Page 74 of Fate Awakened

The one fear I haven’t allowed myself to entertain is the bite mark imprinted on her shoulder. If Deacon got his venom in her before she got away, her wolf has been Awakened. By law, that not only makes her part of his pack, and this trip is kidnapping, it means taking her home is declaring war. A war that will no longer be supported by the LLC or any of our allies.

A war we cannot win.

Chapter 25

Keith

I’mnotsurewhatwas worse. Sitting blindfolded in the car, knowing she was outside and I couldn’t get to her, or sitting next to her hospital bed, seeing her attached to every tube, wire, and machine possible, listening to the constant beep of the heart rate monitor.

I can’t do this again.

My heart aches remembering the last time she was like this. She looks older this time, yet still so fragile as her life hangs in the balance. Once we got her off the plane and back here, Dante’s surgeons quickly took her for scans before heading into the operating room to fix a brain bleed.

Brain surgery.

She isn’t even twenty-two yet, and she had to have her skull sawed open. I laugh to myself as I realize Elle will probably be the most upset that they had to shave her hair in order to do it, well, if she wakes up. Just the thought brings my mood back down.

She has to survive this.

The doctor says they got everything, and she's healing, but they can’t even estimate when she’ll wake up. If she’ll wake up.

It’s already been almost a day.

At first, they wouldn’t let me anywhere near her. Cain staked out her bedside, barely allowing the medical staff to do their jobs. I yelled. I begged. Hell, I even cried. It wasn’t until Pres talked to him this morning that I was even allowed to come to see Elle.

And man, Pres has been a godsend.

She spent the first day keeping me busy working through the stuff I had to complete for Marlo because I wasn’t supposed to know anything about what happened in Reno. She answered every question I had on Elle’s condition, gave me every update, and even let me see Elle from the camera in her room.

Perks of being the security for an in-house medical facility.

She brought me food and sassed me until I ate it, reminding me I was no good to Elle if I pass out from malnutrition. I tried to argue that it would take two-three months for malnutrition to kill me, but she wouldn’t hear of it and kept dropping food at my workstation every few hours, whether I wanted it or not.

Not only did she keep my mind busy and feed me, but she also answered my questions. Pres filled me in on some of the gray areas of who I was now working with: VP Securities. On the surface, they were like any security company, bodyguards, surveillance installation, and event consultation. I didn’t know they also work with local and federal law enforcement on human trafficking, removing drug smuggling lines, and gang-related interference.

Like Marlo’s crime family.

It explained how they got involved, how they came across me, and how Bri got mixed up with them.

Apparently, Marlo is prominent in human trafficking, and after Dante and Cain busted a raid last year, he’s been looking for payback. It boils my blood to know Elle was his play at revenge. The only thing that keeps me from turning on him is that he still has leverage over me through my parents. I’m working with Pres to find a way to protect them, but short of making them move from the home they’ve loved for nearly thirty years, it’s not looking good.

At least I know Elle is safe here.

Knowing I inadvertently ended up on “team good guy” makes me feel better about the whole thing.

Now I just need her to wake up.

My eyes slide back to the beeping monitor to see her stats look the same. They’ve been keeping her hydrated, and her color looks better, but no sign of this coma ending.

The door next to me clicks as Pres walks into the room, signaling the end of my time here. Her face is apologetic, and I know she went to bat for me to even have this time.

“Can’t just reset her cache and power cycle her?” she asks, humor lighting her eyes.

“Exactly why I work with computers. They listen when you give them commands. People, not so much.” I smile, knowing she understands as much as I do. Pres knows her stuff. From what I've seen in the last few days, she’s probably a better coder than I am, not that I’d ever let her know. She has enough sass without me adding to it.

“Well, that explains your rotating door of sorority girls, kind of like mindless zeroes and ones,” she smiles sweetly, trying to get a rise out of me. “Come on, the kitchen is just starting lunch, and if we don’t hurry, the guys from training will snag all the pizza,” she says holding open the door for me.

I stand, walking over to move Elle's blanket up, knowing she always runs cold.

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