Page 14 of The Lost Ones

"Thank you.” She returns my smile with a small one of her own.

I can tell she's still in a lot of pain though.

"Sage, where are you hurt?" Levi questions, using his rare voice of authority. He only uses it when he has to.

We are all crowded around the couch waiting for her answer. She closes her eyes tightly before answering.

"My ribs.” She points to her left side.

I watch curiously as Levi’s eyes widen impossibly before he blanks his face and focuses back on Sage. Something in that giant brain of his just clicked.

"Can Maverick have a look Darling? He has medical training." Levi asks gently.

Questions dance in her eyes at this small bit of information before she pushes them away and glances at Mav, he gives her a warm smile and she relaxes a bit before nodding tightly.

Maverick comes over to kneel by the couch.

"Do you want the rest of us to leave, Little Star? We won't mind."Jax questions her.

I think we all release a sigh of relief when she says that she doesn’t mind if we stay. I know we all want to be here for her.

"Can you lift your top up a bit, so I can see?" Maverick asks, gently.

Once again, we all end up holding our breaths as soon as she starts lifting her top up. Making sure to stay modest, she lifts it up on one side making sure to hold the other side down and only showing us her left side and part of her stomach. As soon as she's lifted it all the way up we all stare in shock before Hunter and Jax start cursing loudly.

Her entire left side and most of her stomach is splotched with black and purple bruising. I swear I can make out the shape of a fucking foot.

"What the fuck! Is that a mother fucking foot? Who the fuck did this to you, Sweetheart?" I can't help the words that erupt from my mouth.

I'm seeing red.

Levi sends me a stern look it, I ignore him. I know from his balled-up hands and the clenched jaws of the others that they want to know as much as I do.

Sage though resolutely keeps her mouth shut and her eyes anywhere but on us. Her avoidance of the subject makes us glance at each other warily.

Maverick applies a layer of bruise cream to Sage's ribs and stomach after a quick examination determines that she has three cracked ribs. He then sends me to the kitchen to grab an ice pack. I know for damn surethat there’s those shake to activate ones in the medical kit by his feet, he’s just finding something for me to do other than pace. I’ll admit I’m slightly grateful to the bastard. I hand the ice pack over to him as he gets her to swallow a couple of painkillers.

Finally, we can't keep quiet anymore.

"Sage . . ." Kai starts before she interrupts.

"I can't tell you.” She whispers brokenly.

"Sweetheart you can tell us anything." I tell her.

"He's right, Titch." Maverick adds.

"Even though you haven't known us for very long you can trust us Sage." Levi tells her sincerely.

"Come on, Little Star," Jax coaches taking her hand. "Tell us who did this, we can protect you."

"Damn fucking right we can." Kai agrees.

She shakes her head in dismissal.

"You can't.” She whispers, the broken look in her eyes is damn near killing me and I rush over to her side knocking Jax out of the way as I pass.

"Sage, Sweetheart look at me.” She turns her head slowly towards me, “that's my girl, listen to me. We can protect you and we will Sage but we need to know who we have to protect you from." I can see the uncertainty still in her eyes so I push on, "It would kill us if something happened to you Sweetheart, we nearly completely lost our shit today and now that we know someone is hurting you we won’t be able to stand it." I look in her eyes, knowing the guys are nodding in agreement behind me. "Please let us help you Sweetheart."