Chapter 56
Seeing Jade up and moving around already feels too good to be true.
It’s only been three days since she got shot, and for a little while there, we didn’t know if she would make it.
I’ve been through a lot of shit in my life, seen a lot of people take a bullet and be just fine.
But after what happened with Zander not that long ago, we were all left raw.
Dom is still out, and nobody knows if he will make a full recovery right now, but they’re both still breathing, and fuck if that isn’t a miracle in itself.
If it hadn’t been for Kyn coming with us, I don’t know that either of them would be alive.
Those fucking tunnels were hard enough to get through on our way in, but carrying three bodies, two of which were rapidly losing blood, made them feel impossibly longer.
I know we made great time, though. Kyn had hardly had time to make it to the hillside before we were there, yet it still felt like an eternity while their lives hung in the balance.
Kyn got us to the nearest hospital in no time, but it was touch-and-go for a while.
Dom and Jade both had to go into surgery right away.
Leo was beaten up. They put him on oxygen, stitched up his head, and said he needed to be monitored, but of the three, he got off the easiest. I’d thought for sure he’d be happy about that.
The cocky bastard loved to gloat before, but I was wrong.
The second he was able, he joined us down in the waiting room, looking just as stressed as the rest of us.
It was the first time I truly believed he cared for them.
It took a few hours, but when Elio finally showed up, everyone took notice.
We’d been unable to get any real information from the staff.
Over and over, all they kept saying was that they were in surgery and they would update us when they knew more.
Less than five minutes after Elio’s arrival, he gave us a clearer picture of what they were dealing with.
Jade had been hit right above her left hip; unfortunately, it wasn’t a clean shot, which meant they had to fish out the bullet.
In doing so, they found that she also suffered from two cracked ribs, which caused internal bleeding.
The bullet had miraculously missed her vital organs but had lodged itself in one of her lower ribs.
They were able to extract it while they were plating her ribs.
All in all, it was a lot, but it could have been much worse if the bullet had done more damage.
They were still working on her ribs, but their biggest concern was her blood loss.
Apparently, they had already done one transfusion and would probably still need another before she was done.
Dom was even worse off. He’d bled a lot more than Jade did, and for a while there, I wasn’t even sure he would make it out of the tunnels alive.
The fucker wouldn’t let go, though, and they said we got him to the hospital just in time.
He underwent a transfusion immediately, and they said his bullet went through clean, so at least there was that.
With all the information, we were able to breathe a little easier. She wasn’t out of the woods, but she wasn’t dead; neither of them was, and that was what mattered.
In all the commotion, I hadn’t even paid attention to the other two people who entered the hospital with Elio. They didn’t matter with Jade’s life hanging in the balance. Nobody did, but once I had a moment to breathe, it was impossible to miss it.
Jade’s parents.
She looks just like her mother. If I didn’t know better, I would think they were sisters.
Her mother has lighter hair, closer to the color Jade had when we first met her, before she dyed it, but even with her mother's features and eyes, I can see her father in her as well.
In the way she holds herself, the cool determination that fills his eyes just like hers.
Elio introduced them to us, and while they weren’t cold, they also didn’t stick around much longer, disappearing off into the hospital.
We waited hours and hours before they finally came back, only for them to tell us they were taking them back home for their doctors to care for them.
They have their own fucking doctors, not just doctors they have on payroll for emergencies on the side. The mafia is crazy.
Her father tried to say we could fly out once she had recovered, but even the boss of the Bratva wasn’t going to make that happen.
Before it could turn into a war in the middle of the hospital, Elio stepped in, and whatever he said seemed to be enough for us to fly out at least and meet them there.
Not that I could tell you what they said since they spoke in Russian the whole time.
I still hadn’t found time to ask Leo, but even if it got us what we wanted, what we needed.
I’m not sure it was all good after the way her father looked at us.
Not that we gave a fuck. He could think whatever he wanted; his opinion didn’t matter.
Jade would want us there. That was all that mattered to us.
Jade looks around at us, and I can see the discomfort in her eyes. I’m unsure if it’s from her wound or being here, in her childhood home, maybe both.
“So Dom’s alive?” she asks almost hesitantly once Rick’s explained everything that had happened since she passed out and how we ended up here.
“Yes, but…”
The moment the words left Kratos’s lips, Jade pushes up to stand.
Not waiting to see what else he has to say, ready to go to him.
She doesn’t make it far, though. I watch in shock as her legs quickly give out, and she crumbles to the floor.
Everyone moves at once as if we can get to her in time, but Kratos is, of course, the closest. Reaching out, he wraps his arm around her waist and hauls her back onto his lap a second before she hits the floor.
“Damn it!” Jade growls out, and for a moment, I think she’s upset with Kratos. That is, until I see the tears that pool in her eyes right before she drops her face into her hands with a groan of frustration.
“What’s wrong?” Rick asks, moving off the couch to kneel before her. His usual demanding tone is gone, instead replaced with the same worry I know we’re all feeling right now.
Jade says nothing, leaving her face buried in her hands as she shakes her head slowly. Rick’s shoulders tense, and he looks over Jade’s head to Kratos for assistance.
“Killer,” Kratos whispers, leaning forward to wrap her tighter in his arms, resting his head on hers. Usually, he can pull most things out of her, but even still, she remains silent.
“She should still be in bed resting. This is all too much, too fast for her,” Trent snaps as he glares at Jake.
Jake barks a laugh, loud and cold, before he pushes to stand, holding Trent’s gaze.
“Yes, she should, but the thing is, she wasn’t.
When I went up to sit with her, she was on the fucking ground, Trent,” he shouts, his words echoing in the large open space around us, but he either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care as he continues.
“I walked into her room to find an empty bed and monitors going crazy. I thought she was gone.”
His chest heaves, and this might be the most emotion I’ve ever seen from Jake. Even in the hospital, he was pretty well put together, keeping to himself most of the time.
“I found her on the ground. Trying to get to her feet, terrified and alone,” he says with a sigh as his anger all but drains from him, and he turns to look back at Jade.
“You didn’t see the way she looked up at me.
Like she thought she might never see me again.
You didn’t hold her in your arms while she clung to you, crying,” his voice cracks, but he still holds Jade’s gaze.
Worry shining in his eyes along with… Love?
Jade looks up at him with wide eyes, her lips pulled down in a frown that makes my chest feel tight, and it’s impossible to miss the sadness written all over her face.
That’s why Jake brought her down. He was afraid of leaving her alone.
It makes sense if you think about it. We all know Jade.
Hell, that’s why we’ve been taking shifts with her, to try and avoid her waking up exactly like that.
She’d been through hell even before she got shot.
We knew she would wake up confused and possibly scared.
The last thing we wanted was for her to be alone.
We just didn’t think she would be awake so soon, especially not with all the meds they pumped her full of. That’s on us, though. Jake did the right thing. The thing any of us would have done had we been the one to find her like that.
“Jade.” Rick tries to reach out to her, but she swats his hand away.
“Don’t!” she hisses, leaning forward so that they are almost nose to nose. “I don’t need your pity,” she snaps, and while her tone is cold, she can’t hide the pain on her face.
“Firefly, we’re worried about you,” Rick says to soothe her, but it doesn’t work. If anything, I think it might make her more upset.
“I don’t need you to worry about me. I can handle myself!”
“We’re very aware of that, but you almost died, so I think we have a reason to worry,” Rick growls, his anger rising to meet hers.
“I'm not weak!” she shouts, her fists clenched tight on her lap as she glares at Rick.
“Nobody said you were, Killer.”
Kratos tries to step in, but she only shakes her head, and I’m willing to bet she would have walked away already if she could.
“You only worry about people who are too weak to handle themselves.”
She says it like it’s a fact, and I can see it in her face that she really believes it.
Damn it, Demon.
“Is that so?” Rick asks, and I hear the wheels turning in his head. “So you're saying you don’t worry about us?”
“That…that’s not the same,” she grumbles, but I can see where Rick’s going with this, and I'm pretty sure she can, too.
“It’s exactly the same. We don’t worry about you because we think you're weak. In the same way, you don't worry about us because you think we are. We worry about the people who are important to us… We worry about the people we love.”
Jade’s eyes widen as she looks up at Rick, shocked into silence at his words. Rick isn’t one for emotions. I think I’ve only ever heard him tell his parents he loves them, and even then, it’s never a heartfelt thing, just a simple statement of fact. The same way, someone would say the sky is blue.
“You…” Jade cuts herself off, snapping her mouth closed before she tries again.
“You love me?” Her voice is so low, I almost couldn’t make out her words, even though I sit less than five feet from her.
The corner of Rick’s lips turns up in one of his rare full smiles as he looks at her like she hung the damn moon, and it amazes me that she even feels the need to ask.
“With every busted ass piece of my heart,” he admits.
“Yeah, I knew it!” Zander whoops, pumping his fist in the air before he full-on tackles Rick. Unfortunately for him, Rick is pure fucking muscle, and it looks more like he hit a wall than a person when Rick doesn’t even sway from the impact.
“I knew you had a heart in there, just like the Grinch. You just needed someone to revive the poor bastard.” Zander barks a laugh as he hangs off Rick's neck like a damn monkey, a huge smile on his face, completely immune to Rick’s death glare.
I stand, walking over to Jade and looking down at her.
Even after nearly dying, she’s beautiful, strong, amazing.
I’m not sure how she could ever think we would pity her.
She looks up at me with a smile on her lips, and it's more than I deserve. Everything she gives me is, but I won’t deny her happiness, and so long as I can be that for her, I’ll never stop trying to earn it.
“How about we go see Dom?” I ask her, holding my arms out in an offer to carry her. She deserves to understand the difference between caring for someone because you want to and because you have to.
Caring for Jade is an honor. She deserves the world after what life threw at her, and I know we can show her that.
Even if it takes the rest of our lives.
She looks at my outstretched arms in disgust, but I know it’s not me.
She just hates feeling weak. The need to see her brother must outweigh her annoyance with the situation, though, because after a moment's hesitation, she gives me a stiff nod, holding her arms out to me. I don’t waste a second scooping her up into my arms and tucking her in close before dropping a kiss on the top of her head.
I just let myself get attached to this crazy, beautiful woman, and I had no intention of letting her go now.