Chapter 29 #2
“Whoever this was…they’re after Reagan. No one but us knows Reagan moved in with me. Aria’s assailant broke into the place they thought she’d been staying and attacked the tall, blonde woman they encountered.”
“Then why is Aria still here and not being held hostage somewhere like Reagan’s sister?”
“They realized they made a mistake. Saw Aria’s face, realized she wasn’t who they were after, and bolted.”
“I suppose that does make a certain amount of sense,” Lane gritted out. “Doesn’t change the fact that our sister was attacked,” he added in a hiss. He turned to Trey. “Send this to me so I can forward it onto Addie. The FBI might be able to get more out of it than you can.”
“Fine.”
I knew Trey only agreed so easily to avoid an argument. Emotions were high enough at the moment; we didn’t need to add infighting to the mix. But I also knew he’d spend hours in front of his computer, scouring the footage from some usable information to figure out who’d done this to Aria.
Speaking of Aria, behind us came commotion at my front door, and we all turned to see Sutton and Thomas wheeling our baby sister out toward the ambulance.
“We’re taking her to Boise!” Sutton shouted. “Any of you want to come with her?”
“I’ll go,” Crew said, stepping away from us. But he paused suddenly and swung around. “Has anyone called Mama?”
“Shit,” Lane and Trey swore in unison.
“I’ll do it,” I said wearily. This was, after all, my fault.
Crew once again clapped me on the shoulder, then the three of them dispersed, Trey and Lane toward Lane’s SUV, Crew toward the ambulance.
With a deep breath, I withdrew my phone from my pocket and dialed Mama.
“What’s wrong?” she asked when she answered.
She sounded far more alert than I would’ve expected so early in the morning, and I had to guess her mother’s intuition had woken her.
“There was an…incident.”
“Are you okay? Is Reagan?”
“Reagan and I are fine,” I assured her. “But Aria was staying at the guest house, and she was attacked.”
Mama sucked in a gasp, then let her breath out on a soft curse, a rarity for her. “I didn’t even know she left. Is she okay? What’s going on?”
“I don’t know much right now,” I admitted. “She got hit on the head, and there was a lot of blood. But she’s in the ambulance, and they’re taking her up to Boise. Crew is with her.”
“Come get me. I’ll be ready in five.”
“Yes ma’am,” I said, then hung up. My attention focused on my house across the field, where two figures stood backlit on the front porch.
My legs felt like lead as I trudged through the country grasses in that direction. A maelstrom of emotions tangled in my chest: rage, fear, and most insistent of them all…guilt.
“What happened?” West asked when I reached the base of the stairs.
“Aria was attacked,” I said flatly. “Blunt force trauma to her head. They’re taking her up to Boise.”
“Let’s go then,” he said.
Not bothering with the steps, he jumped straight from the porch to the ground and beelined for his truck. He climbed in and turned it over, his headlights illuminating Reagan, staring at me wide-eyed. She had on one of my shirts and a pair of my sweats, her arms crossed over her chest.
“Is she going to be okay?” she asked softly.
I gave her the truth. “I don’t know.”
Without another word, she reached for me, and I grabbed her hand, holding it tightly as I helped her down the steps, like she was my lifeline, the one thing keeping me grounded in this hellscape.
When I climbed into the back with her, West shot me a confused look, and I said, “We have to pick up Mama.”
He jerked his head in the approximation of a nod and sped away from my house, taking a right at the end of the long drive, heading toward the big house.
As promised, Mama waited on the front porch, her normally tan skin almost ghostly pale. Worry lined every inch of her face and body. She got in the passenger seat, and West reached for her, holding her hand the entire drive to Boise.
Walking into the hospital lobby hit me with an intense force of déjà vu.
It hadn’t even been a year since we’d rushed here in the middle of the night for a different sibling, waiting to see if Crew would be alright after being assaulted, abducted, and thrown fifty feet through the air in the wake of an explosion.
Mama approached the desk while I followed my twin into the waiting room, Reagan’s hand clasped tightly in my own. She hadn’t spoken a word since we left, and I didn’t press her as we took a seat alongside my brothers. Truth be told, I didn’t much feel like talking either.
We’d only been sitting there for about ten minutes when I saw a familiar brunette head weaving through the lobby, and I jumped to my feet, racing out to meet Sutton.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “The front desk wouldn’t give Mama any information.”
“She woke up on the drive here,” Sutton said. “She got hit pretty good on the head, but it seems to be more of a flesh wound. Split her skin open and turned into a bleeder. I assume they’ll run tests to rule out a brain bleed. Worst she’ll come out with is some stitches and a concussion.”
Sighs of relief echoed from behind me as my body sagged with the same emotion, and I glanced over my shoulder to see my family standing behind me.
Reagan reached for me, twining her fingers with mine, and I dragged her into my side.
Wrapped my arm around her, needing to feel her warmth and vitality against me.
She was okay.
My sister was going to be okay.
Everything was okay.
Except it wasn’t.
So fucking far from it, in fact.
Mama pushed past me and gathered Sutton in a hug. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you for taking care of our girl.”
Sutton smiled at my mom. “Just doing my job, Birdie. Plus, y’all are like family.”
Her eyes swept over the Lawless crew, though I didn’t miss the blip of…was it pain? that flashed across her eyes when they presumably landed on Lane.
One day, I’d have to sit my big brother down and ask him what the hell happened between them.
Once Sutton and Thomas left, we retreated to the waiting room.
The chairs were horribly uncomfortable, but I slouched down and did my best to shut my mind off for a while.
Naturally, it didn’t work, though I must’ve zoned out for a lengthy period of time, because the next thing I knew, a doctor was pushing in the room, calling for Aria’s family.
All of us stood, and the doctor blinked in surprise at the five hulking men standing before him.
“How is she?” Mama asked.
“Stable,” the doctor said, and we breathed a collective sigh of relief. “She sustained a concussion and needed twelve stitches to patch up the wound on her skull, but the CT scan didn’t reveal any internal bleeding or brain swelling.”
“Oh, thank the goddesses,” Reagan whispered.
“When can we see her?”
“I can take two of you back right now,” the doctor said. “She’s awake and asking for her mom.”
Mama stepped forward, then turned and faced us. Before my brothers and I could launch into an argument about which of us was going first, Mama reached for me.
“You found her, Finny.”
Hardly a good enough reason for me to face her first, but I wasn’t about to say no to my mother. Still, as we walked down the long hall behind the doctor, into the emergency area, I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking.
Mama merely squeezed tighter.
As we approached the end of the cordoned off emergency bays, the only one with the curtains entirely concealing it, the doctor explained, “She’s not in a room because we’ll be discharging her shortly.”
“Oh, that’s excellent news,” Mama said.
“Like I said, there’s no cause for concern. The concussion of course will have to be monitored, but I can send you home with infor—”
Mama cut him off before he could finish. “No offense, doctor, but I have six sons. I know how to handle a concussion.”
Doc grinned. “Fair enough.”
He reached for the curtain and pulled it back, revealing Aria laying on the hospital bed. A bandage wrapped around her head, and tubes ran from her arms, one connected to a bag of fluid, the other to one of blood, though both were nearly empty.
“She lost quite a bit from that head wound, which caused the loss of consciousness,” he explained. “We needed to replenish it.”
Aria’s face was as white as the sheets she laid on.
“Please tell me you brought me other clothes,” she said, her eyes still closed. She picked at the gown. “This thing is fucking horrible, and what I was wearing is ruined.”
“Language,” Mama said automatically, though there was no heat behind it. She walked around to Aria’s side and bent to press a gentle kiss to her forehead, smoothing back her hair. “You scared me, my girl.”
“I’m sorry,” Aria whispered, a tear breaking free from her eye and tracking down her cheek.
“No,” I said firmly, going to her other side and gathering her hand in mine. “I am the one who’s sorry.”
Aria’s eyes flew open. “Finny,” she breathed.
“Hey, Ari.”
Her brow furrowed, but she winced, eyes falling shut again. “What do you have to be sorry for?”
“I left you unprotected.”
Aria snorted weakly. “I’ve stayed in that house hundreds of times before with no issue. This is not your fault,” she stated with a vehemence that belied her current invalidity.
“She’s right, Finn,” Mama said. “The only person at fault here is the fucker who attacked her.”
“Mama!” Aria and I gasped in unison.
Mama’s grin was a bit feral. To me, she said, “Find whoever did this, Finny.”
“I will,” I promised.