CHAPTER 35
Asher
Maddox jumps the curb when we pull up to the apartment, his fender kissing the brick wall. I don’t even take a second to make sure he’s coming up with me. It’s been too long. Chelcie’s phone cut off two minutes ago, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about everything that could be happening to her. The sound of her scream is still echoing in my head, and the ball of dread starts to snowball out of control. When the elevator opens on our floor, my heart feels like it’s stopped beating, because the second my feet hit the carpet outside the elevator, I hear the unmistakable sound of a gun being fired.
“Fucking hell,” Maddox hisses.
He’s been keeping pace with me this whole time, the adrenaline clearly helping his movements. I run down the hall as quickly as I can, cursing that our door is the very last one on the hall—the one that will take me the longest to reach. Skidding to a stop at the open doorway, I see Sarah Jane. She’s bound by her wrists and ankles with duct tape and, by the looks of it, either passed out or in shock. I can also see that she is the one bleeding from what appears to be two gunshot wounds—one to her left shoulder and the other to her right kneecap.
I pull my own gun from my shoulder harness, looking over and seeing Maddox doing the same. He nods his head towards the open doorway and we make our way into the room, looking for any source of danger that might still be present.
I stop dead in my tracks when we make it around the wall that was blocking the rest of the room from my view. Chelcie is clinging to a blonde woman, sobbing so hard that her whole body is shaking with the force of her crying. I look around the room, making sure there isn’t another threat before kneeling down next to them. The second my movements are registered with the blonde woman holding an inconsolable Chelcie, her head whips up, and all of a sudden, I have a gun pointed against my forehead. Her eyes flash with recognition when she realizes who it is and she immediately drops the gun.
“What the fuck, Emmy?” Maddox booms through the room.
Chelcie is shifted to my arms and Emmy peels her body off the floor. For the first time, I notice that she has blood all over her.
“Are you hurt?” I ask, my voice sounding miles away.
“It isn’t mine. She wouldn’t let me move her to check her wrists, but that’s where it’s coming from. She was cutting the tape off her wrists when I came in.”
“Chelcie, Sunshine . . . look at me. I’m here. I’m here and it’s over. Let me look at you.”
Her crying intensifies, and I look up at Emmy, helpless as to how to help her. She all but throws her piece at Maddox—who is still looking at her with so much anger that I’m shocked she isn’t catching on fire. Then she kneels back on the floor next to Chelcie and slowly forces her hands off of her belly.
“Let me look at you, okay? Maddox is making the call right now and we’ll get you right over to the hospital to check on the baby. Is that what you’re worried about?” her soothing voice whispers softly to Chelcie.
I feel her nod her head yes against my chest and my heart drops. What if something is wrong with Zac? I didn’t even think that he could be harmed. Her belly doesn’t look injured.
“Chelcie, is it Zac? Sunshine . . . is it our boy?”
She nods her head, and I feel like I’m dying inside.
“Someone call fucking nine one one! Goddammit,” I roar.
“Maddox is calling them right now, Asher. Let me get closer so I can check her arms. I need to make sure the bleeding has stopped.
Our boy. Our perfect little baby boy. God wouldn’t be so cruel. He wouldn’t take Zac from us. He wouldn’t allow another profound loss to rock our lives.
“He moved,” she garbles against my chest.
“What was that, Sunshine? What moved?”
She takes a deep breath, her whole body rocking with the movement. “Zac . . . He finally moved.” A sob escapes her mouth, and the sound of it is so intense that I have to close my eyes at the depth of her emotions. “He finally moved when you talked. He wouldn’t move. Not until he heard you.” She starts shaking again, her crying getting even stronger.
I scan the room with wild eyes, looking for something—anything—that can help me take her pain away. When I come up blank, I turn my attention back to her. Rocking her slowly in my arms and pressing my forehead against hers.
Emmy continues to check her wrists, holding a few towels that Maddox handed her against the deep wounds.
When the room fills with cops and paramedics, I finally let some of the tension leave my body. Until I know that Chelcie and Zac are okay, I don’t think I’ll be able to release it all. Knowing that this could have ended differently is the only thing that is keeping me going right now.
They’re safe.
And I’ll never let her out of my sight now.
* * *
Five hours later, we’re sitting in her hospital room. She won’t let me leave her side—not that I have any plans to—so I lie with a good half of my body hanging off the edge of her narrow hospital bed. Our hands are laced together over her stomach, and the sounds of our son’s heartbeats are echoing around the room. A constant reminder for us that he is okay. Safe within his mother’s womb.
She ended up needing numerous stitches along her arms and wrists from the damage the glass had done. They closed the cut on her eyebrow with glue since it wasn’t as deep. They want to keep her overnight for observation, which I readily agreed to. Just being here is making things a little easier for us. Hearing the sounds of our son, alive and thriving, reaffirms that Chelcie kept him safe from danger.
When I listened to her soft whispers telling the detectives what had happened, I had a hard time keeping it together. I want to find Sarah Jane and physically hurt her. Watch her suffer like she made Chelcie. But when Chelcie grabs my hand, I quickly push the thoughts back. She wouldn’t want me to be thinking that way. Sarah Jane needs help. Judging by her hysterical screaming when they finally were able to get her out of her comatose state, I would guess she’s going to go straight to a mental hospital.
“I’m so proud of you, Sunshine.”
She lifts her head, kissing my forehead before I can move back to look into her eyes.
“I was scared, baby, but I would have fought even longer. I will never let anything or anyone come between us.”
I lean in and press my lips softly to hers. She hums lightly in the back of her throat like she always does when I kiss her like this.
I pull back and look at her in question. “How are you dealing with all of this? Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not really. I saw her, Ash. She wasn’t right in the head, so if you’re going to start blaming yourself, thinking because she was some chick in your past that you’re responsible, then you can stop now.” I look at her, slightly embarrassed that she has such a good read on me. “I’m not sure that there will ever be enough help to make whatever is broken in her mind. She was talking nonsense. It’s over and I would really prefer to put it behind us. One thing I know for sure is I do not want to go back to that apartment. I can’t, Asher. Even though I know there isn’t danger anymore, I don’t think I will ever feel safe there again.”
“I understand. We’ll get you out of here and stay at Coop’s old house until we decide what we want to do. We don’t need to make a decision now or even a month from now. All that matters is that you and Zac are going to be fine. I love you,” I softy remind her, shifting slightly so I can bring her closer. It’s hard to get her as close as I want to with the wires and probes and crap all over her stomach.
“I love you too,” she murmurs, placing her head against my chest.
We fall into a restless sleep after that. I wake up a few times when the nurses come in to check on her, but not once do I remove her body from my arms.