Page 111 of Temptation
The three of them lifted Rowan from the ground, his blood dripping from his body, and with rushed steps they started walking to Kane’s car.
“Take him to Emercroft Lake, Kane,” Ash instructed. “Don’t go back to Winworth. It isn’t safe anymore.”
“What are you going to do?” Kane asked as I got onto the back seat and placed Rowan’s head in my lap. Dylan took off the sweater he was wearing and pressed down on Rowan’s wound.
“Hold it here, Little One.”
I nodded and lifted my head, meeting his lips with mine. “I want him dead, Dylan.”
“I know, darling. We will find him.”
“We’re going after, Danny,” Ash said to Kane. “Go. Now!”
Kane rushed to the driver’s side of the car just as Dylan leaned down, putting his phone in my hand.
“Keep it with you,” he murmured. “We’ll call you as soon as we have some news.”
He slammed the door as Kane turned the ignition on, both he and Ash standing there, looking at me. I didn’t smile. I didn’t reassure them because none of this was fine. I wasn’t fine. Rowan saved my life, and I’d be damned if I let him die.
Kane turned the car around and sped down the road, leading us to Emercroft Lake, leaving Ash and Dylan behind. But I couldn’t think about them now. I couldn’t think about anything else but Rowan who kept going in and out of consciousness, grunting every time Kane hit a hole in the road.
“It’s going to be okay,” I murmured to Rowan, dragging my hand through his hair. “Everything is going to be okay. Just hold on. Hold on for me, Ro.”
I just hoped that we had enough time.
21
SKYLAR
I stared at the white,blank wall in the waiting area, flinching every time a siren sounded, breaking through my mind like a hammer through the wall. I had no idea how much time passed since we drove to the Emergency Center in Emercroft Lake, but the blood on my hands was already dried; the crimson color covering most of my skin, all the way to my elbows.
My tears had dried up somewhere on the way to Emercroft Lake, and I stitched my insides the best that I could while I held Rowan on my lap, begging the universe not to take him away from us.
There was a crack on the wall. Tiny, almost invisible, but it was there, slowly spreading over the white surface, destroying the perfection they tried to create by painting it white. The antiseptic tickled my nose, and I had a feeling that I would never be able to get rid of it from my mind.
Nurses and doctors rushed through the hallway I sat in, the machines beeped around me, but I couldn’t stand up from here even if I wanted to. With my elbows on my knees, and the sharp claws cutting through my heart, I was powerless to do anything.
“Don’t leave me, Ro!” I had shouted so many times in the car, begging Kane to go faster. Begging for a miracle as Rowan’s eyes started closing. Rain poured over the car as soon as we entered Emercroft Lake, speeding down the road toward the Emergency Center, and that repetitivethump-thump-thumpfrom the raindrops on the windshield was always going to be etched in my brain like a bad memory I would never be able to escape from.
To think that I used to love rain.
I turned my head to my left, my eyes narrowed at the hallway where they took Rowan. Somebody cleaned the traces of his blood from the floor, but I could still see it as clear as day. Drop after drop on the white marble floor, smeared by the wheels from the gurney they rolled him in on. A baby started crying somewhere on my right, and I closed my eyes, trying to fight through the fog in my mind.
Danny shot his own brother, trying to kill me.
Danny who used to be my best friend.
A sob tore from my chest, and I hung my head low, wiping a wayward tear from my cheek. I looked at my palm, where dirt and blood mixed, and I had no idea if it was only Rowan’s blood on my hands or if it was my own as well from when I fell to the ground.
I should feel something, anything. At least then I would know that I was alive and well, sitting here, while Rowan fought for his life somewhere inside.
“Family only,” they said when they stopped me from going inside.
But I am family, I wanted to scream at them. I wanted to push through the two doctors blocking my path, but I couldn’t. I had no legal documents that would show us as being related, and if it wasn’t for the apathy trickling through my bloodstream, the temptation to just get up and go inside, regardless of the consequences, would be too strong to resist.
Temptation.
I was surrounded by it. Everywhere I looked there were cabinets filled with medicine, and I knew that if I got my fingers on some of them, I would be able to stop this fucking torment in my heart.
