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“She wanted me. That’s what she wanted!”
“No, she hated you. She wanted you just like this,” I tell Dave before punching him again. I keep punching until I feel his teeth embedded in my knuckles. Then I calmed down. I want to draw this out. I want to make this last.
“It’s not lookin’ good, Knight. I’m sorry, brother,” Ridge finally comes back in and reports. Tears burn the back of my eyes for the first time in my life. Dave just looks at me through his swollen eye, and I want to cut the motherfucker out. My insides are clenched tightly, ready to strike like a caged animal. That’s when I take the knife in my right hand and start slamming it into him. Over and over, I plunge it in as I scream.
“You motherfucker!” I roar, but don’t stop. I can’t stop. What did he do? What has he fucking done? He stole something from me. He stole something from those boys. How could he? How could he do that? What kind of man is he?
“Knight,” I hear Ridge call my name, but I can’t pull myself out of this haze I’m in. I keep stabbing until the flesh falls away from his body, and then, and only then, do I step back. I let the knife fall from my hands before I turn and walk back to the steps. I head upstairs, not thinking about anything, before dropping onto the couch and resting my head in my hands.
“You need to clean up before those kids see you like this,” Tarek warns me. I shake my head.
“She isn’t gonna make it, is she?” I ask, looking to my friend, my brother, for confirmation. I need him to say it.
“I don’t know, brother. She lost a lot of blood. She isn’t good,” he says softly. I nod my head and stand, walking down to the room before going straight into the bathroom. I strip out of my clothes and step into the shower, letting the hot water hit me as I do. I watch the pink-tinged water as it washes down the drain. I grab the soap and scrub it all away, knowing that Tarek was right. The kids don’t need to see me like this.
I finish washing and climb out, grabbing a towel to wrap around my waist even as my head spins. My chest hurts. An ache I can’t explain. There’s so much pain inside of me right now.
My phone is blowing up, but I don’t check it. I grab another towel and my cut and begin to clean the blood off of it.
Then I get dressed and shrug back into my cut and boots. I grab my phone and check the messages. There are missed calls from Kimber and Jessica. There are messages from Cage. I ignore them all because my fucking heart is breaking right now.
I walk out of the room and down to the boy’s room and step inside. They both look up at me, wondering where their mom is.
“She wasn’t good when we found her. We’re goin’ to the hospital. Come on,” I tell them.
24
Lyra
Nothing. Just darkness.
25
Knight
The kids cried all the way to the hospital, and it took everything in me not to cry along with them, but I knew they needed me to be the stronger one now. I know this is all on me. I have to take care of them and make sure that they’re okay.
We pull up at the hospital, and we all climb out. Cage is there to meet us at the front doors.
“How’s Yenni?”
“It’s gonna be a while, the Doc said. You hear anything?” I shake my head as the boys cling to each other. “Go find out.” I nod once, and we walk past Cage toward the desk. I give them her name, and they point me in the general direction I need to go in. me and the boys walk down the hall until I find her room.
“We don’t know what condition she’s in. I don’t know what we’re facin’.” That’s all I can tell the two of them. I don’t know what else to say. I think Cam can handle it, but Billy? He’s so young. He doesn’t understand all this.
“Can we see her?” Billy finally asks after I stand still for a long couple of minutes. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to say yes and then have them walk into something they will never be ableto unsee. This is all so fucked up, but I nod my head and reach for the door handle. I shove it open before stopping them once more.
“You can’t touch her. I’m sure she has wires and shit,” I tell them. They both nod their head, but how do you tell a ten-year-old they can’t hug their mom? A chill works its way down my spine as we step inside, and I see her. This was a bad idea. Instead of letting the boys in, I turn around and force them to step back. They don’t need to see her like this. I can’t do it to them.
“I think it’s best if you guys wait a little while.”
“What? Why?” Cam asks. I shoot him a glance that apparently says all it needs to say. He reluctantly nods his head and grabs Billy’s hand.
“We’ll wait in the waiting room. Just tell her we’re here,” he says. I nod my head as I watch the two of them walk down the hall before I take another deep breath and walk back into the room.
There she is. The woman I’m slowly falling for. The one I can’t picture my life without anymore, lying on a bed she shouldn’t even be in. This is my fault. I should have protected her. I should have been there for her, and I wasn’t.
I walk over and pull the chair up next to the bed before taking a seat. My insides clench as I look at her black, blue, and swollen eye. I could kill him again. I could kill him all over again for what he did to her. Knowing I can’t, I shake my head and grab her hand in mine, giving it a soft squeeze.
