Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 133688 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 668(@200wpm)___ 535(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133688 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 668(@200wpm)___ 535(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
“I think his legs are stuck. The whole door is bent in.” I hear her say. Oddly enough, I can’t feel below my waist. The only pain is the throbbing in my head.
“Noah, can you hear me?”
I don’t have much energy, but I try to squeeze her hand. “Katie,” I murmur.
“Yes, it’s me.”
I hear the tears in her voice and hate how worried she sounds.
“You’re gonna be okay, baby. The ambulance is on the way,” she reassures me.
“Katie…” I repeat, squeezing her hand with a little more strength. Though I feel my mind losing focus and I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be able to stay awake, I try to open my eyes to look at her. “I love you.”
“Noah. I love you, too. I always have.”
I smile for a beat before everything fades away.
I don’t know how long it takes before I become alert. When I try to open my eyes, my head throbs, so I don’t attempt it anymore. Whispers around me grow louder as I try to move my body.
“You were supposed to kill him! I paid you for a job, and you didn’t do that job,” a woman snarls.
“I T-boned him with an F-250! That should’ve taken him out or at least put him in a coma,” a man grits.
“If you’d listened and been going faster…”
“I would’ve risked missing him completely if I was going any faster, Brittany,” the man hisses. “I nearly killed myself trying to do this job.”
Brittany? What the fuck? No, that can’t be right.
Why would Brittany want me dead? I only just met her.
“You did not. I was right there waiting for you with the car and watched the whole fuckin’ thing. Plus, I didn’t pay you twenty grand to play it safe. Now look. He’ll probably make a full recovery, and this will have been for nothing.” The anger in her voice sends a chill down my spine, though it’s nice to hear I’m not in a life-threatening condition.
I keep my eyes closed so they don’t know I can hear them, but I’m tempted to knock the shit out of whoever this guy is.
“Stop worrying. I never fail at a mission, and I won’t fail at this one. Just because it didn’t work doesn’t mean we can’t try something else next time,” he reassures her.
“Next time?” She barks out a laugh. “This is your final chance. The brick and bomb didn’t send a clear message, so the next time better be a success or else,” Brittany orders.
“You have my word.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
KATIE
I feel like I’m moving at hyper speed as I follow the ambulance to the hospital. It took them nearly twenty minutes to find us, and I felt relief when I finally heard the sirens. Noah’s blood is on my hands and clothes, but I don’t care. The paramedics tried to calm me down, but nothing they said registered because shock took hold. I wish Noah wouldn’t have answered Brittany’s call and ignored her ass.
Brittany.
I grip the steering wheel tight with one hand as I call Jerry with the other. When he answers, I can tell he’s smiling, but when I croak out that there’s been an accident, it quickly fades.
“Which hospital?” he asks. I hear keys jingling and know he’s already out the door.
“Mobile General Hospital,” I say.
“I’m on my way now,” he tells me. I hear Belinda in the background asking what’s wrong. “I’ll bring Owen with us too unless you want me to take him to your mother’s.”
“It’s fine. He can come. Thank you so much,” I reply, and the call ends. The next logical person to contact is Gemma, and my heart races as her phone rings. When she answers, the strength I had when I spoke with Jerry quickly vanishes. I try not to cry so my vision doesn’t blur while I’m driving, but I fail. I talk a million miles per hour as I explain exactly what happened.
“Oh my God!” she shrieks.
“I thought he was dead,” I whisper. “I can’t lose him, Gemma. Not now. Not when we’ve decided to finally be together.”
My emotions bubble to the surface, and my words come out in sobs.
“He’s strong, Katie. My brother’s a fighter. If anyone can survive an accident like that, it’ll be Noah. Tyler and I are on our way now. I’ll let Everleigh know too. I know you’re upset,” she says. “Please be careful.”
“I will, I promise. We’re in town now and should be at the hospital in five minutes,” I tell her.
“Okay, I’ll see you soon.”
When I pull into the parking lot, the ambulance goes to the emergency room entrance. I park in the visitor’s area, then run inside and explain the situation to the woman at the front desk. Since he’s just arrived, she hasn’t received any patient information yet and asks me to sit in the waiting area.