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“Blake!” he yelled as he hurried towards us and looked to me with terror. Cool, calm, and collected Grey was nowhere in sight in that moment. “What the fuck happened?” he demanded.
“She was trapped in her room with the fire. The doors were fucking chained shut with a padlock!” Trent growled.
“Over here!” Another voice called and then I was being lowered onto a gurney, which Grey’s partner had pulled from the back of the ambulance.
I panicked as Trent’s warmth and strength was taken from me. Breathing still wasn’t happening easily for me, and I didn’t want to be alone.
“It’s okay, baby. You’re going to be just fine,” Grey soothed as he appeared at my side and placed a mask over my face. “This is just some oxygen to help you breathe while Caleb checks your vitals,” he explained. I reached frantically for his hand and thankfully he noticed and grabbed mine. “I’m here, baby girl. I’m right here.”
That was when I realised the elephant was still clutched under my arm. I released Grey and grabbed for it, worried it would become lost in all of the chaos.
“Trent,” I gasped, not sure he’d hear me between the coughs and how hard it was to speak, but he must have because suddenly he was there beside Grey.
“I’m here, tiny,” he told me as he leaned in and brushed a hand lightly over my forehead. I held Bonkers out to him and locked my eyes on his, knowing I couldn’t breathe enough to tell him what I needed to. Instead I implored him with my eyes to understand I needed him to keep that stuffed toy for me – how much it meant to me that I got to keep that precious symbol of so very much. “I’ve got him, Blake. I’ve got him,” he promised. I managed a nod, or at least I think I did. Grey took my hand again then, and he kept a hold of it as he assisted his partner checking my vitals and getting me strapped into that bed. I’d have panicked about the strap across me if I could, but I simply didn’t have the strength, and before the panic could set in, darkness descended and with it came peace.
DECLAN
“How can this be happening again?” I asked as I sat in the exact same waiting room we had sat in less than a month before, waiting for news on the woman I loved who had been hurt again! I was leant forward, my elbows on my knees and my face buried in my hands, just trying to find a way to keep my shit together when all that I really wanted to do was smash up everything that was in my vicinity.
I couldn’t believe we had allowed her to be hurt by this fucker yet again! We were supposed to be protecting her! She was in bed at home! How had this happened?
“Where the fuck were you?” I asked as I jumped to my feet and looked to Luca who stood near the door. His face was black with soot from the fire, and the guilt on his face should have stopped me, but it didn’t. I needed someone to blame, because if I allowed my self-hatred at the fact I had allowed this to happen, to consume me, I was going to smash the whole damn building around us down.
“Declan,” Grey cut in from where he stood against the wall across the room. The twins were sat in chairs before him and Trent and Simon were off to the side, the both of them also covered with soot and stinking of smoke.
“No Grey! He told us she was safe in the house. If we’d have thought for one fucking second she wasn’t, we could have been there! We could have stopped this or gotten her out quicker!” I raged.
“We got her out as quick as we could, Dec. The fire was at her fucking door and the doors to the yard were fucking locked shut! Someone planned this! They wanted Blake fucking dead!” Trent growled, and when I glanced to him I saw the rage in the tense set of his face, mixed with the glassy tears in his eyes.
“I already have more guys coming to the house for additional security, and Forest, my partner is on his way out to look over surveillance footage. Whoever chained up those doors will have been caught on the cameras I placed around the house,” Luca explained. “I checked the perimeter before I headed to bed at one AM and I know for a fact there was nothing on those doors. I checked they were locked from the outside when I passed and I’d definitely have noticed a thick chain and a huge fucking padlock.”
“We’re not placing any blame with you, Luca. None of us expected this. Not in the house. It was secure,” Simon assured him, but I was fucking blaming him. If we had known this was a possibility I never would have left Blake in that house alone. I should have been there! I’d failed her twice now!
“I should have been prepared for this. I just don’t understand how whoever did this got by the security systems. It doesn’t make any sense,” Luca sighed as he rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes angrily.
“It was Abby,” Trent spoke up and we both looked to him for answers. “It can’t be a fucking coincidence that she was at our place today and then this happens.”
“She was there? Today?” Simon asked.
“Yeah. She tried to access the gate with the old code, which she must have seen me enter when we were together. Luca caught it and we got to her, but she stormed onto the driveway and she was screaming about the police questioning her about the hit and run and your car being fucked with. She swore up and down she didn’t do it, but after this,” Trent explained. “It has to be her.”
“The police know about her showing up today. They’re going to tie her to this pretty quickly,” Luca added.
“Nan says the fire trucks are just wrapping up. They managed to contain the fire to Blake’s room and the hall. The rest is just smoke damage. The fire department investigators will be there first thing to check it out,” Grey told us as he held up his cell, which I assumed Nan had messaged him on. She had stayed behind to deal with the fire fighters and police, Simon and Trent refusing to be away from Blake.
“We’re not going to be able to go back there for a while. I’ll need to get someone in to assess the damage,” Simon sighed.
“We know a guy, and we can do whatever rebuild work is needed. You can get a specialist company in to clean the place and get rid of the soot and smoke smell,” Liam told him.
“And until then you can stay with us. We have enough room,” Tom added.
“Thanks. I’d appreciate that. I don’t think Blake is going to be comfortable in a hotel, and it likely wouldn’t be safe anyway,” Simon mused. “I want additional security, Luca. I don’t care about the cost or it being overkill. I almost lost my daughter tonight. That cannot happen again.”
“Already on the way,” he confirmed. “I really would feel better if I could be closer by now. We have no idea who is targeting her or if they have access to her in this hospital.”
Luca, and all of us had argued that we needed to stay close as the hospital staff rushed her off for treatment, but we had been assured she was secure and shooed out of the way.
“He’s right Dad. You need to play the ‘rich asshole’ card and call the administrator. Remind him how much you contribute each year at their fundraisers. We need to make sure she’s safe,” Trent agreed, and Simon nodded, then pulled out his cell as he got to his feet. He and Trent were both dressed in pyjamas, having run from their rooms with no time to change or even to pull on shoes. They were both now wearing a pair of sneakers from the twins gym bags which they’d had in their truck.
