Ramshackle (Raegan of Ruin #3)

12. Kellan

Chapter twelve

Kellan

Old Red is trashed.

The sofa and pillows have been gutted and the dining room table and chairs are broken. All the plates and dishware are shattered on the counter and ground throughout the kitchen and even to the living room, like they were purposefully thrown. The food is either out and spoiled or torn apart in the pantry, so we’re walking on a combination of ceramic, glass, and food crumbs.

The dorm rooms have beds flipped over and drawers left open, but there wasn’t much to begin with other than clothes, which were left strewn on every available surface.

I scowl as we take in the mess and damage. It feels like I just cleaned this place, too.

We don’t bother checking the locker room for Vera. Clearly, she escaped, and now GE knows about this place. “Are we ever going to have one place we live where we don’t have to pack up and leave months later?” I growl.

This is the third time we’ve been forced to leave our temporary home in the last six months.

“The Tower is our home. Once GE is taken care of, we can go back there,” Aiden replies while tossing things aside in his search for something.

Of course, he would say that. Aiden helped design the Loft into exactly what he wanted. It has high views of the city, custom space for each of us, and it was the most secure location until Vera came back. But there are only four bedrooms. If we’re going to convince Raegan to stay, she can’t feel like she doesn’t have her own space.

Old Red is more relaxed, and it has room to expand our living space.

Tossing a piece of dresser into the mess of Dane’s room, I scoff. “It was our home. But not hers. She will always see that as ours. But this place…we all shared it together. I think she liked it here.”

Aiden pushes more of Dane’s dresser aside. Someone had smashed it to pieces to get to the locked drawer on the bottom, but Dane had his laptop with him. That drawer should have been empty.

“We don’t even know if Raegan will want to live with us after this. I can’t plan for anything until she wakes up,” he says distractedly, and I frown.

“And you would let her go without a fight?”

Aiden stops. His eyes close as he huffs out a breath, then he turns his face to mine. “No.”

Good. That’s all I need to know.

Satisfied we’re on the same page, I finally squat and poke at the wreckage on the floor. “What are you looking for?”

“The cuffs.”

“Cuffs? Wait, the ones you used on Raegan?”

“They’re gone. Vera tried stealing them while she was here, so I moved them and locked them away here.”

“Guess she found what she was looking for, then.”

Aiden shakes his head and exhales roughly. “I should have taken them with us.” He pauses for some internal commentary, no doubt, then continues. “Let’s check the locker room for anything. Then grab some clothes and supplies and get back to the bunker.”

The locker room hasn’t changed much. The metal Aiden hid and stored has been taken, though, which means he’ll have to source a new stockpile. The door was still closed as before, so someone had to have transported or portaled her out of the room and to the main area of the firehouse, where they set to work on making that mess.

There are no clues as to who else was with her or how they found her.

It’s a dead end and a cold trail.

She’s gone.

We fill a couple bags with clothing for each of us, including Raegan, and then drive back to the bunker.

Jackson and Dane haven’t moved from where we left them.

“Vera’s gone,” I announce, dropping the bags on the floor. “Old Red’s been trashed again.”

“Which means we’ll all be staying here now that Old Red has been compromised,” Aiden adds.

“She’s gone?” Dane repeats, looking at Aiden for confirmation.

“Someone got her out. There’s no sign of who or how or where they went. But I’d assume she’s with them again,” he answers.

Dane’s face angles down at the bed, and he closes his eyes. It’s hard to tell from here if he’s upset that he’s lost her again or relieved that she’s not there for Jackson to exact his punishment on.

“There aren’t any regular rooms available, and I’m sure we’ll all want to stay close to her, so we can split between this room and the one next door. Or,” Aiden continues when he sees the annoyed look on my face about sharing, “you can go pick out an open bed in the bunk room with the rest of the Guild.”

No thanks.

“I’ll get an air mattress,” I volunteer.

Five days.

Five fucking days of letting her sleep and heal, and she hasn’t stirred once.

I stalk to her bedside again, even if it hasn’t been more than an hour since I last checked, to press my fingers to her pulse. Her heart beats slow and steady beneath my touch.

“I thought Cassandra said she was healed,” Dane grumbles from the other side of the bed.

“She is,” Aiden replies dismissively from the air mattress. He took the night shift watch, but instead of going to the other room to sleep, he stayed here. Probably waiting for her to wake up like us. He just hides his impatience better.

Cassandra removed the medical equipment from Raegan yesterday that kept her hydrated and able to stay in bed, so we’d all expected her to wake up soon after that.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, I cross my arms and set my gaze on Jack. He’s been an almost permanent fixture on top of the chair, with minor exceptions for the bathroom and food.

“Then she should have woken up by now. It’s been almost a whole day since Cassandra was here last,” Dane presses.

“What do you think?” I direct to Jackson. He’s been quiet for most of this time, save for small conversations we shared when it was my night to watch her. I know there’s a lot that he’s hiding. He wanted to kill Gordon while we were there. He’d managed to hit him one time right before we left. I’m sure that’s on his mind.

“She’ll wake up,” he answers with so much confidence that I almost believe him.

Almost.

“I agree with Dane. There must be something Cassandra missed,” I argue hotly.

Jack’s gaze shifts from mine back to her. “She’ll wake when she’s ready. It’s not fair to rush her just to make us feel better.”

My teeth snap together. Asshole. That’s not how I meant it.

“If you’re both so worried, I’ll call Cassandra in to check on her.” Aiden lifts his phone to his ear. The bastard is just as concerned as us and was probably waiting for an excuse to call her. “Would you mind stopping by Raegan’s room to check on her? No. No, she hasn’t. Thank you.” He stands from the air mattress. “She’ll be right in.”

We wait in silence until there’s a knock at the door. Aiden lets her in, and she strides directly to Raegan’s side. I frown when she shoos me out of her way.

Cassandra holds her hands to either side of Raegan’s face and closes her eyes. Aiden and I move next to Jack’s chair to watch her. Dane leans forward on the bed from the other side as if he thinks he’ll see something on Raegan during Cassandra’s check.

A minute passes, and Cassandra exhales and leans back. “I don’t detect anything new. I’ve healed as much as I can.”

“What does that mean?” Dane rushes out. “What aren’t you saying?”

He and Aiden share a secretive look that puts me on edge. What the hell are they hiding?

“I healed the fresh scars that were on her back, but the older ones…I can’t undo them. The body has already healed itself with scar tissue, so there’s technically nothing there. You’d have to…” she hesitates.

“Go on,” Aiden orders.

“You would have to cut the tissue from her skin, and then I can tell her body how to heal itself without leaving a scar.”

Fuck that.

She nods. Probably agreeing with the shared look of horror on our faces. “Right. It’s the same with her knee. Whatever happened to it shattered her kneecap, and then it healed with the bone fragments not put back where they belong. It’s difficult because re-breaking her knee doesn’t guarantee that all the previous bone fragments will break free, and it can create new ones. It would just make it worse. Unless someone can go in and break each individual piece from where it’s healed, I can’t fix it.”

My chest swells with heat, my limbs quivering with the need to pummel something. No, not something. Some one .

That Gordon fucker did this. He destroyed her knee and scarred her back forever.

“Are those injuries what’s keeping her from waking up?” Dane asks, his forehead pressed against his hands around one of hers.

Cassandra tucks a bundle of red curls behind her ear. “No, those were already healed as much as they could be by the time she got here. My guess is that her body’s still exhausted. Or…”

Aiden’s voice is tight. “Or?”

She hesitates, her voice thin when she answers, “She may have suffered so much trauma that she could be in a self-induced coma. She may not want to wake up.”

Dane’s hands tighten over Raegan’s. He shoots a panicked look at Cassandra. “Did you find something? Was she—”

“Dane!” Aiden snaps.

What the hell?

“Was she what?” I demand. “What the fuck are you two hiding?”

“Vera told me—” Dane begins, but Aiden interrupts again.

“Cassandra, thank you for your time. Kell, come with me.” He strides past me to the door without waiting for a reply. He’d better be planning to fill me in on whatever secret he and Dane have been keeping about Raegan.

We stop in front of the second room we’ve taken for our own next to Raegan’s.

“What’s going on?”

Aiden eyes me skeptically. I fist my hands to fight the urge to throttle him for withholding anything about her from me.

“I’d hoped to tell you and Jack after things had calmed down. I would like to at least keep Jackson in the dark for a bit longer if Dane didn’t just ruin that.” Considering how obvious he’d been about it, I’m sure Jack will be pinning Aiden to a wall later to get the information.

Not my fucking problem.

“What did Vera tell him?”

“She told Dane that Gordon had been…assaulting Raegan the last time they were together.”

No shit. Someone had to break her knee, and we witnessed her tied to that post for torture.

“Not just physically,” he adds. “Every way possible. Mentally. Emotionally…sexually. The day we left the island and thought it was an earthquake? It was her. Gordon raped her.”

No…

Everything stops.

My breath.

My heart.

My mind.

All I’m left with is pure, unfiltered rage that scorches through my veins. My chest burns like it’s on fire, boiling my blood and demanding action. Without realizing it, I’m moving, and suddenly, my fist slams into a door.

I’m going to kill him. Rip him limb from limb in the most painful way possible. I’ll feed him to rabid dogs so he becomes nothing more than dog shit.

“—lan! Kellan! Snap out of it!” Aiden’s voice is distant and faded. Like I’m underwater and he’s somewhere shouting in the sky.

But there’s nothing left of me other than the rage.

Boom! Boom! Thump! Crash! A girl’s scream.

“—going on?” a male voice I recognize, but can’t immediately place, demands to my face.

I blink, the red swimming in my vision clearing enough that I begin to make out shapes in front of me. And then a face. A scowl. My hand pinning them to the wall by their throat.

“Kellan, put Reid down!” Aiden snaps. “He has nothing to do with this.”

Reid. Reid. Right. I don’t want him dead. I want him to—

“Take me to Gordon.” My voice is deep and gruff. It startles me enough to take in more of my surroundings. The arm holding Reid up is covered in golden scales.

“If we knew where he was, do you think we’d be sitting around here?” Reid says with a stern face. He doesn’t appear afraid or angry. Either he doesn’t care I’m holding his life in my hands or else he’s damn good at controlling his emotions.

Aiden grips my arm and stares me down. “Don’t you think we all want that right now? Do you think you’re the only one who’s thought of going after him for everything he’s done?”

My body still needs an outlet for all that fury. There’s so much…

“But this isn’t about us. It’s about her . And what’s most important right now is making sure she’s okay. When she wakes up, it’s not going to be to news that you left her when she may need you most. We have no idea what happened to her these last two months or what she needs. So, you’re going to put Reid down, and get your shit together before she wakes up. You’re going to be here. For her. You’re going to help us make sure that GE doesn’t somehow know where we are and portal in to take her again. You are not leaving the bunker alone anymore now that I’m sure Gordon has ordered agents to kill us since we broke the deal.” Aiden pauses to let that sink in. “Do you understand?”

The adrenaline recedes like a tide going out to sea. It sucks all the energy I have with it, so my arm falls faster than I intend when releasing Reid. He mutters something about getting involved in family shit and pushes past us. Tinsley throws her arms around him and he holds her tight.

“Kellan,” Aiden prods when I’ve taken a few deep breaths and still haven’t answered him.

“Yeah. Got it.” My hand glides down the length of scales on the other arm. Scales which came out without an injury. I just have no clue how it happened. I’ve been angry before, but could it have been the degree of it that triggered it? Or something else? It’s a puzzle for another time, though.

Glancing at Aiden, I raise an unamused brow. “Pretty mighty of you, telling me what she needs, don’t you think? Considering the dick you’ve been to her.”

“I know,” he admits, his voice low. But his gaze is unwavering where it meets mine. “I have a lot to make up for.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear you finally agree.”

“She sacrificed herself for us. For Dane to get Vera back. Of course, I’m not going to brush that off. That, coupled with what Vera told us gives me a pretty good idea of some things she may have been trying to hide.”

“You’d better not keep pushing her for details, Aiden, or I’ll —”

“Save it. I won’t push her anymore.”

I nod. “Good.”

“Good. You’re done,” Reid interjects. “Now, get out of my room. Also, I need a new door.” He gestures to the beat-up door hanging on its last hinge and dented into the wall behind it.

Did I do that?

Aiden shoots me a look, and I shrug.

Whoops.