Page 46 of Redeemed (Redeemed #1)
Chapter Forty
Kennedy
A sharp pain in my side wakes me. I immediately feel that things have changed since I passed out because whatever I’m lying on is more comfortable than the cot from the warehouse.
My mouth feels as though it’s full of cotton, and my muscles are sore, but nothing compares to the pain radiating through my shoulder.
Slowly, I open my heavy eyes to find the blue gaze of the empire’s doctor staring down at me.
“Look who’s finally awake,” Dr. Jerrod says in a cheery tone.
He’s always been far too preppy for a man that makes a living serving one of the worst criminals.
He’s the best that money can buy and the only one Ashton Rose hasn’t fully corrupted.
Dr. Jerrod actually has some standards. He will keep anyone alive and rehabilitate them, but he will not willingly murder anyone.
“How long have I been out?” I croak out.
He moves around to get me a bottle of water from a mini fridge in the corner of the room. Bless him.
That’s when I realize I’m in my old bedroom in the main house. What the hell am I doing here?
He hands me a cup with a straw, and I take it with shaky hands knowing he’s watching and judging my strength.
“Four days,” he finally answers, and I nearly choke on my swallow of water. “He called me in to patch you up, give you an IV, and keep you sedated for as long as it would take for your body to begin to heal.”
What a sadistic bastard!
“What’s my damage?” I ask between sips. I need to know the list of injuries the asshole inflicted on me to stoke the embers of my rage.
The time before I passed out is foggy, but from the feel of my weak limbs, I know it will take a while for recovery.
Dr. Jerrod clearly sees the anger on my face and shuffles side to side, uncomfortably, before answering.
“Dislocated left shoulder, two broken ribs to your right ribcage and one to your left. Most of your body sustained shallow cuts that I’ve been able to treat, and I’m fairly certain they will not scar. The lacerations on your back are deeper and will definitely leave their intended mark.”
I see the sympathy in his eyes, and I look away, my own filling with useless water I refuse to let spill. My injuries will require months of rehab and that feels impossible considering I’m in the middle of enemy territory. I couldn’t even fight my way out if I wanted to.
“What time is it?”
“A little past four,” he answers after checking his wristwatch.
“Can I get up?” Not that I exactly care what he tells me I can do; I ask out of respect of his care. He isn’t the reason I’m in this situation, and if I’m not tied down, I’m moving.
I’m already throwing the covers off my legs with the arm not currently in a sling. The motion immediately irritates my ribs.
“You’re able to move. Mr. Rose is expecting you for dinner at five thirty.”
I pause at his words. Why would he move me to the main house and intend for me to have dinner with him?
Then he goes into a list of care instructions that I need to follow before pointing at my legs. “I shall be on my way. Keep those bandages clean for another forty-eight hours. You can start applying healing lotions after that.”
He leaves the room, moving on to the next task on his list. Beyond the door, I notice two men standing guard in the hall.
No roaming the property alone, then. Everything in me wants to hole up in this room and skip his expected dinner, but I’ve been out for days.
I need to know what he’s planning, and I need to eat in order to get my strength up.
I look through my old clothes, hoping to find anything to get me out of this hospital attire.
Nothing is easy to get on with my arm in a sling, and I’d rather go naked than to ask one of the guards for help.
The fire fueling my rage is stoked once more when I get a look at the size of the bandage covering a large portion of my back.
Anything could be under that white gauze and whatever it is will be there to stay.
I’m barely finished making myself presentable when there’s a swift knock on the door demanding I move faster. Ready to get this over with, I amble to the door and get ready to face my fate.
I don’t have any expectations as I make my way to the dining area, but finding Ashton Rose and Nathan in hushed conversation most certainly wasn’t it. I stop at the threshold and contemplate going back to my room.
“Stop with the dramatics and sit,” Ashton snaps out from the head of the table.
I want to snarl, but then I remember I have the upper hand.
There’s a reason I’m at this table for dinner and not being buried in the woods out back.
So, I move to sit at the opposite end of the table from these assholes.
Nathan smirks and I give him the finger.
He looks worse for wear, like someone used him as a punching bag, and all I can think is too bad it wasn’t me.
Neither of them has started eating, both waiting for me to arrive—Ashton’s false representation of manners.
I don’t wait for him to tell us to begin but immediately start filling my plate because fuck his rules .
Every moment brings on a fresh wave of pain, but I don’t dare let it show on my face.
I would rather die than give him any ounce of pleasure knowing he hurt me.
“What do you want?” I ask, bored, as I sit back down with my plate piled high.
Ashton Rose is staring daggers into my face. I pick up a chicken leg with one arm, biting it as I hold his eye contact, not giving a flying fuck.
“Your father and I wanted to talk with you about coming to an agreement.” Nathan speaks up, clearly trying to defuse the situation.
“First of all, that’s not my father,” I say, pointing my chicken leg towards Ashton Rose. “And secondly, fuck you.”
A smile tilts my lips because it’s clear that, without my cooperation, the deal is either falling through, or a war is about to start because Ashton can’t hold up his side of the bargain.
“Name your price,” Ashton says as calmly as he can manage through his teeth.
“My price?” I laugh out loud at the thought that he thinks he could afford it. “My price is your head.”
The words leave my lips and suddenly the lights flicker out. In the distance, I hear the pop of guns going off. What the fuck? My father’s guards bust through the room, locking the doors.
“Nathan, grab Kennedy,” I hear Ashton order.
My eyes adjust to the darkness, and I see Ashton being pushed to the ground by his guards as the gunshots come nearer.
“Nate, I need a gun.” My voice is on the edge of hysterics. “Don’t leave me defenseless to whoever is attacking this asshole.”
He has me by my good arm, moving toward the corner of the room.
“It’s Alex,” he whispers in my ear, and I swear my heart stops.
The gunfire draws closer, and my heart is hammering wildly by the time shots are right outside the door of the room.
Nathan turns from me and fires two shots into the head of my father’s guards as the wood on the door is shot. The door crashes open and there is Alex, standing like an avenging angel in full tactical gear. I don’t even attempt to hold back the sob that escapes my throat.
His eyes find mine and he’s moving toward me as more men file into the room. Quickly noticing my bandaged body, he grabs my face, peppering kisses as tears stream down my cheeks.
“Kitten, I’m here.”
I can’t form words as sobs rack my body.
The room quickly clears out with only Patrick, Cary, and Nathan standing guard over Ashton.
Alex gently scoops my inconsolable body into his arms, and I briefly hear him whisper about glass and debris with bare feet before he begins moving through the house towards the exit.
I fight to put a leash on my emotions as we move through the property, looking around me.
Our path is littered with bodies that I know are Ashton’s men. Looking up at Alex, I whisper, “You had fun without me.”
He looks down at me with tears in his eyes. A small smirk graces his lips at my terrible attempt to lighten the mood.
Alexander halts our trek across the lawn. “I thought I’d lost you, baby.”
My throat feels like it’s going to close as more tears slide down my face. Moving my hand reverently across his cheek, he leans into that small gesture before resting his forehead to mine.
“You weren’t supposed to come for me.”
“I’ll always come for you, Kitten.”
We step out onto the front lawn where the team Alex put together has Ashton’s cronies lined up on their knees, with their leader up front.
“The takeover of his sacred compound didn’t take long.”
“We prepped before flying to Texas. There wasn’t much more that needed to be put in place. The hardest part was getting out here undetected, but we can go over all that another time.”
Patting Alexander’s chest, I say, “Let me walk.” Alex stops and I can see the refusal forming on his lips. I tilt my head back and repeat myself. “Let me walk.” He sets me on my feet in the grass. “Gun.”
Removing one of the guns from his holster, he hands it over to me. “Baby, you don’t have to do this.”
I nod my head before limping toward the man Patrick is standing in front of. Everyone falls quiet when I approach.
A man holding a wicked-looking gun with tattoos covering all the exposed skin on his neck steps up to me with a smirk on his face.
“Well, if it isn’t the infamous Kennedy Rose.”
“Kennedy, meet Xavier Ross. I called him as soon as we realized you were taken.”
I nod my head in greeting, not caring whether the smile I give him is sincere or not. My focus is on Ashton Rose kneeling on the ground with his men, hands tied behind his back, completely at my mercy. I’m instantly high on the shift in power dynamic.
“Ha, infamous. The bitch would be nothing without me,” he has the nerve to snarl out with death breathing down the back of his neck.
This is the moment I’ve been waiting for, the moment I’ve been building up to since he revealed the lie he groomed me to believe. He not only betrayed me, but the legacy of my mother and the justice she deserved.
I stare down at him and I don’t know what I’m waiting for, maybe some emotion to tell me I can’t actually be the one to end his life. This moment almost doesn’t feel real, but the hatred in his eyes sears through me.
“There isn’t an ounce of remorse or regret in me when I think about what I’m about to do to you. I’m gonna burn everything you worked so hard for to the ground.”
“Fuck you, bitch!” he snarls.
Smiling, I slowly raise my gun to the center of his forehead, savoring the moment. My hand tremors from the weight of the gun and the weakness of broken ribs, but I pull the trigger and don’t stop until the clip is empty.
I fall to my knees in disbelief that this is over and that I’m free of the restraints that have kept me chained for so long.
The tears fall freely as I silently mourn the girl I could’ve been if not for his cruelty.
Today, young Kennedy, who committed her innocence to a man who only wanted to destroy her, is redeemed.
We don’t waste any time getting the fuck out of Texas.
The Reapers stayed back with Nathan to clear the property.
I didn’t get involved with any logistics, considering myself fully removed from The Rose Drug Empire—Nathan can have it and do with it what he will.
There’s still hurt where he is concerned, but he was instrumental in helping Alex save my life, so I’ll have to manage those emotions later.
We board a private jet with Cary and Patrick the day after the rescue. Alex keeps looking at me as though I’m going to crumble at any moment, and to be fair, I’ve found myself with wet cheeks in the oddest moments.
My mind hasn’t fully processed everything that’s transpired in the last week. I wouldn’t say I’m in a state of shock, but more like a state of disbelief. Ashton Rose is dead and I’m the one who put his terrorizing reign to an end.
“You never told me you own a plane,” I say to Alex when we’re above the clouds at cruising altitude.
“The plane isn’t mine. It belongs to Michael Ellis.”
Michael Ellis. My father. I wonder if there’s truth to that or if it’s another lie weaved by Ashton Rose. I don’t say anything to Alex—there’s plenty for us to unpack once we’re home.
“So, I’m now indebted to The Reapers.”
“Unfortunately, but you won’t have to handle that alone, Kitten.”
Alex grabs my hand and we just stare at each other, lost in the moment that neither of us were sure we would have again. His free hand comes up to cup my face and he leans in, his forehead touching mine.
“Kennedy, I was a wreck when I realized you were taken. There’s no limit to what I would have done to find you.
What we have isn’t conventional, but I won’t let another moment go by without telling you how I feel.
The thought of you being gone broke something within me.
The war with your father is over, but I’m asking you to stay with me.
I want to experience the freedom of life with you at my side. ”
“You could never know how much I regret the way I impulsively left that night. I could never repay you for coming for me. The thought of leaving never crossed my mind. I’ve done nothing but think of reasons to keep you in my life. I’d stay with you forever, Alex.”
“That’s what I like to hear, Kitten,” he says with a smirk before leaning in to seal our deal with a kiss.
I laugh as tears of joy fill my eyes and bask in the first true moments of happiness, silently vowing not to borrow tomorrow’s problems today.