Page 16 of Lost in the Light

“K-Kane!” I gasped. It barely came out as Asher laid Kane down on the ground and felt for his pulse, I just watched on, each second feeling like an eternity as I waited for Asher’s reaction. Kane couldn’t die. He couldn’t. I couldn’t lose him. I needed him.

“Pulse is steady,” I heard Asher say.

“He’s breathing,” Adam added. “Looks like he took a hit to the head.”

“Eli? Is she okay?” Asher called as he looked over to me. Tears were streaming down my face again, but this time it was relief that overwhelmed me. Kane was alive.

“Her breathing sounds bad! Where are the EMT’s?” he cried.

Exhaustion and relief overwhelmed me and I just managed to lean towards Jordan before everything went black and my fight to breathe came to an end. Kane was safe. That was all that mattered.

JORDAN

“Addy,” I gasped as she slumped forwards against me. I grabbed her and pulled her up, desperate to see her eyes looking back at me, but they were closed.

“Addy?” Eli panicked as he grabbed her and lay her back on the ground. As soon as she lay flat I pressed my fingers to her neck to check her pulse, but it was there and pounding hard.

“I think she just passed out,” I told Eli as I pulled the hood on Addy’s coat up over her head so it wasn’t lying in the cold snow.

“Her heart?” Asher asked as he dropped to the ground opposite me, on Addy’s other side.

“Her pulse is strong and fast. It’s not like last time,” I assured him.

“Where’s the ambulance? Her breathing…” I got why Eli was panicking. Addy’s breaths were so loud, each intake of air a deep, raspy wheeze.

“She’ll be okay, Eli,” I whispered as I brushed wild strands of hair from Addy’s soot covered face. I had one of her hands gripped tightly in mine as I tried to rein in my own panic.

I’d almost had a damned heart attack when I heard that explosion. I think I’d leapt the whole staircase in two strides in my race to get downstairs, where I had already heard Addy head that morning.

I’d gotten to the kitchen door just in time to see her go into the burning building and I had lost it then. The fear of losing her had adrenaline coursing through every cell of my body as I ran out after her. Asher and Adam had been right behind me, and my brother had stopped me from running into the office after Addy, pushing me back and charging in himself instead, Asher right on his heels.

Eli and I had been helpless to do anything but just stand and wait for everyone we cared about to come back out of that crumbling building.

“We need to get some security here, Ash, don’t we? Who did that?” Eli panicked as he looked from the almost completely decimated building, then to his brother.

“I’ll ready sent texts to Leo and Pierce. They’re on the way, but we’re going to need more. I’ll handle it,” Asher assured us all.

I had missed the way he and Adam both seemed to have their heads on a swivel, checking all around us constantly for threats. It had been ignorant of me not to have been doing the same thing, I realized. Someone had just blown up a building on our property. Why would they do that unless it was part of a bigger plan?

“We should get Addy inside. It’s safer,” I suggested as I looked to my brother with concern. I saw my own worry reflected in his face, but he was staying with Kane, who was bleeding from the back of his head and still out cold.

Before anyone could say another word, the sound of ambulance sirens filled the air around us. Minutes later EMTs were checking over Addy and Kane and loading them into two separate ambulances. The EMT’s explained they both had low oxygen levels and that Kane would need a head CT, but that was all they would give us.

“Are you doing alright?” I asked my brother as I drove behind the ambulances in my truck. Asher had gone with Kane and Eli with Addy, and we said we’d follow. Behind us was Leo, one of Kane’s security team who had turned up just as the ambulances were leaving, in his SUV. He’d told Ash he’d call in more men to meet us at the hospital, but until they arrived he and the four of us were all the security we had.

“Fuck no! Two people I care about are in those ambulances, Jord,” Adam sighed, sounding exhausted.

“Stupid question,” I told him. “I just…I was worried…you know, because of mom and dad. Did the fire bring it all back?”

“I’m fine, Jordan,” he dismissed me. “Let’s just focus on Kane and Addy, and keeping everyone safe.” I was pretty sure he was far from fine, but I chose to let it go for now. I would, however, be keeping a close eye on him until I was sure that fire hadn’t brought back any old demons. I couldn’t lose my brother again. None of us could. We needed him and I would not allow drugs to take him from me as they had for so long before.

“Do you think they were after Addy? The people who set the explosion?” I asked.

“Seems likely, but Joseph Lyle had a lot of enemies. It could be one of them trying to scare Ash and Eli. The local PD will assess the scene and let Asher know if they find anything.” Adam’s whole body was taut with tension as he spoke and I knew he was just as terrified as I was about Addy. We both cared deeply for her and she was in so much danger right now. It would ruin both of us if we lost her. We couldn’t allow it to happen.

The rest of the drive to the hospital was quiet and when we arrived I slammed my truck into the first space I saw and leapt out, just as Adam had. We ran towards the doors into the ER and found Asher and Eli in the waiting room. Eli was sat with his head in his hands, his elbows rested on his knees, while Asher paced back and forth before him, speaking to someone on his cell.

“Eli?” I sat down beside the guy who had been my best friend for as long as I could remember and clamped a supportive hand on his shoulder. “What’s happening?”

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