62. Storm
I’ve tried calling her six times, and only realize on the seventh try that her purse is sitting on the counter in the kitchen. Her phone is tucked away in it. I shriek, punching a wood cabinet, and huff, dropping my head back. “This too shall pass,” I whisper.
A deep, shaky breath leaves my parted lips and I take my phone out again, searching for Sean’s number. He’ll know where she is. He always does.
I should’ve run after her. I should’ve apologized and told her why I lashed out. “Fuck,” I grumble when the front door opens and she steps in. “Oh, baby, oh, my, God, I’m so fucking sorry.”
“I know,” she says, tears rolling from her cheeks. “And I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have thrown the ring at you or run off. I see you, babe. I missed the signs because of work. I just want to be accepted and I worked my hands to the bone and forgot about you. But I’m here.” She walks up to me and takes my head in her hands. “I’m right here and I’m sorry I haven’t been.”
I take the ring from my pocket and slide it right back on her finger, kissing her deeply. “Don’t take it off again.”
She nods quickly, wiping under her eyes. “I’ll tattoo Luke on my finger just to prove my devotion to you.”
“Luke, huh?” I chuckle, pulling her into a hug. Her tense body relaxes in my arms, and I inhale her fruity smell, making me relax, too. “I’m not me right now, baby. But I’ll be me again soon, okay?”
“Talk to me. Always talk to me.” She moves her head away from my chest to look at me. “Even when I’m tired, I want you to talk my ear off so you’re better. Because without you, I’m nothing.”
I pinch her chin, leaning down to kiss her when the door is kicked open, hitting the wall behind it. “Jesus!” she gasps, turning her head quickly as Denny smirks, walking into the apartment. “H-hi, c-can I help you?”
My heart sinks, beating so quickly I think it’s taken my breath away. Sweat trickles at my temples, sending a cold rush through me as my entire body prickles with fear. My breathing slows, caught in my throat when his smile grows, and my grip tightens on Auden’s hand. He found me. Holy fuck, he found me. He’s going to kill me in front of her and she’ll never recover from this.
“Yes, you can,” Denny says, shifting his eyes from scanning Auden to me.
“Baby, go to our room,” I demand, my voice withering. I don’t know if she can feel me shaking, but holy shit I’m shaking like a leaf.
“What’s going on? Who’s this?” she asks, staying where she is even though I’m gripping her hand.
“Denny, I’m his older brother.” He keeps his eyes on me. “Y’know, the one he sent to jail.”
“I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” she says so politely that it makes Denny chuckle.
“I’m not going anywhere, sweetheart. So, you can either listen to your boyfriend and go to your room or you can witness me kicking the shit outta him,” Denny says, finally looking at Auden.
She raises her voice. “Or you can leave before I call the fucking cops.”
Denny doesn’t like that very much and growls, barging into our apartment. I grab Auden and push her into the kitchen before Denny reaches us. His hands wrap around my neck, and sadly, I don’t even put up a fight. I deserve this, all of it. I sent him to prison for almost eight years because of my stupidity. If he wants to kick the shit out of me, he’s more than welcome to.
My eyes feel like they’re about to burst, there’s pressure in them and my nose. It might even have started bleeding, I can’t tell. His grip on my neck tightens, constricting my air as my gasps fill the apartment. I struggle to breathe, choking and gasping for a breath. He holds his gaze with mine as tears well in his eyes. But it softens as if he’s realizing who he’s doing this to.
I’ve always looked up to Denny since I was a kid, he was my hero in so many ways. Right now, my hero is about to make me pass out. “You know how long I’ve wanted to see your face,” Denny growls over my choking. “I could fucking kill you right now but—”
“Let go of him!” Auden yells, swinging my baseball bat at his back.
Denny groans and lets go of me. I gasp loudly as I suck in all the air I can and collapse onto the floor, dizzy and disoriented. I hear more groans and yells from Auden and Denny, but I can’t seem to focus on them. Everything is blurry and moving in waves. I feel high, out of it, and I don’t know how I’m going to help her.
Everything shoots into focus when I get on my hands and knees, still coughing when I see Denny holding the baseball bat and Auden on the floor. She’s fucking bleeding!
I don’t even think. I just attack him until my knuckles are split and my blood is mixing with his. He tries to fight me off, clawing at me, hitting me, and grabbing at my face. But all I see is red. He hurt my angel. He’s a fucking dead man.
Denny’s head falls back. For fuck’s sake, he’s finally passed out. I jump to my feet and scramble over to Auden, she isn’t responsive. FUCK! “Auden? Auden? Baby, hey. Hey, babe. Wake up,” I say, lifting her head off the tiled floors. Blood pools onto the marble tiles and a sob chokes me. “Baby? Open your eyes, c’mon. Charlotte!?”
She’s not responding. She’s not moving. She’s barely breathing.
I run for one of our cell phones and call an ambulance. Four minutes. The longest damn four minutes I’ve ever had to wait. I cry as I hold her to my chest. The last memory she has of us is an argument. A stupid argument about my cleaning habits. God, please help her pull through. If I lose her, I lose it all. And if I lose it all, I lose me.
***
Auden groans and brings her hand to her head, slowly waking from what I thought was forever. I jump to my feet and take her other hand, kissing it as many times as I can.
“Babe?” I whisper.
She winces as she touches the bandage on her temple. “My head hurts.”
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper.
She panics, looking at the door. “Where’s your brother?”
“Still in the emergency room.” I let out a rush of air. “He woke up when the ambulance came and I told them what happened. We’re pressing charges. He hit you! He fucking—I’m so sorry. We should—I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…I don’t know what else to say.”
The door to the room opens and the doctor, who has helped her since we arrived walks in with a smile on his face. He won’t tell me anything other than she’s doing okay. He won’t answer my questions or let me know if she has a concussion. She’s only my fiancée so apparently, that means nothing to this freaking hospital.
“I need to speak with Miss Summers privately,” he says, looking at me.
This doctor is pissing me right off.
I scoff. “I’m her partner.”
He nods, giving me a smug grin. “It will only take a moment.”
I’m about to yell at him, when she squeezes my hand, giving me that reassuring smile that helps me through life. “Can you get me some water?” she asks.
“Of course.” I leave a kiss on her head and walk out with my hands in my pockets. The doctor clears his throat as the door closes behind me. I pray to God she doesn’t leave me because of this. I pray that she is all right. I pray. That’s all I can do is pray.
I barely make it to the vending machine when I feel it. Like a weight pressing down on my shoulders. I glance around and see Denny coming toward me. His face is bandaged; butterfly stitches on his cheek and eyebrow, a bandage on his nose, and there’s some swelling under his eye and upper lip. I’m about to fucking snap.
“Storm,” Denny says soothingly. “I didn’t hit her.”
I growl, clenching my fists at my sides. “Explain to me why I’m in this fucking hospital then?”
He scoffs. “She was attacking me with a bat!”
“You were choking me!”
“I just pushed her off.” Denny sighs, looking down at the flowers in his hands that he’s tapping on his leg. His eyes are welling with tears when he looks back at me. I wasn’t expecting this.
“Hey, man,” I say, stepping closer to him.
“I’m sorry, kiddo.” He shakes his head. “I fucked up, a lot, and I’m still reaping the consequences. But I didn’t come here to hurt you. I just snapped when I saw your face. Almost eight years in prison because of something I did. I just…” He takes a breath. “I’ve held so much resentment toward you. I blamed you and it ain’t right. I know it ain’t.” He sniffs, letting out a chuckle that should be music to my ears, but I want nothing more than to make his right eye match his left. “Heath talks so highly of you, I knew you weren’t a bad guy when he told me about your life and the pretty lady with the holes in her cheeks.”
I chuckle softly, unable to stop my heart from beating at the thought of Heath. “Her dimples.”
“I should’ve called before I came—my parole officer said I can come visit you—but I didn’t. I ain’t asking for forgiveness because I don’t think I forgive you for pressing charges on me, but I get it.” He nods. “In time I think we should reconnect. With less fighting and just talking.”
“You hurt my woman,” I scoff. “I’m just supposed to forgive that?”
“I shoved her away so she’d stop hitting me with a bat, I didn’t mean to hurt her,” he growls, gritting his teeth, then sighs. “Sorry.”
It’ll take me some time until I’m not scared around him and before I can welcome him into my life. However, we gotta start somewhere. I’ve thought of him coming back into my life throughout the years. I’d call my mom’s house and hope he’d pick up the house phone so we could talk. He never did. Today was not how I expected our reunion to be. But time heals all wounds. And in time, I’ll have my brother back.
“I should get back,” I say, taking a breath.
“Yeah, yeah.” He clears his throat and hands me the flowers. “I got these for her.”
“Thanks.”
Denny smiles slightly and begins walking away, looking over his shoulder as he does. It’s weird seeing him again. He looks different. Aged. He’s not the same person I remember anymore. It only makes sense. He suits the salt-and-pepper look.
He turns, charging for me and I squeeze my eyes shut, wincing when he embraces me as a sob chokes him. I gasp, letting my arms wrap around him, remembering what it’s like to hold my brother after all this time. No more words are exchanged but we’re holding each other tight enough that no words can match this.
He releases me and walks off. I wait until he turns the corner, nodding at me once more before he disappears, and my shaking hands put money in the vending machine.
A dark chapter of my life seems to be turning a page. Maybe this is a good thing, or maybe it isn’t. Only time will tell and only rage with factor in what our lives will be like in the future.