’t know until I wake up. The fog may just be too much for me right now.

  “When the fuck is she gonna wake up?” I hear through the haze that’s threatening to pull me back under.

  “I don’t know. She should be wakin’ up soon. Her body needs to heal and it’s goin’ to wake up when it thinks she’s healed enough,” another voice I love hearing says, trying to calm the other one down. I can’t really distinguish which one is which man, but I know it’s them.

  A hand grabs mine and I can feel a soft kiss placed on it before the splash of something wet. The wetness slips down the top of my hand and rolls around the side. I want to catch all of their tears and I must make a movement because I hear a noise start to beep faster. What the fuck is that? I think to myself.

  “You hear that?” one of the voices asks, hope surfacing for the first time since I started hearing my men talking. “The heart monitor is goin’ crazy.”

  “Can you hear me baby?” Crash, everything becoming clearer as I pull myself out of the darkness shrouding me and keeping me from the men I want to see. “Try to squeeze my hand if you can.”

  I put all of my concentration into trying to make my hand move. The way that the hand is gripping me harder proves to me that I did manage to make some sort of movement. Now, if I could only open my eyes and see their faces. That’s going to be the thing that tells me all I need to know. When I can clearly see their faces, I’ll know if there’s disgust or revulsion flowing through them at what’s been done to me. I’m done hiding from them and holding myself back. If this experience has taught me anything, it’s that you never know how much time you truly have. I need to move forward making the most of the rest of my life. Hopefully it’s with the men I love. Too bad the darkness is more than I can pull away from. It drags me back under and

  I’m not sure how much time has passed since I was last semi-awake. This time, the darkness doesn’t seem to have as much of a pull on me and I might be able to actually open my eyes this time. I can sense Crash and Trojan still in the room with me, but I don’t hear them talking anymore as everything begins to come clear to me. Slowly, I try to open my eyes and manage to open them a little bit.

  The room is shrouded in darkness with only a light coming from behind the bed I’m currently lying in. My eyes hurt a little and I’m glad that lights aren’t on to blind me and force my eyes shut again. I look around and the sight that greets me is one that will forever be burned in my memory. Not in a good way either.

  Crash is sitting on the right side of my bed. His head is laying next to my hand that’s encased in a purple cast. I can see that he hasn’t shaved in multiple days and the want to run my hand over the growth that now covers his face. There are worry lines covering his face even in sleep. Crash’s clothes are wrinkled as if he’s been wearing the same ones for days instead of changing daily.

  Turning my head to the left, I see Trojan in the same condition as his brother. The only difference is the amount of growth gracing his handsome face. I can only imagine that he hasn’t done much of anything since I was taken. There’s always been a fire in these two when it comes to me, and I’ve seen them when it comes to them getting ready for ‘missions’ and helping the other clubs out with things. Now, their attention was focused on finding me and bringing me home, so I can’t imagine how they were. The surprise is that Crash is here, I just hope that he finished his work before he got called away.

  “Baby,” I hear from Crash, his voice filled with sleep and surprise that I’m awake.

  “What?” Trojan asks, his voice low and gravelly while raising his head to meet my eyes.

  “W-w-water?” I ask, noticing the pain coming from my throat. I’m not sure if it’s from not using my voice for so long, damage from Gene, or something from whatever they had to do during my stay here.

  Crash and Trojan both jump up to get me some water. After reminding me to take small sips and not drink too much right this second, the straw is moved toward my mouth, so I can finally get some cool relief. As soon as I’m done drinking a little bit, I take a deep breath and gamble with taking a look at my men. There’s relief, pain, regret, and another emotion I’m not quite sure about plastered on their faces. Trojan takes his seat back and holds my good hand in his. At the same time, Crash checks to make sure that no one is going to be coming in the room. That’s kind of weird.

  “Baby, I know that you’re just wakin’ up, but we need to talk to you about somethin’,’ Crash tells me, sitting back down on his side of the bed.

  My nerves go through the roof and my heart starts beating like crazy. I’m sure it’s about to bust right out of my chest. This is it. This is the minute they tell me that my current predicament is too much for them to handle. They want someone with less strings and baggage to be with. I guess I should’ve braced myself more for what was about to come out of their mout
hs.

  “I don’t know how to tell you this, so I’m just goin’ to act like we’re rippin’ a band-aid off,” Trojan starts, a nervous look plastering his face and I know that I’ve never seen either one of these men nervous. They’re always so sure of everything they’re doing and what they’re going after. “We found somethin’ out when you got brought in two weeks ago. We’ve had time to adjust to the news, but you’re goin’ to need some time.”

  “What is it? Do I have some life-threatening illness or something?” I ask, all sorts of scenarios running through my head, almost overwhelming me with what could be going on.

  “No,” Crash tells me, gently touching my cheek and holding my face in his big, strong, warm hand. “We found out that you’re pregnant.”

  This is the last thing that I expected to hear from these two. I know I haven’t been feeling well for the last few weeks, but I figured it was due to the stress of not knowing what was going on with the person stalking me. When Gene had me, I chalked it up to being whatever Gene had injected into my body. Oh no! What if it has hurt our child? Tears immediately start running down my face as I think of everything I’ve been through.

  “What’s the matter firecracker?” Trojan ask me, leaning in closer and wiping some of my tears away. “What has tears runnin’ like that?”

  “You guys don’t understand. He drugged me, raped me more than once, and beat me. What if he’s done something to the baby? What if the drugs hurt the baby and now this baby is going to suffer because of it?” I ask, everything running out of my mouth faster than I can think almost. “And, I’ve had some drinks and shit since being pregnant. What if I’ve done something to the baby?”

  “Slow down, baby,” Crash tells me, placing a kiss on my temple and leaning back so he can look in my face while talking to me. “We’ll get the doctor in here to talk to you and do whatever we have to in order to get you some reassurance. Okay?”