Page 27 of Insatiable

If he gets up now, he will kill me, I feel it in my bones. There will be no coming back from this.

All I can see is red. My rage takes over me in that moment. I hit him again, blood sprays my face. This man tried to kill me. He tried to kill Cace. I hit him again and I scream. He tried to harm the man I love. I hit him again, blood splatters the walls. He tried to sell me. I hit him again, and again until I couldn’t lift my arms anymore. I stagger away, not looking at the lifeless body on the floor. The sound of the door flying open has me turning towards it. I stare at Sean and Jay who both look so afraid that I want to go to them and gather them in my arms. I take a step on shaky legs as the sculpture falls to the floor, adrenaline completely drains from my body leaving me weak. I collapse to my knees.

“Tatum!” Sean yells my name as he runs to scoop me up off the floor.

“Cace.” Is all I can muster before everything goes dark.

She killed him. Blood soaks her white shirt, covers her face and hair. With her eyes closed it feels like I am holding her dead body. Cace is trying to move to get to her, but he is clearly in need of medical attention. Jay bends down to help him up just as Detective Jones and Grant rush in with a team of police behind them.

“Is Ms. Charles okay?” Detective Jones asks as Detective Grant gives the other police officers orders. They all begin to spread out and check the suite. There’s no need really. James is here in a bloody dead heap only a foot away.

“How did he find her?” Cace grits out in pain through his teeth. Jay holds him up as he limps his way over.

“Our sources at Club Bound told us James had made a deal. His debt would be cleared if he delivered Ms. Charles as payment. According to Trix, our informant on the inside, he had been staking out the house when he saw you all go inside earlier. He made the call to the club and said he would be making good on his debt today and that’s how she found out about it. I can only assume he followed you all here and bided his time until he thought he could get to her without too much hassle.” Detective Jones told Cace, repeating what he told us earlier as we raced back here as fast as we could. ‘We weren’t fast enough,’ I tell myself as the love of my life lay there covered in blood in my arms.

“He caught us off guard. It must have been you on the phone when I went to open the door. Tate went to the back room. I didn’t even check the peep hole. I thought it was you and Jay. He surprised me, hit me with the butt of the gun and I passed out. When I came to, he was yelling at Tate to move. I managed to wrestle him to the ground, but I was too injured to do more.” Cace was struggling, every breath he took looked painful. “Broken ribs,” he wheezes out. “Definitely a concussion and I am going to need stitches.” If the situation wasn’t so dire, I would have laughed as he self-diagnosed himself.

“We got here too late. How is she going to come back from this?” Jay eases Cace down on the couch then comes back to stand over me and Tate. Honestly, I am wondering the same thing. The haunted look in her eyes as she turned towards us covered in blood with a dripping sculpture in her hands. It’s something I won’t forget. The trauma from this will last a lifetime.

“All clear,” Detective Grant says as he enters the room. “I’ve called the paramedics and the coroner is on their way for the body.

“You know this is a clear-cut case of self-defense.” I look up at the two them, while holding Tate tight in my arms, like I was protecting her from someone who was going to come and take her away from me.

“There is nothing else here for us to do. I want to get her statement when she wakes up, but I understand what happened here,” Detective Jones says somberly. “I wish we could have gotten to him before he made a move.”

“She saved me,” Cace says, continuing, “she saved us both.”

A knock on the door frame has us all turn our heads at the sound. Detective Grant gestures towards the paramedics as they rush in to attend to Cace. One bends down to check Tate over. I don’t let her out of my arms as they check her vitals and the growing bruise on her cheek.

“I think she is exhausted and in shock. She should be fine after a bit a sleep.” One of the paramedics says looking at me sympathetically, offering me an encouraging smile. I nod my head as the coroner bags James’ body and lift him onto a gurney.

Cace argues with the paramedics tending to him stating he doesn’t need to go to the hospital and that he is a neurologist and knows better. Doctors don’t make good patients at all. Eventually, Jay convinces him to go so that he won’t upset Tate when she wakes up. That got his feet moving. He even allows them to wheel him out in a wheelchair with Jay following behind.

As the room begins to clear, Detective Jones walks back over to me. “I will be in touch, Mr. Taylor. I want to conclude all of this as soon as I can. I am sure you all will want to get her as far away from here as possible.” He looks down at Tate still in my clutches and sighs. “She has gone through enough. I’ll write up Dr. Morgan’s statement and call it a day.” He backs away from us, waves goodbye and leaves with Detective Grant following behind him.

With Tate still in my arms, I slowly stand; my legs are stiff from sitting in the same position for what feels like hours. I walk us back to the room we left her sleeping in earlier and go straight into the bathroom. Opening the door into the walk-in shower, I cradle Tate in my arms and turn on the shower. The interior is white marble with black and gold veins running through it. A rainforest shower head is the ideal size for two people to stand in here side by side. Sitting on the built-in seat I wait for the water to heat up.

Stroking Tate’s blood-stained face, I realize then we could have lost her again. This time for good. James could have easily come in here and killed both her and Cace. Thank God he had other nefarious ideas about how to get rid of her or this would have been a completely different ending to our story.

James is dead. Dumb bastard should have turned himself in and cut a deal to help the detectives bring down the mafia slowly taking over the streets of Los Angeles.

“Sean.” My head snaps down at the sound of my name. Tate’s looking up at me with tears streaming slowly down her cheeks leaving crevices in the dried blood.

“Yes, baby girl.” I smile softly down at her as the steam of the shower begins to lift up around us.

“I had to. I had to or he would have killed Cace. He would have taken me with him. I knew I couldn’t let him take me.” Her words come out in a rush. Her eyes are wide with panic as she tries to explain why she did what she had to. I already know the answer to it, she was trying to survive. Anyone in her position would have done the same thing.

“Shhh, I know. You don’t owe me or anyone else an explanation. I am just so fucking happy you’re okay.” I pull her up, crushing her to my chest, rocking us both, burying my face between her neck and shoulder. Tate sobs. Nothing I can tell her can make this better. There is no remedy for this scenario. Only time will ease the pain of everything she’s been through. Time we now have. Time that I won’t take for granted.

Standing I carry us both underneath the water, letting the spray soak our clothes, washing the blood on Tate down the drain. Once the water runs clear I stand her on her feet in front of me. Tate stares at me but I can tell she is lost in her own thoughts as I remove her clothes, tossing them on the bench behind us. Leaving her under the water, I step back and remove my own clothing, never taking my eyes off her. My concern for her wellbeing outweighs anything else on my mind as I take the bar of soap from the alcove with the words Drakes Naturals stamped on the front. Using my hands I clean her body, scrubbing away the remnants of any blood. Turning her body around so her back is to me, I gently massage soap into her hair taking care not to disturb her newly healed scar. I quickly wash myself. Her shoulders slump forward, and her eyes cast down to the floor. I ache for her. All I want to do is take all her scars away and wear them for her. I turn off the water, grabbing two fluffy towels I wrap us both up in them.

“Is that better, Tatum?” I bend down to look her in the eyes as I dry her off. She finally lifts her eyes to me and offers me a sad smile.

“I love you, Sean,” she says, then closes her eyes and her tears fall freely once more. Making sure my towel is secure I scoop her up in my arms again and take her to bed. I want to remove her from this place completely but for now this room will be our own world. Not bothering with clothes, I lay us both in bed, tucking the comforter around her tight, laying in my towel next to her. I lay there until her tears dry up and she falls into a restless sleep.

“I love you too, Tate. We all love you so much,” I say to the darkness. Eventually I find sleep myself.

Time. Lots and lots of time passes before I begin to feel a semblance of myself again. I thought I was completely lost in the tragedy of the last few months. If it wasn’t for Cace, Jay, and Sean I would still be wandering around in the dark recesses of my mind. I thought the day James tried to kill me was my rock bottom, but nothing prepared me for the day I took his life. It will be something that will stay with me for the rest of my life. Time is what everyone keeps telling me I need, and I am holding them to that promise. It helps to be surrounded by people who love and care for me. In the past few months, Nurse Grey, or I should say Ruthie, I consider her my first true female friend, and I cherish our new friendship. After what happened it is good to have someone besides the guys and lots of therapy sessions with Dr. Schaffer to pull me towards the light.