Page 74 of Reign of the Queen
"Chick? What chick?" A vague memory of some girl on my lap appears in my head, but it's all fuzzy and confusing.
"Does it matter, Carter? Whoever she was, she ran and left you to fucking die, bro." Mateo leans his long body against the wall. He doesn't look too good, like he's about to lose his shit or something.
"Bro, I'm good. Just chill, okay, I'm alright." I try soothing him with my voice and words.
"Did you do it on purpose, or was it an accident, Carter? I need to know." Theo demands, gripping my hand in his.
"What? You mean like try to kill myself?" I look around at all three of their faces. They are all wearing the same expression, worry, anger and pain. "Naw, man. I don't want to die, at least not now." I shake my head.
He stares at me a few seconds longer, like he's trying to read the validity of my response or see inside the fucked-up state of my head. I stare right back at him, everything on display, hiding nothing from his penetrating gaze. I might be a complete fuck-up in every sense of the word, but I didn't want to die, or at least I don't think I did.
"We need to get you out of here. The asshole doctor is refusing to listen, despite you being eighteen. They're insisting on calling your dad to let him know you're in here and you OD'd." Theo lets go of my hand and runs his hand through his hair in frustration.
"If they tell him I'm as good as dead. He'll finish what the blow didn't manage to do." I swallow the lump that's formed in my throat, fear running through my whole battered and aching body. My dad's a psychopath. He won't think this was an accident. He'll think I somehow did it to humiliate him and show I'm weak or worse to escape him.
"I know, bro. Damn it. Okay, I managed to buy us an hour, maybe two tops, with the nurse. I bribed her not to call your parents yet, but we need to get you out of here. The problem is going to be where to take you. You won't be safe at any of our houses; Mack will just walk through the door and take you." Theo sits on the edge of the bed, his body filled with strain and worry.
"We need to hide him somewhere Mack and your dad won't think to look for him, and no one will rat out where he is." Mateo straightens from the wall coming closer to the bed.
"He can't be alone fuckheads. We can't just stash him somewhere. He almost died. Someone's gotta watch him to make sure he doesn't have another seizure, and if one of us stays with him for too long, guaranteed Mack or Vincent will find us sooner rather than later." Finn starts pacing in agitation.
The silence only broken by the beeping of the monitors causes sweat to slowly trek down the back of my neck and my hands to become clammy. I’m gripped with fear of what my father will do when he gets his hands on me. My mind is a mess of confusion, images from last night and thoughts of where I can hide from my father.
Places and people pop into my head at rapid speed, but I dismiss each just as quickly. None of those people or places will be able to stop my dad from getting at me if he’s determined to do so. Maybe I could run, leave the state, go into hiding elsewhere until I can recover. My body feels weak as fuck right now and I know I couldn’t even fight off a fly, never mind Mack Pemberton. I can’t let him get his hands on me, fear is slowly choking me, like a noose tied around my neck and tightening. The heart monitor’s beeping starts to accelerate with my fear.
The look of strain and fear on all my brother’s faces is not helping with the fear that is choking me. What have I carelessly done? I have put all of us in danger. My dad will steam roll right through Finn and Mateo with no fear. He might hesitate with Theo because of Vincent, but Vincent is a sadistic fucking psychopath. He won’t stop my dad from hurting me, quite the opposite, he’ll probably encourage it.
"What about at Mia's?" Theo questions.
"Mia? Why Mia?" I ask in confusion.
"He's right. No one would think to look for you at Mia's, plus your dad, and more importantly, Vincent won't be able to walk through the door there. She's a Stratford. Her name alone buys her some fear and restraint." Finn stops his pacing and looks at each of us.
"You think she'll go for it?" Mateo questions, rolling his shoulders over and over to release some of the tension. He's so agitated that watching him pace makes my stomach queasy again.
"We don't give her a choice. We need to get Carter out of here now. We take him to her house; hopefully, she won't turn him away in his current state." Theo gets up from the bed and disconnects the wires attached to me everywhere. The machine alarms begin to go off, so he pulls the plug out of the walls.
"Mat, see if you can find him some clothes or something. They shredded his when he came in. He can't walk out of here buck naked without drawing unnecessary attention." Finn comes around and starts removing the IV needle in my hand.
Mateo nods and walks out of the hospital room, looking determined.
A few minutes later, I'm dressed in a pair of blue hospital scrubs, my wrecked chucks, and an ugly baseball cap with a lion on the front that Mateo found somewhere. Theo pushes the hat low on my head to try to hide my features. I can barely hold my weight up, my legs feeling like two wet noodles. Sweat is trickling down my back with the strain of keeping myself standing between Theo and Finn, even though they have most of my weight.
"We sure about this? He doesn't look so good." Mateo states opening the hospital room door and checking the corridor.
"What other choice do we have? Mack will most likely beat him to death when he gets his hands on him." Finn grunts, adjusting my arm across his back to take more of my weight from Theo.
"Let's go," Theo demands, and we start moving out of the room with Mateo playing scout ahead of us.
We make it all the way to the elevator before we run into anyone else, but when we do, it's a hospital rent a cop. He immediately makes his way over to us, looking me up and down and grabbing onto his walkie, but before he can call us in, Mateo grabs it from his hands and passes it to Theo.
"Do you know who I am?" Theo questions with rage across his features.
The security guard takes a step back, and I see he's recognized him. He shakes his head in acknowledgment. "Yes, I know who you are." He takes a deep gulp, fear crossing his face.
"Then you know if you make that call and try to stop us from leaving here, I'll make sure to destroy you and everyone you love." Theo holds that walkie hard in his hand and then drops it to the ground, stomping on it with his heavy foot.
"Move bitch." Mateo shoulder checks the guard, and we all pile into the elevator. As the doors are closing, we see the guard shaking his head and staring at us, most likely wondering if he's going to get fired.
