Page 110 of Cruel Vows

Keeping a tight hold on her, I open the back door. “You’re going to slide in here, and then we’re going to get to the hospital.”

“Bossy.” She helps me get her into the car, wincing and grinding her teeth together when her broken leg shifts. “That doesn’t feel great.”

“I know it doesn’t. The hurting is going to stop soon and I’m never going to let it happen again, but the drive is going to be hell.”

Ellie nods, lying back against the seat. “I know.”

As I close the back door and slide into the driver’s seat a few moments later, I know I have to hurry.

Even though I didn’t tell her, the color is draining from her face. I don’t know if she can feel the sweat beading on herforehead, but everything in me is urging me to get to the hospital as fast as possible.

The stenchof antiseptic fills the waiting room as I sit in the chair, picking at the bandage wrapped around the brand.

It’s been too long.

Ellie’s been missing long enough for the doctor to stitch me up and give me a round of antibiotics to fight whatever infection I might get. I refused the extra tests for now, needing to be with Ellie, but all the nurses will tell me is that the doctor is with her.

With a sigh, I get up and pace back over to the nurses’ station.

A woman with a blond ponytail lifts her head to look at me. “We already told you that your wife will be allowed to visit with you as soon as the doctor says.”

“She looked like she was dying when we got here.” I slam my hand down on the counter, irritation surging. “You’re going to tell me what’s going on with her and you’re going to tell me now. I won’t be kept waiting any longer to find out what’s happening with my wife.”

“Mr. Andino?” a soft voice calls from behind me.

I spin and find the nurse who took Ellie from me. “What is it?”

“Ellie is being rushed back to surgery. She has some internal bleeding.”

The entire world falls away from my feet as I stand taller, trying to hold myself together. “Is she going to be okay?”

“Right now, it remains uncertain, but we’re hopeful.”

Though, when I see the tears gathering in her eyes, turning them to glass, I don’t believe her.

“We’re praying.”

31

ELLIE

The thoughtof going home has me feeling like I’m standing at the edge of a cliff, looking down at the jagged rocks and the whitecaps on the crashing waves, and still thinking it’s a brilliant idea to plunge to my death.

Flinging myself from the edge of a cliff and onto the jagged rocks below is more appealing than staying in the prison cell they call a hospital one more second.

The cast on my leg feels like it weighs a million pounds as I shuffle out of the cardboard-backed hospital bed and reach for the sterile white and silver crutches, tucking them beneath my arms.

Sean strides into the room as I make my way to the suitcase in the corner. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

I glance at him over my shoulder, tilting to the side as the white rubber foot of the crutch nearly slides out from beneath me. “The doctors said I could leave.”

“Which means that you think you should get out of bed on your own and start to pack?”

He nods to the colorful pile of romance books I’ve gone through in the last three weeks while waiting for the day the doctor finally decided to let me out of this hellhole.

“You were supposed to be working today.”

“And you were supposed to wait for me to come get you.” Sean rolls his eyes and swoops in to pick up the pile of books before I can reach for them. “It’s a good thing I know that you’re always going to do the opposite of what I say.”

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