Imprinted Tattoos (The Lost One's Book 1) Page 5

  That is, honest to fuck, the most I have heard him say in one sentence about or to anyone other than the rest of our brothers. He really cares for her, already. A quick glance around at my brothers tells me that we all do. We're going to need to discuss this later.

  Dismissing him for a moment knowing that I have a much more important question to ask, I lean over Sage slightly, so I can see her properly.

  "Sage, Darling were you hurt before she pushed you over?"

  I feel the other guys snap to attention in the small circle of protection we've created around her, but I watch Sage as an array of emotions cross her pretty face. The one that disturbs me the most though is the look of defeat.

  I stare into her eyes, hoping she can see the sincerity in mine. Hoping she can see that she can trust me. I see the resolve cross her features before she nods slightly, once. My brothers all stiffen, our jaws clenching, we know from her behaviour that her injury isn't simply accident like tripping and falling down the stairs.

  My god I hope we are wrong though.

  The minute she tells Hunter no hospitals though, the sickening feeling churning in my stomach gets worse.

  I knew there was something wrong with her this morning. Why didn't I just ask her? You know why idiot she's skittish enough as it is, a question like that would have sent her running. I remember how it was for me and my brothers before we left for the military at seventeen with a parental signature.

  We managed to catch our father when he was drunk but in a calm enough mood, he signed without really knowing what he was signing and by the next morning he had forgotten signing anything. Our father didn't care and even if he did with the amount of shit, we had on him he wouldn't have said anything anyway.

  A year and a half later we then got selected to join a secret undercover branch of the military that deals with threats to national security or even security of an individual person and now we take jobs all over the world. We have a vast range of skills and are trained in multiple different things that can be applied to a variety of different missions.

  It was during training that we met and bonded with Hunter and Jax. You are urged to create teams during training, although in most cases the people on your teams are just work colleagues and sometimes friends if you’re lucky. Most people select teammates for their teams with skills that compliment their own. Our team though has grown as close as family, due to similar backgrounds and experiences. I am extremely proud to call these men my brothers.

  Sometimes it is necessary to join with other teams if a mission is more complicated than first thought, although that doesn’t happen often. I'm brought out of my thoughts with the guys panicked yelling. I glance down towards the only person that could make highly trained military men forget their training, just in time to see Sage's eyes roll into the back of her head.

  I'm not too proud to admit that I join my brothers in panicking. There's just something about her that calls to me, to us.

  Hunter regains his composure quicker than the rest of us and I watch as he ever so gently, more gently than I have ever seen him be before, picks her up bridal style and cradles her to his chest. Even though she has passed out a grimace of pain appears on her face as he moves her. I hear Hunter muttering what seems to be a constant stream of apologies as he walks out of the cafeteria, Maverick striding quickly after him, with Jax leading a still panicking Kai, his arm around his shoulders speeding after them.

  Kai has the hardest time out of all of us seeing women hurt. He was the one who found our mom. We all hate it but for Kai he gets stuck in a memory. It's been a while since he’s been pulled into the horrific memory.

  Muttering starts up around me as my brothers leave with Sage and I remember that the incident happened in the cafeteria. I ignore the muttering voices and race out to follow my brothers, only a few seconds behind.

  Please for the love of all that is holy, please, please let her be ok.

  I need her.

  Hunter

  I'm the first one to snap out of the panic that Sage induced when she passed out. Moving incredibly carefully, I gently scoop my arm underneath her knees and one behind her head and gently lift her off the floor. Cringing when I notice her grimace of pain.

  "I'm sorry Sweetheart, just a little bit longer and we will get you checked out and more comfortable" I say as softly as my rough voice will allow me.

  I can hear the others following after me, but I don't wait for them. She said no hospitals so the only place I can think to take her is our home. We all have extensive first aid training so we should be able to patch her up. I'd feel better if she'd let us take her to the hospital though.

  Approaching the SUV, we came in this morning, Maverick runs ahead of me to open the back door. I nudge Kai to get in first knowing that he needs to focus on Sage, or the memories are going to consume him. He gets in stiffly and helps me guide Sage in as gently as possible resting her head on his lap. He stares down at her stroking her hair and muttering things too quiet for me to hear.

  The rest of the guys load up, Jax snagging the seat next to Sage and gently placing her feet in his lap. The air on the car ride to our home is tense and silent. We need Sage to wake up so we can ask her where she’s hurt. Once we arrive back at our house Kai gently gathers Sage in his arms and caries her through the front door. We all follow in behind him as he lays her gently on the couch.

  "Maverick can you check her over once we know where she's hurt. I know we've all got training, but you've gone more in depth with it" Levi asks.

  "Yes of course, I'll just go wash up" he sends a discreet nod in the direction of Kai who is obviously really struggling.

  He has Sage's hand clutched tightly in one of his whilst his other one gently strokes the hair off her face. His eyes aren't really seeing her though. He’s trapped in his mind right now and that could get dangerous if he gets sucked into the past too deeply.

  It hasn't happened for a long time but the suspicions behind her injury and the fact that he so obviously cares about her is going to be extremely hard for him. I walk over to him and gently lay my hand on his shoulder. He glances up at me his usually cheerful and mischievous eyes, dark and haunted.

  I hate seeing him like this.

  "Hey, why don't you try and wake her up? We need to know where she's hurt so we can help her" I say hoping that by distracting him he will be able to swim up from his memories.

  "Yeah okay" he says gently before turning back to Sage and stroking her hair off her face again. "Sage, Beautiful Girl? Can you open your eyes for me?"

  I watch as Sage begins to stir. Her breathing is back to normal although still slightly shallow. It's not as nearly as worrying as it was when she was wheezing in the cafeteria.

  "Where am I?" Sage asks worriedly looking around.

  "At our home Sweetheart since you said you didn't want to go to the hospital, and we didn't know where you lived we figured here would be best" I reply giving her one of my small smiles.

  "Thank you" she returns my smile with a small one of her own.

  I can tell she's still in a lot of pain though.

  "Sage, where are you hurt?" Levi questions, using his rare voice of authority he only uses it when he has to.

  We are all crowded around the couch waiting for her answer. She closes her eyes tightly before answering.

  "My ribs" she points to her left side.

  I watch curiously as Levi’s eyes widen impossibly before he blanks his face and focuses back on Sage. Something in that giant brain of his just clicked.

  "Can Maverick have a look Darling? He has medical training." Levi asks gently.

  Questions dance in her eyes at this small bit of information before she pushes them away and glances at Mav, he gives her a warm smile and she relaxes a bit before nodding tightly.

  Maverick comes over to kneel by the couch.

  "Do you want the rest of us to leave Little Star, we won't mind" Jax questions her.

  I think we all release a sigh of reli
ef when she says that she doesn’t mind if we stay. I know we all want to be here for her.

  "Can you lift your top up a bit, so I can see" Maverick asks, gently.

  Once again, we all end up holding our breaths as soon as she starts lifting her top up. Making sure to stay modest she lifts it up on one side making sure to hold the other side down and only showing us her left side and part of her stomach, as soon as she's lifted it all the way up we all stare in shock before Hunter and Jax start cursing loudly.

  Her entire left side and most of her stomach is splotched, black and purple. I swear I can make out the shape of a fucking, foot.

  "What the fuck! Is that a mother fucking foot? Who the fuck did this to you Sweetheart?" I can't help the words that erupt from my mouth.

  I'm seeing red.

  Levi sends me a stern look it, I ignore him. I know from his balled-up hands and the clenched jaws of the others that they want to know as much as I do.

  Sage though resolutely keeps her mouth shut and her eyes anywhere but on us. Her avoidance of the subject makes us glance at each other warily.

  Maverick applies a layer of bruise cream to Sage's ribs and stomach after a quick examination determines that she has three cracked ribs. He then sends me to the kitchen to grab an ice pack. I know for damn sure that there’s those shake to activate ones in the medical kit by his feet, he’s just finding something for me to do other than pace. I’ll admit I’m slightly grateful to the bastard. I hand the ice pack over to him as he gets her to swallow a couple of painkillers.

  Finally, we can't keep quiet anymore.

  "Sage . . ." Kai starts before she interrupts.

  "I can't tell you" she whispers brokenly.

  "Sweetheart you can tell us anything" I tell her.

  "He's right Titch" Maverick adds.

  "Even though you haven't known us for very long you can trust us Sage" Levi tells her sincerely.

  "Come on Little Star" Jax coaches taking her hand. "Tell us who did this, we can protect you."

  "Damn fucking right we can" Kai agrees.

  She shakes her head in dismissal.

  "You can't" she whispers, the broken look in her eyes is damn near killing me and I rush over to her side knocking Jax out of the way as I pass.

  "Sage, Sweetheart look at me." She turns her head slowly towards me, “that's my girl, listen to me. We can protect you and we will Sage but we need to know who we have to protect you from" I can see the uncertainty still in her eyes so I push on, "it would kill us if something happened to you Sweetheart, we nearly completely lost our shit today and now that we know someone is hurting you we won’t be able to stand it." I look in her eyes, knowing the guys are nodding in agreement behind me. "Please let us help you Sweetheart."

  Tears start to tumble down her cheeks and both me and Kai lean forward to wipe them off.

  "My mother."

  "Fucking hell" I curse.

  "It started when I was nine. She wasn't the best mom, she tended to forget about me a lot, but she never hurt me. When I was nine, she started drinking. That was the first time she hit me. I can't remember why but I do remember thinking that my Imprint Tattoo made sense now."

  I look at her wide eyed, she got an Imprint Tattoo when she was nine!? She doesn't notice my look and carries on.

  "It got worse from there on" her eyes start droop as she yawns.

  Jax opens his mouth no doubt to ask about what she meant when she said about her Imprint Tattoo but quickly shuts it when Levi shakes his head.

  "Thank you for telling us Beautiful Girl" Kai tells her gently kissing her on her forehead.

  I watch him closely. This is too close to his past; he's going to break I can see it. I watch him quickly leave the room, going down to the basement and to the gym and sparing area we have down there.

  Maverick leans over Sage and kisses her on her cheek.

  "Get some rest Titch" he says quietly before following after Kai.

  Next, Jax picks up her hand and kisses it.

  "You're safe here Little Star" he promises before he too follows Kai down to the basement.

  Sometimes it takes all of us to calm Kai down and I have a feeling this is going to be more difficult than usual.

  Sage's eyes are already closed and her breathing soft. I kiss her on her cheek surprised when Levi does the same. We gently cover her with a blanket before the first crash sounds from downstairs. I put the television on to block out some of the noise, hoping Sage is a sound sleeper or at the very least the TV will block out the sounds from the basement enough.

  Kai would hate for her to see him like this, this isn't him it's his demons.

  At the sound of the second crash me and Levi rush down to the basement to take in the damage and to spar with Kai for as long as he needs us to, to help him force his demons back.

  Sage

  I slowly wake up feeling much better. My ribs still ache but the combination of the painkillers and a for once peaceful sleep somewhere that I, surprisingly feel safe, have done wonders. I slowly open my eyes and glance around the room. I was in too much pain earlier to notice anything about the room they placed me in but now that the pain has been considerably dulled by the pain meds, I'm pleasantly surprised.

  The walls are a cream colour with a hunter green accent wall that has a giant flat screen TV secured to it. Underneath are various game consoles and a cabinet filled with DVDs and games. The floor is a dark hardwood and has been polished until it's left gleaming. There's a rug the same colour as the feature wall in the middle of the room with a coffee table the same colour as the floors perched on top.

  I'm pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness of the room considering only men live here. Well I’m assuming they’re the only ones that live here, a parent would have intervened by now and I’m not being funny but there’s absolutely no way that these men are under twenty years old. I know there is something going on with them, but they don’t give me any bad feelings so for now, I’m not going to ask and trust my instincts.

  I'm brought out of my musings as I hear a crash come from somewhere behind the couch I'm still lying on. I get a strange tugging feeling in my heart and instead of feeling scared like I normally would be when something crashes around me, I just know one of my guys needs me. My instincts have always proven to be right. The last time I didn’t listen to them I ended up with my ex. I've vowed never to ignore my instincts again.

  I quickly get up from the couch, ignoring the slight twinge in my ribs and extremely grateful that the painkillers are still working. I follow the tugging in my heart out of the arched doorway and down a wide hallway before coming to a door that I'm assuming leads to the basement.

  Taking a deep breath, I open the door and make my way down to a surprisingly bright and airy gym. I ignore everything else for the moment and focus on the destruction at the end. There are weights, mats and all manner of gym equipment thrown around. There are a couple of large holes in the walls where a few of the thrown pieces have struck them with enough force to break the plaster.

  My guys are all sweaty and out of breath. Each sporting various small injuries, like a cut lip, split eyebrow or bruised cheek. As much as I want to run over to them a make sure they're ok, I don't.

  Kai needs me more.

  My heart constricts tightly as I watch him beat the ever-loving shit out of what appears to be the fourth punching bag, judging from the three split ones on the floor.

  The tugging in my chest urges me forward.

  The guys haven't noticed me yet too focused on their conversation, their heads bent together, each one of them keeping a watchful eye on Kai. I’m grateful that they’re distracted. I have a feeling that they would try to stop me, and Kai needs me.

  I can see just by watching him that he's stuck inside his own memories. I know that look, I've had it happen to me before. I also know that something about what happened with me or what I told them is what's triggered it.

  I make my way swiftly towards him. As soon as I g
et close enough, I call his name and he freezes, his fist mid-air, his back tense. I can hear the guys move from behind me and I move quickly so they won't try to stop me.

  I rush around Kai until I'm facing him and place my hands gently on his face. He just stares straight ahead but a glimpse of his eyes breaks my heart. Gone is the caring, mischievous spark and in its place is pain and shadows.

  His eyes are haunted.

  "Sweetheart! What the fuck do you think you're doing get away from him now, he's not himself" Hunter yells at me.

  I feel Kai tense under my palms and I gently stroke my thumbs over his cheeks, causing him to slowly relax. I lean slightly around Kai and shoot a glare at Hunter. He looks as though he's about to rush forward but Levi stops him with a firm hand on his shoulder.

  "Look" he says simply.

  "I am fucking looking, she needs to move away now."

  "No Hunter, fucking look at him, he's not fighting. He's still trapped in his memories but he's not fighting. That has never happened before. It's because of Sage, take her away from him now and you will cause more damage" Levi explains, firmly.

  "Fucking Hell" Maverick mutters.

  "Well shit" Hunter swears harshly. "Fine" he agrees reluctantly obviously not happy with the situation.

  Satisfied that no one is going to try to stop me, I turn back to Kai. My hands are still on his cheeks and he's stood statue still. I gently pull his face down to mine so I can look him in his eyes, they quickly flick towards the floor.

  "Look at me, Kai" I say gently but firmly, there's no response from him, his eyes remain planted on the floor.

  A name whispers through my mind and I don't question it.

  "Kai Elliot Storm, look at me" I say firmly.

  The shock of hearing his full name makes him snap his head up his eyes clashing with mine.

  "I'm ok, Kai look at me. I'm ok" he's listening but he's still stuck.

  I do the only thing I can think of and I lean forward to kiss his cheek, I hear his sharp inhale of breath before I kiss him on his other cheek close to his mouth.

  The electricity from before sparks through me and I know he can feel it too. I feel when it snaps through his memories and brings him back to the surface.