Page 32 of Tempt Me

“I’m drivin’,” Cage states, his voice washing over me as more tears spill from my eyes and land on Jameson’s naked chest.

I don’t know who has his cut, but he didn’t put it back on his body once he put his tee-shirt over my head. He’s covered in blood from attacking the fucker who I hope is now dead. Does that make me a bad person to want him dead? Maybe, but I don’t really care. He’s taken so much from us and if Jameson didn’t stop him, he wouldn’t have stopped.

Other than feeling Jameson getting us in the SUV, I don’t move a single muscle. Every time I’m jostled, move on my own, or Cage hits a bump as he speeds from the house we were at, it takes everything in me to keep my mouth shut and not scream out in pain the entire time Cage is driving us. I don’t even know if anyone else is in the car. My dad is. He takes my hand in his and carefully holds it in his as we sit in the back of the SUV or whatever vehicle we’re in.

“Dr. Morris is on her way to the hospital now. It’s gonna take her a bit to get there. For now, she’s callin’ the doctor on call to make sure they know to do nothin’ except verify if Zoey’s havin’ a miscarriage or not. They can perform any other tasks to fix whatever else is wrong with her, but nothin’ when it comes to the pregnancy,” my dad finally says, his voice gruff with emotion. “Baby girl, I’m callin’ your mama so they can get on the road and head here. You’re gonna need her. We’re all gonna need her. Jameson, I’ll make sure your mom is with her and your aunt Bailey.”

I don’t respond to my dad. Instead, I continue clinging to his hand and let that be one of the lifelines that keep me tethered to the here and now instead of dying completely inside. Jameson is my other lifeline as I cling to his arms wrapped around my body as he holds me close. No matter what he says, eventually, he’s going to blame me for what’s happened to our babies. When that day comes, I’ll finish shattering completely and there’s nothing in this world that will ever be able to put me back together again.

Jameson leans over me and tries to whisper in my ear but I don’t hear a single thing he says. I’m completely withdrawn and pulling in on myself. For the first time in my life, I don’t want him at my side to see how broken I am while knowing I’m the reason his babies won’t live to see the light of day. Honestly, I’m ready to get checked out at the hospital so I can heal, go back to the clubhouse and get on my bike. I want to ride as far from Clinton City as possible while going speeds I’ve never gone before. There will be no one riding with me this time as I leave everyone behind. I’m a complete failure and no one will ever change my mind about that fact.

“We’re gonna do everythin’ we can to save our babies, kitten. You’re not gonna lose them if I have anythin’ to say about it,” Jameson’s words finally penetrate the thick fog consuming me.

“You can’t know that. I don’t know how long I’ve been bleeding and there’s no guarantee I’m still pregnant now. I should’ve done more to protect our babies,” I cry out, my voice filled with nothing but anguish as more tears fall from my eyes and land on his chest.

Jameson lifts my face up until he can look into my eyes. I don’t see the anger I was anticipating in them. He’s upset, scared, and determined. Leaning down, he carefully presses his lips against mine, but doesn’t deepen the kiss. I don’t want him to. In fact, I don’t even kiss him back because this is all going to come crashing down the second we get to the hospital and they let us know that our babies are gone.

“You don’t gotta kiss me now, kitten. The second we hear that our babies are okay, you’re gonna kiss me. I’ll wait for that because you’re worth it. You’ve always been worth it,” he states as if it’s a fact and not his own wishful thinking.

I wish I had his mindset right now. While he’s believing that our children are still safe in my stomach, I know that’s not the case. He can go on living in this moment while worrying about me and the injuries I’ve sustained at the hands of that stupid fucker. Closing my eyes once again, I move until my face is buried back into his chest. Jameson lets me avoid him because he knows I’m stubborn as fuck and don’t want to hear the hope filling his voice. Right now, it’s the last thing I need because if I let myself believe there’s a chance our babies are still safe and alive, it will only shatter me even more when the doctors confirm my worst fears.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Savage

ENTERING THE ROOM my kitten was being held in was every nightmare I’ve ever had come to life. Seeing her broken, beaten body is something I’ll see every day for the rest of my life. Her eyes are so swollen, I’m surprised they’re open and that she can see anything. Bruising covers her entire face and I’m not sure if it’s from the asshole in the room with us or something else. I spot the telltale bruising of the seatbelt locking across her chest as if she was in an accident at some point. Maybe that’s how the fucker got to her. There’s more bruising and cuts filling several parts of her body and I don’t see a single spot where her once flawless skin hasn’t been marked in one way or another. Including her lush lips that are cracked and covered with dry blood.

When I finally spotted the blood coming from between her legs, I lost my shit. My vision turned into nothing more than a red haze. Before I even realize what I’m doing, I’m standing over the asshole who has hurt my girl. He’s broken her in ways none of us will ever know or understand. I mean, our moms might understand depending on the situations they’ve been in over the years, but I’ll never be able to truly know the depth of the pain she feels or the demons that will haunt her moving forward from this experience. I’ll have my own demons to battle knowing I didn’t do everything in my power to protect Zoey. I should’ve made sure someone else was following her instead of letting her go to school on her own. This is all my fucking fault and no one will ever change my mind about that shit.

“You fucked with the wrong girl. I told you if you fuckin’ touched her again that I’d gut you where you stand. Did you think I was fuckin’ lyin’? I’m not. You not only took my kitten from me, but you killed our babies. She’s fuckin’ bleedin’ and that’s on your fuckin’ ass!” I yell in the face of the man I’m about to kill because he took what doesn’t belong to him and put her through fucking hell.

It doesn’t escape my notice that Zoey was definitely able to get her own hits in on the fucker. He’s got several wounds on his body that have been bandaged in a crude manner that doesn’t really do anything to protect him from getting an infection or helping the wounds start to heal. His wounds from my kitten aren’t what has my full focus and attention though. Nothing honestly does in this moment except for the need to fucking destroy this stupid, cock-sucking, motherfucker who has hurt countless women and will only continue to do so if we let him leave here alive today.

Grabbing the knife I got from my dad, I begin to plunge it repeatedly into his body. Everything in the room around me fades to nothing as I take out all the rage and pain I’m feeling on the scumbag on the floor in front of me. Over and over again, I raise the knife and then slam it into his body. I barely hear his grunts of pain and don’t have any intention of stopping until I know for a fact that he’s taken his last breath.

“Savage, that’s enough,” a voice finally manages to break through the fog surrounding me as I look down at the piece of shit in front of me. “Zoey needs you. Get her the fuck out of here while we deal with what’s left of this piece of shit. Our girl doesn’t need to see this shit and she needs to be at the fuckin’ hospital.”

I look up to find Tank standing behind me with his hand on my shoulder. Anger fills his eyes as he keeps them away from where his daughter lays on a filthy mattress, naked as the day she was born. Realization fills me that we’re not the only men in here and they’re all able to see my kitten naked and the most vulnerable she’s ever been in her entire life. I rush to her side and have to hold myself back from touching her. My hands clench into fists at my side as I take in every inch of skin on display while cataloging each and every injury Zoey’s suffered since she was taken from me. From her family and everyone who loves her. The only place I don’t look is between her legs where the blood is leaving her body. It completely destroys me to know I fucked up so tremendously and now our babies are the ones who are paying for my mistake with their lives. Lives they didn’t even get a chance to begin living.

We’ll never hold them, hear their little feet pattering across the floor when they begin walking, hear their laughter fill the room with joy, or watch them as they grow and become the independent men and women they’re meant to be. They won’t get to experience the joy of finding their true love or getting married and starting a family of their own. I won’t get to watch the love of my life be there to comfort her children when they get hurt, nurse them through any sickness, or love them when they suffer through a heartbreak. Zoey was made to be a mom and it's been ripped from her because some fucking man can’t accept that someone doesn’t want him. He's taken so much from both of us and there’s nothing more I can do to make him suffer for the crimes he’s committed against my kitten.

Sliding my cut from my body, I lay it in my lap before ripping my tee-shirt over my head. I truly don’t want to move Zoey a single inch, but in order to cover her body from view, I have to. As carefully as I can, I move the tee-shirt over her head and then help her put her arms through the sleeve holes. She tries so hard not to cry out in pain, but it’s written all over her beautiful face. I’m going to have to pick her up from the mattress she’s been laying on and I know that’s going to hurt her even more than me moving her body the least amount possible so I could cover her up with my shirt.

“I’m sorry, kitten. This is gonna hurt, but I’ll be as careful as I can be,” I say, tears filling my eyes as I do absolutely nothing to stop them from falling while lifting her in my arms because the hurt I feel is nothing in comparison to what I’m sure my girl is feeling.

“Argh!” Zoey screams out as her pain consumes her. I feel the men in the room with us go completely still as they take in her pain and know there’s nothing they can do to help her.

Tank is immediately at our sides as I make my way out of the room and through the house to get my kitten’s broken and battered body to the SUV so we can get to the hospital. I barely register all the men surrounding us as they come to a complete stop and bow their heads while I move past them with Zoey in my arms. Most of these men watched Zoey grow up and become the amazing woman she is today. Now, they’re seeing her broken, vulnerable, and wrecked as she buries her face in my chest. Someone has my cut and I don’t really care where it is at this point because the only thing that matters is the woman in my arms. My dad Cage rushes up to us and lets me know he’ll drive as Tank opens the back door of the SUV while he’s on the phone to get Dr. Morris to us as soon as possible.

The entire drive, I hold Zoey close to me and let her cry or do whatever else she needs to. My entire focus is on her as she screams and whimpers with every move her body is forced to endure as my dad speeds away from her prison and toward safety. The ache filling me is quickly turning into a numb void because there’s nothing I can do to help my girl. Not when she’s completely lost in her own misery about our babies and everything that happened to her while the stupid fuck had her in his clutches. I don’t register anything as I lean over my girl and whisper in her ear not even knowing if she hears a word I say to her. But, I have to do something to try and reach her and bring her from the hell she’s living in right now.

We’ve been at the hospital for hours now. The second my dad pulled the SUV up to the doors of the hospital, Tank helped me out and I rushed inside with my girl in my arms. We were quickly surrounded by a ton of medical personnel as we were directed straight back through the doors separating the waiting room from the back where patients are seen. No one bothered to try and stop me from going with Zoey as I laid her down on the hospital bed in the room we were ushered into. Her screams of pain echoed off the walls and I’m sure they heard them in the waiting room as she tried to curl up on herself and wrap her arms around her body. It took everything in me to remain against the wall closest to her as she was surrounded by doctors and nurses yelling at one another and asking questions I answered the best I could. Zoey didn’t say a word the entire time they were poking and prodding her.

The doctors have been doing one test after another on Zoey to ensure there’s no internal damage we can’t see. They’ve inspected and cleaned every scrape, bruised area, and part of her body before telling me she doesn’t need stitches at all. The wounds are all superficial and not deep enough to warrant them stitching her skin up. This doesn’t mean she won’t have scars as her body heals. It just means they won’t be as bad from the stitches that would’ve been used to piece her body back together if the wounds were any deeper.

One of the first things the doctors did was perform an ultrasound. Again, no one tried to kick me out of the room when it was done as Zoey blindly reached out and I took her hand. Neither one of us took a breath as we waited to learn the fate of our babies. Zoey was silently crying, waiting for the horrible news she was expecting to hear. However, the sound of the babies’ heartbeats that filled the room, shocked the hell out of both of us. Zoey looked from the screen next to her bed on the opposite side from me up into my eyes as I looked back down at her. Smiles broke out on both of our faces even though we were still trying not to get our hopes up because the technician wasn’t telling us a damn thing.

Right now, Zoey’s laying in the bed as we wait for Dr. Morris and the other doctor to come in so we know what the hell is going on. All we know for sure is that she’s dehydrated and has been hooked up to an IV so they can give her fluids. Zoey’s eyes are closed and I know it’s because she doesn’t want to talk about anything. For now, I’m gonna give her this because she’s been through hell and there’s no way I’m gonna make it worse for her. She can try to sleep so her body heals. My girl needs her rest and who am I to deny it to her because I want to know what the fuck happened to her.

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