Surviving the Pain (A Baby Saved Me Series Book 1) (21 page)

“What’s wrong?”

“Son,” Everett said as he stepped forward. “A man can only be as strong as his heart is whole. Your heart is shattered, as is all ours. Don’t think you don’t deserve this moment.”

Rufus stepped forward putting his hand on Sage’s shoulder. “We will get them. The question is do we want to give them over to the judicial system or handle this within the family?”

They all looked at each other for a moment. Before Sage could respond, Ember spoke. Her voice was calm, determined and angry. If they weren’t in Hell right now, he’d smile. They were, so he wouldn’t, but he damn sure felt so proud of his soon to be wife.

“We handle this within the family.” She said her eyes flicking to her father’s. “But we wait until Hudson is better. At the very least improving. He needs everyone right now.”

“You know, I will do this without any of your involvement,” Rufus murmured.

“You will not,” Ember stated emphatically. “This little boy is mine. My flesh and blood. Hudson is Sage’s flesh and blood. We deserve to make sure they know we won’t mess with our children, family, friends whatever being messed with. My question that I want an answer to right now is how they found out about Hudson.”

“Nadine,” Sage revealed.

“The psycho that wants you?” Ember questioned.

“Yes. Rufus has someone inside giving her information. Sadly…” Sage started but was interrupted by Rufus.

“This person is in my close circle that knows about the ongoings in my family. Only a select few know that stuff. The problem I’m having is pinpointing who it would be.”

Ember’s eyes changed right in front of him. He knew she was thinking. Sage hated that she was thinking this way, but at the same time, he expected no less from her. Hudson may be his son, but he’d only been with him for a short period. Not that the amount of time lessened his love for Hudson at all because it didn’t. Ember had over five years, including the pregnancy, with him. She did everything for him, protected him. Now, she sat here helpless to help him. It broke his heart. His eyes moved to her stomach. He knew at that moment, he’d never let anything happen to her or his kids again.

“I have an idea,” Ember broke the silence that surrounded them. “Whoever this bastard is needs to pay for what they’ve done to our son. My guess is they’ve got people here on staff monitoring everything too. We could be being watched right at this moment.”

Rufus smiled. “You are a brilliant girl. She’s good for you son.”

“She’s my everything. They all are.” Sage stated with a sad smile as he wrapped his arm around her.

“We need to play this right. If we want to know who it is, we are going to have to be crafty and deceiving. The real question isn’t how to do it, is if you can pull it off.”

Everett grinned big as did Rufus. “What do you have in mind?” They asked in unison.

They put their heads together, lowered their voices and within several minutes, a plan was formed and all from his sexy as sin woman and mother to his children. Life has a funny way of coming full circle. They were fighting against his parents before he’d left and they were now doing the same. This time was a lot different. This time, their family laid at risk. Nothing would happen to them as long as they could help it. Today, Ember proved how devoted she was not to only him, but their families. Sage would do whatever it took to make sure that Hudson stayed alive and that his family never suffered anything like this again.

One month later…

Sage
paced the room for the millionth time. Ember sat quietly in the chair next to the spot where their son’s bed once sat. Over the course of the last agonizing month, they put a firm plan together. Of course, this took everyone’s effort. Surprising him, Aspen offered to join Rufus’s boxing crew. He and Sage have been working together to get him ready for his first fight that happened in a month. Sage wasn’t leaving his son, so Rufus paid for a private room, a bigger room, where Sage and Aspen worked on technique and practiced fought. Ember has never seen him fight. He’d love for her to at some point. He’d like for Hudson too as well. Actually, his son had asked if he could be a trained fighter like him. Unbeknownst to Ember, he’d been secretly working with Hudson. Not anything down and dirty as it seemed to get in almost every match he’d fought, but the basic skills. For what he faced ahead for being so smart, he needed to know how to handle himself.

Guilt still sat very heavy on both Sage and Ember’s minds and hearts. They both blamed themselves for the actions that have landed their son in this damn hospital bed fighting for his damn life. Honestly, Sage wasn’t even sure that they’d ever stop feeling that way even if he bounced back one hundred percent from this. They would always remember the time they almost lost him. Nothing would ever take these moments away from them.

Ember was now about two months pregnant. She was damn glowing. They hadn’t told anyone else that she was pregnant again. Sage wasn’t sure, but he thought that his dad, Rufus, may know. After everything, Sage was trying to get used to calling Rufus his father. It wasn’t that he didn’t view him that way, but it wasn’t until he found out he was a dad that a father was a good thing. It had been the reason he never said anything before.

The girls have been up here almost every day trying to help support Ember. Sage was grateful for their dedication to his fiancée. Ember was staying a lot stronger than he’d thought she’d be. Right now, though, he believed her to be running off of adrenaline and revenge. One would be surprised at how powerful those things could be, especially when combined.

Grey has been up here a few times. Ember and Sage were both worried about him. When they had asked Zea what was going on between them, she said there’s nothing to talk about. Hell, Zea even went as far as to say that she’d made a mistake getting involved with him. It saddened him to the core that his one-time best friend seemed to fall for another girl, and she didn’t return his feelings either. Sage was no expert on love, but he sensed that Zea was hiding something. She was running from something. He didn’t know why he felt that way, it was just a gut feeling.

Holden has also taken up office with Sage’s dad. He’s part time, though. Holden was one hell of a fighter. However, Holden felt he could never leave Everett for all he has done for him, so Holden was one of the part-time fighters. The ones that only fought on weekends, or probies, as they are called in the circle. Holden not only kicked ass in the ring, but he also worked as a private investigator for Rufus.

In fact, Rufus and Everett have started a new project together called ‘Ever-Fus Security’. It was still in its infancy stages, but Sage believed it would be super prosperous. They’d agreed to terms and contracts were signed for both parties. Rufus understood why Everett wanted them, but still he assured both Sage and Ember that he’d never let any harm or ill will taint Ember’s father’s image. EFS would be ran strictly on the up and up. Rufus had other people that he’d use for his under the table kind of things if need be. However, they both agreed that EFS would be family run and operated for as long as it was operational. Meaning that Sage and Ember would inherit the company should anything happen to them. The thing that shocked the guys was that they, too, were mentioned as heirs as well. Both men viewed the guys as family. The only one that was still up in the air on being a part of it, but would always have the option, was Grey.

Grey was lost, and they all knew it. He was trying to come to terms with taking a chance and loving again only to have it ripped away like a toy. Ember never intended for him to feel like she toyed with him. She’s told Sage several times that she honestly did try to love him, but she just couldn’t. Her heart belonged to him even when he wasn’t there. No matter how many times he heard her say that, it always made him smile. To know that she loved him so completely that she couldn’t love another even when she thought he’d never come back, it made his heart skip a beat. Because he’d loved her more than anything all his life, he didn’t want to ever lose her again.

The guys and girls have been coming up at alternating times. They didn’t want to overwhelm them and also wanted to give them time alone with their son. Though Ember and Sage both have told them several times, none of them listened that they deserved to be a part of his recovering time too.

Today, everyone was here. Today, Hudson was having an MRI of his brain to find out if the swelling has gone down at all. The last scan he had, they were pleased with how his skull was healing but were still concerned about the amount of swelling that was still present. It had gone down some, just not as much as they’d like to have seen.

Hudson was five now. He’d completely missed his birthday and Ember had spent the whole day crying and softly singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to him several times that day. Both of them have been trying to stay optimistic and upbeat for the off chance that Hudson could hear them, they wanted him to hear them rooting for him, not ready for him to fall.

The door was suddenly opened, and Sage stopped his pacing. Hudson was wheeled in on the bed. Once they repositioned the bed, they hooked all the machines back up to him. They were all holding their breaths at this point. The nurses exited with nothing more than sad smiles, and Sage and Ember moved to their son’s side.

“Hey, baby, you’re back with your family. Everyone’s here. We all want to hold you and kiss you. Daddy even wants to take you to the fight that Uncle Holden will be in next weekend. You need to keep fighting, keep getting better, so we can do all this stuff with you. All the stuff you love to do.” Ember whispered as her tears started anew.

Sage’s heart broke. “I should have just stayed away,” he mumbled.

“What?”

Sage tore his eyes away from his fiancé to look at Holden. “This was done because of me. My son was hurt because I came back around and worked to win the heart of my woman back. If I’d stayed away…”

“You don’t know what would have happened. Hell, this could have happened, but worse. What if he died? Then you’d never had the chance to get to know him like you have. I don’t think this has anything to do with you, but the assholes that are playing with people’s lives like strings to a puppet. When are you going to stop playing into them, break the damn strings and use them to strangle those fuckers with?”

Before Sage could say anything else to Holden, the doctor walked in. He looked around the room. All of their hearts were waiting to beat on the results from this scan. Moving across the room to stand next to Ember, he wrapped his arms around her, trying to offer strength that was dwindling by the minute.

“How is everyone holding up?” Doctor Little looked around the room as he asked.

“What were the results?” Ember queried in a shaky voice.

“No beating around the bush.” He sighed. “The swelling has gone down and has almost returned to normal size again.”

The whole room broke out in cheers. The elation they all felt was evident on each of their faces. It wasn’t until Sage’s eyes met the doctor’s grim expression. Tipping his head, Sage signaled the doctor to step outside. At the doctor’s nod, both men walked to the door.

“What haven’t you said yet?” Sage questioned the minute the door to the room closed.

Before the doctor could say anything, Everett emerged from the room. He looked between the two men and knew something was wrong. Looking Sage square in the eyes, he told him that whatever was left unsaid he was going to know as well. Sighing in defeat, Sage had just agreed to let Everett stay out here when Rufus walked up.

“Why are we meeting in the hall?” The look of concern was not hidden from his facial expressions.

Huffing, Sage looked back at Dr. Little. “Tell me.”

“The swelling in his brain has gone down and is back to normal size, but there are many shaded or clouded areas in the scans.” He answered sadly.

“What does that mean?” Sage asked as his heart stopped in his chest.

“It means that he could possibly be brain dead. A damn vegetable. Not living, but not dead,” Rufus hissed.

Sage’s distraught eyes burned into the doctor, praying he’d deny it. “Is that right?”

“Yes. There are other tests that we can do to see if that’s the case. But we need to tell them for me to do it.”

“No, Ember will not know right now. She’s finally got the strength to keep fighting for him. I won’t take that from her. He’s not brain dead. Do you hear me?” Sage said angrily. “He’s going to be just damn fine. I won’t let it be anything else. What other kinds of tests are there?”

“Well, the first one we’d need to do is an EEG. It will be the one to tell us the most. It measures…”

“I know what an EEG is. What I want to know is when you’ll be doing this? Ember will ask, but we can tell her it’s to get a look to see what kind – if any – damage may have been done.” Looking at both our parents, Sage pleaded with them. “I know this is lying to her, but she needs to have this hope, this happiness… for right now. Please.”

Rufus and Everett both placed their hands on either of his shoulders. They agreed to keep it between them for now. In a way, it wasn’t a full lie. She’d know they were checking to see what damage he suffered, but not that there was an indication that he could possibly not even be there. Or that they’d already lost their boy.

“God I hope she doesn’t hate me for doing this,” Sage mumbled as they turned to head back inside after the doctor left to get the test ordered.

Rufus
walked into his office setting everything down. He had always wanted children, but sadly that wasn’t something he was able to have. That was until Sage crossed his path. He saw himself in that boy. Now, his son was suffering. Rufus feared this was his fault. When Sage had told him about his upbringing, about how his parents treated him. Well, Rufus was a man of action, not a man to let things go. He’d paid a visit to those sorry excuses for human beings.

Collin Jacobs tried to get in his face about staying out of their business and then proceeded to call Sage vile names that no parent should say about their own child. Yet, it seemed like second nature to him, only nailing in the truth in which Sage had said to him. Rufus also noticed quickly that Sage probably hadn’t told him everything. That infuriated him. Not at Sage, but at the fact that there was more hidden and probably held deeper.

When Rufus had left their house, he’d got a hold of a friend of his and brought those bastards down, cutting them off at the knees. His intentions were to make them suffer as Sage stilled did, even if he wouldn’t admit it. After looking into their history, Rufus found a friend that he knew he could confer with and have this all done and over with for Sage. His son would stand tall as his parents’ world crumbled as Sage’s had for five years when he finally found his only love.

Phillip Constantine had been a friend of Rufus’ since they were kids. However, Phil’s life had gone down a far different path than Rufus’ had. Though, looking at the Jacobs’ history, maybe their lives hadn’t been all too different in the end. Regardless, Rufus had been happy to find that link. He whispered in their ear about what kind of people the Jacobs’ were. The Constantine family didn’t help, condone, or associate with anyone that hurt children. Rufus knew the minute that he contacted them, that their gooses would be cooked, so to speak. At the time, he’d felt beyond thrilled when he’d gotten off the phone.
Now, however,
he thought as he plopped heavily down onto his desk chair.
I believe that it’s my fault that this ball has begun to run downhill.
Even though he’d had good intentions, his grandson, son, and soon to be daughter-in-law were all hurting. Not counting all the other hearts that were involved with these beautiful people.