Brett and Hannah (Soul Mates 101 Series) (16 page)

Brett and Hannah spent all of Sunday lounging around because of the hangover they were suffering from.

“Would you like me to stay here tonight?” Brett asked.

“No, I don’t want you to grow tired of me.”

“That’
s not going to happen, Hannah. And besides, you know I don’t like you here alone, especially since Hudson’s on vacation.” Brett stroked her hair while they lay in bed.

“You worry about me too much. I’ve been doing this for years. There’s a security guard that patrols the perimeter of the property, and then the
re’s the guy at the gate. I don’t see a reason to worry. I would imagine I’m safer here than outside of the gates.”

“OK ... if you insist. I’ll be back in the morning to suffer in this damn heat.”

Hannah walked with Brett to the door. He pulled her toward him, so he could kiss her head.

“I just feel like I shouldn’t leave you.”

“Go, I’m fine.”

“Goodnight, shortcake, love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Brett hadn’t made it far down the road when he realized he’d left his cell phone on
Hannah’s nightstand.

He
turned the truck around, needing to be sure she could reach him.

The black car pulled back onto the road and into the Masons’ driveway after Brett left.

“H
i, Jim. Tom called and told me to let you in. He said you left a very expensive watch here before they went on tour. I’m sure you don’t want to lose that,” the security guard said.

“No, it took me weeks to remember where I left it.”
The gate opened, and Jim drove down the long drive. Hannah heard the doorbell ring. She ran downstairs grinning, figuring that Brett was going to insist on spending the night. Her smile was erased after she opened the door.

“Jim, why are you here again?”
she asked with irritation.

“I ha
dn’t been able to find my watch and finally realized I left it on a shelf in your guest bathroom before I washed my hands the night of the dinner party.”

Hannah felt the hair rise on her ar
m when she recalled that night. “OK, go get it, I guess.” She turned to walk away.

Jim shut and locked the front door behind them.

The stabbing pain shot through the back of her head as her cheekbone hit the cold marble floor in the entryway.

Flung to her back
and slammed to the floor again, she felt the pounding blow to the back of her head once more.

Opening her eyes
, she saw Jim straddling her, holding her wrists together while fishing something out of his pocket. She couldn’t breathe as fear paralyzed her.

Going
in and out of consciousness, she came to as she heard the shredding sound of duct tape tightening around her wrists. As oxygen plunged back into her lungs, screams escaped her, billowing into the massive room and echoing off the towering, vaulted ceilings.

“Sh
ut the hell up you little bitch!” Jim yelled.

The next pummel
crushed her nose and cheekbones, sending a vicious surge of burning pressure through her face and brain. A metallic taste filled her mouth as blood poured down her throat.

“It’
ll be over soon, Hannah. You won’t be teasing me anymore,” Jim whispered over top of her, pulling his black gloves tighter. Light filled the room, but all she could see was the dark fury in his eyes.

“See, I’
m going to do very bad things to you, and that landscaper fuck of yours will pay the price. He was here for hours, and I showed up to find you clinging for life.

“
I tried desperately to save you, but it was too late. Your parents will be indebted to me forever for what I had to see and for trying so hard to save your life as your piece of shit boyfriend rots in a prison cell.”

Hannah heard the venomous tone in his voice as her
bloody face and eyes were plagued with terror. She pleaded for her life between sobs.

“Please, Ji—
” Blood gurgled in her throat. “Please …” Blood spewed out the corners of her mouth. “Don’t …” She gasped for air. “Kill me,” she said between the gurgles, feeling as if she was drowning in blood.

“I’
ll have the satisfaction of remembering the punishment you received for being nothing but a tease and a slut!” Jim spewed as he lifted Hannah and slammed her hemorrhaging head down one last time on the marble.

The guard waved Brett through the gate. When he approached the house and saw the car, he sensed something was terribly wrong since Hannah had mentioned that the vehicle, which had been following her, was black.

Brett reached the porch and heard
the chilling screams from the house. He started shaking the doorknob in a fit of panic. Looking in the long window next to the door, he saw Jim straddled over Hannah.

Brett ran to his truck and grabbed a shovel. Swinging full force
, he shattered the glass with it and ran through the shards, lacerating his arms. Seeing Hannah covered in blood sent rage surging through his being as he charged Jim.

Jim reached for the pistol he’d struck Hannah with and drew it on Brett. At that moment
, Brett swung the shovel, slamming it against the side of Jim’s head, dropping him to the floor. The pistol slid away as he tried to rise to his knees.

With wh
ite knuckles, Brett grabbed him by his shirt and pounded his fist into Jim’s face. The ominous fury in Brett’s blood sizzled and snaked through his veins. For the first time, Brett wanted to take another person’s life.

He released the suffocating hostili
ty that had taken over his body by pounding violent blows to Jim’s head and face until he was unrecognizable. Only red gushed as Brett dropped him to the floor.

Hannah’
s head lay in a pool of blood. When Brett ran to her side she was unconscious with her shirt ripped open and shorts pulled to her knees.

Adrenaline continued to race through Bret
t’s veins as he ran, taking four steps at a time up the stairs to retrieve his phone. He called 911 and pleaded for help as he ran back to Hannah. Ripping the tape from her wrists that were bound above her head, Brett’s tears dripped like rain onto her chest, their blood blending together as he leaned over her lifeless body.

“P
lease don’t take her from me!” he screamed. Brett found her pulse but couldn’t tell if her chest was rising. He tried to give her breaths as blood spilled from her mouth.

“
I love you, Hannah. Please wake up. You can’t die. Please, please don’t leave me!” he wailed.

Ambulance and police arrived, and a
fter Hannah and Jim were loaded onto the stretchers, the police dragged Brett outside for questioning.

He
was then taken by ambulance to the same hospital as Hannah and Jim for medical care to his arms and fists.

The police notified the Masons after getting their numbers from the guard
. Lorna was preparing to perform in a couple of days in Dallas, Texas.

Todd told the p
olice where the security cameras were located. Many people, including Jim knew there were outside cameras, but only Todd, Lorna, Hannah and Hudson knew the entire foyer and great room were being taped around the clock.

The cops replayed
the recording and discovered the cameras had captured the entire event, so the authorities were able to verify what Brett told them about the assault.

Cops and security were all over the hospital.
Brett asked a nurse to call Matt for him. He needed his friends and needed to know Hannah would survive.

Matt could only remember one other period in his life when he felt as panicked and scared as he did while driving to the hospital to see Brett. Bile rose to his throat as he shoved the memories back down to where they’d been buried for years.

Dylan, Cody and Austin rode
in the vehicle with him. The nurse had been vague, only telling him that Brett was hurt and needed him right away, so he had no idea what they were walking into. By the time he arrived, news stations were set up outside. Matt knew Brett had been at Hannah’s, so seeing the cameras gave him a bad feeling she was involved.

As a nurse took him back to see Brett, he tried to block out the smell of the hospital. He thought his heart was going to explode from the pounding of it due to his fear of losing Brett along with the severe phobi
a to doctor offices and hospitals he suffered with.

Matt was stunned
when he walked into the room, unable to see an inch of Brett that wasn’t covered in blood.

“Shit
, Brett! What the hell happened? Are you going to be OK?”

“I’ll be fine, but Hannah may no
t make it, and I can’t lose her. Her dad’s friend attacked her at the house, and I may have killed him,” Brett said before he sobbed.

“I’m sorry, Brett. I have to get hold of the girls.
” Matt got his phone out and called Austin who was sitting in the waiting room.

“A
ustin, get hold of Hannah’s friends, and tell them to get here. She’s hurt bad. I’ll be out there soon.”

“Shit
, OK,” Austin said before hanging up.

Matt had no clue of what
to do to comfort Brett other than sit with him while the nurses and doctor worked on his arms and hands. Brett received a range of stitches to cuts on both sides of his arms caused from the broken window. Due to the injuries he sustained to his hands, they were treated and wrapped in layers of gauze.

Matt
started feeling queasy.

“Bro, the girls
are probably here now. I need to go let them know what happened. I’ll come back soon.”

M
att walked up to his friends in the waiting room. He could see their worried expressions and was uncomfortable that he had to give the bad news. Chelsea was with an older couple who he assumed were her parents, and he recalled Morgan telling him that Chelsea’s parents were tight with the Masons.

“Brett said Hannah was assaulted and is i
n bad shape. He’s hurt from beating the man that did it, but he’s going to be OK. We don’t know anything else,” Matt said, running his hands through his thick, black hair as tears filled his eyes. He took hold of Morgan and wrapped her inside of his strong but shaking arms.

For the first time,
he wanted a woman there for something other than sex. Hannah and Brett’s friends cried and paced the floors. An hour later, a doctor came into the waiting area.

“Are all of you here for Ms. Mason?” he asked.

Everyone nodded.

“Are any of you family?
”

“None of us are,” Chelsea said.

“Well, then all I can tell you is that she’s in surgery, but I’ll have to speak to family when they get here to give out more information,” he said before walking away.

Matt watched his friends try to console the girls.

“Baby, I have to get back to Brett. I’ll come back out soon,” he said to Morgan. She climbed out of his lap she’d been curled up in, so he could get up.

Dylan
walked over. “I’ll sit with her, man,” he said, before he filled the chair next to Morgan.

After two hours, Brett was released from medical care and was asked to go to the police station for formal questioning. His adrenaline still ran rampant through his body as the anxiety to know if Hannah was going to make it hung in the air.

He and Matt shielded their faces when they exited the hospital after flashes of light stunned their eyes
.

R
eporters stormed them to see if they were connected to Hannah’s assault, but Brett never answered their questions.

Having flown by private jet, Lorna and Todd Mason arrived at
the hospital within four hours. They spoke with a nurse who said they’d need to wait for a doctor to come out since Hannah was still in surgery.

With her condition still unknown,
Brett became even more distraught when he returned to the hospital. He immediately recognized Lorna when she and Todd approached him.

“Brett, I’m Todd
, and this is Lorna. We’re Hannah’s parents. The police informed us that she’s alive because of you. We could never thank you enough for saving her.”

Lorna grabbed Brett and hugged him.

“I wish a doctor would tell us something, and I have yet to get an update on the man who did this. I have to know if he’s going to make it,” Brett said.

“We haven’t been told
anything about his condition. He has very little family and none that live in the area. He’s supposed to be my friend. He’s sick. I don’t know how he could do this to our baby that he’s watched grow up,” Todd said.

Brett could see
the tears welling up in his eyes.

After six hours, a doctor came out and spoke to Lorna, Todd and Brett.

“Ms. Mason is in a coma due to
a skull fracture and swelling of the brain after sustaining several blows to the head. The swelling is moderate at this time, but we’re hopeful it will decrease. The next twenty-four hours will give us a better idea as to the prognosis.

“
Her nose and cheek bones were fractured, so a plastic surgeon was brought in to operate, and that appears successful at this time. She also has a number of stitches to the back of her head.

“I’
m very sorry, but it will be touch and go for a while. I thought you’d at least be relieved to know she was not sexually assaulted. We’ll update you as we receive new information. Mr. and Mrs. Mason, you can see your daughter now.”

Brett cried
as he told everyone what the doctor said. He witnessed what good friends he had when he saw Austin and Matt holding their girlfriends and Cody holding Jasmine’s hand, trying to comfort her. Love and heartache filled the waiting room.

Dylan walked out, visibly upset. Brett saw him and followed, finding him
sitting at the end of a hallway.

“Are you OK, man?” Brett asked.

“Don’t worry about me. You have enough to deal with.”

“I know how much you care about her
, Dylan. I did everything I could to protect her.”

“You don’t think I know that?
”

“Come on. Come sit with the rest of us. All our friend
s heard how you feel about her, too, so you don’t need to try to hide it and sit back here alone.”

“I don’t love her, Brett.
”

“I know
.”

“
I just care about her … and you. I’m thankful you’re alright. We didn’t know when we got here. You and I don’t always treat each other the way we should, but I hope you know how much I care about you, man.”

He got up and wiped his eyes as he followed
Brett to the waiting room. When they got there, Hudson came through the door.

“Brett, I got here as quickly as I could. Thank God you were there. Is she going to be OK? That sick bastard
waited for me to go on vacation,” Hudson said.

“
They don’t know if she’s going to make it. Her injuries are bad. I left my phone on her dresser and drove back to get it. She’d be dead if I hadn’t. That fucking asshole had Hannah’s clothes ripped open, and his pants were undone when I got inside. I know he was about to rape her, Hudson, and who knows what else. I just snapped,” Brett said as he clenched his fists.

Two men entered the wai
ting room and approached Brett.

“
Are you Mr. Adams?” one of the men asked.

“Yes,”
he replied. He imagined it was obvious from his blood stained clothes.

“W
e’re detectives. Could we speak to you in private please?” The same man showed a badge.

Brett walked with them to an empty area of the waiting room.

“Mr. Adams, we wanted to update you on the condition of Mr. Hatfield. His injuries are life threatening. He has a significant brain injury, along with severe facial trauma. Due to the state self-defense laws, we don’t foresee criminal charges being brought against you at this time.

“
Luckily, there’s good evidence in your defense, but things are subject to change depending on the condition of Mr. Hatfield. We ask that you stay in town, and be available for further questioning if needed,” the detective said.

“Will someone please update me as his condition changes?”
Brett asked.

“Yes, we’
ll let you know.”