“Get the hell off me! I’m going wherever the fuck my wife goes!” I growled at whoever was pulling me away from Destiny.
“Tyler!” she called out as our hands disconnected.
“I’m right here,” I yelled as she moved farther away from me. There was a heavy weight holding me back that I fought hard to get rid of. It took me a minute to realize that it wasn’t one but two people—men keeping me from reaching my wife as her bed was wheeled past another set of double doors.
“Mr. Townsend, calm down. Please!” grunted an unfamiliar male voice.
“Get the fuck off of me!” I growled in an attempt to swing at the owner of said voice, but my right arm was being held by whoever was assisting him.
“Tyler, calm down!” It was a feminine voice, one I’d known since the womb. My mother. However, even her initial pleas didn’t halt my fight to get free and get to my wife and children.
“She needs me!” I demanded.
“She needs you to be calm and to keep it together for her and those babies.”
I felt my mother pull my face between her hands. It was another minute before my eyes focused enough to stare into her burning blue eyes.
“She needs you right now. But when all of this is over, and your children and wife are home healthy and safe, you will do what you need to.” My mother’s voice was low and calm but filled with the steeliness that always belied her and my father’s love for all of us.
“Son,” my father called me, placing a strong hand on my shoulder, “your children and wife need you now.”
I turned back to my mother who still cupped my face. My jaw firmed as I ground my teeth together.
“Morris?”
“He’s in police custody,” my father answered.
On the way to the hospital my family had sent me text messages explaining how Morris had attacked Destiny in our home.
“Everyone involved in this will lose their damn head,” I grunted.
“Eventually.” My mother nodded, finally releasing my face.
I looked above her head to the double doors where my wife had been taken. I hated this feeling of helplessness. Dr. Mehra was a world class physician. But even knowing that didn’t lighten the burden of not being able to be in the room where my wife and children needed me. I worked hard to tamp down on the rage I felt and focused on pulling my shit together for when they were out of surgery.
I’d have plenty of time to get out my anger. And let it out I would.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Destiny
I felt his presence even before I opened my eyes. I turned my head toward the warmth and safety that seemed to emanate from him and slowly opened my eyes. My vision was blurred at first, but after blinking a few times, I looked directly into those hazel-green eyes that always seemed to welcome me home.
“Hey, sleeping beauty,” his deep, low voice called.
I cracked a smile. “Hey,” I whispered, my throat feeling super dry. “Wh-where am I?” I looked around the room and wrinkled my forehead as I took in the white walls, flat screen mounted in the corner of the room, and the ugly wooden, hard chairs meant for family visitors. I blinked again. I was in a hospital.
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Why am I in the hospital?”
Suddenly it all came back to me.
Phillip Morris.
The attack.
The fall down the stairs.
“The babies!” I yelled out, reaching my arm to feel my belly. But it wasn’t right. It was soft. “What happened?”
