Chapter 28 #2
Roxanne held him just as tight, and I saw the wet hit her eyes as she firmed her voice and said, “You aren’t gonna lose her. That girl’s a fighter. She’s tough as nails, and she’ll pull through this. You aren’t losin’ her, Judge. Put that outta your mind right now.”
Her words didn’t soothe him, but they at least worked to settle him.
As the women gathered with Judge, my men moved to me.
“We find out who did this, it’s not on the cops,” Bryce said on a fierce growl. “She’s ours. We handle this shit, and we do it how we feel it’s gotta be done.”
“Fuck yeah,” Hunter clipped in agreement. “No way the fucker who put his hands on her is breathin’ easy after this.”
I couldn’t say I disagreed. There was a part of me that wanted to find this asshole and rip his spleen out in the slowest, most agonizing way possible.
There was just one problem.
“Afraid that’s not gonna be our call. We follow Xander’s lead.”
As soon as I said that, the atmosphere shifted. We felt him before we saw him. The air went static, crackling all around us as we all turned at the same time to see Xander rushing down the corridor.
Shit was about to get cataclysmic. I broke away to try and head him off, but to my shock, it was Judge who got there first, stepping into his path and forcing him to stop.
“Breathe, son,” he ordered, pulling Xander’s manic gaze to him.
The two men entered into a stand-off for several seconds before he asked, “Where is she?” His voice cracked, and I felt it in my gut.
“Surgery,” Judge answered. “No word yet.”
Xander’s head when down, his hands came up, and he locked his fingers behind his neck as he silently came apart.
I took a step when Judge moved closer, wanting to be there if things went south, but also wanting to be there for my brother.
Xander had always been a wildcard. His past haunted him to the point most days he struggled to keep it in check, and I was terrified this was going to be the tipping point he couldn’t come back from.
We’d been watching him agonize for months.
He’d fallen for Sage damn near the moment she walked through our doors, and he’d been battling it ever since.
None of us had a clue what he’d gone through, all we knew was the man was drowning in darkness, and I feared he wouldn’t be able to come back from this.
“Feel it, boy. You feel that burn. Let it go through you, then you push it out.” At Judge’s words, Xander’s arms dropped and his head came up.
Judge moved in, clasping him on the side of the neck.
“Feel it and let it the fuck go, hear me? You don’t hold on to it.
You don’t bury it down. You feel it, then you push it the .
. . fuck . . . out. ’Cause my girl’s gonna come outta this.
She’s gonna pull through, and when she does, she’s gonna need you whole. You get me?”
I watched in awe as Xander closed his eyes and inhaled slowly. When he opened them again and looked at Judge, the mania was gone. The shadows lurked and the fear was evident, but he’d powered through, giving Sage’s father a nod.
“Good.” Judge gave him a little shake and nodded in return, blowing out a breath of relief. “That’s good, son. You feel that shit buildin’ in you and you gotta work it out, you find me.”
“Linc!”
At the sound of my Edie’s voice I turned and saw a man in his late fifties to early sixties coming down the hall dressed in green scrubs and a surgical cap.
The three of us hurried to joined our group just as he reached us and asked, “Family of Sage Winthrop?”
“Here,” Judge said quickly. “She’s my daughter.”
“She’s in recovery now, but whoever did that to her did a lot of damage.
She had a dislocated shoulder, a broken nose, a fractured cheekbone, and several serious contusions.
There were six broken ribs, one of which punctured her lung and caused it to collapse.
But the biggest problem was the laceration to her liver which caused severe internal bleeding.
We were able to go in and repair it, but she lost a lot of blood.
My guess, it took a long time between the hit that caused the laceration and her being able to get to the phone.
A few more minutes and she would’ve bled out.
She made it through the surgery, which is promising, but now all we can do is wait for her to wake up. ”
As the doctor detailed everything that goddamn asshole had done to our Sage, that burn Judge mentioned worked its way through me, and as I turned to my men, I knew they were feeling it just the same.
The doctor eventually left. The women huddled together for support, and the rest of us turned our eyes to Xander.
His gaze shot through each of us, that burn flashing in his eyes before they settled on me.
“We find out who did this, he suffers.”
“Goddamn fuckin’ right he does,” Judge growled.
I tipped my chin in acknowledgment. I didn’t need to say a word. If that was the play he wanted to make, me and my guys would have his back every step of the way.
We’d find the bastard who hurt our girl.
And he’d suffer.