Shattered Hearts A MFM Love Story

~ ~ Logan ~ ~

Not able to sleep and plumb tired out, I sat up and rubbed a hand across my chest. I couldn’t settle. Was it being away from Maddy? Or the Ranch maybe?

Or it could just be trying to sleep on a sofa that had seen better days. I’d insisted Jackson take the bed but honestly, we should have booked into a motel or something. But Jackson had wanted to check in on his army buddy and I could hardly say no.

But as soon as I clapped eyes on the sofa I should have realised that dog wouldn’t hunt.

Sighing out loud, my eyes danced around the barely lit room looking for my phone to see what time it was and how much longer I had to put up with this torture.

Not finding it, I reckoned I’d left it in the kitchen. Pushing myself up, I went in search. And just as I thought. There it was, sat on the table.

Feeling thirsty, I grabbed a glass of water and picked up my phone. Guzzling down my drink whilst unlocking it, I took note that I’d missed some calls.

Shit.

My phone had been on silent. I was always catching that stupid tiny button on the side.

Who the hell made these damn things?

Back to the calls. They were all from an unknown number, a fuck load of them. And messages too.

Flicking to the first message, it read: CALL ME. ADAM.

What the hell?

Adam? Riley Jo’s husband?

Every message after was the same. All asking me to contact him.

I tensed, and unease chilled my blood.

And just as it tried to return his call, the unknown number called again.

“Adam?” I asked, putting my glass down and moving my hand to sit on my hip.

“Thank Christ. Logan?”

His normally quietly calm voice was laden with worry lifting the hairs on the back of my neck. “Yes Sir, it’s me.”

“You need to come home. Now. Right this minute,” he said, his words echoed over the crackling line.

“What’s wrong? Is Maddy okay?”

“No, she’s not okay. She’s been shot!”

Every bone in my body locked tight. “What!” I exploded and the thought of her hurt, a wretched pang squeezed life out of my lungs.

“Get home. Stop for no one, Logan.”

And then he ended the call.

Jesus. Fucking. Christ!

I stared at my phone blankly. The tightness in my chest spread fear and panic crawling all over me like a nest of rattlesnakes.

And then I was running out of the kitchen already yelling out my brother’s name as I hit the stairs two at a time.

Bursting through the bedroom door. It slammed against the wall.

“Jesus. What!? What’s going on?” Jackson asked, his voice croaky as I dragged him from sleep. “Logan!?”

“Get up. Get your stuff. In fact, fuck it, I’ll get your stuff. Just get dressed. We’re leaving now.”

I grabbed his jeans and shirt from the floor and tossed them his way, ignoring him when he cursed at me when his jeans wrapped around his head.

“What’s the hells goin’ on, Logan?”

“No time to talk. I’ll tell you on the way home.”

We stopped for no one.

I pushed my truck as fast as it would go, the steering wheel vibrating beneath my white knuckles as I squeezed the life out of it as my mind raced with all kinds of possibilities and scenarios.

Jackson had tried calling Adam back and Riley-Jo and Casey too.

No one was answering.

Once I’d given him the gist of the situation, we hardly exchanged another word. Both lost in our thoughts and neither wanted to ask what the other was thinking.

And thankfully, in just over three hours and coming up to four in the morning, the truck screeched to a halt. Out of the truck, not even aware if I closed the door or not, I was practically running with Jackson barely out of the truck. He called after me and cursed out at his damned leg.

I felt bad not waiting for him, but I didn’t have time to worry about his feelings as he tried to catch up to me.

I was at the front desk when he parked next to me as I was trying to wrangle information out of some poor woman who had little to no patience with me and now Jackson. Her thin lips pursed as she tried to find out what connection we had to Maddy, and still, she hadn’t confirmed that Maddy was even there.

And just when I was about to lose my shit. Someone from behind called out our names.

My head shot around to see Adam halfway out the elevator, keeping the doors open with one hand. Turning away from the woman and whatever she was saying, we rushed toward him and he backed inside the tin can and we followed.

“Talk to us,” Jackson growled, out of breath as Adam’s finger jabbed at floor six and the door closed behind us.

“Adam?” I prompted when he’d still said nothing, turning to face us.

His expression was guarded and his hair ruffled, and in his eyes, I saw an apology and it set the blood in my veins to run cold.

Please, please, please, just let her be okay.

“Adam. We’re about to lose our shit. Tell us what’s going on. How’s Maddy?”

He pushed his shoulder back, slipping his hands into the pockets of his white doctor jacket they all wore. “She’s out of surgery and her stats look good on the surface.”

“On the surface?” questioned Jackson, adding. “Logan told me she was shot—where ’bouts was she shot?”

“Abdomen.”

“Shit.” Jackson flashed a worried look at me before directing another question at Adam. “What’s the damage, doc? Organ or anything that might hinder her chances at having kids?”

Shit.

None of that had even crossed my mind, and my stomach plummeted. It would shatter Maddy if this stopped her from having kids. She’d done nothing but drop hints these last few weeks.

Adam continued to fill us in. “Dr Martland who performed the surgery told me the bullet had a clean exit and x-rays showed no damage to surrounding organs. She was lucky. And unless we missed something, which I highly doubt as Dr Martland is a highly skilled surgeon, then I think we’re in the clear.”

Still didn’t sound lucky to me. Someone should never have pulled the trigger on her. “Anything else doc, apart from the gunshot, I mean?” Like that wasn’t bad enough.

“Some scratches to the face and bruising to her arms, legs and ribs.”

“Good. That’s good,” said Jackson.

“That’s good?” I turned to him, baffled by what could be good about any of that.

“Trust me. The doc’s right, she was lucky. I’ve seen gunshots to the abdomen do a lot worse.”

The elevator chimed its arrival at floor six. “C’mon. This way.”

Adam led us out of the elevator and towards Maddy’s room, with us hot on his heels. But before we got there, he stopped dead in his tracks and flicked around, lowering his voice some. “She’s awake, but don’t be shocked if she’s still a little out of it. She lost a lot of blood and then there are the aftereffects of the anaesthetic.”

Me and Jackson nodded.

Adam glanced a look behind him, then turned slowly back to us. I didn’t know what the holdup was and then he dropped another bomb on us.

“I asked that Maddy be put in the room next to Casey’s, as it was the first person she asked about in the post-recovery room.”

“Casey?” I shared a look with Jackson.

Leaning in to keep my voice quiet, I asked Adam, “What? Did someone shoot her too?” My eyebrows climbed waiting for him to answer us.

“Christ's sake, man. Out with it!” demanded Jackson, almost hissing.

“No. Not shot, but she has suffered trauma.”

Holy shit.

Adam’s eyes shifted upward, and he clearly wasn’t comfortable in telling us.

“What are you not saying, doc?” asked Jackson.

Pensive, tired eyes caused Adam’s eyebrows to knit together. I have permission to share that she was sexually assaulted.” His voice went even lower that I barely caught his next words. “She was raped.”

“Fuck.” I moved back, dragging my hand down my face as rage and pain and disbelief blustered through my body.

“Who?” Jackson growled, but the colour was draining from his face faster than a leaky bucket. “Tell us who, doc.”

Jackson wouldn’t admit it, but since he’d got his head out of his ass, he and Casey had grown closer.

Adam shifted on his heels. “There was more than one assailant.”

And the hits just kept on coming.

“Fuck.” Jackson mirrored my actions, dragging his hand down his face.

“Riley— ” he stopped.

“What? What were you about to say about Riley Jo? Was she there too? Has she been hurt?”

What the hell had happened tonight?

He looked up, loosening a sigh. “No. Not shot or assaulted.” Something darker passed over his face before he spoke again. “They brought in three men with gunshot wounds—none fatal.”

This was getting crazier by the second. “I’m not understanding how all this is tied together?” Looking at my brother, he looked just as baffled as me.

None of it made sense. Maddy shot. Casey assaulted. I needed to speak to Riley Jo if she was the only one able to talk right now.

“Where’s Riley Jo—Can we speak with her?”

He shook his head. “My wife is currently sitting in a jail cell for shooting up half of Lockwood.”

That didn’t make a lick of sense. “What? Riley Jo shot Maddy?”

“What? No. Cooper Stanton shot Maddy.”

Jackson and I both growled out at the same time and my chest ached, and the world seemed to slow beneath my fuming breaths. Looking at Jackson, his eyes, the same colour as mine were brimming with vengeance.

“Just you watch me. I’m gonna kill the fucker...”

“Right there with you, brother,” muttered Jackson.

Adam snapped me out of it as his hand rested on my shoulder. “He’s dead, Logan. My wife made sure of it. Shot him.”

Holy shit.

And I had to manage my conflicting emotions of relief and disappointment at not killing him with my bare hands.

“Jesus. Fuck.” Jackson echoed my thoughts. “And they’ve arrested Riley Jo?” He shook his head with grim exasperation. “The Sheriff’s department is un-fucking-believable.”

Adam’s face twisted into a snarl. “The Sheriff’s department won’t be sweeping this under the rug—not this time. Connor is with her now, and my family’s lawyers and their legal team are making their way here as we speak. My parents are already here and we’ll have her out before the day’s over.”

“Can we see Maddy, now?” Jackson’s voice was heavy with something I couldn’t identify, but he was right. Seeing Maddy should be our priority.

Adam nodded. “This way.”

We followed him. Outside a door numbered four, Adam opened it and stepped aside. “Come find me if you need anything.”

Both Jackson and I nodded our thanks and went inside.

Oh, my gods.

Maddy lay there. Her blue eyes, the surrounding delicate skin stained with blue, were barely open and glassy. Left cheek, bruised and swollen. Her lips, slightly parted, lacked their usual pink colour and there was a cut on the upper left side. Her chest rose and rose and fell with erratic, shallow breaths.

Sick to my stomach and my heart bumping my throat, I went left and Jackson went right as we moved closer and her eyes blinked as she realised we were there.

I reached for her, almost afraid to touch her. I glanced at Jackson and he wore the same pained expression.

Maddy shivered and sucked in a sharp breath as we both took a hand in ours.

“Logan...” her voice was barely above a whisper as her eyes shifted over. “Jackson.”

“Jesus, Maddy. You scared the life out of us, sweetheart.”

Jackson’s voice was shaky as he spoke. “We thought we’d—” he stopped, swallowing thickly as he brushed his knuckle softly along her cheek. “Logan’s right. You scared us,” he finished, taking a breath.

“You’re both here,” she whispered.

Guilt stabbed at my heart and I briefly squeezed my eyes shut, the gravity of the situation hitting me harder now I was here.

We could have lost her tonight.

“Hey,” her voice got a little stronger as she tried to squeeze my hand, but her grip was weak. “I’m gonna be fine.”

I wanted to know what the hell had happened tonight, but she wasn’t in any fit state to talk much.

“Have they said—” she breathed in trying to grasp more air. “—anything to you ’bout Casey?”

I nodded. “She’s in the room next to yours.”

“Have you seen her?” Her eyes filled with tears. “I—” she choked up on the words.

“Baby. Don’t cry. Please...” said my brother, cupping her cheek, and swiping a thumb to catch her first tear.

I swallowed past the ever-growing lump in my throat. “No. Not yet.”

Maddy looked at Jackson, then me, her blue eyes pleading. “Please, one of you needs to go see her. I need to know she’s okay.”

Me and Jackson shared a look. Neither of us wanted to leave Maddy, but I knew she wouldn’t settle until one of us did. I leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to her clammy forehead.

“I’ll go. Okay? Jackson will stay here with you.”

I stood outside Casey’s room. Not having a clue what I was gonna say. What do you say to someone who has gone through something like that? How would they both get past this? I couldn’t stand here all night. Lifting my hand, I knocked and opened the door.

Peeking my head around, she was sitting on the bed, hands in her lap, wearing a hospital gown that swallowed her tiny frame like a potato sack, brushing her knees as her bare legs dangled.

I couldn’t see her face with her long brown hair doing a grand job of shielding it from me.

She didn’t look up, and it felt like I was swallowing sticks in my throat as my fists clenched and unclenched. “Casey...” My voice was soft, coaxing. “Casey, sweetheart.”

Nothing. So I repeated her name a third time, stepping into her room.

Finally, her head lifted, inflating her chest with air, and her eyes found mine.

Fuck.

Pain stared back.

And it went beyond just the physical. Our experiences shape our soul and the soul never forgets.

“Hey,” she said, her lips tightening in a flat smile as she did her best not to blink when her eyes filled with tears.

“Hey. Is it okay if I come in? If not, I can come back later?”

She swallowed, “No, no. You’re okay to come in.”

I moved to the edge of her bed.

Her eyes started rapidly blinking. “Dammit,” she blurted out, and a sob climbed up her throat.

Shit. Her head dropped into her hands, mumbling something I couldn’t make out, and I moved before I thought better of it, laying a hand on her shoulder to squeeze gently.

Casey recoiled, her head lifted with her eyes wide in fear as she scrambled to get away from me.

Oh, Christ. I jumped back, holding up my hands. “Shit. Sorry. I shouldn’t have—Sorry. I never thought...”

She shook her head. “No. It’s not you. Sorry. I—” She moved into the middle of the bed and hugged her knees to her chest, too rattled to move.

“You don’t have to explain, Casey.”

And then she started crying and I wanted nothing more than to comfort her. But I stood there, helpless, and I didn’t even pretend to understand the depth of the hurt that’s been done to her or what she will need to heal.

But I needed her to know she was not alone. That we’re her family and would do whatever she needs us to do to help her heal.

Her and Maddy.