Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81182 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81182 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
“Do me a favor and call the cops,” I tell Ham, and with a nod, he pulls out his phone while I check the handle on the door. It’s locked like I knew it would be. Fuck.
Shoving my shoulder into it, it doesn’t budge an inch. It doesn’t even rattle. The doors are old and well-made like things used to be. I step back and look at the glass on either side. They’re not wide enough for any of us to get through and are both so far from the handle it wouldn’t make sense to break them anyway. I shove my shoulder into the door again. Once again, nothing.
“Together,” Otto says, jogging up the steps, and he and I both ram into it at the same time. It creaks.
“Again,” I bite out, and we do it again, and then Ham joins us at the top of the steps after hanging up with the cops. If someone is upstairs, I know they can hear us attempting to break in, yet they still aren’t coming to see what’s going on.
On what must me the twelfth try to get the door open, I hear the sound of wood cracking, and the three of us do it again and stumble into the house as the door crashes inward. Finding the light switch for the entryway, I flip it on, and my insides seize when I see Hanna. She’s slumped over, blood dotting the side of her head, and Kate lying close on the steps like she fell down them.
“Jesus,” Ham whispers as pure terror courses through my veins.
“Call the police again. Tell them we need an ambulance.” I drop down next to Hanna and place my fingers against her throat to feel for a pulse. It’s there, steady and strong. I move my hand to her stomach for a brief moment then rest it against her chest. She’s breathing. The reality that she is alive has my eyes getting wet. “Baby,” I call, cupping her cheek when all I want to do is gather her in my arms. “Hanna, you need to wake up, baby.” My voice shakes.
“Is she okay?” Ham asks from where he’s moving Kate off the steps.
“She has a pulse and she’s breathing. Her?” I motion to Kate.
“I can’t find a pulse.”
“What the fuck happened?” Otto asks, and I glance over at him, he looks pale and ready to pass out.
“I don’t know.” I turn to look over my shoulder when I see movement in the doorway, and spot a police officer and a woman not much older than Hanna wearing a paramedics uniform walking into the house with a man dressed exactly the same.
“Over here.” My hands shake. “My fiancée isn’t waking up,” I tell her, and she walks in my direction while the officer and the other EMT go over to Kate.
“Let me have a look at her,” she says, and I stand, my legs feeling like Jell-O. She moves to where I was and squats next to Hanna.
“She’s pregnant,” I inform her as she puts her fingers on Hanna’s neck, then she looks over at the two men, and the policeman shakes his head.
“We need to get her on a stretcher,” she tells the other EMT, and he disappears out the door.
“Do you know what happened here?” the officer asks, and I glance over at Kate, and quickly look away.
“I have no idea.” I scrub my fingers through my hair as I try to talk myself down from flipping the fuck out. “She was coming over here to pick up a box from the woman on the stairs. I didn’t want her coming by herself, so I came to meet her. No one was answering the door when I arrived, so my friends and I broke it down.”
His head jerks back. I don’t bother trying to justify my actions. It’s obvious I didn’t overreact.
“When we got in, we found Kate and my fiancée where they were when you first saw them.” I swallow as Hanna is carefully placed on a stretcher. I know I should be happy she’s alive, but I need her to wake the fuck up already. Why isn’t she waking up?
“Mum?” That one word shouted into the room has everyone turning toward the door, and my gut twists when I see Josh. “What happened?” He looks around.
“Sir.” another police officer steps into the house.
“What happened to my mum?” He attempts to get farther into the house, but the officer blocks him.
“Come with me outside, sir.” He begins to urge Josh out the door.
“She killed her!” he shouts, pointing at Hanna, and I take a step toward him, my muscles bunching at the accusation, but Otto steps in front of me.
“How did you get down here, when I saw you in the window upstairs?” Otto asks, and my back goes straight. What the fuck?