12. MASON
MASON
AsI makemy way along the hallway to get out of the house with Winter firmly clutched in my arms, I can’t help but notice the number of dead bodies that litter the place. ThoughI’m not sorry for any of them. They got what they fucking deserved and I hope they all burn in hell.
She’sstill passed out cold and I’m kind of glad for that. I don’t really want her to witness any of the carnage that is happening right now. Hell, I don’t even want her to see the one that happened earlier, what with all the dead bodies I’m sure are still lying around outside. I think she’s seen enough shit already.
Justas I make it out the door, I see one of the guys driving up toward the house in one of the SUVs. He stops a few feet away from me and gets out, opening the back door before motioning me over. I make my way to him and get into the back, being careful with Winter, trying my best not to jostle her too much since I don’t know the extent of her injuries yet.
Hecloses the door behind me and then gets in the driver’s seat once again, as I sit back and make sure she’s set properly in my lap. I curl my arm around her protectively and hold her to my chest. Just having her in my arms feels so good like my soul is intact once again, though I’m not stupid enough to not know that there’s going to be a long road ahead of us. I just need to see what her mental state is like when she wakes up.
Ilet out a sigh as the guy reverses the SUV, and then comes to a stop when we’re halfway toward the gate before putting it in park.
“I’ll be back soon, sir. I have to help the rest of the guys with clean up,” he tells me and I just nod my head at him. A moment later he steps out of the vehicle and jogs back toward the house.
Imake myself comfortable as I sit and wait for the guys to be done. I look down at her beautiful face and she looks so peaceful right now, but I know once she wakes up things will be different. I’m just not sure how she’s going to react.
Itake my phone out of my pocket and send a quick text to the doctor I have on standby, to be ready at the plane when we get there which shouldn’t be too long, hopefully.
Wewere supposed to go back to Cole’s mansion here but I think I’d rather leave as soon as the guys come back out. No use in staying here longer than necessary just in case there’s any blowback. I’m sure with a place like this, there’s bound to be some angry people who will be pissed that we fucked up their operation and I don’t want to be here with her if anyone comes after us. Though if they did, it’s a good thing we have a small army here. ButI’d rather avoid another showdown for now, one has been enough for today.
Ilook up from looking down at her when I hear the sound of vehicles. The guys brought all the vehicles inside the property and they’re all parked in a line next to mine on both sides.
WhenI look back to the front through the windshield, the other guys are grabbing the bodies that are lying around the grounds and taking them inside the mansion. I wonder what the hell they’re going to do with them.
Idon’t have to wonder long because some of the guys that were by the vehicles here, start taking out gas cans from the backs of all the SUVs before making their way back toward the house. Some of them go inside while the others start going around the house pouring the gasoline out as they go.
Aboutten minutes later the guys all come out of the mansion one by one, making their way toward the vehicles. Cole and Hunter are dragging a tied up and gagged Antonio behind them.I can’t fucking wait to get my hands on him I think as I watch him literally being dragged.
Amoment later there’s an explosion coming from the upper floor of the mansion and I watch as the glass shatters, exploding outward and raining down on the ground outside. Even from here in the SUV, I can see the flames of the fire blazing away up there.
Oneof the guys light the trail they made with the gasoline and it instantly begins to run around the house as fire engulfs the place from the inside and outside. The guys all walk toward my vehicle while their men get into the other SUVs.
“What are you doing now?” Cole asks as he opens the back door and stands there watching me.
“We’re going straight to the airport. I don’t want to be here with her in case there’s any sort of blowback,” I tell him and he nods his head.
“I’ll see you then. Hopefully, next time will be under different circumstances so stay out of trouble. My guys will escort you to the airport to make sure you get there without any issues,” he says and I nod my head.
“See you man, and thanks for all your help. I appreciate it.”
“Are you guys staying with Cole?” Hunter asks Carter.
“Yeah. We’ll leave in the morning. Go get our sister to safety and make sure this knucklehead doesn’t fuck up again,” Carter says, looking at me and I roll my eyes at him.
Afterthat everyone gets into their vehicles and we’re off. I’m starting to get a little worried about Winter since she still hasn’t made a peep since she passed out inside the mansion.
Theride to the airport is uneventful, thankfully. Once we pull up to the plane, I get out of the vehicle with her still in my arms.
“Will you guys stay out here for a few minutes to keep watch until the doctor looks her over?” I ask the men.
“Yes, sir,” one of them says.
Justthen I see the doctor step out of his car and start to make his way over to us. I make my way up the stairs of the plane and head all the way to the back where the room is, gently laying her down onto the bed. I grab the sheet and pull it over her, covering her body from the waist down before walking back to the door and opening it to let the doctor in.
“Hello doctor, I appreciate you coming,” I tell him.
“No problem. What can I do for you?” he questions.
“I just need you to look her over and make sure she’s fine. She’s been passed out for a while,” I tell him.
“Let me get right to it then,” he says as he puts his medical bag on the bed before opening it to get a stethoscope and one of those little flashlight things. He then moves over to the side of the bed where she is and he presses the stethoscope to her chest to listen to her heartbeat. “What happened to her?”
“She was abducted and we just got her back,” I tell him. This is one of Hunter’s vetted doctors so I’m not worried about him saying shit to anyone else. He gets to work by checking her blood pressure, temperature, pulse, and respiration before shining a light in her eyes for a second. The next thing he does is give her body a once over to make sure there are no extensive injuries.
Herleg is bleeding from the gunshot wound there. He examines it and then cleans it up before taking out some sutures from his bag to stitch up the little hole in her leg.
“I’m stitching this up because the bullet is not in there so it’s clean,” he tells me.
“That’s good news.” I tell him. He continues doing what he’s doing and a few minutes later he’s done.
“I know you want to get out of here soon so I’ve done all that I can with the limited materials I had. She’s stable for now but I’d get an entire medical done as soon as possible to check for other injuries. I’ll start a saline drip for her, that’ll help until you get to where you’re going.”
“Don’t worry doc, I already have one on standby as soon as we land.”
“Good. Well, I’ll be going now. There isn’t anything more I can do until she’s seen at an actual facility with proper medical equipment,” he tells me.
“Thank you for coming doc,” I tell him, before he takes his leave.
“No problem.”
Oncehe’s out of the room Hunter walks in.
“How is she?” he asks quietly. This is the first time I’ve ever heard him sound this soft. He’s definitely as worried about her as I am.
“According to the doc, stable for now but she needs a full examination since he was pretty limited here. Don’t worry though I have that lined up already. Physically her wounds will heal after some time but well, when she wakes up, who the hell knows? Everything she went through will most likely take a toll on her mentally.”
“She’s strong as fuck. We’ll help her get through this.” he tells me.
“I hope you’re right.”
Justthen the pilot’s voice comes over the speaker telling us that we’re about to take off.
“I’ll see you in a bit,” he tells me before walking out the door and closing it behind him.
Iget in the bed with her and pull her into my arms to keep her from falling off, as I feel the plane begin to move. When we’ve made it to cruising altitude, I lay her back down on the bed and head into the bathroom.
Igrab one of the little bowls and fill it with water and grab a towel before heading back into the room to clean her up a bit. I’ll have to just do something quick for now and once we get to the cabin, then I’ll be able to wash her better.
Itake my time cleaning her up, gently wiping her skin. I catalog all of her obvious injuries. The cuts and black and blue bruises and I have to choke back the sob that threatens to consume me and I take in everything that piece of shit did to my baby.
Ihave to really hold it on when I get between her legs and see the dried-up sperm there. I know for a fact that the asshole raped her and for that I’m going to fucking kill his ass! Not only because he touched what’s mine but because I can’t imagine the pain and suffering, she went through while he was violating her.
Fuck!
Thismeans we’ll definitely have more to deal with than just her physical scars. I just hope that we can help her pull through anything that this experience has done to her psychologically, because I can’t lose her again.
Onceshe’s as clean as she can be I get a dress from the closet and quickly dress her again. I put her in the center of the bed and cover her body once more before stepping out of the room.
“How is she?” Hunter is the first one to ask, as I make my way over to where he’s sitting.
“She still hasn’t woken up yet. That fucking asshole raped her!” I grit through clenched teeth. With the rage coursing through me I’d fucking kill him right now if he wasn’t in a cage in the cargo area underneath the plane.
“Don’t worry bro, we’re going to fuck his shit up soon enough,” Hunter tells me with a gleam in his eye.
“You can do whatever the fuck you want to him but make sure you don’t kill him. The killing blow is mine,” I tell him in all seriousness.
“You got it man.”
“I need you guys to go back home and keep an eye on my father and Emilia,” I tell the guys. “I don’t want them to know that we found her.”
“I’m staying with you and Winter,” Grayson says. I look at him and see the determined expression on his face and don’t even bother arguing with him. I just nod to let him know it’s fine. I know him and Winter were close before all this other shit happened and maybe him being there for her might help. Who knows?
“What do you want us to look for?” Royce asks.
“Any and everything he does. Who he meets with? See if you guys can get someone to dig up shit on him. I have to take care of her first but I’m going to fucking bury his ass when I get back home,” I mutter.
“You got it bro,” Beck says.
Whenwe finally land in Oregon, we deplane and head to another SUV. It’s just Hunter, Grayson, and I, along with Winter, heading to the cabin along with some of Hunter’s men for security purposes.
Hunteris pretty sure that no one knows about this place but you can never be too careful. Plus, the room full of weapons that he owns doesn’t hurt either. We’ll be able to defend ourselves if need be.
Ittakes an hour to drive to the cabin since it’s literally in the middle of the woods. The men get out to check the surrounding area and inside all the cabins. Once they say it’s clear I get out of the car and walk toward the cabin with her and head straight for the master bedroom.
Igently lay her down on the bed and then step out of the room, making my way to the living room. Hunter and my brother are sitting on the couch with a drink in their hands, not doing or saying anything.
“Are you two, okay?” I ask into the silent room.
“Yeah,” Hunt sighs.
“You think she’s going to be, okay?” Gray asks.
“I don’t know but I’ll make sure that she is,” I tell him honestly.
“The doctor will be here in ten minutes or so,” Hunt says a moment later. I nod my head and take a seat on the chair next to Gray as we all fall into another round of silence. I guess we all have shit on our minds.
Afew minutes later there’s a knock on the cabin door and Hunter draws his gun out before making his way to the front of the cabin. He peeks outside and then puts his gun away in his holster before opening the door.
“Good evening, sir,” the doctor says as he steps inside the cabin.
“Hello doc. Glad you could make it. If you’ll follow me,” Hunt says as he walks back to the living room. He makes the introductions and then leaves the man with me since I won’t be leaving her side and he knows that. “I’ll leave you and the doc to it since I don’t want to see my sister in any state of undress.”
Inod my head, knowing what he means. IfI had a sister, I definitely wouldn’t want to be in the room while she was being checked out by a doctor either.
Iwalk back toward the bedroom with the doc following behind me. As we enter, I turn the lights on to a soft glow, since it’s still dark. It’s early morning now and the sun will be up in about two hours or so. My girl doesn’t even stir from the light now filtering into the room.
“There are some lacerations on her back and body. Can you check those? And she was also um… she was raped as well. Can you check to make sure that there isn’t any sort of damage to her,” I manage to choke out.
“Sure. I’m going to give her a full assessment. Actually, would you mind taking her to the medical room? I’ll be able to assess her better there,”
“Sure thing, Doc,” I say as I pick her up. I walk out of the room and down the hall to Hunter’s state-of-the-art medical room. There are all sorts of different equipment in here. As soon as I lay her on the table the doctor quickly gets to work hooking her up to the heart monitor, the one for her pressure and whatever the hell else Hunter has in here.
It’slike a damn hospital room in here with everything inside. No need to ask him why he needs all this. I guess when you’re always doing dangerous shit, you’d need one of those. ThoughI’m glad he has them because they definitely came in handy since I didn’t want to take her to an actual hospital.
Hechecks everything and then I have to help him get her clothes off. He takes a look at all of her injuries and dresses them, before bandaging the more severe ones. I also make him check back the bullet wound on her leg just to be sure because I don’t want her to catch any kind of infection. He informs me that it looks good and the suture was done perfectly.
I’mgoing to count every cut and bruise, to make sure I inflict every single one of them on that asshole. By the time I’m done with him, he’ll wish he never took her. Matter of fact he’ll wish he never existed. Once the doc is done with that, he checks her private area.
“Yes. She was raped but it doesn’t look like there’s any significant damage, just some bruising and slight tearing. She’ll still be a little sore when she wakes up. She’ll be fine in no time though if she takes it easy and lets herself heal,” the doc says.
Idoubt that since the psychological effect is a different story. Once he’s done with everything, I dress her in one of her sleep dresses again before taking her back to the room. The doc follows me and when I place her on the bed again, he sets up another IV bag for her.
“This will help with the dehydration. From what I can tell there are no internal injuries but we don’t know what her psychological profile will be like once she wakes up. Everyone reacts and deals with heavy trauma differently so, I’d get a therapist for her as soon as possible, just so she can navigate through everything that happened to her better,” he tells me.
“Thanks, Doc. I’ll see you when she wakes up so you can check on her again.”
Henods his head before walking out the door and closing it behind him. I take a quick shower and once I’m done, I walk back out to the living room to see Hunt and Gray before going to bed.
“How is she?” they both ask at the same time.
“There were a lot of cuts and bruises around her body and the doctor cleaned and bandaged them up. She’s black and blue on some parts of her body. We won’t know much more until she wakes up to see how she reacts. The doc did suggest a therapist as soon as possible though.”
“Don’t worry we’ll make sure she gets all the care that she needs,” Hunter tells me with conviction in his voice.
“I’m with you on that. I’m going to go in and stay with her,” I tell them as I walk back into the room and turn the lights off before getting in the bed with her. I gently pull her into my arms, wrapping one around her waist while being careful with the IV in her arm and snuggle against her as I listen to her breathing.
Ishut my eyes, finally feeling the peace I was missing since she was gone. Now that she’s back where she belongs, I can finally relax a bit and not be so stressed all the time. Even though I know we still have to deal with Emilia and my dad, I’m leaving all that shit for now.
I’lldeal with it after I’ve caught up on some rest, because right now the exhaustion is weighing me down. Their time will come eventually. It doesn’t take long after that for me to fall into a deep sleep with her safely wrapped up in my arms.