I’m sorry for so many things. For the little boy upstairs. Sorry that Crystal’s life will be forever changed. Sorry for Corby that I’ll never let this go and will tease him about it for the rest of our lives.
“We need to stop the bleeding.” Corby’s shirt is now drenched with blood.
“It’s fine,” he tries to tell me, but he’s starting to look paler by the second. I look around, trying to find something to hold against his shoulder. But there is nothing in this room that I would even consider using to press against the wound. Everything in here screams it will give you an infection. I begin to pull off my shirt. “Don’t even think about it.”
I roll my eyes, about to pull it off anyway, but Graham shouts that he’s coming in a second before the front door is kicked in.
“Ambulance. Corby is stabbed, and there is a little boy upstairs.”
“One is already here,” he says as he rushes over to Crystal, rolling her to her stomach. She doesn't fight him as he puts handcuffs on her. I stop paying attention to them as Darcy looks Corby over.
“That’s a lot of blood,” Darcy says under her breath. “Can you walk to the ambulance?”
“Yes,” I say for him. It would take longer to get a stretcher into this mess. I wrap my arm around him in case he wants to lean on me. Fatigue tries to settle in, but I focus on getting Corby the help he needs. We make it to the ambulance, and I climb in with him. Before the doors close, I see Crystal being put into the back of the cop car and Graham coming out of the house carrying the little boy. And it’s not long before the bright flashes of light from the paparazzi cameras blind me. The other paramedic, Johnny, slams the door to the ambulance. I ignore everything else, holding Corby’s hand as Darcy cuts the shirt off him.
“I’m going to be fine,” he tells me. I nod in agreement as Darcy pulls the shirt free to get a look at the wound.
“You’ll be okay.” I keep nodding my head and saying it over and over. Blood keeps pouring from him, and there is nothing I can do. I suddenly feel so tired.
“Glory.” Corby says my name, but he sounds far away. I feel far away. “Baby, look at me.”
I lift my eyes from the blood to him. “I love you,” I think I say.
“Shit. Grab her!” Darcy shouts as I keep on falling.
Chapter Twenty-One
Corby
“There you go.” Glory pulls the blanket up over the boy’s chin. Christopher, as he shyly whispered when he was carried out of Toscati’s house, blinks sleepily up at Glory.
“Will you be here when I get up?”
“'Course I will.” She smooths a hand over his forehead.
I clench my teeth at the slight tremble of her fingers. My girl is exhausted, both emotionally and physically from the events of the day but is trying so hard not to show it.
I want to tuck her into bed and not because I want to dick her down until she’s too exhausted to move (which I do) but in a Thank God you’re alive and I love you way.
The boy gives her a sleepy smile. She holds his hand until he falls asleep. When his breath slows to an even rhythm, Glory carefully untangles their fingers and joins me at the door.
“You think I should stay with him?” she whispers.
“No. We’ll be just down the hall from him. We’ll leave both doors open, and if he gets scared, you’ll hear him. Now go to the bedroom and sit on the sofa in front of the fireplace while I make you a drink.” I give her a pat on the butt and wait for her to obey me before going down to the kitchen to mix something up for her. Drink made and snack of fruit and cheese ready, I climb up the stairs.
My shoulders are still tight as I think about how easily Glory could’ve been hurt today and how crazy out of my head I was when I saw her fall. I wouldn’t let the medics treat me until they had revived her and checked her out thoroughly. The knife wound was no big deal. Crystal had sliced me open, but nothing serious was damaged. After they stitched me up, I was ready to take Glory home, but the boy was in the waiting room alone.
Crystal was under lock and key in a different wing of the hospital, and the cops had forgotten about the kid. Glory coaxed out of him that Crystal wasn’t his mother but a neighbor who decided to take him in after his mom died. Glory suspects it was for the child welfare checks and to boost Crystal’s delusional state.