8
“We need help!” I shout as I burst through the doors of the hospital, Sierra’s body limp in my arms.
A nurse rushes over with a bed that I carefully lay her down on.
“What happened?” the nurse asks as she begins to wheel her down the corridor.
I manage to keep up with my long strides. “She’s been held captive, tortured and raped. She was thrown from a moving van earlier tonight. She’s losing a lot of blood, especially between her legs.”
“And her name?”
“Sierra Hudson. Please don’t let her die.” My voice cracks at the last part as unwanted tears sting the back of my eyes.
“We’ll do our best, Sir, but you have to let go of her now,” the nurse tells me and it’s only then that I’ve been holding Sierra’s hand the whole time.
Her hand slips from mine and dangles weakly off the end of the stretcher, the loss of her skin from mine instant.
I slow to a halt as they wheel her out of sight and I slump against the wall, my hands and clothes covered in her blood, and mine.
What the fuck did they do to her to make her bleed so fucking much?
Bleeding is never a good sign, but vaginal bleeding? That’s a whole different ballgame entirely. There are a multitude of reasons for that, none of those thoughts I want to entertain.
I reach behind my head and wince, pulling my hand away to see it coated in my blood.
“Sir, are you alright?” one of the nurses asks. “That looks like a nasty cut to your head. Let’s get you patched up, okay?”
With no sign of any major damage to my brain or my skull but a mild case of concussion, I’m stitched up in no time. And after refusing to be kept in overnight for observation, I head into the ER waiting room. I’ll be here all night regardless, because I’m never letting her out of my sight again.
Gage paces backs and forth, talking in hushed voices to Max. His head snaps up when he spots me.
“Alec!” Gage marches towards me. “I called Rafe. He, Reese and Della are on their way. Viola’s minding the children. I was at the club when Max called me, he filled me in.”
I shake my head slowly, blowing out a breath. “Fuck, Gage…”
He takes me by surprise when he pulls me in for a hug, clapping me on the back, holding onto me tightly. I’m so shocked it takes me a good few seconds to reciprocate.
He pulls back. “Is she okay?”
I sigh. “She’s not good, man. You should’ve seen her, I… I’ve never seen anyone so broken. She’s covered in cuts and bruises, old and new. She’s so thin it’s like they’ve barely fed her, and she’s bleeding vaginally, I don’t know why.”
The panicked expression on his face morphs into a mix of sadness and anger as he listens to every word.
I saw a lot of things during my time in the Marines, but nothing prepared me for what I witnessed today. I never anticipated how it would fuck me up to see the woman I love in that state.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
“I’ll be fine, I’m more worried about Sierra.”
“She’ll be alright, Al. She’s made it this far, she’s strong,” Max reassures.
“What about Austin?” Gage asks.
“He managed to slip away.”
He huffs out a frustrated sigh. “Fuck.”
“Ollie?” I ask Max. “Is he still alive?”
“He was shot and had a number of broken bones. My guys brought him in about ten minutes ago,” Max replies. “He’s lost a lot of blood, but from what I could tell, the bullet didn’t puncture anything major. Now, I’ve got to run. I’m posting a few of my guys to stand guard. You need anything, you ask them. And should the cops come knocking, tell them it’s a Federal investigation.”
I extend my hand to him. “Thank you again for your help.”
“No problem, man,” he says, shaking my hand before doing the same to Gage and then disappearing out the double doors.
Gage turns to me. “Tell me everything that happened.”
∞∞∞
The next three hours are excruciating as we await news on Sierra. Not long after Max left, Rafe and the women arrived and not one of us has spoken a single word since.
Della rests her head on Reese’s shoulder, her eyes as red and puffy as those of her friend’s.
Rafe sit across the waiting room staring at the floor while Gage wears a hole in the floor from his pacing.
My foot bounces restlessly on the floor, the image of her being dumped out of the van like she was nothing has my hands closing into fists. The image of her broken body is there every time I close my eyes.
“The Hudson family?” A middle-aged female doctor wearing a long white coat enters the waiting area, and all five of us rise to our feet, closing in on her. “Hello, my name is Doctor Fowler, I will be overseeing Miss Hudson’s care.”
“How is she?” Gage asks, his jaw flexing.
“I’m afraid Miss Hudson has sustained quite a substantial amount of injuries during her ordeal. She has various cuts and burns to both her body and face, all of which thankfully have healed with no sign of infection. Her X-ray shows four cracked ribs and a fracture to her left arm which will heal by themselves over time with plenty of rest,” Doctor Fowler begins. “She also shows signs of violent sexual assault both vaginal and anal which have caused some internal and external tears. We will be monitoring her closely for any signs of sexually transmitted diseases and will treat her accordingly should she test positive.”
“Jesus,” Rafe mutters somewhere behind me.
And just when I think that’s it, the hits keep on coming…
“Her most concerning injuries were to her liver and uterus. It appears she sustained hard and repeated blunt trauma to her abdomen which resulted in damage to her liver and caused her to have what we call a uterine rupture.”
“What’s that?” Della asks with a sniff.
“It’s when the uterine wall tears open. It can cause pain such as that of labour contractions, rapid heart rate and sometimes dizziness, all of which Miss Hudson seems to have sustained,” she replies.
“That’s what caused the blood loss?” I ask.
Doctor Fowler nods. “She was very lucky you found her when you did, any later and it could have been fatal. The damage to her liver caused her to suffer bleeding internally, but we have since been able to repair the damage. The uterus on the other hand was more complicated. You have to understand that uterine ruptures are rare in pregnant patients and even rarer in someone who’s not pregnant. It can happen as a result of previous problems or complications during labour, genetic disorders, trauma… In Miss Hudson’s case, it’s the latter. Her blood loss was extensive but we have managed to stop the bleeding. The damage to her uterus however, was substantial and we were unable to repair it without causing further blood loss or damage, and so we had no other choice but to perform a hysterectomy to save her life.”
Both Reese and Della release a sound that’s halfway between a gasp and a cry.
A hysterectomy…
“She’ll never be able to have children,” I mutter.
“We were only forced to remove the uterus and the cervix due to the amount of damage. We were able to leave the ovaries and Fallopian tubes intact. Should she wish to reproduce, her eggs can be harvested so she’ll be able to have a child biologically, but unfortunately as we had to remove the womb, she’ll be unable to carry the child herself,” Doctor Fowler says regretfully. “We’ll continue to monitor here over the next several days. She’s sleeping right now, but you’re more than welcome to sit with her, two at a time if that’s alright?”
Gage forces a smile. “Yes, of course. Thank you, Doctor.”
As the doctor turns to leave, Reese and Della embrace, both of them sobbing hysterically as Rafe, Gage and I remain in total silence, trying to process what we’ve just heard.
After everything she’s endured these past couple of weeks, I had thought that after we got her back, and once she’d recovered, she’d be able to put it all behind her and get on with her life. But she won’t. She might be able to come to terms with what happened to her, but it will undoubtedly change the course of her life and my heart breaks for her.
“She’s going to be devastated.” Rafe’s voice is hoarse. “She’s been adamant about wanting children her whole life…”
“She’s alive, that’s what matters right now,” Gage says. “I know it sounds harsh, but if it was the only way they could save her, I’m glad they made that choice.”
Over the next hour, we take turns going to visit her. Reese and Della head in first, followed by Rafe and Gage and then finally me.
The heart monitor beeps steady beside her while an IV line is fed into her arm, her left arm strapped in a cast. The bruise on her face has deepened, dark purples and blues staining her cheek, and the cuts to her lip are beginning to scab over. The scar that runs from her brow to her cheekbone is just a thin pink stripe down her face.
Even like this, she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever laid eyes on.
I take a seat in the chair beside her bed and reach out for her hand. I cover it with my own while an involuntary tear slides down my face.
She didn’t deserve this. She deserves the world and all the goodness and happiness from life.
I should’ve stopped this from happening. I vowed to protect her and I couldn’t even do that.
This is all my fault, and I hate myself for it.