AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll make some calls. We’ll find out who did this.”
My eyes landed on the dark spot on the pavement a few feet away. I could still see the dark pool of blood. Ainsley’s blood. My girl. The only woman who had ever dug herself beneath my skin and made me feel better just by being there.
“You can go but I don’t suggest leaving town. I’ll be in touch.” Officer Jaxon went to his car. “We will find him, Cyrus. Leave it to me and I’ll make sure he gets his.”
I ignored him, grabbed Ainsley’s bag and went to my SUV. Once I was sitting behind the steering wheel, my fist landed against it. I bellowed out a “fuck,” the walls I had built up over the years to protect myself, crumbling down all around me.
Taking a deep breath, I headed to the hospital, sending up prayers along the way that Ainsley would make it out of this. Her mental health had already been through enough. Sure, she had been hurt physically and she had scars to prove it but the fact that she had stopped talking because of the trauma she endured, I was terrified that this would set her back. She had come so far, opening up to me, giving me pieces of herself she had never shared with anyone before. I took it for granted but now, I made a promise to myself, and I would promise her just the same, that it wouldn’t happen again.
Once the large building of the hospital came into view, a breath left me. I pulled the SUV into the parking lot, created a random parking spot that would probably earn me a ticket, and ran into the building.
When I reached the reception desk, I was frantic with worry as I saw no one around. “Fucking hell.” I rubbed the back of my neck, not sure what to do.
“Sir?”
I spun on my heel, finding a young woman dressed in colorful scrubs, coming toward me. “I’m here to see Ainsley Cloet. She was just brought in and I’m assuming she’s in surgery. She was stabbed.”
“Are you family?”
“She doesn’t have...yes, yes, I’m her family.” Her only family. The only family who mattered.
The woman nodded and went behind the desk, clicked a few keys on the computer. “Yes, she’s still in surgery. You can sit in the waiting room and the doctor will be with you after.”
“He can call me.” I gave her my cell number and left the area, needing fresh air and to call my brother. When I stepped outside, I lifted my phone to my ear.
“Hey, C,” Sammy answered a second later. “What’s up?”
The words became stuck, unable to break free from my throat.
My knees shook, giving out on me when a sob finally broke free.
“Cyrus,” Sammy barked. “What the fuck is going on?”
“Hospital,” I was finally able to get out.
“On my way.”
***
“Cyrus.”
As soon as I heard my name, my head snapped up. I saw Sammy coming toward me and did the only thing I knew. I rushed to him.
“What’s going on?” Sammy demanded.
I charged into him, throwing myself around my brother and needing his hug. Fuck, I needed him to tell me that I was losing it and that everything was going to be fine. I needed him to say that I was worrying for nothing, and that Ainsley would pull out of this.
“Cyrus,” he murmured, hugging me back.
We weren’t huggers. Not lately anyway. Sammy had walls up because he hated to let anyone get too close for fear of getting hurt. I almost expected him to push me away but when he didn’t, it forced this ache in my chest to grow even more.
“What happened?” he demanded.
I pulled away from him and began pacing. “We were at Ainsley’s apartment. She was coming to the clubhouse with me. We want to move in together.” I looked at him then, waiting for some sort of reaction to what I just told him but when I got nothing, I took a breath and continued. “We think someone’s been stalking her. It’s just been small things but a few months ago, she ended up at a deli that I was at, and someone was following her.” That had been so long ago. My lips still tingled with the memory of the first kiss we shared.
“And what happened tonight?” Sammy asked gently, lighting up a smoke. He handed it to me before lighting one up for himself.
“We were walking to the SUV and some fucker bumped into her. I thought he just hit her really hard but she...I...” I swallowed hard. “She suddenly wasn’t feeling well and she...fuck, Sam, he stabbed her.”
