Unjustly Destroyed (Incapable Part Two) (19 page)

Chapter Twent
y
-
One

Emmalin

I said a thank you prayer to Tyler for always making me carry a Swiss army knife. I somehow managed to loosen the chain and freed one of my hands. I was still bleeding from the kick, and I was losing a lot of blood. I felt myself getting weak. God, I prayed Ashley was able to get Abby out of here. I still had my gun and had it hidden under the mattress.

I winced as another bout of pain shot through my stomach. I clenched my eyes shut, trying to breathe through it. The sound of the door opening startled me, and I tucked the Swiss army knife under the mattress.

“Well. Looks like that bitch ran off with that little girl. Fine, more money for me. She would’ve been too high maintenance anyway.” He begun unbuckling his jeans, and I started to cry. I couldn’t do it again. I physically couldn’t.

“You don’t have to do this, okay? You can just take the money and go. I won’t stop you. I’ll make sure Grayson won’t stop you. Just go, okay?”

He laughed as he dragged me further down the bed. “Let’s make this a memorable experience for you,” he whispered in my ear.

My skin crawled as soon as he touched me, and I fumbled under the mattress with my free hand for the knife.

“Fuck, you feel good. Now I know!”

I found the knife, turned around, and stabbed him in the left shoulder. He jumped away, and I pushed him off of me, scrambling to get as far from him as possible.

There was a loud blast that threw me away from the mattress. Carson stumbled, looking around dazed, and touched where I stabbed him. “You fucking bitch.”

The blast sounded again, this time shaking the whole building, causing debris to fall. Carson started laughing manically. “That must be them coming to get you.” He reached in his pocket to pull out his phone, and I crawled back over to the mattress to get the gun, hiding it behind me.

“You see this phone, Emma? One click releases that video I told you about, and hundreds of pictures to major news outlets across the world. But that’s not the fun part because we both know your boyfriend will spin it, and it’ll be taken care of. But there’s one thing he won’t be able to take care of.”

“Emmalin!”

I looked up at the sound of my name being called.

“Did you know that we had cameras in our house growing up? Did you also know that those very same cameras show you committing a crime? Goodness, Emma, what will the neighbors think?”

My mind was spinning. He knew. He knew this whole time.

“It was self-defense,” I whispered.

“That’s your word now, isn’t it?”

Before I could respond, he lunged at me, knocking me to the ground, then punching me in the face. I decided I wasn’t going to die here. I was going to fight. I kicked him in the balls as I rolled over, reaching for the gun, and pointed it right in his face.

“Get the fuck off of me,” I said through gritted teeth.

He started laughing as he slowly got up, walking backwards. “I see you got some grit. Good for you.”

“Yeah. I do.” I took a shot, right above his head.

“You fucking bitch.”

The pain from earlier intensified and I doubled over, but still kept my gun firmly in place. “Take out the phone and throw it on the ground. Now!”

He laughed as he reached for his pocket and threw the phone down. “Kick it over to me.” The room was starting to spin, but I was determined to end this. Right here. Right now.

The door suddenly opened and in walked two guys in swat gear, followed by Grayson.

“Emmalin.”

My eyes instantly filled with tears. I didn’t want him seeing me like this. He couldn’t see me like this. The guy next to him took off his helmet. Jack. I shut my eyes and focused back on Carson and aimed my gun at his heart.

“Grayson. I need you to leave.” I was shaking now. Grayson walked further into the room, with Jack by his side. Jack spoke first. “That’s a nice gun you have there, Emmalin.”

“It’s mine. I bought it.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the other guy slowly start to circle the room. “No one move!” I shouted.

Jack held up his hand, and the other guy froze. “You look like maybe you’re getting tired holding it, Emmalin. Why don’t you let me take that from you?”

I shook my head. “Don’t come near me.”

I took a step back, still wavering the gun in Carson’s direction.

Grayson spoke. “Emmalin? Baby, look at me.”

I shut my eyes briefly. “Please don’t look at me. Don’t look at me like this.” A tear fell down my face.

“I’m going to take you out of here, okay?”

“He killed Tyler.”

Grayson stepped further in the room. “I know.”

“He could’ve hurt Abby. I’m going to make sure he never does anything to anyone ever again.”

“He won’t baby. I promise. He won’t. I swear to you.”

I took a deep breath and nodded. “I know he won’t. Get out.”

Grayson stilled. “I’m not leaving here without you.”

Not taking my eyes off Carson, I replied, “Well that’s too bad, Grayson, because you are leaving.” Then I did something I never thought I would ever do in my life. I pointed the gun at Grayson’s chest. He froze. Jack raised his gun to me, and Grayson held up his hand to stop him. I had no doubt that he would shoot me if Grayson wasn’t there.

“Grayson. Leave. Now. This isn’t your fight.”

“But you are. You’re my fight. I’m not having you live with the brunt of this, Emmalin. I promised Tyler.” My eyes flickered to his at the mention of Tyler. The tears were falling. I shut my eyes as the room spun, and I slightly wavered. He reached up and caught me, and placed his hand over the gun, putting the safety back on.

“Ambulance is on their way,” I heard Jack say, as Grayson started moving me toward the door.

Carson started clapping. “Well, this was great. Great fucking reunion.” Before anyone could react, Carson took a gun out his back pocket and fired. I felt a sting right before Grayson threw us on the ground, covering us both with his body. Jack and the other guy immediately opened fire.

Grayson

“All clear!”

“Mandrake, speak to me.”

I slowly moved off Emmalin. “I’m fine!” I yelled back. “Emmalin?” She hadn’t moved since we hit the ground, and I realized I possibly knocked her out from hitting too hard. I gently shook her. Then I saw the blood coming from her chest, and I felt all of my blood drain from my face. She was covered in it already so I didn’t notice at first.

I shook her again. “Emmalin! Fuck, Jack, she’s hit.”

Jack came racing over, and he stopped when he saw the blood gushing out. He kneeled down. “Is there an exit wound?”

“Fuck, I don’t know. She was already covered in blood.”

He spoke into his speaker. “What’s the ETA on the ambulance? We have a gunshot victim, in the chest.” He checked her heartbeat. “I barely have a pulse. Grayson, take off your shirt and apply pressure to the wound.”

The more we worked, the more blood she seemed to lose, and the paler she got. Finally, the ambulance arrived, and Jack had to physically remove me from her side while they worked. The cops arrived and began questioning us. One look at Emmalin on the ground covered in blood, and it didn’t take long to guess what was going on. We already had a story in hand, and Benny had managed to intercept the video from being leaked.

“Mr. Mandrake, we need you to come down to the station for questioning.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? They’re taking her to the fucking hospital, and you want to question me now? The only place I’m going is in that ambulance.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Mandrake, but we have a dead body in the room; I can’t let you do that. Either you come with us now, or we’ll arrest you.” I sighed, looking at Emmalin as they loaded her into the ambulance. I wanted to be in that ambulance with her. I turned to Jack. “Call Chace. He’s family. He needs to be there with her. Then call my father. He’s my lawyer. I’ll be at the hospital within the hour.”

“Mr. Mandrake, this will take more than an hour,” the detective said to me.

I turned and glared at her. “I said, I’ll be at the fucking hospital within the hour.”

I sat in the questioning room and waited for my father to arrive. It had been thirty minutes. Thirty minutes too fucking long. The door finally opened and I was met with the eyes of my father, who looked at me at first with concern. He immediately steeled himself, and he turned cold the moment the detective entered the room. This detective was up against not one, but two Mandrakes, who were both scary as fuck.

Before she got a word out my father began speaking, which was good because I wasn’t in the mood to take the reins. “Why is he here? A man kidnaps my granddaughter and my son’s girlfriend. She’s covered from head to toe in blood, and he’s here so you can question him. For what? It’s pretty fucking obvious this is a matter of self-defense. Unless you have information to arrest Mr. Mandrake, there’s no reason he needs to be here, detective. You’re holding him against his will. So, I ask you again, why is he here? If no purpose than the fact that he did your fucking job, I see no reason for him to be here. Are there grounds for an arrest?”

“No, Mr. Mandrake, no charges have been filed but—”

My father looked at me, cutting the detective off. “You can go.”

The detective sighed as I got up out of the chair and walked out of the precinct with my father right behind me to the waiting car. We both got in and headed to the hospital. We drove in silence for a few minutes before he spoke. “You want to tell me what the hell that was all about? Why I was coached into saying something I knew nothing about, and more importantly, why my granddaughter was kidnapped and I was told to not tell anyone, especially your mother?”

“Not now, just keep driving.” I checked my phone for an update from Chace. So far nothing.

Chapter Twent
y
-
Two

I paced the waiting room, covered in blood. Her blood. I refused to leave even for a second. People were giving me horrified looks, while I gave zero fucks. The woman I loved was in there fighting for her life, and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it. I looked down at my hands; I was shaking so bad. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I flinched. Chace stood there looking at me with sorrow in his eyes. I didn’t need that shit right now. It’d been three hours. Three fucking hours. 

The waiting room trickled out, and all who was left was everyone here for Emmalin. I looked around the small waiting room. She had no idea how truly loved she was. I sat with my head in my hands, praying for something. Suddenly a pair of white shoes walked in my view.

“Family of Emmalin Ross?” I felt a nudge, and I slowly looked up. I couldn’t speak. Chace squeezed my leg, and I cleared my throat. “She’s mine,” I spoke gruffly. The doctor walked closer, looking at me sympathetically. 

“I’m Dr. Stiles. Ms. Ross had extreme amounts of blood loss before arrival…”

Her lips were moving, but it was like I couldn’t hear her. 

“She went into cardiac arrest twice en-route to the hospital…”

Let her be okay, let her be okay.

“Her heart stopped during surgery…”

Please be okay; don’t leave me.

“Unfortunately, in cases like these, because…”

God, please no.

“To make her more comfortable…”

Fuck.

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

My world faded.

Chapter Twent
y
-
Three

I just stood there, trying to absorb everything she just said. I felt someone squeeze my shoulders, and I looked up into the eyes of Chace, who gave me a slight nod.
Fuck
. I rubbed my face; my throat felt raw. I wanted to claw my skin off. “Can I see her?”

“I’ll have a nurse bring you back in just a moment.” I nodded as the doctor walked away. I stared at the floor. I stared at the way the fluorescent lighting hit the tiles, which did nothing but bring out the stains in it. Someone cleared their throat, and I looked up.

“Whenever you’re ready.” A short petite nurse stood in my view, and I nodded. I looked back at Chace.

“I’m with you, brother,” he softly whispered as we began walking down the long corridor together. The nurse gave us a small smile before motioning toward the door. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath before walking in.

Tears immediately gathered in my eyes. She looked so small laying there. Eyes shut and pale. If I could trade places with her, I would in a heartbeat. She was my life.

Chace gripped my shoulder as he stood next to me, peering down at her. “She’s alive, Grayson, that’s all that matters.”

I nodded, unable to stop the tears that fell down. Yes, she was alive, but at what cost?

I sat by her bedside, listening to the beeping of the machine. As long as that machine beeped, then it was my favorite sound in the world, because I knew it meant she could pull through. She would pull through.

Dr. Stiles came in a short time later. “I wanted to go over her assessment with you. We’re watching her very closely. We placed her in a medically induced coma to give her body time to heal. The anesthesia also had a major effect on her blood sugars, so we’re hoping the coma will help her body stay calm long enough to prevent her from going into Diabetic Ketoacidosis. If that were to happen, her major organs would start shutting down. As you know, we retrieved all the bullet fragment from her chest. It narrowly missed her heart, but still grazed the right ventricle, and as you also know, there wasn’t an exit wound, which caused the multiple cardiac arrests.”

She cleared her throat, and I looked at her. “The blunt trauma to the abdomen is what we’re sure caused the miscarriage.”

“How far along was she?”

She looked down at her chart. “Our obstetrician confirmed about three months. Just past the first trimester.”

I stroked Emmalin’s hand. “She didn’t know. She didn’t even think she could have children,” I whispered. “Could you tell what it was?”

Dr. Stiles shook her head. “I’m sorry, no. Again, I’m sorry for your loss.” I nodded, kissing Emmalin’s hand.

“There’s one other thing, Mr. Mandrake, and I realize this is a sensitive subject, but upon her examination, it was discovered that Ms. Ross suffered severe sexual trauma assault. By the results of the examination, it looked to be before and during the duration of the miscarriage.”

I slowly stood up. My mouth had gone dry. “You’re saying she was raped?”

“Again, I realize this is a sensitive matter.”

I didn’t wait for her to finish. I stormed out the room, running full speed down the hallway, until I got to the stairwell. I flew down, heading toward the exit. And I ran. I ran until my lungs burned, because all I wanted to do was kill. So I ran until I couldn’t breathe anymore. I ran until I reached the edge of the city I called home. I ran until I couldn’t hear the screams and the sirens, anymore. Until finally I collapsed on my hands and knees, in the middle of I don’t know where, and I cried.

But I didn’t cry for me. I couldn’t cry for me. I cried for her. The person who’d gone through so much shit in life, who’d had stones thrown at her, and still stood up standing. I finally understood why she always fought me over everything. Over the stupidest shit ever, such as paying for a fucking hospital bill. She’d literally fought for everything in life and took nothing for granted. I slowly got up off the ground. My muscles burned, but I didn’t care. It was nowhere near the amount of pain she had suffered. I turned around and prepared myself to walk back to the hospital. I was shocked to see Chace standing there, leaning up against his car.

“What are you doing here?”

He looked me up and down as he stepped closer. “I figured you could use a ride. Fuck, you run fast, and I sure as hell wasn’t running after you, so I went back and got the car. You ran over 10 miles, man.”

He stepped closer and handed me a bottle of water. “You look like shit.”

“He raped her.”

Chace sighed, looking over my head, and clenched his jaw. We were both quiet. Finally, he spoke.

“Let’s get you a shower, and then back to the hospital.”

I nodded, draining the bottle of water.