Chapter 81 CHAPTER 085
I have to remember that Tyler still has that damaging video of us together. Nothing is holding him back from sharing it to the world now. Especially seeing the popularity Linc is suffering from after that french artist did his expose about my mom. In the storm of the past few days, I almost forgot about all that mess.
I look at his sleeping face, and I lose myself, watching him sleep. I want to hold his face and kiss him awake. I have been given a second chance and I want to love him as openly and loudly as I dared. But I know I can't do that.
I try to gently tug my hand away from his grip and he starts awake. Startling me. He looks at me with wide open eyes, he looks through me for a second, then he kind of wakes up, becomes fully alert, he looks around the room frantically, searching.
"I am here. I am fine. I didn't want to wake you up." I say, holding his chin, my thumb caresses the roughness of his stubble. I have never known Linc to be this vulnerable.
"Amelia." He says and wraps me up in a hug. He crushes me against his huge hard body and I don't mind. Most of my body pain has disappeared overnight. The bump at the back of my head is only a dull thud. I feel way better than I did yesterday. I realise that I probably wasn't in as bad shape as I believed I was. I was just dehydrated, hungry and exhausted.
"You should have slept on the bed. You looked so uncomfortable." I say into his shoulder, the sound muffled.
"I didn't want to let you go." He says. His deep baritone vibrates within me. I have missed this. I have missed him. So much, I think that hurts more than anything else.
Four days.
I can't believe we spent four whole days apart. It was agony for me, but mostly physical, I can't imagine how his own more mental agony must have felt like. I try to put myself in his shoes and imagine how I would react if someone kidnapped him, I can't put together a scenario because I know I would be truly destabilised. Useless.
"Oh Linc." I swallow the tears rising within me.
We hold onto eachother for what seems like forever. Revelling in the joy of being able to hold each other again. Then slowly, he pulls away. He sits back on his chair heavily, but he holds onto my hand. Fiercely protective. I find it sexy. I find him sexy, in spite of myself.
"I want to see Ashley. I feel strong enough to make the walk down. I feel fine." I need to see her. I feel so bad knowing she got mixed up in this situation with Tyler and got treated worse. I don't know what I would say when I see her, but it doesn't hold me back. We always have something to say to eachother.
"Alright. I will take you to her." Linc says.
He helps me down. It takes some manoeuvring to get the IV on a stand to go, adjust my hospital gown so I am properly covered, find a pair of slides for me to wear, but eventually, with Linc supporting me, we walk out of the room.
When Linc opens the door to the third room on our left, I peer in like I am scared of what I would see. It is a single room like mine too. And Ashley is lying down in the middle of her bed, bandages on her face.
My heart heaves and I let out a cry as I rush inside the room, "Ashley!"
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All the tears and pent up emotions I held back from expressing with Linc comes flooding out of me in waves as I hug Ashley and she cries too. We clutch eachother awkwardly on her bed, careful not to interrupt all we are hooked onto, and cry freely. I forget about Linc in the room with us. He remains quiet at the door, giving us as much privacy as he can without taking his eyes off me.
"Oh Ashley, I am so sorry. Are you okay? What did the doctors say?" I pull back, wiping my eyes but the tears keep streaming down my face.
She looks okay, but I can tell she took the beating really badly. Her lips are split, her brows, her cheeks, I think the bridge of her nose is broken too, she has stitches almost everywhere. I feel worse than terrible. The guilt holds me in a chokehold, I can't breath looking at her.
"I am fine. Well, I will be. The doctors say I will look like a Kardashian in about two weeks." Ashley says sheepishly, smiling as best as she can with all the bandages, the laugh pours out of me, I swat at her shoulder, she winces, I pull back and she pulls her tongue out at me.
"Oh, Ash. Please don't make jokes. I feel terrible." I wipe at my eyes, it still leaks. I feel like shit. I can't believe I was mad at her when I woke up in that dreadful warehouse. How could I not see that she was also a victim?
Tyler used her. The bastard. He didn't have any regard for her. He hated that she wanted to pull out at the last minute and he kept punishing her for it.
"C'mon, don't be. I am getting free plastic surgery out of this. You are not prepared for the mayhem I will cause once I am all set." She flashes me a mischievous grin.
Ashley does this when she is trying to deflect from a situation she is uncomfortable with. She makes jokes. She teases. She does everything to hide her discomfort and I am usually okay with it.
But not this time. I feel too guilty. Too responsible. She didn't have anything to do with all this and yet she is the one all bandaged up. It is not fair. He could have just taken only me and left her. But he didn't. The sadistic bastard.