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ChapterThirty-Seven
Hunter
Isit in a chair beside the bed with my elbows on my knees, my hands dangling between them. Keeping my gaze on Cat, I watch her chest rise and fall steadily. She’s asleep, her face relaxed and peaceful. But I know the calm is fleeting. Only temporary until the nightmares invade or the memories resurface.
This woman has been through hell and back. She’s fought for her life far too many times. She’s faced evil and beat its ass more often than most. How much more can she take before she breaks irreparably? Cat’s one of the strongest women I know, hell, she’s stronger than most men, but the mind can only handle so much.
Will what happened tonight finally push her over the edge? Will she awaken as someone else? Will her mind decide that enough is enough and hide forever?
It doesn’t matter what state she’s in. I will love this woman and protect her with my life until the end of my days on this earth. Nothing and no one will take her from me, and that includes Cat herself.
A light tap sounds against the door, and I release the breath I’ve been holding. Getting up, I lean over Cat and brush a soft kiss against her lips. “I’ll be right outside the door,” I whisper in case her subconscious can hear me. I don’t want her to wake up wondering where I am.
My eyes linger on her face when I pull back, but she doesn’t so much as flutter an eyelid.
Walking across the room, I open the door and step outside, leaving it cracked open a couple of inches so I can see inside. I turn and face Silas.
“How is she?” he asks, concern written in his expression.
I sigh, dragging a hand down my face. “Sleeping for the moment.”
“Sleeping is good.” He nods. “Probably the best thing for her right now.”
Dr. Armani left thirty minutes ago after speaking with Cat. I pulled him aside and explained what happened. He wanted to talk to Cat alone, but gave up that notion when I told him there wasn’t a chance in hell I was letting her out of my sight. Instead, I stood across the room to give them as much privacy as possible. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I was close enough if Cat became upset.
When I hired the doctor to oversee Cat’s mental care, I quadrupled the pay he was making at the practice he was at. Now he only sees Cat and the patients at The Grove. While he still has a private office in town, he spends most of his time at The Grove, except when Cat has an appointment. His fat paycheck was not without conditions, however. The doctor/patient confidentiality can be broken if the patient becomes a danger to themselves or others. With what I fork out, it ensures he keeps his mouth sealed tight, no matter what he hears or encounters. When I informed him of what happened tonight, I knew he’d keep quiet when the police weren’t involved.
While Dr. Armani took care of Cat’s mental state, she also needed to be seen for her injuries. That’s where Dr. Savers comes in. She’s another doctor I have on payroll and oversees any medical issues I need kept under wraps.
I managed to hold my shit together when Dr. Armani and Cat were talking quietly, but when Dr. Savers examined Cat, I broke out into a cold sweat. I damn near stormed the house on a hunt to find and destroy Jimmy. Only Cat’s pain and fear kept me rooted by her side, her hand tightly clasped in mine. I fucking hated that for the second time tonight, she had to lay there with her legs open. However, the doc needed to make sure there was no internal damage. Thankfully, there wasn’t. There were a few minor cuts that would heal on their own within a few days. God help Jimmy if they had been more severe, because there was no chance I would have been able to hold back.
With Cat’s consent, Dr. Armani sedated her, explaining that she needed unrestricted rest at the moment. In response to my concern that she may be pregnant, he assured me that the medication was safe. She refused to take a pregnancy test, saying she didn’t want the results on the same night Jimmy terrorized her.
“Where is he?” I demand, shoving my fisted hands into my pockets.
“Basement of Slate, like you requested.”
“How’s Damon?”
“Lucky to be alive. He made it through surgery. His doctors say he should make a full recovery.”
I nod.
Damon was found outside his car with a knife wound to his chest. Due to the extent of his injuries, Mathias took him to the hospital under the pretext that he had been jumped from behind down an alley.
“I want to thank—”
“Fuck off,” Silas growls, cutting me off. “Shove your gratitude up your ass, Hunter.” His hands delve into his pockets, mirroring my position. “You know damn well I don’t want it or need it. Your wife has been through more shit than most men, and so have you. It’s offensive to me and the friendship we’ve had over the years for you to think even for a second, I wouldn’t do everything in my power to take down the bastards who stole so much from you and Cat. To give your two children the revenge and justice they deserve. I only wish we had gotten here sooner.”
“Regardless, you still have it,” I say gruffly. “I still have my wife because of you and Mathias, so you’ll accept my gratitude for what it is.”
Last week, I had the feed coming from the cameras in my house split to go to a bank of computers at Silas’s house. As we knew Whisper was breaking into our home undetected, I wanted Silas to have access just in case something went wrong that I wasn’t aware of. His games were becoming more frequent and escalating, so I expected him to make a move soon. I just had no fucking clue it would be a man I trusted.
A fucking brother I knew nothing about. A sick psychotic brother. One who murdered our parents when he was eight and attempted to kill me multiple times as a baby.
My jaw tics at the reminder.
The video feed at Silas’s house wasn’t monitored constantly, but Silas happened to check the feed and saw what was going on in the living room. His first move was to call Mathias, knowing a couple of his men were watching the house. Our best guess is Jimmy had learned the schedule of when Mathias’s men switched shifts, which included about an hour of only one man on duty. He made his move when only Damon was present. After Jimmy knocked on the door, Henry snuck up on Damon and stabbed him as he was getting out of his car. Our assumption is that Henry thought it was a kill shot, but he was wrong.
