“Dad?” Garrett asked with fear in his voice, and instinctively, I reached out to place my arm over his shoulders. He was a little shit on most days but protecting him from anything hurtful was my first thought. Like holding him would make it better, but I thought having him close soothed me, too.
“That was your father on the phone.” Mom walked closer, and I noticed how she was only looking directly at me. “No one knows exactly what happened, but—” Her voice broke, and she took in a deep breath to attempt to collect herself. “Maddison and Grace are on their way to the hospital by ambulance.”
And my world fell apart, and I fell to my knees. My brother tried to hold me up, but the size difference between us was just too much.
I couldn’t fucking breathe, but I knew I had to get to her.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chloe
I sat in the waiting room, staring down at my hands, still stained with blood. Only the blood was not my own. I just kept seeing Maddison and the way her body flopped around uncontrollably over and over in my head.
The screams, God, they echoed.
I jerked in response to someone’s touch, and I looked up into the eyes of my father. That was all it took. Tears began to fall from my eyes, and my body shook so violently that he had to grip me tight and hold me close. “Shh,” he tried to soothe me, only it didn’t help. Nothing helped.
“It all happened so fast.” I could barely understand myself. “One second she and Grace were teasing one another, and then she fell. The horse went crazy, bucking around, and Maddie just bounced around with him.”
“I know, sweetheart.” But he didn’t know.
“No, you don’t.” I couldn’t see him through my tears. “It was awful, the screams, the sounds. I can’t get ‘em out of my head.”
Grace tried to intercept the reins and tame Storm, but in the process, it got tangled around her wrist, and I swore I heard the snap. Then her cry, it was like it stunned the horse, but only for a few seconds. The slack in the rope allowed Grace to detach the knot, and when she pulled her hand back, her wrist was twisted in an odd angle.
Then Storm started again, only this time he whipped his head and knocked Grace back into the fence. The power of his thrust caused her body to hit with such force that the top two planks busted, and then she tumbled to the ground.
I was frozen, unsure of what to do.
Then I looked up just in time to see Reed clear the fence and use the top of the fence to hoist himself high enough that he was able to get a good hold on the saddle. He did his best to slow down Storm while Gramps and Gavin worked to unravel Maddison.
And I still hadn’t moved. I stood with my back to the fence. I wasn’t even sure I was breathing. I just knew that I was terrified of what I had just seen.
Then everything went crazy. Gran screaming from the house that she’d called 911, Reed rushing to Grace, Gavin and Gramps trying to secure Maddison to the ground. I could still see it all so clearly.
I fell to my knees when Gavin said that Maddison’s pulse was weak, and I wept in my hands. I didn’t even remember crawling toward her or running my fingers through her hair, but I remember the very second I lifted my hands before me and saw the blood that coated them.
“She’s got to be okay. They both do.” The sadness in my father’s eyes was hard to see. He had always been the strong one, the one my mother and I needed whenever times got tough. But none of us knew how this would turn out. None of us knew the condition of Maddison or even Grace, for the matter. He couldn’t shelter me from this; he couldn’t make this better. No one could.
“Where is she?” I looked up to see a frantic Mike running toward the waiting area. I didn’t think I had ever seen him look so bleak. His eyes were reddened and swollen, and panic was written all over his face, in his actions; you couldn’t miss it. He was terrified.
“She’s with the doctors.” Alexis’ voice broke as she spoke, and Colt moved in quickly to comfort her.
“She was riding Storm.” Reed didn’t get to finish his sentence before he was pinned to the wall. Mike had his shirt bunch up in his fist, his face only inches from Reed’s.
“I told you that fucking horse was a liability,” he seethed, applying just a little more pressure to Reed. I heard gasps from around the waiting area, a few cries, and a whole lot of commotion. The guys were all rushing forward to pull Mike off Reed, but Reed held up his hand to stop them all.
It was heartbreaking watching Mike try to hold himself together. His body shook then shuddered with a sob before he quickly regrouped and rounded to anger once again.
“It’s okay,” Reed told Mike, only to trigger his nostrils to flare in maddening rage. “She’s gonna be okay. But she needs all of us to stay strong, Mike. We have to do it for her.” Here Reed was trying to soothe Mike while his own daughter was behind closed doors with no answers of her condition.
“It’s okay.” I knew what he was really telling Mike was that it was okay to break.
A sob escaped him, but he pushed against Reed’s chest.
“They’re both gonna be okay.” The vibration in Reed’s voice was my undoing, and I covered my mouth with my hand to hide my sobs. My father had gone to help
