Page 2 of I Promise You
His pleas for her to stay, to not leave him, caused an ache in my chest. She can’t leaveme either.
He keeps begging for her to wake up as if he can hear her, but Ari is too far gone.
I can’t see how she or the baby will live through the night; nobody could survive that amount of blood loss.
I hadn’t noticed I was crying until I blinked and felt the familiar warmth rolling down my cheeks.
Tears fall out of my eyes while I’m trying to contain Ari’s mother as she consistently tries to grab her daughter. Meanwhile, also making sure Nora stays the fuck put.
Movement catches my peripheral, but Nora doesn’t try it. I’m so grateful for small mercies; I don’t think I could contain them both at the moment.
My attention goes back to the woman of my dreams, her boyfriend’s frantic compressions, the only motion coming from her lifeless body.
We all have the proper training to do this.
Suddenly, that’s when I see something I can’t quite explain from his profile. His eyes look like they flash a dark color, and I’m confused. Maybe the tears in my eyes are obstructing my vision, but I swear all I see is Grim’s favorite color…black.
I try to get a better look at Grim, study him, questioning the need for glasses, or is the shock making me delusional? Then Ari’s mom slaps my chest, deterring my vision from Grim to her.
“Sueltame!Let me go!”
She curses at me in Spanish.
“Lo siento, Señora.” I sigh as I tell her no, turning back to Grim, as he puts his fingers to Ari’s neck, feeling for a pulse. He’s hovering over her body, his face close to hers, as he releases a heavy exhale, as if he’s been holding his breath this entire time.
“She’s alive; she’s breathing,” he croaks out in a raspy voice.
I squint at him, trying to figure out what the fuck I just saw.
The door explodes open, footsteps thud, and everyone shouts. Paramedics rush through the door, followed by what looks like the entire police force.
They run toward Danny and, sure enough, they recognize Grim and I. A lot of the police officers are veterans themselves.
My captive on the other side of the room seems to think now is an excellent time to make her escape. It’s almost enough to make me crack a smile.
No way in hell.
“Ma’am, stop running!” The police officers turn toward her, guns raised, shouting at her to stop. Two men tackle her to the ground before she’s even across the room.
I’m not surprised they caught up to her quickly.
“Sueltame!” I whip my head back to Ari’s mother as she slaps me across the face.Fuck.
My cheek burns from the collision as I finally release Ari’s hysteric mother, stumbling away, and she runs to the paramedics working on her daughter.
They’ve got Ari on a stretcher; her mother backed off enough for them to do so.
The situation looks safer.
“Mi hija, ayudenla, por favor!”Mrs. Alvarez screams at the paramedics to save her daughter.
I can’t believe this shit is happening.
I look toward Grim, his silence eerie throughout these past few moments. He studies one particular police officer, the look on his face making me nervous for the poor man.
His eyes burn holes into his name tag, and that’s when I witness his transition into the side of him I only see on missions.
He grabs the police officer by the collar, towering over him, the veins in his hands protruding with wrath.
