Page 57 of The Fear
51
Luis came to her.Hala just held Wynnie close and watched as he used her kitchen towels and the clear packing tape she’d used on the boxes to hold the knife in place. The butcher knife was sticking out of Grady’s chest. Hala bit back the panic.
She couldn’t panic now.
Wynnie was still clinging to her.
There were people coming into her apartment. Police. She looked up. Clay Addy, her cousin Micah’s closest friend in the world, was there. Thank God. He was the sheriff. “Clay, she…attacked us. Her kids, where’s her little boy? Where is he? He’s only two or three. And Grady?—”
“It’s okay, Hala, we have the little boy outside with Greer Hiller. He’s unharmed.” Clay took Wynnie from her, even though Wynnie just cried. She’d be traumatized forever from this. How could Jessica have done this to her little baby girl? He handed Wynnie to Luis.
That was good. Wynnie would recognize Luis. And he would stay with her, make sure she was safe and okay. Luis would.
Someone was pressing on the knife wounds on Hala’s forearms. It hurt. It hurt so much.
She didn’t care.
She needed to be with Grady.
Her eyes met his. He had the most beautiful eyes of all of the Hillers. She would always think so. His heart…it was always in his eyes.
Just how she felt for the man hit her hard. “Grady…I…”
“I…okay…hon…ey.”
“No talking,” Clay said. “We’re going to have to take him to the ER to have it removed. I don’t think it’s hit a lung, so we’re going to be real careful to make sure it doesn’t. Paramedics are on their way.”
52
He refused to lose consciousness.He wasn’t going to scare her that way. The paramedics had loaded Grady on a stretcher first. Then lifted Hala in next to him. She sat in a jump seat, watching him.
“I’m okay, Grady. I promise.” She leaned closer. Her lips brushed his forehead. “I knew…I knew you were coming for me. We’re going to get you taken care of, and then…we have a romantic getaway to go on. I am allowing you to delay it by three days, no more. I’m…I’m going to seduce you in that cottage, you know. I had it all planned.”
He could hear her tears in her voice. She was breaking his heart.
She was afraid.
Grady tried to reach for her. He didn’t want her to be afraid, to remember the accident where she’d lost her family. He knew…she still had nightmares about that. About not being able to help the ones she’d loved, especially her baby sister. Only Hala had been in any condition to get out of the car on her own, and it had caught fire as she’d been trying to get her sister out. She’d always have the memories of it.
Just like he’d always have the memories of what had happened to Greer. But…it hadn’t beenhisfault. He knew that now. It had been Kevin Chase and Dwayne Yunderhall—them. They had been the ones to make the choices that had led to his sister being hurt that day. Led to Kevin Chase dying.
Just like what Jessica had done today had led tothis.
He just held Hala’s hand, until they pulled in at the hospital. And they were wheeling him in.
Once he was out of this damned hospital, he was taking her to that cottage. And keeping her there, as long as she’d let him. Forever. Eternity. That was the one woman meant for him. And Grady was going to stop being afraid.
Guthrie was there.And Aubrey. Those two were rather inseparable now. And Genny. Hala was leaning on the paramedic’s arm. She felt woozy and weak. The paramedic had done what she could in the ambulance, to stop the bleeding. Hala needed stitches. But Grady…he was in and out. And the knife…
She would never forget the sight of that knife sticking out of his chest, or…coming at her and Wynnie. She’d never forget.
Panic threatened again. Hala forced it away.
Genny came running. The look on her face when she saw her brother…
“What happened?”
Aubrey was telling a doctor—a blonde woman no taller than Hala, with very similar wild curly hair—to get Grady into a trauma room. Aubrey was there. She was in charge of this ER. It would be okay.
