Page 107 of Mended Souls
“Hey…” I ran my hands up her face, and she winced before she coughed. Blood splattered as she wheezed a painful breath. “Look at me, princess. Come on. Let me see those pretty eyes.” Her eyes fluttered open as more tears streaked from mine. “Look at those pretty eyes. Keep them open. Look at me, Kadence.”
“I-I…” She sucked in a sharp breath, her head falling to the side. “I…l-love y-you.
“Caden!” a deep voice bellowed. I looked over my shoulder to see an older man with salt and pepper hair and his gun drawn. I knew his face because of his picture from the news article I read a few months back.Her father.I pushed back my anger with this man for the time being. My only concern was Kadence andgetting her out alive. “We need a damn ambulance. Why the hell did you run?”
“I-I’m sorry,” she muttered weakly. I didn’t know if she was apologizing to her father for running or apologizing for what she did now. Her head dropped to the side and her arm went limp.
Panic rose in my chest as I smacked her face lightly. “Hey, Kadence, don’t do this baby.” I pulled her lip body into my arms, more tears streaming down my cheeks. “Please don’t leave me, princess. I need you goddamnit.”
“She’s barely breathing!” her father yelled.
“Medic is two out.”
For the first time in a long time, I was scared again. Hawke grabbed my arm, comforting me as we watched the medics race into the warehouse. It felt like everything was moving in slow motion as I watched them work. It was my fault she was like this. It was my fault she was assaulted again. It was my fault that she was going to die. I gripped Hawke, seeing everything I wanted with her flash through my mind.
Marriage.
Family.
Everything I lost before.
But now I was going to lose her, and she was going to take the final part of my heart when she took her last breath.
“We got a rhythm. She’s losing too much blood. We need to go now!”
Hawke pushed me up, and I grabbed Kadence’s hand until we got to the ambulance. I refused to leave her side. “Keep fighting, princess. Come back to me, please.”
CHAPTER 83
BLAIZE
Everly and Elijah were both dead. Hawke saw their bodies and might’ve given them a final, life ending wound while the FBI wasn’t looking. Hunter informed me that when I went to get Kadence, her father showed up. Apparently, Everly reached out to him and said I was trafficking his daughter. Imagine his surprise when he arrived at a strip club in a mid-sized town in Washington. She wasn’t going to tell him anything until I went silent. Then she told him everything.
Apparently, the fucker realized how he fucked up when she vanished. He might’ve found us and saved her, but it doesn’t make up for the years of abuse. Being a father shouldn’t have been fucking rocket science, regardless if he was mourning the loss of his son. She lost a brother, a mother, and him all in the same span of time. And all the while, she was hurting inside, while he was neglecting his daughter because he didn’t know how to act.
“I’m looking for Kadence’s family,” a short, blonde woman in a white coat said.
“Her name is Caden,” her father said, bitterness lacing his tongue.
“No. It’s Kadence. Soon to be Matthews. It’s the name she chose for herself. Do not disrespect her,” I growled at him. “I’m her girlfriend. Is she okay?”
“I’m Dr. Windham. I’ll be taking care of her,” she said, taking my hand, ignoring Kadence’s father. He looked dumbfounded, but said nothing as he listened with a curious ear. “She is in the ICU right now. The first forty-eight hours are critical. She has deep stab wounds, one that penetrated her lung, causing a hemothorax. We fixed it. She had several bruised ribs and hematomas on her torso and chest, but they will heal on their own. We ran a rape kit, but it came ba?—”
“She was assaulted,” I told her. “You won’t find Elijah’s fluids because his sister did it. Forced oral sex and fingering. The blood is from the stab wound on her thigh.”
“How do you know this?”
“Because they did it in front of me. They wanted to hurt me, and the only way to do that is through her. I love her.”
Dr. Windham nodded her head. “I’m sorry you had to endure that. I’m not sure how she will react with the mental and emotional trauma, but physically, she will heal. She is being moved to a room in the morning, but she can’t have visitors at this time.”
I needed to see her. “Can I see her? Even if it’s just for a second. Please.”
“Only for a second.”
The doctor walked me to the ICU floor, leaving her father behind. The waiting room was filled with people who love Kadence, but only me and her father were allowed in the ICU waiting room. The tension was thick, and we had yet to speak. Speaking to him without seeing Kadence would annoy me, and I was already on the verge of cutting his head off. I didn’t know what he was going to say or what he was going to do when we were alone and out of a hospital wing.
The doctor opened the ICU room door, and I stepped inside. My heart tugged seeing Kadence attached to machines with a tube down her throat. She looked peaceful, but I knew she wasn't.
