Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
“No,” I said. “I’ll keep an eye on him.”
Kick him again if he starts to wake up.
“K,” KD said as he moved away.
I didn’t look at him, again my gaze still on Morrigan’s face. Or what little I could see of it. The shadows of the building, as well as the very early hour, meant that I could barely see.
What I could wasn’t good. She had a small dollop of blood that was running down her temple. But she was breathing. God fucking damnit, she was breathing.
Morrigan’s breathing started to change, but that was the only outward sign that whatever had caused her to pass out—whether it be the man hurting her, or her POTS—finally let her out of its grasp.
Irrational anger was starting to sing through my blood. Why would anyone try to harm her? What had she done to cause that kind of ire?
What had he done to her?
My hands automatically went to her lower half, and I couldn’t tell you how fucking relieved I was to feel that she was still wearing pants.
My god, if that had happened, I’d be spending some time in the penitentiary again. Willingly.
Just as that thought occurred to me, the lights outside flared brightly.
I blinked, allowing my vision to adjust, and didn’t miss the way those sparkly brown eyes looked back at me.
She smiled sorrowfully at me, then my eyes caught on the bruising on her neck.
How long had she been awake? Could she even talk?
I tilted her chin up with my thumb and said, “You can’t talk, can you?”
She blinked at me twice. The ‘universal’ sign for ‘no.’
“You tried?” I asked.
She blinked once.
Yes. She’d tried. Of course, she’d tried.
When she woke up from passing out, she could usually talk just fine once all of her systems came back online.
But if there was something wrong with her throat keeping her unable to do that…
The man at my side started to stir, but before I had to kick him again, a cop car rolled up and a familiar face got out of it.
Karen, Cassius’s girl’s brother’s girl—say that three times fast—was a female sheriff’s deputy that was a complete and utter badass.
She took everything in all at once, and her eyes narrowed on the man trying to push to his feet.
“I think it’s best if you stay on the ground where you’re located at this moment,” Karen said seriously. “She okay?”
“She needs an ambulance,” I said as I took her in.
“Okay.” Karen didn’t argue. “What happened?”
KD answered that, giving her the same details as he’d given me a few minutes before.
“So she was getting attacked in the dark, you pulled up. He dropped her and you”—she turned to face me—“chased after him?”
“That’s right,” I said. “I also subdued him when I saw who it was that KD had in his arms.”
She nodded, as if that little tidbit didn’t affect her at all.
“And who are you, sir?” Karen asked, looking at the man at her feet.
“I’m Wallace.” He sounded nasally, as if maybe I’d broken his nose with that kick.
Good.
“Wallace what?” Karen pushed.
I could tell she was getting irritated with him.
However, I missed whatever else she said when the ambulance pulled up and two medics got out, both headed straight toward us.
With barely a glance at the man who lay on the ground and Karen leaning over him, talking to him quietly, they moved toward me and said, “What happened?”
I looked down at Morrigan.
Morrigan had bruising around her neck, indicating she’d been strangled. Or at least he’d tried.
She also had a cut on her forehead which indicated she’d fallen and hit her head.
I explained everything to the medics, and they helped her onto the gurney, though sitting up instead of reclined like I thought maybe she should be. But I wasn’t a paramedic, and had zero leeway in how she got treated.
What I did do was follow her onto the ambulance despite the medic in charge asking me to wait outside.
“Sorry, but no,” I said. “She’s alone, and she won’t stay alone seeing as I’ll be with her.”
The medic grumbled under his breath, and I couldn’t figure out why.
It was only when he kept swinging me wary glances that I realized that maybe he thought I’d done this.
“I didn’t do this,” I said. “Also, she has POTS.” I then explained everything that she had going on with her that might’ve exacerbated the issue of her passing out.
“Oh.” The medic looked as if he was breathing easier now, as if he wasn’t quite so scared.
I leaned onto my knees as we started to move, the last thing on my mind was the ride that we were supposed to be going on today. Morrigan, since she’d gotten helped into the ambulance, hadn’t looked at me, as if she was mad that I’d made her go to the hospital.