Page 8 of His Witness To Save

CHAPTER EIGHT

The bright white light shone through, illuminating everything as bits of the room started coming into focus.

Mack had regained his consciousness, and frankly, he didn't know where he was; all he knew was that he was in a not-so-comfortable bed with a light shining directly at his face. He tried moving his head to the side but felt a sharp pain at the back of his head. It took him a moment to realize that he was actually in a hospital, and as he lifted his hand to touch his head, he could feel the bandage wrapped around it, and as if out of shock, he jumped into a swift sitting position.

"Brie!" was the first thing he said while he jerked himself upto sit. "Where is she?" he questioned, looking around and realizing that there was only one nurse in the room, who left to hurriedly fetch the doctor and inform him of Mack's awakening.

Mack's eyes darted across the room and suddenly got a flashback of what happened before. He had been unconscious for a few days, but he remembered every single detail – from rescuing an emaciated and injured Rachel to Dave being shot and trying to rescue Brie from the clutches of a man in a ski mask.

The doctor walked in on Mack, trying to pull out the IV drop to his hand, and stopped him, explaining the severity of his injury and how crucial his treatment was, but Mack didn't want to hear any of it. He just wanted to know if Brie was alright.

In a sudden switch, Mack turned violent and wanted to push the doctor out of his way, but some nurses held him down while the doctor injected something into his arm that made his eyes extremely heavy until he drifted off to sleep.

Sometime later, he opened his eyes again, and the first person he saw was Deputy Chief Rodgers sitting beside his bed with his head buried inside his phone.

Mack muttered a barely audible 'hello,' and the deputy chief immediately noticed he was awake and put away his phone.

"Hi there, champ," he said in a calm and friendly voice. He had never heard the deputy chief use that tone before, but he didn't complain.

"You had it in really rough out there, didn't you?" he asked Mack with a look of sincere compassion and sympathy, but Mack merely replied with a nod.

"Where… Where is… Where is she?" Mack forced himself to speak, still fighting off the drowsiness caused by the sedative the doctor injected him with.

"Rachel Cooper is recuperating a few rooms away from yours. Doctors say she had it really bad because she was abused both physically and mentally. Heck, she was even near death with all the stuff they did to her. What a terrible thing to happento a young lady," the deputy chief said, staring outside the window beside Mack's bed.

Mack could feel a stream of tears falling down the sides of his face. Rachel was badly hurt because of him because he had somehow managed to rope her and Brie into this serial killer case. He couldn't help but feel guilty…

"As for Brianna Miller…," the deputy chief's voice trailed off.

Mack was cut off in the middle of his thoughts.What about Brie?he wanted to say, but it felt as though he couldn't move his lips to say words anymore.

"Brianna Miller is safe with her parents," Deputy Chief Rodgers said, grinning.

Mack let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

Although he'd wanted to be the one to save her, to finally hold her, he was glad to know she was safe at last.

His joy would have been absolute, but he remembered Dave’s death.

As if on cue, Deputy Chief Rodgers shifted uncomfortably and cast a sorry look at him before continuing. "Agent David Peterson is dead. Died of a brain hemorrhage from the gunshot wound he sustained."

The memory of Dave's death sent a sharp pain through his heart. He could not stop blaming himself. He'd loved him like abrother, and his heart ached to realize that he might have prevented all these if he had just listened to the deputy chief and not infiltrated their den in the first place.

Now he was crying, so much that his chest kept tightening with every breath he took. Deputy Chief Rodgers placed a hand on his on the bed and handed him a box of tissues.

"Don't be too hard on yourself, champ. You did your best on this. On the bright side, we have some of the members of the Brotherhood of Blood in our custody. We will take them into interrogation when you're up and running, alright? Now focus on getting out of here," the deputy chief said with a weak smile, and with that, he walked out of the room, wiping away the tears in his eyes.

Mack was devastated.

He watched the chief walk away, unable to say anything. He wanted to apologize, scream, say something, but he couldn't make any sound. He shuddered to think of how he'd almost lost Brie, how Rachel had suffered. He didn't know what he'd have done if Brie hadn't been saved. He didn't want to think about it, but his mind would not shut up. It seemed to have an endless supply of images and questions designed specifically to torture him.

What if Brie didn't make it out alive? What if she'd died because of him? He would never be able to live with himself. She meant the world to him in such little time, and he couldn't afford to lose her now.

The knowledge that Brie was still alive and his constant determination to destroy the Brotherhood of Blood was his drive now.

He now had two reasons to want to bring them down.

He had no doubt in his mind that the man who'd held Brie hostage in the building was Kamal. He had the same height and physique as he remembered him to have. With that, he swore he was going to hunt him down the ends of the earth and avenge the men who'd died.

---