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Chapter 36

A nurse in the emergency ward lead us down a long hallway. I couldn't stop sobbing as we trailed behind her. If it wasn't for Brandon holding my hand, I wouldn't be able to move. 

Eventually she stopped at a closed door and motioned her hands toward it. Brandon thanked her for her time and opened up the door to the room. We walked into the room to see the rest of the Vegas boys, Natalie, and Liam all standing beside Charlie's bed. I let go of Brandon's hand and ran over to his bed. 

Charlie was opening his eyes up as I made it to his bedside. He had a neck brace on and had a bunch of bandaids on his face; two large black circles were around his eyes and his nose looked broken. I sobbed as I looked him over. 

"Oh my god Charlie! What the hell happened to you!?" I cried out. 

I felt everyones' eyes burn a hole into me, which made my anxiety shoot through the roof even more. I rubbed my eyes and focused on him. 

He frowned. "Maya, I was attacked. I was bringing out the garbage at work, not long after you left."

Brandon joined me at my side and wrapped his arms around me. Tears filled my eyes as I imagined Charlie walking out the back door and over toward the dumpster that we both had went to a thousand times. 

"I'm sorry Charlie!" I broke down into another sob. Nobody said anything as I cried. The room stayed quiet except for the occasional beeps of a monitor that was hooked up to Charlie. Eventually, Brandon spoke up.

"Do you know who it was?"

A few shuffles came from the direction of the other three Vegas boys. I looked over to see Natalie was motioning for them to leave the room. The boys each looked at each other and nodded at her. They excused themselves and nausea filled every inch of my stomach. 

As soon as the boys left, Charlie started to talk. 

"It really was too dark to see, but I would be a dumbass if I didn't know who it was," Charlie said. "He made who he was very clear."

I started to shake. I shook my head numerous times and stuttered. I walked away from Brandon and Charlie and squeezed my eyes shut as I tried to process everything. 

Brett. 

"Why would he attack you?" Brandon asked, with a little shake of his voice. I wrapped my arms around myself in an attempts to try and comfort myself. "You didn't do anything to him?"

I started to cry again. "You said it yourself Brandon, he's out for blood! Charlie's attack is just part of his plan!"

Somebody walked over to me and put their arms around me. I instantly knew it was Natalie. She let me cry into her shoulder. "He filed a report with the police. Brett won't get away with this-"

"Yes he will! He won't stop until he gets me back! He could hurt you next!"

Natalie squeezed me tighter. "He can't outrun the police Maya. He's not that smart."

I shook my head and wiggled out of her arms. "You don't know him like I do. He's fucking insane!" 

Natalie frowned and looked over toward Brandon. He walked over to me and gave me a hug. 

"Lets go take a walk, okay?"

I cried and nodded my head. Brandon let go of me and grabbed my hand. We headed out of the room and started on our walk. A few people gave us concerned looks as we started down the hallway. 

My head was in a thousand different places and I couldn't think of a single thing to say or do. Nothing could make anything I had done right and nothing could repay Charlie for his injuries. Brett was insane. He could have killed Charlie and it would have been all my fault. 

We walked until we reached a vending machine. Brandon let go of my hand and fished a five-dollar bill out of his pocket. He slid it into the money slot and made a selection. The machine dispersed a bottle of water and spit out his change. He handed me the water, as he grabbed his change. 

I twisted the cap off and took a long drink. I put the cap on and handed it over to Brandon. We started back into the direction that we had come from. Neither one of us said a thing. We stayed silent. I wiped my eyes. 

We walked a little ways and I found myself looking into rooms that had their doors open. Nothing really caught my attention, until we were down the hallway a little further and I heard a women crying. It stopped me dead in my tracks. I turned my head and could see a little into the room. The door was cracked open. 

I listened for a second. Brandon stopped walking and turned around and looked at me. He raised his eyebrow at me. I held up a finger to him and moved closer to the door to get a better look. 

As I got closer to the door and I could see more, my jaw dropped as I recognized the person sitting on the bed inside of the room. 

It was Janelle Anderson-Reed and Brett was nowhere in sight.

"Holy shit." I whispered, as I got as close as possible to the door. A few police officers stood around her bed and an older women with puffy red eyes. Janelle rubbed her eyes and looked at the older women.

"Darling, the only way the officers can help you is if you tell them everything that's happened tonight." The older women said with a frown. Janelle took a deep breath and turned toward the officers. 

Her face was injured similarly to Charlie's. Her lip quivered as she stared at the officers. After a couple of minutes, she finally spoke up.

"My husband went on a rampage tonight. I'm not the type of wife to look into his phone or to be suspicious of him, but for the last few weeks he's been acting really weird and secretive. After he got home from work and was taking his shower before dinner, I decided to take a look into his phone. It's not password protected or anything."

"I saw he had been exchanging a bunch of text messages with an unfamiliar number. The person doesn't have a Boston phone number, which I thought was very strange. I did a quick Google search and saw that the number was similar to the ones from his hometown. It didn't take me very long to figure out he had been talking to his ex girlfriend. She lives in the city. The more recent text messages were very aggressive, which isn't like the Brett I know-"

The older women snickered, cutting Janelle off. "Darling, don't lie to the officers. Brett is a very aggressive man."

Janelle frowned. "These were something else. They were very threatening and a lot of them implied that he had been watching her, but the farther back I looked, well it turned out they had been meeting up. Many of them were begging her to come over. I couldn't help but cry and get angry. Once he got out of the shower, I called him out on the messages. Things got very heated and violent. Whenever Brett doesn't get his own way..."

Janelle started to cry. I was shaking even harder as I watched through the cracked door. I got another person hurt. 

"That's when everything happened. He broke a lot of things in our apartment and ran out. He took his car and I haven't seen him since. This was a few hours ago. I'm assuming he went off to find her. I don't know."

One of the officers looked up from a notepad. "Do you happen to know what her name is?"

Janelle wiped her eyes and thought for a moment. "Her name is Maya Parker. She works at the Harrison Cafe and she's dating some singer. I think his name is Brandon Flowers?"

I backed away from the door and looked at Brandon. He looked very pale and sickly. I couldn't speak and I could hardly move a muscle. We just stared at each other for a few minutes, speechless. 

The nausea flew up higher in my windpipe and the next thing I knew, I was throwing up all over the floor of the hospital.