Love Resisted (Entwined Hearts #2) Read online

  Dane swings the car into the driveway and the first thing I see is a lone police car and two coppers getting out and slowly walking to the door. I throw my door open and run, full speed, toward the front door. I vaguely hear the policeman yell something, and I’m aware that Con is behind me, but I have tunnel vision. I punch the code into the door panel and the moment I hear it unlock, I ram it open and rush inside.

  “Soph, Soph,” I shout at the same time Con shouts for Pea. We split up. It’s not like the house is massive, but it has more than one room. Con disappears into the kitchen while I stride into the lounge.

  Then it happens.

  My world falls apart.

  I’m almost in a daze, like it’s an out of body experience as I roar, “Soph.” I run and slide down next to her lifeless body on the floor, slipping in the pool of blood amassing next to her. I glance over to Pea and notice that she too is laying limp, but Con has appeared and now has her in his arms, her eyes are fluttering, the concern for her is the blood all down her legs. My attention snaps back to Soph as I hear Dane talking to a cop and the other one is radioing for help.

  I lay down next to Soph and look at her closed eyes and her beautiful face, covered in bruises and blood. I’m aware that one of the policemen kneels at Soph’s other side and is checking her pulse while talking into his radio. I can’t make out what he’s saying, my brain is fucked.

  I stroke her face and place my mouth next to her ear. “Soph, baby. Please don’t leave me. You’re everything I’ve waited for my whole life. You’re my reward for all the fucked up shit that came before. I’d endure… Every. Single. Thing. Everything, all over again to have you, even for a moment. But I don’t think I’d survive losing you, baby. I can’t…” my voice catches and tails off as a sob erupts from my throat. I hear the faraway sound of sirens and the next moment the house goes crazy. Police and paramedics are everywhere. I rush to the ambulance with Soph. A cop tries to stop me, but I ignore him and thankfully Dane steps in. I assume Con does the same with Pea, but I really have no idea as my whole energy is trained on Soph. I fly into the ambulance with the paramedic, who looks at me, blood covering my top.

  Soph’s blood.

  “I’m her fiancé,” I manage to get out of my scratchy throat while trying desperately to rein my emotions in.

  “You want a drink, brother?” I jump at Dane’s words and his hand on my shoulder.

  “A whiskey wouldn’t go amiss,” I answer with a fake smile, knowing that’s not gonna happen while we’re still at the hospital. Dane just nods and walks away. He’s been reticent since he arrived, although he has been on the phone quite a bit. Con sits next to me as we both quietly contemplate what our futures hold. We’ve been here for what feels like ages. I’m getting sick of being in hospitals, and what’s worse, is from the small amount of information I’ve been told by Dane, this was Patrick’s doing.

  No shit! But the sick fuck has gotten away, again.

  I need to be calm, I need to be solid. If anything happens to Soph. Shit. My whole life will be about killing him. Nothing will get in my way. I’d have nothing that could hurt me anymore, not if I lose her.

  I look up and watch a doctor moving toward us. I squash down the small flutter of hope that raises its head in my chest.

  “Who’s here for Pearson Amberry,” the doctor asks looking between us and I feel my chest constrict knowing I’ve yet to hear anything about Soph.

  “Me, I’m her fiancé,” Con answers jumping up. I stand and put my hand on his shoulder, to try and give him strength. The doctor nods and glances to me. “You can talk in front of him, he’s her brother,” Con answers with a lie. “Okay, well, Ms. Amberry suffered a placental abruption. I understand you told the receptionist that she has had a partial abruption recently?” he asks looking at Con.

  “Yeah, she was okay though. She was just told not to overdo it.”

  The doctor nods at Con’s answer. “I’m afraid this time it was more serious. Pearson lost a lot of blood. We had to give her a blood transfusion, then we had to deliver the baby by caesarean section.” He stops, looking at Con like he’s trying to gauge how Con is taking in the information.

  “Is Pea, okay?” Con asks and the Doctor tilts his head, confusion crossing his face. “Pearson,” I explain and he glances at me with a nod then looks back at Con.

  “We will have to monitor her, but all the signs are looking good that Ms. Amberry will make a full recovery,” he replies.

  “The baby?” Con whispers.

  “We had to deliver her,” the doctor tells him and Con cuts him off.

  “Her?” he asks his eyes wide and tear-filled.

  “Yes, you didn’t know?” the doctor asks softly and Con shakes his head no.

  “Okay, well, she’s been taken to the Special Care Baby Unit and I know Ms. Amberry is insistent that she visits as soon as is possible, but I want to leave it a few hours before we move her. So, if you would like to visit her you can and then you could go and visit your daughter,” the doctor tells Con.

  “Is the baby okay?” Con asks.

  “I’m sorry, I don’t have those answers. My immediate responsibility was to Ms. Amberry. The baby was whisked away by the special care team. I’ll take you to Ms. Amberry now.”

  Con turns to me and I see the sadness in his eyes swimming with the tears.

  “It’ll be okay, Con. They’ll both be okay.”

  Con nods. “Let me know as soon as you find out about Soph,” he replies. I can feel my lips thin and I dip my head in answer, not being able to bring myself to speak as the tightness in my chest gets worse the longer it is that I don’t know what’s happened to Soph. I sit back down and lay my head back closing my eyes, wishing I could go back twenty-four hours, hoping I could save her. Like she’s saved me. Wishing I could be her hero. Knowing there’s a chance nothing will ever be the same again.

  Six hours. Six fucking hours. Dane came back about five minutes after Con left, he had a coffee, with whiskey in it for me. Right at that moment I wanted to hug my brother like a pussy. Instead, I downed the drink burning my throat in the process. I didn’t care, it just proved that I was still alive. I just wasn’t sure right then whether that was a good or bad thing.

  Con had been by to fill us in. Pea was sleeping. She would need to stay in for at least a week to recover from the blood loss and apparently her body went into shock, so she needed time after the caesarean operation. He visited their daughter and said she was beautiful. She had a feeding tube and needed oxygen, which was worrying him. She was little too, just three and a half pounds. He said Pea would be able to visit her tomorrow and then they would choose her name together. He asked after Soph, and Dane told him there was no news. I couldn’t speak. He went back to Pea and said he’d talk to me tomorrow. That was nearly four hours ago. Still no news on Soph.

  “She’ll be fine,” Dane says beside me, bringing me out of my internal meltdown. I nod, but I’m not feeling it. I’m too worked up, scared of the possibilities. “She’s a fighter, you know that,” he says and I snap.

  “I know, Dane, I fucking know what she is! You don’t have to tell me. I know that woman better than any fucking one of us. She’s the strongest, toughest, kindest most loving, and amazing woman in the fucking universe and she’s my world…my heart. What the fuck would I do without her, Dane? Huh? What the fuck am I without her? I’m nothing without her beside me making me something, making me more than I am,” I shout and close my eyes. “I’m nothing without her. I can’t lose her, Dane. I just…I can’t…” I trial off and that’s the moment I break down. Every chain holding my fragile walls together breaks. Every moment with Soph from five-years-old until now flashes through my head. Every smile, laugh, wink, every kiss…everything. And I sit in that waiting room, not knowing what has happened to the centre of my world, sobbing into my brother’s chest as he holds me like a baby.

  “Saul, Saul.” I feel pushing against my upper arm and my eyes shoot open. Dane is calling m
y name and I’m in a hospital waiting room. Everything comes back to me so quick, it slams a thousand miles an hour into my chest.

  Soph.

  As everything returns, I jolt so hard in my chair that it scrapes the floor and is propelled backward.

  “The doctor, Saul,” Dane says pointing his hand at the man in front of me that I’d somehow missed.

  “Doc?” I ask immediately standing.

  “Are you here for Sophie Rawlings?” he asks softly. I find myself nodding without realising. “Please come with me so we can talk,” he says and I just can’t move.

  “Come on brother,” Dane says gently pushing me forward, his hand on my shoulder. I look at the doctor and he looks at me with pity.

  I don’t want fucking pity.

  We walk a few feet until we come to a small room, a family room. I don’t think I want to go in there. Nothing good comes from going into these rooms.

  “Let’s sit down,” the doctor says.

  He better tell me she’s okay.

  “When Ms. Rawlings—”

  “Soph,” I cut him off and he looks at me. “She hates her surname, just call her Soph.”

  He nods at my request. “When Soph was brought in she was unstable. She had a shoulder wound and another deep stab wound in her lower right abdomen area. She’d lost a lot of blood, over forty percent. The surgeon did everything he could—”

  “Stop,” I shout jumping up and Dane jumps up next to me. The doctor is swimming in my vision now and I can feel my body shaking. “Don’t tell me she’s gone.” I fall to my knees in front of the doctor and place my hands together in a prayer-like stance. “Please don’t tell me she’s dead, Doc. I don’t think I could handle it,” I beg and plead dropping my head and watching my tears splash on the floor.

  “Mr.—”

  “His name is Saul,” Dane tells the doctor.

  “Saul, Soph isn’t dead,” he tells me and I snap my head up to him, not knowing whether to kiss him, laugh, sing or jump around. My body just stays solid, stock still. It’s like I’ve ceased to function. I was so sure he was going to tell me I’d lost her. There was so much blood. I wipe my eyes with the bottom of my palms and try to stop snivelling like a girl.

  Soph would slap me. That thought is the first thing to bring a smile to my face in hours.

  “Why did you bring us in here, Doc?” Dane asks what I can’t.

  “Because she has survived, but she has suffered a lot of damage. I know you’ve been waiting for information for hours. But I didn’t feel it appropriate to have this conversation in front of other patients,” he answers waving his hand in the direction of the waiting room.

  I move back and pull myself up into the chair. “Tell me everything, Doc?” I ask him feeling less shaky.

  “When she came in, I’ll be honest it was touch and go. However, Ms. Rawlings…Soph is a fighter.”

  I nod at his words. My baby is a fighter.

  “We had to give her a lot of blood while we were trying to stop the bleeding, then some more after we had finally stopped it. All her sats dropped and her breathing became laboured as well as her body going into shock. The shoulder was, unfortunately, a worse wound than we had hoped, so the surgeon had to repair the damage to the tendons and blood vessels. She will have to have physical therapy for that, and it will probably be about four months until it’s fully healed,” he tells me.

  “She’s a dancer,” I say out loud almost to myself and he gives me a sympathetic look.

  “I can’t say whether she’ll ever be able to use that arm in the same way. It may be possible that the dancing portion of her life, unless just for her own pleasure, is over I’m afraid.”

  I close my eyes and hang my head. “She’s going to be crushed,” I murmur feeling the pain in my chest as if it’s my own.

  “Saul, I need to talk to you about something else.” I look back to him alert now, wondering what other blow he’s about to land. “You’re her fiancé, right?” he asks and I know it’s a white lie that I told the receptionist, but it’s gonna happen so I might as well go with it.” I nod again and he sighs, his shoulders dropping.

  This can’t be good.

  “I haven’t spoken to the police yet. They are the next stop for me unless I have another emergency to attend to. I wouldn’t usually offer this information to a family member as the police would pass this on, however, in these circumstances it’s essential to explain.”

  “Doc,” Dane growls, I’d almost forgotten he was there. The doctor looks over at him then back to me.

  “Whoever did this to her has some medical knowledge, maybe even surgical. I obviously cannot say in what capacity they have gained their skills. I can only say that of this information I am sure. I consulted with the surgeon to ascertain a secondary opinion, but the wound to Soph’s right side was too perfectly placed for someone who has absolutely no idea what they are doing.” He stops to assess me, but I want him to spit it out.

  “Your meaning, doc?” I snap.

  “He severed her right fallopian tube.”

  His words are repeating over and over in my head. Like my brain is trying to piece them together to form a sentence that it can understand. And I know the moment it slots into place because I feel like I have a car sitting on my chest. It takes everything in me to speak.

  “She hasn’t got a left fallopian tube. Ectopic pregnancy,” I gasp and he nods.

  “There are ways to have children, IVF, where the egg is placed straight into the womb. But you should know. This person didn’t want to kill her, he wanted her to suffer. I’m sorry to bear this news to you, but I have no idea when Soph will wake. Of course, I will be relaying all this information to her, but if you want to go and sit with her you may. She is sedated at the moment, we’ll probably keep her that way for another twenty-four to forty-eight hours depending on how she’s healing and then allow her to come around naturally.”

  I nod and stand not wanting to chat anymore, instead wanting to just get to my girl.

  Dane stands up next to me. “I’m gonna try and speak to Con, let him know what’s happened. I will head back to the house, check on things then I’ll return tomorrow. I assume you’re staying with Soph?” he questions.

  “Fuck yeah,” I answer following the doc.

  Wow! My head hurts and my mouth feels like I have a cotton wool ball in it.

  I try to open my eyes, but they feel sticky. I move to bring my hand up to my face, but the pain from my shoulder burns through my body. Then bang, just like that images flash into my head. Patrick, stabbing me, hitting Pea, and her lying unconscious on the floor surrounded by blood. Then the final blow the one that makes me feel sick. He stabbed me again. I remember his words, he said he wanted to prevent me from having children.

  What am I going to tell Saul?

  I know I said before that there was a chance I’d never be able to have children, but this is pretty much a definite now. Every part of me aches, outside and inside, physically and emotionally.

  I want to give up, to slip back into the darkness that has held me for however long I’ve been out of it.

  Maybe it would be better to never wake up?

  I feel movement from my side and panic. I can’t seem to move.

  Shit, what if Patrick’s still got me.

  Then I hear some clicking and a song starts. ‘Mirrors’ by Justin Timberlake. I feel a warm hand wrap around mine and relax as I smell Saul’s masculine scent surrounding me.

  “Babe, I know you can’t hear me, but I need you to wake up now. It’s been two days since I’ve seen your beautiful eyes. But shit, it feels like a whole lot longer. I can’t live without you and it's killing me just having you here, but gone all at the same time. I feel numb baby, I need your warmth back. I need your smile. I need your laugh. I just need you. Just you. Listen to the song, wherever you are, and just know that this is how I feel about you baby. You’re everything I will ever need and everything I want. Please come back to me, angel.”

/>   I can feel my eyes welling up, but I still can’t move. I just want to tell him it’s all right, that I’m here and I love him. I listen to the song and then the blackness pulls me in again.

  Sweet release.

  I can hear people mumbling. No, they’re talking, I think it’s just my head that’s fuzzy. I can make out Saul and another voice. Dane. That’s Dane talking with him. I try to open my eye and manage one, although the room is blurry. I can see them talking to each other, their backs are to me. I pry the other eye open and try to adjust to the light. I mentally assess myself.

  Patrick hurt me.

  He hurt Pea.

  I’m in the hospital.

  Okay, I need to just breathe for a minute. Everything will be fine. Be brave.

  “You need to at least go back to the house and sleep. You’ve been here for three days, Saul. Even Con went back to sleep.”

  “Yeah, well, Con can do what the fuck he wants. Pea is awake and speaking to him.”

  I feel a weight lift from his words knowing Pea is okay. That was all I was trying to do was make sure she was all right when we were stuck in that room. “He gets to hold his daughter every day.”

  I feel the weight slam back down and I close my eyes feeling the emotion overtake me.

  “I have yet to wait for Soph to wake up. I’m lost without her brother.”

  My breath catches at his words and I manage to gasp out, “Saul,” even though my throat feels like sandpaper. The minute I do both men spin and gaze at me. Dane with relief and Saul, well, he’s looking at me like I’m his reason for being. It makes me catch my breath again. He strides over to me.

  “Babe,” he says, but his voice hitches and it’s like a punch in the stomach to hear the sorrow in his tone.

  “Water,” I gasp and Dane comes over with a bottle of water. I gulp down more than I probably should, but I need it. I feel like I’m dying of thirst.

  “I’ll get a nurse,” Dane says and exits, but Saul pays him no attention. His focus is solely on me.