I couldn’t see who it was, but I heard a female voice scream when a body rushed at Jensen. I felt the weight of his body lift off me, and I was so thankful for it.
“Oh, my God,” the female voice screamed. “Is she dead?”
I made a noise to show her I wasn’t because I didn’t want her to leave me. I felt the woman drop to her knees beside me and push my hair out of my face. She placed something against my forehead that caused me to cry out in pain when she applied pressure.
“I have to stop the bl-bleeding,” she stuttered, then repeated, “Oh, my God” over and over again.
“Drew,” a male voice snapped. “Call an ambulance right now.”
Drew? I tried to open my eyes but found I couldn’t.
“Drew?” I rasped.
She was silent for a second as a piece of fabric was rubbed over my face, and then I heard a strangled gasp.
“Lane?” she cried. “Oh, my God! Lane, what has he done to you?”
I wanted to answer her, but I couldn’t seem to do a bloody thing with my vocal cords.
“You know her?” the male voice asked.
Drew whimpered, “She’s my boyfriend’s best friend.”
I was his best friend when it suited him. At the thought of Kale, I forced my mouth to open and my voice to work.
“Don’t,” I rasped.
She grabbed hold of my hand and said, “Don’t you close your eyes. Do you hear me, Lane?”
I heard her, but my body didn’t want to listen to her. It wanted to sleep.
I blinked a couple of times. “Drew, don’t tell Kale.”
I didn’t know why, but I didn’t want him to know what had happened to me.
She ignored me and rattled off information to the person she was talking to on the phone. She got mad and told this person to stop asking so many questions and to send police and an ambulance because she thought I was dying.
I felt like I was floating, so I had no clue why she was thinking something so ridiculous.
Her tone changed then, and I heard her cry, “Kale!”
I don’t know how, but I heard his raised and panicked voice through my cloud of light-headedness.
“I’m fine,” she cried. “It’s Lane. Oh, God, Kale, there is so much blood.”
Kale was practically screaming through the receiver of the phone.
“Jensen Sanders,” Drew cried. “He was beating her, but we got to her in time to stop him before – before anything really bad happened. She’s hurt, and I can’t stop her head from bleeding.”
I exhaled a deep breath in defeat as Drew told Kale everything I didn’t want her to. I closed my eyes because I was going to need my rest to face Kale and my family when it came time for me to explain what happened. I ignored Drew’s pleas for me to stay awake and drifted into a surprisingly peaceful slumber.
When I awoke, there was so much activity and noise that it hurt my already throbbing head.
“Lane?” an unfamiliar voice called out.
I groaned.
Go away, a voice in my head hissed.
“Can you hear me, Lane?” There was a man talking to me, and he was really bloody loud.
“Stop shouting,” I said, causing a huge sigh of relief to echo.
“Thank God,” a familiar voice whispered.
I blinked my eyes, but only my left eye would open, which freaked me out.
“My eye,” I gasped.
What can’t I open my right eye?
I felt gentle hands press against my shoulders, and with my good eye I squinted and saw there was a man with dark skin leaning over me. He smiled brightly at me, which surprisingly relaxed me.
“What is your name, sweetheart?” he asked, his voice deep and soothing to my ears.
I winced in pain but said, “Lane Edwards.”
He nodded, still smiling. “What is your date of birth?”
I had to think about that for a second, but I remembered the correct date and said, “The fifth of February, nineteen-ninety.”
“Last question,” the smiling man said. “Who is our prime minister?”
I grimaced. “David Cameron, unfortunately.”
“That’s really good, Lane,” he said, laughing.
“Where am I?” I asked, bewildered.
“My name is Jacob, and I’m your paramedic,” Jacob said clearly. “You’re in my ambulance, and we’re en route to York Hospital to have you assessed and admitted by a doctor. You gave us a scare there for a minute, but you seem to be doing better. You’re awake and talking, and that is what I like to see.”
What the hell does that mean?
“What happened?” I asked.
Jacob frowned down at me. “Can you remember anything, Lane?”
I closed my eye and thought hard about what could have happened to me that had me in the back of an ambulance and on the way to the hospital. For a minute or two I drew a blank, and then, like the impact of a train, it all came flooding back.
“Jensen,” I shouted. “He hurt me, he tried to – he tried to—”
“Shhh,” Jacob soothed. “It’s okay. He was arrested at the scene and cannot hurt you anymore. Hear me clearly, love, he cannot hurt you.”
I continued to panic, and Jacob looked distraught.
“I have your friend Drew here,” he said, and that got my attention.
“Drew?” I called out.
I heard movement, and then suddenly she was hovering over me.
“I’m here,” she breathed.
Her eyes were red and bloodshot, obviously from crying.
I swallowed. “My family . . . Kale . . .”
“They’ll meet us at the hospital.”
I closed my eyes and swallowed.
“I had to call them, Lane,” Drew sniffled. “You have to understand how scary it was seeing you like that . . . like this.”
I tried to nod, but the neck brace around my neck and shoulders prevented that.
“I know,” I acknowledged. “Thanks, Drew. You . . . you saved me.”
Her eyes glazed over. “I heard you scream. I didn’t know it was you, but I knew whoever was screaming was in trouble.”
Thank God she heard me when she did.
“Why were you in that building?” I asked.
“My friend Carey lives on the third floor,” she explained. “I was leaving her apartment when I heard screaming coming from Jensen’s, so I called for Jack, Carey’s boyfriend, and he kicked the door open.”
My throat clogged up with emotion, so I blinked in acknowledgement that I’d heard her.
“Drew,” Jacob said, “can you retake your seat, please?”
Drew disappeared, and I yelped when the ambulance ride got bumpy.
“Sorry, Lane,” Jacob called out. “We’re just pulling into the emergency bay now. We’ll have you in the hospital in a minute or two.”
I winced and cried in pain when the stretcher I was on was lifted out of the ambulance and then wheeled into the hospital. I stared up at the ceiling, watching light after light pass by. It got a little hard to stay awake then, so I closed my eyes to rest them for a few seconds.
“Room four with her, please,” a female voice said to Jacob, who was pushing me in the direction of the room.
“This is where I take my leave, Lane,” Jacob said when he leaned back over me. “You hang in there, love, okay?”
“I will,” I said. “Thank you.”
Jacob left to go outside to talk to the nurse he was leaving in charge of me, so Drew came to my side.
“Drew?” I heard my mother shout, her voice clearly distressed.
Drew exhaled a huge breath of relief and rushed outside into the hallway. I closed my eyes as she said, “She’s okay. She’s awake and talking.”
“Lane,” I heard my mother cry, closer this time, and then a shadow came over me. “Oh, my baby.”
I felt her hands on me, and it upset her even more that I winced in pain when she pressed too hard.
“Oh, Chri
st.” Lochlan’s voice was strangled. “Lane.”