“Chloe.” He sighed my name, my real name, his shoulders sagging. He looked as exhausted as I felt, but he was there. He’d come to my parents’ house to rescue me.
My parents gasped when he shoved past them, hurrying for me. I moved, too, but was stopped by someone grabbing my wrist, yanking me in the opposite direction. It was Jared, who had no clue what touching me so forcefully would do until I vomited all over the front of his polo. The dehydration coupled with the touch to my irritated skin and the quick movement was just too much to handle.
“What the fuck, Chloe?” he hollered, releasing my wrist only to smack me across the face.
It was a blur of motion when I stumbled to the floor, my face stinging in pain. Kai dashed past me with a roar before tackling Jared to the ground. I heaved on the floor with the sound of bone meeting bone repeatedly, mixed with screams and hollers ringing through my ears.
The sickening sound of Jared getting the shit beat out of him stopped, to be followed by Kai snarling, “That’s what happens when you take something that isn’t yours.” And then to someone else, “Touch me, and you’ll get a thousand times worse.”
Then his arms were under me, hoisting me up. I was shaking and crying, but I’d never in my life felt more relief than in that moment. He kept my head pressed against his shoulder, warm sandalwood and patchouli soothing me, as he passed by Jared, who was whimpering on the floor. Then we passed Jared’s parents, who were ranting and raving at Kai, and then my parents, who didn’t say a word when he walked through the doorway, stepping into the muggy night air.
19
Kai
She passed out moments after I got her in the car that had broken down on me eight fucking times on the way to that shit show. My heart was racing, adrenaline still pounding through me. The sting of my busted, bleeding knuckles was easily ignored when the love of my life, who was carrying our twins, was barely breathing next to me.
Peeling out of their driveway, I sped through the gates after they moseyed open, then raced to the highway.
I thanked the Lord that I’d spotted the hospital on my way through Mandeville. It was only a few miles away.
When we got there, I slipped the ring on her finger before carrying her into the emergency room. They were quick to get her in and up to a room in the maternity ward. They let me stay when I told them she was my wife. They got her hooked up to machines monitoring her, the babies, and her contractions before the doctor came in.
She was an older woman with round cheeks and gray hair pulled back in a bun. She stopped short when she saw me, muttering something to herself before she went to Chloe. “You’re the father?” she asked while looking Chloe over.
“Yes.” I nodded.
Her gaze flashed to my hands, and then her lips twitched. “I’m glad you got her out of there,” she told me, kind green eyes holding my gaze. My mouth hung open. “Her mother called on me to… do a checkup of sorts. She was not in good condition then, and that was yesterday. When they notified me who was here, I thought her mother had come to her senses.” With a shake of her head, she cleared her throat. “She’s very dehydrated, but nothing we can’t fix. We’ll get her back on her meds and I’m giving her some Progesterone to hopefully keep those babies in there a bit longer. You should be on your way tomorrow so long as there are no complications.”
“Thank you” was all I could say before she left the room and a nurse came in to give her medication through her IV.
When the room was empty save for Chloe and me, I took a much-needed deep breath. This doctor probably just told me something she shouldn’t have, but it gave me some insight as to what the hell I’d found Chloe in the midst of.
The whole drive there, I tried calling and calling, to tell her I was coming, tell her I loved her, too, and that her car was a piece of shit. It just kept going to voice mail, driving me mad. I imagined the worst happening to her. To keep myself sane, I played out every scenario of what would go down when I got there. I made myself comfortable calling her Chloe, so they wouldn’t turn me away when I showed up simply by saying no Kate lived there. The name had stuck. She was more a Chloe than a Kate anyway.
Mia helped me find their place, demanding I get her back before something terrible happened. She was pissed at me for taking so long to make up my mind to go to Tennessee. If I’d gone sooner, she wouldn’t have been taken. I would have gotten to her much quicker if I hadn’t had to stop to get her car fixed in a different town after having stalled many times before. It took the mechanic almost an entire day to get it running, not even completely fixed. It probably would barely make it to the airport.
The whole drive and the short stay in a motel, I wondered how I would find her, but the situation I walked in on was nothing I’d imagined. I was glad that prick had given me the perfect opening to beat the hell out of him. Her cheek was still red from where he’d smacked her. When he did that, when I watched her fall to the ground, everything in me was raring to kill him. I probably would have if she hadn’t kept heaving on the floor.
If she was so sick, I knew she’d run out of medicine. Which made me regret not taking some form of vengeance against her parents. All
