Page 99 of The Last One You Loved
I stepped back with a soft laugh erupting from me, and my gaze met Maddox’s tortured one. I wasn’t sure what he’d seen when he’d found her or what had happened, but Mila was safe, and that was what mattered most. I ran my hands over her legs and arms and back, checking for visible injuries.
“Auntie Sadie?” she asked somberly, turning a dirty, tear-stained face to me that about broke my heart.
“She’ll be fine, sweetheart, just fine. They’re going to be able to patch her right up at the hospital,” I answered.
“You saved her,” Maddox said, his voice deep with a flurry of conflicting emotions.
“Ihelpedher, but from what I understand, Mila was the one who really saved her.”
“Wh-what?” Maddox croaked out.
It could wait—the story Sadie had told me as she’d come fully awake while the EMTs were loading her onto the stretcher. I was sure Maddox would hear it many times.
We walked back to the farmhouse, catching up to the EMTs just before they placed Sadie into the ambulance. Gemma was hovering near her, face scrunched in worry with tears still pouring down. Both sisters turned pale faces toward us, and the same relief I’d felt coasted over them at the sight of Mila with Maddox.
Gemma hugged Maddox and Mila tightly, an anguished cry escaping her. Maddox squeezed her and then let her go as Sadie reached out a hand with a sob.
“Thank God…Mila…”
Maddox squeezed her hand. “She’s okay, Sads. Now, we just need you to be, also.”
“At least it wasn’t my arm, Mads. I can still throw my darts. I’m going to put that fucker’s face on my dart board and toss until there’s nothing left. Who was he?”
I couldn’t help the second choked laugh that escaped me since Maddox had appeared over the hill with Mila tucked to him. Maddox leaned down and kissed his sister’s forehead all while Mila clung to him, head buried, more quiet than she ever was. She hadn’t even reacted to Sadie’s curse word.
“That was Chainsaw, one of the West Gears, and I’ll help you destroy his picture with darts, but let’s just concentrate on getting you healed first,” Maddox said.
“I kicked him in the balls, just like you taught me,” Sadie said. “Mila ran when I told her to, which was so smart and so brave, and I followed her after throwing my coffee in his face. But he was faster than I expected.”
“Sads, you can tell me later. It doesn’t matter.”
“He dead?” she asked with a glower.
I turned wide eyes to Maddox as he shook his head. “Not when I left him with Bruce, but as I returned the favor he gave you by putting a bullet in his chest, there’s no guarantee he’ll make it. And if he does, he’ll be going where no one will fuss over him while he heals like Mama and all of us are going to fuss over you.”
“We need to get her to the hospital,” one of the EMTs said. “They’re prepping surgery now.”
Maddox looked at me. “Will you ride with her?”
I didn’t want to. I wanted to stay with him and Mila and make sure they were okay first, but I also couldn’t deny him, not when he had to be feeling incredibly responsible for Sadie even when it wasn’t his fault. I nodded, climbing into the back of the fire department’s ambulance.
I looked back at the two people I loved most, clutching each other as if their lives depended on it, and my heart almost stopped.
“I’m gonna get her cleaned up, and then we’ll meet you at the hospital,” Maddox said as the door started to close.
I hated leaving them, but I swallowed hard and sent a telling look in Mila’s direction. “Take your time.”
The doors shut, and the ambulance rumbled to life.
“You don’t have to come,” Sadie piped in. “I think this very efficient EMT here has it all under control. Don’t you, handsome?”
The EMT, who couldn’t have been much older than Sadie, rolled his eyes as he hooked her up to wires and rechecked her vitals. The ambulance bounced over the driveway, making Sadie wince. She closed her eyes and kept them shut while I held her hand.
The EMT turned his eyes to me. “You did real good out there. Not every doctor can remain calm in that kind of chaos.”
I’d given them my title as they’d shown up, telling them the best I could about the wound and the manual stats I’d taken while living the worst minutes of my life. Waiting for Maddox…not knowing what had happened to Mila…it had been beyond terror. The very worst kind of hell. My heart still hadn’t returned to normal, and tears were threatening to fall again.
“I work in the ER,” I said. “So, every day is pretty much chaos.”
