Chapter Two
Sabrina.
My only pronouns currently are seek and destroy.
Parker lies beside me, no longer screaming in his sleep.
He’s been like this for four days. He lost a litre of blood on my floor and then almost another being transported to Doctor Tiliano’s residence after being shot in the chest. Two more inches to the left and he would have been gone.
Elio was already with Dr. Tiliano when we arrived here.
It took two days of blood transfusions, being administered antibiotics, and of course, IV fluids.
Niko and Aleksi decided Aleksi’s practical fortress close to the Canadian border would be the safest house.
I have not moved from Parker’s side unless it’s to use the bathroom or eat.
But I don't exactly have an appetite.
My husband’s been taken.
Taken.
Parker twitches a bit before his dark blond brows furrow.
I shush him with a kiss to his lips and wait for him to settle further before getting off the bed and going back to Aleksi's large kitchen.
I hate leaving Parker, but I haven't allowed anyone else into Parker's room except Dr. Tiliano or Damon. And they’re here now to check on his vitals and bandages, so I give them the privacy he’s owed.
Niko, Kallum, Aleksi, and Maverick are all currently looking at a fucking map of all the rural homes the Bones Chapter could be using as a place to host their fucking games in the United Kingdom.
Several homes now have large red X's on them—from England to Northern Ireland—homes we know for certain are completely empty because I've sent a fleet of my husband's men to check each one out.
Russian. Italian. It's the first time they're truly working together.
I need my husband, and they need their Captain/Pecan.
We’re all exhausted, working on this all day every day. I see it on Niko’s face. He’s a bit pale, and there are dark bags under his aquamarine eyes verging on an eggplant hue. He stands to greet me, offering me his seat, which I take with a mumbled, exhaustive “thanks.”
“Boss lady, you should be sleeping.”
But I can't sleep. Food tastes like ashes, I'm itchy everywhere, and I can't take a deep breath. My husband hasn't kissed me, and my other husband is in a fucking bed connected to a goddamn monitor.
I’m fucking losing it.
Don’t break.
Damon keeps trying to talk to me, but the more he does, the more my nerves fray. I can't talk about it. I need my rage to fester beneath my skin. Because when I find Kane… I'm going to burn him alive for once again touching what wasn't his to touch.
I am boiling on the inside.
I need him to boil and burn.
I'm going to slit his fucking throat and dance in his blood. Then, very simply, I'm going to piss on his corpse and burn whatever fucking hellhole he has my husband in to the fucking ground. I want it left in utter ruins.
How dare he?
I haven’t spoken more than medical jargon to Damon about Parker because I'm done healing. I’m done smiling politely. I’m choosing violence.
A clearing of a throat pulls my attention back to the small circle of men around me. I lock eyes with Aleksi, who looks as weary as I feel, his slutty glasses pushed up to the bridge of his nose and his topknot a fucking disarray.
I look exactly the same. Who the fuck has time for contacts at a time like this? My husband is missing. I realize I haven't answered any of them. Haven’t spoken a word. Because I’m lost in my thoughts. Always in my thoughts.
Don’t break. Not yet. When you have them both in your arms, you can break. You only break for them. I only break for them.
Damon hands me a mug of tea. I glare at it, then clear my throat and wave Niko off. “I'll sleep later. Have we gotten any updates?”
They all shake their heads.
“Well then.” I stand, exhale a shuddering breath, and pluck my phone out from the front pocket of the last hoodie Maksim wore. It still faintly smells of his cologne and sweat, but I don't allow myself to think about it. “I believe it's time to call the mothers.”
“Don't you mean the wives?” Niko buzzes.
I roll my eyes inwardly. If I had meant the wives, I would have fucking said that.
I inhale sharply and release it slowly. I’m angry, not fucking looney tunes.
Hold it, Sabrina. You’re not mad at him.
He helped save Parker. “No. I meant The Mothers.
As in, mine and Jonas's mums. Elena married an American Syndicate member because their rituals are less barbaric than the English chapter's.”
Aleksi’s dark blond brows knit together in confusion over his frames. “But what does that have to do with this?”
I bring up a shoulder and let it drop casually.
“Easy. The house staff talks. And if my mother has learned anything from being a tenured author, it's that she's learned to listen. Also, Elena is currently in her country home in Yorkshire. And quite frankly, she's a gossip. If she hears anything, she'll tell Jonas first and foremost.” I eye Maverick, the guns in his double holster belt. I had to force Raven to leave my side and go to Jonas’s game so he didn’t get penalized for not showing up. He has a budding career in the NFL, and I won’t be the cause of him fucking that up.
“Let Jonas know I'm calling his mother so she can report back to him.”
Maverick only nods in agreement just as Damon steps back into the kitchen.
I brush past him and go into the backyard, feeling his silver stare burning holes in the back of my head.
I can’t talk to him. I avoid Damon like the plague.
The cold November air bites at my cheeks as I sit on a piece of patio furniture.
The pool to my left is covered, but the yard is vast, and Aleksi's fence is surrounded by trees, giving us lots of privacy.
The Canadian mountains in the backdrop make my heart stop as I remember Italy with Parker.
“If I had to redo this life, I would die trying to find you again—”
“Hello Tink!” she greets happily after the fourth ring.
My breath catches in my throat to hear her so cheery. “Mum—” My voice cracks, and the tears I've been holding back fall unwillingly, crashing around me in an unrelenting torrent. So much for not breaking.
Mum switches the call to FaceTime. A face that looks like Charlie, only older and feminine, stares back at me. And I can't breathe. Where she has bursts of gold in her eyes, I have gray slates in mine. “Oh darling. What's happened?”
I inhale as deeply as I can to try to contain myself, to not be weak, but a sob wracks my body so violently I shudder. “Mum, they took him. They took my husband and killed Parker!”
“They what?!” I can't see her through the blur of my tears.
Something between a grateful croak and chuckle leaves my lips. I sniff and wipe at my nose with my sleeve. “He's alive. They brought him back. But he's in bad shape, Mum. And my husband—”
“Where are you?”
“I'm in New York. At a safe house close to Canada.”
“I'll be right there.”
“No, Mum, listen to me.”
“I'll listen to you when I have proper eyes on you. You send me the address. I'll be there before morning. Derek! Fire up the jet!” She hangs up on me. I tuck my phone back into the pocket and drop my head into my hands.
Great.
I wipe my nose with my sleeve and give myself a moment of reprieve, looking out at trees, desperately trying to see the forest, but it's dark. And bleak. I clutch my stomach and look up at the angry sky promising some kind of storm. Snow, rain, sleet. None of it matters.
Wiping at my eyes, I head back inside to crawl back into bed with Parker, but before that, I make the announcement that my mother is coming.
“Tildy's on her way, love. Some days I think she loves you more than she loves me, if I'm honest. But she's on her way. We have no idea where Maksim is. Five vacant homes have been searched now, and nothing.” I sigh.
“I haven't had the heart to tell Rory about this.
She'll hate me, won't she?” I snuggle deeper into Parker's side, laying my head on the side of his chest that currently doesn't have any electrodes.
“You saved his life, Mrs. Giordano. Packing this the way you did… he would have bled out.”
I want Dr. Tiliano's words to stop ringing in my ears.
“Could never… hate you.”
“Sure, you say that now, but Rory is a little spitfire. I—OH MY GOD! SAVAGE!” More tears spring into my eyes as I look over to see my love's eyes open and staring at me.
One brown, and one so impossibly green my heart fills with utter joy.
I flip over and straddle him in excitement and relief when he “Ommphs!” I gasp and try to climb back off of him, but he holds me in place with a little chuckle. “Missed me, baby?”
I don’t get to answer him because the door swings open and the men infiltrate the room, Maverick and Damon first.
“Sabrina!” Damon scolds, but I point at Parker.
“I tried to get off. He won't let me! Call Tiliano!” I fling myself at him again and press kisses all over his gorgeous face.
“I love you. I love you. Thank you for coming back to me.
I adore you. I'm sorry I didn't say it before.
I'm a numpty. A terrible cockwomble. I love you.” I choke out, tears spilling freely, but he still doesn't allow me to move.
“Sabrina, move so I can assess the man.” Damon scolds me again.
But Parker's grip gets tighter on the flare of my hips. “I'm fine here, Doc,” he rasps.
I gesture to Damon, and he rolls his eyes, pulling out a light pen from his shirt pocket, and leans over to check Parker's eyes. “Can you tell me the last thing you remember?” Damon asks.
He replies; his words are slow and hoarse, but I don't care. He’s awake.
He’s alive, and he’s awake, and he’s here with me.
“Some fuckhead with… one of those LED Purge masks had broken in. They tried to get to me… but we struggled. I was able to grab their gun, but they had another one. I shot... They shot... and I went down.”
Damon nods. “Is that all?”
He shakes his head slowly, like it’s too much for him, but then those beautiful green and brown mismatched eyes of his find me. “No. My girl said… I wasn't allowed to leave her… ‘cause… ‘cause she loves me.” The corners of his lips lift, but I can tell he's in pain, and I am ugly crying.
I nod my head frantically and wipe at my nose with my sleeve, not caring who sees. “I do. I do love you, Parker Savage Hayes.”
“Fuck… yeah.” He grins, lashes fluttering again until his eyes close completely, going back into a slumber, but his grip on me doesn’t loosen.
But it doesn’t matter. He’s here.
With me.
Never again.