Reunited

by Jodi Kae

  As the doctor leaves, Jax looks at Tori to make sure she is okay. She seems to be hanging in there and is just anxious to see Troy.

  “Love, what the hell? Why would he be chanting about Livvy? I know he searched for her for a long time but why in the world is this being brought up now?”

  Tori finally speaks, although with an emotional voice, “Maybe it’s the trauma, Jax. Maybe he was dreaming of her because she is what he wants most. I dreamed of you, I heard you, and eventually I felt you. You were my strongest motivation to get better so I could come back and see you.”

  “I love you so much right now.” Jax grabs Tori to pull her in for scorching kiss.

  “Huh hum. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson.” A stout nurse walks in and stares at them. “Alexander is coming around now so we can take you to his room.”

  “Oh, you must have the wrong people, we are here for Troy Savage.”

  “ Yes, Mr. Alexander Troy Savage. Right this way please.” The nurse looks at them as if they are stupid and marches off.

  “What the hell, Tori? I have been this man’s partner for three years, and I didn’t even know his name was Alexander. No wonder he goes by Savage.”

  Tori burst into laughter, then speaks between giggles, “Jax, I used to think the name Savage was awful. You called him Savage and I thought that was his first name for the longest time. I thought maybe his parents had some preconceived notion about the type of man he would become. I was so relieved to find out his first name was Troy and that has been my preference ever since.”

  They are both still laughing as they walk into the room and instantly shut up. Troy is hooked up to several IV’s and there are several monitors beeping away. He is stirring and moaning,

  “Livvy, Livvy, Livvy.” Troy whispers.

  “Hey, Buddy, glad to see you’re coming around.”

  Troy doesn’t open his eyes to the sound of Jax’s voice or make any movement to acknowledge them.

  “The nurse said he might not be fully conscious until tomorrow, and most of his rambling will not make sense. That seems to be what is happening now. It looks like it will be a long night for us,” Jax whispers.

  ~Livvy~

  Slowly opening my eyes, I realize two things. 1. My jaw is throbbing like it’s broken, and 2. My baby is not with me. I try to sit up, but a wave of nausea overwhelms me and also the handcuff attaching my wrist to a headboard prevents me from moving any further.

  “Good to see you’re finally up.”

  I turn to stare at the man I thought I knew. The malevolence in his eyes has changed the way he looks. The waitresses warned me about him and told me not even to be nice, or it would encourage him to keep asking me out. As a bartender, being nice is how I make good tips. Unfortunately, he was encouraged and pursued me relentlessly. I didn’t understand the warnings because he was so caring at first. I hadn’t had a date in forever, not since John, and I was lonely. How did I not see thru his façade and convincing words?

  “We spend every minute we are not working together, this will just make it easier. I will be patient. I know you are hesitant to enter into a relationship because of your douchebag one-night stand, but I want to take care of you. Let me prove that I can be good to you.” He’d said. I believed him up until eight or nine months ago.

  Jerry...”Where are we? Where is my son?” I am trying to keep a light tone in my voice, but this monster has killed a man and taken me from the only person I cherish. He honestly doesn’t think I’m going to cooperate, does he? A vision of watching Alexander fall to the floor with a bullet hole in his chest causes my eyes to water. Oh my God, the only man I have ever loved and the father to my son is dead. Killed by a man I should have never trusted.

  “I left the clone behind. I’m sure the old bitch will take care of him since his daddy is dead.”

  Tears well up and spill over, streaming down my face at the loss I feel. My son has to be so scared. Alexander is dead and any hope I held on to of finding him someday is lost.

  “Jerry, you killed a man. The police will be looking for you. It would be better if you turned yourself in and said it was an accident.”

  “I will go to my grave before I go to jail for you and I will take you with me. I took care of you, I loved you, I waited for you, and it was all a waste of my time. What was so wrong with me? Why didn’t you want me too?”

  The last was said with such aggression that I am afraid to tell him the truth. I couldn’t love him because I love someone else. Why? I don’t know. I barely even spent twelve hours with Alexander but felt as though he was my soul mate. Loving his baby just made my feelings for him that much stronger. “I’m sorry, Jerry, I just have trust issues. My father abandoned me; my mother did too. When I realized that Alexander left me so vulnerable after something so intimate and important to me, I broke inside. Maybe I’m not capable of committing to anyone anymore.

  “Can’t you see, I haven’t left you and I will never leave you? We are going to be happy in life and in death. I will make you see it my way, Olivia. Now that your sperm donor and baby are out of the way, you can finally look at me without seeing him.”

  I do not tell him how my heart stopped beating the second I saw Alexander. I do not tell him that even in death, I will still love him. There is no room for me to love anyone else except my son and his father. I am still so exhausted and I’m afraid that if I engage him in conversation, it will only anger him more. I close my eyes and let sleep claim me once more.

  Chapter Eleven

  Suffering:

  *the state of undergoing pain, distress, or hardship. *experience or be subjected to something bad or unpleasant. *become or appear worse in quality. *to sustain injury, disadvantage, or loss.

  ~Savage~

  I need to open my goddamn eyes. I have to get back to Livvy. She was in trouble and a bullet to the chest is proof that whomever she is with is not a good man. Is he the reason she left me almost two and a half years ago? I didn’t get a chance to see him because my eyes were glued to Livvy. Was he the steroid guy from the beach in Florida? Son of a bitch! I have to save her.

  “Come on buddy; I know you can do it. You survived a gunshot wound to the chest, so I know you want to be here. I knew you couldn’t leave me; you need me too much.” Jax chuckles.

  “You wish,” I croak. Damn, was that my voice? This stupid ass is laughing while I lay here dying. When I get better, I’m going to kick his ass or shoot him in the chest; see if he likes it.

  “God, it’s good to hear you, even though you sound like shit. Come on, open those baby blues.”

  Shit! That hurts. Blinking several times to clear my blurry vision, the first thing I see is Jax's ugly mug. Damn, I kinda thought I’d never see him again.

  “Oh my God, Troy, you had us so worried.” Tori cries. “Did you make some crude sex joke and that’s why Olivia’s ex shot you?”

  She smiles that perfect smile and I know she is joking, but it hurts too much to laugh. “Livvy...........Need to.........help.... Livvy.” I squeeze out in a wheezy breath.

  “Mate, what the hell are you talking about? Did you hit your head on the way down?

  “The.........woman...Derek, Ren...friend is...Livvy.” What the hell is wrong with me? They are looking at me as if I’m crazy because I can’t get the words out. Assholes! Can’t they see I’m injured? “Livvy, Jax..............I. ...Found...............Livvy.”

  “Shit! Mate, are you sure? I thought you came here looking for Olivia?”

  I nod my head because my throat is raw. Jesus, was I on a breathing tube or something?

  “Olivia is Livvy, your Livvy?”

  I quickly nod again and that hurts like a bitch. My left arm is in a sling, but the pain radiates from my collarbone with just that slight movement. “What.........happened?”

  “Mate, are you with us? Have you lost your memory? You were shot.”

  I shake my head slowly. “No........... What.... damage?”

  “Apparently, the bullet missed ev
erything that would kill you in minutes. The Doc said an artery and vein were severed requiring emergency surgery to repair. You also suffered a fractured clavicle, but life flight got you here in time. Recovery should take a few weeks.”

  “No.......... time............need.........help......... now.”

  “Look, Mate, I know you want to jump up and be the hero, but that is not possible right now. Derek and Ren have flown into Hawkinsville with the team. The team is going to start searching and following leads to find Olivia, I mean Livvy, and Derek and Ren are picking up her boy. They are flying here next. You never told me Livvy had a kid”

  Jax keeps talking, but I have a hard time keeping my eyes open. I shake my head again, very slowly. “Virgin,” I whisper. I am all of a sudden exhausted and close my eyes just for a minute.

  “That must mean that the ex-boyfriend is the dad, but why would he leave his own kid behind? Sav...you still with us?”

  Jax is only saying what has been running through my mind. Finally, Tori’s words halt Jax’s questions, giving my own thought process a rest.

  “I think he passed out. Let him rest and we will talk more when he wakes up. The nurse said the couch is a small bed if we want to pull it out.”

  “Hey, Sav, if you can hear us, we are gonna crash on the couch. Come on, Love, let’s get some sleep.”

  ~Olivia~

  I jerk awake to the nightmare of blood spreading out across Alexander’s chest. I scream out and bring my hands to my face only to realize that one of them is still attached to the headboard. I didn’t just have a nightmare; I am in the middle of one. I don’t recognize where I am and it is eerily quiet except for the sounds of birds.

  “No one will find you. I knew you wouldn’t come willingly and I couldn’t take you back to our apartment without people stickin’ their nose in our business, so I bought a hunters cabin in Alabama. We will have all the time in the world to work on our relationship.”

  Jerry is sitting in a chair in the corner, apparently, just waiting for me to come around. “Jerry, what about Alex?” I know he hates my son for what he represents, but I never thought he would expect me to live without him.

  “Which Alex, Olivia?”

  He screams at me with barely restrained violence and I’m afraid the other side of my jaw will end up feeling and looking like its twin. He leaps out of the chair in the corner, charges toward the bed and begins pacing.

  “The one who left you barefoot and pregnant; the one you pine over; the one whose son will grow up to look just like him and already does. I can’t believe you named your son after a man you only had the first name for. He didn’t even care enough to tell you who he really was. I am tired of being in competition with half of a man.”

  “I’m sorry, Jerry, but keeping me from my son will not endear me to you. He is my son regardless of who his father is.” That was definitely the wrong thing to say. Jerry grabs my ankles and yanks me down toward the foot of the bed. The handcuff tears into my skin but that pain will not compare to the pain of being raped by this hostile man. He pushes my legs apart and climbs between my knees forcing them to stay open, then leans over my body and gets right in my face.

  “I will have sex with you, Olivia. I am going to take what is mine, over and over, until you carry MY child. My son or daughter will become your first priority, and you will know that if you leave me again, you will leave your son or daughter behind. This time, to a fate worse than being left to a bat-shit crazy old woman or the fate of your beloved sperm donor. Try to live with that for the rest of your life. Eventually, you will beg me to take you, and you will be happy being barefoot and pregnant for me, again and again”

  He tears my shorts from my body and I know I will have to detach myself from this situation. This is not happening to me, only to my body, I chant over and over to convince myself. I have always been careful about who I talked to or spent time with so I never dreamed I would find myself in this situation. He is so violent and enraged that I don’t even dare fight. I am frozen as he grunts and sweats over my body. Tears stream down my face into my hair. The handcuff digs into my wrist causing more pain for me to concentrate on instead of the pain my body suffers. My mind focuses on the first time I held my sweet baby boy. Seeing those sky blue eyes, just like his fathers, blink and try to adjust to the light. I think of his first word, his first steps, and his first injury from falling over. I cry harder at the memory of the first time he wrapped his chubby little arms around my neck and said, “I wub ooo, ommy.” All of these memories and more are what helps to block out what is happening to my body. Jerry grunts loud one last time and fills my body with his poison. I haven’t had sex with anyone since Alexander and then it was only the one night. My body will hurt due to the roughness of his use.

  Jerry climbs off the bed and zips up his pants, un-cuffs my hand and tells me to shower. This is definitely different than my one true experience where Alexander could not stop touching me before or after he took my virginity. He seemed to be in awe of the fact that he had found a twenty-year-old virgin. He cherished me and held me all night while making love to me two more times. The fact that he left without a word was devastating, but the gift he left behind is my greatest joy.

  The shower is dingy and small, but the water is hot and I welcome the scalding cleanse it gives me. I scrub until my skin is raw to wash away the sins of a monster. Thank God I am on the birth control shot and with any luck, I will escape before it wears off in two or three weeks.

  ~Savage~

  Just as I’m waking up, in walk Derek, Ren, Jax, Tori, and a little dark-haired boy.

  “Hello, Sunshine, glad to see you up and about. I had thought you might have tried to escape by now,” Derek teases.

  “I would be gone by now, but some certain asshats keep ratting me out to hospital security and declaring me mentally incompetent.” Derek is an asshole ex-PI, and my new part-time boss who got me into this mess in the first place. Even though I owe him everything for leading me to Livvy, he is still going to pay this hospital bill. I glance around the room and lock eyes on the four and a half of them. Excluding the baby boy, of course, he is not an asshat.

  “Watch your language around the baby, Troy. He mimics everything we say,” Ren scolds.

  “Assat,”

  The cute little boy blurts out, earning me dirty looks from Ren and Tori. Shit! He is pretty damn cute even with a potty mouth. He grins, showing off his eight teeth and Derek and Jax bust out laughing, earning them dirty looks from Ren and Tori. Now I don’t feel singled out.

  “If you guys are making me stay here for the rest of this week then let us get down to business. Does the team have any new leads on Livvy? What information have you gathered on her crazy ex-boyfriend? And why would the bastard leave his baby behind?” Jax is the first to speak up.

  “Snake and the boys found out from Marge that Olivia worked as a bartender in Atlanta before she ran. They had to scour at least thirty bars before they found the one she worked in. The waitresses and the owner only cooperated once the FBI confirmed that she was a missing person, courtesy of me. Her full name is Olivia Ann White, born July 2nd, 1993. She is an only child to Estella Ann White, who disowned her when she found out Livvy was pregnant from a one night stand a little over two and a half years ago. Every one of her friends warned her about Jerry Stanford, but he was persistent and won her over when she was having financial trouble. He convinced her to move in with him since they were together all the time anyway. The waitresses and Olivia’s friends said it was more like a ownership than a relationship.”

  “Okay, wait a minute. How is he considered a one-night stand if she ended up living with him.” Ren glares at me again then talks to me as if I’m slow.

  “Troy, when I met Olivia, she told me that Jerry was not her son’s father. She has only been with Jerry since Alex was nine months old and left him a month and a half ago because he was abusive. She said that Alex’s father was a man she met and fell head over heels for in one
night. She only knew his name was Alexander and was hoping to get to know him better, but he left her the next morning.”

  My heart sinks and I think I’m going to throw up.

  “Holy Shit, Dude,” Jax, blurts out. “Isn’t your real first name Alexander? The nurse mentioned that the first night you were brought here and we thought she was taking us to the wrong patient. You have been looking for your soul mate/one-night stand for over two and a half years named Livvy, as in Olivia. It looks like neither one of you were very straightforward about who you were. No wonder you couldn’t find each other.”

  Jax is a jackass, but he’s saying everything that just rushed through my mind on its own. I look to the little boy I now know as Alex and see the sky blue eyes and dark hair that resembles my own. He has his mother’s nose and full lips, but my dimples when he smiles. My God! The woman I have been searching for since that fateful night, got pregnant and gave birth to my son, on her own, without help, and without me. My heart hurts for the loss I feel. I feel the loss of time, the loss of connection to my son, the loss of being there for her when she needed me the most. What a cruel joke for fate to play.

  I don’t realize I have tears running down my face like a pansy-assed baby until I feel it drip to my forearm. I look to Ren and Tori and see that they have come to the same conclusion as tears stream down their cheeks too. “My full name is Alexander Troy Savage and I think you are holding my son.” Ren stands and brings Alex to my lap. He reaches first for my IV line, but Ren tells him, “no- no,” earning me a slap on the cheek with his chubby hand; Ren laughs.

  “Daddy hits.”

  Silence descends on the room as we all come to the same conclusion. Livvy is in danger. Jerry is a dead man and there is no time to waste.

  I stare at this perfect version of me; overjoyed and devastated at the same time. I have missed out on so much. Livvy had to endure so much without me. Holding this baby, my son, fills me with so much happiness that fate, the fickle bitch, has come full circle to reunite me with my son and his mother.