Gage’s body begins to shake, like a severe tremor is taking hold. “Are you okay?” I ask, terrified.
“Yes, I’m so worked up and angry. I feel like I might explode. I saw red, sweetheart. I saw fuckin’ red.” He clears his throat still shaking. “I’m sorry about the language. I’m not mad at you. I’m wound up. I’ve waited so long to have you and my best friend starts spouting off how hot you are. Which of course you are, we all know that. Then he starts running his mouth about your tits and pleasuring you. I told him to stop but he didn’t fuckin’ listen. Then I sort of lost it. I didn’t mean to put you in the middle. I couldn’t help myself. He has to know that all of you are mine. He can’t touch it. EVER! No one can. I don’t want to scare you or think I’m crazy. I’m not. Truly, I’m not. I just can’t picture my life without you and after having you in my life, I would kill to keep you here. As long as you want to be of course.”
This is probably the sweetest, most romantic, and the most screwed up thing anybody has ever admitted to me.
“I want to be yours.” I mutter.
“Say it again, Angel.” He’s not demanding, he’s tenderly pleading. His hard features melting into masculine, sexually charged softness.
“I want to be yours.”
He growls triumphantly. Removes his finger from inside me and sweeps me up into his arms. Throwing the door open he carries me like a trophy out of the bathroom and straight into his bedroom, where he shuts the door, carefully lays me on the bed and tears off all of his clothes.
“Take off your gown or I will rip it off.”
I giggle. “Isn’t that what you always do?”
Bang, Bang, Bang, a fist hits our bedroom door.
“Gage, we have a problem. I don’t want to bother you, but Tasha called my phone because she couldn’t get a hold of you.”
“Is she on there now?”
“Yes.”
Gage doesn’t even flinch when he opens the door, full naked with a hard-on and Tank hands him his cell.
“What’s up sis?” He answers his back to me giving me a great view of his amazingly sculpted posterior.
“What!” He yells scaring the crap out of me breaking my perverted stare.
“Alright I’m leaving in ten… Yeah, your house, call Lincoln… Yeah I’ll have her talk to him too… No, don’t let him go over there… Love you too.” He hangs up and angrily presses the phone into Tank’s chest.
“We gotta hit it. My ex-wife did something to Emma. Tasha refuses to tell me over the phone. I need to get home. Now!” he frantically orders and Tank leaves without a word. Then Gage looks at me. I’m already out of bed, and searching through his drawers for something to wear.
“Your clothes are hanging in the closet. Either you ride with one of the men and they’ll take you home or you come straight with me to my sister’s. I don’t have time to take you home myself.” He’s staunch and straightforward. He’s even crazier if he thinks I’m not going with him. I’ll go nuts if I don’t find out firsthand what’s happened.
Ten minutes fly by warp speed, as the group throws their tents together from outside where they slept, and store them in the cabin. Gage hasn’t touched me or muttered a single word. He’s haunted, his face desolate, and I’m worried about him.
I follow him outside, he helps me onto his bike, and within seconds, we are up the gravel path that is lined with thick trees and on the road again. Leaving the little cabin in the woods behind, along with it, I fear his sanity.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Lex
This isn’t good, this isn’t good at all! I can’t stop sporadically crying. In attempt to keep my own demons from surfacing, I try to keep a level head and harbor my wild emotions. How could a woman be such a monster? Poor Emma! Poor Gage!
“Lex, I think you should go home.” Lincoln pulls me into a side hug, pressing a kiss to the top of my head.
“I’m not leaving them. Not ever.” I cuddle into his side. Both of our backs are resting, exhausted, against the hospital wall. Watching as Gage grunts and stomps back and forth outside of Emma’s hospital room. She’s sleeping and Tasha is inside with her. I didn’t want to impose so Lincoln and I have been running interference between Gage’s fury and the doctors, who are just trying to help. Lincoln has already had Melissa placed in custody and he’s supposed to be off work for the night. But it’s Lincoln, and he won’t leave me, not even if I begged him to.
It’s now four a.m. and I’m supposed to be at work in a few hours. I’m not going in today. After we got to Tasha’s, Gage went ballistic. Melissa not only verbally abused Emma all weekend, she bruised her upper arms with finger impressions, spanked her hard enough that she has a hand imprint and she smacked her across the mouth, cracking her bottom lip open. Emma is a mess and Gage is ten times worse. Blaming himself as he paces back and forth here in the hospital, waiting for the gambit of test results to come in. Even though the doctors swore it was only superficial bruising. Gage wasn’t listening to them and ordered every test to be run on Emma. X-rays, blood panels, a cat scan of her brain, even a pediatrician to make sure her female parts were left perfectly intact.