Page 78 of Allison

Raisedvoices pull Allison from the sweet oblivion she’s drifting in. “What the hell happened to her?” Russell’s deep rumbling voice, from just above her, pulls her fully to the surface. “Allison, baby?” Allison feels a gentle touch to her face. A hand smooths her hair back from her face. She tries to open her eyes, but she still feels so tired. She can’t get her eyes to open. She just wants to sleep.

“She’ll be fine, Russell,” Charlotte declares, confidently. Her voice sounding nearby as well. “She just got up too quickly. Leave her feet elevated and she’ll come back around.”

“Like hell she will! We need to get her to the hospital!” Russell sounds seriously pissed off and worried at the same time. “Why haven’t you called for an ambulance? Dammit Charlotte. You’re supposed to be like a doctor. You know this isn’t normal!” Allison tries again to force her eyes to open. She needs to calm him down. Russell is going to push Charlotte into giving away her secret.

“Worm! You need to drop it back a notch,” a deep male voice that Allison isn’t familiar with commands. “I understand you’re worried about your woman, but that’s no excuse for the way you’re talking to my wife.” Ahh, must be Hawk, Charlotte’s husband. “I won’t stand for it. You got me?”

“Yes, sir!” Russell barks out, sounding angry. Allison manages to force her eyes open in time to see Russell returning his eyes to her. His hand cups her face as a volley of emotions fly across his. “Sugar? You, okay?” The concern and another emotion she doesn’t want to try to decipher makes her forget for a moment that he doesn’t really care about her, at least, not the way she wants him to.

Allison grasps his wrist and attempts to sit up. “Hey, don’t try to get up,” Russell says softly. Dizziness demands her to agree with him. She relaxes back. He quickly puts his hand behind her head to ease her down onto the pillow someone has placed under her head. “We need to get you to a hospital, baby. Something isn’t right,” Russell’s voice sounds tortured. If she didn’t know better, she could believe he really is worried about her, that he cares for her. His harsh words,a distraction I don’t need,rise up to remind her that he doesn’t.

Taking a deep breath, Allison puts her hands down beside her and pushes herself up to a sitting position. The spinning room is full of onlookers. It seems everyone has herded into the kitchen when she’d fainted. She grits her teeth against the wave of vertigo that hits her. She closes her eyes, breathing deeply.

When she feels like she isn’t going to fall out again, she opens her eyes. Russell is right there in her personal space. “I don’t need an ambulance, Russell. I’m fine.” She looks up to see Emma staring down at her with worry.

Allison just wants to get away from everyone. That’s what had caused this fiasco to start with. Taking her time and ignoring Russell’s attempts to help her, Allison manages to get to her feet and remain standing without passing out. “The show is over now. You can all go back to whatever you were doing.” Allison waves her hands to dismiss them as she turns to Emma. “I’m going to my room. I don’t feel like eating dinner.”

“Sugar, you need to see a doctor,” Russell demands, none too gently, stepping closer to reach out to her. “Something is seriously wrong with you.” Allison straightens her spine, while ignoring Russell’s comment and the hand he is attempting to touch her with. She twists out of his reach and walks out of the room.

Reaching her room, she glances back, half expecting Russell to be following her, but he isn’t. A wave of disappointment washes over her. Her mouth forms a hard line.Stop it!You told him you were fine. You shouldn’t expect him to chase after you. She enters her room and closes the door softly. Even though she wants to slam it, hard, but in reality, she knows that won’t make her feel any better.

Dropping down on the bed, Allison lets out a heavy sigh. She needs to talk to Emma. She can’t stay here, not where she might run into Russell repeatedly. Her shattered heart can’t take it. As bad as she hates to admit it, she needs to go back to San Diego. Even though she no longer feels safe in her apartment, it will be better than reliving this pain over and over again.

It won’t go away just because you are thousands of miles away.Allison knows the voice in her head is right, but it has to help, a little, right? Something has to. She can’t keep going like this, day after day. If she can return to her work, the distance will help her forget. She feels certain that it will.

Allison sits up, taking her time to do so. Pulling her cell phone out of her pocket, she opens her American Airlines app. Her fingers hesitate. Can she really do this? Walk away from Russell?What about the baby?Her hand falls to her stomach, covering where she imagines the baby is nestled.

Her heart warms with love for this unborn child, one she hadn’t planned on having, but yet, has already grown attached to. “I’m doing this for us, little one,” she whispers. “I hope I’m making the right decision, and that you don’t end up hating me for it someday.” Her fingers fly over her phone, checking for the next flight out.

49

WORM

His body vibrates with fury as he watches Allison stroll away from him without a backward glance. He keeps his eyes on her, until she disappears up the stairs. He knows something is physically wrong with her. His gut is screaming at him to force her to go to the hospital where she can be diagnosed and treated for whatever ailment she has.

“Okay, well, um,” Emma stammers, breaking the silence in the room. “Everyone should just go out back and relax. I’ll go check on Allison.” Emma walks to Worm when it hits him. Charlotte knows what’s wrong with Allison!

Wallace had told him that even Emma didn’t know, but that Charlotte had treated Allison, even given her medication. He whips around to see Charlotte still standing next to where he’d found Allison laid out of the floor.

He’d been outside when they’d heard a crash from inside the house. All of the men had taken off at a dead run, fighting to be the first one through the door, convinced there was a threat to the women inside.

When he’d reached the kitchen, all the women were kneeling in a circle around a body on the floor. He’d scanned the bowed heads, not seeing Allison’s brown locks among them. “What’s happened, love?” Hawk had asked, walking up behind Charlotte who had been near the head of the body.

Worm had instinctively known; Allison was the person sprawled out on the floor. He’d pushed everyone else out of the way to reach her. He had stooped down beside her head across from where Charlotte had also been kneeling. Worm had been filled with fear and rage seeing Allison laying so still, pale, and lifeless.

He’d reached a trembling hand to her neck, sagging in relief when he’d felt her pounding pulse, regular and strong in her neck. His fear had then been replaced with anger. “What the hell happened to her?” he’d yelled at Charlotte, as Abigail had placed a pillow under Allison’s head, but he’d never gotten an answer. He’d been distracted when Allison had stirred. He would get answers, one way or another. He wasn’t waiting another moment.Fuck this shit!Allison is sick and she needs help, not everyone ignoring it, just because she wants them to.

“Charlotte,” Worm calls out loudly, causing all the sound in the kitchen to die out again. Emma stopped next to him with wide eyes. “I’m only going to ask this nicely one more time. What the fuck is wrong with her?” He points toward the door where Allison had disappeared through.

“Worm!” Hawk yells, pushing Charlotte behind him and moving toward Worm, who wants to step back, bow his head, and beg for forgiveness. Before Allison, he would have. Hell, he wouldn’t have even considered yelling at Charlotte, but Allison is the most important person in his life. He needs answers so he can help her, and because of that, he won’t back down. Instead, he straightens his spine, bracing for the worst.

“Hawk, Wait!” Charlotte pleads, grabbing Hawk’s arm, in an attempt to keep him from advancing on Worm. “It’s alright. I understand why he’s upset.” Hawk glances back at his wife with a frown. “He’s in love with her.” Hawk’s head whips in Worm’s direction. His eyes wide with surprise.

Worm opens his mouth to protest, to deny he’s in love, but he stops. He can’t deny it. He hadn’t tried to put a label on what he’s been feeling, but hearing it out loud? Yeah, that’s what this is. He’s in love; in love with Allison.

A smile he shouldn’t be smiling breaks out on his face with the realization. “Awww,” Abigail, Straw’s wife, coos. “He just figured it out.” All of the women in the room sigh, making little sounds of delight. Charlotte and Emma hug him from either side.

Now that he’s accepted the fact he is in love with Allison, he can’t help being worried about Allison and her health. He wants to know what Emma thinks about Allison’s illness or what she knows about it.

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