Page 86 of Sincerely, Your Enemy

My head is pounding. Why am I so dizzy? And why does my neck hurt?

“Lacey? Lacey, can you hear me?”

Only then do I recognize my sister’s voice.

“I think she’s waking up.”

The memories flash before my eyes at the same time they fly open.

Sierra chokes on a sob. “Lacey, thank God!”

It’s all blurry at first. Until I feel a pull on my hand and make out a silhouette on my right.

I immediately recognize my sister. She’s the one holding my hand—more like crushing every bone in my fingers, if you want to get technical about it.

“What’s going on?” I’m surprised I even managed to put a sentence together.

“Everything’s going to be okay,” Sierra promises.

“We’re taking you to the hospital. You’re safe,” a man I hadn’t noticed says, and I realize Sierra and I aren’t alone.

I’m lying on my back.

And we’re moving.

Well,wearen’t moving, but we’re in a vehicle that is.

An ambulance, I think.

“You fainted. Your friends called an ambulance,” the man I can only assume is a paramedic says.

“What about Chance?”

“He’s on his way to the hospital, too. Don’t worry.”

God, my neck hurts so much.

My first reflex is to reach for my throat, but the man stops me. “We’ve got the bleeding under control. It’s a surface wound. You’ll be just fine. Now, do you remember what happened?”

That’s when it hits me.

Sierra nearly got taken.

Then they tried to take me, and one of the men cut my throat.

“I… Someone tried to kidnap my sister,” I choke out.

“We know. The police will take care of that, but first, we need to make sure you’re okay.”

He goes on to ask me all sorts of questions—such as how old I am, what day it is, and how I would rank my pain out of ten. I answer every question right and tell him my migraine seems to be improving the longer I’m awake. Although, that doesn’t ease the pit of anxiety growing in my stomach.

“You scared me half to death, you know that? Never do that to me again.” My sister’s eyes are overflowing with tears as she intertwines our fingers and brings our hands to her mouth to kiss my knuckles. “Oh, God, you must hate me. Do you hate me? Of course you hate me.Ihate me.”

I could never hate her, and I’m sure she knows that. But I should definitely be mad at her for keeping this from me andnearly getting killed in the process. The truth is, I’m mad at myself.

“I don’t hate you. If anything, this is showing me that I haven’t been doing a good job. I’m a terrible guardian.”

Her face twists in shock. “Are you kidding me? You’re anincredibleguardian. We owe you everything, Lace. If it weren’t for you, Oli and I would’ve been separated and thrown into the system. You saved us.”

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