Page 45 of Damned By His Angel

Your body can be broken and used but your mind is your safe haven.

I remain still as the nurse wheels a table over and places the tray on it. When she reaches for my wrist, I jerk away, Her lips thin and eyes narrow in warning but I scowl back. Something about her seems familiar but I’m putting that down to the amount of pain I’m in. I have been weak for too fucking long and I will not allow these cowardly bastards to take away my free will. I will fight until my dying breath to save my daughter from these monsters like my mom saved me all those years ago!

“If you don’t allow me to check your pulse, I will be forced to bring in some men to restrain you while I do it, then check to see how far you have dilated while they watch.” I grind my teeth in anger. I relent to her demand and give her my wrist. She checks my pulse and then notes it down on the chart I didn’t see earlier on the table. “Easiest way to do this is heels together and then drop your knees open.”

“You took a vow, you promised to help people and here you are trying to help monsters?—”

“Coming from the woman who ran off and stole a man’s child and refused to allow him to be a part of his child's life?” I balk at her.

“What?” I squawk out.

She scoffs. “Open now or I will call for help.” My anger peaks. Colson, the lying son of a bitch, has fed this woman lies and she ate them up like a fucking addict. I watch her glove up then do as she instructed. She perches on the edge of the bed and lifts my gown right as another wave of pain tears through me. “Breathe through it, don’t fight it.”

“It’s too soon,” I grit out through clenched teeth.

“She is coming whether you are ready or not.” I whimper when she pushes her fingers inside me, breathing through my nose to keep from crying out. The whole ordeal lasts about a minute before she is crossing the room and dumping her gloves in a small trash can. “You’re about seven centimeters dilated.” My eyes widen.

“How long was I out?” I breathe out, that’s too far along for me to have been out for a few minutes. She doesn’t get the chance to answer, because the door opens and Colson walks in. I close my legs and push my gown down to cover myself as best as I can.

“I’ll be back to check on her in an hour,” the nurse says as she leaves me alone with the monster. Colson looks clean and showered, he even looks rested, the fucking bastard. When he looks at me, I feel nothing but deep hatred for him. I can’t believe I fooled myself into thinking I could actually love a piece of shit like him. Colson remains silent as he crosses to the far side of the room and gazes out the window, keeping his back to me.

“As a courtesy to you, I will make your death swift and painless.”

I snort, he whirls around and looks at me with utter contempt. “A courtesy to me would be you blowing your own fucking brains out!”

“You like pushing me. Don’t you?”

I stare at him for a second trying to understand why he would want to hurt me. My dad did his father a mercy and yet here he is using me and trying to hurt my father by killing his daughter and taking his grandchild.

“You know my family won’t stop,” I grit out through clenched teeth as another wave of pain slams into me. Colson smiles at the sight of me in pain, he loves seeing me writhe in agony. “Kill me, do whatever the fuck you want but you will never be able to stop running. They will chase you to the ends of the earth and never give up until they find you and take back what is theirs!”

“That fucking cunt of a kid is mine!” I recoil on instinct. I guess my mind thinks we are past the trauma but my body is still reacting to muscle memory.

“How can you call her that?” I ask quietly, utterly stumped by the fact he could possibly despise his own flesh and blood.

“Because you’re it’s mother, that’s why I hate it.”

“You are a fucking disgrace and I can’t wait for the day my father and Cronos find you. They will drag your death out for years so you can feel every ounce of fucking pain you have caused me and my family!” I scream. “I want them to cut out your fucking tongue and pull your eyes from their sockets with a fucking spoon and make you eat them before they cut off your ears so you can go to the afterlife deaf, dumb and blind!” I slump forward and drag in lungfuls of air, just in time for another contraction to hit, this one more painful than the last, forcing me to arch my back and breathe in through my nose.

I whimper when Colson rips my head back by the hair, the contraction is still pulsing through me, the pain making me delirious. “For that comment, you dumb bitch, I’ll make your death slow and painful. Hurry the fuck up and have that kid so I can get rid of you.” He releases me with a hard shove.

Before he can leave the room I call out. “I can’t wait for the Devil to arrive and drag your worthless ass back to fucking hell!”

“Fucking you was hell, so going anywhere else would be better than touching that wretched cunt again.” Indignation burns inside me as he slams the door closed behind him.

Cronos

It’s early hours in the morning by the time we land in Switzerland. Bishop got the green light from Ian, Knox and Waverly both agreed that the Da Luca Family and the Re Della Strada would stand behind us on our hunt to bring Amelia home. King had Allison flown back to New York where his sister and sister-in-laws will remain at her side until we all return. Bishop has the whole floor Allison is on blocked off and thirty men standing guard with Luka leading them—they have orders to shoot to kill.

“Nos?” I shake my head and turn to look at London, who is sitting between me and Artemis while King drives and Vincent rides shotgun. King says he won’t leave my side in case Meelz calls again. I know it’s fucking with his head that she called me and not him. Truth is, I know she only called me because that fucker wanted to hurt her more than he already had by forcing her to end things with me.

“Yeah?” I croak out.

“Whatever it takes, no matter how long, I swear Artemis and I will be by your side. We’ll destroy that fucker and tear him apart limb by fucking limb and feed him to our dogs.”

“Baby, we don’t have dogs,” Art interjects. London just shrugs.

“We’ll get some dogs then, whatever. My point is, we’ll kill every single one of them and make them pay for hurting your feelings.”