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“She’s through the worst. Most of her injuries seem superficial. She did suffer a ruptured spleen, and we’ve carried out a partial splenectomy. She should be fine to leave in a few days, and recovery time is from three to twelve weeks. We’ve cleaned and dressed most of her wounds; she’s in recovery, and we’ll bring her through as soon as she wakes.”
He walks out of the room, not asking if we have any questions, and we just sit and wait. One of the nurses fetches us through. “You can see her now, but not for long. She needs her rest.”
As we walk into the room, she’s hooked up to machines. It doesn’t look like her. She’s black and blue and a manner of other colours ranging from yellow to black. Her face is swollen, and her right eye is bandaged. Her arms on the bed look thin, really thin, like she’s not been fed in a while. I hang back near the door as the others crowd the bed. Her eyes open, and she scans everyone’s face, giving them the slightest curl of the corner of her lip.
“I’m fine.” She grimaces. “I’ve been worse.” No one says anything. She looks over at me, and the slight smile drops. “Can you give us a minute?”
They all nod and leave the room. I stay leaning on the wall near the door. After a moment, she sighs and says, “I don’t want an argument!”
“Why the fuck would I want an argument?” I jump in defensively.
“Look, we both know what you did. I’m not mad… I’m done!”
“What? Ray?”
“Don’t, Steel. It was my deal breaker! So consider it deal broken, okay?”
“Ray, you don’t understand. It didn’t—”
“Steel, don’t. Whether it meant anything or not, it doesn’t matter. The lovely establishment I stayed in had 24-hour footage of every single one of you, my so-called family, my so-called brothers, you!” She shakes her head. “I’ve heard everything, seen everything. I know what you all think of me. I know what was said, and I had the pleasure of seeing you pound into that fucking doctor for five days straight on a loop full volume. When I saw a video of you, a woman with her lips wrapped around your dick, I knew something was wrong. I came for you. I brought you home. Someone told you I said something, and you all believed them, so much so that you fucked the good doctor. Not one of you even attempted to look for me, Steel. No one came for me, and I’m only here now because he’s done with me for the moment, so I’m tired, and I’m going to say this only once: we're done, you, me, them, done. I don’t want to see any of you again! Now please leave.”
“Ray—”
“Leave!”
Cade walks in. “You heard her son. Time to go.” I look down as I walk past them all and back out into the waiting room with my brothers.
“What’s happening?” are Ares' first words as I walk through.
“She’s done, we need to leave.” I walk past them without another word.
“Don’t be a fool, Brother.” Ares grabs my arm. I stare down at his hand and back up at him.
“She’s done. Have you ever known her not to know what she wants? It’s fucking over.”
“You didn’t walk away when you first met; don't make that mistake now. Fight for her; we all need to. You’ll regret it if you walk away and don’t try.”
I slam myself into the chair and bang my head back on the wall. “She’s right, though. How can she ever forgive any of us? We believed the lies, and no one tried to save her; no one even looked. Whoever had her showed her footage of everything.”
“What do you mean?” Dice looks confused.
“Whoever it was had cameras everywhere. Everything that was said about her she knew, even me fucking that doctor. She saw it. She heard it all.”
“Shit!” Dice shakes his head. “We need to check everywhere.”
“We will. But there’s no rush. We stay here till she’s released. When we go back, we can worry about the cameras. We stay by her side,” Ares insists.
The door swings open and her pas, Bran, and Dane walk out, heading for the exit. “You’re leaving?”
“Yeah son, she needs rest. Just leave her be, okay?” Cade says as they push through the doors and walk out.
“What the fuck? I can’t believe they’re leaving her.” I push through the doors back to the family room we were in before, which is across the hall from her room. “If I’m staying, I’m staying close,” I say to my brothers as we all pile into the room and open the blinds so we can see her room at all times. I will fight for her. I just know I can’t live without her.
I grab the doctor as he walks past to ask him about the extent of her injuries. He tells me she’s suffered a lot of physical trauma, possible torture with the marks that will now mar her skin forever. Her face was cut, not dissimilar to mine, and she’s going to need a lot of therapy. Yeah, right, he’ll be lucky if she actually has the bed rest he’s ordered, but I know her, and the clinic has done well to keep her in bed for as long as they have.
For the rest of the three days they’re keeping her, we keep a vigil, wearily watching doctors and nurses go in and out. She doesn’t let any of us in to visit, but we stay all the same. It’s getting late, and she refuses to let Scar anywhere near her. Her pas don’t even come back, and Marie never shows. She should be released sometime tomorrow. We hang out, we hover, and we just wait. It’s getting late in the day when David turns up. After he comes out of seeing her, he’s the only one she’s let in. He comes to see us.
“She’s up to something. Keep an eye on her.”
