The Stoic And The Beast

Hidden Talent's

Luke's  POV

"Luke? You ready to go man? What are you staring at?" Jake asked me impatiently.

"I don't know. It's a receipt. I think the guy that robbed me and hurt Alicia dropped it in the back seat." I answered slowly while zoning out on the small piece of paper in my hand.

"What? If that was his then we have a way to find that asshole and beat the living shit out of him. Give it to me, I want to see where this prick hangs out at."

Jake rushed over to me and swiped the piece of paper from my hand and gawked at it.

"No, we should just leave it alone Jake. I promised that asshole that I wouldn't go after him if he let Alicia go. Alicia wouldn't want me to..."

"Fuck that prick. He nearly killed her! I'm going to find him and I'm going to slit his throat from ear to ear. I'm going to laugh as I watch him choke on his own blood until his last fucking breath! He's not going to get away with what he did to our girlfriend Luke. You're a fucking pussy if you just stand here doing nothing to give this worthless piece of shit a bit of payback for what he did!"

I silently stood there letting Jake air out his feelings about that guy. I didn't care about him calling me a pussy for not wanting to get revenge. Honestly, I did want to watch the guy suffer. I don't want to have his blood on my hands though. I would like to see him rot in jail. But I knew he would get back out eventually. Then what would happen? He has my address. He would come for revenge once he was released. Just like that man did to Alicia's parents.

"We should leave it alone Jake. He will get what's coming to him eventually. Come on. Let's just go to the hospital and see Alicia."

"Fuck that! This guy is going to fucking pay!" Jake yelled as he shoved past me to get into his car.

I opened the passenger door and shoved the small suitcase into the backseat then sat down and buckled my seatbelt.

"Fine, we can go check it out but let's go later though. Let's just go see Alicia first. Don't tell her about the receipt. I don't want her getting worried. Can you please keep this between us for now?" I coaxed.

"Of course. I'm not about to go running in there to tell her were going to go murder the son of a bitch that cut her up. I'm not that dumb Luke." Jake raked his hand through his hair as he peeled out of his driveway and sped down the street toward the hospital.

We rode in silence until we reached the parking lot. I had a lot of things running through my mind but I mostly felt numb. It could be from the lack of sleep or perhaps I am in shock but either way, I just wanted to get back to feeling Alicia nestled safely in my arms again. I wanted to smell her strawberry scent and listen to her breathe as she slept.

"So, what should I expect when I go in there, Luke?" Jake asked nervously.

"Well, she has some bandages on her neck. And she has to write on paper to communicate. She is probably in some pain. But she was walking around earlier just fine. The cut on her neck was pretty bad. She will probably have a scar once it's healed."

"Damn. That serious huh? Is she... You know... traumatized or anything?" He raked his hand through his hair again.

"Umm... I don't really know. She seems to think that I'm more traumatized than she is. She was more worried about me than herself earlier. The first thing she did when she was given the pen and paper was ask if I was okay."

"She's been through so much. There is a fighter in her that I will never be able to match. How are the babies? Are they okay?"

"They are fine," I answered confidently.