THE SACRIFICE: Secret Society Romance (4Horsemen Series Book 3) Page 24

Watching him walk away like I was simply an inconvenience in his life, the realization that I was dying became too strong to ignore. Waiting for Dove to be out of sight I reached for Khaos’s phone still on the desk. Clutching it close with my fingers already stained red I felt accomplished, strong, heard, and best of all worth every cent that Khaos made me feel.

  I wasn’t just some orphan who made a few wrong turns, ended up in juvie, and fell in with the wrong crowd - I was a person who still merited all the things we all lust for.

  “I did it for us, you…” I recorded a text to himself on his phone before the blood made me queasy and the room faded into darkness.

  When I woke up the house was dark and quiet, and Hamilton was shaking me awake with his big hands. “Little Bird? Hey. Wake up.” He must have taken a pulse before wasting the energy but a small part of me believed he was the ferryman waiting to escort my ghost ass to Hell, where I knew I was headed, no wings needed.

  Groaning in his hands I felt the dull ache wrap up every one of my limbs in concern when he cradled me in his arms honeymoon style. I felt protected when I let my face bury into his chest as he carried me down the stairs and outside to the big SUV parked in the driveway.

  “I’m gonna need you to stay awake, Little Bird. We gotta make this quick before Dove is back.” He carefully set me down in the passenger seat and even buckled me in like more shit could possibly happen to me. Everything already felt so far away, blurry and dim.

  The car roared to life as he kept repeating the same question until it grated on my nerves, “Where can I take you? Bird, where am I going? The hospital?” in different variations.

  My eyes were barely staying open and my mouth was gaping without any words formulating. I whimpered against the aching pain, “Towers… Wilshire…” my throat felt like sandpaper and my body limp like I had no muscle.

  I must have blacked out again when the car stopped with a jerk, I stirred awake when Hamilton squeezed my leg, I barely felt it and I knew that wasn’t a good sign after being shot. “You have to get out of LA. He thinks you’re dead, you’re finally free, Bird.” Hamilton didn’t move from the driver’s seat when his lips pressed to my forehead like the goodbye was painful.

  I was still numb thanks to my body.

  Slipping out of the car I leaned against the cold metal still holding my soaked shirt to the wound with every bit of energy I had when I closed the door and forged ahead with Khaos’s phone still in my grip. The doorman opened the door for me with a fearful look as I stumbled inside making it to the desk out of sheer fucking will when I felt my legs give out.

  I just needed to make it far enough to get Vic’s attention, everything on his phone would explain the rest. Khaos is too smart for his own good when he’s not being what he thinks people want him to be. He’ll figure it out.

  I heard footsteps around me when I recognized the gruff, yet smooth voice attached to Justice’s new husband. “Grace? What the fuck happened?” Lifting my hands, I pushed back against the desk showing him where the blood oozed from me like a messy PB & J.

  Clutching his phone still, Vic tried to take it but I kept holding. It wasn’t about the phone anymore; I was holding onto what I had left of Khaos because once he pieced it all together, he’d want nothing to do with me just like how Dove predicted.

  KHAOS

  You’d think sitting in a jail cell alone is pretty simple for someone who can so easily entertain myself the way I do, but it was hard. No, literally, whatever they called this shitty bed was actually just metal with a sheet.

  They sure didn’t want you comfortable and it was working.

  “Rodriguez! You know I have the right to a phone call!” I had already repeated this more times than I could count as I planted my ass against the wall and let my ankles cross against the ugly concrete with my head hanging off.

  Rodriguez stopped at the bars, “You assaulted a law enforcement officer, you don’t get shit, pretty boy. Do you even know any numbers by heart? You didn’t come in with a phone.”

  Rolling my eyes, I felt the blood rush to my head, not Anarchy, the other one. “Asshole.”

  “Keep it up, someone is going to make you their bitch in gen pop one day,” his smooth, cocky, voice was a direct blow like we were playing Battleship.

  Like I would be in the general population of a prison.

  I must have sat there for hours before Rodriguez returned, kicking the bars and forcing my eyes open, “You’re released. Get up.” Sitting up I saw Justice come in the frame and I crossed my arms knowing she was married to the guy I was ready to kill for putting me here to begin with.

  “I would rather rot in jail. Thanks though,” I let all the anger bubble to the surface even though Jus was far removed from the bad blood between Vic and me.

  Justice wasn’t a doormat. She was the kind of girl who was a lot like Birdy, she’d give you this demonized look that made you instantly regret your bad behavior.

  Hands on her hips, she stared at me with her tongue pushed against her teeth, clearly rethinking her retort, when she made demands. “Actually, you’re going to get your ass up and to the hospital right now because you have the blood type Grace needs. She’s been shot and you’re the love of her life so you’re going to do a good deed and maybe win some brownie points with my hubby too.”

  Rodriguez opened the bars, but I made no moves.

  Grace.

  Blood.

  Love.

  My hands shook and I couldn’t tell if it was the desire for some meds or the fact that those three words bouncing around my head didn’t make sense. “I saw her this morning and she was fine.”

  I was spiraling and the anxiety was pounding against my chest like a drum waiting for the answers as I took labored breaths.

  How did Justice know Grace?

  How did she know to call me the love of her life? Wait, does she love me?

  Here I was thinking I was the only person on team Birdy...

  “I can see the confusion all over your face so let’s clear this up quickly. I’ve known Grace for years. We protest together, she helped me break into all of your dads’ houses to burn the peace signs, and she comes to me when she needs help. That’s all you need to know. Let’s go, please.” Justice wasn’t a pretty that sacrificed brains.

  She was a lot like Vic whether she liked it or not.

  Who let them be together? In the great words of Ears- we were all fucked.

  Standing up, I pushed past Rodriguez and Justice, snapping my fingers at her to keep up. “Sounds like all I need to know is actually a lot just to make it clear, Justice. She’s my fucking girlfriend - everything to do with her effects me.” I stomped my way to her car trying to pretend I was still angry instead of dying how I felt like.

  She drank the poison before me.

  Pulling on the door handle even though it was locked I kept trying until Justice unlocked it and slipped inside. “You need to be prepared. She has an abusive boyfriend, and those relationships are dangerous and hard to get out of. You have to be patient.”

  Boyfriend?

  Is that why she doesn’t spend the night? Is that where she goes?

  “Just fucking drive, Jus.” I bit off my words through my clenched jaw, my leg bouncing up and down trying to feed the animal inside of me enough so it wouldn’t eat me alive.

  Thankfully, the hospital was close by and I barely waited for the car to stop when I pushed open the door and barged my way inside. My favorite nurse Darlene and part of Dr. Stewart’s team greeted me in a less than approving way when she immediately took my cast in her hands. Her face pinched like it was unacceptable and I hadn’t showered in weeks.

  “This needs to be changed right away Khaos. You know it can’t get wet.”

  Pulling my cast back out of her hands I felt the anxiety grasp every ability for me to fake smile my way through this, “Birdy - I mean Grace… she’s here. Where is she?” I was barely coherent, but she understood and squeezed my arms before going back behind
the desk to search for her.

  “What’s her last name?”

  Panic arrived at my party when I felt my throat close up. I didn’t have any information but what she had offered up and none of that was helpful when Justice leaned into the desk, “It’s Freeman. What room is she in?”

  Freeman.

  Grace Freeman.

  Ironic.

  “444 - on the fourth floor. Use the VIP elevators.” Leaning over the desk I planted my lips on my favorite nurse in every dramatic way I could before speed walking to the elevators. Pressing the four a thousand times I begged the elevator to go faster even though it didn’t at all. Once the doors opened, I shoved my way past all of the workers, nurses, and other visitors in search of her room number.

  Stopping outside the door it dawned on me that she was hurt and maybe, just maybe, if I wasn’t me, I would have been there.

  Smartass.

  Spoiled.

  Irresponsible.

  Everything Vic claimed I am was the reason we were here.

  Mustering up every ounce of strength I had in me, I stepped across the threshold and walked into an empty room, even the bed gone, when Vic grilled me with his stare. It could have pinned me in place if my head wasn’t already spinning outside of his control.

  “Where is she? Is she okay?” My voice trembled and came out between heavy inhales.

  “She was shot, Khaos, what do you think? Maybe you’d know if you paid attention to anyone else or anything else other than the disaster you call yourself.”

  All that anger I had aimed at Justice was now pointed in the right direction when I grabbed onto his stupid striped shirt like it made him less of a machine and pushed him up against the wall even though he had more muscle on him than I did.

  “You don’t know me. You’ve never known me because you chalked me up to be some useless brat you constantly fix mistakes for. I let you all define me. I’ve always just been whatever the fuck you all needed: funny Khaos, quiet Khaos, the Khaos that pushes you right into love when you’re too fucking blind. You don’t see how much she means to me because you don’t fucking see me. No one sees me except her.” My fingers were fisting the material so hard I wondered if I ripped his shirt when he cracked a smile.

  His smirk bothered me instantly when he said, “I was testing a theory. Either way you’re becoming a blood donor tonight.”

  Letting go of his shirt, I slumped down in the chair still riddled with anxiety and anger. I let myself fold over trying to get centered even though this wasn’t my adult tree house or a bathroom floor like I preferred.

  “You’re a fucking psychopath.”

  Vic folded his arms over his broad chest, “I had to make sure she meant something and wasn’t just part of your fucking antics... she’s a good person, not part of your fucking reverse harem plot.” A small pause between thoughts he spoke again, “Clave knows that video exists even though we buried it by giving Rodriguez a raid. She's the new price of you missing an event, dumbass. That’s DuPonte’s only rule and you broke it.”

  He wasn’t wrong. The Clave doesn’t do well with broken rules and if you’re lucky enough to survive the punishment then it means you lost crucial parts of your life.

  Loved ones mostly.

  Considering I was the most unattached, the Clave would find a way to hurt me and being caught on tape with the girl I love was as good as me forking over the truth on a silver platter for them.

  Hurt me here, please.

  We both joked around the idea of us being forbidden because of who we belong to, but nothing was more honest.

  Star crossed lovers doomed by our loyalties.

  “What do you want me to do, Vic? Get on my knees and beg you to make it better? Keep smiling because it’s easier for you guys? I fucked up but I can clean up after myself.”

  Vic waved two fingers and a nurse came into the room, “You’re going to donate some blood so she’s alive long enough to get some answers later. And the cast while we’re at it. You smell exactly how you look…”

  Asshole.

  I was in jail all day with no meds and the rush of emotions happening now was only making me sweat. Well, everything today was making me sweat.

  “Least she’ll be safe even from you… I’m sure you won’t like her answers. She’s more badass than you are.”

  Vic’s eyes went half-mast and his tongue swiped his lower lips like he was contemplating hitting me for the retort or just giving me a mean mug. Either way, I won’t feel it, I’m numb and overexposed all at the same time.

  “We’ll see about that,” he quipped, unconvinced as she lies in surgery having been shot.

  Long live the fake king, Vic the Dick.

  The nurse drew my blood and Vic whispered something probably along the lines to bring it to the OR. Even Stewart wasn’t above the orders of the Clave.

  Vic said the surgery was only supposed to be a few hours with Stewart, but I had carefully scanned every piece of her file that Vic had pulled twice before anyone came back to her room with news.

  Antsy, I left her file on the table and went to find the operating room or least the viewing window which most of them had to teach others what not to do.

  Sneaking my way through hallways and swiping a key card off a desk I managed to make it to the ORs. I could hear Eric Clapton reverberating through the hall, a Stewart classic, when I found her.

  Knocking on the glass I had the entire team turn to face me, all shocked and not exactly welcoming, when a nurse came to the door holding her hands in the air in a weird way. “You can’t be in here. Please go wait in the waiting room.”

  I wanted to smile, charm my way through this moment and get my way but I couldn’t even if I tried. “Please… she means too much. I just wanna hold her hand.” All the emotion I normally reminded myself died at Patmos came through as a headache, then heartache, then tension in my face when tears streamed down my cheeks.

  The nurse took pity on me and pointed with her elbow, “Wash your hands, gloves, gown, hairnet and then you can come in. Just to hold her hand.”

  Moving quickly through the process and her watchful eye I felt like I was getting ready for war only there was a grave possibility I wasn’t going to come out victorious this time. Grace was under sedation when the nurse pushed up a stool and forced me to sit at her head. My fingers carefully grazed the hairnet, and I felt the tears push past my eyelashes until it blurred my vision completely.

  “What did you get into, Birdy?” I whispered against her trying to control myself and be strong for her. Sucking in my tears I squeezed her shoulder when her hand over her chest lit up catching my eye.

  The glowing under the blanket had me searching for the source when the nurse’s hand hovered over Grace forcing me to stop as she wedged something out of her fingers. “It’s just a phone. She wouldn’t let it go and we needed to operate.” Handing it over to me I realized it was my phone.

  My phone with the crack down the middle and Birdy as my background.

  She got my phone back, but how? The person who stole it still scared me shitless enough for me to accept the novel idea I’m above having a phone at all.

  She was brave like that, never backed down, and never afraid. She was my idol.

  Instead of running or being afraid I built a cage around my heart and called it private property. I made sure no one trespassed, paid security to guard my heart, and still ended up obsessed with this girl right here.

  Birdy.

  Grace.

  Whatever you wanted to call her, because right now it was her fingerprints left at the scene of the crime in my chest.

  After Stewart finished stitching her together, literally, I didn’t leave her side. Darlene was assigned to her room after I made a scene like a lunatic.

  Grace deserved the best.

  She got hurt because I wasn’t paying attention and that couldn’t happen again. We didn’t just have my ties to worry about, we had hers too.

  Once she was back in
the room, I wedged a stool next to her bed and moved the night stand down to make room for me. I wanted to be as close as possible without hurting her more.

  I felt like I was reliving my first war all over again, only this time I stayed to assess the damage of my actions.

  Going through my phone to waste time I had exactly 666 texts from Grimm, 100 phone calls from Vic, 1 text from Bowen, a few texts from Ears, and a voice message sent to myself.

  I started with the important stuff like the voice message to myself when I heard Birdy’s voice: I did it for us...you...you have to be safe even if I’m not.

  Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t have started there. Swallowing up my emotions leaking from me again I moved onto Ears who might know something I don’t.

  EARS: You seen Birdy? Her stepdad is looking for her.

  EARS: Bro. Seriously. I get it, you kids are in love, but her stepdad is one crazy motherfucker. She needs to text or call him.

  EARS: The black eye and shit when you first met her? Stepdad. Is it in prospective now?

  Vic sat in the chair across the room watching me, hoping for information, all of it still confusing and unclear. “Anything on there?”

  Jus was in his lap, arms around him and worried almost as much as me. “You’re her friend… why didn’t you call the cops or something? How about Rodriguez? Maybe tell me this is going on... the love of her life?”

  Justice all but growled at me when she perked up, “If she wanted you to know then you would. You can’t force someone to get help, Khaos. It takes one event, one time, one person to make you wanna get out of a bad situation. All we could do is patch her up and hope that time came.”

  “Patch her up? You let her go back there. He’s a monster.”

  Vic joined the conversation adding, “So you know about her abusive boyfriend? And you know she’s in a gang and how dangerous even getting involved with her was?”

  Setting my phone down I grilled Vic not able to cross my arms with a new cast on. “She doesn’t have a boyfriend you dumbass. Dove is her stepdad. Same guy who broke my hand and now it all makes sense why.”