he quickly stuffed the picture into his pocket before gabe could see it. gabe would lose his fucking mind, and right now the only thing ash was worried about was josie and getting her to a hospital. they'd deal with the picture later.

"is she okay?" gabe asked as he dropped down beside ash. "jesus. she's obviously not okay. ambulance is on the way. eta is five minutes. what the fuck happened?"

"i don't know," ash said, his voice still shaking with fury.

he leaned down and pressed a kiss to josie's forehead, too afraid to do what he most wanted and gather her in his arms. she obviously had internal injuries and he didn't want to cause her further injury.

"who did this to you, baby? can you tell me?" he asked her gently.

tears gathered in her eyes and slid silently down her cheeks. each one broke his heart. he wanted to cry with her, but he refused to break down. she needed him to be strong. he would be strong. no way he was going to let her down again.

"he had a message," josie whispered. "for you. and gabe and jace."

gabe and ash exchanged quick what the fuck looks.

"what was the message, josie? don't try to talk if it hurts you, though. we have plenty of time to talk later when you're not in pain."

she licked her lips, her tongue bright red with blood. ash was shaking from head to toe now as his reaction set in. this was bad. if she was coughing up blood it meant she was fucked up on the inside. people died from internal injuries!

"said nothing . . ." she broke off and choked, more blood seeping from her lips. ash was panicking now. where was the goddamn ambulance?

she took a long moment and for a second ash thought she'd slipped into unconsciousness.

"josie. josie! stay with me, baby. fight it. stay awake. can you do that for me? open your eyes, baby. i'm right here. i'm not going anywhere. the ambulance is on its way. they'll be here soon and they'll take care of you. i'll take care of you," he choked out, tears knotting his throat.

her eyelids fluttered and she trained her unfocused eyes on him, pain glittering brightly in their depths.

"said nothing you hold dear . . . is safe. s-s-said you r-ruined him . . . and now he's going to ruin y-you."

gabe went white even as he grabbed his phone. he stepped back and away from josie and ash, but ash could hear him talking to jace, telling him to make sure mia and bethany were safe. then he told jace to meet him and ash at the hospital.

the sound of a siren sent relief coursing through ash's veins. he jumped to his feet but gabe stopped him.

"i'll get them in. you stay with josie," gabe bit out.

ash dropped back down, bending over josie so she'd know he was here.

"the ambulance is here, baby," he soothed. "they'll get you to the hospital and i'll be with you every step of the way. you'll be okay, darling. i won't let you be anything else. stay with me. i love you. i love you so much."

she tried to lift her right hand and then whimpered in pain. "h-hand h-hurts. what's wrong with it?"

he stared in horror at the obviously broken fingers. son of a bitch! they'd broken her fingers! he was precariously close to losing his composure. he wanted to get his hands on the sons of bitches who did this to her. he'd kill the bastards with his own hands.

forcing himself to focus on her and pushing everything else from his mind, he captured her wrist, holding it gently so she wouldn't let it fall back to the floor and hurt herself even more. then he kissed the swollen fingers ever so gently as tears gathered in his eyes.

"just some broken fingers," he said shakily. "nothing the doctor won't fix right up."

"my painting hand," she said as more tears squeezed from her swollen eyes.

"shhh, it's okay, baby. you'll be back to painting before you know it."

even as he spoke, his gaze caught on the two paintings propped against the wall. dark. full of turmoil. he'd done that to her. he'd taken her vibrancy away. the essence of her work. these weren't the josie he knew and loved. this was josie hurting and expressing her emotions in the only way she knew how.

the emts burst through the door and into the living room, immediately assessing josie's condition. ash moved back so he didn't interfere, but he stayed close, hovering anxiously as they went through the assessment.

"decreased breath sounds on the left side," the paramedic said grimly as he pulled his stethoscope away. "get the o2," he barked at his partner.

"how bad is it?" ash demanded.

the paramedic shook his head. "no way to know without x-rays. i'm guessing she has several broken ribs. probably punctured a lung."

"be careful with her hand," ash said. "it's broken."

"she's a mess," the medic said bluntly. "we need to load and go. i'll get a c-collar on her and bag her on the way."

ash went pale. the words sounded so grim and utterly serious.

"will she live?" ash whispered, voicing his darkest fear.

"not my call, but she sure as hell isn't going to die on my watch."

a stretcher was brought in and the medics worked quickly, securing the c-collar and then giving her oxygen. she was just as quickly wheeled out and loaded into the ambulance. ash barely had time to jump into the back before they roared away in a rush of sirens and lights.

he slid his hand into his pocket, feeling for the photo josie had had in her hand. gabe had a hell of a lot to answer for, and then ash was going after the son of a bitch who'd put his hands on josie.

chapter thirty-two

"what the fuck is going on?" jace demanded as he strode into the er waiting room.

ash turned and then motioned gabe and jace into one of the smaller private rooms where doctors met with families.

"we have a serious problem," ash said grimly.

"what the hell happened to josie?" jace asked. "gabe called worried about mia and bethany, told me to lock them both down and make sure they were safe. i called kaden ginsberg and now i have two very pissed-off women because i made kaden sit on them both and they're scared and want to know what the fuck is going on, which i couldn't tell them because i don't know myself!"

ash held up his hand and then reached into his pocket with the other. he pulled out the photo that was in josie's hand and held it out to gabe.

gabe's face was a mixture of shock and rage. and then, oddly, guilt. he went gray and then staggered back to sit in one of the chairs. he buried his face in his hands, the photo crumpled in his fist.

jace snatched the photo from gabe and then he went pale as he stared at his sister naked, tied up, another man trying to force himself on her.

"what the fuck is this?"

jace's explosive demand echoed through the room.

"josie was holding that when i got to her," ash said quietly. "and then she told me the man who beat the crap out of her had a message for me, you and gabe."

"what?" jace said in disbelief.

"he told her that nothing we held dear was safe from him. that we ruined him and now he was going to ruin us. i'd say josie was probably the first target because she was the easiest. she was alone and vulnerable. it would be a lot harder to get to mia or bethany."

"i want to know what the fuck that picture is about," jace said in a furious tone. "that was charles willis in that photo. is he the one who hurt josie and is threatening us now?"

"yes," gabe said bleakly.

"what do you know that you haven't told us," ash asked in a dangerously low tone. it was obvious by the look on gabe's face that there was a lot that ash and jace evidently didn't know.

gabe rubbed a hand wearily over his face, his eyes sick.

"what i have to say is going to piss you both off. i thought it was behind me and mia. i was wrong, apparently."

"yeah, i'd say so," jace bit out. "what the fuck did you do, gabe?"

"when mia and i were together, before, when we were keeping it a secret from you, right before we went to paris on business, my ex-wife came into my office saying all sorts of crazy shit. then she accused me of being in love with mia. accused me of being in love with her when i was still married to lisa. it hit me all wrong. i wasn't ready to admit my feelings for mia. and in an effort to distance us, to prove to myself that she was just sex, i set up a thing in paris."

"what kind of thing," ash growled.

gabe blew out his breath. "mia and i had discussed, before, her interest in being with another man. with me, i mean. i guess kind of like you and jace sharing women. so i set it up that charles willis and two other men were in our hotel room. jesus, this is complicated."

jace stared stonily at gabe, his eyes glittering with anger.

"things got out of hand. i was going to let them touch her, nothing else. i made it clear they weren't to do anything but touch, which meant keeping their dicks in their pants. but as soon as it began, i knew it was wrong. i realized what i was doing, but before i could put a stop to it, charles got rough with mia. he was trying to shove his dick down her throat and then he hit her when she protested."

"son of a bitch!" jace swore. "what the fuck, man? how could you do that to her? what were you thinking?"

gabe held up his hand. "there's more. it gets worse."

"jesus," ash muttered.

"when we got back, charles confronted mia outside the office building when she went out to get us something to eat. he tried to blackmail her into giving him information on the bids. he knew i had no intention of doing business with him, but he figured if he bid low enough we wouldn't have a choice. he showed her that picture and said that if she didn't give him what he wanted that he'd go public with it."

"un-fucking-real," jace growled.

"mia came to me instead of caving in, and i took care of the matter. or at least i thought i had," gabe said wearily.

ash's jaw bulged. rage smoldered through him like a wildfire.

"i'll handle it," gabe said quietly. "i fucked up. i'll make sure that son of a bitch doesn't get his hands on mia or bethany and i'll make sure he pays for what he did to josie."

"no," ash said, the word whipping through the room like a gunshot.

gabe and jace both looked at ash with narrowed eyes.

"you had your chance," ash said in an even tone. "i'll take care of the little bastard."

jace's face flashed with alarm. "don't think that's a good idea, man. your emotions are running high. let me and gabe take care of this."

"i said no," ash snapped. "this is mine. gabe had his chance. he fucked up. i'm not leaving this to him."

"ash," gabe began but ash silenced him with a look.

"if it were mia or bethany lying in a hospital bed, bruises, broken bones, punctured lung and god only knows what else, would you just sit back and let someone else take care of the asshole who did that to her?"

jace's lips twisted and then he sighed. "no. i wouldn't. but jesus, man. after what went down with michael, this is too risky. you got away with the first. you won't get away with this. charles willis has nothing to lose. he's not going to sway under threats. you touch him and he'll have your ass in a sling."

"who said anything about threats?" ash asked calmly. "in my world, threats are meaningless unless you do something to back them up. i have no intention of threatening charles willis. but i have every intention of taking him down."

gabe and jace exchanged worried looks but ash ignored them. they'd try to talk him down but in this he would not be dissuaded.

"this won't touch you. it damn sure won't touch mia, bethany or josie. not ever again. you don't have to worry. you won't be remotely tied to this."

"oh fuck you," jace said rudely. "the hell i'm letting you take this shit on by yourself. we've already been over this. you never have to ask. we'll always have your back."

"means a lot," ash said quietly. "but i'm not pulling my family down. you and the girls mean far too much to me. i'm not going down either. you can take that to the bank. no way in hell i'm leaving josie to survive on her own. i'm going to be there for her every step of the way and she will never have to worry about some asshole with a grudge against us using her to get to us. that will not happen again."

"what are you going to do?" gabe asked quietly.

"you're better off not knowing," ash replied.

gabe ran a hand through his hair. "jesus, man. this is on me."

"you had your shot," ash said carefully. "not saying you did wrong, but whatever you did was not enough. i'm going to make sure that this time it is. he didn't beat your woman half to death, even if she was the intended mark. he fucked josie over, and i'm going to make damn sure that never happens again."