Against the Tide (38 page)

“Finn, STOP!” I yell, rushing up behind them. “Stop it.” Damien isn’t even fighting back now, he’s barely conscious and has blood covering his face. Finn’s fists keep connecting with his jaw, his eye socket, his cheek. Hard, punishing blows loaded with indescribable hurt and pain. “Kyle, you have to stop him,” I beg. I don’t want to have this baby alone. I don’t want Finn to serve a life sentence for beating Damien to death. Sirens sound in the background as Kyle grabs Finn around his chest, and drags him off. Finn yells and fights to push forward out of Kyle’s grip but he has him in a bear hug from behind. “He’s not worth a life sentence, Finn. Please,” I beg, standing in front of him and placing my hands gently on his cheeks. He has blood pouring from a gash in his eyebrow, and a split lip. His chest heaves with heavy breaths, and his eyes which were black with hatred, start to soften when he looks in to mine. “He’s not worth it. It’s over. It’s done. Think of the baby,” I say softly and he drops his shoulders. I‘m too deep in Finn’s eyes to immediately register the scuffle behind me but I gasp loudly when Damien’s hand grabs my ankle, and pulls my leg out from under me. It sends me off balance and I find myself hurtling toward the ground. I reach for Finn, but it all happens so fast, and the last thing I see before my head hits the ground is Damien coming at me.

“Meg. Meg. Wake up, baby, please wake up.” I feel sick. A hollow emptiness looms in the pit of my stomach. Please let her be okay, please let our baby be okay. Everything around me is a rush of medics and police. I hear the scratch of walkie talkies and the blip of sirens as more help arrives. But none of it matters. All that matters is her. I’ll never forget the feeling of seeing her fall, the fear, the rage. I lunged for Damien faster than I’ve ever moved in my life. I wanted to kill him. I wanted to watch him take his last breath for hurting me in so many ways. He took my Lizzie, and if that wasn’t enough, he hurt Megan. I would have happily ripped out his heart with my hands. But beating him until he was unconscious was going to have to be enough. I recall every blow I dealt to his body and if I had nothing to lose, I would have torn his skin from his bones and laughed while I did it. But I do have something to lose, and I do have someone to live for. Megan is my priority now. She’s more important than revenge and I’m no use to her or our baby if I am doing time for murder.

“Finn,” she groans weakly and I let out a sigh of relief.

“Meg.” I kiss her lips and all over her face.

“Sir, we need see that the lady’s okay,” one of the medics says. “If you’ll just move aside.”

“No. I’m not moving. You can do what you need to do but I won’t leave her.” I know I’m being stubborn. But I don’t want to let go of her for one second. Not until I know she’s okay, that our baby’s okay. I’ve gone from wanting her, to believing I hated her, to not even being able to imagine my future without her in it. I move so I’m next to her head and the medic kneels on her other side.

“Can you hear me, miss?”

“Yes,” she whispers, scrunching her forehead in pain. “Can you open your eyes for me?” She does, slowly, and he checks her pupils before taking her pulse. “What’s her name?”

“Meg. Megan. She’s pregnant. Can you make sure the baby’s okay?” I ask, feeling sick to my stomach. If something has happened to this baby, I really will take Damien Brooks’ last breath.

“Your vitals are good, but you’ve had quite a bump to your head and we need to check you a little more thoroughly.” Meg nods her approval. “Let’s get you on a stretcher and to the hospital to get you properly checked out,” the medic informs her, waving over a colleague.

“Finn, she okay?” Kyle jogs over after having the all clear from one of the paramedics.

“She’s going to be fine. Just going to take her in to double check. You okay?” I ask, reluctantly stepping back to let them get Meg on the stretcher.

“Yeah, just a scratch.” He brushes his fingers over the graze on his head then claps a hand on my shoulder. “Got ugly back there, huh?”

“Yeah. What have they done with him?”

“They’ve arrested him, but they have to take him to the hospital and clean him up before they can take him to the cells. He’s got a broken nose, broken cheek bone-”

“Good,” I cut in bitterly.

“Thought you were going to kill him.”

I take a deep breath, trying to catch up with everything that’s happened. “So did I.”

“Would have done the world a favour, but it wouldn’t have helped you.” I nod, knowing he’s exactly right. “Oh, I guess congratulations are in order?” he asks, holding out his hand for me to shake. I take it, and can’t help but smile when I think of the little future that’s growing inside Megan.

“Cheers, man.” They move to wheel Megan in to the back of the waiting ambulance. “Wait, I’m coming with her,” I tell them.

“Uh, Finn? You might want to get dressed first?” Kyle suggests, looking me up and down. “I’ll wait with Meg if you want? You don’t even have shoes on, go and get that body covered up.” He winces and pulls a funny face in jest. I hesitate for a minute, not wanting to leave Meg. “Go on. They’ll wait for you, won’t you?” he asks the paramedics and they nod. 

“I’ll be fast,” I tell him, jogging back to the house.

“Oh, Finn?” he calls out behind me stopping me in my tracks.

“Yeah.”

“Nice piercing, buddy.” He gives me a cheeky wink and I look down at my chest and laugh.

“Cheers.”

“Are you sure you’re okay? I can get you a wheelchair,” I ask Megan as we leave the A&E, making our way to see Harley. Even with the all clear from the docs, I think she should be resting. It’s been a long, exhausting day.

“Finn, stop fussing. I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine. You had a concrete smack to the head, Meg.”

She stops walking and turns to me, placing her hands on either side of my waist. “I’m fine. It was just a knock on the head, a mild concussion. The nurses wouldn’t have let me go if I wasn’t okay.” She reaches up on her tiptoes and kisses my cheek.

“Still, I think we should go home after seeing Harley.”

“Your home or my home?” she asks, and it triggers a thought.

“My home. I think you should move in with me.” I don’t even think about the words until they are out of my mouth, and I surprise myself at how easy it is to think about living with Meg.

She drops back down on the flat of her feet and tries to pull out of my arms. “Urm, no,” she answers flatly, twisting out of my grip and walking off ahead.

“Come on, Meg, you know it makes sense.” It makes complete sense to me. I want to make a home with her. I want her home to be my home. But she stops and glares back at me.

“Makes sense, Finn? Nothing makes sense. We don’t even know each other properly.”

“We’re having a baby,” I counter.

“And we’ve only had a day to get used to that idea. God, so much has happened today it’s no wonder I have a concussion. In fact, I’m surprised I don’t have a severe concussion and whiplash from what’s happened in our lives today. So please, let’s not talk about this now.” Her shoulders drop.

She looks tired and I don’t want to be the cause for making her more stressed than she probably already is, so I change the subject. “You’re beautiful when you’re yelling at me.”

“I’m not yelling.”

“Okay.” I slowly close the distance between us.

“I don’t want to argue.” She frowns and huffs out a breath.

“I’m not arguing with you, Meg. I just want you to know that I want you. I’ve always wanted you.”

“And I always want you too, baby.” She winks, distracting me away from the conversation and taking my mind to a different place. She grins up at me as my chest presses against hers, and I gently walk us backwards until I have her trapped between me and the wall of the corridor. I brush her hair from her face gently with my index finger and carefully cup her jaw.

“I was frightened today, Meg,” I tell her quietly. Her lips part and she lets out a heavy breath.  “To see you hurt, it was … really fucking scary.”

“I know. I was scared too,” she admits.

“I won’t ever let anyone hurt you again. I promise.”

“Finn.” She looks down and shakes her head.

“I know, I know. Some things are out of my control. But I will do everything in my power to keep that beautiful smile on your face, and to protect you and our baby.” I tilt her chin up with the length of my forefinger and kiss her lips with my promise. “Come on, let’s go and see Harley.”

“Hey, man. You’re up,” I comment as I open the door to Harley’s room. He looks like shit. Poor fella.

“Yeah, well, I’m breathing anyway,” he mumbles, struggling to pronounce his words properly due to his fat lip. One of his eyes is completely swollen shut and he has stitches in his eyebrow, but the other one doesn’t look too bad.

“Hey, Lori,” I greet Harley’s sister who is sitting in a chair to his left. “How are you doing? You good?” She looks so tired and the worry for her brother collects in big black bags under her eyes.

“Hey, yeah, I’m okay.” She gives a weak smile which doesn’t hide her troubles.

“Lori, this is Megan. Meg, Lori. She’s Harley’s twin sister.”

“Hey,” Megan offers.

“Hey.”

“I think you’ve probably gathered this is Harley, without needing an introduction?” I ask Meg.

“Yeah, I gathered. Is it a stupid question to ask you how you’re feeling?” she asks Harley, and he laughs.

“Can’t feel a fucking thing with all the drugs they’ve pumped in to me.”

“That’s good. Keep it that way for a few days,” I say. “Don’t suppose you remember what happened, do you?”

“Yeah, I do. Well, until I blacked out anyway.”

“Who was it?” I ask nervously and he coughs out a laugh.

“Who do you think?”

“Fuck, I’m sorry, Harl. If I had known−”

“Forget it, it’s over and done with now. The whole situation has caused a stir down at the station. They only took him in for a couple of hours. Never should have been let out. One of the boys came to take a statement from me earlier and told me that the fucker had been feeding the chief superintendent’s secret cocaine habit in return for losing evidence. He also conveniently lost files and wiped complaints against Brooks. That’s why the case on Lizzie got dropped so fast. That’s why he … I was getting too close to exposing him after doing some digging on the quiet.”

“Did you know that he’s banged up now?”

“Yeah, I know. How do you …” He narrows his one good eye at me, “Why are you sporting a split lip and cut eyebrow?”

“Kinda kicked off earlier. While you were lying here with your feet up, Kyle and I were beating Damien Brooks’ sorry arse.”

“I heard my name.” Kyle pokes his head in the door and laughs. “What’s this? Mothers’ meeting?”

I glance at Meg and roll my eyes playfully, stepping forward to allow room for Kyle to come in.

“How are you feeling, beautiful?” Kyle asks Megan, kissing her cheek softly. I feel a faint pang of jealousy but Kyle looks at her so tenderly, with the protectiveness of a brother, so I don’t even try and stop him. I like that she has lots of people to be protective of her.

“I’m feeling fine, thanks, darling,” Harley answers, making everyone laugh.

“Ha, fucking ha,” Kyle retorts. “How’s the little person?” he asks, looking between us.