My heart sank and my body locked up as Mathew forced me up. Carter side-glanced Rowan, stepping over him as he came face-to-face with me. I could hear Angelo struggling to keep Cucuy restrained. I wasn't too sure what he was doing to keep him held down because I was too focused on Carter. I was so stupid to believe that, maybe, after our last encounter he had given up on me and I knew he thought the same thing. I tried to move my hands, to try and escape, but Mathew had already wrapped them with duct tape and was holding me by my arms tightly to keep me from fighting.
"Really, William? This guy?" Carter finally spoke, giving a hard kick to Rowan, who had already stopped moving.
I tilted my head in a confused way and Carter scoffed, making Mathew chuckle. Suddenly, Carter's face morphed into anger and his hand struck my cheek, making me yelp into the duct tape, which came out as a whimper. I felt Carter put his gun on my cheek used it to force me to look back up at him again.
"You chose a damn cat over me? You ran away from me, tried to leave me... and tried to replace me with this weak piece of shit?" Carter growled, and I felt my heart drop. "Look at him! He doesn't even compare!"
It clicked then that Carter had come to the conclusion that he thought I was dating Rowan now. Dread filled me as I began to shake me head to let him know it wasn't true, even if it filled me with a disappointed feeling.
He'll hurt Rowan more.
It shocked me when that thought crossed my mind. Technically, Rowan and I weren't close, even if it seemed like we might be. In the moment, wouldn't it be logical to only think of preserving myself?
"Oh? No? Then why are you two together, huh? Why is this punk-ass-bitch putting his damn-self near you?" Carter snapped, holding his free hand out to Mathew, and I felt sweat drop down my face as I saw him pass Carter a blade.
I felt Mathew put his hand on my neck, and flinched when he yanked back the hoodie I had on straight to my hands. I whimpered through the duct tape as Carter grabbed my shirt and stabbed right through it. I went still as I felt the blade brush my chest. Tears welled up in my eyes as Carter began to cut open my shirt.
"Now, I don't like repeating myself. But I've told you many times, that you're mine. My lover, my property, my fucking bitch." he snapped, ripping off the rest of my shirt. "I told you how shit works like you asked. You're not allowed to betray me, or try to leave me to whore around. You. Are. Mine."
Tears began to fall as I dared to shake my head. In response, he punched me in the gut, which I kind of doubled over, but Mathew held me up.
"You. Don't. Tell. Me. No!" Carter emphasized each word with a punch to the gut or my face, then he grabbed me by my hair and forced me to look back up as tears flowed down my cheeks. "This time, you will learn your lesson. You'll come home with me. Then we can try again and make that b—"
I kicked him in the knee, cutting him off, as he snarled and rubbed his knee. Even if Rowan was out cold, I wouldn't let him finish that disgusting sentence. As Carter straightened himself, he was about to hit me again for kicking him until he noticed my glance towards Rowan. He looked back at him and then at me before grinning.
"Oh... oh, does he not know? What would happen if he tried to screw you?" he pushed the gun against my bruised stomach and I felt heat rush there, but not from pain. "What could be made in that slutty body of yours?"
I don't want him to know. Count to ten. Imagine— imaginesomethingelse. Relaxrelaxrelaxrelax—
"Well, he won't ever get to. Like I said, and I'll say it as many times as I need to, to get it through that thick head of yours, you're mine." he said reaching for my pants. "You just like to break the rules."
This time no one would save me. I couldn't use my voice. I didn't even know what happened to Cucuy. My ears were ringing and I couldn't hear anything. Rowan was out-cold. I was going to be humiliated, again... with him in... me... then he'd take me away and force me to be his "wife" and I'd never be able to get away. I looked away, but just as Carter grabbed the hem of my pants, a hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. When he let out a startled sound, my head shot up to see Rowan glaring at him and I froze.
"So, that's why William has been so upset." he commented and yanked Carter down to the ground, which — what the fuck — Rowan wasn't nearly as big as Carter so how the fuck was he able to do that?
Mathew threw me down and went for him, but Rowan had already stomped down on Carter's wrist, snapping it and snatching up the gun he held. Carter yelled in agony as Rowan popped back up and whacked Mathew in the face with it, just before the big oaf tried to grab him. A combination of a snarl and bark got my attention as Cucuy came barreling out of no where and jumped Carter, latching onto his arm with a powerful jaw. Angelo came running over, but I could see he was limping, claw marks and blood were what he sported and I wondered how none of us had even heard him in any kind of agony. Before he could even join the fight, Rowan shot him in the knee, cutting his plans short.
Mathew came up and went for Rowan again, and I could only watch as he round-house kicked that behemoth back down before he could help Carter. Carter, at the moment, was trying to rip Cucuy away from his, now, bleeding arm. I think by then Rowan had already had enough and was getting irritated by Carter and the others that he ended up getting on them beating them in the head with the gun until they were out cold. He had literally uppercutted the back of Carter's head so hard I thought I heard a "crack." I was so overwhelmed by all of the blood that I didn't even notice Rowan come stumbling over.
He helped me up onto my knees as I blinked away the tears in my eyes. He dropped behind me, grunting in pain, and began to remove the duct tape from my wrists. I could only stare at Carter's limp body while Rowan pulled off the tape, and I glanced over to see Cucuy standing over them, seemingly keeping guard in case one of them recovered.
As soon as my hands were free, Rowan collapsed on me. I almost fell over, but managed to stay up-right, shivering as I felt his hands travel up my arms, bringing my hoodie back up to cover me. While it was inappropriate, I felt heat rush to my face as he did that for me, he didn't have to. His hands were shaking as he went to try and zip my hoodie up, after which I realized I had no shirt. This guy had chivalry and decency to want to cover me up and help preserve what dignity I had left.
"Call... police..." he muttered out, and I kind of panicked when he started to go limp.
I looked around frantically for the bag, only to stop when Cucuy had come up to me with it in his mouth. I took it quickly and yanked my phone out. I started to dial for the police when Rowan reached up once more and ripped the tape off my mouth, which caused me to yell in pain as I pressed the call button. I was going to yell at him for surprising me, but then his full weight hit me as he finally passed out for real. I had to reach back and hold onto him so that he didn't fall down.
It didn't take very long for the police to find us before Carter and the others could wake up. Rowan and I were taken to to the ambulance and and shipped off to the hospital with confirmation that I didn't need to testify. Carter and the other two were to be taken away to jail immediately because they were clearly the aggravators. While, normally, it wasn't exactly fair without trail — hybrids were jailed immmediately without so much as a second thought unless a human said so otherwise — I told them straight out I was being harassed and threatened by them, so I didn't think about the morality or anything because I didn't care as long as Carter was put away. Though, I did have to explain multiple times that Rowan wasn't with them and had protected me, and they almost didn't believe me — probably cause they were just itching to get hybrids out of the streets, the bastards — until I pointed out the fact I'd stayed close to and held onto him rather than the others. They finally left me alone when I told them to back off or I'd take them to court instead for blatant misuse of power because Rowan had literally risked his life to protect me. I made sure to give them a proper statement of course before we were helped out of the trail and to the ambulance.
Anyways, the ride to the hospital was quick since Rowan did lose a lot of blood. While he was taken to surgery room to get the bullet out and a quick blood transfusion, I was taken to a room to get my bruises and tape burns checked, they wanted to make sure I had no internal bleeding or damage to my organs since Carter was a big, beefy brute and those hits could have almost killed me. They decided not to use X-rays, but decided to keep tabs on me while I was there. I sent a text to my boss and Sebastian, while they gave me some creams to treat the burns and bruises, to let them know what had happened and where I was. Cucuy stayed by my side during my check, but even the softness of that big dog did nothing to ease me as I concerned about Rowan. I had never had a panic attack before and was so close to one when Carter had me, but now I was numb. I wasn't allowed to see Rowan until they finished taking out the bullet and giving him blood. The bullet had pierced him, but the doctors said it didn't go all the way through and it was lodged in a not-so-difficult spot to take out, and he'd be okay to see in about two hours.
As much as he wanted to, Sebastian had not been able to come since his boss wasn't giving him any leeway with his absences and would lose his job if he left again during it without a week's notice. He was just one absence away from being fired since he used one last time Rowan had been in the hospital, especially since he was a hybrid. Fun, but not-really-important, fact, he was the youngest cook at a fairly new and nice restaurant, and that was one reason he was able to hold the job besides his, clearly, superior cooking skills.
My boss, on the other hand, had come to see me while I waited for Rowan to be cleared and could see him. I did try to avoid him when I saw him coming in, but I ended up sitting next to him in silence, Cucuy had his head on my lap as I tried to pet him and gain back some feeling my nerves, because being in a numb panic was worse than being in an actual panic. He didn't speak right away and I started to get antsy with his silence. It reminded me of something my dad did when he was getting ready to scold me for doing something stupid.
"B—" I started, but his held out his hand to stop me, making me bite down on my lips.
"It's just Darick, William." I gulped when he said my whole name like that.
He must be upset if he won't let me call him boss.
"D-Darick, I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't—" I cut off when he looked at me and I had to force myself to hold eye contact.
"Look, I get it, okay?" he replied after a moment. "But I need you to start telling me the truth, especially what was up two weeks ago when you went under. It seems like I'm pushing it, but if you need us and we want to help, you need to let us in to do that. We care about you, Will. All we need is for you to talk... can you do that for me? Now?"
I stared at him for a bit before nodding slowly, I owed him that much I suppose. I only explained to him that an ex-boyfriend had started stalking me, attacking me once at the club and then, again, today. I knew he expected to hear more to understand why Carter was doing it and for how long it had been going on, but I told him it would easier to explain when the others were here to listen. I guess he was satisfied with what I'd told him so far, and he didn't press anymore after I told him Carter and the others were taken away by the police.
"William," he started after a moment of silence, "maybe, in light of these recent events, you should consider thinking about taking some time off of work."
"What? I have been off of work for two weeks already. I can't be of anymore."
"Look, you're young. I know a bit more about your deal now and you have your whole life ahead of you to find or, you know, do something... better with your li—" I cut him off with a weird sound.
"No, no! I can't find interest in other jobs and I don't like the idea of just quitting now. I like working at the club, honestly I do. I wasn't able to come these last two weeks or, you know, finish Friday because of Carter, but now he's behind bars and I can work better knowing he's not going to be able to harass me." I pleaded. "I'm fine now, really."
He stared at me for a long time, and I sat back and looked away from his probing stare. I loved the club. Admittedly I was ready to quit and move somewhere out of state, but now just being confronted with the idea by someone else, I felt sick. It was my space, to be with real friends and have fun. I loved the hard work. I was treated like an equal. I was treated right. How could I think about or be expected to throw it all away?
"Are you sure?" I blinked and looked back at Darick. He had a sad, sympathetic look on his face, and while it scorched me to the core, I nodded firmly.
"Yeah. Honestly, I love coming to the club, hanging out with the gang, and running around on stage. It's fun and it's something I can do without being told that I shouldn't or can't by some jerk."
That last part slipped out, but I guess he understood the underlying tone. Before he could say more, the doctor came out and finally said I could see Rowan. Darick got up with Cucuy and I, I guess he wanted to see my hero or something. We went to the room where Rowan was. Before we were out of the waiting room, I glanced back to see the doctor giving us a disapproving sort of look and I frowned, but it didn't stop me from walking into the room.
You can't imagine the joy and utter guilt that hit me when I saw him sitting up in the bed, arguing with the nurse to let him up and go. Cucuy jumped up passed her — scaring her in the process — and landed on top of Rowan, who grunted at the weight that hit him. He was effectively pinned and the nurse was able to stick the I.V. needle back into Rowan's arm before leaving quickly past Darick and I, mumbling angrily to herself.
"Hey, who's this?" Darick asked as I walked over to Rowan's bed, which made him look at me with annoyance.
"Oh, this is Rowan. The neighbor I'm always talking about. Rowan, this is Darick, my super cool dad-boss." I introduced, lightly scratching behind Cucuy's ear and earned a happy grunt-like sound from him.
"This guy? The one you fight with every day?" Darick snorted, and as I was going to respond Rowan made a weird noise.
"Excuse you. Fight me? This prick harasses me on a daily basis." he snapped, pulling the needle out of his arm and motioning for me to get his clothes on the table.
Instead of getting mad like I thought I would, I went and grabbed his clothes and handed it to him as he pushed Cucuy off and stood. I glanced at Darick, who clearly seemed to find this whole situation amusing.
"Shouldn't you stay in bed?" Darick asked as Rowan went to the bathroom to change. "You kinda did get shot today."
"To hell with that. I'm not getting some bloody, blood transfusion again and I'm not staying overnight." he snapped again from behind the bathroom door. "William, where is Sebastian? Did you call him?"
"Yeah, he's at work and can't leave." I replied back and looked at Darick when he laughed a bit.
"You two sound like an old married couple." he whispered into my ear and I felt heat rush to my face.
"Wh-what? No way!" he laughed again as I looked down and rubbed my face to get rid of the blush.
He continued to chuckle for a bit as Rowan came out, looking pissy as he rubbed at the large blood stain on his shirt. Darick made a face as Rowan came to stand close to me. I stood there for a moment — feeling my stomach clench with butterflies at having Rowan so close — unsure of what to do when Rowan nudged me, making me look at him, completely confused. It took me a moment to piece together what he wanted.
"Oh! Uh, hey, Darick? Do you mind giving us a ride home?" I asked, looking at Darick quickly, and making him jump a bit.
"Well— uh, considering the circumstances, I guess I don't mind. But I do expect you to come to work tomorrow for practice? And I want you to make an apology cake for making me and the others worry this whole time." he said, wagging his finger at me in a teasing manner.
I smiled and nodded.
I'm so glad he's so understanding...
"Can we hurry this up? I need to head to work soon." Rowan said, like an impatient child if I might add.
"Oh, hush, Carrot." I replied back, making Darick laugh again and Rowan sputter in offence.