Chapter 26
Three hours earlier….
After King left, I went up to my room and took a shower.
I thought it might help. It didn’t. But at least I was clean.
I pulled Hudson’s t-shirt back on and a pair of sweatpants and fluffy socks, then dried my hair, going through the motions.
I could hear people moving around the house and a few times Lily had popped up asking if I needed anything, but each time I refused with a sad smile.
I know she only wanted to help, but I just wanted to be left alone.
I called Nash after I’d pulled myself together to find out what he knew about Declan’s whereabouts. It had taken a while to get hold of him, but he called back.
“Hey, sorry, it’s fucking crazy here. How are you doing? Dec said you had sick family?”
My breath stilled at the mention of Declan’s name. I tried twice before I could speak again. “Yeah, it’s all good here. He told me all about the tour. I’m so happy for you.”
I didn’t want to clue him in to what was happening, but I needed to know how long Declan had been missing.
“Yeah I know, it’s fucking amazing, Wave. I mean, I know it’s still early days, but we’ve been getting a lot of hype from the shows, and we think the label is gonna ask us to cut an EP.”
I closed my eyes and brushed angrily at the tear that fell. “That’s great.”
“We couldn’t have done any of it without Dec.
You need to tell him to hurry and get his ass back here.
I know he wanted to see you and I appreciate he missed you.
I know what it’s like when I’m missing my woman, but you gotta share,” Nash laughed.
“We’ve just booked for a show in New York and the label has been trying to contact him.
You need to let him up for air. Is he there? ”
He knew nothing about Declan screwing around on me. He thought he was here with me. “Not right now, he ran out… for some food. And it’s only been what, a couple of days?”
“Three,” he told me, then shouted to someone, his voice muffled before he came back on the line.
“We thought he’d only be gone two max. Look, joking aside, we all miss having you around and I know he was missing you.
He was fucked up before he left, wouldn’t say why, and we all thought it would be okay once he saw you, but I don’t want him to get into shit with his job.
He never even told us he was leaving, just left a note. ”
“A note?” Another hot tear slipped down my cheek.
“Yeah…you okay, Wave? You don’t sound like yourself.”
“I’m fine, just hard work looking after my aunt.”
“Yeah, sure. I get that. I’m sorry.”
“Thanks, Nash. I’ll tell him to call.”
“Appreciate that. It’ll be great to see you when you get back.”
“Thanks, you too. Bye.”
I ended the call and threw my phone at the wall. Screaming in rage and anguish. I heard thumping on the stairs. Someone was coming. By the sounds of it, it wasn’t one of the women. The banging on the door made me jump out of my skin.
“Wave? Let me in. What’s happening?”
Connor. I dragged my hand over my face, then went to the door and unlocked it. Connor was wild-eyed, looking me up and down to make sure I was all right before he came into the room and grabbed me in a tight hug.
“You okay?”
I didn’t answer him, I just cried. We stood there for what could have been minutes or hours as I cried, and he held me. He knew telling me everything was going to be all right was pointless. I didn’t want to hear that.
After a while, when the tears stopped, he pulled back and stroked my face, telling me I needed to eat, but I wasn’t hungry.
He said I at least needed fluids after I’d just pissed most of them out of my eyes, dragging a laugh out of me.
When he said everyone had gone out and we were the only ones in the house, I agreed to go downstairs with him.
He stayed on the sofa with me, wrapped under a blanket, and we watched mindless TV.
He texted a bit, and I knew he was keeping in touch with Warren.
Rosa showed up around five and made us dinner, which I was forced to eat, but they brought it to the living room, and we ate in front of the TV instead of at the table.
I could see the worried looks Connor and Rosa kept passing each other and I tried to smile and let them know I would be okay, but we all knew it was a lie.
Connor took another call after we ate, and he looked at me with wide eyes. I jumped to my feet, knocking over a glass of water, but I didn’t care.
“They have him,” Connor told me.
I almost fell over with the relief. He came over and wrapped a steadying arm around my waist. He continued his call with Warren, but I could hear enough to know that Declan was safe. He was in the hospital, and they were having a couple of guys stay there to keep an eye on him.
“Can I see him?” I asked.
Connor gave me a sympathetic look. Of course, they would not let me see him, but knowing he was safe, he was alive, that went a long way to making the lead weight in my stomach a little lighter.
War said they would be back home within an hour, and he’d explain everything then.
We filled Rosa in, and she clutched her chest in relief, giving me a hug to let me know she was here for me.
“I’ll go let everyone know,” she said. I knew she would want to speak to Ballistic too. She’d been as worried about him as I was about the other guys.
“I know this is scary, and it sucks what happened, but he’s going to be okay, Wave,” Connor said, gripping my arms and bending so he could look me in the eye.
“Yeah.” I let out a shaky breath.
“I know you’re not that hungry, despite the beautiful mac and cheese Rosa made you, but how about some ice cream?” he chucked my chin, giving me a huge grin.
“Sure, why not?”
It was like I had just given him the best news he’d ever got. “One ice cream party coming right up.”
I watched him dash out of the room. Rosa kept a hell of a lot of ice cream here with all the fussy kids that hung around, so he was gonna have a tough time choosing which flavor he wanted.
But he knew my flavor of choice. Mint choc chip and there was a good supply of it in the freezer.
I didn’t have to tell him. He would bring me a gigantic bowl of it.
I went and sat by the window, looking out at the darkening compound. Just like King said, everyone was acting normal. The girls were heading to the clubhouse, work still going on in the garage, guys hanging out by their bikes smoking and drinking and two men manning the gate.
The front door opened, and I glanced over as Lily appeared in the doorway.
“I just heard, oh it’s so wonderful that he is okay.”
“Yeah,” I agreed with a tired smile, noticing Omen behind her. He glanced at the noise coming from the kitchen. “It’s Con. He’s getting ice cream if you guys want some.”
“Oh that sounds great,” Lily clapped. “Damien, why don’t you go help him.”
Omen nodded, glanced at me with a worried look then walked down the hall.
“No one needs to worry about me,” I told Lily as she came over and sat opposite me, clutching her hands as if in prayer in her lap. “I’m good. Knowing he is safe helps.”
“I’m sure,” she said. “I prayed for him.”
I didn’t know what to say to that because I had never been religious and didn’t believe in any kind of God, so I just smiled back at her. “How hard can it be to choose ice cream?” I said looking out to the hallway.
“You know boys, hopeless. Let me go check on them.”
I smiled and looked back out of the window while Lily went out.
I was tempted to call Warren. What I wanted was to hear from Hudson, but he didn’t want to talk to me.
Besides, my phone was still upstairs. I wondered if Hudson had tried to call.
I wouldn’t have heard it ringing all the way down here.
I got up and headed for the stairs. Omen was just coming out of the kitchen as I walked out, and I glanced at him.
He stopped short and looked as if he'd seen a ghost.
“Omen? Everything okay?”
I glanced at his hands and saw what looked like blood on one of them.
“Oh, are you hurt?” I took a step towards him but something in his face made me stop. “What’s going on?” I asked.
He didn’t speak, his face changed from confused to angry and he took a few steps towards me.
I panicked, I didn’t know why but my gut was telling me something was wrong here.
“Connor!” I called out.
Lily came running out of the kitchen, looking as panicked and scared as I felt. She barged past her husband and ran to me, one arm outstretched. There was blood on her too and she clung to me, hitting me so hard we crashed to the wall.
“Run,” I told her grabbing her hand, although I didn’t know why, I just felt the surrounding danger.
I turned to head for the door but didn’t get far.
Something stabbed into the side of my neck, like a mosquito bite and I slapped my hand at it, turning around.
Lily was looking at me with narrowed eyes.
Omen hadn’t moved from his spot in the hallway, like he was frozen and the conflicted look on his face told me he knew what was happening, but he wasn’t happy about it.
“Where is Connor? What did you do to me?” I felt woozy. My shoulder hit the wall again as I looked back at Lily, my eyes going down to where she held a syringe in her hand. “What did you do?” I screeched.
“Don’t just stand there like a fucking idiot, tie her up.”
I looked from Omen to Lily again, fear clogging up my throat. I was losing my thoughts. My vision was blurring. Omen moved towards me, and he pulled some zip ties from his pocket. Lily didn’t sound like Lily anymore.
“Gag her too, we can’t have anyone hearing her. Hurry the fuck up before Rosa comes back. I had to cause a scene at the clubhouse to keep her there.”