Page 40 of Breaking the Alpha
Birch ran his hands over his face and rose to his feet.“River, I can’t focus on Grey while you’re bleeding all over the place and your lungs are sounding like they’re ready to collapse.”His shoulders slumped, and his expression was pained.“I have to have you patched up because I’m gonna need you.Grey’s gonna need you.Because we’re going to find him, River.We’re gonna find him, and then we’re gonna feed the guys who took him to Winter.”
*
Angelina nestled adelicate ornamental frog into a box and was packing it up for shipping when her phone rang.
“Have you talked to River recently?”Zoe demanded without hesitation.“Like, today?”
Frowning, she nodded as she got to her feet and closed the small filing cabinet in her office.“I saw him this morning.Why?”
“Something’s going down over at Serpent’s Tongue Ink.One of my baristas drove by on her way here and said an ambulance just took someone away.I’m pulling in now.You should go see what’s happened.”
She grabbed her purse and raced out of the office.“I’m sure it’s nothing,” she said, her voice wavering when she saw Zoe standing at the locked entrance.“Maybe a client fainted?”
Zoe ended their call as Angelina opened the door.“Leave your keys, I’ll stay here for the day and close up for you.”She held out her hand.“Text me once you know.”
She nodded and handed over her shop keys, her phone pressed to her ear as she tried River’s number as she ran outside just in time to see a police car pulling out of the parking lot.“Thank you.I…I’m sure everything is fine.”
“I’m sure it is.Now go verify it.”
*
Birch was sittingon the tailgate of his truck and Jocelyn was standing with an older man at the end of the strip mall when Angelina arrived.“Birch, where’s River?Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he muttered, his eyes red-rimmed.“River will be.I think.He’s at the hospital getting treated.But Grey—”
Jocelyn broke away from the man and wrapped her arm around Birch, kissing his shoulder.“This doesn’t go any further than us, okay?Official word is that River and a client had a disagreement over a payment and things got physical.The truth is that Grey was taken while he and River were working this morning.River took a pretty rough beating and tried to chase the car down, but they got away.”She motioned for the older man to come over.“Sheriff Fogerty, this is Angelina Watson, River’s girlfriend.Any word on River’s condition yet?”
The cop shook his head.“If you and Birch want to head over there to sit with him, I can keep you updated from here.”
Birch looked positively torn, his face appearing to have aged nearly a decade since she’d seen him not more than two weeks ago.He was a man on the verge of a breakdown, holding it together only through sheer force of will and Jocelyn’s presence.
Her own heart was hammering in her chest, her mind refusing to fully comprehend what Jocelyn had told her.Violence.Beatings.She wasn’t prepared to face that kind of thing again.Her own history aside, memories of the abuse and assaults she’d witnessed during her short time living on the streets and couch surfing in less-than-upstanding houses were rising up faster than she could tamp them down.The busted lips.Broken bones.Fractured jaws.
Blood.
Screams.
Cries.
She’d done everything she could to escape that life, to put as big a wall between her and those memories as possible, yet here she was outside Serpent’s Tongue about to put herself right back into it.
With a shaky breath, she steeled her will and straightened her spine.“I walked to work today.If someone can drive me over, I’ll go to the hospital and stay with River.”Birch inhaled sharply and nodded as she reached out a tentative hand and patted his knee.“I’ll update you and you update me, okay?”
He swallowed and nodded as Jocelyn started her own car.“He didn’t want to go,” he rasped, his voice hollow.“He blames himself.If you could just—” Clearing his throat, he lifted his head a fraction.“Just don’t let him be alone.And let him know this isn’t on him.None of this is his fault.”
Chapter Sixteen
Angelina’s thumb hoveredover her phone for a moment before she sent another text to Birch letting him know that River was being moved from x-rays to ultrasounds.Although every aspect of the situation currently unfolding for the Baker family was a living nightmare, she hoped he’d take some comfort in the knowledge that River’s partially collapsed lung was holding stable.
She was second-guessing everything she did, because everything about this was different for her.The few times she’d found herself in a hospital when she was younger, she’d been alone.No one cared about updates or information.There was no parent checking in on her, no friends stopping by, no siblings worrying.It had always been her and her alone.She didn’t know what was expected of her now.
So she did what she would’ve wanted.
When she’d first arrived at the hospital, she was shut out of all information until Jocelyn had stepped in and arranged for Sheriff Fogerty to speak with the top-level managers.Now she sat silently in a private waiting room while nurses bustled by and stopped intermittently to provide her with snippets of River’s condition.
He had two broken ribs, both of which punctured his right lung.
The wound on his left thigh had required twenty-four stitches.
