Chapter 22
It’s kind of rude how you have to work out to be in shape.
—Ellodie’s secret thoughts
ELLODIE
I woke up in a fog of confusion, my eyes so heavy they felt like they were sewn shut.
“Why’s she tied down?” someone asked.
“The crazy bitch…” I heard a man pause. “Sorry. The crazy girl keeps trying to get out of bed. Sleepwalking through sedation is a new thing for me.”
“She wasn’t sedated when she tried to sleepwalk,” I heard my favorite person in the world say. “She was on pain meds. She’s been off sedation for a week now.”
A week?
What?
“She must be doing better if she’s finally allowed visitors, though,” the same man who’d called me a crazy bitch said. “Right?”
“Tobin?” Quaid growled. “If you don’t fuck right off, I’ll literally castrate you, and save your wife the trouble of doing it for you in your divorce.”
What divorce?
Jesus, how much had I missed?
“Sorry, sorry,” Tobin murmured. “I’m just excited.”
I wondered why he was excited, but nobody asked him why.
The next question was from another familiar voice.
Garrett.
“What all happened again?” Garrett asked in horror. “She looks… bad. And for it being a week since this all went down… She looks so bad.”
Oh, boy.
“Broken face. Broken skull. Broken ulna,” I heard Quaid recite. “She has a fractured sternum. Multiple organ lacerations. Blood loss. High blood pressure. Possible right kidney failure.”
“From him kicking her?” someone asked. Auden maybe.
“From him kicking her,” Quaid confirmed.
“The wound she sustained to her stomach is bad. The knife wound ripped through all the muscles and things in her belly. There are fancy words for them, but for the life of me I can’t remember what they are.” He paused, sounding exhausted. “The baby is fine. But as of right now, they’re worried most about possible infection. Though she wasn’t disemboweled, she came really close. She was cut from hip to hip. Muscle, tendons, parts of her bowels, and her uterus were exposed to the environment for a solid ten minutes before we found her. Then there was me pressing my hand to them to keep them inside of her when I turned her onto her back.”
The pain that I’d sustained. Nothing compared to that one.
I got kicked in the face multiple times. I had my arm practically snapped in half when he stepped on it. He punched me for what felt like an hour.
Then, I’d done something so freakin’ stupid.
I’d said, “Don’t hurt the baby.”
And he’d gone… nuts.
If that was even possible seeing as he was pretty freakin’ crazy as it was.
But it was like some light switch had flipped in his brain at the mention of me being pregnant.
The last thing I saw before he threw a solid right hook at my face was him pulling out a knife.
I don’t remember much after that but pain. I couldn’t recall what happened beyond that. Didn’t remember seeing Quaid save me. Didn’t remember the hospital or the last week.
AllI could remember was Dr. Brewn pulling that knife out followed by searing pain.
“And the baby?” I heard Hollis ask.
“He’s healthy,” Quaid murmured. “A fuckin’ miracle seeing as the rest of her is so broken.”
“He?” I croaked.
There was silence in the room, and then I felt Quaid get closer, smelled the coffee on his breath as he leaned in to whisper in my ear. “Are you awake, baby?”
“He?” I repeated.
“He,” Quaid confirmed. “Are you with me?”
“I’m with you,” I said through dried, cracked lips. “Why can’t I open my eyes?”
Quaid made a sound in his throat that sounded an awful lot like he was about to cry, and that made my stomach drop.
I tried to lift my hand, but it didn’t move, either.
“Your eyes are taped shut,” he explained. “You kept opening them while you were asleep, and they were worried that you would damage them further. And you are strapped to the bed, too, because you kept trying to get up.”
I inwardly winced. “S-sorry.”
“Not your fault,” he promised. “I’ll take the tape off.”
I felt a light touch on my face, then the feeling of tape being pulled off my eyes.
When my eyelids were finally free, I blinked them open, and stared into eyes of my favorite color green.
“Hey,” I croaked.
“Hey.” He looked as tired as he sounded.
“A boy?” I whispered.
“A boy,” he repeated.
I smiled. Or tried to.
The left side of my face didn’t work quite right.
“No smiling,” he said as he touched the corner of my mouth with a light finger. “Your face is messed up.”
I sighed. “I’m so sorry, Quaid.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.” He moved my hair out of my face, voice intense. “You only did what you should’ve been able to do. You trusted a doctor, for Christ’s sake.”
“You want to tell us what happened?” Tobin called out.
Quaid whipped his head around, then narrowed his eyes. “Auden. Get him out of here.”
There was a struggle, and then Tobin was gone.
“Who all is in here with us?” I questioned.
“Everyone!” Ande chirped.
I tilted my head slightly so that Quaid wasn’t all I could see since he was so close, and sure enough, the entire room was filled.
The only one missing was now Auden.
“Mom?” I rasped.
My mom was in the corner, silently crying.
“She’s overwhelmed, because the last week you’ve done nothing but sleep, and she hasn’t been able to hear your voice,” Auden said as he came back into the room.
“Where’sDad?” I asked.
“Dad came. He was here for like two days, but Quaid told him to go home.” Mom sniffled as she came closer. “We’re right in the middle of the biggest harvest of the year, and we couldn’t find enough help. He left me, though. I don’t have to drive a grain truck this year, baby.”
I snorted, and immediately regretted it.
Movement at all on my belly was a no-go, duly noted.
Upon seeing my grimace, Quaid moved back into my line of sight and pulled my blanket down.
Then my restraints were gone, and the gown was lifted up, revealing my belly.
I turned my head to look and groaned at the scar. “Whoa.”
“Whoa is right,” he nodded. “Hip to hip.”
He pointed at the jagged line. It wasn’t straight. In fact, it was so sideways that there would be no hiding it underneath shorts or anything.
“I think he was trying to cut the baby out of me,” I said without thought.
The room around me froze.
“Dr. Brewn?” Mom asked, being the first to unfreeze.
“I mentioned not hurting my baby when he went to kick me one of the final times, and he went berserk,” I admitted. “I can’t remember anything beyond him pulling a knife out and then the pain.”
The silence was oppressive, so I filled it with more questions.
“What are you looking for?” I questioned Quaid.
“The nurses come in here once every couple of hours to monitor the sight for infection. I just thought I’d check myself.” He sounded odd.
Like he was distancing himself from whatever he was seeing.
“Auden, get Tobin back in here,” I urged as Quaid replaced the gown, then the blanket. “It’s time to tell him what I remember.”
Quaid cursed, but Auden did what I asked.
“You remember something?” Tobin asked almost the second he got back in.
“I do,” I confirmed. “So you know the part where I gave him a ride from the gas station, correct?”
“Yes,” Tobin said as Quaid took his seat back at my side.
I reached out my now unrestrained hand, which happened to be in a cast that looked a bit funky, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why.
He took my hand gently, then placed it between his.
“From there, I started toward the hospital. But then he asked me if I wanted to go on a hike, and I knew,” I shivered. “He pulled out a knife and placed it against my throat, then told me where to drive.”
“You parked at the LakeLavonne main hiking trail,” Tobin confirmed.
“Yes,” I answered. “He forced me to get out of the car, and then he hiked me about ten minutes down the trail.”
“And that’s where he physically assaulted you,” Tobin guessed.
“Yes,” I confirmed. “That’s when the beating started.”
I then went on to explain, in detail, everything that happened, ending with, “After the knife came out, I can’t remember anything after.”
The man at my side, who’d been silent throughout my retelling, dropped his head to rest on the bed beside my hand. I lifted the fingers of my broken hand and gently brushed my fingertips over his hair.
“And nobody else was there?” Tobin asked.
I shook my head, my head so full that it was hard to remember anything else that’d happened. Were there people there? I didn’t think there were but.... “I mean, not that I recall. Other than Dr. Brewn’s face, I can’t remember anything beyond that.”
“What about cars in the parking lot when you parked?” he asked. “Do you remember anything about that?”
“There was a maroon car. And a black truck,” I recounted. “But the parking lot was nearly deserted. I think it was because it was so slick because it’d just rained the day before.”
On and on the questions went.
I didn’t think half the things that he was asking me were relevant, but then a sinking thought started to leech through. “You think there’s more than one person who did this?”
Quaid gently lifted his head so he was staring into my eyes as he said, “We don’t think. We know. Brewn was picked up at a different location after escaping Boss at the lake. He was seen getting into a silver SUV all the way across the lake. We think that he was probably following you from the moment you left Garrett’s sight.”
“You don’t think Garrett didn’t see him following before that?” I turned slightly to find Garrett shaking his head. “No offense.”
He winked at me, “None taken.”
“Garrett would’ve spotted a tail if it was before the shooting,” he answered. “We also think that this gang shooting was a set up. What better way to get your bodyguards away from you than to take out a Carter? And to do that, there had to be a second person.”
I was already closing my eyes, trying to remember something that just wasn’t there.
“I can’t…” I shook my head, causing pain to flare across my face. “I can’t remember.”
“Don’t move too much,” Quaid ordered. “All right, I think it’s time for everyone to get out. She’s answered enough questions today.”
“But there are still serial killers out here waiting to be found, Quaid!” Tobin argued.
“Yeah, and I think that for now, it’s enough.” Quaid stood his ground. “Maybe we can bring Sage in?”
Atlas was snorting. “That would be a big, fat no. She’s decided that every Carter, and friend of Carter, is persona non grata.”
“Why?” I asked, worried now.
“BecauseAtlas tried to ship her off to a safe house out of state, and Sage decided that she’s not running scared anymore,” Auden chirped. “He got himself in the doghouse, and she won’t talk to any of us anymore.”
Atlas gritted his teeth, looking angry as hell.
“You should really trust our instincts,” I found myself saying. “I won’t hide, either.”
Quaid grumbled something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like ‘stubborn ass women.’
I smiled, and felt my eyes get heavy.
The pain was starting to make itself known, too.
“I hurt,” I found myself saying to no one in particular.
“The medication you’re on is safe for the baby, but it’s not the best stuff out there,” Quaid admitted as he smoothed my hair back from my face. “I’ll get the nurse.”
The next time I woke, I knew something was wrong based solely on the silence of the room.
There was whispering beyond the door, and I turned my face in that direction so I could see who was doing the whispering.
Turns out, Quaid and Tobin were having a very heavy whispered conversation about something, and it was looking quite intense.
“She’s running a fever,” Quaid disagreed.
I was?
“They said it wasn’t due to an infection, though. Listen, this is important. If we don’t find these men, it’s highly possible that we lose another woman. Do you want another woman to go through what Ellodie went through?” Tobin growled.
Quaid lifted his arms and sifted his fingers through his hair.
My father crossed his arms, blocking Tobin’s access to my room.
“Let him in,” I croaked.
They all turned around at once and noticed me awake.
Quaid came first, but my dad pretty much knocked him over in his haste to get to me.
I smiled as best as I could at my father, and leaned my face into his touch when he finally made it to me.
“Hey,” he said softly. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine,” I lied.
I felt like shit.
ButI agreed with Tobin.
This needed to be handled, and we couldn’t just hide our heads in the sand and expect it to handle itself.
“You sure scared the hell out of me, baby girl,” he grumbled as he looked at me.
“I scared myself,” I agreed. “What’s going on?”
“Another girl was taken.”
My heart sank.
“Dr. Brewn was spotted with another man, both in scrubs, as they took a girl from the same apartment complex that you used to live in,” he explained.
Nausea started to rise in my throat as I said, “Who was it?”
“Some girl visiting a family member,” Quaid answered, coming to my other side and leaning his hip against my bed.
“What’s the plan, then?” I asked. “What do you need?”
“I was hoping to jog your brain when it came to two men in scrubs…” Tobin left that statement hanging.
“Two guys in scr…” I paused. “Wait.”
Tobin’s eyes went electric.
“There,” I frowned hard, then turned to Quaid. “That guy. The one I went out on a date with, then changed his tire on the side of the road.”
“What about him?” he asked.
“He was there,” I expounded. “He was there. I remember seeing him, and also remember Dr. Brewn referring to him as Darron.”
Tobin left the room, excitement in his every step.
My dad and Quaid stayed exactly where they were.
“Where’sMom?” I asked.
“With the Carters, planning a wedding.”
I blinked. “What?”
Quaid chuckled. “Apparently, your mom is planning our wedding because ‘a child can’t be born out of wedlock’ and she expects us to get married in three months.”
I blinked. “I don’t mind getting married, but I have to be able to walk down the aisle, first.”
Quaid’s lips twisted up into a smirk as he said, “I haven’t asked you yet.”
I snorted. “You will.”