Page 21 of Rise By Sin

It pissed me off too that she’d done that. Didn’t she know how much Colt loved her? Didn’t she realize there was nothing he wouldn’t so for her? Didn’t she realize how much Jack and I had cared for her before she ran from us? Didn’t she feel for us the way we felt for her? We would have gone to her too had we known. Jack and I would have been right there with her and Colt every step if the fucking way and she had denied us that. She had suffered alone and it made no fucking sense!

It did maybe explain why she didn’t want to go to the hospital though. She was likely stuck in one of those shit hole places for months after the shooting. That was why Jack had called in a favor from one of his contacts that hailed from darker times in his life – a doctor who was willing to treat Ava under the table. The fact he was there attending to her was the only thing that had made me able to leave her side to make sure the crime scene was being taken care of. I just hoped I’d be able to take care of the fact Ava hadn’t been taken to the hospital for treatment in my report.

At the nod of agreement from the patrol officers to my request I left the scene in their hands and walked as fast as I could back to the club, slamming past the security at the door and leaping up the stairs to the office three and four at a time, just needing to see for myself how Ava was doing.

“How is she?” I demanded the second I walked into the room and locked eyes with Jack. He and Deacon were stood close to the sofa where Ava still lay, the doctor knelt beside her and leant over the stab wound. The knife was out and laid on a tray on the floor beside him.

“The knife’s out and I’ve stopped the bleeding. It hit some nerves, so this arm is going to be weak and painful for a while, but it didn’t hit anything vital,” The doc explained. I was pretty sure he was stitching her up, which was a good sign.

“Did you figure out what happened?” Deacon asked.

“She fought. There’s definitely prints from a scuffle in the snow. I think whoever it was, was looking for something. Her backpack had been tipped out onto the sidewalk,” I explained.

“Of course she fought. She wouldn’t go down without a fight, but she’s not as strong as she thinks she is, Mace. We need to do a much better job of protecting her. Whoever has, or is looking for Colt, is clearly a threat to her,” Jack told me as he stood looking anxious, his heavily tattooed arms folded over his chest.

We had been friends for so long that I knew every nuance of his body language by now. It was why we worked together so well when we did a scene at the club. It was why what we had with Ava was so perfect before she fled. She was made for us, and I was happy to pend the rest of my life sharing her with Jack. Ithad been the plan over a decade ago and that plan had never changed for wither of us, but it obviously had for her.

“I know. You’re right,” I nodded.

“That might mean you have to stop being such as asshole to her,” Deak added.

“I know that too.” I didn’t even know why I was being the way I was with her. We used to have banter between us before, but it was always just fun and playful. Since she came back I had been a complete shit with her and I knew it. It just hurt that after all of these years she came back, but didn’t want us. We had been waiting o long, neither Jack nor I ever really moving on or even seriously considering another relationship with anyone else, always in the ever lasting hope that one day we would get her back. Now we finally had her and she was pushing us away. More than that, she seemed to hate us and I had no idea why. It hurt. It hurt so fucking much and I was pretty sure my asshole comments to her were because of that pain I felt inside.

“Doc, Ava knew your name. She told me you treated her before for Colt. When was that?” Jack asked thoughtfully. I turned to him with question and he held up a finger to halt my questions. “She said it was the night she was attacked?”

My entire body went cold and my heart started to pound at those words. Ava had been attacked? What did that mean and why the hell didn’t Jack and I know about that either?

“Yes, that’s right,” the doc replied as he worked away to stitch the front of Ava’s shoulder. “I still see images of her injuries that night. They were some of the most barbaric I’ve seen in my career. Did they ever capture that mad man?”

“I’m not sure,” Jack uttered, now looking as pale and unsure as I was feeling. “Her injuries?”

“Some of them were so deep. I warned Colt the scarring would be extensive and suggested they seek the advice of a plastic surgeon if they bothered her. The ones on her back would have been hard to work with, but that brand on her stomach, it could have been easily removed eventually.” Th doctor went on like he had no idea just how much he was spilling to us. He obviously thought we knew all about the attack, which we did not. Why would Colt have kept this from us?”

“When?” I asked, my voice barely coming out it was so hoarse. I coughed to clear my tight throat and tried again. “When was this?”

“Oh, it had to be at least a decade, maybe longer. Colt told me she’d moved to Chicago last time I spoke with him. Probably for the best after what she went through here.”

“I…I need to check something,” I hadn’t even finished talking before I was out of the room and crossing the hall to the bathroom there. I locked the door behind me and leaned heavily on the sink as I tried and failed to make myself breathe.

This was why she left. Some monster had turt and tortured her and she had run. Why wouldn’t she? She had to be terrified after what she went through, and since she came back I had done nothing but throw barbs at her about running away. She told us, she said we had no idea what she had been through and she was fucking right. We hadn’t know and we had just let her go, cursing her for leaving without so much as a word. Why didn’t we go after her? Why did we let her slip away from us at the time when she had to need us the most?

It all started to make sense to me then. We barely saw Colt for the two weeks before she left. He was never at the club and whenever I called him he said he was too busy. Then after she left he was constantly travelling to Chicago to see her, almost every week. This explained why he was so worried about her back then. It explains his behavior for that whole time around her leaving and for the year afterwards. But I didn’t understand why he wouldn’t tell me. We told each other everything. Why wouldn’t he have told me what happened to his little sister? I could have helped. I would have.

My girl – the woman I had loved for so many years – had been attacked. She had been branded! What the fuck did that even mean? Like cattle were branded. And the doctor said the scarring was extensive. What the fuck had been done to her and when? Why weren’t one of us with her, protecting her and keeping her safe? How did any of us let this happen to the woman we all cared so much for?

“Mace?” Jack knocked gently on the door. I took a deep breath and tried to get myself together. I was panting hard, my whole chest moving with every breath as anger and confusion warred within me. I had to unclench my balled fist just to unlock and open the door.

“Why would Colt keep this from us?” I growled the second Jack appeared in the doorway. “That’s why she left. She had to. She was too afraid to be here anymore. We didn’t….we should have g-gone after her, man,” I gasped as I pushed every word through my tight throat. Tears were in my eyes and it felt foreign. I couldn’t even remember the last time I cried.

“It’s too late for that now, bud. We fucked up, but we can’t go back,” he sighs. “We need to speak to her. It’s time she told useverything once and for all, and I’m not taking no for an answer. I don’t know why Colt wouldn’t tell us what happened, but I’m guessing it’s because Ava begged him not to. His first instinct when Ava was attacked would be to call you, I’m sure of that.”

“I need to know what happened. I need to make damned sure whoever hurt her is behind bars where he belongs,” I snapped angrily. Not even God would be able to help that fucker if he wasn’t already locked up, because all I could think about was ending him if I ever got my hands on him, and Jack was having equal murderous thoughts judging by the tense set of his jaw and his clenched fists.

“Wherever that bastard is, it won’t stop me from making sure he gets everything he has owing to him and then some,” Jack hissed. Yep, definitely murderous, and I knew every word he spoke to be truth. Jack may be pretty laid back and esy going on the surface, but I had seen him lose his temper before and it was downright terrifying. Add to that the contacts he seemed to have and I was pretty sure there was nowhere and no one he couldn’t get to if he was determined.

“Guys, she’s waking up,” Deacon called as he popped his head out of the office door. Jack nodded and Deak disappeared back inside again.

“We’ll handle this, but right now we have to focus on keeping her safe. That’s the priority,” I told him more calmly.

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