Chapter Fourteen

Two weeks had passed, she was in a holding pattern with Cole. He gave her pleasure every night, and she pleasured him, but she hadn’t made the ultimate move. Committing to someone when her life was in a state of flux didn’t make sense. Then there was the fact that she never thought she would settle down or have a permanent person in her life. What if she wasn’t cut out for it?

There didn’t seem to be a good answer especially when she realized that love hadn’t said a word to her in the last two weeks and C&C was silent. All of her voices were silent. There was nothing but crickets in her head. She always thought she’d be happy for the silence, she was wrong. Those voices were part of her, and they helped her make some of the most important decisions of her life.

She looked down and smiled at Mia. They started taking walks every day, it allowed her and Mia to meet more of the Kur’iks. They felt more and more like family.

“Jas, Jas.” Mia was greeting one the males they had become friends with.

“Hi, Jasper.” Jessie gave him a smile. Jasper was one of the young ones but still much older than Ven who was the youngest Kur’ik until you added Mia and baby Jade into the mix.

“May I?” She nodded, he bent over to pick her up. “Out for your daily walk?”

“Un huh, one of the things I love about living here is the peace.”

“It’s not always peaceful.”

“I know, I remember.” Thoughts of that night several months ago, when Deja protected them sometimes invaded her dreams. “Despite that, there is more peace here than where I used to live.”

“I like having you here. Both you and Mia bring something special to our compound. You feel like you fit.”

Perfect words because that’s how she felt like they fit.

“Why are you walking towards the barrier?”

“I come here sometimes to remind myself the world is not perfect. One glance and I’m ready to turn around. I think it’s a good way to remind myself to be thankful for what I have.”

“Grama.” Mia’s voice was shaking.

Jessie looked up to realize she was closer to the barrier than she thought. Standing on the street in front of them was her mother screaming her fool head off, but the barrier kept the noise out.

“Who is she?”

“That’s my mother. It concerns me that she was able to get this close to where I am, but she always was one step ahead of everyone.”

She fell to the ground, and Jessie laughed.

“Don’t worry she’s been doing that for years. I finally stop paying attention to it.”

They watched as someone came to check on her. They shook her, but she didn’t get up.

“It’s a trick, I know it is.” There was fear in her voice. That was her mother even if she wasn’t a nice one. Nothing could happen to her.

“Jessie, we should go back.”

She knew he was right, but her feet were rooted to the earth. She couldn’t move if she tried. The stranger pulled out a phone, talking frantically from the looks of her.

They stood there staring at her on the ground until an ambulance pulled up.

That’s not right the firemen always come first.

She heard the voice but never paid attention to what was being said. The medical personnel got out of the ambulance and began to work on her mother. They gave her CPR. Had her heart stopped?

Her hands curled into a ball her nails sinking deep into her palms to keep her steady. Her teeth bit her bottom lip as she told herself not to worry it was a trick. Then those flashing lights were turned off, and the sirens she could hear in her mind but not with her ears were turned off. They put her mother on the gurney and covered her up.

“No!” The scream was torn from the small child that still resided within her. “Please don’t let her be dead.” She always believed that one day they would sit down and talk. Her mom would explain everything and apologize for how she treated her. She would want to be a family.

“Jasper, take Mia to her father.” She was already running towards the barrier. Her mother couldn’t be dead their second chance couldn’t be snatched away by the cruel hands of fate.

“Jessie don’t.”

“Mama.”

She heard it all but she needed to take care of her mother Mia would be okay as soon as she found out what was happening she would be back. She crossed the barrier hearing a wail of terror rent the air. Mia? Then she was across the barrier running to the ambulance.

A male came from the side of it with a smile on his face and shot her. Her hands went down to her abdomen watching in horror as blood spilled out of her. There was a second roar that shook the earth. That sounds like Cole. Then she hit the ground.

Declyn grabbed him as he ran for the barrier taking him down in a tackle worthy of any football player. Enzo jumped in, and the two of them kept him from running to Jessie. She was lying in the street bleeding out. Her mother got out of the ambulance and started yelling. Soon Jessie was on the stretcher and placed in the back of the ambulance. The lights came on, and they roared away.

“She’s gone.” The fury in his voice was a warning.

“No, she is not. Listen to me, Cole.” Declyn was no longer the club owner he was the Alpha that had kept them alive. If you had run to her, your life, her life, and our lives would have been forfeit. They’re taking her to the hospital.”

“I’m not leaving her there.”

“Since when have I ever left one of mine behind? Someone find Tristan and Cait. Cole take your daughter she needs you. Everyone change into uniforms. We move in thirty.”

Cole stood and took Mia who was sobbing uncontrollably into his arms.

“I’ll get her back, Casca. We will be a family if I have to press her every day for a hundred years.” He sang an old lullaby that Ven taught them a long time ago. His mother used to sing it to him before she found a mate that wanted him dead.

He rocked her in his arms until she settled down. When he came to Deja’s, the door was open. She walked up to him and took Mia.

“Go get her.”

He nodded and turned away. His world, his life wouldn’t be right until she was back with him. His trasire would have to wait and take her daily walks with him because her heart was too big. Her mother knew that, knew if she looked like she was dead it would draw Jessie out. What she hadn’t expected was that Jessie would have the presence of mind to still protect her child.

Declyn pulled up with Ven and Enzo behind him. Ven had learned to drive and was proud of it. Enzo thought he still needed to be watched.

Behind him were Xavier and Caden with Tristan and Jasper in the back seat.

Cait pulled up in her car with her husband. Each one of them was dressed in uniforms. They were all a standard gray that would help their bodies blend into the surroundings so they wouldn’t be seen. They would also change with their bodies. Cole got into Declyn’s car, and the mini caravan took off.

“Do we know where we are going?”

“Cait believes she will be at Shady Grove. It’s the closest hospital to us.”

“We go in and get her.”

“No, we go in and access the situation. We do this by the book Cole. That means doing it right. We won’t leave without her, but we have to know how to do it without bringing the authorities down on us.”

He gave a stiff nod of his head and fell silent. They looked for several spaces together before they parked not wanting to get separated.

Cait took the lead, she understood hospitals better than they did.

“Hi, I have a friend that was brought in for emergency surgery. Where would I find her?”

“There’s a waiting room on three. You can register there and let the secretary know who your friend is. The family should be up there, and you can sit with them.”

“Thank you.” She gave the clerk her best smile and blinked her green eyes at him.

The look she got said he would remember her for her beauty nothing else. They took off looking for the elevator. She waited for Cole to cringe when he got on but nothing. He was finally recovering.

They walked off the elevator and disappeared into their surroundings. The waiting room wasn’t hard to find. There was no one in there except Jessie's mother and several hired guns.

“You fools,” she was whispering furiously. “Why would you shoot her in her abdomen. She might die on the table, and then we’ll never get our hands on her brat.”

“Whoever has her will turn her over to Children and Youth Services. No one wants to raise someone else’s brat.”

“It doesn’t work that way people always want babies and Mia’s gorgeous. She looks just like her mother wild black hair and blue eyes.”

Cole walked into the small area where they were sitting. The recovery room was broken down into intimate areas for family and friends to gather as they waited for the news about their loved ones.

There were four rockers three of them occupied. There was a television they could watch. Across from them was a beverage area. There was also a long screen that showed a series of numbers telling you where your loved one was.

Cait checked the secretary’s books when she walked away. Jessie was in surgery which meant they had to wait. He knew it, but he wanted to rip her away from the doctors that operated on her and get her home where he knew she would be well.

He sat down in the fourth rocker the one beside her mother and watched as they looked at it moving.

“I told you it was cold in here. Even the stupid rocker is moving on its own.”

“Or it’s haunted maybe Jessie is sitting there because of what we did to her.”

“You killed my baby.” Her head dropped into her hands when she raised it there wasn’t a tear in her eye.

“You’re not that upset.”

“With her out of the way I can go back to abducting children and selling them.”

“Times are different it won’t be that easy anymore.”

She shrugged, “Then I’ll take all the money I got saved and retire somewhere warm.”

“Not until you get me the last child you promised, black hair and blue eyes. I have someone who wants her.”

“Children don’t last long with him.”

“When did you start caring?”

“The Murphy family.”

“I’m Ms. Murphy.”

“The doctor is waiting for you in the meeting room.” After giving them the direction she smiled.

They silently followed them until they entered the room. The doctor was already there.

“Mrs. Murphy?”

“Yes, how is my daughter?” Her voice was laced with concern as if she loved her child.

“I regret to inform you she died on the table.”

Her mother doubled over before standing and straightening her shoulders.

“You can sign for the body to have her moved to the parlor of your choice.”

Declyn silently told Cole, Enzo, Tristan, and Cait to retrieve her body. The others he wanted with him.

“I can’t bear to handle my daughter’s body. Please dispose of it in any way you see fit.”

They followed the mother