lips were a chalky white and her eyes rolled back; fat tears were falling down her face and into her hair. “Stay awake, Rachel!” I felt someone pushing me back, and when I tore my eyes from her I saw three EMTs with a stretcher.
As they worked over her and loaded her onto the stretcher, Mason was handing me my blood-soaked shirt and pushing me out of the house. “They’ll take care of her, but we’re in the way, Kash. Let’s go.”
“I can’t leave her.”
“I know you don’t want to, but we still have a job to do. The faster we start taking care of this, the sooner you can be with Rachel.”
This was a case going back years, and investigations on this man went back months. No way this could be over quick enough. They’d just have to come find me in Rachel’s hospital room. She was my priority.
We’d just reached Detective Ryder when Rachel was wheeled past us, and both he and Mason had to keep an arm on me to keep me from going after her.
“We’ll get you out of here soon enough, Hendricks. I know you want to be with her.”
Mason’s head snapped to the right to see what I was looking at, and we both took off for the squad car Blake was in the back of. The back door was wide open; his hands were cuffed behind his back and a phone was between his shoulder and cheek.
“He’s calling off his men,” Mackey explained when we reached him. “I’m listening to the call, he’s doing as he’s been told.” Grabbing the phone when Blake looked up at him, he put it in an evidence bag and stepped to the back of the car.
“Why are you smiling, dipshit? You’re going down for three murders and an attempted murder.” Mason was gripping the top of the door tightly as he stared over it and at Blake.
His shit-eating grin just got bigger.
“For those three girls, I will make sure you rot until you die. But for Rachel, I will make sure every one of those days you are suffering more than any of them ever had to,” I promised, and stepped back to let Mason shut the door.
Blake’s smile somehow broadened even more. “Such harsh and unnecessary words. Too bad that won’t be happening.”
I heard the distant crack a split second after Blake’s head flew back and blood sprayed me. Mason and I turned as yells that there was a shooter went through the scene. Another two shots and Mason hit the car before sliding to the ground. I’d barely registered he’d been hit when I felt the pain tearing through my body. My knees gave out, and as one arm struggled to keep me up, my other hand pulled away from my bare chest, which was covered in blood. The last thing I saw was Mason checking his bulletproof vest and reaching for me.
18
Rachel
“HEY THERE, SWEETHEART.”
My eyelids fluttered against the harsh light and I turned toward the voice. Mason—if that was even his name—was sitting next to my hospital bed, holding the hand that wasn’t completely covered in tubes and wires. Removing my hand from his, I looked straight ahead and continued to blink until my eyes adjusted to the buzzing fluorescent lights.
“How are you feeling?”
“You both lied to me,” I whispered, and continued to stare at my door.
He sighed heavily. “Rachel, you have to understand something—”
“No. I need you to leave.” Why was he here with me? Where was Kash? Or Logan . . . or were either of those even his name? My vision got blurry and my chest heaved with a sob. The man I had fallen in love with, the man I was engaged to marry, had been lying to me the entire time. I had been about to marry a man I didn’t know a thing about. Other than the fact that apparently he was a cop and a liar.
“There’s something you—”
“Go.”
A heavy sigh followed tense silence between us. “All right.” Getting out of his chair, he bent over the bed and kissed my forehead. “Love you, sweetheart. I’ll tell the nurses you’re awake.”
When he was almost to the door, I called his name. “Tell your cousin—or friend, or whatever he is—not to come in here. I don’t want to see him and I don’t want to hear from him. Ever again . . . okay?”
“Rach, he—”
“Tell him, Mason.”
Mason grimaced and just continued to stare at me before turning and leaving the room.
I heard familiar voices mixed with Mason’s, and a few seconds later, Candice stuck her head in. “You’re awake!” she cried, and her smile shook before she burst into sobs. “Rachel, I’m so sorry!”
“Candi, it’s—” All the air in my lungs left me in one big rush when Eli and her parents followed her in. “You guys are okay?! I-I-I watched it, I saw your car. It was all my fault!”
I was quickly surrounded by the only family I had left and could no longer hold back the tears when Candice and her mom covered me with hugs. “No, it wasn’t. They told us everything, sweet girl. None of that was your fault. He was very sick, there was nothing you could have done to stop him.”
“George,” I whispered. “I thought he was going to make me watch you die.” My voice cracked at the end and soon he was covering his wife in order to get in on the hugs. Eli stood at the foot of my bed with his hands resting on my feet, just staring at me with water-filled eyes. Being the strong and silent one as always.
“I’m okay, Rachie,” George said. “We’re all okay, just worried about you. How are you?”
I had no idea. My body ached from where Blake had cut me, and overall I felt like I’d been run over by a dump truck. But my broken heart was worse than any pain I’d ever known, and my exhausted mind was taking too long to numb myself to everything. So how was I? I was shattered. “I . . . I’m really not sure.”
“You must be exhausted,” Janet said. “The doctor said you should rest after everything that you went through. And I know now that you’re awake they’ll be coming in to give you something for the pain again soon; that should help you fall asleep.”
Speak of the devil . . . the nurse walked in and started shooing Candice’s parents aside so she could give the next dose of pain meds and check all the machines I was hooked up to. As soon as she was gone, Janet spoke up again.
“Rest, baby. Visiting hours are almost over and we came here straight from the airport. We’re going to go get settled in at a hotel and we’ll be back in the morning to take you home. Do you want us to bring you anything other than a change of clothes?”
Shaking my head, I studied each of their faces and thanked God for keeping them all safe. “Love you guys.”
“We love you too, sweet girl. We’re so—we’re sorry.” She cried and stepped back so George could hug me close, before Candice did.
When they were gone, Eli walked silently up to me and bent low to press his forehead to mine. “I love you, sis. I’d kill him if I could for hurting you.” I just nodded my head and squeezed his hand when he pulled the chair up next to the bed and sat down.
“You should go back to the hotel with the family, Eli.”
“There’s no way I’m leaving you alone. A guy I’d always looked up to just tried to kill you. I’m not going anywhere. Go to sleep.”
I wanted to fight him on staying, but my eyelids were already drooping and I was asleep before I could try to say anything.
THE NEXT TIME I woke it was dark in the room. The only lights and sounds were coming off the multiple machines I was hooked up to and the hallway outside my cracked door. I wasn’t in much pain this time, but the wraps on my torso and arms, as well as the bandages on my throat and chest, were making it impossible to forget
