Forsaken Desires (The Deepest Desires 2)

chapter forty-one

Aston

“Aston… pssst. Aston, wake up.”

Peeling my tired ass eyes open, I’m face to face with Katie. She must’ve just arrived. Thankfully, since Weston knows someone who works here, we were able to stay overnight, despite visiting hours. Plus, since Knox’s parents are nowhere to be seen, nor are they welcome here, we’re the only family he has right now.

“Hey, Katie,” I rasp, rubbing my eyes. “Did you just land?”

“Yeah, I did. Came straight here.” Her eyes flit over to Knox, who’s still asleep in the bed. Knowing from experience, it’s jarring as hell to see him in his current state for the first time. I’m not at all surprised when I see giant tears falling down her cheeks.

Standing up, I pull her into me and wrap my arms tight around her. Her body trembles against mine and she sobs quietly as she wraps her arms around me too. Behind her, Weston is starting to stir where he’s sleeping on the couch. His eyes open and find us, concern covering his features when he sees the scene in front of him.

As he sits up, he yawns and stretches his arms over his head. “Did you just get here, Katie?”

She startles in my arms, clearly not having heard him sit up. Breaking the hug and turning toward Weston, she replies, “Yup, came from the airport.”

“Glad you were able to come. He’ll appreciate it when he wakes up.”

“Do we have any idea when that’ll be?”

“Hopefully, sometime today. They just have him on meds through his IV to manage his pain.”

“I can’t fucking believe this happened to him.” Her eyes are still wet with tears. “So, neither of you knew this about his dad?”

Looking at Weston, he shakes his head. “No, I had no idea.

“You knew, though, Katie?”

“Yeah, I did. He told me after some coaxing after…” She goes quiet, and I have a feeling I know where she was about to go with it, considering she looks at me briefly before she finishes.

“Weston knows, Katie. You can say it.”

“After you guys first hooked up, he panicked. His dad isn’t, uh, the most accepting of shit like that. I’m not going to share everything he’s told me, because it’s personal, but I did know.”

“Know what?” We all startle, turning around at the sound of the raspy voice behind us. Knox is lying there—awake—eyes barely open due to the bruising and swelling, but awake, nonetheless. Pressure builds behind my eyes, tears threatening to drop, and I have to bite my lip to keep it from quivering.

Katie lets out a huge breath beside me, tears pouring down her face as she moves to sit softly on the bed beside him, intertwining her shaky fingers with his. “Knox, fuck. You gave us quite the scare.”

Looking a little confused, he moves his eyes between the three of us before circling back and focusing on me. “What happened?” My stomach drops at the question, worried that he isn’t going to remember it all, and be unable to press charges.

“We, uh. We aren’t sure. We were hoping you’d be able to tell us.”

“I found you here,” Weston says, standing up. “Katie called me, panicked because she hadn’t heard from you, and asked me to go check on you. When I went to your house, you weren’t there, and I ran into your father. He wouldn’t tell me where you were, but it looked like he had been in a fight—putting two and two together, I checked here and found you. You’d been badly beaten.” He says the last sentence much quieter, almost a whisper.

“Oh,” is all he says. The way he’s now avoiding eye contact with all of us leads me to think the memory may have crashed into him and he’s now embarrassed.

But he has nothing to be embarrassed about.

We’re all quiet for several moments, the tension in the air thick. Clearing my throat and pushing my nerves to the side, I finally break the silence. “Do you remember, uh, what happened, Knox?”

His pale green eyes find mine, so much anguish swimming in them. “Yeah.”

“Do you want Weston and I to leave? You can tell Katie what happened?” I don’t really want to leave him, but he’s obviously comfortable enough with Katie since she knew about all of this, and we didn’t. He needs to be comfortable, feel safe, to tell his story, and if that’s without me, then I’ll respect that.

“No,” he breathes, shaking his head softly, wincing from the movement. “You don’t have to leave… I don’t want you to leave.”

Silence blankets the room again, and Weston and I find our seats again while we wait for Knox to begin. The level of nerves coursing through my body is paralyzing—my palms are slick with sweat and my heart rate is through the roof. I’m terrified of what he’s going to tell us, but I need to know.

Expelling a shaky breath, he says, “My dad and I… we, uh. We got into a fight.”

I’ll fucking kill him.

“He confronted me about…” He goes quiet and looks toward me.

“Confronted you about what?”

“You.”

My blood runs ice-cold and my breath catches in my throat. “What about me?”

“My relationship with you, or the relationship I had with you. That chick I took to that company party over spring break told her dad—who told my dad—that we had been fighting like a couple.” He uses finger quotations with his good hand. “And I was sick of his shit and sick of hiding who I am, so I told the truth.”

“So he fucking beat you?!” The rage is evident in my tone.

“Aston…” he pleads. Pleading for what, I’m not sure.

“No, Knox. Don’t ‘Aston’ me. He has no right. No goddamn right to lay his hands on you. Has he done this before?”

Remaining silent, he looks away. I know I need to rein in my temper, but fuck!

“Knox, answer me, please.”

Still refusing to look at us, he says, “Yes.” His words are barely above a whisper.

Clenching my fists and forcing myself to take a few steadying breaths, I attempt to calm myself before responding. “How many times?”

The room is so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. “Too many to count, okay?”

“Goddamnit!” The fact that this fucking coward beat his child too many times to count makes me see fucking red. Never in my life have I felt a rage like this, a fury this uncontrollable. “Knox, you need to press charges. He can’t get away with this anymore.”

“Aston, it’s not that fucking easy.”

“Actually, it is,” Weston chimes in. “Your dad has obvious marks on him, on his knuckles. Mix that with the state you’re currently in, and it’s exactly that easy. I’m with Aston, man, you can’t let him win.”

“I’m with them too,” Katie agrees, eyes bloodshot from crying.

Knox is saved from having to answer us when a nurse walks in. Her face lights up when she sees he’s awake. “Well, hi!” Her voice is high-pitched and cheerful, her icy blue eyes twinkle, and she has a hoop on the right side of her nose, a stud on the left. The scrubs she has on are covered in hearts, her stethoscope is bright blue, and if I’m not mistaken, the shoes she’s wearing are the ones with wheels on them. “I didn’t know you were awake. My name’s Lucy, and I’m your nurse for the rest of the day. How are you feeling?”

“Like I got the shit beat out of me.” He tries to laugh at himself, but there’s a sharp wince in his features, letting me know it pains him to do that.

The rest of us offer our own forced chuckles. No one seems to know how to approach this situation that’s very much not funny, but we don’t want to make him feel bad either.

Lucy smiles politely, but it doesn’t quite meet her eyes, and she’s shuffling on her feet, like she’s uncomfortable by Knox’s attempt at humor. “Yes, about that,” she says, removing her stethoscope from around her neck, walking toward him. “The police officers are going to want to take a statement from you at some point about what happened.”

She starts taking his vitals, checking his heart rate and lung sounds, blood pressure, temperature—the whole nine. “I know you just woke up and probably want some time to process everything, but they’ll be by in a few hours. I just wanted to make you’re aware, okay?”

“Yeah, okay.”

“How’s your pain on a scale of one to ten? One being extremely mild, almost nonexistent, and ten being excruciating.”

“Uhm, I don’t know. Maybe a six, currently.”

“Okay. We have you hooked up to IV medication, which should help keep you comfortable. I just upped your dose now that you’re awake, but if it ever gets to be too much, just let me know, okay?” He only nods.

“How long will he have to stay here, do you think?” Katie asks from her spot on the bed next to him.

“The doctor will probably want to keep him for at least a day or two for observation. I don’t have an exact answer just yet, but as soon as I do, I’ll be sure to let you all know.”

“Thank you,” Katie says with a sweet smile.

“Of course. I’ll leave you guys to visit. Just please remember, the cops will be here in a few hours to take your statement. Press the call button if you need anything at all.”

As she leaves, we’re blanketed with tense, stuffy silence. Knox really needs to press charges, but I’m not sure if he will. First of all, he’s Knox—the most stubborn motherfucker I’ve ever met. Second, it’s his dad. I would imagine a lot of child abuse victims are on the fence about turning their parent in.

“So, what are you going to do?” Looking over at him, I see he’s passed out. Meds must’ve hit his system. Guess we’ll discuss this later.