Dropping to my knees, I screamed as all the pain, anger, and sorrow I felt over the last couple of months became too much. Seeing her laying there, barely hanging on to life, was too much for me. I knew I couldn’t survive without her.
“Get him out of here!” Healer shouted at Grimm.
Grimm tried to grab my arms, but I threw him off me. I couldn’t leave her, not like this. She needed me. I had to stay. “Don’t make me leave her,” I whispered to Grimm as tears fell down my cheek.
“Reaper let Healer do his job. Come on, man. Others still need our help.”
“I don’t care. I can’t leave her.”
“I get it,” Grimm spoke softly. “You love her. I know you do. I saw it every time you looked at her. She will survive this. I know she will. She is strong.”
“That’s the most words I’ve ever heard you say,” I replied, looking at him.
Grimm smiled. “I speak, but only when I need to.”
TWENTY-FOUR
REAPER
It took several hours to clear the house and get the wounded to nearby hospitals. Even then, volunteers were still out searching the other two homes, finding people who had been taken from their lives. Some were alive and wished they weren’t. Those who succumbed to their torture were being carefully handled and identified until family members could come to claim them.
Our rescue had made national news, and I was insistent that the local police department, fire department, and medic’s take credit for the find. It was the least I could do after everything my club had brought to their doorstep. Nothing could be done for the dead, so we all concentrated on the living. Meaning we rallied around Remi.
After Healer and the medic’s said she was stable enough to be moved, I followed the ambulance to Saint Joseph’s Memorial Hospital a few miles away. Though the hospital was small, and I worried that she wouldn’t get the help she needed, the people who worked there went above and beyond with her care.
Sitting beside her bed now, I listened to a machine as it told me her heart was still beating. I’d been in this room for close to two weeks now, and though the doctors said to me that it would take time before she woke, that I needed to be patient. The problem with that was patience was not a virtue I acquired.
At first, my brothers refused to leave the room, ensuring that anyone who came into Remi’s room was searched and verified. After three hours of that, the head nurse came into the room and threatened everyone that if we continued to interfere with Remi’s care, she would personally kick all our asses out. Though I ignored her, Savage had taken to following the feisty nurse around like a lost puppy.
Three days later I found out the nurse was named Jessica came to me and ordered me to get rid of my brothers before she did. The woman meant it, and for some reason, I knew she would do it too. I grinned and nodded. That night, I sent most of the brothers’ home, leaving only Grimm and Savage, who refused to leave until he got the pretty nurse’s number, much to the nurse's consternation.
I’d been in Remi’s room for over two weeks now, and Savage had yet to get Jessica’s number when he plopped down in one of the chairs, dejected.
“That woman is driving me crazy.”
I grinned. “I see that.”
“What more do I have to do?”
“I don’t know, stop stalking her.”
“I’m not stalking her. She’s just being stubborn.”
“Sounds like someone else I know.”
“I’m not stubborn. I’m persistent.”
I laughed. “Savage, you are the most stubborn man I know. Go tell your lies to the nurses. Maybe they will believe you.”
Savage grinned, then sobered, nodding towards Remi. “How is she?”
“The same. The doctors don’t know why she isn’t waking up. They think it’s because of all the trauma. Healer thinks she will do better once we can get her back to California. He is arranging a med-flight now.”
Savage nodded. “That’s good. I miss home. Plus, Kitty has been blowing up my phone.”
“How are you handling everything with that?”
“About as good as expected. I don’t like that my baby sister was raped and kept the kid, but I get why she did. The kid is cute and innocent. It didn’t ask to be created that way, and it’s not at fault. I just thank God the kid looks like Kitty and not that fucker.”