20. Chapter 19
Knuckles
Panic hits me as my girl drops to the floor with blood covering her, unconscious, and I scream, “Trick! Trick!” as I yank against the chain holding my left hand above my head.
My stomach hurts, I’m struggling to catch my breath, I can feel my heart pounding, I can feel my face clammy, but all I can focus on is my girl. My stupid, brave girl who just did everything to stop that fucker from shooting me again.
Her wrists are bleeding badly, she’s coughed up blood, indicating he probably cracked her rib that may have nicked her lung, and fuck, blood pours from between her legs that ratchets up my fear.
“Knuckles?!” I hear my dad shout as footsteps echo, and my brothers, including the non-officer brothers, all rush in but freeze at the scene before them.
I yank harder when I notice my girl's chest not moving, and I roar out in terror, causing the brothers to snap out of their shocked states.
Trick comes my way first, but I shake my head and snap, “Get to Kodi now!”
“You’ve been shot!” he unhelpfully reminds me, and I roar, “She’s not fucking breathing!” causing him to look her way sharply just as Marshalls and Benny run into the room, their eyes wide.
“Shit!” Trick curses and rushes to my girl before gently moving her onto her back.
My dad runs over to me while the brothers stare at Kodi with pure shock. Trick quickly starts CPR, just as my dad yanks on the chains hard, and my breathing quickens when my brother, my best friend, gives mouth-to-mouth to my girl.
No, no, no, no…
“Fuck, come on, Kodi, don’t you dare give up!” Trick chokes just as I hear Benny rasp, “We need an ambulance, Officer Kodi Marshalls down, I repeat, Officer Kodi Marshalls down!”
My dad gets me free, and despite the pain in my stomach, the blood, despite probably having a bullet still inside me, no fuck that, I know I have one inside me, I quickly crawl over to Kodi as Trick does compressions.
“Come on, don’t leave me,” I choke as I cup her pale, lifeless face, “Please, baby, you said you can’t live without me, but I can’t fucking live without…”
“Brother, mouth-to-mouth,” Trick breathes as he steps back a moment, and I tilt my girl's chin, pinch her nose, and do as he asked, and blow air into my girl, one, two, times before Trick continues his compressions, pressing down hard, counting, “One, two, three, four…”
“Please, Kodi, please,” I hear Marshalls sob, and my tears fall as Trick looks down her body, his face stoic.
“She’s taken a fucking beating,” he states, the obvious, “but brother, the blood between her legs, did he?”
I shake my head as Cage presses something against my stomach and I grunt, “He wanted me to watch, but she got free before he could shoot me again, she-she tackled him, and he kicked her in the stomach.”
“Fuck,” Trick chokes before he tears my world down and confesses, “if I didn’t know any better, I’d say she’s just had a miscarriage…”
Everything tilts, the world blurs as he checks her pulse before he curses and continues compressions.
“Breaths, brother,” Trick chokes, and I lean over my girl and blow two breaths while struggling to catch my own.
Pregnant, she was pregnant?
Fuck, fuck, fuck…
My baby, she’s lost my baby…
“I’ve got a pulse, it’s weak, but it’s there, we need to get her to the hospital and fucking now!” Trick chokes, and I let out a sob, not caring that the whole brotherhood is here.
I feel hands grab me, and I try to fight them off until I hear my dad choke, “Please, son, you’re ready to pass out, let the brothers help her, I swear they’ll be careful.
” And just as Trick and Cage gently pick my girl up, the world blurs again, and I pass out, my dad's worried eyes the last thing I see.
***
Beep, beep…
I squeeze my eyes tight, and I groan as I turn my head before locking eyes with my dad's teary ones.
“Son,” he chokes, and I blink, then blink again, trying to rid the confusion before it hits me.
Kodi being taken, the blood, her bruises, the way determination entered her beautiful eyes when that fucker held a gun out to me.
Fuck, she wasn’t breathing.
“Kodi,” I choke, and Dad sniffles just as the door to my room opens and a tired-looking Trick walks in with Crusher, both looking tired.
“Fuck you’re a sight for sore eyes,” Crusher grunts as he takes a seat next to Dad while Trick checks my observations.
“You were fucking lucky, brother. We managed to remove the bullet, and thankfully, it didn’t hit anything important.
You should make a full recovery, and when you do, I’m kicking the shit outta you for going alone to that warehouse,” Trick grunts as he prods around my stitches, but I ignore his words, only one person on my mind.
“Kodi,” I choke, and he flinches as he covers me back up with the sheets.
“I shouldn’t be telling you anything, you’re not family,” Trick sighs, and I growl, “Check her fucking notes then, brother, I’m her next of kin!”
He frowns before he grabs his tablet and presses a few buttons, before his eyes widen.
“Fuck me, no wonder the nurse refused to tell her dad and brother anything,” he mutters just as the door to my room opens again and the Chief walks in and demands, “Trick, why won’t the doctor who has taken over my daughter's care tell me fuck all about her fucking condition?!”
I take a deep breath, trying my hardest not to kick off before I demand coldly, “Where is my girl?!”
Trick winces before he states, “In the ICU in a coma,” and breathing becomes difficult as the machines begin to beep faster.
“Fuck, son, take a deep breath!” Dad chokes as he grabs my arm, but I tremble.
She’s in a coma, in the fucking ICU…
Fuck, I need to see her. I fuck, regret, so much regret for not speaking to her, for not telling her my fears, fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Knuckles,” Trick rasps as he squeezes my arm, and a few tears fall. I can’t stop them even if I tried.
“Tell me,” I choke out a demand as the Chief stands stoic in understanding that I’m her next of kin, though right now, if I wasn’t in this bed, I’d fucking kill him if what that cunt said was true.
“Five broken ribs, eighteen long burn marks that will scar, five knife wounds, a broken cheek bone, a burst blood vessel in her right eye, three broken fingers on her left hand, cut wrists that will also scar, severe concussion and-and fuck, brother, please don’t make me say it,” he croaks and I lock eyes with him, allowing him to see my pain, pain I have kept to myself for so long and my VP’s eyes tear and he whispers, “And a miscarriage caused by blunt trauma and there is a chance she may not be able to conceive again, her chances are extremely low and that is only if she wakes at all.”
Fuck.
I hear her dad roar out in pain and sobs wrack my body and I tremble before Trick moves and wraps his arms around my head and chokes, “I’m so fucking sorry, brother,” and I let the pain out as fear for my girl hits me so fucking hard I feel like I’m suffocating, the pain in my stomach not even registering as her words before she lost consciousness hits me.
“If you die, I die…”
Fucking ditto, baby, fucking ditto.