Chapter 46
After we walked away from the burning house, we drove to the hospital. The nurse looked ready to call security; a barefoot woman covered in blood showing up with bikers inspired a lot of questions. Savage pulled her aside and said something intense, because she immediately backed off and showed us to a room.
The nurse gave me a pair of clean scrubs and removed the shards of glass from my foot. They hooked me up to a fetal monitor and Savage cleaned the blood from my face while she took my blood pressure. The last measure had been a sonogram.
Everything had looked good; the babies were safe, and their heart rates were normal. The doctor told me to see my OBGYN just to ensure there were no potential issues.
“The ER’s been quiet tonight,” the doctor said. “No one saw you come in, but you guys need to leave. I’ll get a nurse to take you out the back.”
“Thanks, Doc.” Savage shook his hand.
Crow knocked on the door of the hospital room and came in to give me a pair of flip-flops.
We left the hospital. The scent of disinfectant lingered in my nose and my throat was sore from the Grand Matriarch’s fingers. Duke pulled the car into a parking lot of a highway motel on the other side of town.
“I’ll check us in and get the keys,” Duke said, cutting the engine.
“Thanks, brother,” Savage murmured.
“Sure thing.” Duke looked at me over his shoulder. “You hungry? Thirsty?”
I didn’t reply.
Duke looked to Savage for direction.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of her later.”
Duke nodded and then climbed out of the car. He shut the driver’s side door and then I watched him walk with Crow to the check-in building.
“Babe?” Savage reached into my lap and took my hand. “Jesus. You’re freezing. Why didn’t you say anything?”
I hadn’t spoken since we’d left the hospital.
Savage took both my hands in his and rubbed them between his own, not caring that mine were stained with blood.
“We’ll get you into a room, have a nice hot shower. I’ll wash your hair.” He stared at my fingers. “And your fingernails.”
When I still said nothing, he droned on. “You’re in shock. So I’m just gonna keep talking until you come back to me. But you take your time. And when you’re ready, you’ll tell me everything. Okay?”
I stared at him, wanting the words to come out of my mouth, but they remained steadfastly trapped.
“I woke up about thirty minutes after you were—you were taken. Hell of a headache, blurry vision. Thank Christ I was in a hospital parking lot, yeah?” He shook his head. “Doctors told me I needed a CAT scan while Prez and the others formulated a plan. We knew it was your . . . family that took you.”
He kept talking, but his words had no meaning. I was trapped in my body, in the horror of what I’d done.
“Willa had a healthy baby girl. And she told Duke to go with me.”
That seemed to shake me out of my stupor.
“Why?” I croaked. “Why did she let him go when she just had a baby?”
“I took a bullet for Duke once,” was all he said in explanation. “I’m not cleared to drive for a few days. He offered.”
“Acid?”
“Out of surgery. But his brain is badly swollen. So, we don’t know if . . .”
I looked at my hands that were held between his palms and tugged them free. I glanced at my fingertips. My nails were stained with blood. I curled my hands into fists, so I didn’t have to see them.
Duke and Crow exited the check-in building and trekked back to the car. Savage climbed out and closed the door. He and Duke had a conversation and then Duke nodded before handing over a keycard to Savage.
Savage went around to the back of the car and pressed a button. The hatch released like a spaceship. “I had Crow buy you some clothes while you were in the hospital.”
He closed the hatch and then came around to my side of the car with the bag of clothes in hand. He opened the door. When I made no move to get out, he unbuckled the seat belt and then gently took my hand and helped me down.
I shivered in the cold night. The scrubs I’d gotten at the hospital were warmer than the muslin dress, but not by much.
“We’re this way,” he said, taking my hand again and leading me to a room. He slid the keycard into the slot. It clicked and then he pushed the door open.
It reminded me of the highway motel I’d stayed in when I first got to Waco.
The room was old and a little run down, but it was clean.
A sob escaped my throat.
Savage dropped the bag on the floor, closed the door, and immediately took me into his arms.
“Cry it out,” he urged.
I did just that. I sobbed, feeling the emotion come from the base of my spine. It spilled out of my eyes. I clung to him like a child needing protection.
“You didn’t doubt that I’d come for you, did you?” He stroked my back.
“I didn’t doubt that you would, but I—I thought you were dead!”
He hugged me even tighter. “I’m so sorry, babe. I’m so sorry you were taken. I’m so fucking sorry you ever doubted.”
“You came for me.” My throat was tight, strained with emotion.
“I always will.” He led me to the small bathroom. I stood by while he adjusted the temperature. “Tell me if it’s too hot.”
I stuck my hand under the water. “It’s fine.”
“It’s not hot enough, is it?”
“Is it going to be too hot for you?”
He looked at me. “You want me in the shower with you?”
I nodded.
“It’ll be fine.” He gently caressed my chin. “You get in first. I’ll get you some clean clothes.”
“Thank you,” I whispered.
His hand dropped from my face, and he left the room, closing the door behind him. I looked at my stained hands; the sight of them would be forever imprinted on my memory.
I glanced at my appearance in the mirror and noticed the redness on my neck and the deep blue underneath my skin as bruises were beginning to form.
Savage knocked on the door before coming in. “Evie?”
“I look like a heathen,” I remarked, turning my head to the side, as if I didn’t believe my own reflection. Even though Savage had cleaned my face, my hair was matted. “A savage and a heathen. We’re a perfect match.” I swallowed. “Who was he? The one who came with you? I don’t know him.”
“That’s Ghost,” he explained. “A friend of Slash’s. He has certain . . . clean up skills.”
“Oh.” I nibbled my lip. “Is he good at finding people?”
“What do you mean?”
“There was another person who . . .”
Savage waited for me to finish.
“Examined me?—”
“ Name ,” he gritted out.
“Dr. Winchester. I don’t know his first name.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“And what about Calvin, the Grand Patriarch’s second-in-command? He’s the one who kidnapped me.”
He clenched his jaw. “I’ll find him, too.”
“Savage? I’m worried. You took me to a hospital. What if—what if they report what happened to the police? There will be an investigation, and they’ll find out what I?—”
“Hey. Stop. There won’t be an investigation. Prez has already spoken to the police chief in town. We dealt with it, and you don’t have to worry about that place ever again. Okay?”
“Okay,” I whispered.
“Shower,” he said gently.
Nodding, I turned away from him.
He left me alone again. I stripped out of my clothes and stepped into the steam. It wasn’t hot enough, so I cranked the heat.
I watched the water turn pink as the stain on my fingers dissipated and swirled down the drain. I looked at my belly. “Babies,” I whispered, my hand covering my stomach.
I was suddenly lightheaded, and I pressed my palm to the wall to steady myself, but my vision winked in and out. I slid down into the tub, curled my legs up, and rested my head on my knees.
The bathroom door opened, and Savage called out, “Evie? Are you doing okay?”
“I’m fine,” I lied. I didn’t even attempt to stand.
His heavy leather boots hit the floor and then I heard the jangle of his belt buckle. Savage pulled back the shower curtain. “Fuck, Evie. What happened?”
He climbed into the tub, closed the shower curtain, and then sat down behind me. He folded his body around mine.
“Nothing,” I murmured. “I just kind of got lightheaded for a minute.”
He held me, not saying anything, not expecting me to speak.
But as the water rained down on us, the words poured from my lips. I recounted everything—from the moment I was kidnapped in the parking lot to the horror of waking up on The Farm.
“He was going to turn me into his broodmare,” I said softly. “I told his wife, and she tried to choke me to death. She thought she could keep her place by killing me. Killing my babies. I beat her with the sash weight from the window.”
I trembled.
“Fucking psychos.” His arms tightened around me. “They’re dead; you never have to worry about them again.”
“What happens now?”
“We’re going to find Dr. Winchester and Calvin, and then we end them for hurting you.”
His words were meager reassurance. Until they were found . . . they were out there still.
I brushed my wet hair away from my eyes.
“We’re going to stand up and I’m going to wash your body. And then I’m gonna wrap you in a towel and dry you off. Then you’re going to eat. Then I’m curling myself around you and we’re going to sleep.”
“What about all the other stuff?”
“What other stuff?”
“I killed her. I know it was self-defense, but God, it was so bloody and violent. I bashed in her skull. That image is branded in my mind, Savage. Every time I close my eyes, I’ll see her like that and I’ll never?—”
“Hey, I know. I know exactly what you’re going through.”
He scooted away from me and hoisted himself up and then he reached down to help me rise. He gently turned me to him. His gaze searched my face and then dropped to my belly.
“The three of you are safe. Nothing else matters. Nothing.”
I let Savage wash me—he seemed to need to touch me as much as I needed to be touched. He was gentle, and with each stroke of his hands against my skin, I came back into my body, little by little.
While I was dragging a comb through my wet hair, I heard a knock on the motel door.
“Probably Crow with your food.” Savage went to investigate. I didn’t shut the bathroom door all the way, so I heard a murmur of conversation but nothing definitive.
“Food’s here!” Savage called out.
I set the comb down, tightened the towel around my body, and went into the bedroom. Savage was already pulling to-go containers out of the bags, but I went to get my change of clothes.
“Oh,” I said with a soft smile, lifting a pair of fuzzy pajama bottoms.
“I told Crow to buy you something comfortable,” he said.
I quickly pulled on my clothes, including a pair of socks, and then I took a seat on the bed. We ate in silence, but every now and again I’d catch Savage watching me.
“I’m okay,” I said quietly. “You don’t have to look at me like I’m going to fall apart.”
“I cleaned the blood from your face. And you were sitting in the tub, letting the water beat down on you,” he replied.
“I feel so . . . heavy,” I said slowly. I closed the Styrofoam to-go container and placed it in the empty bag.
Savage cleared away the rest of the containers and I got up to brush my teeth. Then I slid beneath the covers of the full-sized bed and rolled onto my side. He hit the light and then crawled in behind me. He took me into his arms and rested his chin in the nook where my neck met my shoulder.
Savage pressed a kiss there as his hand went to my belly, resting protectively over it.
“I’m sorry, Evie.”
“For what?”
“For killing him so quickly. I should’ve made him suffer. I should’ve tortured him for the things he’s done to you.”
What did it say about me that I wished he’d suffered more too?
I took a deep breath. “It’s over now.”
I fell asleep, cradled in the safety of Savage’s embrace.