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“She asked me to drop her there so she could pack her clothes. I shouldn’t have left her. I shouldn’t have gone to the courthouse. I was only gone forty minutes, tops. Forty fucking minutes! And look! Look what they did!”
“It’s not your fault, Parker. She’s been very secretive with all of us. You couldn’t make her do something she didn’t want to do,” said Luke. “How many men?”
“Four. I killed two. Tossed one out a window and shot the other. I broke another’s arm. He ran off with a guy that I think was leading them. Hispanic, definitely. All of them.”
“Sly? See if we can find out anything about the dead bodies,” said Luke. Sly nodded, running back to comms. “Parker? Go get cleaned up. It’s not your fault, brother.”
He nodded but wasn’t believing it for a minute. He should have gone up with her. He could have handled the four men, even if they’d jumped him. They were all much smaller than he was. Even with his prosthetic leg, he was better trained and equipped. Now, they all just waited for word on Londyn’s condition.
It was hours before anyone even told them little bits of information. When Bone walked in, his face was pale and perspiring. He demanded to see her, and Lena took him back. Another hour later, they had her in a room, sedated.
Bone stared at the battered, broken face against the stark white pillow. Her distorted features, bruises, and cuts were enough to make most men cry, but he knew that she didn’t need him to cry over her. She needed him to find who did this to her.
Gabi and Riley walked in, frowning at Bone, then at the other men in the room. This would be one of those moments when the whole world was going to know who REAPER-Patriots were and what they did to men who harmed women.
“Will she live?” asked Bone, not even looking up.
“She will, but she’ll never be quite the same, honey. Her cheekbone is fractured. She has a fractured skull, a broken jaw, a broken collarbone. Her right arm is broken, her hips have been displaced…” Bone held up his hand.
“I get it,” he said, swallowing. Eagle stared at his son, then looked at his brothers, HG and Hoot. “Why? Why would someone do this to her?”
“We’ll find them, son,” said Eagle, feeling his son’s pain from across the room.
“She was going to tell me everything, but we got distracted, and I had to leave,” said Bone. He shook his head, then looked up at the others. “I should have been here. I should have been with her.”
“Listen to me, Ty,” said Riley. Cait, Rachelle, and Winter were standing in the hallway, ready to speak to her when she woke. “She’s going to survive, but it’s going to be difficult for her. The internal damage to her body is more than I’ve seen in a very long time, and according to Parker, she was there less than an hour. I’m just hoping that in time, it will all heal, and she can get back to work. She would hate it if she couldn’t practice again. It’s all she ever wanted to do was be a dentist and treat patients.”
“I want to find them,” said Bone.
“We’re working on that,” said AJ, standing with Ace, Hiro, and Code. “Parker found her cell phone, and besides her last message to you, there was a grainy photograph.”
He brought up the image for everyone to see, but most of the men shook their heads. All of them except Callan.
“That’s one of my tattoos,” he whispered. “I did that tattoo just a week ago. I know who that is.” Bone turned with a deadly stare.
“Who is it? What’s his name?”
“He said his name was Cisco. Talked about how he was new to the area and was looking for an old girlfriend. He wanted that tattoo on his hand.”
“What is it?” asked Luke, turning his head, staring at it.
“It’s a gang symbol for the barrio in Houston. I’ve never done one before. I was super busy, and he handed me a drawing of it. I didn’t think anything of it when I did it, but when he left, I looked it up. I never do gang emblems, so I was pissed at myself.”
“Cisco,” repeated Bone. “I want to know everything about him. I’m going to destroy him.”
“Bone, I…” Parker swallowed, shaking his head as tears ran down his face.
“It’s not your fault, brother. I’m pissed as all fuck, but it’s not your fault. You did what she asked, and you had no reason to believe she was in danger going into her own apartment. I’m grateful you got there in time.” Parker nodded as Lena took his elbow.
“Let’s go, honey,” said Lena. “We need to stitch that cut and check out any other injuries.”
The team left Bone sitting with Londyn. HG, Hoot, and Callan stayed outside the room just in case. Around midnight, they switched teams, with Max, Phoenix, and Axel sitting outside the room.
In the early morning hours, as Bone’s head lay near her hand, he heard her moaning.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay, it’s okay,” he whispered. Max looked in the room and nodded. “I’m here, baby.”
“Hurt,” she whispered.
