Page 3 of Beautiful Scars: Unshakeable (The Beautiful Scars Duet #2)

Chapter Three

Zane

The lights inside Oak Valley Hospital's emergency room buzz overhead, their harsh glare making everything feel surreal. I lean against the wall outside Rex's room, arms crossed, watching the chaos of a busy night unfold. The sharp scent of antiseptic and bleach stings my nose.

Behind the door, Rex curses as they prep him for the cast. He's lucky it was a clean break. I grind my teeth when I think of the way Levi snapped. I take my anger over it, examine it, then lock it away. No room for it right now.

A nurse hurries past with an armful of packaged bandages.

Two drunk college kids stumble in supporting a third with a gash on his forehead.

They're laughing as they follow a different nurse down the hall.

An elderly man sits slumped over in his wheelchair wheezing.

I catalog all of it—each detail, each face—an old habit I've never been able to shake.

"Please, this way." A low, soothing voice catches my attention.

She comes into view centered between a cop and one of the hospital security guards.

Her steps are hesitant, soft. She has long, straight brown hair that falls forward as she tries to hide her face, but I catch a glimpse of the damage.

Split lip. Swollen, bruised cheek and eyes.

The ice pack she holds trembles slightly.

Something in my chest starts to ache. She's nothing like Sunny physically, but that look in her eyes is familiar. It's haunting. I know that look— know what it means. I've seen it flash across Sunny's face when she thought no one was looking.

"Your boyfriend's going to be spending the weekend with us.

The temporary restraining order's been filed on your behalf," the officer walking beside her says, his voice pitched low.

"He won't be able to come near you or the hospital or wherever you end up staying.

Here's my card if you need anything else before the court date on Monday. "

My fingers dig into my biceps as I watch her take the card. Another compartment opens in my head, fills with memories of Sunny—flinching if I moved too fast, freezing in place anytime she felt cornered, getting that far off look in her eyes—and then slams shut again.

The girl disappears into a room down the hall, but I can't shake seeing her. Two days. Sunny's been gone two days. Anything can happen in that amount of time. The thought, and all the possibilities attached to it, slips past my carefully built walls and overwhelms me with helplessness.

A doctor emerges from Rex's room. "Mr. Walsh?"

I straighten, switching gears. "How is he?"

"We're finishing up with the cast now. His nose is going to need some work too, but there's no permanent damage."

I nod, already calculating. Rex will be out of commission for weeks. We're down a man when we need everyone. Another problem to solve, another piece to make fit into this fucked-up puzzle.

The girl's quiet sobs carry through the open door. I close my eyes briefly, thinking about the way Sunny had finally started to trust me. The way she'd look at me sometimes, like maybe I wasn't a monster. Like maybe she thought I could be an exception to her list of rules.

My phone vibrates—Colt giving me an update about a potential lead. I read it twice, my mind already putting together scenarios, trying to figure out the best way to handle it. It's easier than thinking about where Sunny might be right now, what might be happening to her.

A crash, followed by a long list of curses from Rex's room startles me. A slight smile curls my lips. He’s always been a little dramatic.

The doctor hurries back in. I stay where I am, standing guard, because it's what I do.

What I've always done. But for the first time in my life, I know it's not nearly enough.

After a few minutes the girl with long brown hair, now dressed in a hospital gown, is wheeled past me and down the hall.

Probably headed for tests. This time her eyes flick up and meet mine for a brief moment.

The fear, the pain—it's etched into every part of her face.

I grit my teeth knowing, with devastating certainty, that somewhere Sunny's wearing a similar expression. And I'm not there to stop it.

I pull out my phone again, checking to see if I have any messages from Levi. If he doesn't manage to pull himself together, Colt and I are going to have to think of something to do with him. His guilt and rage aren't what we need right now.

I shift my weight against the wall, muscles tense from standing so long. The hospital's weekend night shift brings a different kind of energy. It's busy, chaotic. Conversations that should be private, are brought out into the hallways, spoken loud enough to be overheard.

"Third time this month." The nurse's voice carries from behind the station where she’s rifling through stacks of paper. Her voice is low, but clear. "It's the same guy. He's escalating with her."

The security guard leans against the counter, his posture casual but his eyes alert. "At least she agreed to press charges this time and get the restraining order."

"Won't matter." The nurse, E. Martinez, according to the badge around her neck, shakes her head. "I'm calling for an extraction. Tonight."

My spine straightens at that word. Extraction. Military term. Special ops. Not something anyone would expect to hear in a hospital like this.

"I'll make the call." A second nurse, older, with steel-gray hair, reaches for the phone.

I pretend to check my own phone, angling my body closer to the counter in an effort to catch more of their conversation.

"Yeah, we have another candidate for you." Gray Hair's voice drops an octave as she speaks into the phone. "She meets all the criteria. Multiple documented incidents, escalating violence. She's here by herself."

There's a pause as she listens. "No, no friends or family requested or present, no emergency contact listed on any of the paperwork for any of her visits."

The security guard shifts, blocking the hallway's view of the nurse's station. It's not a random movement. It's purposeful.

"It's time sensitive. Paperwork’s been filed." Gray Hair continues. "Standard packaging needed, no special care necessary."

My mind races, cataloging details. The positioning. The terminology. The efficiency. What the fuck is going on?

"Right. Thank you." She hangs up and turns to the security guard. "Finder’s fee for this one will be the same as always."

Finder’s fee. That's the missing piece I need for my brain to start connecting all the dots even though I wish it wouldn't. Sunny's file from the safehouse. The photos. Garrett's surveillance that had somehow reached into her hospital room.

The guard nods once, sharp and professional. "Once she's discharged and ready to go, I'll take care of the cameras on the loading dock."

E. Martinez busies herself with paperwork, smiling and humming.

My phone buzzes—Colt again. I don’t answer. I can't look away from the nurses' station.

The brown-haired girl appears again, wheelchair guided by an orderly on the return trip to her room.

She meets my gaze, and this time I see something different in her expression.

The fear is gone—replaced with a quiet resignation.

I don't know which is worse to see. Her expression is eerily similar to the one on Sunny's face in those stacks of surveillance photos.

Like whatever's happening is inevitable. Unpreventable.

Meets all criteria. No friends. No family.

Rex's door opens. The doctor steps out, clipboard in hand. "Arm looks good. No issues with the casting. It'll be just a little longer while we wait for the sedation to take effect to get that nose set."

He follows my gaze across the hallway to where the girl in the wheelchair disappears into her room. "Falling down the stairs seems to be the night's entertainment."

I nod, ignoring the doctor's questioning look, but my attention stays split. The nurses have dispersed, moving with efficient purpose. The security guard posts himself by the emergency exit, radio silent.

"Mr. Walsh?" The doctor waits for my focus. "We'll need some paperwork filled out."

"Of course." I follow him to the desk, keeping both the security guard and nurses in view.

How many other "candidates" have been extracted into whatever system these people are running? How many women have disappeared into a situation worse than whatever brought them here?

The pieces continue to shift and slide into place.

A hospital would be the perfect cover for a variety of enterprises.

Especially a network. A system for moving people from place to place.

Especially women who are vulnerable and in need of protection.

Women who could somehow vanish into new lives without many, if any, people missing them.

I fill out Rex's paperwork on autopilot, my mind racing through the implications of what I've seen tonight.

I don't have proof of anything, and not all of it makes sense.

But my gut is telling me that this is all somehow related to Garrett—that it's just a small piece of something much bigger, something much more organized.

My phone buzzes one final time. Levi, demanding an update on Rex. I'm not ready to talk to him yet, but this can't wait. I type a quick response, letting him know that I may have found something. This could change everything. We've known Garrett is dangerous. But this…

If it's what I'm thinking it is, Sunny could be trapped by a man who's had years to perfect methods of keeping women hidden. Years of moving them, secretly, to God only knows where.

The doctor returns with discharge instructions. I take them, trying to figure out how to tell Levi, and the rest of the men, what I think I've found.