Chapter 28
twenty-eight
“FUCK!” Rory shouts, as she cuts her finger for the third time. We’ve been working tirelessly for the last few hours to scrub every trace of the intruders out of Breaker’s house. She sweeps tiny shards of glass from the broken bathroom window into a pile again, brushing them into the dustpan.
“Stop picking shit up with your fingers and that wouldn’t happen, aurora.” Ember scolds.
“I’m sorry, mom. It’s not going into the dustpan. I’m literally one more slice away from a mental breakdown!” Rory cries, stomping her foot like an exhausted child. She drops onto the lid of the toilet seat, her head falling in her hands. “I just don’t understand why we haven’t heard anything.”
“We will, babe. They’re fine. Our boys are made of tough stuff,” I say, knowing I’m just as close to the edge as she is.
I just want to hear Everett’s voice. I need to feel his hands on my skin.
Crouching down in front of her, I let her lean against me and catch her breath.
Willow took the twins into Ember’s room earlier to put them to bed and we’ve all been trying to decompress.
Ember leans on the door frame, eyes closed as the exhaustion weighing down on us all blankets the room. The shrill sound of a phone ringing makes us all jump. Pulling my cell from my back pocket, I find my screen blank. Rory shakes her head, confirming it’s not hers either.
“Hello? Elijah?” Ember’s voice has a sharp edge to it, as if she’s waiting for the bottom to fall from beneath her.
“Oh, thank god,” she breathes. I feel the smallest amount of relief before Ember’s eyes lock on mine.
They’re wide and full of panic. Whatever Eli is telling her right now is causing pure dread to play out across her face.
“Ember, what? What is it?” I pry, standing and coming to her side.
“I-I-” her mouth gapes like a fish out of water, but nothing intelligible comes out. In the background, I hear Eli yelling through the phone speaker.
I rip the phone from her hands, needing answers more than my next breath. “Elijah? Whats going on?”
“Kelsea, listen to me very carefully. I need you to be ready to fly within the hour. Helo is already on his way back to you guys. Get in the helicopter and he will bring you guys here.” Elijah’s voice sounds calm, but there’s an undercurrent of urgency that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
“What happened, Elijah? Are you guys… is everyone ok?” Something in the corners of my mind tells me I don’t want to know the answer to that question.
“Just get here, Kelsea. We’ll talk when you land,” the sound of the line disconnecting echos through my bones.
Snapping out of my stupor, I grab Ember’s arms roughly. “What did he say to you? What did he say?!” Dread slides down my throat, wrapping around my heart and constricting until I’m completely numb.
“Stop. Stop spiraling. We have to be ready to go,” Ember says, shaking me off and turning on her heel, heading for her room. Rory and I trail blindly behind her. “It’s gonna be fine. It’s gonna be fine.” Ember repeats the mantra, more to herself than anyone else.
Robotically, I walk to the room I shared with Everett just this morning.
Mindlessly, I throw a few things in an overnight bag.
Every nightmare I’ve ever had is nothing compared to the fear I feel right now.
Is Everett dead? Have I lost him forever?
I’m not sure if my mind or my soul could ever recover from that.
Within 20 minutes, Ember is standing in my doorway with her bag slung over her shoulder.
Rory stands behind her, hands clasped solemnly in front of her waist. I sit on the edge of the bed, toying with the leather strap of my overnight bag.
She wants to say something but won’t. I can see it in her bloodshot eyes, in the agonizing expression on her face.
I've always hated being kept in the dark, but for once I want to hold on to my ignorance just a little longer.
I want to live in my mind where Ev and I are in love with all the time in the world. No one can touch us there.
“Willow is staying here with Jax and the twins. It’s safer than her place and I trust her with my kids,” Ember’s mouth tips up at the corner, but her smile doesn’t reach her eyes. I nod quietly, picking up my bag and heading for the living room.
The pulsating sound of helicopter blades rattles the windows on the back wall slightly.
Breaker’s backyard, if that’s what you would even call it, is big enough for an entire hanger if he wanted one.
As the skids hit the grass, the three of us are equally reluctant and hurried in walking out to meet Helo.
“You girls ready?” He shouts out the open cabin door. We nod, throwing him our bags and climbing inside. He takes his time making sure each of us is secure in our seats before returning to the pilot’s chair and taking off.
“Helo?” I ask into the headphones he gave each of us. He tips his head to the side, acknowledging me. “Is he alive?”
Rory reaches for my hand instinctively, as if she knows I need the support regardless of the answer. Helo is quiet for several long moments and I feel the minuscule cracks in my soul spread into deep chasms as his silence drags on.
“If I’m being honest, I don’t know,” he replies.
My jaw clenches painfully. Tears flood my eyes, but I blink them away.
I can’t fall apart right now. Not yet. Ember cries quietly across from us, burying her face in her palms. I let his words linger in the cabin of the helicopter, not offering a response.
Fear slithers across my skin, wrapping around my neck and constricting until I feel lightheaded.
Ignoring the feeling, we all settle in for the hours of anticipation we know are ahead of us.
As soon as we touch down in the middle of nowhere in Louisiana, Ember falls out of the cabin and into Elijah’s arms. His hands spear into her hair as he pulls her into his chest. As he mumbles quiet words of reassurance to her, I feel like the world around me moves in slow motion.
Surveying our surroundings, I see a warehouse shrouded in darkness to my left and a large two-story brick building to my right.
In front of it is a long row of motorcycles, all parked in a line.
I want to ask where the fuck we are, but there isn’t time.
Rory steps out of the helicopter, taking a few quick steps towards Breaker.
He looks like he wants to reach for her, but he doesn’t.
She brushes her fingers over a bandage wrapped around his arm, her expression full of concern.
An unspoken conversation passes between them, each assuring the other of their safety.
Two men stand off to the side, one tall and slightly greying around the temples and one looking like the younger version of the other. While I feel uneasy in this new place, especially not knowing where Everett is, I don’t feel immediate danger.
“Who are they?” I ask, motioning towards the strangers.
“This is Owen and Axel. This compound belongs to their motorcycle club,” Elijah replies.
“The same motorcycle club that was trying to kill Everett?” I ask, an edge of attitude clear in my voice.
“Kelsea, it’s ok,” he says, placing a hand on my shoulder. “They’ve helped us. The situation with the congressman is… handled.”
“You must be Everett’s woman,” the older man says, reaching a hand out towards me. “I’m Owen. This is my son, Axel.”
“Where is he?” I shake his hand like the proper southern lady I was raised to be.
Everyone’s eyes dim at my question. I’m growing impatient with the silence.
I just want somebody to tell me what’s going on.
Pity and fear are all I see on the faces of the people surrounding me.
“Somebody tell me what’s going on right fucking now before I burn this place to the ground to find him myself.
” Axel scoffs, amused by my threat. Only it’s not a threat.
I’ll burn this bitch to the fucking ground to find him.
“Easy, child. He’s still in with Doc. He’s been giving us updates every hour or so,” Owen says, as if I have any idea who this doc is that apparently holds Everett’s life in his hands.
“He’s not out of the woods yet. He took a shot to the gut, lost a hell of a lot of blood. It’s been pretty touch and go,” Eli says.
“I wanna see him,” I reply, and every man looks back at me in surprise.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Doc is the best at what he does, doll. He’s in excellent hands.” Owen assures me, as if his words hold any weight with me at all.
“With all due respect, I don’t fucking know you or this doctor.
From the looks on your faces, it’s very possible that he won’t survive.
I’m not gonna let him die alone with some fucking stranger in the back room of a bayou shack.
I want to see him. Now!” I’m direct, but I don’t raise my voice or cry, shockingly.
Even though on the inside all I want to do is rage at the world, I keep my composure.
“Let her go, she can handle it,” Breaker grumbles behind me.
“Right this way, cher,” Axel says, gesturing to the two-story building.
We walk through the front door into what I can only call a bar. No less than a dozen men watch us as Axel pushes through the crowd. This is the definition of a biker bar if I ever saw one.
“What is this place?” I ask quietly.
“The Bayou Reaper clubhouse. This is my home, cher” Axel replies. We walk down a long hallway with rooms on each side, almost like a hotel.
“Do all of you live here?” I ask.
“Not everybody. Some guys have ol’ ladies, kids, shit like that. They have their own places in town. But us single fellas, yeah.” He says, stopping in front of a heavy steel door at the end of the hall. “You sure about this? I don't know what kind of condition your boy is in inside there.”
“I’m sure. Open the door,” I say, crossing my arms across my chest protectively.
“Let me talk with Doc. I don’t wanna bust in there and interrupt his work,” Axel says and I nod. He disappears behind the door for a moment before coming back out and gesturing for me to come inside.
I brace myself for what I’ll find when I step into the room.
Everett lies on the table, his shirt cut down the center and laying open to the sides.
A man in full surgical attire holds an instrument inside his abdomen as blood flows freely across his waist and hips, and drips onto the floor.
I suppress the panic that’s gripping my heart and focus on the rhythmic beeps of the monitors connected to him.
Those steady beep-beep-beeps are the only thing proving to me he’s still alive.
“He said you can stay, but don’t get in the way, cher.
” Axels says, and I nod. He takes a seat on the stool next to the door as I watch the doctor work meticulously on Everett.
Another man works by the doctor’s side, handing him gauze and tools when he asks.
I’m impressed by the facilities they have in this building.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d say we were in a hospital.
The doctor works diligently for what feels like an eternity. In reality, it’s only about half an hour, but I feel the minutes of my life ticking by in time with the beeps of Everett’s heart monitor.
“Got it,” Doc says, holding the bullet up before dropping it into a tray at the bedside. Blood pours from the wound as the doctor hurries to stanch the bleeding. The monitor flatlines and my heart wrenches in my chest. “Aw, shit.”
“I’ll hang another unit,” his assistant says.
I scramble to stand next to Everett’s head, watching as he breathes from a tube placed to keep him stable through surgery. Carefully, I weave my fingers through his hair and bring my lips down to his ear as Doc continues his work.
“You listen to me, Everett Blake. You told me you would never make me a promise you couldn’t keep.
You told me you were going to give me the life I always dreamed of having.
The only way you can do that is by coming back to me, baby.
Every dream I have is with you, Ev. You told me no one has ever chosen you before.
Well, I do. I choose you. And I’m going to choose you over and over, every night and every morning.
I choose you to always be by my side for every moment I have left in the world.
In a life full of unlimited, constant choices, I choose you.
” I whisper in his ear, where only he can hear me.
I don’t know if I really believe he can hear me, but I’d do anything to bring him back to me.
“Bleed controlled, starting CPR now. Decker, give him a shot of Epi and charge the fucking defibrillator,” the doctor orders.
I back up until my shoulders meet the wall as the world around me spins in slow motion. The flurry of activity in front of me barely registers as tears stream down my cheeks. My eyes close as I drop down until I’m sitting on the floor.
Clear, silence.
Clear, silence.
Clear…