“Stay with me, baby.”
“You found me,” I repeat, my eyes getting heavy as he picks me up, holding me against his chest.
“Stay with me, Angel.”
“I am with you.” My teeth chatter together.
“Stay with me. Don’t go to sleep.”
“I’m just a little tired,” I admit, my body feeling heavy.
“I love you, Angel,” he whispers.
“I love you too.” I whisper back, right before I let the darkness take me.
Hadley
With tears streaming down my cheeks I watch the big bulking man as he climbs into the back of the ambulance with the woman still in his arms. Even with the distance between us I can still see he looks stricken, worried out of his mind. Wrapping my own arms around my middle I look at the doors to the ambulance close then I see it pull away; the sirens blaring, the lights flashing. God I hope she’s okay. I close my eyes only to have them spring right back open when a vision of that man with a hole in his head fills my mind. Looking around I wonder what I should do, I hid myself away in the tree line out of the way when everyone was running to the woman and her man but now… Now I don’t know what to do. Walking slowly toward my car I look at the hood, it’s bad but it’s not horrible. I can probably even drive it, in a daze I open the driver’s door and take a seat turning the engine over.
“Hadley,” I turn my head at the sound of my name and look up into a bright light squinting my eyes. “Jesus, fuck me, fuck me, Jesus.” Two large hands capture my face and I blink trying to focus on the face in front of mine. “Get another fucking ambulance.” The man in front of me roars and I flinch at the sound. “Fuck, sorry baby, fuck, shit, sorry.” His hands still holding me shake and I blink again.
“Mayson, ambulance is en route.” I hear someone say right before I pass out.
Harlen
Three days later standing at the window in Harmony’s hospital room, a room filled with her friends and family, I stare out over the parking lot, sending up a silent prayer to my parents and anyone else who had been watching over her.
After I carried her out of the woods and got us to the road, I found there was an ambulance waiting for us. She had passed out; her body had gone into shock from everything that had happened, and from blood loss. When we arrived at the hospital in the ambulance, they sent her right into surgery, leaving me outside the double doors. I wanted to go with her, but I couldn’t. It went against everything in me to trust they would take care of her.
What seemed like a lifetime later, a doctor came out to tell her family and me that she was going to be okay. The bullet just missed arteries and bone, which was a miracle. If an artery had been hit, she would have died almost instantly, without question. I already knew I was lucky before the doctor told me how things could have ended. But hearing how close she came to losing her life, and seeing firsthand how close to death she was, I knew I was lucky.
“Saved my girl.” Nico’s voice cuts into my thoughts, and I turn my head to look at him, watching him swallow hard. “Fuck, two seconds, and she would not be alive right now. His finger was on the trigger. You saved her.” I do not need a reminder of what almost happened, what I almost lost. That moment is burned into my brain in a way I know I will never go a day of my life without seeing it, without remembering the fear I felt, the way time seemed to stop as he pointed his gun at her and I made a split-second decision to take his life before he could take hers. “Thank you.” He pulls me in for a hug, pounding my back hard, and I do the same before letting him go.
Hearing the sound of Harmony’s laughter, I look at the hospital bed and see her mom and sister on either side of her, a stack of wedding books and magazines on the table over Harmony’s lap, and all three of them smiling at something. Fuck, I knew I loved her before, but now that I know what losing her would feel like, and I know I will never, ever take a moment of time with her for granted.
Lifting her head, her eyes meet mine and I fight back the wetness building in them as she mouths, I love you.
Chapter 13
Harmony
HEARING MY STOMACH GROWL for the third time in a row, I press Pause on the show I’ve been watching and slowly get off the bed. Once I’m standing, I grab my crutches and maneuver my way awkwardly out of the bedroom and down the hall. Going into the kitchen, I open the fridge and stare at the contents, all of which require cooking—something I’m not really in the mood to do. Okay something I’m never in the mood to do.