114

114
ALEXANDER 

The first thing I felt when I regained consciousness was pain. 

Raw and unfiltered pain. It felt like my body was being dragged against barbed wires and it was slowly tearing at my skin. 

I let out a sharp gasp as my hands immediately reached for the source of the pain that was biting at me. 

“Raina…”

Her name came out from my mouth before I could stop it, my voice was cracked and filled with desperation. 

I tried to get up but strong hands gently pushed me back against the hospital bed. I was about to ask who it was when Dom’s face came into view, his face looking not only tired but also sad. 

“You need to take her easy, Alex,” he said in a low but tight voice. “Or else your wounds will tear open and start bleeding again.”

I blinked back, my eyes getting into focus and I took my time to look around the room. The smell of antiseptic and medication was in the air, unyielding and each beat of my heart sent a new wave of pain coursing through my body. 

But I didn’t care about it. 

I turned my head to the other side and saw Faith sitting on a chair across the room. A bandage was wrapped around her arms and her face was pale and bruised. 

Relief that she was alive and well washed over me for a second before panic set in full force. 

“Where’s Raina?” I asked, my voice was hoarse, broken and filled with panic. 

I didn’t get any response. The silence that fell over the room was louder than any scream I had ever heard. 

I turned to Dom but he avoided my eyes, dropping his eyes to the floor. 

I didn’t need him to answer. The memory quickly flooded into my head and I remembered how I had seen her being dragged and pushed into the black jeep. I remembered how she had been screaming my name, I remembered how helpless and dejected she looked and it swallowed me whole, hurting more than any physical pain could. 

Realization washed over me. It hasn’t been a bad dream, it had happened and I had lost the one person keeping me sane. 

I had failed her and not only had I failed to protect her, I had signed her away to him. 

I signed the divorce papers without even struggling or fighting against it. I was a coward because I did nothing as I watched Nathan steal her away from me. 

I weakly balled my hands into fists, gripping the thin sheets of the hospital bed, hating the fact that I was so weak and could barely even sit by myself. 

I hated that my heart had been so weak and I hadn’t found a way to fight against it. I had just let it happen. 

“This is all my fault,” I said bitterly, my throat feeling dry. “I have to find her.”

Dom moved closer and sat by the edge of my bed, his face hard and cold of any emotion but his eyes were filled with determination—one that almost matched the one that was coursing through me. 

“No, it’s not your fault, Alex. We were outnumbered,” he said through gritted teeth. “But we definitely won’t be the next time we meet.”

Next time. 

Tears welled up in my eyes, threatening to fall but I held it back as I placed my head on the pillow. I blinked once, twice to push back the tears because they were stinging my eyes. 

Oh my God, Raina. I couldn’t help but be worried about her. 

If Nathan had gone to such lengths to force us to sign the papers, what would he do if he found out about the baby? What if he hurts her before I could get to her?

Fuck! There was no telling the lengths that Nathan would go to have his way. 

Torture was not a good enough eyes to describe what I felt by just laying down here while rains was somewhere far from me, scared and all alone in the hands of that beast. 

The door slowly opened, drawing me out of my thoughts as I turned to look at who it was. 

The doctor walked in with a clipboard in his hand. When he got to my bedside, he started speaking calmly, almost detached as if he was oblivious to the fact that the—my world was crumbling down outside the walls of the hospital. 

“You’re one lucky man,” he finally said, his voice slicing through the thick air. “It’s not every day we meet a man that survives a shit so close to the heart. You’re one tough one but you need to rest.”

“All he needs to do is rest, right?” Dom asked, wanting to be sure I was fine but I didn’t care. 

“Yes, he’ll be fine,” the doctor agreed, nodding his head gently. “But he needs to make sure the wound doesn’t get reopened or worse… infected because…”

I tuned out, not interested in whatever he had to say. I didn’t have the luxury of hearing him ramble on and on about what I should or shouldn’t do.

Soon the doctor was done and he walked out of the room. 

Immediately the door closed, Dom stood up and folded his arms across his chest. 

“Carter is waiting for the go ahead to arrest Cale,” he said, his voice filled with urgency. “I will give him the order tonight.”

“No,” I said hoarsely.

Dom turned to look at me sharply, obviously not agreeing with my decision.

“Not yet,” I continued, pushing through the pain of speaking. “The families need to be saved without knowing. If he senses something, he could harm them and we can’t afford to be that reckless.”

I was scared shitless about my Raina and even though everything in me was screaming at me to tear the world apart until I found her, I had to think rationally. I had to like Nathan and beat him at his own twisted and fucked up game. 

“We need to beat Nathan at his own game,” I said out loud, voicing my thoughts. 

Dom nodded, underrating the severity of the situation. “I know a way to do it,” he said quietly. 

With every strength I could muster, I forced myself up and Faith tried to protest as I swung my legs off the bed. The room spun and I clenched my jaw against the pain as I gripped the edge of the bed until everything became steadier. 

Faith, not being able to treat it anymore, got up and moved to me as she placed a gentle, steady hand on my arm. 

“Alex, please no,” she begged. “Raina wouldn’t want you to stress yourself trying to save her. You just had a heart surgery.”

I turned to look her dead in the eyes, my voice still hoarse but filled with determination. 

“If you think I’ll stay in bed and nurse my wounds while my wife is out there…” I gritted out as I shook my head from how hard blood was pounding in my head. “Then you have another thing coming.”

I turned away from her and looked at Dom. “We move. Now.”

Faith shook her head, knowing it was a lost cause as she stepped back when Dom helped me get into a jacket. Every move I took pulled at the wound but I needed to remain strong. Stronger than the pain. The pain was good and it meant I was still alive. And I could use that to push myself forward. 

As we checked out of the hospital and made our way to the car, we started working out a plan. Dom was going to be staying in contact with Carter and coordinating how to rescue the families of the board members. 

I, on the other hand, was going to try to find Nathan, throw him off balance and maybe the chase could be used as a distraction so the hostages could be saved. 

It was not a full proof plan but it was all we had. 

I searched everywhere I could. Contacted every alley, lowlife is someone who could have seen something but I got nothing. 

Nathan was gone without a trace and finding Raina was even harder. 

Days bled into each other and sleep felt like a distant memory while food tasted like sand. 

All I could see whenever I closed my eyes was her face and all I could hear were her last words and screams. 

A week passed and my frustration grew. My mind was closing in on itself and tension grew thick in the air making it hard for me to concentrate. 

Nathan hadn’t even called once for anything at all. How was I supposed to find her this way?

I decided to numb the ache I was feeling physically and in my heart and what better way to do that than with alcohol?

I sat alone in the dark with a half empty bottle of vodka in my hand. It burned my throat but it was small compared to what I was feeling.  

I just wanted the pain to stop even if it was for a while. I had almost finished the content of the bottle and was about to down the last drop when my phone rang. 

With a groan, I picked it, thinking it was one of the people I had spoken to trying to get back to me but my heart jumped when I heard the voice on the other side of the phone.

“Raina?” I called trying to make sure it was her as relief washed over me. 

Her voice was soft—so soft that I almost thought that I had imagined it. 

“Alex,” she whispered and my heart clenched as I pressed the phone closer to my ear, pushing aside the bottle of vodka. 

“I’m here, baby. It’s me,” I replied, my voice shaky. 

“I don’t have much time and I’m calling because… I-I stole a guard’s phone,” she explained hurriedly, her voice still a whisper. “I would leave the call running in so you can track it. Please be fast.”

“I love you and I’ll be there soon, Raina,” I said quickly, my voice filled with desperation before the line went silent. 

I muted the call on my end and ran to the room, shouting for Dom as loud as I could. 

He came running and when he saw the urgency on my face, he didn’t need to be told. 

We quickly got to tracking the phone and soon we got a signal. 

The signal was shaky but it gave us something. The coordinates were two states away. 

Two fucking states. But I didn’t give a flying fuck. 

Dom grabbed the keys and we ran to the car, thankfully my wounds were quickly healing and weren't as bad as it was when I was in the hospital. 

Dom started the car and drove out. 

‘We are coming Raina,’ I whispered under my breath, more like a prayer to God and a silent promise to her even if she couldn’t hear me. 

“I’m coming, baby. I’m coming.”