“Please,” she says softly. “I don’t want to be alone,” she adds, her voice cracking.
“Of course,” I agree. “When the nurse comes back, I’ll slip out just to go give everyone an update and tell them to go home.”
“Everyone?” she asks.
“Ah, yeah, Paul and his brother, along with that guy, Roman, and the other Savage Kings.”
“Oh.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to see him before he leaves?”
“Yes, I’m sure. I don’t.”
“Okay,” I reply, wishing I knew how to help both of them get through this. Unfortunately, it’s out of my hands.
A few minutes later, when the nurse comes in with a tray of food and starts checking Tessa’s vitals, I tell her I’ll be right back and leave the room, only to nearly run into Paul in the hallway.
“How is she doing? Did she ask for me?” he questions me in a rush while trying to get a peek into her room through the small window on the door.
“She’s going to try and eat a little bit but doesn’t want any visitors tonight,” I tell him. “You should go back to the beach house and get some sleep. It’s been a stressful day.”
“I don’t want to leave her,” he says, reaching up to tug on the top of his brown hair.
“I know you don’t, but there’s no reason for you to hang around here all night. Try to rest and maybe check back tomorrow. She may get to go home; and if so, I bet she’ll feel more like herself.”
“Did she say anything about the wedding?” he asks. “She still wants to marry me, right? Tell her I want to marry her and that we can wait however long she needs…”
“She didn’t mention the wedding,” I lie because I don’t want to tell the poor man she’s calling it off, not yet. Not until tomorrow after she’s had time to think this through after going through such a traumatic event. “I’m going to stay with her tonight, and I promise I’ll call you if anything changes.”
“Okay. Thanks, Charlotte.”
“I’m sorry, Paul.”
“Yeah, I know,” he says taking one last longing look at her closed door before he walks away, shoulders slumped in defeat.
Roman
I’ve been pacing around the waiting room where the rest of my guys are hanging out, trying to figure out what more I could’ve done to avoid this situation.
There are four women in the hospital getting treated after being held hostage in fucking storage units like animals. One of the girls they found was so malnourished the doctors aren’t sure if she’ll make it. Another, well, she has several broken bones. A third won’t say a word to anyone, so they have no clue what her name is or where she’s from to contact her family. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been to fucking war.
“There you are!” Charlotte says, making my pacing feet stop abruptly.
“I shouldn’t have brought you here,” is the first thing I say to her. I hate that she saw her best friend like that, restrained in the dark storage container. “And if I had known Tessa was missing last night, if we had started looking for her sooner, maybe we could’ve found the van before they brought Tessa…”
My words cut off when Charlotte grabs the sides of my face and pulls my mouth down to hers, kissing me hard on the lips right there in front of a room full of Kings. She keeps it up while a few guys whistle, until our lips part and our tongues briefly meet before pulling away. “Thank you,” she whispers, sounding out of breath from the kiss. “You promised me you would find her, and you did. That’s all that matters right now.”
“I wish I could’ve done more,” I tell her.
“You did plenty,” she says, letting go of my face. “Now, you should go home, all of you. It was so sweet of you to come and wait, but you need to go get some rest.”
“What about you?” I ask her.
“I’m staying,” Charlotte replies. “The nurse is getting me a cot so I can sleep in Tessa’s room. She doesn’t want to be alone, and I don’t want to let her out of my sight again.”
“Then I’m staying too,” I tell her.
“I’ll stay with you,” Verek offers from behind me.
“Thanks,” I tell him over my shoulder with a nod of my chin.
“If you’re sure?” Charlotte asks. “I know Tessa and I both would feel safer with you here. She thinks…she keeps saying that those men are going to find her again.”
“We’ll sit outside her room, and no one without a legitimate hospital badge will get past us,” I assure her and am rewarded with another quick peck on the lips.
“Then I guess I’ll see you in the morning?” she asks.
“I’ll see you then,” I promise her before she turns around and walks out of the waiting room.
“Verek and I are staying, but the rest of you should go on home and get some sleep,” I tell my guys.
“What about the fuckers responsible?” Winston asks.
“Tomorrow, we’ll start hunting them down until we find all four of them who were in the van and anyone else who knew what they were doing.”
Everyone nods their heads in agreement, all of them wanting revenge as much as I do, before they say their goodbyes and head out.
“Do the Emerald Isle Kings know we’re in town?” Verek asks.
“Yes. Marcus gave all the chapters an update and told the originals we were in their state. Torin said to let him know if we need anything.”
“Good,” he replies with a sigh.
“So why are you staying?” I ask him.
“You saw her, prez,” he replies. “That shit was wrong on so many levels. Tessa told the paramedics she saw their faces, all of them. They weren’t planning on letting these women go alive.” Lowering his voice, he says, “What if they do come back to try and silence them?”
“I didn’t know all of that, or I
