Page 121 of Finding Fate

Before his brain let him react, he heard an urgent, concerned voice from a few steps above. “You need to put pressure on it.”

He looked up at the sound of that voice and was momentarily taken aback by the number of people that had gathered around, but ignored them. They weren’t important.

“Why the hell are you still here?!” he snapped at Wesley. His tone was furious, but he could still hear the vulnerability in his words that threatened to break at any moment. “Get the hell away from her!”

“You have to stop the bleeding,” Wesley insisted, his tone more forceful.

“Don’t you,” he started to yell when he heard Jet’s normally easy tenor voice boom out from behind him.

“Dude, stop it! He’s right. You’ve got to stop the bleeding!”

“I’ll take care of him, man. You take care of Izzy,” Hector said with decisiveness and headed up the stairs.

Refocusing, Tucker saw the blood that was pooling around his girl. They were right. This was more important. He had to forget about Wesley. Izzy needed him.

He pulled off his jacket in haste, laying it across her and yanked the unbuttoned shirt from his back, leaving only the light cotton T-shirt to block the cold from his own body. He wadded up the shirt in his hands and pressed it against the spot on Izzy’s head where the sticky, wetness seemed the most concentrated.

He kept his eyes on her beautiful, pained face and noticed how ashen she looked. Her skin was always pale, but the lack of color he saw in her features now was unnatural. He increased the pressure of his shirt against her head. She had lost so much blood.

He lowered his head to her ear and started whispering to her again. He wanted her to know that he was with her. That he was there for her.

“How could I have let this happen?!”he thought to himself in anguish. “Why did I have to fight Wesley?!”

It made him sick to his stomach to realize that this was just as much his fault as the snake that had been taunting them. He could have just pulled him off and then taken Izzy away. He could have gone with her in the first place.

His tears started to fall then, and he whispered with distressed and fervent passion, “I’m so sorry, Isabel. I love you. I’m so sorry.”

Annie sobbed in Jet’s arms. She could see Izzy from where they sat, and it pained her to her very core to see her sister lying there like that. Something was very wrong. She could feel it.

“Please, Jet,” she sobbed. “Let me go.”

“You can’t move her, sweetheart.”

“I know,” she stressed. “I just need to be with her. Please,” she begged. It wasn’t fair. Tucker got to be with her. “I’ll be good,” she insisted. “Please!”

Jet heard the need in her voice and knew he had to let her go. He loosened his grip, and Annie scrambled from his arms to Izzy’s side.

She was good as she promised. She lay against the stairs and held her sister’s hand. The tears flowed silently down her cheeks. She hated this, feeling so helpless. Izzy was hurt, and she couldn’t do a damn thing to help her.

And where were the people that could help her? Hadn’t they been like this for hours now? Bentonville wasn’t big at all. The ambulance should be here.

“Why isn’t the ambulance here yet?” she said through the tears to whoever would answer.

“They’ll be here soon, sweetheart,” Jet answered from next to her. He understood how she felt. It seemed like forever, but logic told him it had only been a few minutes. Wanting to do something, he removed his own jacket and added it to Tucker’s to cover his friend.

Sure enough, he was soon able to hear the sirens faintly from the road. The crowd surrounding them murmured the relief they all felt.

He looked around and saw Hector coming up the ramp, Wesley no longer in tow, and realized he had never been more grateful to have Hector around. He wouldn’t have had a chance at stopping both his best friends by himself.

Emma was sitting on the bench next to them, her eyes wide, tears silently streaming as she watched Tucker and Annie with Izzy.

He didn’t want to look that way. It was all he could do to stay calm and collected for the others at this point. He had nearly lost his grip when he forced himself to look up at his bleeding friend the time Wesley spoke.

He had never seen anyone look so fragile, so broken. He shuddered and forced his thoughts back to the logical side of the situation. Was there anything else they needed to do?

The paramedics came running up right as he realized one major factor that had somehow managed to elude him until now. He pulled Annie back from Izzy to make room for the paramedics. She came willingly, grateful her sister would finally get some help. “Emma,” he called when they were out of the way.

She was by his side a second later. “Yeah?” Her voice sounded as weak as he felt.

---