Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 103552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“Stay there,” Ford said.
“Where are you going?” I asked, my voice thin and high-pitched, brittle with panic.
“Nowhere. Just sit still.” I heard a rustle and saw the light of his phone as he tapped the screen. The screen flashed, and he said, “Someone just jumped Avery and me. I think they had a knife. She’s hurt. We’re on the north side of the barn. We were trying to get away from the crowd for a minute.”
“I see you,” West said in response. The call went dead. West was there a moment later, crouching in front of me.
“He had a knife?” he asked, scanning the light from his phone over my body.
“Yeah,” Ford said. “Where’d he get her?”
“Collarbone and arm,” West answered, both of them talking as if I weren’t there.
Normally that would irritate the shit out of me, but in that moment, I didn’t want to talk. I couldn’t get my brain to catch up. Five minutes ago, I’d been furious with Matthew, trying not to make a scene. And five minutes before that, I’d been reveling in the success of this year’s Halloween party.
Now I was sitting in the dirt, bleeding. Someone attacked us with a knife? Why? It didn’t make any sense.
“He got you, too,” West said, his light on Ford’s grey shirt, stained dark with blood across his chest. “I’m taking you both to the ER.”
“I don’t need—” Ford began. West cut him off.
“Shut it. You’re going. Don’t piss me off.” He looped his arm around my back, pulling me to my feet. My joints felt slippery, like the bones in my legs wouldn’t line up right. I leaned into West, my cheek resting against his chest, the beat of his heart reassuringly solid under my ear.
“Can you walk out of here?” West asked, his breath warm on my cheek. “I can carry you.”
That vision sprang to life in my head—West’s strong arms taking over for my wobbly legs. West, making all of this go away, bringing me somewhere safe. I liked that. Then there was the image of him carrying me through the crowd. After my altercation with Matthew, that was the last thing I needed. Fucking hell. I squeezed my eyes shut.
“I can walk,” I forced out, not sure if I was lying.
West took a step. I tried to keep up, but my feet weren’t cooperating, my head still spinning. Pulling out his phone, he made a call. “Hey,” he said to whoever answered. “We have a situation. I need a pick-up. Come around the back of the barn using the side access road. You know where it is?” He paused for confirmation. “See you in a minute.”
He looked up, scanning the dark around us. “Jim is on his way.” Sliding his arm down my back, he bent and lifted me in his arms, cradling me against his chest. “We’ll get you out of here the back way. No one will see. Just close your eyes for a minute.”
I thought about arguing or asking questions, but I settled for closing my eyes and letting the dark take me under. I’d worry about everything later. For now, I just wanted the quiet.
Chapter Ten
WEST
Avery went limp in my arms, and for a second, my heart stopped. Her breath against my neck brought me a degree of relief, but not enough. Ford was on his feet. There was a gash at the side of his head, bleeding freely, but he was steady enough. His eyes darkened with concern as he saw Avery out cold.
“She hit her head when she fell,” he said in explanation. “Is she still bleeding?”
“Not much. Whoever jumped you, got her with the knife, but she looks better than you,” I said, not liking the blood soaking into his shirt. “I’m not sure she’ll need stitches, but we need to get you to the ER. Can you walk to the back of the barn?” I looked past Ford to gauge the distance. It was dark back here, but I guessed the light on the far corner of the barn was maybe fifty feet away.
Ford lifted a hand to press his shirt into the bloody slash across his chest. “Yeah, but I’m fine. I don’t need to go to the—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” I said, cutting him off. Ford opened his mouth to object again. I said the only thing I knew would shut him up. “Look, Avery needs to get her head checked at a bare minimum. And if you bail on the ER, I’m going to have a fight to get her there. So could you just do me a favor and let me take both of you in?”
Ford knew my game, but he also got the logic of it. Avery was sweetly compliant when she was unconscious, but I knew well that when she woke up, compliant wasn’t a word I would use to describe Avery Sawyer. The surprise was how much I liked the way she pushed back at me.