Pulled Back (Twin Flames Series) Page 13

  I stumble to the ground and reach for my face not daring to open my eyes, terrified by what I'll see. He'd gone for the face, which means he didn't care what the outcome would be. I was to be taught a lesson. One he wanted to make sure I'd never be allowed to forget.

  With one hand pressed against my face to hold my skin together, I inch away from him, only stopping when I reach the kitchen wall. A second slash comes at me. This time it's my shoulder.

  “Damn you, Jeanne!” my father screams my mother's name at me. “Why did you have to leave me?”

  I try to open my eyes, but only the right one will budge, the left has either swollen itself shut or is gone for good.

  Dad sinks down to his knees beside me. He grabs my torn face in his hands, seemingly unaware of the pain he is causing by touching the open flesh.

  The look on his face terrifies me. He's not here. His mind is gone, off somewhere else. His eyes are glassed over with tears. “I chose you, Jeanne, not her!” he weeps. “I told God to save you!”

  He raises the bottle again, and I know that this will be the blow that kills me.

  “I'm ready,” I whisper to the heavens, happy for the chance to finally rest.

  “Let her go!”

  I rip my lids open. Intense pain sears in my left eye. I am able to make out Hawk's body standing the kitchen door. His drawn arrow is aiming right at my father.

  I try to tell him to stop, that it's too late to save me, but my voice comes out garbled. My dad yells something I can’t make out, and then a moment later an arrow is lodged inside my dad's chest.

  His agonized scream is the last thing I hear before the lights go out.

  Chapter 18

  Tobias

  “Hawk! What did you do?” I scream, pushing him out of the way. I rush to Jada needing to check on her first.

  “You told me to shoot!”

  “I meant in the leg or something, not a kill shot!”

  He lowers the bow as I kneel down and check for Jada's pulse. As soon as I touch her skin, I know she's alive. Her flesh, although badly mutilated, is like fire against my cool fingers. Her heart is thrumming wildly, but with the amount of blood she's losing, it won't be long before she could be in serious jeopardy. I could not let that happen.

  “Okay, I think she's just passed out, but we need to cover her wounds and get her to a hospital fast. I'll take care of her, you check on her dad.”

  Hawk doesn't move. He just stands there; bow in hand, staring at the man he most likely just killed.

  “Hawk, look, I know you're freaking out. I am, too. But we need to try and save them, okay? I can't do this alone. I need your help.”

  “I didn't mean to hurt him,” he whispers. “I just wanted him to stop hurting her.” A tear runs down his face. I have never seen Hawk cry.

  Standing, I walk over to him and put my hands on his shoulders, shaking him a bit so he'll look at me.

  “You acted on instinct. No one will blame you for that. But right now we need to focus on stopping the bleeding, okay?”

  “I can't... ” He backs away from Mr. William's limp body.

  “Fine. I'll check on him, you get her bandaged up.” I pull out my e-portal and hit the emergency button. It would instantly hone in on my GPS. They should be here within a few minutes. It wasn't like me to be the one in control. I was used to taking orders, not giving them.

  Hawk nods slowly. He begins to rummage around the kitchen looking for dishcloths to try and stop Jada’s bleeding.

  I sink down to the ground to take a closer look at the spot where the arrow pierced him. Unfortunately, for Mr. Williams, Hawk's a good shot. He slipped the arrow right in between his rib cage, making a clean hit to either his heart or his lung. Either way, unless the ambulance got here soon, he wouldn't make it. The ambulance... They'll see the bow. They'll know how he died.

  “We have to remove the arrow,” I whisper.

  Hawk stops wrapping up Jada and looks at me.

  “If you take out the arrow, he'll bleed out.”

  I know he’s right. If all of my time hunting with Hawk has taught me anything, it was how badly an animal bleeds once you removed the head of the arrow. After all, they were designed to go in, not out.

  “Hawk, we have to get it out before the paramedics come.”

  “No, man. I think we should wait.”

  He doesn't understand so I do my best to remain calm. “Hawk, what do you think the paramedics will say if they find an arrow head that you carved, that's probably covered with your prints, inside his chest?”

  His eyes grow wide in understanding as they flick between Jada and her father, then back at me. He grows rigid – scared. It's the first time I've ever seen him terrified of anything. The reality of what had just happened is setting in.

  Seeing his face drain of color I can't help but feel guilty. This whole thing is my fault. I'd forced him to come here tonight. When Ma had come up to tell me that Jada had gone back to her fathers, I went nuts. While Mom called the cops, I took off after her. I knew I wouldn't be strong enough to confront her dad on my own though. Which is why I got Hawk and his bow to join me. The weapon was supposed to just be for show: a bluff. A way to get her away from her dad. How had things gone so wrong?

  One thing is clear: there is no way Hawk is taking the fall for something I had orchestrated. Thinking fast, I scan the room looking for something sharp. The vodka bottle. It will be perfect. Still dripping with Jada's blood I grab the bottle and bring it over to Mr. Williams.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Hawk screams at me. He knocks the bottle out of my hand. As it falls, it takes a huge gouge out of my arm. I let out a scream of my own.

  “Damn it, Hawk! I'm trying to save your ass! This has to look like this was a struggle and not like you shot him with a bow and arrow at close point range! Unless you want to go to prison for the next five to ten years! It has to look like an accident. We have to remove the arrow and something needs to take its place as the weapon.”

  “But you could kill him!”

  I look down at the limp body on the ground, surprised to find no remorse for the man lying there.

  “He deserves to die after what he's done to her.”

  The blood from my arm starts to seep in between my fingers and drip onto the tile. Looking at it dot the floor makes my head feel light. There seems to be an awful lot of blood for such a small cut. Blinking my eyes back into focus, I turn back to Mr. Williams and raise my hand. But I can't seem to do what needs to be done.

  “Let me do this!” Hawk grunts. “You always were a pansy around blood.”

  I feel the bottle slip from my hands before Hawk pushes me to the ground. My eyes close against the sound Mr. Williams' screams of agony as Hawk removes the arrow. The last gurgle of breath escapes her father's lips when Hawk lodges the broken bottle where the arrow had been.

  The brutality of what he just done makes me want to hurl. It takes me a moment to regain my thoughts.

  “Hawk!” I yell. “You've got to get out of here.”

  His lips twitch. “I won't let you take the blame for this.”

  My shoulders slump. “Why not? I'm the one who told you to shoot.”

  “But I'm the one who killed him!”

  I close my eyes against the throb in my arm and the burn that's starting up in my lungs.

  “Hawk,” I say slowly. “You and I both know I won't be around much longer. I'm not letting you ruin your life when mine is all but used up.” His face contorts. Sirens start to wail in the distance. “Go. Now. For me.”

  The hesitation is in his eyes, but after a moment his resolve fades and he bolts out the door, giving me one last sidewards glance as he leaves.

  Suddenly terribly winded, I limp over to Jada and cradle her in my good arm. Her body is like Jell-O under me but I can still see her chest rising and falling. She'll be okay. She has to be.

  Looking down at her angelic face, I find myself unable to resist. I brush my nose against the side of
her face. She's warm. Alive. With the last of my strength I lower my lips to hers. As they touch, a thousand images flash across my eyes: a vodka bottle, pills – lots and lots of pills – a girl crying in agony, a bloody belt, and a shotgun going off.

  I rip my lips off Jada's in horror. What the hell was that?

  The shock of what I'd just seen combined with the strain of the night leaves me my lungs burning for air. A coughing fit begins, which makes Jada bounce wildly in my arms, but I refuse to let her go. I need my inhaler, which is sitting, in my pants pocket. I try to shift Jada off of me to fish it out but I can't do it with just one arm, and the other one is throbbing so badly that I can't think straight.

  Stars start to dance across my eyes. I try to blink them away, but they just keep coming. Eventually, the stars win and I can't even manage to open my lids back up.

  Sirens get louder in some corner of my mind. Help is coming. I allow my eyes to close against the rush of noise inside my head.

  Jada

  Bleach. The smell of it stings my nose and brings me back into the world I thought I escaped. A steady beeping sound comes from my right. I try to open my eyes, but only the right will budge. My hands try to feel for the reason why but only my left hand one will move without pain. My limited sight reveals that a sling is clasped tight to my torso, imprisoning my right arm, while an IV hinders my left arm.

  The room is dark illuminated only by a million beeping machines. Along the edge of my bed I find the nurses' call button which I somehow manage to press with my limited motion.

  As I wait, my fingers find the cause of what's obscuring my vision. The whole left side of my face feels like it is covered in gauze. And it hurts. A lot. A groan escapes my lips as I try to sit up.

  “Easy now,” a voice says entering the room. A voice I recognize.

  “Ms. Garret?” I croak. I’m surprised by how strange my voice sounds.

  “Call me Brenda, honey.” Brenda checks my machines before she looks at me. Her nostrils flare a bit angered by what she sees. Is she angry at me? My father? Her son? Hawk?

  “What are you doing here?”

  She smiled. “I work here, darling. You've been out for almost three weeks now. You were starting to get us worried.”

  Three weeks?

  “Tobias' doctors won't let him come visit you since his lungs are still so weak. He's made me come here everyday to check on you, even the days I'm not on duty.” She smiles softly at me. “I think that boy is smitten with you.”

  “My father, is he... ”

  Brenda sits down at the foot of the bed and folds her hands. “I'm sorry, honey. He didn't make it.”

  My eyes fill with tears but only one eye can release them.

  “What happened?”

  She sighs. “I was hoping you could tell me. Tobias won't say a word.”

  “It was Hawk... ”

  She nods. “We know. He confessed before…” She dropped her head to the floor.

  “Before what?”

  When she raised her head she looked terribly disturbed. “Before they took him to prison.”

  “What?”

  “His lawyers think he’s gonna end up with three years for involuntary manslaughter.”

  I try to swallow but my throat is too tight. Three years.

  “But he was just trying to protect me…”

  “I know that, honey. But he still killed a man with an illegal weapon. He’ll be lucky to get off with that.”

  “This is all my fault. If I hadn’t left your house…if I had just stayed where I was none of this would have happened.” The truth of the situation begins pressing down on me. If I had just done what he asked me to do and stayed away from my father when he was out of control none of this would have happened. The guilt is overwhelming. I can actually feel the color draining out of me.

  “You look a little pale. How is the pain? I wish I could give you more,” she sighs, “but because of your condition, it would be risky.”

  “My condition?”

  Brenda cocks her head then squeezed my hand. “Oh honey, I thought you knew. The way Tobias talked...” She pressed her lips into a huge smile. “Jada, honey, you're gonna be a mamma.”

  My heart stops.

  “What? No — that’s impossible…”

  She smiled at me. “The docs were a little surprised, too. When they did an ultra sound to check for more internal bleeding last week, they found your baby’s heartbeat instead. But don't you worry honey; your baby is just fine. But because of that I can't give you anything stronger than acetaminophen.”

  “But,” I whisper. “I've never... ”

  Hawk.

  That night in the woods.

  My throat tightens and tears begin to flow down my face without consent.

  Brenda sits beside me and wipes them away.

  “Hush now, honey. Don't you cry. Tobias is gonna be a wonderful daddy. He's gonna take care of you both.”

  Her figure has blurred behind the tears. “Tobias... knows?” I squeak.

  “He does, honey. And he's so happy.”

  I do my best to swallow the lump lodged in my throat. Tobias knows that I'm pregnant with Hawk's baby. So why is he trying to pretend it's his?

  “Now you go on and rest. I'm gonna go find your doctor. He's gonna want to run some tests on you now that you're awake.”

  I nod even though I don't feel myself do it. My hand drifts over to my belly.

  “Ms. Garret?”

  She stops at the door.

  “Yes, darling?”

  “How bad is my face?” I move my hand over to my bandaged face and search her two perfect eyes for the truth.

  Her lips form a thin line; I know she’ll be honest. “The doc says you won't lose your eye.”

  I close my eye, waiting for the rest. “But... ”

  Brenda takes a long exhalation through her nose. “But there will be a scar.”

  My lips quiver as I try to hold back tears. “I want to see.”

  “I don't think that's... ”

  “If you won't help me, I'll do it myself.”

  Determined, I start clawing at the gauze. I need to see what I've become.

  “All right, stop it now. Don't go ripping your stitches open! Let me help.” She bats my hands away and starts to slowly undo the tape. My face throbs as she pulls it away from my skin. The gauze needs to be peeled off slowly so it doesn't break the new skin growing below. It feels like each piece she removes she takes a bit of who I used to be away.

  The left side of my face stings. Pulses of pain rocket throughout my head, giving me an instant migraine. From my good eye I can see the edge of my cheek, which I know will be bruised beyond recognition.

  Brenda walks over to one of the cabinets and returns with a hand mirror. “It's still pretty swollen,” Brenda warns. “And they haven't done any plastic surgery yet, so...”

  “Give me the mirror.”

  Reluctantly, she hands a small mirror to me. Holding my breath, I look.

  My left eye is completely swollen shut. A mix of purples and yellows hues line the side of my face. They are colors to which I've grown accustomed to, just not on my face. Experience tells me that the swelling will go down and my true color will return, but it's the jagged line of black stitches running from the edge of my eyebrow down the side of my face and along my jaw line that will never fade. This horrid scar will never disappear. It will remain as a constant reminder of what my own father had done to me. Of how much he'd hated me. How he didn't love me. How could I ever be a mother being as messed up as I am?

  Clutching on tight to the mirror I feel it snap under the pressure I'm putting on it. It's plastic, not glass, but the edges will still be sharp. It will do just fine. I curl myself up into a ball and weep, waiting for Ms. Garret to leave me in peace so I can fix this.

  Chapter 19

  Tobias

  The robotic hiss of the nebulizer attached to my face may be keeping me alive but it's also keeping me awake.
For weeks now I've been chained to this stupid machine, making it impossible for me to go and check on Jada. Since that last night in her house, I've gone downhill fast. Each day it gets harder to just catch my breath.

  Doc said because of all the damage I had done to my lungs I'd probably be on this damn thing for the rest of my life, unless I got a lung transplant. That's not happening any time soon. In the meantime, Mom has ordered a portable nebulizer, but it hasn't come in yet and the wait is killing me.

  After everything that has happened these last few weeks, I've barely been able to keep anything down. I've lost about ten pounds, which isn't good when you're as sick as I am. Between Jada being in a coma and Hawk being thrown in jail, it's all been too much to process.

  Every day that passes without seeing Jada I grow more and more restless. Weaker, somehow. The romantic in me wanted to believe that if I could just see her, I would be healed. But the realist in me knows better.

  I toss and turn in my bed unable to rest. Out of the blue, my heart squeezes. The hairs rise on my arm.

  Jada.

  Bolting upright as I hear the front door shut. Mom's home. I glance at the clock. 2:15am. Her shift should have been over hours ago. The only time she's ever late is if someone has crashed, or worse. Panic ensues.

  “Mom!” I shout down the stairs. “Mom!”

  I hear her drop her bag on the table before she comes thundering up the stairs.

  “Tobias? What is honey? I'm coming!”

  She swings open my door, worry etched on her forehead. “What is it? What's wrong?” she pants.

  “I'm fine,” I say coughing. “What's wrong with Jada?” I rip off my mask.

  Mom rushes to my side and shoves it back over my face. “You leave that on mister, or I won't tell you anything!”

  I know she's full of shit, but I don't want to risk it. I need to know what's going on.

  “Fine,” I mumble through the plastic.