“Stop, son. Let him go, he’s not going anywhere,” Trev added, his voice ravaged. It was that note in his tone that pulled me out of my anger, that let me see what I was doing.
Ellis hung limply in my grip, his face a bloody mess, already swelling. Blood was everywhere, and as I looked him over, I saw how much of it was caused by Ara. She’d done a number on him. I knew she’d broken his nose, but I finally saw the scratches and deep gouges in his skin, telling me she’d fought hard.
“Let him go, Flynn. Walk away now. The cops are on their way,” Trev said again, his voice low and filled to the brim with despair was about his son. But still, he was here for me, trying to save me.
Swallowing hard, I forced my fingers to unclench. Ellis fell to the ground like a ragdoll, a pained breath escaping his busted lip.
Ara’s phone was a short distance from his body, and I leaned down to get it. As I was standing back up, my gaze landed on a scrap of lace kicked nearly under the bed and my vision bled red again. He’d torn her panties right off her body.
“Flynn,” Trevor said again, his voice harsh and commanding.“Leave, now.”
Forcing myself to breathe, I took a step back.
Ellis tried to open his swollen eyes to look at me, and I shook my head in disgust, turning on my heel and marching from the room.
Paramedics had arrived at the scene along with the police, and everyone had been detained for questioning except for Ara and Ellis who had been taken for medical treatment. I’d nearly been removed from the hospital when I found out they were keeping him in the room beside hers, and at my insistence, they’d moved him to the other side of the hospital. It was a small hospital, but I didn’t give a fuck. Whatever space they could give her from him, I demanded they do it. I would have preferred for him to be in the morgue, but that wasn’t up to me.
I’d been questioned at the scene and again at the police station. Carol and Trev were questioned as well, and all our statements taken. And Sofia…
I closed my eyes in dismay.
She’d run after us, and she’d seen enough to know what had happened. The look on her face wasn’t one I’d soon forget. The denial followed by horror, the nausea and then despair. She’d glued herself to Ara’s side the moment she got up there and hadn’t left her since. At this moment, she was the only one allowed in the room with her.
I leaned forward in my seat, my fingers laced together as I continued to jostle my leg impatiently. I just needed to see her. I needed to hear her voice, to know she was going to be okay.
I hadn’t even had a chance to hold her yet. The moment I stepped out of the room, the police arrived, and I was forced to sit against the wall away from the chaos. After that I’d been questioned and then taken to the police station to give my statement again. Thankfully, they didn’t believe any of the shit Ellis spewed about Ara attacking him first, and with separatestatements from me, Trevor, and Carol, he was fucked.
I’d prefer dead, but I’d take what I could get.
Trev and Carol joined me at the hospital, but they’d since left to find some coffee, leaving me alone to wait. I wasn’t leaving until I got to see her. I couldn’t.
Fuck, I could have lost her.
I pushed back into the uncomfortable plastic chair and scrubbed my hands over my face before spearing them through my hair, closing my eyes and forcing myself to breathe. What a fucking nightmare. Would this have still happened had I not come? Would he have still tried for one last time to get Ara to be with him? Would he have given up on her? Or was me being here the thing that sent him over the edge?
“Flynn?”
My eyes snapped open at the sound of my name. I jerked my head to the side to see Sofia standing a few feet away. I was up in a second, scanning her face for answers. Her skin was pale, shadows smudged deep beneath her eyes, and they were rimmed red, telling me she’d been crying.
“How is she?” I asked at once.
Her smile was half-hearted, and she shrugged, wrapping her arms around herself. “She’ll be okay… eventually. Her injuries aren’t anything too bad, but they want to keep her overnight for observation. She has a slight concussion, and her left arm is severely sprained.”
I released a slow breath and Sofia continued.
“Other than a few bumps and bruises, there’s nothing else wrong with her. He didn’t—” Tears filled her eyes and her lips trembled. “He didn’t get a chance to—”
Her voice broke, and her shoulders shook as tears spilled forward. I stepped forward at once and wrapped my arms around her, pulling her in close. Sofia burst into tears, and I closed my eyes, holding her tightly to me as she broke.
The guy was my cousin—my adoptive brother—and I was fucking sickened to be related to him knowing what he'd tried to do to Ara.
But Sofia had been in love with him. She’d been about tomarryhim, and he’d beaten and tried to rape her best friend hours before what was supposed to be their wedding. She’d lost the man she loved, lost the vision of her future, and almost lost her best friend.
“Shh, she’ll be okay. Everything will be okay,” I whispered, running my hand up and down her back soothingly. I wasn’t sure if I was lying or not, but I hoped like hell we’d all find our way back from this somehow.
I rocked her gently from side to side, my cheek resting on top of her bowed head, and I closed my eyes, trying to offer her whatever comfort I could. I don’t know how long I stood there with her sobbing in my arms, but eventually someone tapped me on my shoulder. Lifting my head, I saw my uncle standing behind me.
He looked like he’d aged fifteen years in the last few hours; he and Carol both. Sofia was mourning, but so were they. They’d always worried about their son’s attitude toward the world, but they’d heard for themselves the monster he’d become and listened to him attack a woman they considered a daughter.
