Page 20 of Rise By Sin

“AVA!” I looked up and found Deacon at the end of the snow covered street, staring at me with utter horror. His face almost made me laugh out loud, but even I knew that would be inappropriate.

“Calm down, big guy,” I tried to ease him as he raced to me and dropped to his knees at my side. “It’s not as bad as it looks. I just…can you help me get to my feet?” I held a hand out to him and he just stared at it like it was a snake that might bite him.

“Your feet? You need EMT’s. I…I have to call 9-1-1,” he stuttered as he fell back onto his ass and pulled his cell from his pocket. Clearly he hadn’t dealt with anything on this scale before. Or maybe it was the blood. Would a tough guy like him really be freaking out at the sight of blood though?

“No,” I lunged forward and snatched his cell from his hand before he even saw it coming. “No 9-1-1. No hospital. Just get me to my feet and help me into the club,” I panted hard through the pain I’d caused with my movement, but it was worth it. There was no way in hell I was going to any hospital.

“You’re bleeding a fucking lot. I don’t think it’s a good idea to move you,” he worried.

“Well, either you help me, or I do it myself. Either way I’m getting up and I’m getting to the club. I’ll bet it would be a fuck ton less painful if you help me though.”

“You are one insane, stubborn pain in my ass, woman,” Deak growled. He got to his feet, then I was airborne, in his arms and moving towards the club. My head started to swim, likely from the blood loss, and I had to clench my teeth not to cry out at the pain of being moved.

“Deak! What the fuck?” I wasn’t even aware I had closed my eyes until a male voice yelling caused me to jolt back to awareness. Deacon was rushing through the entrance of the club and the security who had been manning the entrance was the voice I had heard.

“Find Jack and tell him to get to Colt’s office right the fuck now!” Deak barked.

“Calm, big guy,” I tried to say, but the words sounded slurred even to me. Maybe slurring at him wasn’t the best way to calm him, I realized.

“I should have called 9-1-1! Why didn’t I call 9-1-1?” Deak uttered to himself, sounding like he was truly freaking out.

“No!” I said as clearly and fimly as I could. There was no way I could handle being back in a hospital, not after the amount of time I’d been forced to spend in one after I was shot. Just the idea of it had my anxiety rearing up hard and fast.

Next thing I knew we were in Col’s office and Deacon was laying me down on the leather sofa that sat in the corner near the window.

“Ava!” I turned my head and just made out Jack at the door of the office, stood stock still, staring at me. I couldn’t make out his face, but I knew it was him. “What in fuck happened?” he growled and then he was moving to me. He dropped to his knees before me and I felt reassured that he was there.

I didn’t know much about Jack’s life before he came to the US from England, but I knew enough to be sure he hadn’t been quite as clean cut and honest in his past as he was by the time Colt hired him. He had definitely seen and dealt with some bad shit in his life and as a result I had never seen him panic under pressure. He was clear headed no matter what came and having him close was a huge reassurance when I knew I was rapidly losing blood and consciousness.

“I don’t know. She called me and I found her like this, around the corner from the club. She wouldn’t let me call EMT’s. I should have called them, right? I should call them,” Deak panicked.

“No…no hospital, Jack. Promise me!” I had to push the words out hard to make them heard.

“Be reasonable, love. There’s a huge fucking knife through your bloody shoulder. I don’t think some antiseptic and a bloody plaster will fix that up,” Jack told me as he sat back on his heels and met my eyes.

“The doctor…Lewis….you have his number. You c-can call him,” I ground out.

“How in the world would you know about Lewis then?” Jack asked as he looked a little taken aback.

“Colt…he…he called him once…th-that night. Please J-Jack. Please…no hospital.” My words were weak and whispered and I was having to fight like hell to remin as conscious as I was. I felt nauseous and the room around me spun so hard I dare not open my eyes any longer, but I needed Jack to agree. I could not ever wake up in another fucking hospital ever again.

“What night, darlin’? Was Colt hurt?” Jack pushed.

“N-not Colt. Me…the a…attack…my b-back. Colt w-was scared. I t-told him n…” I don’t even know how much more I got out, but at some point darkness descended and the pain, panic, and anger all disappeared right along with the rest of the world.

MASON

“I want forensics all over this. It links to my missing persons, so if there’s anything here I want to know,” I told the patrol officersI had called in to guard the crime scene around the corner from Temple.

I was still reeling from arriving at the club in response to Jack’s demand I get my ass there fast, and finding Ava unconscious and covered in blood.

I had no idea why my girl was so terrified of going to the hospital, but there was no way I could avoid calling in what had happened. It obviously all linked back to Colt and any forensic evidence we could pick up there could lead us right to him. It was a lead I desperately needed, since I had shit so far on what happened to my best friend since we were fucking kids. I was truly starting to worry wherever he was, we were going to be too late.

Colt was more like my brother. He was all of the family I had left in the world and there was nothing I wouldn’t do for him, juts as I knew he felt about me too. We’d had each other’s backs since we were tiny fucking kids and that would never change. Losing him was not an option for me, and not only because it would mean I would lose him, but also because I knew losing him would kill Ava, and she most definitely was not strong enough to deal with that in the state she was now.

I’d done some digging on the system at work, and found the piece of shit that had shot her. She’d been investigating the kidnapping of two nine year old girls. They’d been missing for over a week when her and her partner got a lead that took them to a warehouse outside of the city. Screams from the girs when they heard the car approach had Ava and her partner going in and not waiting for back up. The partner, and older guy who Ava had been working with for three years was shot first. Ava was shot as she tried to go to her partner. Three in the back. She stillmanaged to get a hold of her gun and taking out the perp before she lost consciousness, likely stopping him from fleeing with the girls before the cavalry arrived, but she was injured so badly her career was over.

It made me feel physically sick to think of all she must have been through since that day. Surgeries and physio. According to the quick search I did online she probably had to learn to walk all over again, and was lucky to have been able to do that. Worse still she’d been through ever minute of it completely alone because she hadn’t even told her own brother what had happened to her.

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