Page 67 of Wildest Desire

“I’m coming with you,” I tell them as I throw my car keys at Travis.

“Your relationship?”

“I’m her boyfriend,” I shout at the medic. I’m going whether they fucking like it or not.

He gives me a nod. “The police will want to talk to you,” he tells me.

“We have the number of the detective already assigned to her case. I’m going to call and let him know what has happened. Maybe they can find Sam before he gets too far away,” Travis says from behind me.

As the medics slide her into the back of the ambulance, I jump in and sit on the bench by her side. I watch as he attaches her to monitors and continues working on her, while the other starts driving and talking on the radio. The words he’s using sound like a foreign language to me.

Taking Lexi’s hand, I’m shocked at how cold it is. “Why is her hand so cold?” I ask the medic.

“She’s lost a lot of blood,” he replies. Lifting her top, he examines her wounds and puts some sort of bandages on them.

“Is she going to be okay?”

The man looks at me then turns back to Lexi as the monitors let out one continuous loud tone. “Code blue!” Even though the medic remains calm, his eyes look a little frenzied, and I begin to panic.

“Here!” The driver shouts at him as the medic in the back with me climbs on top of Lexi and starts chest compressions. The back doors to the ambulance are slung open, and a slew of doctors and nurses run over and begin pulling the stretcher out.

“Status?” the woman in the white coat asks, running behind them as the driver gives their report and the other medic continues CPR. I tune them out, knowing the words wouldn’t make sense to me, anyway. My eyes lock on Lexi and the man trying to keep her alive.

“That’s the boyfriend,” the other man tells the doctor.

“I’m sorry, sir, but you can’t come any further.” She stops me by the double swinging doors.

“I’m not leaving her!”

“I’m not saying you have to leave. I’m saying you can’t come through these doors.” I attempt to take a step forward, but the doctor pushes me back. “Sir, you have two choices. You can continue this fight, making me waste my time here trying to stop you, or you can sit down so I can save your girlfriend.”

“Please, just save her. She's my everything, and I can’t lose her.” I make direct eye contact with her. “Save her, please,” I beg her. She bobs her head once then runs through the doors. I stand there unable to move, waiting for someone to tell me what's happening. Even though I know it’s only been a few seconds since she went in there, it feels like hours to me.

“Ethan?” My sister stands in front of me and wraps her arms around me. “Mom is on her way, and Travis has gone back to get you some clothes,” she tells me.

I look down at my baby sister. “Are you okay?” I ask her, looking back up at the doors.

“Shaken, but I’m okay.” She looks at the doors. “They'll do everything they can to save her.”

The doors open, and I look through, trying to get a glimpse of what they are doing as the nurse runs out. The beeping of the monitors echoes in my ears. As the nurse runs back in she looks over at me, but her facial expression is blank, not giving me a hint of what is going on.

I’ve never felt this helpless or this lost before. I feel like I have nothing left to live for. At that moment, I know without a shadow of a doubt that Lexi is my soulmate and my life wouldn’t be worth living without her.

“Ethan?” I turn to see my mom running over to me with Jackie right behind her. She wraps her arms around me and I tighten my grip on her. They say a mother’s hug can make you forget everything. If I can forget even for a second the way Lexi was lying motionless on the floor, then I’ll take it.

Cupping my face, she looks at me and all I see is sadness and worry in her eyes. “She’ll beat this—she’s a fighter,” she says, wiping the tears from my face.

I’ve never cried in front of my mom. I’ve always had this wall up to hide my feelings from her. It hurt when Edward left us, and what Angie did almost brought me to my knees, but I never cried for them, and my mom knows it. So, seeing me like this is a testament to how I feel for Lexi.

“You love her more than anything in the world, don’t you? Ethan, the riskiest thing you will do in your lifetime is let yourself fall in love,” I say to my mom, and she looks at me in shock. I’m not sure if it’s because I remembered what she said, or that I’ve taken that risk with Lexi.

“That's why she’ll beat this,” she says, moving out the way so Jackie can hug me.

“I’ll talk to your mom and Tanya, and let them in on what's actually going on between you, Lexi, and me. At least how it started, anyway. The girls will be here soon,” Jackie whispers in my ear, and I give her a nod. “When you first came to me asking to hire Lexi full time, I broke my news for you, not because you asked. I agreed because I knew she would make that heart of yours beat again, and you’d love her more than anything so she would stop running. My girl is a fighter.”

Turning back around as I hear the doors open, I look into the room. “I need two bags of O-neg! She’s still losing blood,” I hear someone shout. Before I can get close enough to see what’s going on, the doors close again.

As a nurse runs past me, I grab her arm, preventing her from running back in. “Can you tell me anything?” I just need to know if she’s going to be okay.

---