I really didn’t need to hear what bullshit Georgie had managed to get herself into this time. My patience with her was thinner than a moth’s wing. One more fuck-up and I was tearing free of her. Fuck my word. Fuck Connor.
I took the phone. “What?”
“There’s been an accident.”
It was as if all those words I just thought were blown up with a grenade. My heart pounded and I had trouble swallowing.
Keep your shit together.
I’d been trained by the best to withstand torture, the worst circumstances possible, pain, agony, and yet this tested all that.
I turned away from the guys so they couldn’t read my expression. I needed a fuckin’ second to pull my head from my ass and gain some control.
“She’s in the hospital. Some guy found her unconscious and convulsing at the cemetery.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“Deck.” Vic never called me Deck. “It’s bottom.”
Yeah, it was. I slapped my palm against the wall above my head and closed my eyes. “I’ll meet you there. Ten hours.”
“What about Connor?”
“Mission is dead.” I pressed ‘End’ before he could respond. Talking was pissing me off and I had to reel my shit in—fast.
“Boss? She okay?” Tyler questioned.
“No, but she will be.” Because this shit was ending.
I HEARD VOICES calling my name.
Stop it.
It was like I was in a boiler and the sounds echoed, drilling into my head. I wanted to put my hands over my ears, but I couldn’t move. Why couldn’t I move?
I was cold.
Shivering and yet I didn’t feel my body shaking. No, it was jerking—hard. I tried to open my eyes but I couldn’t see anything.
“She’s convulsing again.”
Convulsing? Were they talking about me? The last I remembered was being at the shed—in pain. Hurt. Then numbness.
A loud screeching sounded over and over again. I tried to moan, and I think I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Why couldn’t I move? It was like being immersed in quicksand, limbs so heavy.
“You’re going to be okay, miss.”
Miss? Why would he call me miss? I recognized the voice and yet couldn’t put my finger on who it was. Where was Deck? Was he here with me? He was always with me when I fucked up.
Fear swarmed me like a horde of wasps. What did I do? Why couldn’t I move?
“Sir, do you know what happened to her?”
I felt hands on me and wanted to swat them away but couldn’t.
“No. I found her like this.” His voice trailed off and all I heard were a mumbling of sounds blurred together.
I felt a sudden, sharp pain shoot through me and then it was like I was falling through a black hole. My arms strapped to my sides, unable to reach out and stop myself.
It was getting darker and colder.
I screamed and screamed.
But I kept falling, sliding down the dark tunnel until I hit bottom—then nothing.
I BLINKED, ADJUSTING my eyes to the bright fluorescent lights and the sun beaming through the window. Last night, my parents had been the first ones to see me, but my throat was so sore from the stomach tube pushed down my throat I could barely talk. They sat with me a while until the nurse came in and told them visiting hours were over. My dad smoothed my hair back like he used to do when I was home sick from school and then said they’d see me tomorrow.
As I sat up and reached for the glass on the table beside the hospital bed, I heard the slight movement on the other side of the room.
I glanced over, assuming it was a nurse, and my eyes widened and my heart started pounding, which made the stupid machine I was hooked up to beep faster. Fuck. Deck was leaning against the wall, arms crossed and looking sexy in his black cargo pants and … he was furious.
I had to get my shit together—fast.
I saw the twitch in Deck`s jaw. “Not liking getting that call, Georgie.”
“Yeah, well, it wasn’t pixies and sunflowers for me, either. And Vic didn’t have to call you. And you didn’t have to come.” But of course he would. Unpredictable Deck was predictable when it came to keeping his word. And no matter how much more difficult it made my life … I loved him for it.
He frowned and approached the bed. “Shit is changing.”
I avoided his eyes, which I rarely did, but right now I felt like crap and was a little nervous about what Deck knew. A lie. I was a lot nervous. “Do you know if my parents are here?” They could be my buffer with Deck.
“Your parents aren’t coming by today. They agree with me. Shit changes.” Oh, God, he talked to my parents and they liked Deck. Respected him. My dad even laughed when Deck threw me over his shoulder and threatened to spank my ass when I was drunk at Emily and Logan’s dinner at the farm. “Today.”