Page 54 of Whip’s Wisdom

“Riportali ai auto. Li porteremo nelle segrete. Abbiamo molte domande per questi bastardi.” Luca says to his men.

As they begin to take the men that we injured in the room, Thorn steps up.

“Where are you taking them?”

“We are bringing them to our home for punishment. We will get the answers we need out of them.”

Thorn looks over on the ground where Travis is rolling in pain. He points.

“We want this one. You can have the others, but we have business with this one.”

Luca looks over and nods his head, “Very well you can take the worm.”

With that the Moretti’s leave the room and Thorn rushes to Whip.

“Fuck, brother wake up. Someone get Doc!”

“I’m right here, let me see him.”

Doc begins evaluating him after Thorn gets him off the chair and lays him down on the ground.

“I will patch everything up the best I can, but we need to get him to the hospital. He has wounds all over his body, some stab wounds, he’s got bruises it looks like from a beating, he may have internal bleeding. He also has a gunshot wound in his shoulder. He’s got a bunch of bruises around his face.”

“Do what you can Doc, then we are going to get him out of here and to the hospital.” Terror says next to me.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Peyton

It’s been forty-five minutes since I got the phone call from Knox that they found Cooper and that he was in bad condition so they were bringing him to the hospital. I packed up all three of the babies and had some of the brothers help me carry them down to the car where I booked it to Richmond and the hospital that they told me they brought Cooper too. I called Knox when I pulled into the parking lot to ask him to come and help me grab the babies. When he got there he told me that they really won’t tell them anything because we are not family. Devil has been working on getting the paternity results brought over so that they know that he is in fact his dad so we can get some information about what is happening.

You would think that the fact that he is a part of the club that they would tell the people who are his chosen fucking family something. I asked Knox if he had an emergency contact and asked to make sure that they did not call his family, he told me as far as he knew they did not call his family and the emergency contacts listed are already at the hospital. So why the fuck they are not telling anyone anything is beyond me. We have a right to know what the fuck is going on with him. All we know is that he is in surgery. When Knox told how they found him I couldn’t help, but have my legs give out. According to what they have said there was a lot of trauma and a lot of damage all because someone thought they could get him to talk.

So now here I am sitting in this waiting room with more than half of the Devil’s Chaos club and a good chunk of the Untamed waiting for any news on what is going on with Cooper. It has been hours and we still have not heard anything. I have my head in my hands bouncing my knees when someone comes and sits down next to me and puts their hand on my knee. I don’t have to look up to know that Knox is trying to offer some comfort with everything going on.

“It’s going to be okay, Peyton.”

I look up at him, “ Really? How do you know? No one has come out here and told us anything. They have refused to tell us anything. I don’t understand why people can’t just come out here and give us some damn information about how he is doing. I mean you told me he was stabbed, shot and beaten. I know that he probably has a long list of injuries, but for no one to come out here and tell us what is going on is crazy to me. I just don’t understand it.”

Devil comes over and sits on the other side of me, pulling me in for a hug.

“We know it’s going to be okay, Peyton. We know this because Cooper is a fighter. He’s had to be his whole life. He also is not going to miss out on the chance of being with you. This family you have is so important to him and I know that because I’ve seen the way he has changed since he’s tried to make everything right between you. We hear how he talks about all of you. It might not be the most conventional relationship ya’ll have, but it works for you. He wants it more than anything. A family. I don’t know much about his childhood and I hate that now knowing what I know, but I know that he has always wanted to have something. To feel like he deserves this and to know that he has people in his life that love him unconditionally. You give him that, he’s going to fight to get through all of this with everything he has. He is my son after all.” He chuckles at that and squeezes me before letting me go.

“I hope you’re right. I haven’t made anything easy for him. I’ve been horrible and I know that a lot of this isn’t his fault. The women at the club and everything they say and do, that’s not on him. He may have fucked around with them, but so have a lot of the men. I hate that they have that kind of power over me and I am trying to let it all go. I know I need to. I know that I need to remember he did the shit he did for a reason, that there are things about his life that I don’t know. That made him feel like he needed to shut himself off from me and he used other women to do that. But I want the fucking opportunity to tell him that we can make things work. That I am willing to look past everything if he can promise me that he won’t push me away anymore. That no matter what is hidden in his past, we can move forward and handle it together. That no matter what he is worthy of love and happiness.”

He pats my thigh and Knox kisses my cheek.

“You’re a good woman and you’re just what these two boys need to calm them down and put them in their place. Your mama would be so proud of the woman you are becoming and the woman you are already. She raised some good girls.”

Tears start to form in my eyes with the mention of my mama. These coming weeks are the first holidays without her and really, everything just reminds her of me. I hope she would be proud of me and who I am. Proud of where I am going so having someone who knew mama as long as daddy tell me that means the world to me.

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

I grab his hand and squeeze it and we go back to waiting for the answers we are all waiting for.

As that annoying clock keeps moving it feels like hours before a doctor comes out from behind those dreaded doors.

“Family of Cooper Stone?”