Page 110 of Stay Toxic

My phone rang a few seconds after hanging up with Cayden, and I answered it on the car’s Bluetooth.

“They’re doing CPR on her.”

Nastya.

My stomach sank.

I’d expected her to be hurt. No one could take a chair to the face and not be.

But CPR?

“They tried to do the Heimlich on her for a few seconds right when we got here, then they put her onto her back and started CPR,” Milena said.

“Fuck.”

For the next fifteen minutes I listened as my sisters told me exactly what happened.

The first two moments there was CPR being done by the superintendent.

The next three there were medics who continued the CPR.

The next ten minutes were nothing because she’d been taken from the room.

My phone rang as I took the final turn that would take me to the school.

“They’re taking her to the hospital,” Cayden said. “Ambulance just left.”

“I…” The ambulance passed me with lights and sirens, and I cut off eight people as I made a U-turn from the far-right lane.

I sped up and hauled ass right along with the ambulance.

Since I was following so closely, no one got in my way, and I arrived and parked illegally seconds after the ambulance.

Running toward where they were unloading her from the back of the ambulance, I was one hundred percent surprised to find them moving a lot more slowly than I expected.

The reason for that was evident seconds later when I got close enough to see her eyes open.

Well, one of them.

The left one was fully swollen shut.

Her face was covered in blood.

But she was awake and alive.

Fuck.

I placed my hand over my heart as I came up to her side, my hand grabbing for hers.

She turned her face on the gurney and croaked. “’mkay.”

She was okay.

Well, that I didn’t believe.

“What’s going on?” I asked the medic that was closest to me.

“She had a piece of celery lodged in her windpipe. As soon as we were able to dislodge it we got her breathing again. At first we were worried about oxygen deprivation, but she’s answering all questions coherently. The chair to the face is what we’re worried about now,” he answered.

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