Chapter 32 Alessa
Alessa
Leo and I get Gage tucked in between us on the way home and none of us know what to say. Micah is going to take care of Connor’s body and have someone come in to clean it up.
His dad was an evil man; I knew that. I didn’t know he did all that to Gage growing up, though. I knew about the name calling, but I didn’t know he used to abuse him. Was this going on under my dad’s nose? Did dad know? Or was it before he came to stay with us?
I don’t need to know the answers to those questions; all I need to know is if Gage is okay. He seems lost in thought, staring into space, so I decide I’ll take him somewhere to talk when we get home.
Ryder’s phone rings through the speakers, Mani’s name flashing across the screen on the dash. “Hello?”
“You need to get home! Now!” Mani yells.
Ryder hits the gas. “What’s going on?”
“Someone blew up the house!”
Ryder’s eyes jerk to mine in the mirror; at the same time, it hits me. “Holden’s at home!”
Ryder steps harder on the gas, swerving in and out of traffic as fast as he can.
“Mani!” I yell. “Holden was in there! Do you see him?”
“Fuck,” Mani mutters. “No one is out here but the guards. Some were still inside.”
My heart drops out; tears spring into my eyes. “Ryder.” I can hear my voice quiver, feeling myself on the verge of panic. Holden can’t be in there. Holden isn’t...I can’t even finish that sentence.
“I know, Il mio sole,” Ryder replies, emotion thick in his voice. “I know.”
Zane sets his hand on Ryder’s thigh; Gage pulls me closer. Everyone’s on edge, thinking the worst. What is life without Holden in it? For any of us?
“Calm down, Pretty girl,” Gage soothes, but I can hear his voice shaking. “We can’t help him if we fall apart.”
Ryder screeches to a stop in front of the gate, unable to get any further due to the fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances. Smoke is billowing out from the shell of the house. The stone columns on the front are lying in rubble everywhere, and fire is shooting out of the windows.
We jump out and run toward the gate, only to have two police officers step in front of us. “Stay back.”
“That’s my house!” I yell, trying to shove past him. “Holden is in there!”
The cops exchange a glance. “You can’t go in there. It’s not safe.”
My control snaps. “You motherfucker,” I growl, jerking my Glock from my holster. I will shoot every asshole here to get to Holden.
Zane steps in front of me. “Get in the car.” I narrow my eyes. “Get in the car. There’s a back entrance,” he whispers. An entrance no one knows about but us.
The doors are barely shut before Ryder roars back down the driveway, taking the turn out of the driveway with a screech of tires.
It fishtails, but Ryder spins the wheel smoothly so it corrects itself.
It rights itself with a jerk, and Ryder floors it again, heading toward the back entrance to our estate.
He takes the turn and slams on the brakes; we’re already out and running before the car is even in park.
Dex snatches me around the waist before I can get past him. “You don’t know what triggered it,” he says gently.
“Holden is in there!”
“I know, Baby girl,” Dex soothes. “Let us look.”
Dex and Ryder are the explosives experts, so I nod. “Please be careful.”
Dex, Ryder, and Zane stride toward the door while Leo and Gage surround me.
“He can’t be,” I say miserably.
The smoke doesn’t look as bad here, and the fire seems to be at the front of the house, but it’s spreading fast. What if the blast knocked him out, and he can’t get out? What if he’s lying there bleeding, and no one can get to him?
I choke back a sob; I can’t lose him. Holden is my light.
Gage and Leo move in closer, hooking their arms through mine. That’s when I see Zane turn around and nod. Then he, Dex, and Ryder disappear into the house. Without me.
“NO! LET ME GO!” I jerk wildly, trying to get out of their hold.
“Baby,” Leo grunts. “Please.”
“NO!”
“We have to keep you safe, Pretty girl,” Gage says hotly.
“What about them?! Let me the fuck go!”
My brain is short-circuiting, getting madder by the second.
They’re stopping me from getting to my sweet hacker.
My Holden. I wasn’t registering that they’re trying to protect me.
I let go of a scream that rivals a banshee and drop to my knees, using my body weight to break their hold.
I’m up and running before they can grab me again.
“Alessa!” Gage yells, right behind me.
Ryder comes out of the house, coughing, covered in soot. Dex comes out next, with Zane on his heels, carrying a limp Holden.
I skid to a stop, dropping to my knees when Zane lays him down. “Holden,” I whisper, hands fluttering around his face. “Oh god. Please wake up.”
Zane drops beside me, checks for a pulse, and I watch his face change. He shoves me back with his arm and starts giving Holden mouth to mouth. Ryder drops to Holden’s other side, clutching his hand.
“No. No, no, no,” I chant. Dex drops beside me, pulling me close.
I hear yelling around me, but I can’t even pick it up; all I can see is Zane frantically closing his mouth over Holden’s, begging him to wake up.
Ryder has tears streaking down his soot-covered face; his lips are moving like he’s silently praying.
“Come on,” Zane growls. “Come on, Sweet boy. Goddamnit, wake up!”
I hear sirens getting closer and look over to see an ambulance screaming up the back entrance, Leo and Gage jumping out of the back. The paramedics run up, shoving Ryder and Zane out of the way. Both their eyes snap up, and the paramedics step back from the looks on their faces.
“Bello,” Ryder cries. “Please don’t leave us.” Zane seals his mouth back over Holden’s, blowing as hard as he can.
We all collectively hold our breath when we see Holden’s arms twitch and start coughing. All the fight leaves my body, making me go slack in Dex’s arms.
Paramedics jump into action, sliding an oxygen mask over his face. Zane and Ryder finally move back so they can do their jobs. I jerk away from Dex and grab Holden’s hand, tears streaming down my face.
“Holden.”
His eyes latch on to mine, slightly unfocused but alive.
“Ma’am, we need to get him to the hospital.”
My first instinct is to argue, but someone just blew up our hospital room here. “I’m going with you.”
“Me too,” Ryder says, standing up, roughly wiping tears from his face. The look on his face is daring them to say no.
“We’ll meet you guys there,” Dex says, kissing me on the forehead.
The paramedics get Holden loaded onto the gurney and put him in the back of the ambulance, Ryder and I climbing in behind them.
I know who did this and what I have to do.
They just hurt one of mine again. It’s time to play it their way.
Dirty.
“Bright eyes.”
That voice snaps me straight up in the chair where I must have dozed off.
“Holden,” I sit up and grab his hand, tears pouring down my face in relief.
When we got to the hospital, he was rushed away from us while they worked on him.
They finally let us into his room in the intensive care unit two hours ago only because Ryder threw out so many threats that they finally took him seriously.
The rest of the guys are waiting patiently in the waiting room.
Ryder grabs his hand on the other side. “Hey, Bello.”
“What happened?” Holden croaks. Ryder gets up, pours some water into a cup, then holds the straw gently to Holden’s lips so he can drink.
He still has oxygen on, but it isn’t the face mask anymore.
He has a concussion, bruising, and a cut on the back of his head.
The doctor said the blast must have knocked him out, causing him to breathe in the smoke.
Which eventually made him stop breathing.
He told us if we had gotten there five minutes later, Holden wouldn’t have survived.
It’s Zane’s quick thinking that he’s here with us now.
Ryder gently explains everything to him while I squeeze his hand, so damn thankful he’s still with us. I could feel my soul leaving my body, knowing that Holden was dead, that the guys couldn’t get him back. There is no way I can come back from that. I can’t lose any of my guys.
“I don’t remember anything,” Holden says gruffly, the smoke making his voice scratchy.
“What’s the last thing you remember?” I ask softly.
“Sitting in my office digging through files.” He swallows with a wince.
Ryder rubs his hand down his cheek. “It’s okay. Rest.”
“No,” Holden says, “I found something, but I don’t remember.”
Ryder and I exchange a look. “You’ll remember,” I soothe. “You hit your head really hard. The doctor said it could cause temporary memory loss.”
Holden’s eyes start fluttering. “I don’t remember,” he repeats.
“Rest. It’s okay,” I say softly. “We’ll be here when you wake up.”
Ryder and I wait for his breathing to even out before we move to the back of the room. “Someone that works for me set those explosives,” I whisper. “No one else could have gotten in to do it.”
“Ghost and Caden are at the house. They ran the cops off, throwing their weight around with their crews,” Ryder whispers back. “Micah’s there too. He said the house is a total loss, Il mio sole.”
I figured that, but that doesn’t mean it hurt any less.
That was my dad’s house; all our memories and the ones I’ve made with the guys are there.
“That doesn’t matter. All that matters is we’re all out and alive.
” I rake my hand through my hair. “I need to find out who tried to fucking blow up Holden and why.”
Ryder glances at a sleeping Holden and then back at me. “He said he found something. Then the house exploded. That wasn’t a coincidence.”
“You think the house is bugged?” I ask.
“I don’t know. But we need to get him the hell out of here; we’re sitting ducks here.”
I nod. “We can’t go anywhere anyone knows about.”
“I’ll make some calls,” Ryder replies, kissing my cheek. He takes one last look at Holden before striding from the room.