Page 23 of Wicked Revenge

As Ella opens the door, I look up from Raena to see the doctor has stopped and is looking at her with confusion, maybe even a hint of panic, but when he sees me looking at him, he shakes his head. “Let’s get her downstairs so I can take a look, and you can tell me what happened to her.”

“Do you know her?” I blurt out, confused at his reaction to her.

“I don’t think so. She does look familiar to me, but I can’t place her. Maybe I saw her as a child?” He sounds confused as he questions his memory.

Ella did say she lived here, so it’s likely she saw him before she moved away. I get a nagging feeling in my gut, but I brush it off for now. Getting her medical care is top priority, the rest we can figure out later.

We move through the back door, Ella turns and opens another door with her key before heading down first. We follow closely behind her to the basement. This space is nothing more than a main concrete room and a smaller storage room off to the side. Ella let us set up the smaller room as a makeshift examination room, with a table in the middle, and a supply cabinet with a sink on the opposite side.

Doc motions for me to lay her on the table as he sets his bag on the end and starts pulling out what he needs. “Ella, I need as many warm blankets as you can gather to warm her up,” he tells her and she nods before quickly leaving the room.

My brothers come to stand on either side of me as I gently lay her down on the table. But I can’t seem to let her go completely, so I grab her ice cold hand and wrap one of my large hands around it.

It seems Maddox has the same feeling, needing to be close and touching her because he puts his hand over mine, slightly squeezing them together and tracing circles over our skin mindlessly as he stares at her face.

Alek doesn’t really seem to know what to do, so he puts his hand on my shoulder, lightly squeezing it, connecting the four of us in a way that just feels right.

Before I can think too much about that, Doc finishes getting his shit together to take a look at her. Ella walks back into the room, carrying an armload of blankets and sits them at her feet.

“Tell me what happened,” Doc orders, using his light to check her pupils before feeling her head to check the wound.

“She fell off a cliff into Grimm River, about an eight to ten foot drop. She landed in the water, but the current took her, and she hit her head on the rocks before I got to her. She hasn’t woken up since I pulled her out,” I answer.

“Okay. I need you boys to step out while I take a look. I have to cut her out of these wet clothes and get her warm.” He grabs the scissors he laid out a few moments ago, pausing for us to leave the room. Maddox’s grip tightens around mine as my jaw clenches.

“Yeah, that's not happening, Doc,” Maddox says, but Ella speaks up.

“Listen, I won’t even pretend to know what the fuck is happening right now, and I won’t tell you anything about her without her permission, but what I can tell you is this. What Rae has been through, what she survived… If she wakes up with three big-ass masked men standing over her naked body, she might freak the fuck out. I’ll stay with her and come get you when she is covered.”

Her words make my stomach drop, and my heart thrashes painfully against my ribs. My jaw aches at how tightly it’s clenched, and my blood boils with unexplainable rage.

What the fuck happened to her?

My brothers and I would never violate a woman, but it's hard to let her go. They seem to notice my hesitation, and Maddox gently takes my hand in his, cradling her hand that's in mine with his free one before easing it onto the bed. Alek grips my shoulders and guides us all from the room. Maddox keeps my hand in his, squeezing gently before closing the door behind him.

All three of us stand just outside the door, watching and waiting. Maddox is practically vibrating in place, needing to get back inside that room just as much as I do. I can’t even begin to try to understand what the fuck is going on right now, and I can see Alek studying the both of us out of the corner of my eye.

This is insane.

We don’t even know her, but I know we would kill whoever hurt her. Maddox is on the same wavelength as me when he speaks. “I will gut them inside out for laying a finger on her.”

Alek is quiet, but he is nodding in agreement with Maddox– it's clear he feels something for the girl lying on the table in there, but he has always been the level-headed, calm one out of all of us. I have a feeling that this little red-headed angel is gonna turn him inside out, too.

Maybe that is exactly what we need.

We stand there for a little while longer, the anxiety amping up to get back inside the room when Ella steps out and closes the door.

Maddox and I rush forward, but she puts her hands up to stop us.

“Before you go back in, I want to say this. I don’t know who you really are, but that is my best friend on that table. She has been through hell. I didn't even know how much until I just saw her, so keep that in mind,” she says.

Before she can continue, a high-pitched scream rips from the room. I hear a crash forcing my legs to move on their own as I dart past her, barging in.

What I find has me seeing red.

Raena is curled into a ball in the corner of the room by the sink in nothing but her underwear. Doc is holding his hands up above her like he is trying to approach her. I shove him out of the way and scoop her trembling body into my arms.

Her eyes are squeezed tightly shut as she softly cries against my chest, her hand immediately clenching my shirt into her first. I move to stand up, and she whimpers and holds tighter, like she’s scared I’m going to let her go.

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