CHAPTER 7
KANE
“Do you want me to lift her so you can get up, Kane?” Asher whispered, and I looked up, startled. I hadn’t even heard him move from Eli’s bedside.
We’d had the staff bring another bed into the room, and with a little moving over of the bed Eli lay in, we had made it work. Addy had been terrified to sleep, so I’d sat on the bed with my back against the backboard and she’d laid on top of me, her head resting against my chest. For the first thirty minutes she’d just watched Eli, seeming terrified something would happen to him as he slept soundly, but eventually she had given up the fight and allowed sleep to take her.
By the time I had gotten Addy out of the shower and pulled on a set of the clothes Asher had thought to pack into the bag we brought, she had been so tired she’d barely been able to hold her head up. Asher had briefly asked her how she was feeling, but she could barely talk. I had wanted her to eat something, but when she refused to even try, I let it be, knowing sleep was likely the priority at that moment.
Now it was hours later, deep into the middle of the night and she’d slept pretty soundly so far. Eli was out too, and even Asher had been nodding in and out in the chair he sat in between the two beds, but I couldn’t. I’d barely taken my arms from the woman I loved for more than a second. I seemed to need the constant reassurance that she was with me, safe.
“I’m good. I promised I’d stay with her,” I replied softly, though I was pretty sure it would take a lot to wake either Addy or Eli at that point. They were both completely exhausted from all they’d been through.
“How was she really? Her injuries?” Asher asked. I hadn’t had chance to reassure him earlier, Addy my one and only priority.
“She has a lump on the back of her head, and the bruises on her back are pretty bad, but she didn’t have any signs of a concussion and she seemed to be moving okay. Her wrists are bad and cleaning them was tough. She told me she ripped them free of the ropes to try and stop Adam bleeding,” I explained.
“She’ll need antibiotics, I’m guessing?”
“I think it would be good, just in case. I’m hoping she’ll allow a doctor to check them over tomorrow when she’s had some sleep, but for now they’re cleaned and bandaged.”
“You think she will? She was so shaken and upset.”
“She hasn’t slept, or eaten since she was taken. Add to that their escape, which we still don’t really know about, and the revelation about fucking Kline, and it’s a lot for her to deal with. She’s terrified about Adam and Eli too. I think she’ll be a little better after she sleeps, but we have to get some food into both of them.”
“We will,” Asher assured me. “I’ll find a decent diner or something near here and go out to get something edible.”
“Yeah, okay,” I nodded as I rubbed the hand I had free tiredly over my face.
“Did she say anything…about the time on the plane, when Eli wasn’t with her?” Asher asked carefully.
“They didn’t touch her, Asher. She told me plainly. She said Max wanted to, but he didn’t get chance, thanks to Eli.” I nodded to Eli. I had a lot to thank him for. He was the only reason Addy was safe in my arms in that moment, and not suffering even more.
“Yeah, he did good. He doesn’t realize how capable he is. I think it’s about time he did, Thank Christ he was able to get them out of there,” Asher sighed as he dropped back down into the seat at Eli’s side.
“Amen to that,” I agreed as I glanced down at Addy once again. She was curled around me, clutching the wrist of my left arm tight and not once letting that grip go.
“You should call Jordan. I updated him but he wanted to speak to you too.”
“I’ll do it now. What’s the update on Adam?”
“Good news for once. They eased him off of the pain meds enough for him to wake up. He’s been moved out of intensive care and he’s being a total grumpy asshole, so he’s good,” Asher chuckled, and I let out a sigh of relief I didn’t even realize had been building inside. I cared for Adam, I realized. Jordan too. I cared for both of them. Not in any kind of romantic way, but they had become good friends in recent weeks, like brothers. Addy needed them as much as she needed me and not only was I good with that, but I also knew I needed them in the relationship too for it to work as it should – as Addy needed it to.
“Thank fuck for that. I’ll call him now.” I already had my cell out and I video called Jordan. Addy was too deep asleep to hear them, but at least they’d be able to see that she was safe and whole.
“Kane! Thank fuck! How is she?” Jordan asked all at once, answering the call almost the second it connected.
“Keep it down, man. She’s asleep,” I whispered as I flipped the camera angle so he could see Addy laid across me. I gave him a moment to just take her in, then I flipped it back to me. “She’s okay, Jord. She has some bad bruises and her wrists are shredded from ropes around them, but she’s whole. Just exhausted.”
“Her face?” he questioned.
“She has some scratches. They’re up her arms too. She said they were from glass in the car her and Eli escaped in. I don’t know the details but the car was shot at. They’re not deep,” I assured him.
“How’s she coping?”
“She was really shaky and she was trying to slip away, the way she does when things get bad, but she listened to me when I was firm, and stayed with me. She mainly needs rest and food right now. I’m hoping she’ll be calmer come morning, but she was doing okay, holding on, you know?”
“Yeah, I know. I just wish she didn’t keep on having to do that though,” he sighed.
“We’ll fix it. We know it’s Kline now, and I will not rest until he’s off the streets. Until that happens, we keep her safe and try to give her what she needs to get through this.”
“They can never get their hands on her again, Kane. She’s already survived so much more than one person should ever have to. This can never happen again. We have to make sure we protect her this time,” he said fiercely.
“We will. I’m not taking any risks at all now. I’ll make sure she has the best security, and we’ll keep her with one of us at all times too. No one is ever taking her from us again,” I promised him.
“Can I see her again?” he asked. He looked exhausted. He still wore the same clothes he had on the day we found Adam on the steps, and he had stubble on his pale face. His always neat hair was sticking up all over and the dark smudges under his eyes told me he had barely slept.
“Sure,” I flipped the camera again so he could see Addy. “Tell me how Adam is,” I said.
“The doc said he’s out of danger, but he has a ton of healing to do. They want to keep him for at least a week to monitor everything, which he’s fuming about. He wants to see Addy. He’s gone full ‘mama bear’ and he’s so pissed she was taken from him.”
“You remind him he was shot? Think that would have taken any of us down just as hard,” I said halfheartedly.
“Yeah, but he just bit my head off. I’ll let you remind him of that fact when you speak to him,” Jordan joked.
“I’ll call you tomorrow so hopefully he can speak to Addy and see she’s good. Maybe that’ll help?”
“Fuck. I hope so. He’s in a shitload of pain, and he won’t let them give him any pain meds stronger than acetaminophen, so he’s a grumpy motherfucker. He’ll be lucky of the nurses don’t throw him out before the weeks out.” Jordan sighed tiredly.
“He can’t take any stronger pain meds?” I questioned. I knew about Adam’s past of course, but surely there were allowances to take pain meds when they were really needed, like now when he had to be in a ton of pain?
“He could. The doctors have assured him they can administer them carefully, but Adam has flat out refused. He’s already taken my head off for letting them give him the meds he had when he came out of surgery. He’s a stubborn bastard.”
“Yeah, he is. Good luck with that,” I laughed. The camera was still turned so Jordan could see Addy and I noticed the way his voice had relaxed some during the call.
“Thanks,” he said drolly. “When do you think you can get Addy and Eli back here? I really need to hold her, Kane.”
“I know. I get it, trust me. The cops want to interview them both in the morning, if Addy’s up to it. Once that’s done, we can leave as soon as Eli gets discharged.”
“And Eli? Asher said he was doing just fine. That still the case?” Jordan asked. I knew he and Eli were close. They’d been friends since they were kids, just like Asher and Adam. They were all more like brothers than friends at that point.
“He’s good. He’ll need some physio, but the bullet didn’t cause any major damage. He saved her, Jord. He saved the both of them. We owe him everything.”
“Shit, don’t tell him that. We don’t need him getting a big head,” he laughed. “Do we even know all the details of how they got out yet?”
“No. Eli told us the basics. Addy told me some bits too, but they were both pretty shaken up and exhausted. We’ll find out tomorrow, I guess,” I explained.
“Keep me updated, yeah?”
“Yeah, of course. You too. I know this thing between us all is new and confusing as fuck, but you guys matter to me. Addy needs all of us,” I told him. I knew the silence after was because he was shocked to hear me say something so honest and open. I wasn’t a guy who was exactly in touch with my feelings, but after all we’d been through, I needed Jordan to know he wasn’t alone in everything. I needed him to know that I wasn’t quite as big of an asshole as he thought I was.
“Aww, I knew you’d warm up to us eventually, tough guy,” Jordan joked, easing the tense moment.
“Screw you, asshole,” I threw back, but I was smiling too.
“Seriously though, Kane, I get it. We all love Addy, and she does need us. That makes us all family now and hopefully for the rest of our lives. We’re all in it together. Brothers,” Jordan said, making way more sense than what I’d blurted out, I suspected.
“Brothers,” I agreed with a nod, even though he couldn’t see me. I turned the camera to face me again and took in his exhausted face. “As your pseudo-brother, I feel I should tell you that you look like absolute shit right now,” I said bluntly, hoping the grin on my face softened the blow. “You need to sleep Jordan. Go home. Take a shower, then sleep. Addy’s gonna need to see you looking a shit load better than you do right now, if you don’t want to worry her any more than she already is.”
“Gee, thanks for that compliment,”
“I mean it. Fuck, I’m worried about how tired and pale you look right now. Please, at least just take a few hours to recoup. Adam will get through a few hours without you.”
“Yeah, okay. I guess you’re right. The nurses have been avoiding coming round this side of the bed, I’m guessing because of my body odor right now.”
“Make sure security go with him and he cannot drive until he’s slept some,” Asher spoke up.
“You hear what dad said?” I joked.
“Yep. Tell him I’ll be sure to look both ways too!”
“Fuck the pair of you!” Asher threw back, making us both chuckle.
“All jokes aside though, keep security with you, Jordan. Who knows what this fucker, Kline, has up his sleeve next. You need to be careful,” I warned.
“I will. You too. Keep our girl safe.”
“You know I will.”
We hung up, and I dropped my cell to the bed beside me. Exhausted, I rested my head back against the cold metal bar at the top of the head board. I was zapped, but there was no way I was sleeping. I had no real idea about the capability of the guys securing the room, and the records and references sent on the both of them by the company they worked for needed verifying, by me. Not that doing that would allow me to trust them completely. I doubted I would ever be able to trust anyone other then my family with the security of Addy. I had trusted Leo and look where that had gotten us.
“You doing okay over there?” Asher asked quietly.
“Not really. I can’t believe Leo betrayed me like that. I’d have trusted him with my life,” I sighed.
“It’s not on you, Kane. I vetted the guys you hired too and I knew Leo well. I never would have suspected this of him. I believed he was loyal.”
“He was a good actor,” I agreed. I hadn’t suspected a thing and I’d worked with him day in, day out for years.
“Yeah he was,” Asher nodded.
“What do I do now, Ash? How can I ever trust myself to pick a team worthy of protecting all of you? How can you ever trust me to do that?”
“I already have, Kane. The guys outside Adam’s room, the men protecting Jordan as he leaves the hospital, they’re your men – men you trust to protect people I care about. I have never once doubted your judgment or the decisions you’ve made and I’m not going to start now.”
“You should,” I sighed.
“You’re really fucking good at what you do, Kane. Don’t doubt that. Leo fucked us over and we missed it, but neither of us will ever let that happen again.”
“No, we won’t,” I agreed easily. “How the fuck did Eli get the both of them out, Asher? Was it just luck?”
“I don’t know everything. Eli was too worried about Addy to explain, but I’m guessing he fought his way out judging by his bruised knuckles.”
“Eli?” I snapped my eyes to Asher, surprised and taken aback.
Asher chuckled as he turned to face me. “Everyone underestimates my brother. They think because he’s the quieter one who enjoys painting and has no fear of sharing his emotions, that he’s weak. That’s what our father always thought, and told Eli repeatedly, but Eli has a rod of strength in him. He took everything our father threw at him and he used it to make himself tougher and stronger.”
“But the way you protect him…” I began, but Asher cut me off.
“I protect Eli because he’s been through enough. I protect him because I never want anyone to berate or bully him the way our father did. I protect him so he never has to become as cold and hard as I had to become. I failed him when he was a kid. I refuse to fail him now, so I coddle him. I wrap him up in cotton wool and keep him close because I never ever want to fail him again, but I did. I failed the both of them, and Addy and Eli were taken because of it. In my terror and rage to get them back, I forgot just how capable my brother is. I should have known he’d be the one to bring Addy back to us all.”
“No, I get that, Asher. I know Eli’s stronger than he seems. I’ve seen the strength within him more than once, but it’s an inner strength, right? He’s not a fighter. Can he even fire a gun?”
“No. I don’t believe he’d ever want to either. He doesn’t like violence after the way our father treated us when we were kids, but that doesn’t mean he can’t look after himself.
“He and Jordan started Karate classes when they were six. Jordan wanted to do it, of course. Eli hated the idea, but like everything with those two, they went together anyway. They always did everything together, especially when they were younger. By the time they were thirteen, they were both black belts. Jordan had discovered football by then though, so he stopped attending the classes and joined the football team. Eli didn’t. He seemed to love martial arts. I think more than anything he liked knowing our father couldn’t physically hurt him any longer. Eli had proven that when he was twelve and he flipped our father to the floor when the old bastard grabbed him.”
“So he continued?” I asked, completely shocked at the revelation. I knew Eli was in shape, but I also knew he favored swimming as his exercise. I had no idea he did anything else, especially not martial arts.
“Yeah, he did. He started going to kick boxing classes too. When I got my trust fund, I hired an ex-MMA professional to train him. He was good. The guy I hired wanted to take him professional, but Eli wasn’t interested in that. I think he loved it because he knew he could always protect himself. He had no interest in getting into fights for no cause.” Asher went on.
“Shit. He could probably take me down,” I realized.
“Likely. He has taken me down a few times. He’s fast, and sneaky. That day he was almost taken from the parking lot by those fuckers who wanted to ransom him, he already had one of them down by the time I arrived. If they hadn’t have had a gun on him, he’d have taken them all out.”
“Fuck. How did I not know this?”
“Eli doesn’t talk about it. He hates the idea of putting his hands on anyone in violence, and he absolutely would never use the skills he has, unless he had to,” he said firmly.
“Like protecting Addy?”
“Exactly. I know he’d do anything to protect her, as would I, but Eli, he hesitates when it’s only his life at stake. That’s why I wanted security on him anyway. I fear he’ll hesitate to do what needs to be done if anyone ever tries to hurt him again, and I can’t risk that. I can’t lose him. I can’t lose either of them,” he concluded as he looked to Addy lovingly.
“We’re not losing anyone. We’re gonna get through this, brother, and we’re going to keep everyone we care about safe in the process.” I promised and I meant it with every cell in my body.
“We need to take Kline down. I won’t let him hurt Addy again.”
“We will. You taking off that mask you’ve been wearing since you dragged my ass out of the gutter? You gonna be the man I knew overseas? The man you need to be, if we really are going to get this fucking mess over and done with?” I asked plainly.
“I’m going to be whoever the hell I need to be to make sure all of my family get the peace and happiness they deserve, including you, Kane,” Asher replied with so much determination and surety it took me aback. He meant business. The gloves were off, and I was determined to be right there at his side, every step of the way.