Chapter 29
TWENTY-NINE
Bryson
Something’s wrong.
I don’t know how to explain it, but I can feel it in the pit of my stomach.
The messages I got from Sophia earlier tonight, while I was training, letting me know that Josh was MIA and that Cat was coming to ‘hang out’, haven’t done anything to help ease my nerves.
I tried to call her five minutes ago, but she didn’t answer.
I’m not far from home now, but the streets all seem longer and slower than they did a few hours ago.
“Why are we driving so fast?” Jones asks, gripping the handle of his door. He got a ride with me from my place to the stadium.
“Something’s not right,” I mutter.
“Care to elaborate?”
“With Sophia. I’m worried she’s in trouble. Something doesn’t feel right.”
“For real?”
I nod.
“What’s going on?”
“I dunno. But I have a fuckin’ bad feeling.”
“Floor it. I’ll pay half the speeding fine,” he replies.
I’d laugh if I wasn’t so worked up.
I do it, though, I’m going twice the legal limit now, but I don’t care, I have to get there, right now.
I turn the corner onto our street and see it. My worst fucking nightmare come to life. The piece-of-shit car that Josh cruises around in, is parked across my front lawn, the driver’s door wide open.
I don’t even think I put my truck in park before I’m out of it, sprinting up the footpath and across the lawn to the front door.
I’m going to fucking kill him.
If he’s so much as touched her – either of them – I’ll kill him with my bare hands, right here and now. It’d be worth the prison time.
I hear Jones yell my name, but there’s no stopping me.
I throw open the front door and frantically look around for her… for him… for anything .
“Fucking bitch!” I hear him gasp.
They’re in the living room.
I’m in there in less than one second, and surveying the scene in front of me in the next.
Josh is what I see first, knelt on the floor, holding onto the front of his jeans and looking like he’s in agony.
My gaze travels further, to Sophia on the ground, limp, her eyes closed, covered in blood.
“Sophia!” I scream so loud, I bet my team mates in the next town over will hear me. “Sophia!”
Jesus fucking Christ, he’s killed her.
I’m across the room in an instant, throwing the worthless piece of shit in front of me out the way to get to her.
He’ll pay, he’ll fucking pay for this, but he can wait. The only thing that matters to me right now is my girl.
I bring my ear to her mouth, and almost cry in relief when I hear the sound of her breath.
She’s alive.
Her chest rises and falls – the movement shallow, but present.
Thank fuck.
“What the hell?” I hear Jones’ horrified voice.
“I need you to go and check Aria is in her room, and call an ambulance,” I instruct him calmly. I have to keep my shit together for them.
I don’t look up from Sophia but I hear his footsteps run off through the house.
I need to find out if this is her blood or not, if it is, and it’s coming from somewhere vital, I don’t know if she’ll be breathing for long.
I lift her top, being careful not to move her, and find nothing. It looks like it’s all over her clothes more than it is coming from inside her.
“Sophia, baby, wake up,” I say gently.
She doesn’t move. Her lids don’t flutter. But she’s still breathing.
I feel around her head, checking for wounds, but I don’t find anything.
“She’s fine, sleeping. I need your address,” Jones barks from behind me.
I feel a surge of relief. Aria is okay.
“You hear that, baby, she’s fine,” I tell Sophia. I don’t know if she can hear me or not, but if she can, I know it’ll bring her some comfort.
“Address, bro?”
“Fifty-six Clark Street,” I tell him quickly. “Tell them to hurry.”
I hear a groan from the scum that caused this mess and before I register what I’m doing, I’m on my feet and moving towards him.
I lock eyes with Jones before I deliver a swift kick to the side of Tonksy’s rib cage. Jones – the legend that he is – just leaves the room with the phone still stuck to his ear. If there are no witnesses then maybe it didn’t really happen.
Josh cries out loudly and tries to tuck himself into a ball .
Fucking pussy.
It’s obvious now that he’s the one doing the bleeding. I don’t know what my girl did to cause the gaping gash across his cheek, but I’m proud as fuck of her.
I want to end his life, right here and now, but I can’t just leave Sophia lying there, unconscious. I don’t know what happened to her, or if she’s going to be okay.
I give Tonksy one more kick and then turn my back to him, tuning out his pathetic moaning.
I drop to my knees next to Sophia and run my thumb down her face. “Come on, baby, I need you to open your eyes.”
I repeat her name to her over and over, tell her that I love her, that I need her, that Aria needs her, that she’s going to be okay, that I need her to open her eyes. I don’t know how long I stay there like that for, but she doesn’t move, her lids don’t flicker.
“Where the fuck did he go?” Jones demands, pulling me out of my trance.
“What?” I reply, looking around to find the room empty. Tonksy’s gone from the spot on the floor where I left him.
“Where the fuck is that prick?” Jones says again.
We hear the heavy revving of an engine at the same time. Jones runs to the window. “He’s in the fucking car!” he yells at me .
I want to go after him, but I can’t. I can’t leave her.
“Follow him. Keys are in the truck.”
Jones is already moving out the door before I can finish speaking.
“Ambulance and police are on their way,” he yells back to me.
I watch as Josh skids off the front lawn, leaving deep tyre tracks behind him, and snakes away down the street. That fucking cunt is going to kill someone. I hope it’s himself.
Jones isn’t far behind him. Jumping into the driver’s seat of my truck, throwing a U-turn and peeling off after him.
I rush back to Sophia’s side. I can hear the sirens coming – they can’t be far away, and for the first time in what feels like hours, I feel a small sense that everything might be okay in the end.
I just need her to wake up.
I look around the room, the blood, the mess, the trauma.
I can’t believe I let this happen.
I can’t believe she had to endure this – that I wasn’t there to stop him like I should have been.
My forehead falls forward, until it’s leaning on her. “Please wake up,” I beg.
I feel a tear fall from my eye onto her stomach.
I don’t want to imagine a world without her in it. Or one impacted by that fuck stain of a human .
I just want my Sophia, as perfect as she’s always been, happy and whole.
“Baby, please,” I beg.
“Bryson,” she whispers.
The sound of her voice makes me sit up, searching her face to see if I imagined it or not.
Her eyes are still closed, and I can hear the sirens right outside now.
“Soph?” I whisper.
Her eyes flutter open, lock onto mine for a few seconds and then gently shut again. “My head hurts,” she says softly. “Can you get me a Panadol?”
My sobs turn into a laugh. I’ve never been so grateful to hear her voice.
I hear the paramedics call out from the door and I yell back, telling them where to go.
“Yeah, baby, I can get you a Panadol,” I promise her.
“Jones, what’s going on?” I answer the phone with one hand, my other in Sophia’s as the paramedics load her onto the stretcher.
“I’ve followed him through town and out the other side, towards the school. He’s fuckin’ cooked, bro. He’s all over the road. Someone is going to get killed.”
I’d forgotten that Jones was on Josh’s tail.
“Fuck. Have you called the police? ”
“Yeah, I gave them the direction we’re travelling and the plates. They’re meant to be on their way.”
“Don’t let him out of your sight. He’s not getting away with this. If the police can’t handle him, I will.”
I probably shouldn’t be making threats like this with paramedics and police officers within ear shot, but I don’t think a single one of them would blame me if I took matters into my own hands. They’ve all seen what’s gone on here. No one missed the fact that Sophia’s jeans were unbuttoned. No one missed the abuse that’s gone on here.
“Is she okay?” he asks me.
“She’s awake. Looks like she’s got a concussion, maybe some broken ribs. The blood wasn’t hers by the looks, but they’re not sure about any other injuries until she gets into hospital for a full check-up.
“Jesus.”
“You’re still following him?” I ask.
“Yeah.”
I hear him mutter something.
“What?”
“I think he’s just noticed.”
I don’t get a chance to say anything before he’s speaking again, his tone panicked.
“Holy fuck, he just boosted off even faster and nearly took out a car at the intersection.”
I can hear my truck speed up over the Bluetooth. Then a bunch of honking and more acceleration.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” I warn him.
I know I told him not to let Tonksy out of his sight, but hearing it for myself, it’s not worth it. There’s been enough casualties tonight, I don’t need to take a loyal mate down with me.
“Holy fuck, bro,” he grunts.
“What?” I demand.
“Jesus, he’s going to kill someone.”
“Back off. I don’t care if you lose him.”
More honking. More acceleration.
“Jones,” I warn him.
The paramedics bring the stretcher up to full height, ready to wheel Sophia out to the ambulance when I hear it through the phone.
The unmistakable sound of a car wreck. Metal scraping, stretching and bending.
“Jones?” I demand, hoping like fuck I didn’t just hear a good mate of mine, dying inside my vehicle, while in a high speed chase that I forced him into.
There’s no answer.
“Jones!” I yell.
“I’m here,” he replies. It sounds like he’s out of the car now, and running. “Holy fuck, I have to call him an ambulance.”
The line goes dead.
I slowly lower the phone from my ear, the lump in my throat huge. I don’t know what the fuck just happened, but the thought that Josh might actually be dead doesn’t sit with me the way I expected it to. Only a half-hour ago I could have squeezed the life out of him without an ounce of remorse, but now, now I don’t know.
I feel Sophia softly squeeze my fingers. “What’s going on?”
I blink a couple of times, trying to arrange my thoughts.
“Bry?” She squeezes again.
“I don’t know. I think there was a crash,” I whisper. “I think Tonksy crashed.”
Her eyes widen but she doesn’t say anything.
I wonder if she feels the same way I do. Part of me wants to not only see him dead, but to watch as torturous pain is inflicted on him for hours first, and the other part of me wants to see Josh clean and sober and doing the best he can in life. I want to see him being a good dad and co-parent. But the reality is that I don’t know if he’s capable of that, and there’s no way in hell I want to fuck around and find out. We’ve tried that, and it's wound up with Sophia being loaded into an ambulance. Maybe he is better off dead. He can’t hurt her if he’s dead.
I hit call on Jones’ number again, but it rings out without being picked up.
“Shit,” I mutter.
“Excuse me, sir, but we’re ready to take her in now, will you be joining us?”
Of course I’ll be fucking joining her. She’ll be lucky if I ever let her out of my sight again. If she needs surgery, they better be ready to get me scrubbed in. I’m that fucking serious.
“I’m coming.” I nod. “Let me just go grab our daughter.”