“Don’t you dare give up, Darlia. I’m here, you hear me? I’m here.” I lift her up into my arms, being so fucking careful of the knife while walking down the hall to the surgical room I found during the search and placing her on the bed.
Bella runs in with Marcus and the rest of my men, but my only focus is Darlia. My Darlia.
“Come on baby, live. Live so you can hit me and yell at me, just fucking hold on.” I’m almost sure she can’t hear me, but I talk to her anyway. Praying by some miracle it’s enough to make her fight, to know we’re here.
Bella hands me a bandage still wrapped in plastic packaging. I rip it open instantly.
“Marcus, go find someone able to fix her. Shoot them if you have to. They don’t need legs, just hands.”
Walking over to the chest fridge to the side of the bed, I run to hang up the fluid bag, drawing the IV and attaching it to Darlia’s arm. She needs everything she can get if she’s going to survive this.
“Weston, attach her to every fucking machine possible. I want to know what her fucking everything is.”
Without blinking, he attaches the heart and oxygen monitor, wrapping a blood pressure cuff around her arm. I watch her heart rate on the screen; 42BPM and dropping fast. Fuck.
“Come on baby, fight for me.” My voice breaks. I want to shake her awake, show her we found her, that we’re here, for her to fight.
I’m a mess. Tears creep down my cheeks as I walk over to the other side of the room, opening the cabinets and putting on some gloves before grabbing a stitch kit.
“Everyone but Bella, out.”
As soon as the door closes, I remove the knife and Darlia’s jumpsuit completely, exposing her wounds. For a moment, I’m frozen in horror. Across her skin are hundreds of new scars, new burns, bruises, and cuts that haven’t had a chance to heal yet.
What the fuck did they do to her?
Grabbing the towel Bella passes to me, I place it over her chest so Darlia is not completely exposed before I get to work packing in the wound. “It’s a clean cut, it’s going to be easy to stitch. The main worry is internal bleeding.”
Unwrapping the bandage, I start to pack the wound as much and as tight as possible. We need a fucking surgeon to fix whatever happened to Darlia, and while I have many skills, that is not one of them.
“She has another cut on her arm, my side.”
“You know how to close it up?” Bella nods, gently pulling Darlia’s arm out of the jumpsuit and stitching it closed. Both of us are working to save her as quickly as possible.
“Come on, baby, come on. Stay with me, stay with me.”
Chapter 31:
Cayden
Seven hours. It takes seven fucking hours and threatening to murder another doctor that Weston found to get her stable. Turns out she wasn’t just bleeding out; she has broken bones, torn muscles, damage to practically every inch of her body.
It’s a miracle she’s still alive.
Yet she is. My girl is a fighter, and anything less is unacceptable. Darlia wouldn’t have it any other way.
I’ve thanked all the gods for her stubborn attitude that will haunt me the moment she wakes up. And gods it will be the sweetest sounding thing I’ve ever heard.
“The car is ready,” Weston says, placing a hand on my shoulder. I look down at her. Time to go home, love.
Darlia still lays unconscious in the hospital stretcher, still peacefully sleeping considering all the drugs they gave her so they could stitch up the wound. The sight of her so peaceful makes a smile ghost my lips for the first time in a month.
Darlia survived.
If I didn’t know the horrors she went through, I would think she looked calm. But I know that she’s not out of the woods yet. I know she is going to beat herself up over Lauren, even if I don’t know the situation yet.
Walking over to her bedside and pushing some flyaway hairs from her face, I lean down to her ear.
“Hi, darling. You’re doing a lot better. We’re going to move you, but don’t worry, it’s just me carrying you, okay? I’m going to try and be as gentle as possible,” I whisper, telling her every detail. She may not hear me, but I want her to know what’s going on, even if it’s just to comfort myself.
