Chapter 7 Kira
KIRA
Ilisten to the commotion on the other end of the line, and one thing stands out above the rest. Ari’s not moving.
I jump to my feet, and a hand lands on my shoulder. I spin around, and Elijah pulls me into his arms. “Shhhh. They got them out, and they’ll be getting help soon.”
“You heard them!” I cry. “Ari isn’t moving. I can’t just sit here anymore.”
Jaxon steps up with a nod. “Tell us where to take you.”
Chelsea gets up from her spot beside Nolan and squeezes my hand as she walks by.
She’s back minutes later with a set of keys in her hand.
She hands them to Jaxon with a small smile.
“They’ll take them to Forest Grove Community Hospital.
Just put it into the GPS, and it will take you straight to them.
It’s the only place that doesn’t usually ask too many questions. It’s where Keon is also.”
I launch myself into Chelsea’s arms before I realize what I’m doing, but she hugs me back just as hard. “Thank you.”
“Just be careful. We don’t have all the details yet, so make sure you’re looking over your shoulder.”
“Thank you,” I say again. I pull back, grab Jaxon’s hand, and practically drag him through the house.
I open the garage door as he hits a button on the key fob.
A black SUV's lights flash and he leads me over, opening the door for me. Once I’m in and Eli climbs into the back, Jaxon jogs to the other side, fires the car up, and backs smoothly from the garage as I type the hospital into the GPS.
Once that’s done, I sit back in the seat, but I’m a bundle of nerves already.
My leg keeps bouncing, and I’m covered in sweat.
I heard Gavin talking to Jason about his heart rate right before they said Ari wasn’t moving.
Someone must have killed comms after that, because it’s been entirely silent.
I pull my phone out and dial Kane, but it goes straight to voicemail.
I hang up, dial Blaze, and get the same damn thing.
“Breathe, Kira,” Eli says softly, massaging my shoulders. “They probably can’t answer yet. They were staying back to search, remember?”
“I can’t do this,” I say, doing everything I can not to start crying again.
“I finally get news that Keon is okay, just to turn around and hear that Ari might be dying, and Jason isn’t doing good.
” I want to call Tyler or Gavin, but I don’t want to distract them from trying to get Ari and Jason help.
“They’ll never survive if something happens to either one of them. ”
“You have to think positive, K,” Jaxon replies. “I know it’s hard, but they’re going to need you.”
We drive the rest of the way to the hospital in silence.
I don’t even know what to say anyway, except Jaxon is right.
We have three guys down, and I’m not leaving Tyler and Gavin to pick up the pieces on their own.
Jaxon parks, and I’m out of the car before he even turns it off.
I run into the emergency room, and pull up short when I see Tivon standing there.
“Where are they?” I demand.
To his credit, he doesn’t react to my harsh tone. “They already took Ari into surgery, and Jason is getting tests done.”
“Kira?” I whirl around at Gavin’s voice, and I’m in his arms before I can blink. “What are you doing here?”
“I couldn’t just wait at Chelsea’s. Tell me what you need.”
Gavin squeezes me tighter. “This is a good start.”
“I need answers, Gavin,” I say softly.
Gavin leads me to the waiting room and pulls me to sit beside him.
He wraps his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his side.
“Jason’s heart rate was almost non-existent when we got here, but they gave him an IV, fluids, and some meds to bring it back up.
Now, they’re doing tests to see if it caused any damage. ”
“Ari?”
Gavin’s arm tightens around me and he sighs. “We don’t know. He passed out on the drive here, and we couldn’t wake him up. They rushed him to surgery for the bullet wound, and all we can do now is wait.” Gavin lays his chin on top of my head, and I feel him swallow. “It was bad, Baby girl.”
“He’ll pull through,” I say with more conviction than I feel, especially given my mini freak out on the way here. “Where’s Tyler?”
“He went to see Keon.”
“Take me to him?”
“Of course.”
Gavin stands and helps me to my feet. Jaxon nods, letting me know he’s aware of where I’m going, and Gavin leads me to the elevators.
He grabs my hand once we step inside and doesn’t let go even when the doors slide open on the third floor.
Tyler’s stepping out of the room when we get there, and he pulls me into a hug.
“He’s ready to see you,” he says. “We’ll be right here.”
“Okay.”
The room is dark when I push the door open, and I wince knowing he’s probably asleep.
“Hey, Mama.” I never thought I’d hear that voice again.
I rush to his bed, sitting gently on the side, and grab his hand.
Tears are pouring down my cheeks, and Keon brushes them away with his thumb.
“I’m so happy to see your gorgeous face. ”
That makes the tears fall harder, and he helps me lay down beside him with my head propped on his arm. I lay my hand on his chest, careful to avoid his stomach. “How are you feeling?”
“I feel like I could take on the world now that you’re here, Mama. But I’m fine, just sore. How are you?”
“I don’t know,” I whisper. “There’s so much that we don’t have the answers to.”
“We’ll get them. According to Tyler, Jason was awake and talking, so that's a good sign. And Ari is a tough son of a bitch. There’s no way he’s going to let his family win.”
“The rest of the team is looking for his uncle right now.”
“Hmm,” Keon hums. He reaches up, plucks the beanie off, and lays a kiss on top of my head.
I don’t even have that moment of panic when he does it, just a feeling of rightness.
“From what I know, he probably ran when he heard the first gunshot. But trust me, as soon as Ari can move, he’ll hunt him down. ”
I lean back so I can see his gorgeous face. “Did you hear about Professor North?”
“Tivon,” Keon corrects. “Yeah, Sean and Cole filled me in, and Tyler almost exploded with information when he got here.”
I laugh softly. “I can only imagine. What do you think it all means?”
Keon shrugs and winces slightly. “I’m not sure yet, but I think if he had bad intentions, that prison raid would have been a setup. I might have a million questions, but we won’t know anything until Ari wakes up and tells us the answers.”
“Why didn’t Ari remember him?”
“It was a long time ago, and Ari has done everything that he can to forget that time in his life.”
“He’s also changed a lot.” You can still see the slight resemblance in the picture, but the Tivon now is harder around the edges. “I guess I’m still trying to understand.”
“You can’t get all the answers in a day.”
I move over to lay my head on Keon’s chest, closing my eyes when I hear his heart beating strong in there.
He was almost taken from me, and I’m not going to take another day for granted.
“I was so scared when I thought I lost you. It was like a piece of me was taken when you went down those steps. I know this hasn’t been going on long… ”
When I trail off, Keon tips my chin up with his fingers. “I’m falling in love with you, Mama. I was gone the first time you kissed me. You were meant to be by our sides. You were meant to be one of us.”
I kiss him softly, thanking him for saying the words that I couldn’t. Not because I didn’t feel them, but because I wanted them to be perfect. I pull back and cuddle back onto his chest. “I’m falling for you, too.”
Keon holds me against his strong body, and within minutes, his breathing evens out, letting me know he fell asleep. I find myself drifting off listening to his soft breaths.
Now I just need to see Ari and Jason.
“Kira.” I swat away the whisper, and it just makes them chuckle. “Little warrior. Jason’s in a room.” I sit up, and Tyler holds a finger to his lips before pointing at Keon, who’s still passed out.
Sliding quietly from the bed, I grab Tyler’s outstretched hand and let him lead me from the room. “What about Ari?”
“We still haven’t heard anything.” I see the worry lining Tyler’s eyes, so I lean up on my tiptoes and kiss his cheek.
“How long was I asleep?”
“A couple hours. We didn’t want to wake you, but we figured you’d want to know Jason was in a room.”
“I want to see him.”
Tyler nods and kisses my knuckles. “I figured.”
Tyler leads me back to the elevator, taking us to the second floor.
When we walk into Jason’s room, the first thing I see is Gavin’s long body slumped in a chair in the corner, fast asleep.
Jason smiles when I walk in, and I climb into his bed, cuddling into his side.
He wraps both arms around me and kisses my head.
That’s when I realize that my beanie is still clutched in Keon’s hand, and I don’t care.
The only people who matter are these guys, and they don’t mind my bald head.
“How’s the ticker doing?” I ask, making Jason chuckle.
“It will be fine. It took them a little bit to get it back under control, but we’re getting there. It will be much better when we hear something about Ari.”
Tyler grimaces. “Yeah, Axel’s getting pissed that they won’t tell us anything.”
“Who’s his emergency contact in his files?” I ask.
“No one. Ari’s never been to the hospital, but Nolan is currently hacking into it to add someone so we can get updates.”
“Isn’t it dangerous to have him admitted under any of his names right now?” Jason asks.
“Yeah, so we fell back on an alias from his old Saviors days. Samuel Stratter.” Tyler’s phone pings with a message and Tyler smiles. “Damn, he’s good. He said someone should be in here in a minute for an update.”
Ten minutes later, a nurse walks in, looking around the room and then her eyes land on us. “Mr. Stratter?” It takes me a second to realize she’s calling Jason Mr. Stratter. No wonder she looked confused with me cuddled into his side. It takes Jason just as long, and I gently nudge him in the ribs.
“Oh, uh, I still go by Whitt,” Jason answers, and Tyler has to hide a laugh with a cough. He failed to mention that part of Nolan’s message. If his laugh is anything to go by, it was on purpose.
“Very well,” she says pleasantly. “I have some updates on Mr. Stratter.”
“You can talk freely in here,” Jason responds, his body rigid. I grab his hand in comfort, more than ready to hear what she has to say. I watch Tyler gently shake Gavin awake so he knows what’s going on.
“Okay. Well, he got through the surgery for the gunshot wound with minimal damage to the shoulder. He lost a great deal of blood, so he’ll have to get several transfusions, which we started during the surgery.
He had multiple broken ribs, a concussion, a broken nose, and more contusions than we could count.
One of his ribs punctured a lung, and we had to work to reinflate it, so he has a chest tube for now to keep it inflated while he heals.
” She lists it all off clinically, and I get sicker by the second.
My poor Ari. He must have gone through hell in there.
“Overall, he’s very lucky to still be alive. ”
“So, he’s going to be okay?” Jason asks, his voice small.
“That’s up to him now. We put him into a medically induced coma so his body can rest and heal. He is also still intubated. Within the next twenty-four hours, we’ll start to wean him off the medications, but if or when he wakes up, that’s up to him.”
“If?” Gavin demands. “What do you mean if?”
“His body went through a horrible trauma, and it can only handle so much.”
“When can we see him?” Jason asks.
“Soon. I’ll come get you when it’s time, but only one can go in at a time.”
“Thank you,” I respond. She nods and exits the room.
Although we finally know he’s out of surgery, we still don’t have all the answers. The way she talked, there’s a good chance that he won’t wake up from the coma.
And that’s not something that we can handle.