Caught by Emma Louise
Chapter Thirty-Four
"How long will she be like this?" I ask the nurse as she finishes tapping away on the iPad in her hand. This is the third time she's been in here checking on the machines that Darcey is hooked up to.
"How long is a piece of string?" she asks back without looking at me. She must sense that I'm not in the mood for her bullshit because she finally looks up at me. "Mr. Arden..." She sighs. "You heard the doctor. She's going to be fine. Her brain got a little rattled, but her scans were all clear. She was already awake and talking when they brought her in. Let her rest a little while longer, and when she wakes up, she'll be almost as good as new."
She leaves the room soon after, leaving me alone with a battered Darcey. Picking up her hand, I wrap my fingers around her wrist. The steady beat of her pulse against my skin does little to soothe he raging inferno that is still burning deep inside of me.
There is a soft knock at the door before it's pushed open, and the last person I want to see here walks in.
"Are you fucking insane?" I growl at Mark, pushing out of my seat and getting in his face in a heartbeat. "You could have fucking killed her!" I can still see the horrific scene from just a few hours before playing out in my mind like some fucked up movie. The goon that had Darcey over his shoulder, Mark lining up the shot, the lifeless way her body crumpled to the floor when the bullet hit.
"Max, I told you it was under control—" my hands are in his shirt as I push him back against the wall. I can feel hands pulling me back before I can do what I really want to do which is punch the fuck out of him.
"Come on, man. You need to calm down. She's here, and she's safe. Don't do this." Crew pulls me back from doing something stupid.
"I know you can't see it right now, but it was the quickest way to get her out of there," Mark tells me something that I already know is true, but I'm too consumed by my anger to see it right now.
"Max?" The voice is little more than a dry croak, but it's the sweetest sound I've ever heard. Dropping my hold on Mark, I'm at her bedside in two long strides.
"Baby..." My chest feels like it’s caving in when I see the fear on her beautiful face. "You're safe now. I've got you." I want to pull her into my arms and hold her tight, but she's been banged around enough already. She needs to heal, but fuck me, I need to feel her in my arms.
"Cassidy?"
"Is fine. Natalie took her to school so she wouldn't think anything was out of the ordinary. Say the word and I'll get her here within the hour."
"Max... I ... I was so—" she crumbles, fat tears falling over her cheeks as she breaks down.
"Shhh. It's okay. I've got you." Shifting on the bed, I pull her into my arms where she gives in and sobs into my chest. Wrapping one arm around her shoulders, I cup the back of her head with the other. The pressure on my chest lightens a fraction when I feel her reach around my waist to hold on to me.
She cries for a few minutes before she pulls herself together. She shifts back, but I don't drop my hold. I'm not ready to let go and probably won’t be for a long while yet. She looks up at me, and I don't resist the urge to drop a kiss to her damp lips.
"I'm so sorry," I finally manage to say. She stares up at me, eyebrows dipped in confusion, and I realize she probably has no idea that everything she's just been through is my fault.
"We'll leave you alone for a minute," Crew says, startling Darcey. She must not have noticed that the room is full of people.
"Mark? What are you doing here? What's going on?" she asks.
"I'll explain everything to you. Let’s just get the nurse in here to check you out."
Darcey doesn't fight me on that. She sits quietly while I call the nurse in. I don't leave her side as she's poked and prodded by the nurse first, then her doctor. Darcey doesn't look my way through it all, but she also doesn't let go of my hand.
All too soon we're alone once more. I've helped her to the bathroom, carried her back to bed, and now there's no escaping what I'm about to tell her.
"How are you feeling?"
"Tired. Sore. Confused. Tell me what happened, please?"
"You took a few hits to the head. How much do you remember?" She stares up at me, and I can see the precise moment she remembers why she was running out of the clubhouse. The shutters come down, and she shifts back in the bed, putting unwanted distance between us.
"I was looking for you. I wanted to apologize for how I spoke to you. You wouldn't answer my calls, so I came looking for you..."
Taking a gentle hold of her face, I tilt her head back so she can look me in the eye when I talk to her. "That, what you walked in on? That was not what you thought it was."
"You don't owe me any explanations, Max. You can do whatever or whoever you want."
"That's bullshit, and you know it."
"What?" She scoffs at my blunt reply.
"Don't act like you don't know what we have. You pushed me away, and I left with my tail between my legs because I'm an idiot. I let myself get stuck in my own head for too long, drank too much, and let someone I don’t even know get too close. But, baby, you have to know that I would not have let her do that to me." Leaning down, I kiss her parted lips. It isn't much more than a soft brush of my lips over hers, but I couldn't go another second without tasting her. "It's just you, Darcey. I only want you, no matter what happens next; please remember that."
"No matter what happens next?" Here it is, the moment I lose her for real this time. I realize now a little of why Darcey was trying to keep her secrets to herself. Telling someone you love something so ugly, something you know is going to cause them pain is something I wish I didn’t have to do, but I owe it to her to make sure she knows the truth.
"It's my fault that you were taken. They took you because of me."
"What?" she breathes out in disbelief, her brows drawing down in confusion.
"It was Serena. She set the whole thing up. The note you got and didn't tell me about? The flowers? She found out about Jimmy and used the information to make it look like he’d come back from the dead."
"How on earth… Why would she do that? This makes no sense."
“She signed the papers,” I tell her the news that Crew had given me days ago, but I was too fucking stupid to share with Darcey.
“That’s great, but that makes all this even more crazy. Why would she try to hurt me if she’d already signed? I don’t understand.”
“She gave in and signed because she thought I had nothing left. She was holding out on the divorce because she wanted more than I was willing to give her. She wanted half of everything I worked my ass off for after I left her.”
"What changed? Please don’t tell me you gave her—" Panicked eyes fly up to meet mine.
"You. You changed everything,” I cut her off. Taking advantage of the fact she hasn’t kicked me out already, I steal a quick soft kiss from her surprised lips before I keep talking. “When I realized I wouldn't be able to pursue you until she was out of the picture fully, I came up with a plan. You know Jake is the president of his MC, right?” She nods, still staring up at me with those magnetic eyes of hers. “Well let’s just say his CPA is like a magician; he knows how to make bank accounts look a lot lighter than they are in reality. He made it look like I have a gambling addiction, leaving me with an empty bank account and a shit-ton of debt.
“We made it look like I wasn’t fit to run Elite because of my apparent debts, and I signed my share of the business over to the guys so I could pay it all off. As of right now, the only thing I have of value is a house that isn’t worth much more than the land it’s built on. When she found out that she'd be getting a whole lot of nothing even if she could somehow prove I cheated on her, she took the offer I made and signed the papers."
"You gave up Elite? Max, you can't do that!"
"If it meant I got you free and clear at the end of it, I'd give it all up in a heartbeat," I tell her, meaning every single word of it. If it means I get to keep her and Cassidy, I'd give up every damn thing I own, but luckily, I don’t have to make that choice. "But it's for show only. The plan was always for me to buy it back once the dust settled and she was no longer an issue."
"I still don't understand how any of this ends up with me being taken. What would she gain from that?"
"The one thing she’s wanted all along. Cash and maybe just to fuck with me. She must have worked out what I had done to screw her over and decided that she would get money out of me by taking you and holding you for ransom."
"That's ... that's just insane." Darcey breathes out incredulously. “Normal people don’t do that kind of thing.”
"It’s crazy, but I swear to you that nothing like that will ever happen to you again. She's going away for a long time after the shit she's pulled, and I swear, I'll never let anything happen to you ever again."
"Max, this is all too much to take in." My heart sinks when I see the apprehension on her face. I didn't expect her to fall into my arms and declare her undying love, but fuck, I was hopeful.
"I know it's a lot to take in right now, but, baby, you have to know that I'm not letting you go. I'm going to show you how good we can be together." Cupping her face, I use my thumbs to swipe away the tears that have fallen down her beautiful face. "I want you, Darcey. You and Cass. I want us to be together, as a family, and I won’t stop until you're on the same page as me. Tell me you don't want that, because, baby, I think you want it as much as I do."
"It isn’t as simple as that..." The confusion in her eyes as she looks up at me and says those words is like a punch in the chest.
"It's as simple as we want it to be." I want to keep pushing this until she knows how serious I am, but this is not the time or the place. Too much has happened, and we’ve both been through hell over the last few days.
"Max," she starts, only to be interrupted by a knock at the door.
"Let's just concentrate on getting you back on your feet. One day at a time, can you give me that?" My heart thumps in my chest as I wait for her to say something, but all I get from her is a hesitant nod.
I don't get the chance to say anything else as the room begins to fill with people once more. Liam and Natalie are the first in, Lee taking one look at Darcey before she sucks in a sharp breath and bursts into tears. I step back, giving the friends room to embrace one another.
"You good?" Liam asks as we watch his wife fuss over Darcey, making sure that she is okay.
"I will be once I get her home."
"How is she dealing with everything that happened?" I know that’s his way of asking if she knows everything that went down last night.
"We haven't had time to get into it all, but I think she's a little overwhelmed."
"You want my advice?"
"You gonna give it anyway?"
"Don't let her push you away. She's going to pull in on herself because that's all she knows to do. Show her that you're in it for the long haul. That you’re ready to fight for her when nobody else ever has.”
"When did you get good at this relationship shit?"
"When I had to fight for my own. It isn't easy, I can promise you that. There will be times you'll both have to fight like fuck to make it work, but I can also promise you it's worth it."
I don't tell him that his advice isn’t needed; I already know that I'm going to fight for her. Even if she tells me she doesn't want it, I'm going to make her see that we are meant to be.