Panicked, I glanced down at my handlebars for less than a second.
White knuckles. That was the last thing I saw before my head slammed into pavement.
chapter four
“Ah, ah. No sudden movements.”
A voice cooed in my ear. I blinked my eyes open. My vision focused but I recognized the smell before anything. I was in a hospital. I stared at the blonde nurse for all of a second before jolting up.
“No – ”
“Sit back,” she said firmly. “You have five stitches in your forehead and your body’s about to be pretty stiff for the next few days. I would suggest you take it easy.”
I stared at her. Five stitches? I reached up to touch them and felt one before she snatched my hand back.
“Stop.”
“I just – ”
“Your body needs to rest.”
“You don’t understand – ” Panic swallowed my manners as I resisted her touch.
“It doesn’t matter, you need to calm down.”
“I just – ” I let her push me back down. “I don’t have insurance,” I exhaled, defeated.
I had no money. Zero dollars. I’d already sent what Abram gave me to my landlord but even if I hadn’t, that wouldn’t have covered this. It was official: I had the worst luck in the world. Silent, dead inside, I started crunching the numbers of my latest mess. Well, I’ll definitely be missing my next couple shifts. I’d crashed my bike. An ambulance had probably come for me, which meant another six hundred dollars tacked onto my bill. God. In college, I’d brought a friend to the ER for choking on a vitamin. Her bill was over a thousand dollars so what the hell would this be? I looked up at the nurse, trying not to cry and make my panic her burden. “I’m sorry, but would you happen to know an estimate of how much this is going to – ”
“I don’t know, sweetheart.” She gazed down at me, pressing her lips into a line. “But I’ll go get your husband so you can discuss this with him.”
“I don’t have a – ”
She was gone before I could finish my sentence.
Alone in the room, I looked down at my arms. An IV needle in each and one in the back of my hand. Once upon a time, I’d have ripped them all out and just left. Jumped out a window if I had to. But that wasn’t me anymore. I’d changed for Elle and though she was gone, I’d yet to see a return of my “badass side,” as she liked to call it. Four years of teaching fifth graders had turned me into a rule-heeding softie. So I stayed in bed, staring with dull eyes at my bruised arms. I was tracing the line of a cut on my hand when the nurse returned. Through my peripherals, I could see her cheeks, suddenly pinker than roses.
“Found him,” she sang lightly.
When I looked up, my heart stopped. Abram. Wearing a white V-neck and jeans, he stood before me. He ran a hand over his jaw as his eyes trailed from my stitches to my top lip. The heat of his gaze made me suddenly conscious of how swollen it felt.
I found my words only once the nurse left.
“You had him follow me.” My voice was flat and hollow as Abram came to my bedside. I went from glaring at him to frowning down at my lap, asking myself how I could feel both enraged and relieved by his presence.
“It was Nate. I wouldn’t have let it happen had I known.”
I wanted to ask who Nate was but I’d already figured it out. He was the blonde man in the alley, who had been dragging the body like an animal carcass. God. I didn’t know the guy but I already fucking hated him. He was the reason I was in the hospital. He was the reason I was going to miss the work I needed to pay off my bills, including this new one. Breathing hard, my fists balled in anger. But I couldn't even hold them like that, my palms too bloody and scraped.
I was the definition of pathetic and out of nowhere, I felt tears. They streamed down my face as if racing each other, quickly dripping from my chin to my chest.
“Easy.” With the back of his finger, Abram caught the next tear before it fell. Brushing my cheek, he wiped it dry. I forgot briefly to breathe but it all came back with a sudden gasp.
“I can’t.” I trembled as I contained my angry sobs. “I can’t be easy. I’m going to miss work now and I’m already behind on rent. I’ve got nothing but debt. I gave them all my money.” I gave them all my money but Elle’s dead so now they’ve stopped talking to me and it was all for nothing. My voice shook so hard Abram tipped my chin up.
“Isla, I’m sorry.” He made me look into his blue eyes. “I’m going to take care of this, I promise.”
Before I could reply, the nurse returned. She handed Abram two packets. “Her discharge papers and your receipt,” she smiled up at him, so dazzled she could hardly blink. Only then did I notice that several other nurses kept drifting past my door, craning their neck to look inside. Abram. It was my first time being in public with him and I was realizing that he probably went nowhere without causing a scene. I was so busy eyeing the reactions that I barely processed what was happening.