Page 7 of Dove

The image vanished, the sound of the door banging against the wall drowning out his voice. But it was faint, as if it came from the other side of a tunnel. As if I wasn’t really in the room. But I wasn’t really gone either.

I didn’t bother trying to open my eyes. My cheek was pressed into the floor, and my hands were tucked by my face, almost as if I was sleeping. I waited for the pain to come. For a hit or a gunshot. For the slice of a knife or another burst of cold water. Instead, a hint of warmth brushed my wrist.

“Cazzo.”The Italian curse was spoken roughly from a voice that was vaguely familiar. Or maybe not. My mind was fuzzy, unable to collect a thought. A light brush down my face made me twitch. “Kincaid, can you hear me? You have to wake up. If you can hear me, wake up.”

He sounded so concerned I wanted to tell him I was here. That I was okay, but nothing happened. My mind fogged as I tried to find the words. Tried to place the voice in my memories.

I felt bad for him. He was so worried about me. But all I wanted was to see my mom again. Hear her voice.

“Kincaid. I’m going to take these clothes off of you, okay?” His words were soft but rushed. “You’ll freeze if I don’t.”

I was already freezing. Or I was frozen. Because I didn’t feel cold. Not anymore. I didn’t feel anything. I heard the splat of wet fabric hitting the ground next to me. I thought I should shiver when my clothes were removed, but nothing happened. Something soft wrapped around my body. Then I was floating.

No. He’d picked me up. I was being carried. I was leaving the gray box. Leaving the concrete walls. I wanted to thank him. The man whose voice I recognized but didn’t know. But I couldn’t. I faded again into the darkness. Into the cold. Back to my mother.

5

Maddox

Iripped the front door open, making it smack against the wall as my feet pounded down the steps to the car coming up the driveway. When Leif called me and said he’d found Kincaid, I hadn’t believed him. I still didn’t. I thought he was trying to get me to stop the warpath I’d started. I wouldn’t believe she was safe until I held her. That was the only way this burning sensation in my chest would stop.

Tristan had forced me back to the house and into the shower. If she really was here, I’d be thankful I wasn’t covered in blood. If not, I would soon be again.

I practically took the car door off its hinges before it even stopped. Kincaid lay in the backseat, my brother’s jacket wrapped around her naked body. Her white blonde hair was wet and plastered to her face. Her perfect lips were an unnatural color of blue, as was the porcelain skin I loved so much.

“Is this how you found her?” I asked Leif as I reached into the car to get her out. I took a moment to let my thumb linger down the curve of her cheek. To feel that she was here. Here, but barely alive.

A million scenarios ran through my mind. There was only one reason she’d be without her clothes. If anyone,anyonehad hurt my little dove in that way, there would be no safe place for them. They would feel every violation they’d put upon her bestowed on them. They had no idea what pure torture was coming.

“No. I had to take her clothes off.” My jaw clenched as I whipped my head around to him, ready to kill. But the sound of Kincaid’s soft whimper drew me to her again. “She was drenched and on her way to hypothermia. I still can’t get her to open her eyes.”

“The doctor’s inside.” I lifted her into my arms. She didn’t stir, and her body was cold against mine. I tucked her close, trying to give her my warmth as I rushed back into the house. Tristan, Henry, and a few guards followed. “Little dove, can you open your eyes for me?”

Her eyes fluttered behind her lids but didn’t open. My chest constricted, and tension coiled low in my gut. It felt like the walk up the stairs was miles. Like it was taking days to reach my bedroom.

Dr. Mechan waited next to the bed. He was in his sixties with hair graying at the temples. His face was deeply lined as if the stress of being a mafia doctor for most of his life was getting to him.

We couldn’t always go to the hospital. Nurses and doctors were required to ask questions and report gunshot wounds. And large public buildings weren’t easy to secure. But I didn’t care about any of that.

As I placed Kincaid on the bed, I swore I’d take her to the hospital if he told me to. I’d rip the beating bloody heart out of my chest if it would bring her back to me. I sat beside her, grasping her cold hand in both of mine. My thumbs stroked her palm and the back of her hand as I kissed her knuckles. I couldn’t let her go.

“Leif, stay. Everyone else out.” Henry lingered in the doorway, but I didn’t have time to deal with him.

He’d been the one with her when she’d been taken. He’d been shot and lost part of his ear, but I had no sympathy for him. He’d already be dead if I didn’t need every available person out looking for her. I stroked her hand as the doctor rolled the sleeve of Leif’s jacket and inserted an IV into her arm.

“Tell me everything.” I asked Leif after the others left. I watched as the doctor examined her. He lifted her lids and flashed a light behind them. He applied a bandage to a cut on her cheek before wrapping a splint around her fingers.

“I got a tip from Mike that one of our old warehouses was being used.” I’d have to thank Mike for his loyalty as an informant. A frog ring wouldn’t do it this time; he’d saved my little dove. “They were guns for hire. I don’t think they expected to be found so easily. Or how hard we would hit them. They weren’t prepared for an attack. My men took most of them out. Bash is securing one for you to question.”

“Why didn’t you call me?” I snapped. I should’ve been there. I should’ve saved her. Killed them. Nothing would stop the inferno inside me, not until I saw their blood on my hands. Not until I inflicted every injury she had onto them.

“We didn’t have time to wait.” Leif glanced at Kincaid again with a look I couldn’t decipher. It was something close to fear, but he didn’t know her. Didn’t care about her. Why would he be afraid if she lived or died? “I left one alive for you.”

Knowing there was still pain to be delivered curbed my anger a little. For now. I looked at the doctor as he finished his exam. “How is she?”

“Bruised cheekbone, broken finger, and fractured right wrist. The hypothermia is bad, but the warm fluids will help. She needs to be dressed. I’ll send for a heated blanket as well.” He cleared his throat as he glanced away from me, busying himself with putting away his supplies. He feared what would happen to him if she didn’t recover. “I won’t know more until she wakes up.”

“What does that mean?” I ground my teeth together as I looked at her porcelain skin. Her blue, cold skin.

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