Page 9 of Shadow's Heart
The first thing that catches my attention as I enter is the smell. Urine, blood, and sweat. God, I want to gag; it’s that bad. I push down my reactions though and scan the room. Immediately, I notice a body curled up on the mattress on the right side of the room. As I get closer, my fears become a reality because I recognize not only his long black hair, which is currently greasy as fuck, and the distinctive caramel skin tone, but also his tattoos, which are fucking unique.
Dropping next to him, I feel my anger start to rise up from his horrendous state. He’s a fucking mess. Covered in blood and other bodily fluids that I don’t even want to think about, his body is a road map of cuts, and his face is hardly recognizable under all the dried blood and bruising. At least I can see his chest risingand falling, meaning he’s still alive despite the trauma his body has endured at the hands of Rex.
“Wreck.” I say gently while shaking his shoulder. I know it probably isn’t the smartest move, but I need him to wake up and at least tell me where he’s hurting most. I don’t want to move him and cause more injuries to his already heavily abused body.
He opens his eyes slowly; it takes far longer than it should, but I can see the relief when he finally has them open and recognizes me. It fucking breaks my heart. He’s clearly been through hell. I can only imagine what he’s been through at the hands of Rex. I know just how vicious and brutal my brother can be.
“P-P-Prospect.” He manages to get out even though it takes a few attempts. I can tell how much effort it took just to speak through the pain he’s no doubt in right now.
“Yeah, it’s me. I need to know what’s hurting so I don’t do more damage.”
“Ribs. Head. Worst.”
God even talking is a struggle for him, but he’s fucking trying, and I can’t help but admire that; he’s a fucking fighter. That’s for sure.
“Okay, I’m going to get you out of here.” I promise him.
He nods and starts to speak, but only manages to say one word, “Shadow,” before he passes back out. It’s probably for the best because this is going to fucking hurt him no matter how gentle I am. I’m not even surprised he started to mention Shadow either; as soon as I have him out of here and at the hospital getting Shadow, there is my next port of call. Right now, my first priority has to be getting him the help he needs.
Looking towards the doorway, instead of finding the guy I attacked to get in here, I see both Seth and Austin standing there, looking horrified and worried. Yeah, they should fucking feel that way; this should never have fucking happened.
“I need to get him to the hospital.”
“We figured you would. Ambulance is already on the way, and our doctor at the hospital has been notified, so there won’t be any unwanted questions to answer.” Seth informs me.
I let out a humorless laugh at my brothers. I couldn’t give a fuck about questions being asked; all I fucking care about is getting Wreck the help he needs. Nothing else matters except that.
“Good. Once I know he’s going to be okay, I’ll be back, and I want fucking answers.” I say angrily. There’s no point in hiding how I really feel about all of this; they both know me well enough to know how angry I am. Hell, they were on about how I’d react when I overheard them.
“Sure.” Austin replies, keeping his voice level.
I know he can see how fucking serious I am about wanting answers upon my return. I might be the youngest and quietest out of us all, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to get answers when I need them. My family is about to see a different side of me.
Chapter Thirteen
Wrath
How the hell can we have nothing? It’s been three days with countless members doing everything they can, and we have fuck all to show for it. I’m ready to tear my hair out at this point; I honestly don’t know what else we can do to find Wreck. I hate feeling this helpless. Fucking hell, I even called in favors I’ve had in my back pocket for a very long time, and none of them have amounted to anything. It’s like Wreck, and those who took him fucking vanished into thin air.
Watching my brother slowly fall more and more apart the longer Wreck is missing isn’t helping either. I’ve never seen him like this before. He’s a shell of himself; his normal happy-go-lucky self is nowhere to be seen. If he’s not angry, to the point he’s ready to destroy Devil’s Point in his search for Wreck, he’s utterly heartbroken. He might not see it as such, but the rest of us do.
Shadow honestly has no idea how deep his feelings for Wreck actually run. It’s like he has blinders on when it comes to his true feelings for Wreck. Part of me understands why, though; he’s always been the straight twin. He’s only ever been attracted to women. He’s only ever been with women. He’s never thought to look deeper at what he feels when it comes to Wreck. I honestlyhoped he’d have realized how he truly feels by now, but clearly that was wishful thinking on my part. Nothing has changed in their relationship. They’re still best friends, and that’s all, and Shadow is unfortunately in a relationship with the most self-absorbed woman I may have ever met, and that’s saying something.
The sound of my cell phone ringing brings me out of my thoughts about Shadow and Wreck, which is probably a good thing. I’ll end up driving myself mad thinking about it all for too long. Looking down, I see the caller ID flashing Jake. I can’t help but wonder why he’s calling and hoping it’s not another crisis. We’ve got enough going on right now in the search for Wreck. I don’t think we’d cope if some other issue decided to pop its head up right now.
“Hey Prospect, I wasn’t expecting to hear from you. Everything okay?” I say in greeting as I answer the call.
“Fuck Prez. Nothing is okay. I need you to meet me at the hospital. I found Wreck.” Jake replies, his voice tinged with anger and pain.
Wow, what the actual fuck. He’s found Wreck. How? Where? I have so many fucking questions right now. I know I need to fucking say something and get as much information as I can from him. Answers. I need some goddamn answers.
“What do you mean you found Wreck? How? You’re meant to be at your brother’s recovering.”
He lets out a humorless laugh at my questions, and that worries me deeply because I have a feeling whatever he’s about to say, I’m not going to fucking like at all. I have a feeling it’s about to change everything.
“Didn’t need to leave the fucking property, Prez.” He tells me, and I can hear the guilt creeping into his words as he speaks.
My stomach plummets at his words; I know what he’s telling me without actually saying the words. Wreck was being heldby The Khaos Group. Nobody else within the club knows about Jake’s connection to them; he didn’t want his family legacy to affect anyone’s opinion of him or earn him special treatment. I agreed with his request because I fucking understood his reasoning. Right now, I’m just grateful for his connection to The Khaos Group because I know without a shadow of a doubt we’d never have found Wreck otherwise. No fucking wonder we’ve had no luck trying to find Wreck; we’ve been up against a force we had no chance against.
