Collared: Ashton [Collared Lovers] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (14 page)

The phoned dropped to the floor, and she turned to find out who had attacked her, surprised to find it was a large, fairly good-looking man. His appearance would have been attractive if his eyes weren’t filled with malice and his mouth twisted in an angry, evil snarl. Grabbing her by the throat, he held her suspended on her tiptoes, gasping for air. He was obviously enraged, but for the life of her she couldn’t understand why. His blue eyes spewed hate, but she didn’t know him. She had never seen him before in her life. This had to be the man who was after her and Sophie. Ashton was so filled with terror.

Wanting simply to get away, she clawed at his arms and wrists, and he slammed her back against the wall, knocking the breath out of her. Letting her go, he simply dropped her. Landing hard on her knees, she rolled around, wheezing, struggling to suck in some air and still trying to crawl away. He delivered a couple well-placed kicks to her middle, and she felt like her body had been robbed of oxygen. She curled up on her side on the floor and flinched with every blow. Desperately, she tried to call for help and could get nothing beyond a rough whisper out.

“You fucking whore! Where’s Sophie? I need you two together. It’s important that you both witness each other’s punishments. Tell me something, Ashton, did you enjoy those two fag boys rutting between your legs? You thought I didn’t know about them, huh? I saw you with them at the club when I came back to argue my ban. I saw them take you upstairs after they had a little taste of you in the hall. I’ll have to cleanse you, you worthless bitch. I’ll have to cleanse you both. Sophie is probably being defiled as we speak. Tell me, you cum slut, where is she?” he screamed into her face. His putrid breath fanned against her, and when she didn’t respond, he grabbed her hair and punched her in her face.

Her face hurt so badly, for a split second she wondered if he had broken her jaw. She could hear moaning and cries. It took a while to realize the sounds were coming from her. Trying to cover her face she threw her arm up when he reached for her again.

As he picked her up with a balled hand in her scrubs, Ashton hurt all over and was praying John wouldn’t let this crazy man take her out of the hospital. She wanted so badly to be at home with her men, cuddled between them. As he dragged her through the ER, she heard several people gasp and scream.

Gary, the security guard, tried to stop him. “Let her go. Ashton, are you okay?”

Her attacker was blocked in. Her body in front of him, she was between him and the ER personnel all around. She saw John inch to the man’s right, and he whirled blocking John’s chance to catch him off guard. Seeing it was a standoff, Ashton knew this could only end badly.

She looked John in the eye and hoped he knew to tell her men that she loved them. Obviously he understood because he nodded, and she felt relief that at least her guys would have one another. Taking a deep breath, Ashton did the only thing she ever heard worked—she closed her eyes and let her body go limp.

Hearing the man curse, she felt him heft her over his shoulder, and at the same time, she felt them being catapulted to the ground. Ashton felt her body jar against the floor and her head exploded with blinding pain, sending everything into darkness.

Ty had never felt such terror as when Nate had found him at the club and said someone was hurting Ashton. Nate put her recorded call on speaker, and Ty immediately alerted John as they hauled ass to the hospital. A drive that should have taken fifteen minutes took them less than five. Parking the hummer in the middle of the unloading zone, they both jumped from the vehicle without a thought beyond Ashton. He had no doubt it was probably already being towed, and he couldn’t bring himself to give a damn.

He was behind the man when he saw Ashton go limp and nearly fall, and when the guy put her over his shoulder, he and Nate converged on him. As Ty pushed him to the ground, Ashton unfortunately fell the opposite way than anticipated, and her head slammed into the wall.

The security guard managed to zip-tie the man’s arms and feet. The attacker was clearly insane, spouting crazy phrases about cleansing Ashton and Sophie and how they belonged solely to him and that a bunch of fags weren’t going to take his girls away from him.

He wasn’t just a complete fucking nutcase. He was the visiting Dom who got out of hand lashing Sophie. When Nate recognized him, it took Ty, John, and the hospital security guard to hold onto him to keep from attacking the bastard. Obviously they had failed in their duty to their clients, but they would do whatever needed to make sure this guy was locked up.

His main focus was Ashton. God, she looked so fragile and broken lying there, her face bleeding in so many places. There were many medical personnel around her as they lifted her to a gurney and wheeled her into a room. The doctor was yelling orders for X-ray, CT scan, MRI, and so many other requests. Nate and he just watched from the large window into the treatment room. Their woman’s face was so bruised she didn’t even look like herself, and now the doctor was cutting her pretty pink scrubs from her body.

After the doctor listened to her chest, he immediately started yelling for something. Seeing the doctor cut into the side of her chest, Ty felt light-headed and leaned his hot forehead against the cold glass.

Ty couldn’t believe this had happened. God, she looked so tiny lying there. When he had seen the fucker with his woman, he had wanted to slip behind him and slit his throat. His palms had itched with the need to kill the motherfucker, at the very least break his neck.

Nate grabbed his cell and called his mom and dad, telling them a man had attacked Ashton while she had been on shift in the ER, and they immediately said they were on their way. His motions were jerky. Ty guessed Nate was furious at him for having stilled Nate from charging the man who had hurt Ashton.

As Nate hung up, Ty relived the phone call with Ashton over and over in his mind. Hearing the foul things the man had screamed at her and the crashing of things, he knew in his heart that was his woman being beaten, and that he hadn’t been there to save her. Looking through the glass, he had to turn away when the doctor inserted a tube into the cut he’d made in her side. Feeling bile work up his throat at the sight of the blood snaking through the tube, he turned his back against the wall on the opposite side and slid down it. Pressing his palms to his eyes, he could barely contain the need to sob.

Just a little while later, Ty saw Nate’s parents come rushing up to them. They had been waiting almost an hour by then as the medical staff had done one thing after another to Ashton. When it looked like they were preparing to wheel her out, a doctor finally stepped out of the treatment room and walked toward them.

The four stood to meet him.

At the same time, Keith came jogging up to the doctor who had been working on Ashton, saying he was taking charge. Ty was so thankful that Keith would be taking over Ashton’s care. Knowing he was a successful surgeon, Ty was grateful for the connection—anything that could potentially save Ashton.

They talked, and the doctor led Keith to the back, and Ty could see that they looked at some X-rays and some sort of scans. Keith picked up her chart, going over it as he looked over all the pictures. Nodding and walking over to Ashton, he pulled down her blankets, looked at the tube sticking out her side, and then checked the various other ones. Putting her chart back on the gurney, he nodded again and walked toward Ty and the others.

Keith quickly explained, “Nate, Ty. Ashton’s going to be taken for an MRI. Let’s go into the personnel lounge and I will give you all the details I can.”

He led the four of them to the room. Ty took in the sight of the pineapple slices and spilled yogurt scattered all over the floor. Ashton’s phone was lying open where she’d dropped it during the attack, and Ty lost it, the control he’d barely clung to was gone. Ty didn’t’ remember moving to the couch but there he sat. His eyes burned and his chest felt as if it had been cleaved open. The pain hurt so badly, and the sobs just escaped from his throat. Lacing his hands over his head, he rocked forward wanting desperately for this all to be a dream. He would give anything just to feel the warmth of her skin once more.

Nate leaned down in front of him, and Ty looked up at him, his eyes full of tears. Nate wrapped his arms around Ty, holding him tight, and when the shudders slowed, he moved to the side.

Kneeling down in front of them both, Keith patted them each on a knee. “Ashton has a broken nose, two broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and possibly a skull fracture. We are sending her to radiology for an MRI. We are hoping there will be no swelling on her brain. Even if all goes well with the MRI and it shows clear, we will still have to keep her for several days because of the chest tube and to make sure she is having no trouble breathing. Once they get her settled in a room, you can go in. Go up to the third floor, and when you get off the elevator, go to the left. You will see a waiting room. Make yourself comfortable there, and a nurse will come for you when we get her situated. Right now I need to be with Ashton. I want to make sure everything goes well and she isn’t alone, okay? Go on up and she will follow in just a bit.”

The four went upstairs and sat in the waiting room, which was decorated in tasteful but subdued colors with comfortable sofas and chairs and a TV with the sound muted in the corner. Of course, none of them could sit down and relax. Nate’s father alternated between pacing and holding Nate’s mother’s hand. Ty stood in front of a window looking out into nothing, and Nate just sat by his mother, his body strung tight. They were all too shell-shocked and worried about Ashton.

Finally, after almost an hour, an older nurse came in and told them that Ashton was settled in her room.
“You can all go in, but don’t try to wake her yet. She is being sedated because of the chest tube and the swelling to her head. Just hit the button if you need something. Dr. Jacobs arranged for Ashton to be placed in a suite. There is plenty of room for everyone. We are all praying for her. She is a very special young woman and I’m really glad she isn’t alone.”

Nate opened the door to the hospital suite, and Ty’s eyes had trouble adjusting because the lighting in the room was so dim. The only thing illuminated was the light over the bed. Ashton had probes stuck to her head and chest and bags of fluids hanging off the bed that made him uneasy. Ty just wanted to go back to this afternoon and not let her leave the house. He should have found a way to make her stay home. She was battered and almost broken in appearance. He couldn’t help but feel so damn grateful that they would have a second chance to take care of her. She would never be out of their sight again.

Hours went by, and they finally sent Nate’s parents home once they knew that Ashton’s condition was stable. Periodically the nurses came by to check her vital signs and all the bags and tubes hanging from her bruised and battered body. People started dropping by with gifts for her well before dawn. The room slowly filled with flowers, balloons, stuffed nurse bears, cards, fruit baskets, and just about every other kind of basket imaginable.

By lunch, she still hadn’t stirred and Ty sent Nate home to shower and pack some things for Ashton. When Nate came back with lunch and a bag for them, they ate in silence, and then Nate sent him to the shower in the large bathroom in the suite.

Leaning against the tile, Ty thought he would toss his cookies in fear. It hadn’t happened to him since training, but he could gladly hug a toilet right now. When he stepped out of the shower, Nate was there waiting with a towel. He dried him efficiently and helped him dress. When he was done, Nate took him in his arms and they clung to one another.

After exiting the bathroom, Ty stretched out on the sofa, and Nate took up residence in the chair by her bed.

Late in the afternoon, Keith came in with two other doctors and introduced them as a neurologist and the chief of ER. They explained that Ashton should make a full recovery, and they were going to start testing the waters and back off on the sedation. The doctors said that she had a skull fracture, but it wasn’t depressed and wouldn’t require surgery. They were going to continue to control her pain, but let her come out of the sedation as long as the repeat MRI still looked good. Ty’s knees grew weak at the news. Looking over at Nate he was blinded by his gorgeous smile of relief.

The people from radiology came and got her, dropping off another bag of get-well stuff for her, and took her down, promising to take good care of her. Ty followed them despite being told he would have to stay in the waiting room of the radiology department. He didn’t care. He followed them anyway.

Nearly an hour later, they came back up and plugged her bed back into the wall. The nurses came in and checked her over, and a few hours later, each of Nate’s brothers dropped by. They had each sent various bouquets of flowers earlier, but they wanted to personally come by to offer their support to Ashton and also to Nate and Ty. They were there when the sweetest sight occurred—Ashton opened her eyes briefly, and one side of her pretty mouth quirked up. She flinched in pain and then closed her eyes again.

It was a couple hours later when she opened them again. Ty thought her eyes seemed a little clearer this time. He watched Nate brush the hair back from her face, his hand trembling like his own. Looking at one another, Nate smiled for the first time since everything had happened.

“Hey, baby. God, you’ve had us so worried. How do you feel? Do you need something for pain?” Ty whispered against her temple.