Chapter 12
CASSIDY
The sound of beeping is driving me insane. When all I want to do is sleep, the noise is screaming at me to stay wake, and the pain in the back of my head radiates all the way to the front, making it difficult for me to open my eyes.
“Killa?” I rasp, my throat is dry and scratchy, and it hurts to swallow.
“Hey, Cassidy? Can you open your eyes for me, sweetheart?”
I don’t recognize the voice, but its rough edge doesn’t scare me.
After years of being traumatized by a psychopath, I’ve grown accustomed to certain tendencies, and this guy’s tone?
He’s trying to be gentle with me. The clinical scent of a hospital makes my stomach churn, and I don’t even want to think about the last time I was in one. A shudder works through me.
“A-Are you a doctor?”
A chuckle echoes off the wall. “Fuck, no. But my sister is, and you know her. Stella.” He must be Savage, the club president.
My heart races at becoming aware I am in a hospital, and my boy isn’t beside me. Something I’ve struggled with since the incident years ago. I dart up, ignoring the flash of pain through my entire body. “Noah?”
“He’s with Stella.” I relax back into the pillows and close my eyes again. He likes Stella; he’s safe with her.
My mind whirls with how I ended up here. The SUV speeding toward her, it had blacked-out windows and picked up speed, heading straight for her. My eyes flare open and panic hits me. “Is she okay?”
A handsome, killer-watt smile greets me, and my gaze flicks around the room for answers.
Who the hell did this guy say he was again?
“She’s fine, Cass.” I wrinkle my nose at the nickname. Only Killa has called me that before now, and I’m not sure I’m ready for anyone else to use it. “Thanks to you.” He lifts his chin toward me.
I want to nod, but the pain in my temple forbids me from doing so.
“I want to go home,” I whisper, and I hate the vulnerability in my tone.
He clears his throat. “Soon as Killa arrives, we’ll make that happen.”
My eyes swim with tears, and my bottom lip wobbles; he has no idea how grateful I am to hear his words. “Thank you. I don’t have good memories of hospitals.”
He jolts, his eyes soften, and he scans me.
Something about that pitiful look has alarm bells ringing in my head, but I’m unsure why.
“Ain’t leavin’ ya, sweetheart. Gonna protect ya.” Then he eases back into the chair beside the bed and leans over to the table to pour a cup of water before holding it out to me.
My hand trembles as I take it from him, but fear of the unknown keeps me alert, and I draw my legs up to my chest, shuffling as far away from him as possible.
He watches me closely, and with the cup in my hand, I eye him like a predator, but he doesn’t acknowledge my odd behavior, which I’m grateful for.
“I want you to know, Cassidy …” He emphasizes my name with a smirk. “If you ever need a favor in return for you saving my sister, you have it.” I turn to give him my attention, and my focus latches onto the patch on his cut, Prez, giving me the confirmation he is indeed the club president.
A familiar patch to the one Killa wears on his cut. Something about that calms me.
I take a sip of the water, and I’m grateful it’s cold.
The icy sensation on my tongue feels like bliss, but my entire body shakes, and I don’t know if it’s from shock or fear of being in a hospital again where a multitude of tests were carried out on Noah and me.
“I don’t need a favor. I just wanted to help Stella.
” My voice isn’t confident, and I hate it.
I feel like the younger me again, the one poked and prodded, questioned and interrogated.
The one completely destroyed and broken.
He strokes his lip, assessing me. “Everyone needs a favor at some point.”
“I don’t.” I take another sip of water, then close my eyes but quickly dart them open, too scared to leave myself vulnerable.
The last thing I want to do is fall asleep in this place.
What if they move me somewhere else and I never see Noah again?
One doctor threatened it before because he deemed me not a good mother.
Thank God, I had Gavin and Charlene on my side.
Not everyone is as fortunate as me, though, and they’re not here now.
“They said your scan came back good.” He drags a hand down his face. “Killa is on his way back over here; he had some club business to take care of.” He clears his throat. “I had Warrior here with you earlier, but he’s back at the compound now too.”
“Okay,” I say, unsure of all the information he’s throwing at me. All I know is I feel safe around these guys.
His eyes search mine, but this time, his attention doesn’t make me uncomfortable, and I don’t know what it is about Killa and his prez, but I feel safe. “You tired?”
I don’t want to admit it, but I also don’t want to lie to him.
“A little.” I shift in the bed.
He sits back in the chair, dwarfing it, then crosses his feet at his ankles and folds his arms over his chest, making himself comfortable, so I know he’s not going anywhere. “You can go to sleep, Cassidy. I got you.”
“I’m scared,” I blurt out, but immediately feel embarrassed, so I duck my head to stare down at my hands.
“You want to talk bout’ it?”
I feel his gaze on my face, and I want to burrow myself in a deep hole, so I shake my head.
He sighs. “I won’t let anyone hurt you, sweetheart. Here.” He takes the cup from me and places it on the table, then rests his index finger in my open palm. “Go to sleep, I got you.”
Holding on to the giant biker’s index finger, I close my eyes and float into the abyss.
CASSIDY
AGED EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD …
An odd, clinical scent and a beeping sound I’m not familiar with has my eyes fluttering open and my heart pounding.
Where the hell am I?
“Ahh, you’re awake.” The man in the suit at the end of the bed claps. “About time.” There’s a hint of malice in his tone, something I’ve become familiar with while living with Benjamin, and fear grips my chest, squeezing at it and forcing me to gasp in a breath.
This threat is new. He’s new.
My mind races, trying to figure out who he is and how I got here.
“You’ve been sedated since you were… found.” He spits it out like it offended him to say it.
When he drops his arms, I take note of a police badge attached to his belt.
He’s a police officer.
“I’m a detective,” he says, reading my mind, but his admission does little to settle the turmoil raging inside me. The sneer on his lips and the way his sharp eyes bore into me send fear racing through my bloodstream, intoxicating my veins.
Oh God, I’m in danger.
I dart my gaze around the room, taking in my surroundings, before locking eyes on the only exit. The door behind him.
“Where’s Noah?”
My hands clutch at the bedsheets.
“Noah, where’s my son?”
He steps forward, and I shuffle back on the bed until I can’t move any farther.
The needle in my hand digs into my bone, and I welcome the bite of pain it brings, a reminder I’m very much alive and, almost just as important, I’m no longer in captivity.
“I’m going to tell you something, Hayley, and I want you to understand.
” He looms over the bed, invading my personal space.
So much so, I can smell the coffee on his breath and the cigarette smoke on his clothes.
When he exhales, the air hits my face, forcing me to swallow back the bile building from deep in the pit of my stomach, and I turn my head away from him.
Every muscle in my body crumbles beneath his proximity, and I fight against the need to cry out.
I just want Noah.
I just want to know my little boy is okay.
To hold him in my arms and tell him his mama is here, that I’ll keep him safe forever.
“You keep your mouth shut about anyone other than Benjamin. Do you understand?”
I furrow my brow as I consider his words.
Does he not understand I’ve not seen anyone since the day I was taken? He’s the first contact I’ve had with someone in years.
“Anything you’ve heard. Anything you’ve figured out.
Because, trust me, if you don’t want your little boy to be buried in the darkness”—he leans in closer—“in the ground”—I tremble and a sob catches in my throat.
He’s talking about my beautiful little boy like he’s nothing when he’s everything—“then you keep your mouth shut.”
“I don’t know anything,” I say, tears flowing down my face.
Then he taps my cheek. “That’s a good girl, and just remember, I was never here.”
I nod.
I’m sure he thinks I’m lying, but it’s the truth. I don’t know anything.
But after that threat, I wouldn’t tell a soul if I knew something.
Noah is my world, my reason for living, and I’ll be damned if I risk losing him.
I’ll never be vulnerable again.
Never.