Page 157 of Devious Obsession
“Hey, hey,” I call, squeezing her hand. “You’re okay. Breathe.”
She finds me and goes still.
I lean forward and press a kiss to her temple. She’s got my bloody handprints on her cheeks like a goddamn warrior. Her breath catches when my lips brush her skin, and the heart monitor over her head increases tempo.
“We’re at the hospital to get you checked out,” I tell her.
Her cheeks redden further.
The doors open, and there’s more flurry of activity as they unload her. I hop out and follow her inside the emergency department. She gets her own bed with curtains for walls. The police officer explains that they need to collect our clothes and swab for gunshot residue. All of which Aspen and I don’t fight.
They suspect us of the murder, of course.
A nurse returns with fresh clothes for both of us, as one of the officers disappeared with ours. There’s another posted just outside of the curtained off area around Aspen’s bed.
I shrug into the scrubs and hold Aspen’s hand until they return. They take care of Aspen first and foremost—as they should. But eventually, once the testing is done, the nurse eyes me like she wants to say something. Her brows are furrowed.
“What?” I snap.
“Let me check out your hands. And your face.”
I glance down at the hands in question. My knuckles have seen better days… the fight at the hockey game didn’t help either. But my face feels terrible. My left eye is swelling a bit, and every time I swallow, I taste blood. My lip is split, the insides of my cheeks shredded.
Sighing, I let her examine them. She nods to herself and disappears around the corner, coming back with a tray and wheeling stool a second later.
I sit on the edge of Aspen’s bed and let the nurse clean out my knuckles and wrap them.
When she’s done, she looks to Aspen. “The doctor will be over to check you in a few minutes. Your father’s been taken into surgery.”
Aspen’s face goes white.
“You mean my father,” I interrupt, squeezing her hand again. “The gunshot wound in the leg?”
She dips her head. “Yes, of course.”
“Thanks,” Aspen whispers to me.
Detectives arrive, as does our lawyer. We all agree to give statements here, as opposed to going to the police station. I get the sense that it’s not exactly normal, but it’s the middle of the night. We’re exhausted. And by some stroke of luck, the security team notified police of both Aspen and my father’s disappearance.
It’s all on record.
The detectives make each of us run through it a few times separately, sitting in a cramped conference room with a camera trained on me. Being apart from her eats at my insides, but the lawyer, a sturdy looking man who takesnoshit from the detectives, gives me a look. It translates to,keep calm or else.
Can’t help but agree with that.
So we follow the police directions, and what feels like hours later, we’re cleared to leave the ED by both doctors and detectives.
I’m a strange mix of wired and exhausted, and I know Aspen feels the same. We’re in foreign clothes, with blood still in our hair and on our skin. The feel of the gun going off in my hand seems ingrained in my muscles.
Aspen’s mom and sisters are safe and sound at a hotel nearby. Dad got out of surgery about an hour ago, and while Aspen’s mom got to see him briefly, she didn’t want to leave the girls alone with the security team for too long.
My friends wait for us outside, under the floodlights of the hospital. My friends hug me, patting my back. Jacob shakes his head at me, his eyes saying I’m a stupid fuck—but he would’ve done the same freaking thing if he could get his professor back.
We all would for our girls… even the lost ones.
Greyson catches my eye and nods, reading my mind. He opens the back door for us.
I hoist her into the backseat, then join her. I wrap my arm around her shoulders, not willing to be separated from her for even a moment. She sits between Jacob and me, trembling like a leaf. The other guys will ride back with Willow and Thalia, so Greyson doesn’t even worry about waiting. He takes off away from the hospital, flying through the quiet, dark streets of Crown Point.
