Page 12 of Bound by Affliction
I shake my head, clearing those thoughts. “Some assholes broke into your home, tied her up to the bed, and cut her several times. She was covered in blood when I got there and then passedout.”
“Cut her?” Pain creases his face, twisting it in anger. “Why was shethere?”
“I don’t know and yes, with a knife it looked like. She had burns on her wrists and ankles as well from the ropes.” Wish I could slice them up like they did her.Fuck!
He steps closer and lowers his voice, “Didthey…?”
Sucking in a deep breath, the anger mixes with the pain. “I don’t know.” Stone had no clue when we left, and the only one who can answer the question is Leah. Fuck, if those fuckers forced themselves on her I’ll dig them up myself and mutilate them. It’s bad enough seeing the cuts and black and blueness around her swollen face from obvious blows to it; my mind can’t go there to think of that violation too. It wouldn’t surprise me though. Those fuckers were in it and going all theway.
“They won’t tell me anything. Did they tell you?” her mother, Stella, says next to us, grabbing our attention and breaking those thoughts for the moment. Leah is very close with her parents; in fact, she said sometimes they are a little toooverprotective.
Her husband breaks the news to her as she sobs and starts to fall to the ground, her legs giving out. He catches her and holds her in his arms, whispering something to her and kissing the top of her head as he moves over to the chair to support her. I feel like motherfucking shit delivering those blows to herfolks.
The wait is tedious and never-ending.
“Brother.” I look up seeing Cruz, our president, and GT, our vice president, stroll into the room, noting all the looks they receive, which is completely normal. They are each a powerhouse; together—watch the fuckout.
Meeting them in the middle, each gives me a one-handed hug and slap on the back, letting me know that they, along with the brothers, are beside me. Lifting my chin to the door, they move with me, following, not wanting to go far but needing someanswers.
Our voices are in low, hushed tones, noting no one is around, but one never knows if there are eyes in the skywatching.
“Guys are cleanin’ it up. We made ithurt.”
Nodding, I let out a deep breath, my shoulders rising and falling with it. Not exactly relief considering Leah is still fighting for her life, but glad that those assholes will never hurt Leah again. Ever. “Right,thanks.”
“What’s goin’ on with your girl?” GT asks, his hands resting on hiships.
My gut twists, my hand going to the back of my neck and giving a squeeze that does nothing for the tension building. “Not good. She was torn up by those fuckers, cuts everywhere and bruises to her face. I don’t know anything though. This fuckin’ waiting is killin’ me. How’sBristyl?”
Cruz blows out a deep breath. “She’s good. Got some action, but her, her father, and Cooper are all safe. Regg got the worst of it, and she’s with him. Far as I know, she doesn’t know anything about your girl.” Part of the knot that formed in my shoulders relaxes hearingthis.
“Glad she’s okay, but shouldn’t she know aboutLeah?”
GT shrugs. “Coop thinks it’s best to keep it low rightnow.”
Cruz slaps a meaty hand on my shoulder. “Come on, brother, let’s wait with ya.” Moving back into the waiting room, it feels damn good to have my brothers at my back. Cruz eventually calls Buzz, but he gets nowhere because none of her charts have beenupdated.
When the doctor comes out a long time later, with blood all over his scrubs and asking for Leah’s family, I just about lose my shit thinking the absolute worst. Leah already lost a lot of blood and judging from his scrubs, she lost a lot more. The three of us huddle around him, while Cruz, GT and some of the other guys who showed up around the third hour, hangback.
“Leah came in with multiple stab wounds to her body. Some of those cuts were deep, puncturing several of her organs.” My heart stops beating and air leaves my body. He continues, “But she was lucky in that the blade only hit her kidney full on. With that comes a whole other realm of issues, but this is good for her, considering what it could be. We were able to stop the bleeding and stitch up most of the lacerations. She also lost a lot of blood; therefore, we are giving her transfusions, and we don’t know how many she’ll need before her supply levels are steady. She has two broken ribs and one that’s cracked, but not fully broken. Leah has bruises everywhere on her body, but we’ve checked and nothing else looks broken; however her jaw is damaged. Her hair was pulled from her scalp in clumps. Luckily, when that happened, her scalp didn’t come with it. We were able to treat the sections of her scalp, but we’ll have to wait to see if her hair will grow back in those places. We didn’t note any nerve damage, and that’s the bestthing.”
The doctor looks at me suspiciously, and he’s damn fucking lucky he’s telling me about Leah or he’d be in a hospital bed next to her with that look. He clears his throat, switching to herparents.
“We have yet to determine the state of hereyes.”
Stella gasps, covering her mouth as silent tears stream down her cheeks, and her husband holds hertightly.
“Right now, all we can determine is that they’re bruised, swelled shut, and have some cuts on the exterior. As far as it looks, she’ll be okay, but we won’t know until she comes to. She’s going to be in extreme pain while her body tries to heal itself. We have her on Fentanyl to help ease it, should she happen to wake up and come out of the sedative. But we don’t believe that will happen; it’s just a precaution. Right now, the best thing for her is to rest and allow her body time to heal. We’re going to keep her sedated to help with that, but we want her to come out of it as well, so we’ll be monitoring her around the clock so we keep the balance. It’s a fine line we’re walking on, but we want her to feel comfortable. She will be inICU.”
The pit of my stomach falls to thefloor.
“She’s going to heal, right?” Leah’s fatherasks.
The doctor puts his hands in the pockets of his scrubs. “As of this moment, we need to wait at least twenty-four hours to see if she has anymore internal bleeding. We repaired everything that we saw, but that doesn’t mean that one of the punctures can’t open back up. The body is a tricky thing, and we have no guarantees. She is in critical care right now and will be for the foreseeablefuture.”
My hand digs into my hair, pulling it tight. Flashes of my mother enter my head, of the last time I was in a hospital. A tube was stuck down her throat to breathe for her with IVs and cords coming out of everywhere. She looked as if she would wake up at any time, but the doctors said she would never come out of her coma. That her body was only alive because of themachines.
The choice I had to make was excruciating, one no child should have to do. With me being her only kid, it fell upon me to decide if the machines should be cut off. That decision gutted me, destroyed me, and ate at me for years. With this, it’s all coming back in a rush. Those feelings and that loss guttedme.
“Take her off,” were the last words to the doctors as every machine was turned off and my mother lay there gasping for air; all the while, all I could do was sit there and wait until she took her last gasping breath. My heart squeezes in pain remembering sitting next to her bed, listening as the life drained from her body. Crying isn’t something I’m accustomed to, but that day, I cried for a long damntime.
Now, it’s Leah, and I can’t loseher.
