She grips my hair and yanks my head back as we lock eyes, and she sneers, “I had plans for you, and this wasn’t it! So help me god, Jasmine, if you don’t lose this baby and marry Bruce, I will lock you inside that basement for the rest of your pathetic life. I’ll ensure your father uses his contacts and that little boyfriend of yours killed by the end of the week and his pathetic club will be dismantled!”
My nostrils flare and I fist my hands.
“Hey!” someone shouts, and Mama shoves my head onto the ground before kicking me one more time, and I cry out again as pure pain shoots through my body, and she walks away without looking back.
My own mother.
Tears fall as I close my eyes, and a sob releases from me as I cup my stomach, fear for my unborn baby consuming me as cramps begin.
No, no, no…
“Hi, yes, I need an ambulance,” a man states firmly, and I look up at the figure who kneels beside me and places a gentle hand on my shoulder and I lock eyes with their dark brown, concerned ones before I notice the cut, recognizing it, and I swallow thickly as he continues to speak into his phone, “The patient is conscious but was attacked.” before he looks at me and says softly, “My name is Doc, I’m going to get you some help.”
“I’m pregnant,” I choke as I grip my stomach and flinch at another sharp pain in my lower abdomen.
“Shit,” he mutters, then states, “the patient is pregnant…” and I slowly close my eyes, deciding not to tell this man who I am, the rebel's lion clear as day on his patch, not needing Logan to find out about the loss of our baby this way, because let’s face it, there is no way it survived this attack.
***
Me:
Can you meet me at home? I need to speak to you. Something happened. I love you xxx
I press send just as the door to the room a doctor placed me in after Doc left but not before ensuring I didn’t want him tocall anyone, opened an hour later. I blink as I look up from the message, expecting to see the nurse with my discharge papers, but instead I lock eyes with ones I don’t recognize, dark brown ones full of anger as she looks at me from head to toe like I’m dirt beneath her shoe but the cut she’s wearing, yeah, I recognize that.
She’s a Rebels old lady.
The doctor left me only twenty minutes ago, so I have no idea who this woman is or how she even knew I was here but the hate in her eyes is telling me this isn’t a social visit.
“I know you don’t know me,” she states the obvious because I really don’t, and whatever reason she is here, I can’t be bothered with it.
My phone has vibrated several times. Mama demanding I get rid of her problem if she hadn’t already, my father chastising me for leaving early, and my brother demanding to know if what Ms. Palmer is spreading is true. The one person I haven’t heard from, the person I messaged just a few minutes ago, still hasn’t read the text, is the one person I really need right now.
Will the club help me?
Will Logan be okay with all my family problems?
Will he protect me?
The woman chucks a duffel bag on the floor next to my bed, making me jump and I look away from her property cut, something I refused to have and she demands, “I know whoever attacked you got rid of the brat you tried trapping my son with but this here,” she points at the bag, “has a hundred grand inside. Take it and get out of town before I do something I haven’t in a very long time when someone has pissed me off and tried to interfere with my family!”
Family… I look over her features again and… Damn, she’s Logan’s mama.
I narrow my eyes at the woman, ready to tell her where to shove her money but she continues to speak, “My son belongs to Kate not you, he was always destined to Kate, even if he did screw her mama for a little while,” she looks down her nose at me as my temper rises and she threatens, “Never mind daddy finding out about you shacking up with a brother, if you don’t leave town tonight, I will slice your throat as soon as you walk out of this hospital! My son will do as I say and marry Kate. You are a waste of snubby, snotty space and don’t belong with us!”
Spitting on the floor like an animal, trying to make herself scarier, she gives me one last dirty look before turning and leaving, and my tears fall as my phone vibrates.
How in the hell did she even find out about us?
Shaking my head, I lift my phone, and a sob leaves me.
Logan:
Is everything okay, buttercup? I’ll run you a bath, I love you too xxx
The whole world is falling round me as my hand shakes.
I know I need to leave and quick.
