Page 102 of No Longer Safe

Her mother gasped behind me. I didn’t give a fuck anymore. I wasn’t playing around. My father broke his word. There was no point in not being with the actual woman I loved. I would beg and plead. I wouldn’t give up until Audrey married me. That wasall that mattered in this stupid fucked up situation. If she would have me. I would spend every waking moment for the rest of my life making it up to her if she got through this.

“Can we see her?” Her mother was on the verge of tears.

The nurse’s shoulders sagged. “She had to have a blood transfusion. She lost a lot of blood. She’s all stitched up and banged up. I warn you, it’s going to be very difficult to see her like this.”

“I don’t care, I want to see my daughter. I want to hold my daughter.” Her father’s voice broke.

The woman led us down the hallway and opened the door. Laying there under a white blanket was the woman I loved more than my life itself. I didn’t need this accident to tell me. I needed this accident to show me that it didn’t matter what my father promised, he was a heartless bastard and the man would try to ruin my life just for shits and giggles. Nothing mattered more than the woman lying broken in the hospital bed before us. Her face was bruised in multiple places and there was a line of stitches that disappeared into her hairline. Her arms were bruised and beaten up and folded over the tops of the blankets. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I fell to my knees in the doorway as her parents rushed forward with tears streaming down their faces.

I unfolded myself from the floor and walked out of the hospital room as the doctor was walking in. I clicked my mother’s number on my phone.

“Is she okay?”

“She’s sleeping and beat up pretty badly. They said she needed a blood transfusion. I didn’t push, the doctor is speaking with her parents right now. All I care about is knowing if you’ve handled this.”

“He put the hit on her.”

“And?”

Mother didn’t have much of a sway when it came to our father. She’d been at the other end of his anger more times than not. He’d yelled, abused, and restricted her in front of us our entire lives. When we were old enough to defend her, we did, but it always came with consequences. Lost wages. Alleyway muggings. Mysterious disappearances of our friends and loved ones we accrued outside of our family.

“And Grandmother handled it.”

“What does that mean?” I closed my eyes.

“It means your father will leave Audrey alone. You’re free to be happy, my son.”

“I was going to be happy no matter what you had to say.”

“That’s my boy. Go be with her, we will talk later.”

Chapter Sixty-Seven

Audrey

Loud beepingand bright lights cut through the darkness I’d been fighting. I blinked against it all and groaned as pain rocketed through my body. The last thing I remembered was being kicked across Ace’s hallway.

Where was I? Was I being held hostage somewhere? I took a deep breath. Everything smelled sterile.

“Honey?” My gaze snapped to the corner of the room and everything came into focus. Mom was in a recliner with an open book on her chest. My love for reading came from her. She’d read everything under the sun to us as children. The back of cereal boxes, magazines, billboards— it didn’t matter.

“Mom?” My voice came out a rough croak. “What happened?”

“Do you not remember? You have a pretty bad concussion. I wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t remember anything for a bit.”

“How did you get here? What day is it?” My throat was scratchy and the IV in my arm ached.

She laughed and ran her hand down the back of her head. She was wearing pjs and slippers. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days though. Where was Dad? “You will not believe it but Alexei took us on a ride in a helicopter.”

“Alexei?” It was like getting stabbed in the chest to be able to say his name out loud.

“Malaya?”

The pain was back but worse. Everything hurt with the sound of his voice and the pet name on his lips. I didn’t know what it meant but every time he said it before it was like a symphony to my lady bits. I closed my eyes as they welled up with tears. He shouldn’t have been there.

“I’ll leave you two alone for a minute and go find your dad.”

I opened my eyes to Alexei falling to his knees beside the bed. He was still still in his tux and there was a little bit of stubble on his jaw. He looked much worse than my mom did.

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