"Get on the fucking ground!" screamed the second officer, his hands shaking as he kept his gun trained on Alexander’s chest "On the ground right now or I will shoot!"

Alexander didn’t obey.

Keeping his movements entirely calm he simply walked back over to the metal chair and sat down resting his cuffed hands behind his back.

"I would watch your next move very carefully if I were you" said Alexander, his voice chillingly low

On the floor the first officer began to stir groaning in agony as the two hospital guards rushed to pull him up.

A thick dark stream of blood was pouring from his shattered nose splattering all over his uniform.

"You’re dead, you bastard!" spat the injured cop, his voice muffled by the blood in his throat "You’re fucking finished!"

"Actually, that is called self-defense" stated Alexander, looking at them with complete indifference "Being brought into a closed room and beaten by armed officers while unlawfully restrained is called police brutality and illegal detention under Article 4, Section 12 of the Penal Code, we could easily add aggravated assault under color of authority to that list, so don’t come at me with your bullshit"

The officers froze the sheer legal precision in his words catching them completely off guard.

"Call for backup, do whatever the hell you want" commanded Alexander, his eyes narrowing "But get Ashley in here to testify right now, I am not her boyfriend, I was just helping them, she was already heavily beaten when I found her"

Alexander strictly bit his tongue stopping himself just before he accidentally mentioned the bar.

He knew that associating himself with a location where Marcus had just committed a massive massacre could end horribly. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

If the police connected the dots Alexander could easily end up framed as the primary suspect responsible for the deaths of all those thugs.

The two guards and the uninjured cop looked at each other in sudden realization.

The second officer slowly lowered his weapon the panic on his face turning into sheer dread.

"I’m going to go gather the files and check the intake details" muttered the uninjured officer, turning to his bleeding partner "I think we completely fucked up, why the hell did you listen to your uncle, you idiot?"

"The girl I like arrived at the clinic completely beaten up alongside some random guy!" wheezed the injured cop, holding a fistful of paper towels to his face to stem the bleeding "My uncle is the chief of admissions, he called me and warned me! Dammit, it looks like it really was a misunderstanding... but that doesn’t fix my fucking nose!"

Back in the private examination room the atmosphere was thick with tension.

Ashley lay on the metal gurney her left arm connected to an IV drip pumping fluids and heavy sedatives into her bloodstream.

The primary narcotics the bartender had slipped into her drink were finally starting to wear off.

And as the artificial haze faded a wave of sharp agonizing pain tore through her entire body making her gasp for air.

The door clicked open and a nurse hurried inside handing a file of freshly printed lab results to the doctor.

The doctor scanned the pages his face turning completely pale as he read the data.

"This is much worse than I anticipated" muttered the doctor, his eyes widening "Miss Vane, the ultrasound shows an active hematoma near your spleen, and your hemoglobin levels are dropping rapidly, you have a severe internal hemorrhage that is actively threatening your life, combined with three fully fractured ribs, a hairline fracture in your left cheekbone, and a minor concussion, you are in critical condition, I am ordering your immediate admission to the intensive care unit, we need to prep you for emergency surgery to halt the bleeding"

Ashley’s heart skipped a beat her amber eyes widening in sheer panic as she pushed herself up slightly despite the blinding pain in her side.

"No! Stop! I can’t be admitted!" cried Ashley, her voice cracking "I can’t afford a surgery and an ICU stay! My mother is also being treated here, we only have ten thousand dollars in cash, and that won’t even cover half of both our treatments! Please, just patch me up and let me go!"

"Miss Vane, this isn’t a financial negotiation, you could die in a matter of hours if we don’t intervene" stated the doctor, his tone firm and unyielding

Before their argument could escalate any further the privacy curtain was yanked back.

The uninjured police officer stepped into the room holding his notepad tightly his face looking incredibly stressed after the disaster in the holding area.

"Excuse me, Doctor" said the officer, showing his badge "I need to speak with the patient immediately, we are investigating a case of suspected domestic violence, and we need her official statement regarding the individual currently held in our custody"

Ashley looked at the uniform her breathing turning shallow.

"If you’re talking about Alex, you need to let him go!" yelled Ashley, her voice trembling with emotion "I already told you people, I barely know him! He didn’t touch me! He didn’t do any of this! He just helped me bring my mother to the hospital because she collapsed!"

The officer stepped closer to the bed narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

"Miss Vane, please be reasonable, your mother collapsed from acute emotional trauma, and you have life-threatening fractures all over your body, if this young man didn’t do this to you, then who did? Who gave you these injuries?" asked the officer

Ashley froze her knuckles turning white as she clutched the hospital blanket.

Her mind raced back to the grimy backroom of The Iron Hide the horrific face of the bar owner.

She knew that if she revealed the truth about the bar the police would investigate.

She was terrified of bringing even more blood and ruin to her family.

"I... I fell down" stammered Ashley, looking away as a fresh tear slipped down her bruised cheek "I was clumsy, I fell down a flight of concrete stairs in the lower district, it was an accident"

The officer let out a heavy frustrated sigh shaking his head.

"Miss Vane, don’t lie to me, nobody gets three fractured ribs and an internal hemorrhage from a simple fall, we see this pattern every single day, you are terrified of him, aren’t you?" asked the officer

"I am not lying! It was an accident!" insisted Ashley, her voice rising in hysterics

"Listen to me, you don’t have to protect these criminals" urged the officer, leaning over the guardrail of the bed, his voice dropping into a pressuring tone "I assure you that the police department will protect you, if you sign the complaint, we will ensure he stays behind bars where he can never harm you or your mother again, don’t let fear keep you silent, tell us what he really did to you"

"I told you the truth!" screamed Ashley, her eyes flashing with a desperate, unyielding stubbornness as she clutched her aching ribs "Nobody did this to me! He is innocent! Now leave me alone and get out of my room!"