She leant over me and unclipped my belt, carefully pulling it off me. She had to move my wrist again which made me cry out from the pain. If it wasn’t broken, then it was one hell of a sprain.
“I’m sorry. God, Ror, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, little star,” I whispered.
She was helping me. Taking fucking care of me. As if I couldn’t love this girl any more. She was perfect.
She picked up the phone again.
“E, I really think his wrist is broken. What do I do? I can’t get him out of the car like this.” She tapped her fingers against her thigh as she listened to him. “Okay, I can do that.” Then she placed the phone down again. “I’m going have to sort out some kind of makeshift sling for you, Ror, then I can get you out, okay?”
I nodded, leaning my head back against the headrest. Why hadn’t anyone come by? Where were we? How long until the boys got here? I had so many questions and I wondered why Ash hadn’t called someone else to help us. Surely we needed medical attention.
“Little star… why no ambulance?”
“And explain why my cousin ran us off the road and why I fired a gun into a tree? I don’t think so.”
I blinked. Her cousin ran us off the road. Is that why we’d ended up like this?
“You shot a tree?”
“It was to get rid of him… I didn’t have a choice.”
She moved away from my eyeline and I heard the back door being pulled open.
“Where’s the gun?”
“In the footwell,” came her voice from behind me. “We’re far enough off the road that no one will see if us if they’re not paying attention.”
I glanced around and saw she was right. We seemed to have veered right off the road through a gap in the hedgerow and then slammed into a tree. The whole front had buckled and I was surprised my limbs hadn’t been crushed under the steering wheel. It seemed I might have had the wherewithal to slam down on the breaks first. Honestly, everything was too hazy to think about.
Ash came back around. She had her ripped t-shirt from yesterday in her hands and was busy sorting it out into something we could use. Then she helped me into it. It fucking hurt like a bitch, but once my wrist was strapped to my chest, it was easier my wrist didn’t get jostled every five seconds.
“Okay, can you turn for me and try get your legs out?”
I did as she asked, wincing the whole time. She helped me get my legs out the car and onto the ground, then pull me up and out of it. I leant heavily against the backdoor.
“Fuck,” I growled as everything hurt. My head pounded and my vision blurred for a moment before clearing again.
“Come on, let’s get you sat down away from the car, okay?”
She made me wrap my free arm around her shoulder. I saw her wince but she didn’t make another sound as she helped me over to a tree nearby, sitting me down and getting me propped up against it. Then she went back to the car and started emptying out all of our stuff. When she was done, she picked up the phone again and came over to me, taking a seat next to me.
“You okay, Ror?”
“Everything hurts, but I think I’ll be all right.”
She gave me a sad smile before putting the phone to her ear again.
“We’re out of the car now… Yeah… I think so… Okay, you’ll be here soon, yeah? Okay, good… I love you… Yes, that was directed all three of you, what did you think I was singling you out?” She shook her head. “All right, we’ll see you soon.”
She hung up and turned to me.
“They reckon they’ll be another half an hour. E’s worried you have a concussion.”
My head hurt like a bitch so I probably did. I felt exhausted like I’d been put through the wringer. We had just been in a car crash so wasn’t really surprising.
“I think I need a doctor.”
Her eyes clouded over.
“I can’t take you to a hospital, they’ll ask too many questions.”
My foggy brain forgot for a moment.
“When the boys get here, we’ll work out what to do, Ror. I promise I’ll get you help, okay? I won’t let you suffer.” She put her hand on my thigh and gave it a squeeze. “I love you.”
I closed my eyes even though I was trying to stay conscious. The world began to go dark, but I knew when the boys got here, we’d be okay. They were coming for us. For me and Ash. Me and my little star.
“I love you too.”
And then the black overtook me yet again.
Chapter 37
I started to panic the moment we couldn’t find them. I swear Eric had driven up and down this road five times already. We needed to get to Rory and Ash. The urgency of the situation pulsed in my veins. What if he’d passed out again? What if Ash was more hurt than she’d let on?
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know, Quinn. Why don’t you call her?” Eric replied, looking harassed himself.
“I’ll do it,” Xav piped up.
I scanned the hedgerow, trying to see where they might have gone. Ash said they crashed into a tree, but nothing seemed disturbed along this stretch of road. Fucking back roads were a pain.
“Hey angel… we think we’re in the right place but we can’t see you anywhere…” came Xav’s voice from behind me. “Yeah? Okay… Hold on…” He leant over through the gap in the seats. “She says she’s going to come up to the road. Keep driving along here… Angel, is Rory okay? What? Fuck… Okay, just come up to the road.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked, seeing the frantic look in his eyes.
“Rory passed out again
