Chapter 45
MY EYES RIP open and my ears feel like their bleeding when a scream pierces through the quiet night. Every cell in my body and every thread of our soul tie knows it’s her.
I run my palm over her side of the bed and it’s still fucking warm from her body. I hear her cry out again and I’ve never moved so fucking fast in my goddamn life. I barely feel my feet hit any stairs and roar out in literal pain when I fling the front door open. I’m coming, Birdie.
I’m barefoot, barechested, and in nothing but fucking sweatpants…and I run like fucking hell.
“CHASE,” I hear my brother scream from behind me but I don’t look back. I need to fucking find her.
A fuck ton of phone flashlights cut through some of the darkness a few feet behind me. Light beams spread to either side of me and bounce around sidewalks, the road, and front yards of other team houses.
I’m screaming for her. I need her to hear me. I also want whoever has her, to fucking know that I’m fucking coming for them. And by the sounds of it, I’m bringing a shit ton of devils with me.
She screams back and the adrenaline boost I get knowing that she’s close is like a hit of fucking NOS.
I track her down to the back of an empty house that’s under construction and situated at the end of Jock Row. My brave girl is under a spot light and is fighting for her fucking life.
There’s some fucker holding her from behind while his free hand squeezes her tits over her sports bra thats exposed through the giant rip down the front of our sweatshirt.
He’s got his hands on her body while some dickhead in front of her tries to pry her mouth open with his fingers. He’s got his free hand around her fucking throat. There’s two more crouched down by her feet and they try to keep her legs in place.
I don’t think. I don’t feel. I don’t hesitate. I fucking charge into the shithead in front of her and tackle him to the ground before I straddle his chest just as A rips the asshole that’s standing behind her away.
He looks fucking deranged and struggles against my hold. And it’s all too fucking familiar.
“WILL, YOU MOTHERFUCKER!” My devil and angel yell out in unison and I echo their voices through my own blood curling scream.
“I’M.” PUNCH. Pound for fucking pound.
“GOING.” PUNCH. Flesh against fucking flesh.
“TO.” PUNCH. I spit a nasty ass loogie into his split open eye.
“FUCKING.” PUNCH. Sweat pours off me and I hope it sears his bloody skin like a fucking baptismal promise to end him.
“KILL.” PUNCH. He moans in pain and the sweet sound of his agony is equivalent to fucking white noise.
“YOU.” PUNCH. A chunk of skin flies when I punch him as hard as I fucking can in his bloody and broken face. He finally goes limp. I get up and motion for Monroe to sit on his ass for me. I need to get to her.
“Sloane, where are you? SLOANE!” I scream out against the police sirens that cry out in the distance. I look around for her and see her with Drew. She”s buried in his chest and crying a cry that will forever haunt me.
“Baby, I’m here.” He gently transfers her to me, and as soon as she feels my skin, she wraps herself around me like a spider monkey. “Thank fuck, you’re okay. I love you, I love you, I love you,” I tell her and kiss every inch of her beautiful head. If I could have her melt into me right now, I would.
My hearts been beating so fucking hard, I’m surprised it hasn’t ripped a hole through my chest. I hold her close and rock us, trying to soothe her. Drew shrugs off his zip up hoodie and drapes it over her shoulders.
“Baby, look at me. Are you hurt?” She pulls her head slightly away from the crook of my neck and I see blotches of redness across her beautiful porcelain skin. Her jaw and cheeks are already beginning to bruise.
This motherfucker put his fucking hands on her. He fucking hurt her. The rage bubbles in the blood and I do everything I fucking can to control myself while I hold my precious girl.
“It’s over now, Birdie. His ass is going right to fucking jail, all of these motherfuckers are fucking gone.” I feel her nod her head into my chest. Every word strangles my heart and burns my throat when I say them into her hair. She’s trusting me to be right this time.
“That’s weird, why’s Davis’s phone here?” Drew asks and holds up a phone with the Havenwood Football logo on the back of the cover. He taps the screen and Davis, Sloane and their two dogs” picture comes into view. That’s fucking strange. Why’s his phone here? “That doesn’t make any sense, he went out to Greek Lane with Stevens to meet up with some Delta girls.”
“I can track his watch from my phone, I have him on location.” She scrambles out of my arms and looks for her phone in the dead grass on her hands and knees just as town police cars and ambulances show up.
It doesn’t take long for them to take in the scene and to figure out what’s happened. Monroe’s latest fuck buddy, a rookie cop named Izzy, tries to convince Sloane to let a paramedic look her over when she stays transfixed on finding her phone.
“Birdie, get up, baby, let them check you out,” I plead with her from the ground. She ignores me and keeps looking until she picks up her phone and holds her cracked screen up to her bruised face. Her little fingers are shaking as she tries to navigate her home screen to find the app she’s looking for. “Let me help you.”
I take her phone and find what I need, holding up the screen to show her. According to the app, his watch is over on Greek Lane still.
“We’ll find him, now let’s get you looked at,” Izzy offers, and she only agrees to get in the ambulance if I stay with her. “That’s fine with me, it looks like he needs to get looked at too.”
Another paramedic wraps a mylar blanket around my shoulders and leads me over to the rig. The adrenaline shots from before are wearing off and I’m hit with fucking pain. My knuckles are ripped to shreds, my feet are raw and I’m fucking freezing. They keep us close and work on what they can.
Several guys who live on the Row, including the guys next door to us, are on the scene now. A few of the baseball guys standing nearby tell Izzy and the other cops that they saw Davis over at the Delta house a few hours ago. Some even saw Will and his fucking boys being there at the same time. What the fuck actually happened tonight?