Page 112 of When Wrecked Meets Ruined
“Like it or not, it’s my job to worry about you. You doing all right?”
“Yeah,” I said, distracted. “I gotta go. Something is going down.”
“Stay out of trouble,” were his last words before I cut the call and hung a left at the trailer park.
When I turned onto Evie’s street, red, white, and blue flashing lights sliced through the darkness and cop cars and ambulances blocked the road in front of Evie’s house.
I skidded to a stop, threw my door open, and sprinted up the street. Neighbors were gathered in front of the rusty chain-link that fenced in Evie’s front yard, and the cops were taping it off like a crime scene.
I broke out in a cold sweat, my heart trying to punch its way out of my throat as I pushed past the cops guarding the perimeter.
A hand shoved me. “Get back.”
Fuck that. “My girlfriend lives here.” I had to get to Evie.
That was my sole mission and the only thought in my mind as I bulldozed my way through the line of blue. Like I was single-handedly taking down the entire defense of the opposing team.
Rough hands grabbed me, yanked my hands behind my back, and shoved me against the side of Evie’s car. My body slammed against the rusted metal, making the whole damn car shake.
“You don’t listen too good, do ya?”
I gritted my teeth and tried to breathe. If I fought back, I’d get hauled away in cuffs. “I need to see her,” I said through clenched teeth. “I need to know she’s okay.”
“Coming through,” someone yelled.
The cop released my hands and gave me a shove. “Be smart. If you want to help your girlfriend, let the EMTs do their job.”
I couldn’t argue with his logic, so I took a few steps back to give the EMTs a wide berth.
Visions of my best friend lying dead on the cracked sidewalk played before my eyes. The blood. The vacant stare. But before that, before Elijah drew his last breath, he was scared. And Elijah had never been scared of anything.
Please God, not Evie.I will do anything, give up everything, just to hold her again. To kiss her lips and look into those green eyes that seared my soul and owned my heart.
I lurched forward, moving to Evie’s side as the EMTs came through carrying her on a stretcher. My gaze lowered and I breathed out a sigh of relief when I saw her hand move, but relief quickly morphed into blinding rage. Purple bruises mottled her pale skin, and blood dripped from the split in her lip and an angry gash on her forehead.
She looked like an extra on the set of a slasher movie. Except this wasn’t makeup, and we weren’t on a movie set.
Someone had used Evie’s face as a punching bag.
My hands balled into fists and my heart rate spiked.
I’m going to kill the motherfucker who did this to her.
“Evie.” My voice sounded strangled, and I fought to steady it. “Evie, baby, it’s Ridge. I’m here.”
Her lids fluttered open and two vacant green eyes stared up at me. No fire, no spark, there wasnothingbehind them. My chest tightened, and I rubbed it absently, trying to ease the ache and breathe through the pain.
“Ridge,” she whimpered as her eyes drifted shut and a vise gripped my heart, squeezing all the air out of my lungs.
Come back to me, Evie. Come back.
I reached for her hand and held onto it to let her know I was right beside her and would never let go.
“I’m going with her,” I told the paramedics as they loaded Evie into the back of the ambulance.
They didn’t question it, which was a good thing. There was no way in hell anyone could stop me from riding in that ambulance.
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