Out of the Darkness: a Hope Valley novel

by Prince, Jessica

  None of us had a clue what he’d gone through, all we knew was the man was drowning in darkness, and I feared he wouldn’t be able to come back from this.

  “Feel it, boy. You feel that burn. Let it go through you, then you push it out.” At Judge’s words, Xander’s arms dropped and his head came up. Judge moved in, clasping him on the side of the neck. “Feel it and let it the fuck go, hear me? You don’t hold on to it. You don’t bury it down. You feel it, then you push it the . . . fuck . . . out. ’Cause my girl’s gonna come outta this. She’s gonna pull through, and when she does, she’s gonna need you whole. You get me?”

  I watched in awe as Xander closed his eyes and inhaled slowly. When he opened them again and looked at Judge, the mania was gone. The shadows lurked and the fear was evident, but he’d powered through, giving Sage’s father a nod.

  “Good.” Judge gave him a little shake and nodded in return, blowing out a breath of relief. “That’s good, son. You feel that shit buildin’ in you and you gotta work it out, you find me.”

  “Linc!”

  At the sound of my Edie’s voice I turned and saw a man in his late fifties to early sixties coming down the hall dressed in green scrubs and a surgical cap.

  The three of us hurried to joined our group just as he reached us and asked, “Family of Sage Winthrop?”

  “Here,” Judge said quickly. “She’s my daughter.”

  “She’s in recovery now, but whoever did that to her did a lot of damage. She had a dislocated shoulder, a broken nose, a fractured cheekbone, and several serious contusions. There were six broken ribs, one of which punctured her lung and caused it to collapse. But the biggest problem was the laceration to her liver which caused severe internal bleeding. We were able to go in and repair it, but she lost a lot of blood. My guess, it took a long time between the hit that caused the laceration and her being able to get to the phone. A few more minutes and she would’ve bled out. She made it through the surgery, which is promising, but now all we can do is wait for her to wake up.”

  As the doctor detailed everything that goddamn asshole had done to our Sage, that burn Judge mentioned worked its way through me, and as I turned to my men, I knew they were feeling it just the same.

  The doctor eventually left. The women huddled together for support, and the rest of us turned our eyes to Xander.

  His gaze shot through each of us, that burn flashing in his eyes before they settled on me.

  “We find out who did this, he suffers.”

  “Goddamn fuckin’ right he does,” Judge growled.

  I tipped my chin in acknowledgment. I didn’t need to say a word. If that was the play he wanted to make, me and my guys would have his back every step of the way.

  We’d find the bastard who hurt our girl.

  And he’d suffer.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Xander

  She’d been out for two days. Two of the longest, most miserable days of my life.

  My body ached from the uncomfortable hospital chair I’d barely moved from, and the florescent lights were wreaking havoc on my head, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t leaving this hospital until she woke up.

  For two days I’d sat by her bed, staring at her bruised and swollen face. My beautiful Sage was barely recognizable.

  That burn came in waves every time I thought about what had happened to her. It would come and I’d suck in a breath, letting it wash through me before letting it go. It was one of the hardest things I’d ever done, pushing that pain out instead of holding it in where it would fester and spread, but I did it.

  Because she’d need me to.

  Because she’d wake up soon, and she’d need me whole.

  The door to the hospital room cracked open, and I turned just as Lincoln’s head came into view. He looked to me, then across the room to where Judge was sitting on the other side of Sage’s bed. He gave us a jerk of his chin before disappearing behind the door, and we both got up to follow.

  We stepped out into the hall to join Lincoln, Bryce, Hayes, Trick, and Hunter. As soon as we made it to the huddle, Hayes started talking.

  “Got the preliminary reports back. Still don’t know who did it, but we were able to piece together what happened from the scene. Looks like it was a blitz attack. Asshole was lyin’ in wait for her to get home, and the second she cleared the door, he was on her. Receipt taped to the pizza box we found on the floor showed she paid for it a quarter after six, which put her at her house roughly fifteen to twenty minutes later. Her call to 911 didn’t come in ’til 9:23, so it’s lookin’ like the asshole had her for three hours before he took off.”

  That burn came back with a vengeance, and I had to clench my fists to keep from ripping something apart.

  “Only room in the house disturbed was the livin’ room, but it looked like a goddamn tornado hit it,” he continued. “From the damage, it’s obvious she fought, and she fought fuckin’ hard. He had the upper hand, catchin’ her off guard, but evidence showed she tried to take it back, and did a pretty good job of it. Blood at the scene was from two different people. DNA hasn’t come back yet, but our lab was able to test both and got two different types, one hers, the other belonging to her attacker, and it was no small amount. She did some serious damage.”

  The burn was washed away as a sense of pride filled my veins. That was my Sage. A fighter to her very core.

  “We have a rush on the DNA,” Trick said, “but you know how that shit goes. It’s likely she’ll wake up before those results are in, but either way, we’ll get the son of a bitch.”

  I gave them a lift of my chin but didn’t speak, catching Linc’s eye and silently communicating with him.

  Yes, the cops would eventually have the asshole who hurt her. But not before I got to him and took my pound of flesh first.

  We broke apart after that, everyone moving their own way.

  I turned to head back into Sage’s room when I felt a hand land on my shoulder.

  “Told you my girl’s a fighter,” Judge said. “Tooth and nail ’til the end. She’ll come through this.”

  “Yeah,” I grunted. “She will.”

  His big barrel chest expanded as he sucked in a breath, and I had no doubt he was letting that burn move through him.

  “You go sit with her a while. I gotta get some fuckin’ coffee.” Then he took off.

  He didn’t need coffee. He needed a moment to himself to come to grips with everything he just heard, and I wouldn’t dare call him on that. If he wanted me to stay with his girl so he could go somewhere and grieve in private, I’d give him that. It was the very least I owed him.

  Moving back into the room, I closed the door softly and walked on silent feet back to the bed.

  Once I reached it, I leaned down and pressed my lips to Sage’s forehead.

  “Need you to fight, baby,” I whispered against her skin, silently mourning the loss of the scent of lilies that usually clung to her. “Need you to keep fightin’ and wake up for me. You do that, and I swear to Christ, I’ll fight too. You fight to come back to me, I’ll fight for you. You have my word, Shortcake. Just need you to wake up so you can hold me to it.”

  * * *

  Sage

  The first thought I had when I came to was: where the hell am I?

  That was quickly followed by: Sweet merciful hell. Everything hurts.

  And I meant everything. It even hurt to blink.

  I made the mistake of trying to lift my arm to rub my poor, aching head, and hissed when something tugged, causing a serious sting in the back of my hand.

  “You’re awake.”

  At the sound of Xander’s voice, I made my second mistake and jerked my neck around in his direction. “Oh, fucking hell, that hurts,” I gasped, slamming my eyes closed to try and ward off the college marching band currently getting down inside my skull.

  And . . . wait. Was that my voice?

  A second later, Xander’s big body was leaning over me, his expression inscrutable, his
voice soft as he said, “Don’t move, baby. You snagged your IV, and you’ve got one fuck of a concussion. Just lay back and let me call your nurse.”

  An IV.

  My nurse.

  I was in a hospital?

  The fog cleared and everything that happened came rushing back like a tidal wave, making me pull in a broken, stuttered breath as tears began leaking from my eyes. And hell, even that one breath hurt.

  “Baby, can you talk?” I opened my eyes and looked to Xander. His brow was pulled into a frown, and the inky black staring down at me was full of concern. “Can you tell me what you need?”

  “What happened?” I asked in a croaky, raspy whisper.

  His head tipped to the side. “You don’t remember how you got like this?”

  “No, I remember everything, but . . . I mean, what happened to me? What’s the damage?”

  He looked uncertain as he stood tall and mumbled, “Hold on. Let me get your dad and we’ll tell you everything.”

  He moved out the door before I could stop him. A second later he returned with my father in tow.

  One look at my face, and Dad’s eyes grew red and wet. “Ah, baby girl.”

  “I’m okay, Daddy,” I said, hoping to soothe him, but the sound of my voice only made the devastation in his features that much worse. “So what’s the prognosis?”

  Xander and Dad went through the litany of injuries I’d endure, explaining I’d had to have emergency surgery, that I’d been out for three days, and that the police were currently waiting to talk to me.

  By the time they finished, the throb in my head had turned into a harsh stabbing pain. “God,” I whispered, lifting—slowly this time—my arm with the IV in it to cover my eyes. “This is so much worse than last time.”

  “Worse?” Dad clipped.

  “Last time?” Xander growled.

  This was going to be ugly and brutal, and I didn’t think I had it in myself to go through the story more than once, so instead of answering their questions, I asked, “Will you bring the cops in? I’ll tell you everything that went down, but I don’t want to have to repeat it.”

  Fact of the matter was, I couldn’t repeat it, seeing as it felt like I was gargling battery acid every time I talked.

  They both hesitated for a beat before agreeing, and Xander moved to the door to let Hayes and Trick inside.

  Hayes looked at me with a gentle smile on his face as he moved to the foot of the bed. “Hey, honey. Glad you’re awake.”

  “Thanks,” I rasped. “I appreciate you saying that, and straight up, I’ve got all the respect in the world for you, but I want to get this done, so can we just start?”

  That gentle look grew even softer as he murmured, “Whatever you need, sweetheart,” as he and Trick pulled out little notepads. Then he waved me on, and I got down to business.

  “The man who attacked me is my ex-husband, Johnathan Davenport.” All four men froze solid at that. My dad because of who’d attacked me, and the others because I’d never once mentioned having been married. But that was a conversation for another time. “He was already in my house when I got home. I blacked out for some time before calling 911, and when I came to, he was already gone.”

  “Did he say anything while he was there?” Trick asked.

  “He just kept asking where my mother was. Asked over and over. He said she took something that belonged to him, but didn’t say what.”

  “Your mom?” my dad cut in. “What the hell’s she gotta do with this?”

  And now the hardest part of an already epically shitty situation.

  “I don’t know what she has to do with it, because I haven’t talked to her since I came home and found her and John having sex in our bed. That was more than six months ago.”

  Dad let out a rash of colorful cusswords under his breath as he stormed across the room to the window. Hayes’s and Trick’s eyes got wide, but to their credit, neither of them acknowledged the sickness of the situation. Xander, on the other hand, remained utterly still and blank-faced.

  “After I found out he’d been cheating on me with my mom, I took off and filed for divorce. John didn’t like that much. He was used to getting his way in everything, and the fact that I was the one to end it and not him was a shot to his ego. He tracked me to the little motel just outside of Phoenix where I was staying while I waited for the divorce to be finalized.” I had to stop and take several deep breaths as the tears threatened to return.

  “When he found you, did things get . . . physical?” Hayes asked with trepidation.

  I nodded as the first tear fell.

  “And did you file a police report after that first assault?”

  Humiliation coursed through me as I gave my head a tiny shake, keeping my gaze on my fingers as I twisted the bedsheet in my hands. “John was the one with all the money. What little I had was already tied up in the divorce. I could barely afford the attorney I had, and if I pressed charges it would have gone to court. I couldn’t afford it. And John had a reputation. He was close with local law enforcement and was friends with several judges and lawyers. I had no money, no friends, and no family. I was all alone, and all I wanted was to get out, so I let him get away with it. I-I . . .” My voice cracked as a hiccupped sob wrenched itself from my throat, setting my poor, abused vocal cords on fire. “I d-didn’t think I had any other choice.”

  I felt my dad’s presence moments before he hit the bed, coming down on the edge of the thin mattress and taking my hands in his. “Don’t you think on that, baby girl,” he ordered on a gruff whisper. “Don’t give that shithead another second of your time. You did what you thought you had to do. It’s past. You get that outta your head and concentrate on the now.”

  God, I loved my dad.

  I nodded and finally managed to pull myself together, looking back up at Hayes and Trick. But I couldn’t bring myself to look at Xander. I couldn’t stand the thought that he could have been looking at me with disappointment for being so weak.

  “So he asked about your mother . . .” Hayes stated, pushing the conversation forward. “And what did you tell him?”

  “That I didn’t know where she was. She called constantly for several months, but I never answered, and that stopped not long after I moved here. I haven’t spoken to either of them in months. I don’t have any clue where she is.”

  I got more gentle smiles from Hayes and Trick as they flipped their little notepads shut. “All right, Sage. Thanks for talkin’ to us. This helps a lot,” Trick said, reaching down to place his hand on my foot and giving it a comforting squeeze. “If anything else comes to you, you have our numbers. Don’t hesitate to call us.”

  They left shortly after giving me Nona’s and Tempie’s love and telling me to get better.

  A nurse showed only seconds later to check my vitals and shine an annoying light in my eyes. She asked about my pain level, and when I answered, she fiddled with one of the IV hanging beside the bed.

  I was exhausted and hurting in every sense of the word. My body was tense, my head throbbed, my throat killed me, and my heart ached.

  I didn’t know what was in that IV, but whatever it was, as soon as it hit my blood stream, it went into effect. The pain dulled, my eyes grew heavy, and seconds later I was out like a light.

  Chapter Thirty

  Sage

  I was going to scream.

  Something that wouldn’t be good for my healing vocal cords, but it was out of my control. These idiot men—whom I love very much—were precisely one point five seconds from causing me to lose it.

  “She’s stayin’ with me. If she wants, I’ll put her up in a room with me at the inn, or we can crash at Rox’s place. End of discussion.”

  That came from my dad, and although he’d declared “end of discussion” I knew it certainly wasn’t. Mainly because he’d said it three times already, and yet, the discussion carried on.

  “Naw, fuck that! She ain’t staying here with that motherfucker still on the loose. She’
s comin’ back home. She’s got family in Redemption. It’s where she belongs.” That came from my dad’s bud Scooter.

  Five hours after the world’s most uncomfortable talk with Hayes and Trick, my dad’s boys showed up in force. Danno, Scooter, Banks, Fletch, and even my ex-boyfriend Cannon had come barging into my hospital room in full biker badass force.

  At first, I’d been thrilled to see them. Then when I saw the wrecked expressions on all their faces at the sight of me, I’d burst into uncontrollable, body-wracking sobs that sent pain everywhere. I’d had another thirty seconds of thrill before the drugs the nurse came in to push went into effect, and then I zonked out. When I woke a couple hours later, I returned to thrilled, only a milder version of it so as not to set anything else off.

  We spent hours catching up, me mainly listening to them talk because my throat still felt like raw hamburger meat, before all of them had been told that visiting hours were over, and they had to go. Being the badasses they were, they didn’t take kindly to being ordered around by nurses, but not wanting to risk doing anything to tip me over the edge again, they relented. They each took turns giving me gentle hugs and kisses, and when it was Cannon’s turn, he looked at me with that sweet, charming smile that had made me fall for him way back in the day and whispered, “Missed you like crazy, chestnut. Glad to have you back.”

  The sight of him and hearing his old nickname for me threw me back in time, and I smiled up at him wistfully, realizing I’d missed him like crazy as well. I told him as much, and he responded by leaning in and placing a soft, lingering kiss on the corner of my mouth before finally disappearing.