Page 89 of Declan's Dove

I fell down the stairs. Two cracked ribs.

I ran into a door. Broken nose and two black eyes.

Carter fell off his bike. Broken wrist.

He flipped ass over head off his skateboard. Mild concussion.

None of it was true. Every bit was James’s fault. Everything we’ve ever endured was caused by his temper. His need for power and control.

Tears start streaming down my face. The lump in my throat makes it hard to swallow.

“Dove?” Declan reaches for my face. “Violet!” I make eye contact, but I can’t seem to get my body to come back online. “Baby, we have to go. Carter needs us. Grab your things and I’ll take you to him.”

Carter needs us.

“Here.” Skyler hands me my purse. “Your baby needs you.” She has her hand on her belly, and something gives way inside me.

Your baby needs you.

My baby.

My son.

“Shit. Carter.” Come on Violet! Move your ass. “Okay. Okay. Let’s go.” The fog clears from my mind and my feet finally start moving. Declan doesn’t let go of me, dragging me to the truck with him, watching me closely.

“I’m okay. I just, I got caught in a memory,” I tell him, in hopes of easing his concern.

“This was an honest fall, baby. No one put hands on our boy. It was an accident. No one at the farm would ever hurt Carter. You know that, don’t you?” His face looks pained as he asks me.

“I know.”

“We’ll be right behind you, Dec.” I hear Ethan call out as Declan lifts me into the passenger seat of his truck. He reaches over, buckling my seatbelt, then cradles my cheek in his hand.

“He’ll be okay, baby. We’ll go sit with him and as soon as the doctor gets him patched up, we’ll take our boy home.”

“Thank you.” I don’t know what else to say. I feel horrible about the way I’m reacting. I don’t know why I can’t think straight. I’ve never faltered before when something has happened to Carter. I always know exactly what to do.

I’m his mother.

“You panicked. Something from your past was triggered and your body responded by shutting down.” I nod, unable to speak. What he says makes sense. “It’s almost like a flashback. It happens to people who’ve been through traumatic experiences. The difference is with a flashback, you get stuck in the moment, sometimes delusional, believing it’s happening in the now. What happened to you was more of a muscle memory. Your mind took you to a moment similar to the situation. You knew it wasn’t really happening, but you couldn’t get your body to cooperate with what you knew you needed to do because the memory was holding you captive.”

“H-how do you know about all of this?”

“I served in missions I wish I could forget. Saw things no one should ever have to endure and unfortunately, I remember them all,” he says solemnly. “It took a while for me to get my head back on straight and to be able to recognize the things that were triggering for me. Then I talked to Caleb, and he helped me work through them, so they no longer have the same hold on me. Sometimes I still have nightmares, or something will bring back an old memory, but it doesn’t hold me captive anymore.” His hand squeezes my thigh as he turns to meet my eyes. “We will help you through this too, Dove. You’re family now. Kings take care of their own.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Declan

We pull into the emergency room parking lot, and something about Violet shifts. She’s throwing the door of the truck open and running for the doors of the ER before I have the truck fully parked. Thankfully, Caleb is waiting for us at the entrance and catches her, grabbing her with both arms and hugging her.

“What happened, Caleb? Where’s Carter?”

I’m not far behind and hear him telling her, “Calm down, sweetheart. He’s all right. Liz is in there with him. He was riding Midnight and something spooked the horse. Midnight took off in a run. I chased after her, trying to catch the reins, and she bucked. Carter fell off and landed wrong on his wrist. It looks like it might be broken. I’m sorry, sweetheart.” Caleb looks at her, moving his hands down her arms to grasp her hands. “But if you go in there all hysterical, that bitch of a nurse at the front desk won’t let you see him. She’s not responsive to yelling or acting crazy.”

“Liz lost her shit, huh?” I ask over Violet’s shoulder. Caleb nods, laughing.

“Yeah. They were asking questions we didn’t know the answers to, and the nurse said she had to wait until his parent arrived to treat him since it wasn’t life threatening. Liz got pissed off. She didn’t see why they couldn’t take an x-ray while we waited for you two to get here.” He chuckles. “She then explained to the nurse how not seeing to Carter’s arm could become life threatening, and whose life was being threatened.” He looks pointedly at me. The picture in my mind of Liz going off on the nurse makes me laugh.

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