Tainted Butterfly (Tainted Knights 2)

“Just ask it, Kin,” I commanded. “What’s wrong with Kassa?”

She blew out a frustrated breath and shook her head, making her long, red hair fall into her face. “Have you and Kassa been sleeping together?”

“What the fuck does that have to do with what’s wrong with her?” I raged.

“Because she’s having a miscarriage!” she whispered fiercely, glancing around to make sure no one else was listening. “The doctors are doing an emergency D and C to stop the bleeding.”

The world seemed to shift, and I fell back against the wall for support. “She got her period. She can’t be pregnant,” I muttered half to myself.

“Look, I don’t know about any of that shit. All I know is that the EMT was pretty sure that was what was going on, and when we got here, there was an entire team waiting to take her upstairs. That was maybe ten minutes ago. They wanted me to sign some kind of consent form, but I couldn’t because I wasn’t next of kin. Jace was right behind me, and they pulled him into the elevator with them.” She scrubbed her hands over her face. “I need to know if you’re the father, Gray. Because, if you are, Jace is going to lose his shit.”

None of it made sense to me. Kassa couldn’t have been pregnant … right?

Fuck, if she was, then that meant she was losing the baby.

Our baby.

I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Kassa was upstairs, losing our baby, probably in pain and scared, and I wasn’t up there with her. I needed to be with her, damn it. Needed to hold her hand and tell her that everything was going to be okay.

That I loved her.

“What floor?” I choked out.

“Third, I think,” Kin told me, but she grabbed my arm when I headed for the elevator. “Gray, are you the father?”

“She’s mine, Kin. She always has been. Yes, I’m the father. Do you think I could let another man live if he ever touched her?” I shrugged her hand off and headed for the elevators. I was still in nothing but my basketball shorts and running shoes, but I didn’t feel the coolness of the hospital or notice the eyes as they watched me.

The elevator had just arrived when Sin and Kale came through the sliding front door. They hurried over and got on with me, with Kin right behind them. The ride took less than ten seconds, but it felt like an eternity. When the doors opened again, it was to a man in scrubs standing in front of the operating ward doors, talking to Jace, who was signing something.

I pushed between him and the doctor. “Can I see her?”

The man shook his head. “She’s already being prepped for surgery. The sooner I can get in there and stop the bleeding, the better.” With a nod at Jace, he took the signed paper and, after punching in a code that unlocked the doors, left us standing there.

I scrubbed my hands over my face as the doors shut again. My little butterfly was back there, possibly fighting for her life, losing something precious we had created together. A lump filled my throat, making it hard to breathe yet again.

“Jace, not here,” Kin murmured in a quiet voice behind me, and I knew what was coming.

I turned to face Jace, ready to take him and the rest of the fucking world on if I had to. The look on Jace’s face was one I was expecting. We had never gotten along, had only tolerated each other for the sake of the band and Kassa. And, now, one of the two things that had kept us on at least on civil terms was having emergency surgery because I had been reckless.

The punch to the face caught me off guard, but I stood my ground, not backing down. “I love her,” I confessed to him.

“No,” he snarled, trying to get in my face, but Kin grabbed his arm, holding him back.

Kale and Sin just stood there, watching us, not even trying to help her. Either they were too shocked at what was happening or they wanted to kick my ass just as much as Jace did. I didn’t know, didn’t care. If they wanted to take me on too, then they could have at me, because I would gladly take the world on if it meant I could be with Kassa.

“You don’t get to love her like that,” Jace said. “I’ll kill you before I let you be with my sister. She’s too good for someone like you.”

“Don’t you think I fucking know that?” I exploded. “I know she’s too good. I know I’m a worthless piece of shit. But I love her. She is the only thing that has ever been good in my world, and she’s mine. You can beat the shit out of me if that’s what it takes, but I’m not going to fight you. Because I know it would only hurt her.”

Kin pushed herself between me and her boyfriend. “Jace, calm down. This isn’t the time or the place. Your sister is in there bleeding uncontrollably right now.”

I flinched at her words, my gaze straying to the closed doors. I wished I could kiss her one more time. Tell her that I loved her, that it was all going to be okay.

“Because of him!” he roared, pulling my attention back to him and his seething anger.

He was right. It was because of me. I had put that baby in her belly; my child was now putting her at risk. And we were losing it. Our little baby hadn’t had a chance.

“Because she’s a consenting adult and they had sex, dumbass!” she snapped at him, pushing on his chest to back him up. “Kassa is nineteen. She can have sex with whomever she wants to. And having sex means you chance getting pregnant, because no matter how safe anyone tries to be, nothing is ever a hundred percent.”