Walking into the hospital, we see Elias as he looks around, like he checking to make sure no one sees us. He nods towards the floor and we follow behind him, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.
I hesitate as we move past the hallway. My room was in a few months ago.
“Tate?”
I’m not sure who calls after me, but all it takes is a second before I’m moving behind them, feeling bad that I even paused.
“I got us a few minutes.” Elias tells us before he looks at me and I nod my head, but the look in his eyes alone tells me how fucking bad it is.
He turns back towards the door and pushes it open.
The beeping sounds as I look over at him. He’s lying perfectly still in the bed.
“They have him on a lot of meds to help with the pain.” Elias assures me. “They say he’s going to be fine. He’s going to make a full recovery. Had they not heard whoever was coming…” He trails, but I know what he’s trying to say.
If someone wouldn’t have walked in and scared away the group, they would have fucking killed him. They were trying to fucking kill him.
“He fought back.” I tell them.
“What?” Eli asks.
“His knuckles are busted and bloody.”
“He was trying to fight his way out.”
“There were too many of them.” Zeke says.
“How do you know?” Elias asks.
“Cause I know my brother. I’ve seen him fight.” He pauses as he looks at Eli. “So have you. Do you really think if he wasn’t severely outnumbered, that this would have happened?”
I tune the rest of what they’re saying out as I move closer to the bed, damning all of his injuries to memory, knowing that somehow Darren is behind it all. My eyes trailing over the stitches holding a part of his face together. How his eyes are so swollen and bruised that I would be surprised if he could see me if he was awake. I can only imagine how his chest… or the rest of him looks.
“He did this.” I whisper, not letting my voice grow any louder because I know how quickly I will lose control over it.
“What?” both of them men asked from behind me.
“I’m so sorry.” I whisper as I walk over to Zane. “I’m going to make this right.” Touching his arm as I say it.
“Tate, we’ve got to get going.” Elias calls from behind me.
A hand comes to my shoulder as I let go of Zane’s arm. “I’m gonna make it fucking right.” I turn to look at Zeke, who looks concerned for a moment before we’re all leaving the room.
With every step, I feel the weight of the situation. They were trying to fucking kill him. How is he going to stay safe until we can get him out? The rage forms inside of me, growing as we make our way out of the hospital.
The laughter to my right stills me and I see fucking red.
He wouldn’t have the goddamn balls for that, would he?
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” I hear Zeke whisper. “Eli, hang back.”
I’m not sure if Elias is putting distance between us because I’m making a beeline for Darren.
“Goddamnit.” I hear Zeke say from behind me.
For the first time since everything started, I’m not fucking afraid of Darren. I am fucking furious. I want to make him fucking pay. Grabbing him by the shoulders, I slam him on the side of the building.
“I know it was fucking you.” I shout into his face.
