Chapter Twenty-Six
Anabelle
“You need to go now…” I watched, stunned as John stumbled from the hospital bay. “…and kill those bastards for me.”
What was going on? I looked at Charlie and Justin, but they appeared as confused as me. I went to ask Charlie what happened when a Doctor came in.
“Miss Rowley, my name is Grant. I’m one of the Emergency doctors here. How are you?”
“Sore, everywhere.”
“That’s to be expected.”
He was about to speak when I started to cry and I whispered, “Did he … did he rape me?”
“You don’t know?”
“He was…” Oh shit, this was awful re-living what happened. I took a deep breath and whispered, “They held me down and he was about to while the other guy started hitting me in the head, and I don’t remember, they knocked me unconscious. Everything went black until I woke up here.”
“Hush, don’t get upset. We’ve done a rape test and the swap came back negative.”
I burst into tears. All I could see was that fucking monster waving his dick at me.
Howling, I cried, “I want John. Where’s John?”
Grant turned to Charlie and Justin, who shrugged.
“John’s her partner,” Charlie said. “He was pretty upset. I’ll see if I can find him. He’s probably out in the hall.”
He went out and the doctor turned back to me.
“Now, Miss Rowley. Your face, we have a cosmetic surgeon coming down to check you, but I’m pretty confident he is going to tell you everything will heal naturally. There’s a fine crack in your cheekbone and your nose was broken, but they should heal by themselves. You need to not clamp down hard on your jaw. One eye is badly swollen, but we don’t believe your vision has been impaired. We’ll do some more tests to check, and we also have drops that will go in both eyes to help them heal fully.”
I gave a half-hearted, “Okay.” I wanted John. No, that was wrong—I needed him.
“The other injuries will all heal. You’ve got a little bleeding in your tummy area and we’re going to give you another ultrasound later. We’re confident it should resolve itself without surgery. There are some cuts on the soles of your feet. One is a little deep, but we’ve put a few stitches in it.”
“I want to go home now,” I cried.
“Anabelle, I’m sorry, but not yet. We’re going to keep you for a couple of days. If things go okay, maybe Saturday or Sunday.”
That made me cry some more. He left, but not before a nurse had come. She checked if my heart was still beating—it must have been, because she left too. Charlie came back in, looking worried.
“He’s not there. I couldn’t see him anywhere.”
Trying to hold back a fresh round of tears, I stammered, “Where is he? I need him.”
“I’ll ring his number and find out. Don’t worry,Bellie.”
He left us again and Justin took the hand that wasn’t attached to anything else but my arm.
“Charlie told me John took over the search for you. The cops virtually told him to get lost. Instead he made some phone calls and next thing everyone’s bowing down, deferring to him.”
“What? But how?”
“Beats me, I only know what Charlie said. Why the hell would the police do that? Who the hell is he?”
I couldn’t answer, but I had a good idea that I knew who he’d called. Charlie still hadn’t returned and I was getting worried. My head hurt. It was hard to see through the slits of my eyes, my chest felt like shit, my stomach ached, and my nether regions?