Chapter Thirty Three
Lincoln
Serenity is the first face that I find as soon as we step into the house.
“Where is she?” I ask, looking around, taking in all the different faces of the people surrounding us.
“I haven’t found her yet,” she says sheepishly. “I was just heading upstairs to see if she’s up there.”
“Then let’s go!” I growl, shoving through bodies as I make my way toward the staircase to the left of the entryway.
We stop at the first door and knock, waiting to see if there is any answer before opening the door and looking inside. When no sound comes from inside, I turn the handle and push the door open, immediately reaching for a light switch.
Once I’ve found the switch, I flip it and the room lights up, showing a curled-up Raleigh on the bed in the center of the room.
Closing the distance between me and the bed, I lift one knee onto the edge, not wanting to scare her. Unfortunately, that doesn't work because as soon as I do, she begins scrambling away from me, crying and screaming “Don’t touch me!”
“Baby,” I say as I inch closer to her, wanting her to know that it’s me and that she’s okay but she just shoves herself further away from me as she perches against the headboard, fear written all over her face.
“Get away from me!” she cries, and my chest cracks open at seeing how terrified and broken my girl is, that she’s terrified of *me*.
“Baby, it’s me, Lincoln. I’m not going to hurt you,” I say gently as I reach out to her, wanting nothing more than to pull her into my arms and assure her that I’ve got her and I will do everything in my power to keep her safe.
“Shit!” I say when she begins gasping for air, likely having a panic attack. I reach for her, grasping for her wrists when she begins fighting me, trying to pull her into my body but she begins screaming and fighting me harder, bucking her hips, kicking out, and swinging at anything within her reach.
She lands a blow to my jaw, the area smarting but I ignore it, my heart tearing in half as I release her, crawling back off of the bed and taking first one step and then another away from her.
“Ray,” Serenity says, calling out to her when it appears as though she’s calming down. “Ray, it’s me,” she says gently. “Can I come near you?”
I watch as Raleigh nods yes, wishing more than anything that it was me instead of Serenity that was comforting my girl right now.
As soon as Serenity climbs onto the bed, Raleigh flinches, terror, taking over her features once more. I take a step forward, but a hand on my bicep stops me. I turn to Bos, who is shaking his head in a silent command to let Serenity handle it.
“It’s okay, Ray. It’s just me,” she says, stopping from moving any closer. “Lincoln and Boston are here in the room with me too,” she tells her, her voice soft.
At the mention of Bos and I, Raleigh begins furiously moving her head back and forth, and the action guts me. Bos puts his hand on my shoulder, giving it a squeeze in silent support.
“Do you want them to leave?” Serenity asks, turning away from Raleigh to look at me, her eyes pleading for me to understand.
And I want to. I know that she’s hurting and she wants comfort in someone familiar, but I want more than anything for that to be in me. I watch as Raleigh nods in response to Serenity’s question.
“No,” I say, taking a step forward, needing to be closer to Raleigh. “I’m not leaving her.”
“Please Lincoln,” Serenity says, “I won’t let anything happen to her, I promise, but right now, she needs you both to go.”
“You already let something happen to her,” I growl, not finishing the thought but had Serenity been paying closer attention, perhaps we wouldn’t be in this position right now.
Raleigh whimpers from her perch on the bed and I take another step towards her, desperate to give her comfort.
“Please,” Serenity pleads, desperation written all over her face.
“I can’t—” I say, my voice breaking.
“Please,” Raleigh says. And it’s the desperation in her voice that causes me to relent because as much as I want to be the one who she turns to, the one to give her comfort, I’ll do anything to make her happy.
Releasing a heavy sigh, I relent, saying, “Okay but Baby, I’ll be right on the other side of the door if you need me.” I watch as she nods as she brings her knees up to her chest, and wraps her arms around them, burying her face in them.
“Thank you,” Serenity mouths to me just before she turns back around and climbs back onto the bed.
As soon as the door closes behind us, I lean my head against it, pinching my eyes shut and taking deep breaths as I try to calm down.
“You mother fucker!” I hear Bos growl seconds before I feel him move. Opening my eyes, I find him standing over a body, fists flying as he lets loose on the guy.
“Bos!” I shout, quickly moving over to where he’s got the guy pinned on the ground. Only, when I see who it is, I decide that although I’m still going to call him off, it’s not because I don’t want the guy to get hurt, but because I’m going to beat his ass myself.
Wrapping my arm around Bos’s upper body, I pull him up and ignore his shouting as I move in front of him. “This is my fight!” I snarl as Brady stands up and takes a swing at me, only to fall into the wall beside us as he misses and loses his balance.
“Get up, you sorry sack of shit!” I say, standing over him. “You think you’re really something taking advantage of my girl while she’s drunk?” I ask, shoving him against the wall once he’s gotten to his feet and pinning him there while I land a blow to his stomach. “Did it make you feel good to take something that wasn’t yours to take?”
From his folded-over position, he mutters something under his breath, but I don’t catch it.
“What was that?” I ask, kneeling down and getting in his face. “I didn’t quite hear you.”
“I. Said. The. Bitch. Is. Mine.” He growls from between clenched teeth as he glares at me through swelling eyes.
Grabbing ahold of his shoulders, I bring my knee up while also pushing his upper body down, as I shout, “She. Will. Never. Be. Yours.” Making contact between my knee and his face as each word leaves my mouth.
Once I’m done with him, he falls to the floor landing in a pile, just like the piece of shit that he is, as I look over at Bos and then glance at the door to the room that Raleigh’s in with Serenity, wanting desperately to go back in there but knowing I can’t, especially since I’m now covered in blood.
“Come on,” Bos says as if reading my mind. “She doesn’t need to see you like this. Serenity’s got her,” he says as he passes by me, stepping over an unconscious Brady as he makes his way back down the hall towards the staircase.
As soon as we get to the bottom of the staircase, we head towards the front door. As Bos opens the door, he turns to one of Brady’s buddies who's standing right next to it, and says, “You may want to go check on your buddy in the hallway. I think he may have hit something and fallen down.”
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