Her Journey (Her Series Book 2) (25 page)

Cursing under my breath, I went to Melia’s room and pushed open the barely-cracked door. The room was abandoned. She wasn’t there and neither were any of her belongings. Immediately, I spun around and threw open Ryan’s door. I knew Ellis wasn’t in there so chances of her being were slim.

“What the fuck, Wrench?” Ryan groaned sitting up on the bed. I looked around quickly. It felt like déjà vu. I’d just been looking for this woman only hours earlier.

“Where is Melia? Her shit is gone.” I flipped on the light and stomped over to where Ryan’s phone was plugged in. Before she could react, I fired off a text message to Melia. I knew coming from Ryan’s phone she would be much more likely to answer.

“Have you lost your fucking mind?” Ryan snatched the phone out of my hands and kicked me in the shin at the same time.

“I think you have, if you seriously want to start kicking me in the mood I’m in,” I growled at her, but stomped away, only to pace back. “Shits happening while you’re dealing with your hangover. Big shit. I need to find Melia and know that she’s okay.”

“She’s fine. She just replied that she is holing up at some hotel for a bit because she needs to get away.” Ryan read the text a few times over before looking at me. She’d pieced some of the day together, judging by the sneer on her face. “What the fuck did you do this time?”

“Don’t worry about it. Find out what hotel she’s at, I’m going to get her.” I tried to grab the phone from her, but she was quicker and kept it from me.

“Yeah, not happening.” Ryan ducked around me and ran out of the room. I chased after her as she ran down the stairs, dashing into the meeting room. I just barely slipped my boot in the door before she could slam it in my face. Pushing it open, I was met with three sets of curious eyes and a pair of angry ones.

“What’s going on?” Dirty looked from Ryan to me and back to her.

“What’d the douchebag do? Someone tell me, since he seems to think he can go all He-Man and go drag her back from wherever she’s run off to to hide from him again,” Ryan huffed, bracing her hands on her hips as she continued to glare at me even as she talked to the other men in the room.

“Yeah, I think I need to get going.” Piro scooted around me and left the room. Brew soon followed, leaving Dirty, Ryan and me alone.

“Tell me,” Ryan growled at Dirty when his eyes darted to me. She screamed and threw her phone at him. “Don’t worry about him. You worry about me, damn it.”

“Him and Monk had a little tiff when he found Melia in Monk’s bed,” Dirty sighed, dropping his shoulders in defeat.

“Obviously, there’s more to the story than
that
. Stupid men. She didn’t go jump in Monk’s bed. If you for a second believed that, you are an idiot.” Ryan rolled her eyes, shaking her head in disappointment. “Then what happened?”

“I left for a bit and now she’s gone.” I crossed my arms over my chest. I didn’t like the way it sounded either, so when Ryan just looked at me and continued shaking her head, I couldn’t disagree.

“Well, let’s figure out where she went. She couldn’t have gone far. She said she had a wedding to do tomorrow so that might help.” Ryan pulled out a chair in front of one of the laptops situated on the table and started typing.

Hours later and we still had no idea where she’d gone. Unable to stare at the computer any longer, I went to take a shower. Instead, I found myself in Melia’s room. I kicked off my boots before lying in her bed. Staring at the ceiling, I tried to figure out how I was going to fix the situation. Where had she gone? Was what we had over before it’d even had a chance to really begin?

Groaning, I rolled over in the bed. Her scent assaulted me, filling my nose as I neared her pillow. Closing my eyes, I inhaled deeply, taking her into my lungs, wishing she was really there for me to breathe in.

Time passed as I lay in her bed trying to figure out what to do, how to find her and, most importantly, how to convince her to come back. I had no idea just how long I’d been there until Piro came crashing into the room.

Once I got a good look at his face, I jumped from the bed.

“What’s happened?” His face told me it was important.

“We found Melia. She’s in the hospital.” Piro rushed to get out as I shoved past him and ran for the garage. I had to get to her.

“Wrench, stop.” Brew waited for me at the bottom of the stairs. I tried to go around him, but he anticipated the move. Jumping over the banister, I continued towards the garage.

“You need a shirt. And don’t you want to know what hospital she’s at?” Monk held out a black t-shirt for me as he leaned back against the garage door. Obviously they’d known how I was going to react.

“Just fucking tell me and get out of my way.” I pulled the shirt on, cringing as it rubbed against my sunburn. I’d forgotten it was there; my mind had been too preoccupied to care about a little sunburn.

“We’re all going to the hospital. Why don’t you ride with us?” Monk asked. I shook my head as I clenched my jaw. Thankfully, he stepped aside. I didn’t want to have to physically make him move, but I would’ve. He told me the hospital she was at while slapping my shoulder in support. “Drive safe, my brother.”

Nodding, I was out the door. Grabbing my keys off the hook at the same time as I opened the garage, I was on the road not thirty seconds later. It took me nearly twenty minutes to get to the hospital. Normally that was an hour drive, but I wasn’t going the fucking speed limit.

Parking on the sidewalk, I ran in the Emergency entrance of the hospital. I didn’t give a fuck if they towed my bike, getting to her was what mattered. As calmly as I could I asked the lady at the front to direct me to Melia’s room. When she asked if I was related, the lie that I was her husband was out of my mouth before I could think.

With a room number and directions, time slowed to a crawl. Each step was like walking through quicksand, the tick of the second hand on a clock somewhere in the distance, nurses and doctors rushing around me. As fast as I had rushed to get to her, everything in me knew walking in the door was going to destroy my life. No one had told me why she was in the hospital, no one had explained what had happened — I hadn’t given them enough time. Standing in front of an Intensive Care Unit door, I wish I’d taken those moments so I’d be more prepared for what I was about to walk into.

Taking one final deep breath, I pushed open the curtain and walked into the room. To my surprise, she was awake and turned to look at me as I closed the curtain behind me.

“Why are you here?” Melia sneered at me. I tried to formulate words, but all I felt was burning at the back of my throat that felt much like tears. I didn’t cry, ever, but damn if I didn’t want to looking over the most beautiful woman I’d ever known. Her beauty had been destroyed. Both her eyes were black; her nose was broken; there were multiple cuts on her face, and her lip was split and swollen; bruises where someone had obviously wrapped their hands around her throat and arms…and that was just what I could see. She only had one arm out of the blanket, the remote to the TV in her hand. Her nails were all broken and bloody.

Stepping closer to the bed, I itched to touch her, to run to her, to hold her close and promise to make everything okay. The look in her eyes made it clear I was not welcome in the room, much less to touch her.

“You’ve seen enough. You can go now.” Melia pointed toward the door as I watched a tear escape her eyes to run down her battered face.

“I don’t want to go.” I swallowed hard knowing that I had no say in the matter. I had to do what she said. I was at her mercy.

“Please. I want to be alone.”

Everything slowed as I watched her lift her arm from under the sheets; it was wrapped in a white cast, obviously broken. That wasn’t what my eyes focused on, though. In the brief glimpse of her body I got, one thing was abundantly clear. She was no longer pregnant. How I hadn’t noticed it before, I don’t know, but I couldn’t stop my eyes from focusing on her stomach.

“The babies are in the NICU upstairs. I’m sure they would appreciate your staring much more than me.” Melia rolled on her side, putting her back to me. The gown slipped off her shoulder, revealing her back had bruises all over it as well.

Grinding my teeth, I stomped from the room. Following signs, I seethed as I made my way to the NICU. I knew Ryan and Dirty had to be there with the babies. Sure enough, as soon as I rounded the corner, I saw them staring through the glass into the NICU.

“How are they?” From the swollen, red eyes Ryan had, I knew it wasn’t good news.

“They are…okay.” Ryan buried her face into Dirty’s chest as he wrapped his arms around her. He sighed.

“They’ve were born early and with the emergency c-section it was a jarring arrival for the babies. As much as they roughed up Melia, they didn’t do much harm to the babies. They should be okay, but need to stay in the NICU for a couple weeks.” Dirty cleared his throat and I could tell he was holding back his own tears. “We went to visit with Melia, but she was sleeping and we didn’t want to wake her.”

“Who did it?” I asked through clenched teeth. I didn’t want to upset either of them more, but I needed to know.

“Scrapes.” Dirty kissed the top of Ryan’s head.

Spinning on my heel, I ran from the hospital. No more delaying, no more waiting. It was time to get even. That motherfucker had plenty to pay for and I was going to make sure he paid for every goddamn thing even if it meant I had to spend the rest of my life in prison.

Thankfully, my bike was still sitting on the sidewalk. Firing it up, I sped off toward the house.

A few minutes in my closet was all I need to be fully armed and wearing a bullet proof vest on over a long sleeve shirt. Tugging on my cut over the top with a beanie over my hair, I was ready to roll.

I threw my phone on my bed. No distractions, no one needed me anyway.

I had one final mission. Make Scrapes pay.

Opening the front door, I was surprised to find more than half my men on their bikes, armed to the teeth, waiting for me. A proud half-smile tilted my lips as I nodded at them. Climbing on my bike, I revved it up. The answering roar from my men’s bikes was reassuring and comforting.

It was our time. Tormented Souls was out to wreak havoc.

~Melia~

The so-called wedding I’d been hired to do had been a fake. I’d been tricked into driving my damn self into a trap. The thought had never occured to me. Not once had I stopped to think it would be a trick. Shame on me. It had been a woman who called to book the event, which is who generally booked with me. Sadly, photographers were people and got sick just like anyone else so the possibly of one having to cancel at the last minute was plausible. They’d gotten me hook line and sinker.

I had been tied up and beaten by numerous men who were all asking questions, none of which I had answers for. The only thing I thought the entire time was for the babies to be okay. As much as I could, I curled around my belly trying to protect them anyway that I could. How long they held me captive, I couldn’t say. How I got away, I had no idea.

I didn’t care about any of it. I wanted to forget it all. The babies were in the NICU, the best place they could be. I was alone in my room, the way I had grown up. This time it was a hospital room, but it felt the same. No one cared about me since the babies were born.

After one day in the ICU, I was moved to a regular room since I wasn’t in critical condition. I was only there because I’d had an Emergency C-section and broken arm. I spent two more long, miserable days in the hospital. It was lonely and boring. I’d only had one visitor the whole time I’d been there. Wrench. Once. Not that I entirely blamed him for not coming back because of how I’d behaved towards him. Somewhere deep down, I wished that he’d seen that I was hurt and needed him more than ever, but he hadn’t, nor had he returned.