Page 40 of Rise By Sin

“Whatever we have to. Mason was right earlier – we are not losing her again,” Jack replied determinedly.

“Did you find anything on the psycho who killed that girl and hurt Ava?” Deacon asked.

“I got the files on the murder of Helen Waters and I brought them for Ava to look over, but I don’t think there’s anything there. Homicide worked that investigation for months and they got no real leads.”

“So if this psycho does have Colt, we have no way of finding him?” Jack met my eyes as he spoke, and I saw the fear all over his face too. Colt was either dead or in deep shit, and we had no leads to get him back before it was too late, if it wasn’t too late already.

“We have Ava. She saw this guy and she survived. That’s more than the detectives who worked Helen’s case had.” I was trying to sound positive and hopeful, but even I knew from what Ava had told me earlier about her attack, that she had very little we could work with.

“I should check on her,” Jack said with a deep sigh.

Ava was fast asleep in the room at Jack’s that she had stayed in already. Jack had explained she hadn’t even stirred as he carried her into his place and pulled off her shoes and jeans, just trying to make her more comfortable. I knew she had to have been exhausted. She’d had one hell of a day, and we didn’t even known what she’d discovered yet. At to all of that the frailty of her body and I was amazed she had lasted as long as she had.

I found myself following Jack down the hall and stopping in the doorway as he crept silently into her room. The room was lit bya small lamp beside the bed, so I could just make out the tiny bundle in the center of the King bed. She was still fast asleep and breathing steadily, a heavy blanket wrapped around her.

She looked so young laid there. It blew my mind how much she thought she had changed. Yes, she was a little older – we all were – but she was still every bit as beautiful as she had always been. Her face was slimmer and she looked tired, but her eyes were still that perfect shade of azure blue, and they came to life when she was angry. I remembered the way those eyes would sparkle with mischief when she smiled and laughed when she was younger. I remembered the way they would widen in excitement and joy when Jack and I dominated her and finally allowed her the freedom she desperately needed to just let go of all of the control she clung to so hard in every single aspect of her life except the hours she spent with us. I hated how pale and thin she looked, but only because it terrified me. I wanted to see the color in her cheeks that had been there a decade earlier. I wanted to run my hand over the luscious curves she once had and know she was healthy and happy, as she had been back then.

She stirred slightly as Jack tucked the blanket tighter around her and I fixated on the slight pout of her perfect pink lips. I wanted to kiss her so she would remember who she belonged to. I wanted to gather her in my arms and protect her from every single thing that had ever hurt her. I wanted her to believe me when I told her I would never ever allow anything or anyone to hurt her ever again.

“She’s alright, Mace. Let’s allow her to sleep, okay?” Jack told me as he approached me. I nodded and stepped back from the door so he could exit and close the door quietly behind us.

“I love her Jack. I love her so fucking much. She’s not running from us again. I won’t let her,” I told him as we stopped outside her room and looked to each other.

“I know. I love her too. We’re going to be here for her this time, whatever comes. We’re going to show her that we’re hers and that’s never going to change.”

“And Colt?”

“We do everything we can to get him back, and if we can’t…well then we cross that bridge when we get to it,” he sighed as he clamed a hand on my shoulder hard, then walked past me, back to the living room.

“Just don’t be fucking dead Colt, please,” I uttered into the ether. Ava needed him more than she would ever be willing to admit, and I did too if I were honest. Jack was right. I had to focus on doing everything I could to bring him back to her, and to all of us.

AVA

I had no idea how long I had been asleep, but I did know I’d woken myself up screaming out for Colt. My sleep had been plagued with my usual nightmares, but this time, in each and every one of them Colt had appeared and I had been unable to save him.

The door was thrown open and the lights over head snapped on, almost blinding me before I could even get my bearings.

I glanced up, blinking rapidly as the bright light burned at my eyes and saw Mason hurrying towards me in nothing but a pair of checkered PJ pants.

“Jesus fuck!” I hissed. ”Turn the damned light off. I need my fucking retinas to see!” I lowered my head again as I threw an arm over my eyes dramatically.

“Shit! Sorry,” Mace said. I sighed with relief as the bright light flicked off again. I dropped my arm and opened my eyes, looking around me as my vision adjusted the dim light coming from the slightly ajar bathroom door.

“Are you okay? I heard you cry out?” he asked and I felt the bed dip on my right side as he settled his weight down on the edge.

“Just a nightmare,” I brushed him off as I tried to calm my rapid breathing and hide my shaking hands under the blanket I was wrapped in. “I’m good. We’re at Jack’s?”

“Yeah. His place is the biggest and none of us wanted to leave you after…well after what happened.”

“After I lost it, you mean?” I scoffed.

“Did you get hurt? Jack checked you over for injuries, but he couldn’t see anything? What the fuck happened when you met Owens?” he demanded, but his tone was gentler than it had been with me previously since I came back.

“No I wasn’t fucking hurt!” I snapped as I pushed myself up to sitting and leaned back against the headboard. I was feeling shaky and my pain was at a definite nine out of ten. I knew it was the result of a sleep filled with my tossing and turning and fighting the attackers in my nightmares. “And what do you mean Jack checked me over?” I pulled back the blanket and studied my clothes, which had changed from earlier. I was now in an oversized T-shirt I assumed was Jacks and my legs were bare. “Did you get a good look at me while I was unconscious too?”I growled and I wrapped the blanket even tighter around me, mortified any of them had seen the emaciated, scarred wreckage that remained of my body.

“Ava, enough! You know we’d never treat you that way. We were just worried and you were unconscious. Jack was the only one in here, and he just looked for injuries, then changed you into something more comfortable. You used to trust us implicitly. When did that change?” he asked, and even in the dim light I could see the disappointment on his face.

“I was a naive idiot back then. Things have changed,” I shrugged, faking an indifference I really didn’t feel. I hated that I had hurt Mason with my sharp words. I’d thrown them at him because I felt weak and vulnerable and I didn’t want him to see that side of me any more than he already had.

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