I carry her outside and I’m met with several cop cars, two ambulances, a firetruck, and every neighbor on the street.
They all watch the house with looks of shock and horror, as they try to see what I’m doing so they can piece everything together.
Rae comes tumbling out of Cade’s Jeep and running over to me, where I stand in shock, unable to take a step.
“Is she okay?” she asks, panic written all over her face.
“I don’t know. I need to get her to the paramedics.” Suddenly, my feet seem to remember what I’m supposed to be doing and I carry Thea over to one of the ambulances. Rae walks beside me, trying to get a good look at Thea.
“She was fine a few minutes ago, but now she’s saying her head hurts and acting funny,” I tell the paramedic the same thing I told the cop.
He goes into action, quickly taking her from me and laying her on a stretcher. Her eyes are still open, but she only responds to his questions with one word answers.
Rae’s hand touches my arm and I look down at her. “Breathe,” she coaxes. “She’ll be fine.”
We hear the sound of wheels on another stretcher then and both turn to look.
Malcolm is being carted out, and not in a body bag, so I take that as a good sign. They put him in the other ambulance and drive away with a cop car following.
Lauren and two cops come out next, and they steer her over to the ambulance we stand by. Her arm is bleeding worse than it was before and when she sits down and pulls her sleeve up, it looks like she got hit by a bullet.
“We’re going to take these two to the hospital for further evaluation,” the paramedic tells me. “You all are welcome to follow us after you finish up with the cops.”
“I can’t leave her,” I plead, trying to get around the guy and into the ambulance with Thea.
“I’m sorry, sir,” he says. “But you can’t go. You need to stay here, but you can come later.”
“She’s my wife,” I say like that will make some sort of difference. I’m beginning to panic now, that something is seriously wrong with her and they’re not telling me. “Please, you have to let me go. Please.”
He shakes his head. “I can’t. I’m sorry.”
“Come on, Xander.” Rae tugs on my arm. “Let’s finish this up as fast as we can so we can go to the hospital.”
I run my fingers through my hair and tug while he closes the doors to the ambulance and I can no longer see Thea.
I watch it pull away, sirens blaring, and I feel sick to my stomach.
The cops ask us to speak to them in the house, away from the prying eyes of the neighbors, and Cade, Rae, and I each give our statements. We explain the whole situation with Malcolm and how he’s been lurking around the house in recent weeks.
The cops don’t say anything, but based on the looks they exchange, I assume we have a good case against Malcolm. It’s about time the man was punished.
We finally finish up with them an hour later and can finally head to the hospital.
Cade insists on driving, since apparently he doesn’t trust me to get there and not crash on the way.
Only a month ago we were here when Malcolm hit Thea, and now we’re here again because of him. This better be the last fucking time.
Before Cade can park his Jeep, I hop out and run inside. I can’t get to Thea fast enough.
I stop in front of the information desk. “Thea Kincaid’s room, please,” I say, tapping my fingers impatiently on the counter.
“Sorry, there’s no one here by that name
.”
I growl. “Try Thea Montgomery.”
She gives me an irritated scowl and types something into the computer. “Room four-twelve.” She hands me a badge. “Go through those doors there and take the elevator up to level four.”