Page 100 of The Last One You Loved
“Well, that explains it,” he said with a wry grin.
I looked down at Sadie. Her eyes were still closed. I touched her cheek, and her eyes fluttered. “I think I’m going to take a nap.” Her words were slurred, and I looked over at the IV he’d started with pain meds flowing.
“I think that’s a great idea,” I told her.
She was completely passed out by the time we got to the hospital, and I stood by while they unloaded her, following the stretcher all the way to the surgical doors. The EMTs were talking fast to the nurses and the doctor who’d come to greet them, rattling off what they knew about the situation and her numbers.
“This is Dr. Lloyd,” he told them. “She’s family but also probably saved her from bleeding out.”
He gave me a wink and left. The doctor in charge glanced over me. “My name is Dr. James. We’ll take good care of her, and I’ll be out as soon as I can to tell you more.”
I nodded, a lump forming in my throat, wishing I could scrub in and watch over the surgery but having to trust that this team knew what they were doing.
I found my way to a bathroom, washed my hands and face, and stared in the mirror. My body finally let go, shaking and trembling. Fear washed over me as my mind replayed Maddox’s terrified face, the wild race to the creek…the blood. Sadie. My fear that Maddox or Mila would be injured…perhaps worse than Sadie. My relief at seeing them come over the hill.
It was a nightmare, but I was grateful to the bottom of my soul that everyone had come out alive. That they could be healed.
But I hated that this was tied to me…my family.
Was I really a bad omen? Had this all happened because I’d strolled into town while running, yet again, from people threatening me?
I shook my head. Mama? No, Maddox was right. She was just Sybil. Sybil had stolen the money from Chainsaw before I was even in town. That part of the story had nothing to do with me.
I took several deep breaths and smoothed my ponytail, all the while trying to will the tremble from my hands. When I looked down at the blood spattered across my sweater and jeans, it didn’t help. Instead, a shiver ran up my spine. I was used to seeing blood on myself from the ER, but it was always on scrubs—and never from people I loved.
It was a long time before I felt like I could face the world again, but I finally emerged, asking at the nurses’ station for directions to the family waiting room. When I got there, it was empty and quiet, a TV in the background playing some Disney cartoon on mute.
My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out, expecting it to be Maddox, and groaned internally when I saw another unknown number.
1-530-555-8225: Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
I almost wanted to laugh because what could he do to me? I’d just lived the very worst nightmare anyone could have with the people I loved being threatened. I could never imagine Roy Gregory coming after me with a gun like Chainsaw had come after Maddox and his family today. Dr. Gregory used his fists and mental abuse to control people, and that was what he’d been doing to me, controlling me with threats like Mam?Sybilhad.
For the first time since the texts had started, I responded.
ME: Keep texting me. I beg you to. Every message you send is a nail in your own coffin, proving Layton and me right. That you’re nothing but a violent bully. You’re not coming for me, asshole. I’m coming for you.
I waited, but there was no response, and my chest filled with a strength I hadn’t truly felt since that day he’d burst into the hospital room. I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt this strong, not even on the day I’d left Willow Creek and…Sybil…behind. Maybe I hadn’t felt strong because it had felt like running instead of fighting. If a tiny five-year-old could stand up to a man with a gun, I could stand up to a man wielding nothing more than threats.
I’d just put my phone away when the Hatleys burst into the waiting room. Eva and Brandon were at the front, faces drawn tight with worry. Gemma and Ryder were behind them, his arm around his sister’s shoulders, holding her tight. Gemma looked like she was still a wreck, somehow feeling responsible for everything simply because she hadn’t been the one to pick Mila up from the party.
Eva came right to me and wrapped me in a hug that felt almost as perfect as Maddox’s. “Thank you…for being there.”
My first reaction was my normal one—to stiffen. Back tight, fists clenched. Whenever Sybil had hugged me, it had been when she was putting on her world’s-best-mama act, and the hug had always hidden a pinch or a fingernail sunk deep, warning me to stand still, to look like I was happy for her to be holding me. But the hug Eva was giving me felt stronger than any of the ones she’d ever given me before. It was full of real love?true affection?and I finally let go, wrapping my arms around her shoulders and squeezing back with a fierce protectiveness I suddenly felt toward all of them.
Brandon joined us, embracing us both. Tears littered my eyes that I barely held back.
“What do we know?” Brandon asked as we all moved apart, and Eva wiped her face.
I pushed aside my emotions, pulling on my doctor demeanor and willing my voice not to shake. “The doctor said he’d come out as soon as he was done with surgery, but she appeared stable and was talking to us before the pain meds took hold. I believe the bullet missed the femoral artery, but I couldn’t tell what other damage may have been done. She could move her toes when I asked her to, and that’s a good sign.”
“Thank God you were there,” Eva said.
My stomach twisted and turned. Would they feel the same if they knew Chainsaw might have come after Mila because of my mama? I swallowed hard, keeping my thoughts to myself.
Everyone sat down except me. Gemma rested her head on Ryder’s shoulder, and Eva was tucked up against Brandon’s chest. I ached to have my arms around Maddox and Mila. I wanted to know how she was doing, if she was still strangely quiet instead of wildly talkative, and if Maddox was crumbling.
I’d almost decided to get a ride back to the ranch or the house or wherever he’d gone, when they walked through the door with Rianne right behind them. Mila was still clutched to Maddox’s chest, but they were both clean and in new clothes. Mila had Chester and Charlotte tucked under her armpits and a smoothie in her hands. I rushed over to them, hugging them tightly, and Maddox clasped me to him while Mila tugged at my ponytail.
