Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Say Her Name
Zaiden
Z achary scowled and paced the length of his work room when I’d informed him of Sarah’s imminent arrival. Apparently, it was both an unexpected and unwanted surprise.
But she’s carrying my child and I refuse to allow a divide, a line to be drawn between one and the other because I’ll always choose Sarah, each and every time. I hope she knows it. It’s been twenty minutes since I’ve talked to her department manager who’d assured me my future wife was given permission to return home and to take the next two weeks off.
But, I’m not home and she should be headed here. Whatever version of hell here is.
“I mean, does she have to come here? You can’t like, go meet her then come back?”
I turn my glare on him, lips pressed into a line. He throws his hands up.
“What?” he gestures at the strapped down, whimpering man, “We’re kind of in the middle of something and your little princess—” I take a step toward him and he laughs, blue eyes brightening like headlights.
He’s goading me. Does he fucking want me to hit him?
“Nat let me—What the fuck, Dayton?” I whirl around at Sarah’s voice. My face falls at the horror painted across my raven.
“I can explain—” She takes a step into the room and I intercept her. What feels like an eternity is mere minutes of her lifting her gaze from the piece of meat—Zac’s term—to lock gazes with me.
My mouth gapes open, words getting stuck on my tongue. I’ve never had to—I can’t. If she leaves me, I’ll—A hand lands on my cheek and I flinch under the gentle touch.
“Relax, remember to breathe,” she whispers, sliding as close as her stomach allows. It’s not close enough. I want under her skin.
“Zachary,” she calls out, voice firm and strong. “What did he do?”
I point at my chest and her head shakes, sending dark hair whipping past her shoulders.
“He raped a woman outside of Rhys’ bar. I trailed him after calling the authorities for his victim?—”
“Did she have dark hair? Brown eyes?” Sarah peers around me to look at my twin and I want to jerk her face back to me.
Silence except for clothes rustling comes from behind me. I’m assuming he’s shrugging because of course he doesn’t pay attention to anyone that isn’t Natalia. If the man wasn’t strapped to the table, I’m not sure he’d know the guy’s hair color either.
Sarah’s hand slides away and she moves to step around me. I chase the motion, standing in front of her, blocking her entrance.
She frowns at me.
“You can’t,” I say, gesturing down at our unborn.
“ Our baby will be fine. The child of the woman that man attacked?” Tears glisten in her eyes. “I don’t think it made it but I—” She shakes her head, swallowing several times. After taking a deep breath, she continues, “I couldn’t do a bedside ultrasound. I just—I didn’t want to see it.”
Her eyes stay fixed to my chest. My fingers tip her chin up.
“Tell me.” Her eyes close, body shifting toward me the barest inch.
“My third time trying to get pregnant,” a tear slips past her closed eyelids, “I couldn’t—It didn’t—” Her shoulders bow and I pull her into a hug, resting my chin on her forehead.
It didn’t make it , I finish in my head for her.
Sarah
Warmth surrounds me. Zaiden’s chest is firm beneath my ear, arms wrapped around me and his chin brushing back and forth across my head. I wonder if this is how our child feels, cocooned within my body. Safe.
“I want to see him,” I murmur into his shirt, smoothing the material with a hand. “I want to see him suffer because now,” I press my face more firmly into him, “I can’t get the image of that woman bleeding on the bed out of my head. They’re probably going to have to do a D&C because of this disgusting excuse of a human being. He did that.”
I pull back to look up at him. Love beams down at me from within his eyes.
“I want to see him suffer. I want justice. I want the world to make sense right now.”
Am I even making sense? I don’t ask that aloud.
“What if it upsets you or the baby?” Zaiden asks in a gentle voice. A soft smile worms its way onto my face.
“What I witnessed today upset me. But this?” I wave a hand behind him. I understand his point. After all, I’m a healer, not a killer. But, I’m also a mother . Tears swell again as I wonder about Crissy’s mother.
That was her name. Crissy Lawson.
Say her name .
I want him to beg for mercy, bleeding out like she did and screaming for help.
And then I want him to say her name .
She’s a person but all he saw was a hole to force his way into.
I want to shove his damn dick down his throat and see how he likes it.
Maybe some of the anger on my face shouts louder than my words as Zaiden steps to the side, taking one of my hands into his.
“The minute something feels off?—”
“Yes, sir,” I interrupt with a smile and he chuckles, aqua eyes sparkling like jewels with his happiness. That look right there. I want to capture it forever. He’d looked so distraught a few moments ago, like a child preparing to beg to be spared their punishment.
As if I’d ever hurt him. I give the hand holding mine a reassuring squeeze and he nods before turning to his brother, who’d silently watched our entire exchange.
I’m not sure if the boredom on his face was feigned or not but the smile that stretches wide isn’t. It says, “fucking finally,” and blue eyes promise pain.
Good. That’s exactly what this doctor has in mind.