Page 5 of Silent Betrayal

I step back as they unload her, and when they pass me, I gasp at the sight of her. Nothing Gideon said had prepared me for the sight before me. She looks so much worse than I imagined. There are bandages covering her entire body, blood staining them and her skin.

One paramedic is using both hands to hold something to her lower abdomen, and another is holding something to her hand. As they start to go through the swinging doors, a nurse stops Jasper, telling him he can’t go with her because she’s going into surgery.

“Give me the bag, son. I promise to give it to the doctor and make sure he does what he can to reattach it,” she says gently and my whole body tenses. Jasper reluctantly hands over the bag, a deep frown on his face as he watches her take it and disappear through the doors.

“Jasper,” I say, placing my hand on his shoulder to get his attention. His gaze turns to me, looking lost.

“What did she mean… Reattach it? What was in that bag?” My voice breaks on the last word, afraid of the answer.

“Her f-finger,” he stutters before closing his eyes tight. I can’t stop the gasp that escapes me as I cover my mouth with my hand and stare at the door Mina disappeared through. He cut off her finger? What the actual fuck?!

I reach for Jasper and pull him to me, hugging him tightly. We hold each other as we silently cry. Worried about if she’ll make it through this, and what state she’ll be in if she does.

“It was her ring finger on her left hand,” he tells me as he pulls back and wipes his face.

“Her ring finger?” I ask in surprise. That was likely not a coincidence, it was easier to sever a pinky, so the fact that he took that particularfinger from her was meant to send a message. It’s something else that bastard wanted to take from her.

“Are you two with the young lady that just came in on the ambulance?” a nurse asks, suddenly appearing beside us. We nod and she leads us to a quiet waiting room.

“There are a few more guys coming too, if you can bring them back here when they arrive?” I ask her, and she smiles warmly.

“Of course. I’ll need her information too, if you have it. But no rush right now, I’ll be back in a little while.” I watch her leave and realize I have little info on Mina to give her besides her name and date of birth. Neither of which I’m positive isn’t falsified.

“There was a really bad stab wound across her lower abdomen,” Jasper says quietly, making me look at him. He’s sitting in a chair, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. “They think it might have hit her uterus based on where it was.”

“Fuck!” I swear, pacing again. “Her ring finger and that? He was definitely sending her a message.”

“Ben, there’s no way we can lose her. If she survi—”

“She WILL survive this,” I cut him off angrily. I’m not willing to consider any other option right now.

He sighs. “Whenshe survives this, she can’t go back with her mother, even if Helen isn’t involved in what happened or the murders, Mina clearly isn’t safe in that home. But she can’t go into foster care, either. They might send her out of state. And what if she is in witness protection? They might come in and take her from us before we even know what’s happening! Ben… I can’t lose her now that we’ve found her,” he says angrily, shaking his head and staring at the floor.

He’s right. We couldn’t lose her now. We couldn’t even let her out of our sight. I need to figure out a way that we can keep her. A plan starts to form in my mind and I stop my pacing.

“Don’t worry, Jasper,” I say as I move over to him. I squeeze his shoulder in reassurance, and when he glances up at me, I give him a big grin. “I have a plan.”

Chapter three

Unfortunately, we aren’t able to leave Mina’s house as quickly as we’d like. Everyone but Max and I are covered in blood and shirtless, and the police stopped them from washing up inside.

“I’m sorry gentlemen, but you can’t leave until we get your statements,” the police officer says for the third time. I can see Atlas clenching his fists in anger at being held up and I decide to intervene before he loses it and punches him. The last thing we need right now is for him to get arrested.

“Excuse me, officer,” I say politely, moving myself in front of Atlas. “Would you mind calling Chief Walters? Tell him you have the Black Hawk Investigations team here.” The officer’s eyebrows raise in surprise.

“Oh, of course, sorry I didn’t realize you knew the chief.” He turns and pulls out his phone and as he starts talking, I turn to my brothers.

“We need to just stay calm and answer what we need to before we leave. Ben and Jasper are with her now, she’s safe.”

“For now,” Atlas grumbles.

“Yes, for now, but if anyone can keep a level head to make sure she is taken care of, it’s Ben. You trust him to do that, right?” I ask, trying to make eye contact with Atlas.

He looks like he wants to argue before his shoulders drop in defeat. “Yeah, of course I trust him.”

A commotion draws our attention to where two officers are escorting the man we believe to be Jeff out of the house. He’s conscious now, his hands in handcuffs behind his back as he yells obscenities at the cops.

“I haven’t done anything, you idiots!” He struggles and when he sees us, his eyes go wide. “You! You broke into my house and attacked me! Officers, you need to arrest them, not ME!” he yells as they drag him to the back of the cop car.

---