Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 67000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
In fact, I’d been on this one five times over the last month, because it was the only one in the area that hadn’t been utilized yet, and I’d had a feeling I needed to familiarize myself with it.
Now I was glad that I had.
Pulling out my phone, I clicked on the tracking app Tobin had sent me, and tried to follow it without making it sound like I was a herd of elephants.
Instead of taking the trail, I cut through the woods, hiking up a slight incline I knew headed to a switchback that would lead down to the lake.
I looked at my watch, ignoring how my heart rate was riding at about 200 beats per minute, and glanced at the clock.
It’d been thirty-nine minutes since I’d last spoken to her.
So much could happen in that time…
I’d just topped the hill, being careful to conceal my footsteps and breathing, when I peeked over the edge and found myself staring at a leg.
My stomach sank.
I knew those legs.
I knew those leggings encasing those legs.
I’d watched her slip them on this morning with a laugh on her face as she exclaimed at how tight they were now…
I didn’t stop myself then.
I hauled myself up, went sideways slightly, and found myself staring at her.
She was lying in the middle of the trail, looking like a broken doll.
At first, I couldn’t quite make out what I was seeing.
It was a sight that I’d never seen before except in movies, and that didn’t do it justice, really. My brain couldn’t quite comprehend what I was looking at when I first spotted her.
Then things started to pop out one by one.
Her arm was bent at an awkward angle.
Her face was battered so badly that she didn’t even resemble the woman I loved.
Her leg… It was broken.
Her hair was a matted mess.
Her stomach.
Oh, God. Her stomach.
Her shirt was ripped open.
Her breasts on display.
Her belly… It was cut open.
Just sliced from hip to hip.
And that…
I didn’t…
I dropped to the ground, my hand going to her belly that was cut open deep.
Her stomach was hanging out.
No, not her stomach.
Her uterus.
That was her uterus.
And her intestines.
They were perilously close to touching the dirt.
I called 911 using Siri.
After giving my location, I gently placed my hand over Ellodie’s organs and turned her, hoping that my hand would be enough to keep everything inside.
I felt her heart beating against my hand.
Felt the slick wetness of her blood.
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
A commotion had me glancing up, but not moving.
A man came running through the trees.
Dr. Brewn.
He was being chased by someone.
When I looked up it was to find Boss hot on his heels, jowls wide open, bravely trying to catch the motherfucker.
Boss leapt and Dr. Brewn went down, falling right off a switchback and onto the creek bed below.
Boss followed at a much less breakneck pace, but I could tell by his barks of outrage that he’d not gotten his prize yet.
Garrett paused with his face taking everything there was to take in, horror evident.
“It’s bad,” I whispered.
Garrett swallowed and nodded.
“Go,” I ordered.
Everything was a blur after that.
I wound up in the ambulance after that, on the bench seat next to a paramedic, helping where I could.
I’d done it before.
I’d done it a lot of times before, actually.
But there was something different about doing this when it was someone I loved.
When it was the only woman that was made for me.
“Baby just kicked,” the paramedic said as he held the pad in place.
I jerked my head up. “What?”
“The baby,” he elaborated. “Moving like crazy.”
The baby.
Moving like crazy.
Was that what I’d felt and not her heartbeat?
I guess I’d never know.
Her heartrate decelerated suddenly, and the paramedic—he might’ve called himself Eric—holding the wound packing to Ellodie’s belly cursed. “Get some gloves on.”
I blinked as the box was shoved into my face.
Then I did as I was told, slipping them on.
“You’re going to hold pressure here,” he said as he pointed with his chin to Ellodie’s belly. “The tape isn’t holding it well enough with all the blood and debris. She needs a bandage around her, but I don’t want to move her.”
In case anything else was wrong.
Fuck.
And there was a very real possibility that something else was really wrong.
The gloves slipped on, and then I shifted spots with the paramedic, holding the wound packing down with more force than I thought was necessary.
But since I wasn’t the medical professional here, I did what I was told.
“I’m gonna get her some more fluids,” he said.
“Eric, do you need me to pull over?” the medic in the front asked.
“No,” the paramedic, Eric, in the back disagreed. “She needs a hospital right now.”
Or she’s not going to make it.
I closed my eyes and felt the tears starting to form.
I was so lost in thought that at first, I didn’t feel the movement.