Page 70 of Dirty Desires
“Come on,” the man said as he and the other paramedic put her inside the ambulance.
I climbed in to sit on the other side of her as one of them went to work putting in an IV, and the other closed the doors and rushed to the driver’s seat to take us to a hospital.
“Is she …” I couldn’t make myself say the word.
The paramedic knew what I wanted to hear. “Her heart is beating, and she is breathing on her own. So, yes, she’s alive. For now, anyway.” He moved his hand in a circle over her stomach. That’s when I noticed that blood was seeping onto the blanket that covered her. “She’s going to need to go straight into surgery. She has wounds on her stomach, and from the bloating, I would guess internal hemorrhaging as well.”
“That truck hit her?” I asked.
He nodded. “She seems to be the last person he hit before he stopped. She made it out better than some. A few are still trapped under the vehicle and won’t be helped until they can get it moved. With the crowd, it slows everything down.”
“Fucking New York,” I muttered. “I’m getting her the hell out of here.”
The way he looked down had me worried. I stared at him until he looked at me. “I hope you get that chance.” He looked at the ring I had just put on her finger. “Look, she’ll be going straight into surgery. You should take her ring, so it doesn’t get lost or something. What’s her name, by the way?”
He pulled the engagement ring off her finger and dropped it into my palm. “It’s Nina Kramer.”
He wrote that down on the paper he had on a clipboard. “You should call her family. They should be here.”
I knew it was serious, but I had no idea it was that serious. “I will. I’ll call them.” I took her hand as it fell out from under the blanket. “Nina, you have to pull through this for me. You know you’ve got to do it, baby. You can’t leave me here. Please don’t leave me here. I can’t be alone again. I can’t.” I broke down then. I couldn’t hold it in. I begged her and begged her to stay with me.
When we got to the hospital, I walked as far as they would let me, holding her hand and telling her not to leave me, all the way down the long hall.
When we got to the double doors, where family could no longer go, I fell to my knees. Turning my head up to God, I prayed for him to please not take her yet.Please, let her stay with me.
Someone put his hands on my shoulders. “Come on. Let’s get you to a waiting room.”
Some big man wearing white scrubs picked up me and let me lean on him as he took me to a quiet, empty room. He helped me sit down, then handed me a box of tissues. “Thank you.” I pulled one out and blew my nose.
“Hey, I’ve been there.” He patted me on the shoulder.
“This is my second time being here.” I wiped my eyes, but I had no idea why I’d done that. It wasn’t like the tears had stopped flowing.
“Second time?” he asked with concern. “Man, that’s rough. All you can do is pray now, mister. Pray hard, and don’t stop until she’s better. You hear me?”
I nodded. “Pray until she’s better. I hear you.” The only thing he didn’t know was that I had done that before too. It hadn’t worked then. Why should it work now?
When my cell rang, I didn’t even jump, that’s how numb I was. I saw it was Artimus. “She’s hurt,” I answered his call, cutting off his immediate question about the attack and whether we’d been home when it happened.
“Shit,” came his quick reply. “We’ll come to you, Ashton. I’ll get Julia to call her family.”
“Thank you.” I gasped to catch my breath. “I’m losing it. I really am. I’ve never felt so helpless and lost. Not ever. This is worse than last time. I can’t do it alone. I can’t.”
“You don’t have to. We’re on our way. Just hang tight. We’ve got you, buddy.” He ended the call, and I fell back in the chair.
My life was falling apart once again. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. How I could possibly go on if she left me.
I put her ring on my pinky finger. It only fit partially. Holding it to my lips, I kissed it as I prayed, “Please don’t take her too, God. I’ll do anything if you just don’t take her away from me.”
It felt as if an eternity had passed before anyone I knew showed up. Duke and Lila rushed to me. Lila got to me first, hugging me tightly. “She’s going to be okay, Ashton. Don’t worry.”
I pushed her back, hoping like hell she’d been able to talk to someone who had told her that. “Did you get to talk to someone about how she’s doing in surgery?”
Her blue eyes went blank. “She’s in surgery?”
“You didn’t know?” I asked in surprise.
She shook her head then Duke got to us. “What the hell happened, Ashton?”
