Page 12 of Silent Betrayal

I lift my chin again, looking at Jasper for another drink. He indulges me, and as my eyelids grow heavy. Dom smooths my hair down and says, “sleep, Kitten. We’ll be here when you wake up. We’re not going anywhere. You belong with us now.”

Chapter five

She’sokay. I have to keep reminding myself of that over and over as I watch her sleeping in the hospital bed. I was terrified that she wouldn’t wake up. We’ve spent the past twelve days in the hospital room, everyone refusing to go home. We took turns grabbing food and stretching our legs. Right now I’m the only one in here as the others are getting food.

Luckily, we paid to get a VIP room that was extra big and included a shower we could use. There were enough seats between the couches and chairs to seat us all, which was a good thing since we had been eating and sleeping here for almost two weeks.

I wasn’t sure how we were going to keep CPA from taking her. Unfortunately, Ben’s plan to pretend to be her husband fell through when he had no documentation to back his claim. If he had been home, he could have whipped something up, but we didn’t have time. Besides, the chief arrived and called him on his bullshit before we had time to come up with a plan.

But when she woke up and told us she’s twenty-one, I almost passed out from shock. She was pretending to be seventeen, while Max and I were pretending to be eighteen instead of twenty-two. It’s almost funnywhen you think about it. We thought she was far too young, and she probably thought the same of us.

Seeing her alive and somewhat talking allows me to take the first real breath since I saw her lying on that basement floor, covered in blood.

She’s been out cold for twelve days. Part of that was a forced coma to help her heal. She sustained some serious head injuries, they suspected the front of her head and been hit with something hard, and they were worried about the swelling in her brain. She stayed in the coma for nine days, and then it took another three days for her to finally wake up. The whole time she was unconscious was like something from a nightmare, but the last three days were somehow much worse, knowing she could wake up at any moment and wondering why she hadn’t yet.

I stare at her left hand, all wrapped up with bandages. They reattached the finger, but we won’t know if it will fully reattach or even function until she heals a little more and can test it. When she gripped my hand, I felt such relief that she at least has movement there, but I noticed that she doesn’t seem to be able to lift her arms. It was obvious when she was trying to communicate with us. I’m praying it’s a side effect of the coma and the drugs in her system, and she’ll eventually regain movement.

Her head moves slightly and I shift my gaze to her face. She still has some discoloration, but her face looks much better than it did when we first brought her in. Her face was so badly beaten and covered in blood that I was afraid she had lost her eyes. When the doctor told us it was just swelling and her eyesight should be fine, we were all so relieved.

I watch as her eyelashes flutter, then her eyes open fully. She blinks, looks around, and meets my gaze, smiling. “Jasper,” she rasps. I swear my heart jumps in my chest, hearing my name on her lips for the first time.

“Angel,” I say, softly stroking her face. “How are you feeling today?” She scrunches up her nose. “That bad, huh?”

She starts to move, but I stop her. “Whoa, hang on there. Are you trying to sit up?” She nods.

“Alright, let me help you. Hold on.” I press the button that tilts the bed to a sitting position. Once it’s upright, I help her sit up a bit more by placing pillows behind her.

I grab the water and let her take a few long sips. The door opens, and Tucker and Gideon come in. They see her awake and smile, coming over to kiss her cheek, and I’m delighted when she blushes. Tucker takes the seat on the other side of her and holds her right hand in his.

“I’m glad to see you awake. We were so worried about you, Sugar.”

“C-cowboy,” she whispers, and I smirk at the nickname. “I’m s-sorry.”

He sucks in a sharp breath and looks at her like she’s insane. “What on earth are you apologizing to me for?”

“You said—” She coughs, and I bring the straw to her lips so she can soothe her throat. She drinks gratefully and turns back to him.

“You c-couldn’t handle me getting h-hurt again.” Her voice catches on the last word as a tear rolls down Tucker’s cheek. I’ve never seen this guy cry before meeting Mina.

He hasn’t had as much time to interact with her as the rest of us. When he saw her in gym class, he had to act as her teacher. But it seems they’ve still managed to build a connection between them, something I’m grateful for.

He cups her face in his hand. “Sugar, you never need to apologize to me for that. None of what happened was your fault. You understand that, don’t you? You’re too sweet to be thinking like that. I’m just happy you’re okay now. Let’s focus on you getting better, alright?”

She sniffles as she nods, and Tuck leans forward to place a chaste kiss on her lips. He pulls back and gives her a wink. She stares at him with wide eyes as her entire face turns red.

Tucker smirks at her reaction, then moves to open the small bag he’s carrying. “I brought you something,” he says, before pulling out a small cute stuffed cow.

She gasps as she quickly reaches out to take it from him. “TJ! You saved him!” Her hugging the stuffed animal to her chest like it’s the most important thing she owns makes my chest ache. My eyes meet Tucker’s and I can see he’s as affected by her reaction as I am, if not more.

“I found him in your bag before we left your… old house.”

“Thank you, Cowboy.”

“Of course. We also saved your phone and your mp3 player, they’re on the table beside you, there,” he says, pointing to the small table on the other side of her.

“Thanks,” she says, resting her chin on her stuffed cow.

Gideon moves in to sit on the same side of the bed as Tucker and takes her hand from him.

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