CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Luke
It’s nine at night on a Friday and I’m at home in bed. Fuck, I’m a pussy. How the hell did this become my life?
I know how, Natalia fucking Baldoni.
The gorgeous Latina with the dark hair, a beautiful mind, and a spitfire mouth that I love.
Loud banging on my closed door jostles me up from my comfortable position.
“What?” I bark.
“We got a fucking problem!” Drew barks back. My lip curls up in frustration for being bothered. Goddam it, man. I just want to be left the fuck alone. I hop off my bed and swing my door open with a sour look permanently etched onto my face.
“What the fuck is it?”
“Aaron’s frat is throwing a party tonight and Jared just saw Aaron. How close do you think they’ve gotten? Would she ever go to something like that?”
Every part of my body stiffens, and my heart rate kicks up. The adrenaline rush I usually feel before a football game is kicking in right fucking now. Drew looks just as worried as I’m currently feeling.
Mother fucker.
“Not willingly. Fuck!” I seethe. “You go meet up with Jared. I’m going to Natalia’s place, maybe I can catch her.”
We break quickly just like we do in football and get our heads in the game. I drive like a maniac to Natalia’s, hoping to catch her if she’s about to leave or catch her while she’s having a quiet night in with Sam. I’m praying for the latter. I throw my car in park and run up the stairs to their apartment. I bang on Natalia’s front door like a mad man and hope they’re home.
C’mon, C’mon, answer the fucking door already!
“Hold the fuck on!” Sam growls from the other side of the door. The sound of lock unclicking is all I hear before the door is swung open revealing a furious Sam.
“What the fuck are you doing here, asshole! How stupid are you?”
“Where is she?” I try to push my way through the door, but she places a halting hand in the middle of my chest.
“I don’t fucking think so, sister fucker. She’s not here, so leave!”
My heart drops. Fuck. She’s gone!
“I need you to tell me where she is, Sam,” I manage to say as calmly as I can.
“Piss off, dick-brain.”
Slamming my hands on the frame of their front door, my calm slips and I shout, “Please, Samantha!”
She growls in irritation. “She went to that ass-wipe Aaron’s party.”
“FUCK!” I roar. Aliza pushes Sam out of the way, looking worried.
“What’s wrong, Luke?”
I run a frustrated hand down my face.
“Aaron isn’t who she thinks she is. I’ve tried talking to her, but she won’t listen. The dude is a fucking scumbag. Caught him a few years back forcing himself on some drunk girl at one his parties. That wasn’t the first rumor about him either.” Both of their faces drain of all color.
“Oh no,” Aliza mumbles in horror.
“Shit,” Sam hisses. Her features are still strung tightly. “She didn’t give me an address or anything. She just said she’d call me if she needed anything. Dammit! I knew we should’ve gone with her.”
“I know where his frat is. I’m going to find her.” I stalk off and race down the steps back to my car. As I’m opening my door Sam and Aliza come into view.
“Oh, no you don’t. Not without us, shitbrick,” Sam says, glowering at me.
We make it to the party in record time. I do my best to ignore all of Sam’s filthy looks meant for me. Yeah, I know I’m still on your shit list. I fucking get it already. We barge into the house and immediately start looking for tan skin, and a mane of dark hair. It’s only a little after ten, so it’s still relatively early in party speak. They could still be milling somewhere around here. I don’t bother with pleasantries when a few people try to strike up conversations with me. Don’t have time for that shit.
I ask around the party if anyone’s seen Aaron, but I get nowhere. That is, until one of his frat brothers slips up. Sometimes, alcohol can be a wonderful thing—loose tongues and all.
“Yeah man, he went upstairs a while ago with this super-hot chick.”
I shove him out of the way, urging Aliza and Sam to follow. I fly up the stairs and throw every door open until I get to the last one—that’s locked, of course. The music blaring from the house is so loud, I can hardly hear anything. I can’t tell if there’s anything unusual happening on the other side of the door.
“What do we do?” Aliza asks from behind me.
I don’t bother answering. Instead, I back away from the door giving myself a running start and shove my shoulder into it. Pain tears through my shoulder, and the door barely budges. Fuck!
“Seriously? Who do you think you are? Fucking Superman or something—”
Ignoring Sam, I back away again and charge toward the door. This time it flies open upon impact. A deafening crack tears through the air, and splinters of wood fly off in every direction. When my eyes lock on Aaron and Natalia, I. See. Fucking. Red. Natalia has her shirt off and Aaron is hovering over her practically devouring her mouth. They haven’t even stopped to come up for air. A feral growl erupts from my chest just thinking about him going any further with her.
She’s mine, mother fucker.
Something races up my spine as I take a minute to assess the scene before me. Aaron’s panting into Natalia’s mouth but she’s not reciprocating. She’s not doing anything, actually. She’s flat on her back with her hands on her sides.
What the…?
And it’s then that I realize she’s fucking unconscious. My whole body goes taut with corded anger, until it just snaps. I roar loudly and charge Aaron. His head whips to the door that’s now hanging off the hinges, and his glossed-over eyes land on my enraged ones. I yank him by the collar of his shirt and toss him off Natalia like he weighs about a pound. His shoulder collides against the hardwood floor with a loud smack.
“What the fuck man!” He howls in pain from the other side of the room. The gasps from the door let me know the girls have finally walked in.
“Natalia!” they scream in unison.
“One of you make sure she’s okay, and the other dial 9-1-1,” I bark. I swing my attention to Aaron who’s still groaning in pain. My upper lip curls in anger. I haul him up by his neck, fuming, and pin him against the wall.
“What the fuck did you do?” I seethe. He doesn’t answer right away so I slam him against the wall again, forcing his head to thump against the plaster loudly.
“Alright man, fuck! I only gave her a fuckin Rufie so she’d loosen up. She said she wanted to have fun.”
“You drugged her?” I roar. Something splinters in my chest just thinking about what he could’ve done to her had we not gotten here when we did.
My anger clouds my vision, and I’m no longer in control of what I’m doing. My fists slam into his face over and over, relishing in the crunching sound beneath my fists. I can’t feel a thing. The adrenaline pumping through my veins has my body on autopilot. Flashes of red cover my fists every time one leaves his face.
Aaron’s barely standing now, not even making an attempt to protect himself. I unwrap a hand from his throat and watch as he falls in a heap on the floor. But I don’t stop my assault there. I climb on top of him and proceed to slam my fists into every open space on him. I’m winded. I feel like a crazed animal, but I can’t stop. I won’t stop.
“Luke stop!” The scream penetrates the fog and I freeze with my fist in mid-air. Aliza’s tear stained face comes into view.
“Luke…,” she whispers, staring at my hands. “Please, stop now Luke.”
I look down at Aaron and my stomach churns. Fuck, I think I’m going to be sick. I can’t even tell what his face looked like before today. Blood trickles from his already bruised and swollen face. I immediately know I’ve fucked up.
“The police are on their way. Go Luke. I have Natalia’s phone. I’ll call you, and keep you up to date, I promise. Just make sure you’re gone before they get here,” Aliza says, gripping onto my bicep, trying to pull me to my feet, but it’s a futile attempt. I can’t. It’s almost like my body is paralyzed, unable to move.
“Go! What are you still doing? Go!” Sam shouts by Natalia’s side.
I stand up on shaky legs and take one look at Natalia’s stiff body. They wrapped her upper-body with Aliza’s sweater, but she still looks helpless, and I can tell she was crying. Her face is blotchy, and her hair looks wild. She was probably so afraid. The ache in my chest intensifies with that thought.
“No.” I find myself saying. Aliza and Sam whip their gazes to me. “I’m staying with her.”
“Luke, if you don’t leave now, who knows what will happen to you! You’ve just beat a guy fucking unconscious. Think about your future!” Sam yells in a panicked voice. Her emerald eyes are wide begging me to listen, but I can’t.
“No!” My voice booms. “None of it matters! I’m fucking staying.”
Aliza says something to Sam, making her back off.
I walk across the room, stepping over Aaron’s unconscious form toward Natalia. I lower myself next to her. I tuck stray pieces of soft brown hair behind her ears and lift her limp hand into mine. A sharp pang shoots through my heart.
This is all my fault.
I place a gentle kiss on the palm of her hand and hold it tightly. She’d never let me do that if she was awake, so I’m going to enjoy the feel of her touch while I still can. I know when she wakes up, things will be back to normal with her hating my guts, but I can live with that. So long as she’s okay.
“I’m so sorry,” I rasp out thickly.
Someone places a hand on my shoulder and I look up into Sam’s watery eyes. The music downstairs is cut off and people downstairs start yelling. Hopefully it’s the fucking medics. Sam runs out of the room to show them where we are. The rest is a blur. The cops and ambulance show up, demanding us to move away from Natalia. They check her vitals and question us about what happened. What did she ingest? How much did she ingest? How long ago was it taken? And I didn’t have a fucking answer for not one of their questions.
One of the officers gets a good look at Aaron still out from my beating on the floor. They check him over after Natalia.
“He’s breathing, with a strong pulse. He’ll live. He just took one hell of a beating.” As much as I would’ve liked to kill Aaron, I’m glad he’s alive. There’s at least that one thing I didn’t fuck up. The youngest looking officer, Ruiz, turns to me, asking the question I’ve been waiting for.
“I need you to go over the events of what happened here tonight. Did Aaron attack you at all, Mr. Caldwell?”
Aliza’s voice cuts me off just as I’m about to speak.
“It was self-defense. Luke shoved the door down, and Aaron came after him. So he fought him off. Aaron admitted to giving her a date rape drug, then Luke and Aaron continued to fight each other.” She recounts. I stare at her completely dumbfounded. She’s not technically lying, but she’s also not telling the exact truth either. Aaron didn’t fight back or initiate anything, not once. It was all me.
“And you’re certain Aaron was fighting back, Miss?”
“Yes.”
The officer looks between us warily, eyeing my bloody hands, then eyeing Aarons untouched fists. Eventually, he decides to give up.
“Alright. They should be driving her to Alvarado Hospital soon.”
***
The drive to the hospital is silent. Sam was the only one they allowed in the ambulance, so Aliza and I are driving there. It’s uncomfortably quiet, except for Aliza’s sniffle every now and then.
“How’s your hand?” she asks quietly as I weave through the cars on the freeway.
I look away from the road and down at my bloodied knuckles. I ignore the sharp pain shooting through my arm now that the adrenaline has worn off. My grip tightens on the wheel.
“It’s fine,” I say curtly. I should’ve had the EMT’s check it back at the frat house, but my top concern was Natalia, she needed their care more than I did.
“You took a big risk doing what you did,” she states. I can feel her staring at me and my jaw clenches.
“She’s worth it,” is all I say, leaving no room for discussion. Thankfully, Aliza doesn’t say anything else for the rest of the drive.
We meet up with Sam in the emergency waiting room. She’s pacing the hall and freezes when she sees us.
“What’s going on? How is she?” I ask impatiently.
“They took her back for a screening. Said they’ll give us more information when she gets up,” Sam placates.
“That’s it?” I hiss angrily.
“Hey. Calm down, Luke. I know you’re angry, but she’s in good hands now, so let’s just calm down and wait it out,” Sam says. I bite my tongue from saying anything else and nod my head. I send a quick text to Drew, letting him know what’s happening.
“Chase! Thank god!” Aliza says as she runs into the arms of some guy. His large body engulfs her small one and he kisses the top of her head lovingly. He holds her back at arm’s length and checks her over.
“Are you alright? How is she?” He cups her face gently in his hand, and she grasps his hand with her own.
“Seriously? You’re asking about me right now? I’m just worried about her. They won’t let us see her until the drugs leave her system and she wakes up.”
Chase sighs and kisses Aliza firmly on the lips. It’s no secret the two are madly in fucking love with each other. They look at each other like they need the other to take their next breath. It’s infuriating. I can’t help but feel bitter. Why the fuck couldn’t I do that with Natalia?
God, I’ve fucked everything up so royally.
Releasing each other they turn to us, and it’s then I notice the other guy at his side. “Luke, this is Alex, he’s a friend of ours,” Aliza says, gesturing to the other guy with buzzed cut hair. He nods in greeting. Aliza grasps the hand of the guy next to her.
“Chase, this is Luke. He found Natalia. And Luke this is my boyfriend, Chase.”
The guy is tall, about my height and build. He looks like a surfer through and through with the tan skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. We shake hands briefly then take a seat. And then we wait.
I have my head dropped into my hands when I hear her voice. It’s like nails on a fucking chalkboard.
Mother fucker.
That’s one voice I shouldn’t be hearing, not here. I snap my head up, pinning Gina with my gaze. She’s standing next to an older graying man, who I’m guessing is her father—well, Natalia’s too.
“Where is she? What happened?” he asks, striding up to Sam.
“They have her in an exam room. They wouldn’t let us in because we aren’t family. She was at a party and someone slipped something into her drink. We don’t know anything more.”
“She was at a party drinking?” he asks in contempt. I can basically feel him judging his own daughter. My hands curl into fists, and my nostrils flare.
“Daddy…I told you—” Gina’s starts to say, but I shoot out of the chair, and cut her off.
“Shut the fuck up!”
Everyone’s head swings to mine, including the other families in the waiting area.
“Get the fuck out of here, Gina. You aren’t wanted,” I growl. Gina’s face pales, and she steps closer to her father’s side like the coward she is.
“Hey! Don’t speak to my daughter that way! She has a right to be here for her sister,” Natalia’s father yells, taking a step closer to me. “Who the hell are you, anyway?”
“Luke saved Natalia,” Aliza says from her spot on her chair, coming to my defense. Natalia’s dad cocks his head to the side and narrows his eyes at me.
“So, you’re the little shit who has been causing my girls to fight?”
I chuckle humorlessly. “You would think that, wouldn’t you? Maybe if you opened your fucking eyes, you’d see I’m not the only problem here.” I train my gaze on Gina, making sure she hears me loud and clear. “Your daughter, not the one resting in a hospital bed, but the one standing next to you, is a manipulative bitch. You’ve spent most of your life giving everything to her, when you should’ve been giving it to Natalia, the most selfless person I’ve ever fucking met.”
Natalia’s father charges me, jabbing his finger in my chest. “You know nothing about my family. Shut your God damn mouth.” He shoves his hands against my chest, and I snap. I curl my fist, hurtling my arm back, and land a right hook onto his cheek. Everyone in the room gasps. He stumbles back, barely catching himself from falling onto the floor.
“That’s for being such a shitty father to a girl who deserved more than second place,” I hiss. Thick, heavy arms land on my shoulders yanking me away from Natalia’s piece of shit father.
“Take a minute to cool off, man. Think about Natalia,” Chase, Aliza’s boyfriend says calmly. Blowing out a breath, I shrug out of his hold, and storm out of the sliding glass doors leading outside.
I pace outside, trying to rein in my anger. Fuck me. I’ve just punched Natalia’s father in the face. Way to get back into her good graces again, Caldwell.
Scrubbing a frustrated hand through my hair, I whip my phone out my pocket, and dial Drew.
“Any news?”
“Nothing yet,” I sigh down the line. “I need you to come here.”
“What’s going on?”
“I just punched Natalia’s father in the face,” I deadpan. The line is quiet, then I hear Drew blow out a sigh.
“Fucking Christ. On my way.”
When Drew finally gets here, he gives me a small lecture, and tells me to get my shit together and play it cool for Natalia’s sake. We walk back inside, steering clear of Gina and her father, just in case my temper makes me do something stupid—again. I need Drew here to keep me in line, in case something happens again. I can’t keep messing up like I am. At the rate I’m going, I’m sure to end up in a jail cell by the end of the fucking night.
All of us wait like sitting ducks for who knows how long before a doctor finally comes out to see us. At the sight of the doc, we all stand almost immediately.
“I’m Doctor Peter McNeill. I assume you’re all here for Ms. Baldoni?” We all nod our heads and wait impatiently for whatever it is he has to say.
“We have her on IV fluids to help flush out what she ingested. The drugs are leaving her system smoothly, she should start coming around. She’ll be a little out of it for the rest of the night coming and going, which is completely normal for the effects of a drug like Rohypnol, or better known as a date rape drug. Ms. Baldoni will heal accordingly. I’ll send a nurse out to bring a few of you in when she wakes.”
With that he leaves, and I all but deflate into the chair. She’s going to be okay. She’s coming around. Everything is going to be okay. I blow out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding, and the crushing weight that had settled on my chest finally loosens, making it easier to breathe.
We wait patiently, then, finally, a nurse comes out and says we can see her. We all hop to our feet, but the nurse quickly shuts that down. “I’m sorry, but only three people at most can be in the room with her.”
My jaw tightens. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Gina and her father nod their heads. Of course the least deserving ones would get to see her first. If anything, it should be Aliza and Sam. Drew grips my arm and tugs me back down into the seat next to him. No more than twenty minutes pass, before Gina and her father leave the hospital. The nurse turns the corner behind them, heading straight to us.
“Normally, I would only let three of you back, but I know you guys have been waiting to see your friend.” She leads us down the sterile white hall and turns into a small room that likely won’t fit all of us at once. Alex, Samantha, Aliza, her boyfriend, Drew, and I all try to squeeze into the small room just to see how she’s doing. Natalia lays unmoving with the IV connected to her arm. Her eyes are closed, and I blow out a sigh of relief. If she saw me anywhere near her, it would surely be World War III.
“She was awake not too long ago, but she’s still a little out of it. I just wanted you guys to see that she was okay,” the nurse says.
I get one last good look at her before nudging Drew, letting him know it’s time to leave. He nods and leads the way out of the room. Just before leaving, I look back at my beautiful girl in that bed and grimace in pain at the dull ache in my chest.
“You good to head home on your own?” Drew asks as we walk down the hall.
“Yeah. I’m just gonna drive around for a bit. Clear my head.”
Drew nods, patting me on the back, and leaves me standing in the middle of the hallway. I pull my phone out of my pocket and hover over my contact list. I want to text Natalia.
For what? I don’t even know. I just need her to know that I care. I don’t want her to wake up feeling alone. Or even scared.
Shaking my head, I stuff my phone back into my pocket and continue walking down the hallway toward a side exit.
“Luke, wait!” Sam calls down the quiet hallway after me. Blowing out a breath I steel myself, turning to face her.
“Yeah?” My voice is tired, resigned.
“Thanks for everything…things could’ve been real ugly if wasn’t for you, so thank you.”
I nod my head in understanding. I would’ve done it with or without her and Aliza. There was no way in hell I was going to let that fucker hurt her. Just as I’m about to turn around, she shocks the living hell out of me with what she says next.
“If it means anything…I really hope one day she can forgive you.”
I clench my jaw and turn without another word because I want the same thing. More than I’ve ever wanted anything—including football. But I know that will never happen. Tonight is the closest I’ll ever be to Natalia. Just that thought alone makes me feel like a little boy on the verge of tears.
Once I get home, I head straight to my room and shut my door. I pull out my phone and dial the one person I should’ve called a long time ago.
“Luke? Honey, is everything alright? It’s late, you never call this late.” My mom’s concerned voice travels down the line.
“Not really…I just…needed to hear your voice.”
“What’s going on, Luke?” she asks in full mom mode. I blow out a deep breath and rest my back on the mattress, staring up at the ceiling.
“I messed up,” I say flatly.
“The girl?” she asks, and my lip curls. Ah, mother’s intuition.
“How’d you know?”
“For starters, you never did bring her over for dinner,” she says with a hint of distaste in her voice. I know she really wanted to meet her.
“Yeah, well, I kinda fucked up before I even got the chance to bring her over.”
“What did you do?” she asks sternly.
“I fell in love with her, then I broke her heart.”
“I see,” she says quietly.
“I…uh…I also think I might need a lawyer.”
My mom breathes deeply down the line. “Luke Alexander Caldwell, you better start talking before I fly down to San Diego and embarrass you,” she threatens, eliciting a croaky laugh out of me.
I recount everything that happened with Natalia, following up with everything that happened with Aaron. My father had to be woken up, and he is not happy about the turn of events, but I know he’ll eventually get over it. The same can’t be said for my mother. She is a whole other story.
“I’m proud of you, Luke. Not for breaking the poor girl’s heart, but for protecting her when she couldn’t protect herself. Now what I really want to know…did you kick his ass?”
I chuckle down the line. “Yeah, pretty sure I broke one of my knuckles.”
“That’s my boy,” she says with pride in her voice. “Now, what are you going to do?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you love this girl, right?”
I clear my throat, feeling uncomfortable admitting something like this to my mother. “Yes.”
“Then you better fight for her forgiveness.”
Blowing out a sigh, I tell my mother how useless fighting for her really is. “She hates me. Won’t even look at me. There’s no way in hell she’d ever forgive me, no matter what I did.”
“When has a no ever stopped you from doing something before? Fight. For. Her. Don’t stop until she realizes how much she means to you.”
My mother’s words stay with me long after our conversation. I suddenly know what I’ll be dedicating all my time to—and it’s not football. I’m winning my girl back. No matter what it takes.