Page 32 of Going Down Smooth: Part Two

“Mercy, Dez said when they found her, she was barely alive. She tried to kill herself. They found her passed out on the floor of the hotel room they were staying in. Chasson, Mal, and Derrick left her there. Left her there to die.” His words are like a knife to my heart. They bring me to my knees. Flashes of my sister’s screams that day in the distillery, the image of their assault, and how they dragged her away from me as I was gasping for breath. I don’t realize I’m sobbing until strong arms lift me off the floor and I am surrounded by their scents.

“Dez tried to reach us last night, they brought her back via private jet. He didn’t trust the local hospital just in case her pack tried to collect her. Heath admitted her to the VIP wing. They are treating her now,” Knight says reassuringly, and that news snaps me out of my trance.

“We need to go to her now. I don’t want her to be alone.” I wiggle out of Lox’s arms and hurry to gather my things while the guys all scramble to do the same. I will protect my sister this time. I vow I will not fail her. Those assholes won’t ever touch her again. That’s a promise, a threat, and a fucking fact.

EIGHTEEN

KNIGHT

The ride to the hospital is the complete opposite to the one we took home from M. Bar last night. It was a turning point for all of us. None of us knew Mercy would react to Omari’s presence like that, stimulating our Omega’s frenzy; her overwhelming need to claim us and mark what was hers. I can still feel her teeth on my skin from where she bit me right above my heart in the shower last night. We were already hers, but now we belong to her, mind, body, and soul. This morning I felt the full effects of our connection, I could feel her everywhere, her happiness, her joy, and the very moment that she spiraled into darkness at the mention of Faith.

Mercy sits between Lox and Nate, staring straight ahead at nothing. I can feel her misery through our bond, and right now, and until we know the full extent of Faith’s injuries, Mercy will be lost to us. I know my baby girl; she’s still holding onto a lot of guilt. The fact she couldn’t save Faith months ago was the main thing fueling her nightmares, night after night. As if she could have taken down an entire pack of Alphas to get her sister out of there. I’ve always admired Mercy’s unwavering tenacity, but when I think about how much worse things could have gotten that day. . .well, fuck. I grit my teeth and swallow down my anger. I think it is best for all of us to remain as calm as we can for her today.

I sigh from the driver’s seat. My hands grip the steering wheel tightly as I navigate through the freshly fallen snow on the ground. I can feel the tension in the car. Trey is practically vibrating with the need to speak, his knee bounces nervously as his eyes keep shifting to Mercy through the mirrors. For Mercy’s sake we all remain quiet. Lox’s arm is outstretched behind Mercy’s back, I catch his eye in the rearview mirror, inclining his head as we have a silent conversation. She’s not okay.

Pulling the car into the closest parking spot, I turn off the engine and check our surroundings. The hospital is not as busy as it was the last time we were here, there are no reporters or protesters, so I immediately relax.

Nate opens his door and Mercy moves so fast he doesn’t even get a chance to step out of the SUV. Mercy vaults over his legs and takes off.

“Mercy!” I yell her name across the icy parking lot as she practically ice skates to the emergency room entrance of the hospital.

“Fuck, mouse, slow down!” Lox shouts at the same time, but Mercy disappears inside without giving us a second glance.

“She’s going to be the death of us all!” Nate says in exasperation. “She charges into danger headfirst. I think she was a shieldmaiden in her former life.”

Trey snorts and looks up lost in thought. “A shieldmaiden. Mercy. Well, that’s an image I need to recreate next Halloween,” he says humorously.

I know he’s trying to make light of our situation and I am grateful for him and my brother. “Nate, you have to stop binge watching Viking television shows,” Trey continues with a chuckle.

“Hey, we’ve all had some lonely nights these past few weeks. I’ve binge watched a lot of television. I have a vivid imagination,” Nate replies as we dash through the ER without being stopped. The nurse takes one look at Lox and points to the elevators.

Lox clears his throat as we file into the elevator, sensing his trepidation, the mood sobers around us. “We need to keep our guard up. We have no idea where anyone is right now. Christopher, Chasson, Derrick, or Mal. We don’t know if this is another set up. Dez will want to get home to Omari. I am sure he will leave some of his security team here, but we will all need to be vigilant,” Lox says as the elevator doors close, taking us up to the VIP floor.

The doors open and we come face to face with an exhausted looking Dez, his eyes have dark circles underneath, his shoulders are pulled forward as he braces himself against the wall. Our eyes meet and he straightens to his full height, going into soldier mode with the flip of a switch. He’s in full tactical gear; black combat pants and a long sleeve shirt with a vest loaded with gear on top. Even from where we are all standing, you can hear the soft murmurings of his team through the earpiece that hangs loose around his neck. Guns are strapped in holsters around his waist; his eyes are sharp, despite his obvious sleep deprivation as he scans the elevator for threats unknown.

“I was on my way down to catch you,” he says, shifting out of the way to let the four of us into the hall. Shoving his hands in the front of his pants pockets, he rocks on the balls of his feet as the elevator doors close.

“Dez, you look like shit,” Lox says, taking the words right out of my mouth. Who knows what conditions they’ve been in or what they’ve had to do to get Faith to safety.

“Well, it’s been seventy-two hours without much sleep. We’d been monitoring three possible locations where we thought Faith and her pack were hiding out. It wasn’t until Faith tried to run that we could pinpoint where they were. I only wish we hadn’t waited another couple of hours to make our move. According to one of my guys, she attempted to fight, but Chasson managed to wrangle her back into the hotel without drawing too much attention to them. The men I had watching that location aren’t field guys, so they weren’t equipped to try to rescue her during the altercation. By the time I arrived at the location, they had already abandoned her. I don’t know what went down for sure, but she was beaten badly. The hotel room was trashed. The door to the bathroom was off its hinges, which means she tried to lock herself inside, but the worst part is that they left her to bleed out from the wounds she inflicted on herself,” Dez says as he barely contains his anger.

“She cut her wrists?” I ask matter-of-factly. We all know exactly what he meant when he said the wounds were self-inflicted. I can only imagine how helpless she felt. That her only means to escape her tormentors, because they don’t deserve the titles of mates, was through death.

Dez sighs wearily and runs his hand down his face. “I’m just glad we found her when we did. We stabilized her and I called Heath here at the hospital. It took us a two-hour flight to get here from where she was. I still have some of my team in the area searching for the bastards, but I have a feeling they are long gone.”

“Do you think they will try to return to Frankfort?” Trey asks.

“If they do, we will be waiting. But regardless, I won’t rest until they are found. The abuse Faith has suffered— I’m just tired of finding Omegas this way,” Dez says furiously. Again, I can’t imagine what he has seen when he’s out there finding Omegas like this on a daily basis.

“Dez, I am pretty sure you are anxious to get home to your pack. I see you already have some men stationed in the hall and Dane is on his way here. Go home.” Lox steps forward and pushes him toward the elevator.

Dez opens his mouth to argue but I stop him. “Do you want us to carry you out of here? You’ve done more than enough for us. We can take it from here.” I smirk, folding my arms over my chest and blocking the hallway.

Dez gives us a small smile. “Yeah, Omari is a few days away from his heat, so I may be unreachable, but my team is at your service. I will be in touch.” He waves as we watch the elevator doors close.

“Geez.” Nate blows out a breath. “It’s Alphas like them that make you want to go out and commit murder. Faith must have felt she had no way out.”

“I guess she felt she didn’t. She was trapped. How many years did we all notice the abuse and do nothing?” Trey agrees angrily, adjusting his glasses on his nose aggressively. Does it make us complicit because we hadn’t wanted to get involved? If so, what about this community? No wonder people are protesting in the streets. No one wants to feel less than human, and to some extent, that is how some of these Omegas see their lives—as less.

---