Page 40 of Dark Things (Payback Duet #1)

Colter

I sit in the ambulance watching the paramedics work on Reb. She was shot in the chest. Probably hit a lung. My hands are coated in her blood where I pressed down on her chest trying to stop the flow, but there was so much of it. It pooled through my fingers, drenching my arms.

She codes twice by the time we get to the hospital. They wheel her out, and there’s a cluster of doctors and nurses as soon as the gurney touches the blacktop. Shouts and numbers are tossed around, but my eyes never leave her face.

She was a warrior when she came storming into that room.

I’ve never seen someone so detached one moment and full of feelings the next.

Everything that was said in that room brings more questions than answers.

I still believe she knows where Belle is, but what if Brooks was right?

They don’t look the same, but she called Brooks BK again and then responded when Staff called her trouble.

And Magnus? Could she be looking out for Belle’s brother?

It’s not a common name, so this connection has to be stronger than we originally thought.

When we were kids, Belle used to say she wasn’t the only trouble.

She and Staff called themselves Double Trouble for a whole summer when we were at rich kid camp.

I don’t think Staff has pulled a prank since we lost Belle.

If Brooks was her twin flame, the only one who could reach her when she was in her head, then Staff was her partner in crime.

You couldn’t tell now, but his favorite thing was pulling Belle into schemes that would drive everyone crazy.

And me? I was her rock. The person she went to when it got to be too suffocating in her house.

When she needed a friend, and then more.

She called me her lighthouse once, and it couldn’t have been more true for either of us.

I loved Belle with everything I had. We did everything together.

She was my person. The one constant in my life when shit went down.

My parents were too busy with their careers to raise a child.

Before Belle, I was home with nannies and housekeepers.

School was my escape, and Belle became my home. And then she was gone.

“Trauma room one! Get the crash cart!” a doctor yells.

They take her through the door, and I follow, holding on to her ankle.

I need her to be okay. We still don’t know the full story, but something inside of me is saying that Reb can’t die.

Her light burns too bright, even if she walks in the shadows.

I watch them hook her to machines, a flurry of activity.

All I can do is stare at her broken body in front of me.

I squeeze her ankle harder but it changes nothing.

My chest feels heavy, and I bring up a hand to rub it.

One of the nurses cuts her shirt down the middle, and right through her bra.

I don’t pay attention to anything besides the tattoo on her sternum.

Low enough to not be seen in a low cut top, but right in the center between her breasts.

It’s been there the whole time. A dying black rose in a glass container with three initials etched in the cracked glass — C.S.B. The petals are shriveled and some lay at the bottom of the dome.

I suck in a breath and let out a roar. Every person in the room turns to me, but I don’t hear anything.

My focus becomes a pinprick, my eyes only for the girl in front of me.

She’s here. In front of me, her secrets exposed.

Her body torn apart by a bullet that should have been for me. I can’t lose her again. I can’t.

“Get him the fuck out of here,” the doctor shouts.

A nurse grabs my bicep, but I shrug it off. “Sir, you need to leave the room. We’re going to take care of her, but we can’t do that with you in the way. As soon as we know something, the doctor will come out and tell you.”

“No, I’m not leaving her. She needs to be okay. Losing her isn’t an option. Wake her up! Wake up, Belle!”

“If you don’t leave I’ll have to call security and have you escorted out. Then you won’t be able to find out anything. Let me show you to the waiting room.”

She tries to pull me with her, but all I can do is stare at the woman in front of me.

I can’t breathe. My chest rises and falls, wetness on my face.

I don’t wipe the tears away, I let them fall for every minute we’ve been separated.

For the life we should have had. For all the moments that were stolen from us.

Shouting sounds behind me, and large hands clamp on my shoulders pulling me back. I try to get them off me, but they’re too strong.

“I’m not leaving her!” I bellow.

“Colt, it’s me. We have to go. Let them work,” Brooks says. Staff steps in front of me, and they manage to get me out of the room, the glass door closing. It’s so loud, I flinch back.

“We have to go back in there. She’s in there. She’s fucking in there!”

They both manage to drag me down the hall, but I kick and scream the whole way. We found her. We found her and now she might be gone forever. I won’t let that happen. If she doesn’t pull through this, I will murder every motherfucker in this town. Burn it all to the ground.

“Colt, calm the fuck down. Security is watching and we need to be here when they give us updates. They had to sedate Haunt just to get him in the ambulance. I know she might have information, but please calm the fuck down, or we’ll never know.”

He tries to get me to sit in the chair, but I can’t sit when she’s in there dying. No, not dying, hurt. Just hurt.

“You don’t fucking understand!” I yell, pushing past him, but Brooks gets in my face.

“I fucking understand Colter,” Brooks says, getting in my face, cupping my cheeks. The tears still flow freely dripping down my chin.

I shake my head. “No, you don't, she's in there. She’s in there, Brooks.” I can’t fucking breathe. I collapse on my knees in front of him. My chest is cracked open, bleeding on the floor like I’m the one that got shot. It should have been me.

“Hey, talk to me. What happened in there?” Staff says, placing a hand on my shoulder, gripping it tight.

“She’s…she’s…” The words won’t come out. I cry out bending at the waist, clutching my chest. My screams are so loud, bouncing off the walls.

Brooks pulls me in his arms, “Breathe, brother. Just breathe and tell us what you saw. Please, Colt. You have to calm down. Please tell us.”

I grab his shirt and cry, soaking it in minutes. He rocks us back and forth, Staff clutching us in a hug from the side. “Colter, is she alive?” Staff asks, his voice muffled in my shoulder.

“They…they took off her shirt. Cu t it down the middle to get to the bullet wound. I didn’t take my eyes off her for a second, and when they did that… It’s her. It’s Belle.”

My voice cracks, and I let out another sob. Brooks stops rocking me. We all go still, and the only thing I can hear or feel are my own cries, my body shaking.

Brooks lifts my face, eyes tracking mine. I try to close them. I can’t look at the devastation written there. “Are you saying what I think you are?”

I nod. “She’s in there. She’s been with us for a month, and we didn’t know. We didn’t know it was her. Oh, God. I’m going to be sick.”

I run to the garbage can in the corner. I heave up all of the contents in my stomach and when there’s nothing left, acid burns the back of my throat. I deserve it and so much more.

Staff shoves some napkins at me, and Brooks hands me a water bottle. They lead me to the corner of the room where I slump down into a seat.

“Start from the beginning,” Staff says.

“They cut off her top and bra like I said. It revealed…revealed her tattoo.”

“I’m not following, brother. She has a tattoo, and you think she’s Belle?” Brooks says.

“It was a glass dome with our initials in it. Just like the one from Beauty and the Beast, her favorite movie when we were kids, the one she sketched in her notebook. Except this one looked dead. The glass was broken. It’s her.

There’s no other explanation. Everything that’s happened, all the coincidences, everything we’ve been feeling.

It all came to me at that moment. We found her, and now we might lose her again. ”

Staff’s face pales, and he crashes down into the chair next to me. His hands start to shake and tears fall down his face. Brooks starts pacing, fists clenched by his sides. His own tears stain his cheeks.

“Tell me she’s alive, or so help me everyone is going to die,” he says, stopping in front of me.

“I think they were going to take her into surgery when she was stable enough to move. I don’t remember much of what they said, but I think I heard that.”

Staff takes off his glasses and leans back slumped in the chair. “You were right, Brooks. We should have cornered her, asked her to her face. Now we have to pray to every deity that ever existed, because I can’t lose her again.”

Brooks grunts and continues his pacing. A loud roar sounds from behind the door, and we look through the glass and see Haunt trying to fight one of the security guards.

Brooks runs up to the desk. “Let us in there. I’ll get him to calm down. He’s going to hurt someone or himself…worse than he is.”

The clerk looks over at us, all the blood coating us and then back at the scene behind her. Haunt is swaying, and one of his fists connects with a male nurse. The guy goes down .

She turns back around and nods. “If you make it worse I’m going to have all of you taken outside, and you won’t be able to come back in.”

We agree, and she buzzes us in. We run to Haunt, who looks at us with wild eyes, not really focusing on one thing. Brooks steps up to him and puts his hands up in surrender. “Haunt you have to calm down and let them help you. Come on, let’s get you back in bed.”

“WHERE IS SHE!” he screams.

Brooks lowers his voice. “They took her into surgery. If you want to see her, you’re going to have to be treated, Haunt. Please, sit down.”