Chapter Thirty-Two
KNOX
I’VE HAD my fair share of rude awakenings throughout my lifetime, but nothing like this. I pace back and forth in the small hospital waiting room, the soles of my shoes so thin I can feel the coolness of the tile floor beneath me.
“Buddy, she’s going to be okay,” Zeke says.
“You don’t fucking know that,” I spit back, looking down at my clothes.
Everything I’m wearing is at least ten years old and covered in blood.
Ven’s blood mostly. I continue to pace for another ten minutes.
Zeke and Cash are sitting down in the chairs by the window.
The television screen is on but turned low.
We all look towards the door as it swings open, Via stepping in. I don’t hide my disappointment well.
“I brought everyone a change of clothes,” she says, holding up two bags.
Zeke and Cash move towards her quickly, thanking her. Zeke leaves first, but Cash hangs back, whispering something to Via I don’t catch. In response, she smiles, a sad smile, and kisses him softly. He nods once before leaving. I stay rooted to my spot, unable to decide.
“Knox, do you want to change?” Via asks, holding up the bag.
“Yeah,” I say, although I still haven’t moved.
She takes a step towards me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I repeat, looking down at my bandaged hand. The slash across my palm is deep, but it didn’t hit any bones or tendons. I’ve needed more stitches from playing peewee football.
“She’s going to be okay.”
“You don’t know that,” I repeat, a little calmer than when Zeke said it.
Via sighs. “You’re right, I don’t know that. But Raven is a fighter.”
My laugh comes out choked. “Don’t I know it.”
At last, I stop pacing, nearly collapsing into one of the hard plastic chairs, literally the most uncomfortable option in here. But I need that right now, need the discomfort to stay somewhat present.
When I woke to Ven’s screaming, I thought it was some violent hallucination within a dream at first. It was still too dark to fully make out what was going on, but my body reacted before my brain had a chance to make sense of what I was seeing.
I lurched up and over Raven’s body towards the human shape, the serrated blade cutting a jagged line across my palm.
The pain was intense, but I kept moving forward, tackling the figure to the ground.
We grappled right there in the dark, the intruder and I switching positions more than once.
I got the knife at last and slashed back at him, but he was quicker than I expected.
Shouts and screams started coming from down the hallway, and the stand-off broke.
The intruder turned from me and went for the window, throwing himself out of my range and back out into the night.
The light flipped on, and the first thing that registered was the blood over everything, over my chest and hands. On the floor.
“The fuck!” Zeke’s voice reached me first.
“Oh my god! Call 911!” Via screamed.
“Octavia? What…” Raven’s broken voice reached me.
“Stay still, Ray,” Via said. “Help is coming.”
“I…I can’t feel my arm,” Venny said.
She said something else, but I couldn’t hear her words with Cash’s voice coming from down the hallway and the blood rushing to my head momentarily.
Fully awake yet still feeling dazed, I still stood by the now wide-open window, searching the dark streets for any clues to which direction our attacker went.
A cold breeze hit my skin as I stared out of the window, but I hardly felt any discomfort.
“Knox?” Raven cried.
The frantic sound startled me enough to drop the knife, pulling me from the window and back towards her.
“I’m here, honey,” I assured her.
The soft gray bed fabric was drenched in crimson, the red pool spreading out under Venny. Her naked body was covered in sweat and blood, and the wounds to her shoulder and forearms were deep. The cut across her collarbone seemed to bleed like a curtain, covering her chest in the gruesome color.
I pressed my sliced palm across the hole in her shoulder, my hiss of pain covered by her wail.
“A tie,” I said, turning to Octavia. “Get a tie or a belt or something to stop the bleeding.”
Octavia left my line of sight as she rushed towards the tall dresser. She brought back a pair of long white tube socks. Working quickly, we tied the fabric across Raven’s shoulder and right wrist. They both slowed, but the shoulder sock was completely red by the time the EMTs arrived.
As they got Venny on a gurney and left the room, I tried to follow, but Cash stopped me.
“Whoa, man, wait.”
“Get the fuck out of my way, Cash,” I warned, ready to fight him. Ready to fight anybody.
“I’m not trying to stop you, but put some fucking pants on before you jump in the ambulance.”
I deflated, looking down at my naked body, which was covered in its own layer of blood and sweat.
“Sir, did you sustain any injuries?” the EMT asked.
To her credit, she kept her eyes completely locked on my face even with my dick swinging out.
“Yeah,” I admitted, turning quickly back to the room to grab the clothes I had been wearing earlier.
I only agreed to show her my hand once we were standing outside the ambulance and I could look in on Raven. They had clearly already administered something for her pain, her brow sweaty but softer than before.
“Knox?” she asked again.
“I’m right here, Venny. I’m not going anywhere.”
I look up once more to the sound of the door opening.
Both Zeke and Cash have changed and washed their faces and hands.
Octavia, too, seems to have taken the chance to change and wash up from the last hours.
I take the offered items and head to a more private area to change.
Via thought to grab my and Raven’s phones, but I leave them in the bag.
When I arrive back, a doctor in scrubs stands with my bandmates. My heart rate spikes as he turns towards me. I’m unable to read his expression or if his news is good or bad.
“Are you the boyfriend?” he asks as I approach.
“Yes. How is she?”
“Raven is out of the woods. She lost a lot of blood, and there was damage to the veins and arteries in her right wrist, but the cardiovascular surgeon was able to repair it. The muscles and tendons in Raven’s shoulder were also damaged.
Luckily, the knife missed the major vessels in her shoulder.
My team is closing up her wounds as we speak, and she should be in recovery within the next hour. ”
“She said she couldn’t move her arm when we were still back at the house,” I tell him.
“We’ll know more when she wakes, but with the way the muscles were severed, it would lead to weakness on that side. Full limb paralysis is possible but unlikely given where the knife entered. ”
I reach out to shake his hand instinctively, but pain shoots through my whole right arm when our grasps meet.
“Shit!” I hold up my other hand as he starts apologizing. “My fault, I forgot. Thanks, Doc. When can I see her?”
“Once she’s settled in her room, I’ll have one of my PAs come find you. She’ll still be heavily sedated, but you will be able to stay with her.”
I nod, breathing a little deeper with each second.
“Does Raven have any other family in town you might want to reach?” he asks.
Fuck.
It totally slipped my mind to call her sister and parents. Zeke must read my expression because he reaches out and pats me on the back.
“It’s all right, Knox. A lot has been going on. How about you take a walk around the building and get some fresh air while you call?”
I nod, taking my leave to step outside into the cold air. I pull out Raven’s phone, ready to call her sister, when I realize I don’t know her passcode. I try to guess a few times before stopping.
Wait, you have the brother-in-law’s number.
I pull out my phone, but finding his number isn’t a quick task.
I have to remind myself of the date, scrolling back several months to find the unfamiliar yet familiar digits.
It rings long enough to go to voicemail.
I hang up and dial again. Voicemail again.
By the third try, I’m beginning to fear that his phone is on silent, but with no other real choice, I redial his number. It’s on the fifth ring he answers.
“Hello?” his voice sounds rough.
Given the time, I know I’ve woken him, but I can’t worry about that now.
“Hey, yeah.” Too tired and emotionally rung out in the moment, I dispense with pleasantries. “Can I talk to Dove?”
There is an extended pause on his end.
“Who is this?” His voice cuts back in, annoyance apparent.
“Knox,” I answer, like it’s obvious. “Sorry to wake you, man. But I need to talk to Dove.”
“Knox?” he repeats, incredulous. “Knox Knight?”
“Yeah.”
“Knox Knight the singer?”
“Yes.”
I’m already getting annoyed by this conversation. Is he being dense on purpose?
“Why are you calling my phone at three am to talk to my wife?”
I hear a woman’s voice in the background but can’t make out her words.
“I don’t have her number,” I say like it’s obvious. Because it is.
“I can’t for the life of me imagine why you’d need her number at three in the morning.”
I’m really starting to dislike this guy.
“Knox Knight,” RJ responds to a question I don’t hear. A moment later, a woman cuts in.
“Hello, this is Dove.”
“Hey, Dove, this is Knox Knight.”
“I gathered. Is something going on? Is Raven okay?”
Clearly she’s the brains in this couple. It didn’t take her long at all to figure out why I’m calling them at this ungodly hour.
“She’s okay, now. She’s still in surgery, but the doctor said that she’s past the worst of it.”
“Surgery?” Any tiredness that had been in her voice disappears. “Why is she in surgery? What happened? Where are you?”
“We’re at Saint Bernadette’s. We were attacked in our bedroom. She was…Venny was…” I freeze as the reality of what happened hits me in a new way. “Someone stabbed her. He tried to kill her.”
“Oh, my God.” Dove sounds stunned. “Okay, umm…RJ…okay, thank you.” She doesn’t speak for a solid minute, but I nevertheless sense her fear and panic through the phone and the miles between us.
She must be holding back tears because she sniffs several times.
Or maybe they are flowing freely, and I just can’t see them.
“Knox, are you still there?” Dove asks after a long time.
“Yes.”
“We’re on our way now. Have you called our parents?”
“No, not yet. I called you first since I knew you were nearby.”
“I’ll call them as soon as we get off the phone.”
“Thank you.”
I don’t even know how I would begin that conversation.
Hey, I know you’ve never heard of me before, but I’m currently in the emergency room with your daughter after she got stabbed multiple times while I slept peacefully in the same bed.
No, thank you.
“Are you okay?” Dove asks me, her voice shifting like she is moving from one room to another.
Looking down at my bandaged hand, I think on that. I’m still trying to wrap my head around everything that’s happened.
“I’m fine. Just worried about her.”
“What room is she in?”
I look over to the hospital entrance, where I see Cash waving to me. Behind him, I see two police officers.
“They haven’t told me yet, but we’re all in the waiting room on the third floor. Dove, I’m sorry I have to go. The police are here, and they want to speak with me.”
“We’ll be there in twenty minutes.”