Page 16 of Viper
The mother sobs, “Trisha…”
“Trisha, can you hear me?” Callum asks, and I grab my penlight before gently but quickly pulling her eyelids up and shining the light back and forth to see if there’s any reaction, and my heart sinks.
No pupil response.
My monitor beeps indicating it’s picked up something, and I look at it and state, “SATS 65 over 45 and dropping, we need to move her now,” hoping she could have some hope in the hospital.
Callum nods as loud roars of bikes echo, and we all look up to see the club brothers driving past with Blade in front.
He furrows his brows and slows down when noticing me. I give him a nod so he knows I’m alright and don’t need my father, because let's face it, he will call him and he nods back, then speeds up before a certain biker rides past me.
Jaylen slows, his brows furrowing seeing me, and my heart races as it always does when we lock eyes, but I break the connection first, looking down at the little girl, not needing to get angry right now.
“You alright?” Callum murmurs, but I shake my head and reply, “Let’s just save this little girl.”
He nods before a continuous beep echoes, and I state, “We have no pulse,” and I get my paddles out as Callum grabs the baggy, placing the mask over the little girl's mouth, and the mother cries her heart out, absolute gut-wrenching screams echoing around us as we start CPR.
My chin trembles as I sit in my car, staring at nothing, my emotions too much to handle.
We lost her.
Five years old, so much life ahead of her, and she’s dead. All because a guy who was in a rush to pick his mother up from the airport wasn’t paying attention to the pedestrian crossing.
The police managed to track him down at the side of the road, crying while his phone was ringing continuously. He didn’t realize he hit her until he was ten minutes away from the airport, and it hit him like a ton of bricks.
My tears fall, the mother's screams still echoing in my head, her pleading with me not to stop CPR after twenty minutes.
Callum had to transport her to the hospital so a doctor could call the time of death. The mother was inconsolable, claiming we weren’t doctors and didn’t know what we were doing, claiming we were killing her daughter.
Five, she was five years old.
I sniffle as I grab my phone and wake it up, a picture of Jaylen and me on our fourth date at the beach coming into view. He’s grinning at the camera with his arms around my waist from behind, and I’m looking up at him with nothing but love.
I sniffle again and unlock my phone, another picture coming into view of Jaylen grinning at me in his swim shorts, his tattoos on display.
Shaking my head, I go to my contacts to call my dad, but instead, I stop on Jaylen’s name.
“You ever need me, day or night, I want you to call me, do you understand?” he whispers against my lips as we stand near my broken-down truck.
Smoke or steam, or whatever it was, blew from under the hood, and the engine light came on while I was on the freeway. I called my dad, but he didn’t answer, so I called the shop's number, but hung up when Jaylen stopped next to me in his car with a raised brow.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to bother you,” I reply quietly, and he snorts, “Shorty, hearing from you is the highlight of my day.”
“Shorty, huh?” I breathe, trying not to melt at his feet with his words, and he grins, “Yeah, you’re fucking tiny but you’re all mine.”
Damn…
I melt and press my lips against his, feeling so lucky to have caught such an amazing guy.
More tears fall at the memory, and I hover over Jaylen’s name, the urge to call him consuming me, and without a second thought, I wipe away my tears and press on his name before putting the device to my ear.
“Please answer,” I whisper as the phone rings and rings, but absolute pain filters through me as his automated voicemail picks up. I hang up, dropping my phone on my lap as a sob breaks through, the realization we really are over hitting me, the anger I felt that he never told me he was a brother disappearing while the agony that he slept with Cherri then kissed Caitlyn tears through me.
All the feelings I tried to suppress with anger are slowly coming out, and I can’t seem to stop them, losing that little girl making them pour out.
My phone rings and I lift it to see it’s Ivy.
Now, why did I suddenly hope it would be Jaylen?
