Burn (37 page)

chapter thirty-one

Ash sat in on the staff meeting with Gabe and their executives, but his mind was anywhere but here in this room. He had a hangover from hell after getting roaring drunk the night before. Gabe and Jace had poured him into a car and then brought him home and tossed him on his bed. He’d woken up the next morning feeling like he’d been run over by a truck, but the pain of the headache was nothing compared to the pain of losing Josie.

No, he hadn’t lost her. Not yet. He wouldn’t let himself go there. She was upset—rightfully so—and he’d given her last night. Time to spend apart from him and hopefully decide when she got over her initial anger that this was something they could work through.

At any rate, he’d given her all the time he was going to. As soon as this fucking meeting ended, he was out of here. He was going to Josie’s apartment and would get on his knees if he had to. Whatever it took to get her back home. To their apartment. In his arms and in his bed. And then he was never going to let her go again.

His phone vibrated and he glanced down, his heart clenching when he saw it was Josie calling. Without saying a word, he abruptly got up and walked out of the meeting, the phone already to his ear.

“Josie? Baby?” he cut in before she could even say anything.

There was a long silence and at first he thought she’d hung up. But then he heard it and the sound froze his blood. A low whimper. Of
pain
. His heart dropped into his stomach.

“Josie, talk to me,” he demanded. “What’s wrong? Where are you?”

“Ash . . .”

His name came out barely a whisper and it was obvious that she was in a lot of pain.

“I’m here, baby. Tell me what’s happened. Where are you?”

“Need you,” she whispered. “Hurt. It’s bad.”

Panic froze him in place. He couldn’t think, couldn’t act, couldn’t process anything but the agony in her voice.

“Where are you?” he demanded.

“Apartment.”

“I’m on my way, baby. Hold tight, okay? I’ll be there in just a minute.”

He turned in the hallway, having gotten no farther than the door where the meeting was being held and ran solidly into Gabe.

“What’s wrong?” Gabe demanded. “I heard you on the phone with Josie. What’s happened?”

“I don’t know,” Ash choked out. “She’s hurt. I have to go. She’s at her apartment.”

“Come on. I’ll go with you,” Gabe said grimly, even as he started striding down the hall toward the elevators.

Not arguing, Ash ran after him, his heart beating like a hammer.

“Did she say what happened?” Gabe asked when they’d gotten into the car.

“No,” Ash clipped out.
“Fuck!”

“It’s okay, man. We’ll get to her. She’ll be okay. You have to believe that.”

“You said Mia and Bethany had lunch with her. Have you heard from Mia? What could possibly have happened? They can’t have finished that long ago.”

Gabe paled and then immediately dialed Mia’s number.

“Are you okay?” Gabe asked bluntly.

Then his shoulders sagged in relief. Mia must be fine. But Josie wasn’t. What the fuck could have happened?

“When did you and Bethany leave Josie?” Gabe asked.

He listened a moment and then said good-bye without telling Mia anything about Josie.

“Well?” Ash demanded, silently urging the driver to go faster. They were already driving recklessly.

“She said Josie walked back to her apartment after they had lunch. That was an hour ago.”

Ash closed his eyes. He should have kept a man on her. What if Michael had gotten to her? He’d refused to put anyone on her, not wanting to upset her even more than she already was. He’d promised her space and now that space had cost her.

A few minutes later the car squealed to a stop in front of Josie’s brownstone and Ash jumped out, Gabe close on his heels. The first thing he registered when he burst through her door was the smell of blood. His own went cold, freezing in his veins. He tore into the living room, his heart seizing as he took in the sight before him.

“Sweet mother of God,” he choked out.

Josie lay in a bloody heap in front of the coffee table. Blood was smeared on the floor where she’d evidently dragged herself to the phone.

“Call an ambulance,” Ash barked to Gabe.

God, he should have already called one but he hadn’t been
thinking
. His only thought had been to get to her as fast as he could. And maybe he’d denied that it would be this bad.

He ran over, dropping to his knees beside her, afraid to touch her because oh God, the blood. Her face was a mess, eyes swollen, lips split and bleeding.

“Josie. Josie, darling, I’m here. It’s me, Ash. Talk to me, baby. Please. Open your eyes and talk to me.”

He was pleading with her even as he put a shaky finger to her neck to feel for a pulse.

She stirred, emitting a soft moan that seared his heart and cut straight to his soul.

“A-ash?”

Her words were slurred, distorted by her swollen lips. He smoothed a hand over her forehead because it was the only place she wasn’t bruised or bleeding.

“Yes, baby, it’s me. I’m here. Tell me what happened, Josie. Who did this to you?”

“H-hurts to b-breathe,” she said and then she stopped, coughing and choking as a stream of blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.

Oh God. Oh God. She was hurt badly. Someone had beat the ever-loving hell out of her. Rage exploded through his chest until he couldn’t breathe either. His vision went dim, his pulse about to beat out of his head. He was coming apart. Unraveling at the seams. His hands shook so badly that he had to pull them away from her skin so he didn’t risk hurting her.

She tried to lift her left hand and he saw she was holding something. He gently pulled it away, frowning when he saw it was a picture. Bile rose in his throat as he stared in disbelief. It was a picture of Mia. Dear God. She was naked, tied up and spread out on what looked like a coffee table. The man in the picture was Charles Willis and he was trying to shove his dick inside her mouth.

He quickly stuffed the picture into his pocket before Gabe could see it. Gabe would lose his fucking mind, and right now the only thing Ash was worried about was Josie and getting her to a hospital. They’d deal with the picture later.

“Is she okay?” Gabe asked as he dropped down beside Ash. “Jesus. She’s obviously not okay. Ambulance is on the way. ETA is five minutes. What the fuck happened?”

“I don’t know,” Ash said, his voice still shaking with fury.

He leaned down and pressed a kiss to Josie’s forehead, too afraid to do what he most wanted and gather her in his arms. She obviously had internal injuries and he didn’t want to cause her further injury.

“Who did this to you, baby? Can you tell me?” he asked her gently.

Tears gathered in her eyes and slid silently down her cheeks. Each one broke his heart. He wanted to cry with her, but he refused to break down. She needed him to be strong. He would be strong. No way he was going to let her down again.

“He had a message,” Josie whispered. “For you. And Gabe and Jace.”

Gabe and Ash exchanged quick
what the fuck
looks.

“What was the message, Josie? Don’t try to talk if it hurts you, though. We have plenty of time to talk later when you’re not in pain.”

She licked her lips, her tongue bright red with blood. Ash was shaking from head to toe now as his reaction set in. This was bad. If she was coughing up blood it meant she was fucked up on the inside. People died from internal injuries!

“Said nothing . . .” She broke off and choked, more blood seeping from her lips. Ash was panicking now. Where was the goddamn ambulance?

She took a long moment and for a second Ash thought she’d slipped into unconsciousness.

“Josie. Josie! Stay with me, baby. Fight it. Stay awake. Can you do that for me? Open your eyes, baby. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere. The ambulance is on its way. They’ll be here soon and they’ll take care of you. I’ll take care of you,” he choked out, tears knotting his throat.

Her eyelids fluttered and she trained her unfocused eyes on him, pain glittering brightly in their depths.

“Said nothing you hold dear . . . is safe. S-s-said you r-ruined him . . . and now he’s going to ruin y-you.”

Gabe went white even as he grabbed his phone. He stepped back and away from Josie and Ash, but Ash could hear him talking to Jace, telling him to make sure Mia and Bethany were safe. Then he told Jace to meet him and Ash at the hospital.

The sound of a siren sent relief coursing through Ash’s veins. He jumped to his feet but Gabe stopped him.

“I’ll get them in. You stay with Josie,” Gabe bit out.

Ash dropped back down, bending over Josie so she’d know he was here.

“The ambulance is here, baby,” he soothed. “They’ll get you to the hospital and I’ll be with you every step of the way. You’ll be okay, darling. I won’t let you be anything else. Stay with me. I love you. I love you so much.”

She tried to lift her right hand and then whimpered in pain. “H-hand h-hurts. What’s wrong with it?”

He stared in horror at the obviously broken fingers. Son of a bitch! They’d broken her fingers! He was precariously close to losing his composure. He wanted to get his hands on the sons of bitches who did this to her. He’d kill the bastards with his own hands.

Forcing himself to focus on her and pushing everything else from his mind, he captured her wrist, holding it gently so she wouldn’t let it fall back to the floor and hurt herself even more. Then he kissed the swollen fingers ever so gently as tears gathered in his eyes.

“Just some broken fingers,” he said shakily. “Nothing the doctor won’t fix right up.”

“My painting hand,” she said as more tears squeezed from her swollen eyes.

“Shhh, it’s okay, baby. You’ll be back to painting before you know it.”

Even as he spoke, his gaze caught on the two paintings propped against the wall. Dark. Full of turmoil. He’d done that to her. He’d taken her vibrancy away. The essence of her work. These weren’t the Josie he knew and loved. This was Josie hurting and expressing her emotions in the only way she knew how.

The EMTs burst through the door and into the living room, immediately assessing Josie’s condition. Ash moved back so he didn’t interfere, but he stayed close, hovering anxiously as they went through the assessment.

“Decreased breath sounds on the left side,” the paramedic said grimly as he pulled his stethoscope away. “Get the O2,” he barked at his partner.

“How bad is it?” Ash demanded.

The paramedic shook his head. “No way to know without x-rays. I’m guessing she has several broken ribs. Probably punctured a lung.”

“Be careful with her hand,” Ash said. “It’s broken.”

“She’s a mess,” the medic said bluntly. “We need to load and go. I’ll get a c-collar on her and bag her on the way.”

Ash went pale. The words sounded so grim and utterly serious.

“Will she live?” Ash whispered, voicing his darkest fear.

“Not my call, but she sure as hell isn’t going to die on my watch.”

A stretcher was brought in and the medics worked quickly, securing the c-collar and then giving her oxygen. She was just as quickly wheeled out and loaded into the ambulance. Ash barely had time to jump into the back before they roared away in a rush of sirens and lights.

He slid his hand into his pocket, feeling for the photo Josie had had in her hand. Gabe had a hell of a lot to answer for, and then Ash was going after the son of a bitch who’d put his hands on Josie.

chapter thirty-two

“What the fuck is going on?” Jace demanded as he strode into the ER waiting room.

Ash turned and then motioned Gabe and Jace into one of the smaller private rooms where doctors met with families.

“We have a serious problem,” Ash said grimly.

“What the hell happened to Josie?” Jace asked. “Gabe called worried about Mia and Bethany, told me to lock them both down and make sure they were safe. I called Kaden Ginsberg and now I have two very pissed-off women because I made Kaden sit on them both and they’re scared and want to know what the fuck is going on, which I couldn’t tell them because I don’t know myself!”

Ash held up his hand and then reached into his pocket with the other. He pulled out the photo that was in Josie’s hand and held it out to Gabe.

Gabe’s face was a mixture of shock and rage. And then, oddly,
guilt
. He went gray and then staggered back to sit in one of the chairs. He buried his face in his hands, the photo crumpled in his fist.

Jace snatched the photo from Gabe and then he went pale as he stared at his sister naked, tied up, another man trying to force himself on her.

“What the
fuck
is this?”

Jace’s explosive demand echoed through the room.

“Josie was holding that when I got to her,” Ash said quietly. “And then she told me the man who beat the crap out of her had a message for me, you and Gabe.”

“What?”
Jace said in disbelief.

“He told her that nothing we held dear was safe from him. That we ruined him and now he was going to ruin us. I’d say Josie was probably the first target because she was the easiest. She was alone and vulnerable. It would be a lot harder to get to Mia or Bethany.”

“I want to know what the fuck that picture is about,” Jace said in a furious tone. “That was Charles Willis in that photo. Is he the one who hurt Josie and is threatening us now?”

“Yes,” Gabe said bleakly.

“What do you know that you haven’t told us,” Ash asked in a dangerously low tone. It was obvious by the look on Gabe’s face that there was a
lot
that Ash and Jace evidently didn’t know.

Gabe rubbed a hand wearily over his face, his eyes sick.

“What I have to say is going to piss you both off. I thought it was behind me and Mia. I was wrong, apparently.”

“Yeah, I’d say so,” Jace bit out. “What the fuck did you do, Gabe?”

“When Mia and I were together, before, when we were keeping it a secret from you, right before we went to Paris on business, my ex-wife came into my office saying all sorts of crazy shit. Then she accused me of being in love with Mia. Accused me of being in love with her when I was still married to Lisa. It hit me all wrong. I wasn’t ready to admit my feelings for Mia. And in an effort to distance us, to prove to myself that she was just sex, I set up a thing in Paris.”