Chapter 43 Violet
VIOLET
Nyah and I sat huddled in our pit, as far away from Francine’s dead body as we could.
Despite assuring Levi I was fine and not to come in here, all I wanted was to see his face. I wanted Whip’s strong, reassuring arms around me. I wanted X’s bad jokes in public, and then his fingers around my throat in private.
The worst part was, I could hear their shouts from outside and I couldn’t get to them.
It took what felt like a lifetime for the bomb squad to clear the house of the shrapnel-shooting devices Travis and Francine had set up.
There were so many of them, it was a miracle Whip had been the only one injured.
But I was also aware I’d lost all concept of time, and every second felt like a year, when all I wanted was to get out and check that the people I loved were okay.
Eventually, a round-faced cop, perhaps in his mid-twenties, peered over the top of the pit. He did a double take at Francine’s body and then focused on us. “You two okay?”
We nodded.
“You armed?”
I pointed at the gun Nyah had laid down on the dirt. “Francine fell in here with it. We have touched it, but I don’t know if it’s loaded.”
“Anything else?”
“A mostly empty bottle of bleach and a few scrubbers,” Nyah called up.
He gave us a small smile. “I’ll report that.” He disappeared for a second to speak to someone else. A moment later he was back, this time with a ladder. “Ready to get out?”
A sob burst from Nyah’s mouth as we both got slowly to our knees. I guided her to the ladder first and let her climb up ahead of me, sticking close behind her in case in her weakened state, she fell.
I tried not to notice the dried blood on her legs.
But a new wave of anger flushed through me, all of it directed at Francine. I wanted to jump back down there and pummel her with fists and feet for what she’d done to Nyah. To me. To everyone I loved and cared about.
But I didn’t look back. I only wanted to look forward from now on.
At the top of the hole, the officer escorted us from the house and out the front door.
Nyah blinked in the harsh, afternoon sunlight, and I caught her arm, steadying her while she got her bearings.
“Nyah!”
My heart splintered into a million pieces at Dax sprinting across the yard, his voice hoarse, tears shamelessly streaming down his face.
Nyah took one step forward, and they collided, Dax cradling her head to his chest to stop her from taking the impact, her arms wrapping around him, and sobs falling from her lips freely.
Her fingers twisted in his T-shirt, her face in his neck, and within seconds, he had her up in his arms, carrying her across the lawn to where paramedics waited beside an ambulance.
They moved toward me, but Levi pushed past them.
The fear and worry and love in his eyes told me everything I needed to know. He hugged me tight and then drew back, cupping my face with both hands and tilting it up to stare down at me.
He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to mine, and for a second, we just breathed together. He didn’t need to say anything. It was all there, in the trembling of his fingers, in the connection between us. I knew him. I knew his heart, his words, his love.
“I’m okay,” I whispered to him.
“And the baby?”
I smiled a little. “I thought Whip could keep a secret better than that.”
He shook his head, his forehead rubbing against mine. “I think he was home five minutes before he blabbed. You probably would have had better luck keeping it a secret if you’d told X.”
“I don’t want any secrets,” I whispered. “I just needed a minute to believe it was real.”
He kissed my mouth, and I felt the tension slipping away, my heart beating with his, both of them slowing down, calmed by us being in each other’s arms.
“Is Whip okay?” I asked.
Levi had already told me he was injured but it wasn’t severe.
I caught sight of him sitting on the grass, surrounded by paramedics, and my mouth dropped open. I brushed past Levi and ran to Whip’s side, my fingers hovering uselessly over his bleeding leg that the paramedics were trying to inspect.
I winced at the spray of gashes up his leg. “You guys told me it wasn’t serious!”
Whip put his hand to the back of my neck. “Hey. I’m fine.”
“You most certainly are not fine! Your leg…” I could barely look at it. The skin and muscle were torn to pieces, jagged bits of metal still embedded in his flesh.
If that had hit him in the chest, or the face or any other vital organ…
I couldn’t even think about the sort of damage it could have done. Tears slid down my face. “You could have died.”
His thumb stroked over my skin, and he stared into my eyes, pure reassurance and determination in them. “I’m not going anywhere, Violet.”
“Except to the hospital,” the paramedic interrupted. “We need to get you loaded, sir.”
“Not until I kiss my woman and tell her I love her.”
“Well, if you could do that fast—”
The man didn’t need to tell him twice. Whip dragged me in, pressing his lips on mine and kissing me until my head spun. I clung to him, inhaling his scent, reminding myself I would get to do this for the rest of my life.
“I love you,” I whispered to him.
“I love you too, sweetheart. See you at the hospital.”
I nodded fiercely. “I’ll be in the next ambulance. I just need to see X…” I frowned, glancing around. “Where is he? Did he go to pick the kids up from school or something?”
Whip chuckled. “No, Kara picked them up. They’re at the clubhouse. But if you want to see X, you’re probably going to have to look up.”
I frowned but did as he said.
My mouth dropped open.
“Hey, Omelet!” X called from up in the tree. He waved at me with one hand, but that caused him to wobble so hard his eyes went wide and he clutched at the branch again.
A very patient firefighter sighed heavily. “Sir, you really are right there. Like, if you just scoot back an inch—”
“Scoot back an inch and DIE, I think you mean.”
The firefighter squinted at him. “You really aren’t going to die, sir. I can promise you that. I mean, even if you fell onto the ground—”
X shot him a horrified look, and the firefighter lifted his hands in mock surrender.
“Which you won’t because we have an air pillow down there for you, just in case. But it really isn’t that far.”
“I might as well be on the moon, sir! I’ll beg you not to downplay the seriousness of this situation!”
It really wasn’t that high, especially compared to my third-floor balcony, but I guessed he’d felt a bit more stable clinging to metal rather than the branch that groaned beneath his weight.
“X?” I called. “I need to go to the hospital and get them to check on the baby. I really want you to be there for that.”
His expression changed in an instant. Gone was any fear, either the fake kind for a laugh or the real kind.
In its place was the man I loved. The one I saw beneath the jokes he used as armor to hide the insecurities about who he was and how his brain worked.
He might have never felt like he fit in with society.
But he fit here, with me. With the family we were creating together.
“I need you,” I told him.
He moved down the ladder like it was as easy as strolling down a footpath. And then I was in his arms, him holding me tight, his lips pressing kisses to my hair.
“I thought I was going to lose you,” he whispered in my ear. “I was all set to come through that roof and save you. But you didn’t need me. You saved yourself.”
I shook my head. “I always need you.”
He didn’t say anything, but his answer was in the way he held me, like I was something tiny and precious, something he was never going to give up.
It was X who loaded me into an ambulance, and ours followed the one Levi and Whip had gone in. The paramedics asked me all sorts of questions, and I wasn’t sure if I answered them well, because all I wanted to do was curl up in X’s arms and have someone reassure me that Whip was okay.
Saint View Hospital was a hive of activity, and a bunch of staff came out to meet Whip’s ambulance, a handful of them whisking him away on a gurney. Levi jogged after them until they refused to allow him to go any farther.
Worry creased his brow when he returned to us, but he assured me the paramedics had said all of Whip’s injuries were superficial, but they would probably take him into surgery to remove the pieces of shrapnel from his skin and stitch him up, since there were so many of them.
Once I was inside the emergency department and settled in a bed, a nurse came over and smiled at me warmly. “Hi, Violet. I’m Willa. I’m a friend of Kara and Hawk’s. They called to tell me I needed to give you the VIP treatment.”
I shook my head, not wanting to make a fuss.
“You really don’t need to do that. I’m fine apart from a sprained ankle and some cuts and bruises.
” I didn’t mention the mental trauma and the unsettling realization that I’d killed two people without regret.
But they were things I could unpack with Grayson later.
I needed the hospital only for one thing. “It’s just, I’m pregnant.”
She smiled softly. She had pretty horrific scarring on her neck that disappeared beneath the collar of her shirt, and I wondered how much time she’d spent in a hospital bed just like this one having that treated.
“Do you know how far along?” she asked.
I shook my head. “We only just found out. So not far, probably?”
She grabbed a stool and a portable ultrasound machine from across the hall, pulling both over to my bedside. “That’s okay. We can have a quick look to set your mind at ease while we wait for the doctors to come see you.”
I put my hand up, motioning for her to stop. “Can I ask you something first? If the baby was hurt when I fell, and I’m miscarrying, is there anything you can do to stop it?”
Willa pressed her lips together. “Assuming you’re as early as you think you are? No, probably not. Are you having cramping or any other sort of pain?”