“Not sure I follow you.”
“Asked for something you really wanted. You’re not really praying for it, or wishing for it, but just out right asking for it,” she said.
“What is it you asked for?”
“I just wanted all of us to be together again… for the wedding. I was so aggravated that no one would call us back with a date we could all work with. I felt put off, but worse, I felt like they were putting you off, and well, it kind of pissed me off. So one day, on my way home from work, I said it out loud.”
“Said what exactly?”
She groaned. “You don’t want to know everything I said. Trust me. The gist of it was ‘is it too much to ask that everyone be together for a damn weekend so Mark and I can get married?’”
“Yep. Totally your fault,” I said, catching her hand before it slammed into my chest.
“That does not make me feel any better, Mark,” she grumbled.
“It’s not your fault. Nothing you said put any of this in motion,” I answered. “Besides, if you had that kind of power, you should have put it to use and said something like ‘is it too much to ask that Mark and I have a really nice house and a fat bank account.’”
She pushed away from my and sat up. “Oh, har-har, you’re really funny.”
“Or you could have went with something like a mansion on a private island. That would have been nice,” I said, smirking when she rolled her eyes at me.
She pushed her hair out of her face, scowling. “I never should have told you.”
I stretched, feeling muscle and bone grind and pop before settling against the mattress. “I’m glad you did. Now we can use humor and avoidance in order to get through this together.”
She leaned over me, poking me in the side. “That’s a delusional way of dealing with it.”
“Better than letting it overwhelm us. Besides, there’s nothing we can do about it now. Better to go with the flow than fight the current.”
“Are you talking about the situation, or the wedding they, for some reason, are still planning?” she asked.
“Both. Seems to me at least now that we’re here, and eventually the others will be back, it would be the perfect time to have the wedding,” I answered, feeling my eyelids droop.
“Mark?” She nudged me.
“Hmm?” I fought to open my eyes.
“It would have been easier to elope,” she said, giving up and lying down beside me.
“Probably,” I said, curling my arm around her and placing a kiss to her hair. “But I’m glad we didn’t.”
“SO… BAD NEWS,” JARED SAID as soon as Paige and I stepped into the kitchen.
Paige growled as she passed by him, making her way to the coffee pot.
“You should probably wait a few minutes before you finish whatever it is you were about to say,” I told him as I pulled the creamer from the fridge.
“Morning, everyone,” Airen said, whisking into the kitchen. “Aiden said te tell ye all he says hello.”
“Any word yet on the breach?” Jared asked.
“No, and there’s no sign of Evan either,” she answered.
“They probably won’t—”
Jared was cut off at the sound of an explosion.
Paige dropped the coffee cups on the table, sloshing coffee over the sides. Before I could stop her, she took off toward the front door.
“Where the hell are you going?” Jared bellowed, running to catch up with her, making it to her just as her hand touched the doorknob.
“Move, Jared,” she said as he put himself between her and the door.
“You can’t just run out there!”
“Someone could be hurt!” She shoved at him, but he wouldn’t budge.
“Damn it, Paige!”
“Don’t you damn it me, Jared. Move before I move you!”
“I’m not letting you—”
“I’m not gonna tell you again—”
“It’s suicide—”
“Enough!” Eli bellowed, stilling both Jared and Paige.
“Wow… I had no idea you could get that loud,” Riley said, jogging down the last few stairs. “Whatever you do, do not open that door! Oliver just called and said one of the traps he set up went off. No one is allowed outside until the dust settles and he can get a clear image on the security cameras.”
Paige’s face blanched. “What? He actually set up some sort of explosive device? Are there more?”
“Several,” Riley answered.
“He wasn’t kidding when he told us to stay put before he left,” Eli added.
“Well, isn’t that just wonderful?” Paige replied before storming back to the kitchen.
I’d really thought after the craziness of the past few days we’d get some sort of reprieve, but that seemed not to be the case. Paige would be impossible to talk to until she calmed down. God only knew how long it would take. I didn’t really blame her either. All of it was complete bullshit. Who the hell would plant explosives around a group of people just to keep them safe?
Riley’s phone rang, setting off a whole new wave of crazy.
“Eli, Oliver needs to talk to you,” she said, handing the phone over with a pinched expression.
Eli put the phone up to his ear, walking away from us and heading toward a door tucked into the back of the living room. His voice muffled as he asked, “How bad?” before he disappeared from sight.
“What’s wrong? Did something happen?” I asked.
“Oliver found Evan,” Riley answered.
“Well, that’s good, right?” I said.
Riley moved across the room and pushed the curtain back as she looked out over the yard. “Not really. He’s the one who tripped the explosion. Oliver wants Eli to take a field kit and go see if he’s still alive.”
“I’m going with him,” Paige said.
“You can’t go out there. It’s dangerous,” I said, grabbing her arm and pulling her close to me.
She jerked her arm from me. “I damn well can, and I will. If that guy was caught in the explosion, Eli will need all the help he can get.”
“We don’t know if he’s even alive,” Jared fired back at her.
“And?” Paige asked, eyebrow quirking as if daring him to say more.
Jared hissed between his teeth, and then pulled in a deep breath as if gearing up.
“Stow it, Jared. I have the medical training to handle this. Eli will need help, even if the guy isn’t alive. He can’t carry a body and all the gear.”
“So I’ll go and help him. You stay here,” Jared said.
“Come if you like, but it’s not going to stop me from going,” she fired back at him.
“…I’ll let you know,” Eli’s voice broke in as he carried a book bag stuffed to the point of roundness. “I’ll need Paige. Oliver said from what he can see from the security cameras, Evan is still alive, but we need to hurry.”
I'VE HANDLED MY FAIR SHARE of traumas without batting an eye. I’ve seen death, and I’ve witnessed a miracle or two in my short time working in the medical field. But never had I seen such a sight as the body lying beside a clump of scrub pine looking like it had been shot out of cannon. The clothes were blackened with soot. Charred in spots, burned clean through in others. Limbs were twisted haphazardly. Broken bones were evident. How many was unknown. Contusions in the hundreds. Stitching would be needed.
“I hope you brought a lot of Band-Aids,” I said over my shoulder as I jogged to where the body was.
“Brought enough to field dress him,” Eli replied, sliding in beside me and jerking the bag open.
There was a long stretch of minutes where neither of us talked, yet worked alongside one another as we patched the young man, Evan, back together.
Blood soaked the ground. The material of my jeans stuck fast to my knees as I stood, taking hold of the foot of the canvas stretcher we’d moved Evan onto.
“He needs to be in a hospital,” I said, shifting my feet to compensate the weight as Eli ad
justed his hold.
“We’ll just have to do the best we can with what we have,” Eli answered with a slight strain to his voice.
“That’s not very assuring,” I said, as we trekked along the path Oliver instructed us to take.
“Don’t worry. You haven’t seen what we have,” he said, winking.
Our patient hadn’t come around, which worried me. He should have at least made a few noises while we poked and prodded his injuries.
“Do you think he’ll make it?” I asked Eli.
“Hard to say. He’s lost a lot of blood, and that gash doesn’t look very promising. If he wakes up, he might not even remember who he is,” Eli answered, tipping his head at our patient.
“That would make questioning him difficult,” I huffed, lifting my end of the stretcher up high enough to slide along the bed of the small pickup truck Eli had driven us in.
“What other stuff is stashed out here, I wonder?” I said, climbing into the back and crouching into place to keep an eye on the patient while Eli drove us back.
“The better question would probably be what isn’t here,” Eli answered before getting behind the wheel.
“What indeed?” I said as the truck rolled forward.
It took longer to get back with Eli driving slowly so as to not jolt Evan around too much.
When we made it to the house, he pulled around the back and shut the engine off.
Mark and Josh opened the back door. Between the four of us, we got Evan in the house and settled into one of the rooms downstairs.
“Stay here and keep an eye on him while I go grab what we need,” Eli said, slipping out the door and leaving me to watch over Evan’s inert form.
Mark stayed behind with me, tossing worried looks at me when he thought I wasn’t watching. But I was always watching. I didn’t miss much.
His jaw clenched and then unclenched as his hands moved from his pockets to his face. He pinched the bridge of his nose. Dropping his hand, he spun on his heel to look out the window. His fidgeting told me how uncomfortable he was with the situation. His jerky movements also told me he was angry about something, but wasn’t ready to talk about it. I knew part of his anger stemmed from being told he wasn’t allowed to go out of the house to help recover the body. That he had to stay behind for his own safety.
He turned around, mouth twitching as if trying to form his question, when Eli came in, arms loaded. “Are you good with putting in the IV?” he asked.
“Yes, but do we have something to hang it from?”
He walked over to the side of the bed, flipping up a metal bar with a hook looped at the end.
In the pile of things he’d brought was a box of gloves. I donned a new pair. Within a few minutes, I had Evan hooked up. The slow drip of fluid shimmered against the light coming in from the window.
“He’ll need antibiotics and pain meds,” Eli said, pulling his phone out and shooting off a text.
“That’s the tricky part for me. I’ve done a lot of stuff, but I’m not qualified to do medication dosages.”
Eli smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m still learning too. Which is why I’ve got a team at my fingertips. They’ll tell us what we’ll need until he either gets moved to Cole Enterprise, or a doctor comes here to help us take care of him.”
I felt a bit better hearing that. While I was in training to be a nurse, I still had a lot to learn. I was, in no way, one for trying to play the hero with someone’s life in the balance.
“So for now?” I asked.
“Now all we can do is make him comfortable and keep an eye on him,” Eli said. His gaze raked me from head to toe with a frown. “You should probably get cleaned up.”
I looked down at myself and cringed. No wonder Mark had looked so tense. He’d made a quick exit behind Eli and hadn’t come back in.
“He’s in the living room,” Eli said as he sorted all the supplies he’d brought and laid them out on top of the dresser.
“How did you know I was looking for him?”
“You’re not the only one who doesn’t miss anything,” he answered, giving me another quick glance before turning back to what he was doing.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” I said, giving our patient a brief glance before leaving.
“He’s not going anywhere. Take your time,” Eli replied as I walked out.
Take my time. Yeah, right.
THE SHOWER SHUT OFF. BEFORE I could lift my head from my knees, Mark was crouched in front of me.
The scent of fabric softener wafted between us as he rubbed a towel over my arms, and then down my legs. The soft swish of terrycloth and our breathing the only sound between us.
I hadn’t even thought of crying. Hadn’t had that overwhelming feeling settle in my chest like it always did when things got to be too much and the only release came with a bout of tears. There were no telltale signs I was on the edge of a breakdown, but a breakdown is what I had nonetheless. And it hit me like a runaway freight train. One minute, I was rinsing the conditioner out of my hair. The next thing I knew, I was curled up in the corner of the shower crying, like a wounded animal. And for what? I was no stranger to blood. No stranger to trauma. I worked in an emergency room. I dealt with all sorts of situations and never once broke because things got a little heavy. Yet there I sat, paralyzed. Unable to move or feel. All I could do was hold on and let whatever it was that swallowed me have its way. And when it was done, when it spit me out, I’d sort through what happened and…
“Paige.” My name came from his lips so softly I almost didn’t hear it.
Forcing my head up a fraction of an inch, I peered at him between the swollen slits of my eyelids.
His brows were pulled together, forming a deep chasm of worry between his eyes. “Should I get Eli?”
My head shook without my brain telling my body to do it. Or maybe it did and I just wasn’t aware. That’s nonsense, Paige! You’d know what you’re brain was thinking… it’s your damn brain.
Mark sighed. He was worried about me, that I could clearly see. He also had no idea what to do for me. I wasn’t a simpering female. I didn’t cower. I didn’t breakdown, yet there I was, sitting in the corner, knees to my forehead like some sort of victim.
I lifted my chin a little higher, swallowed once, and then twice, forcing my tongue to move, my throat to loosen.
“I’m okay,” I said, forcing the words past the invisible barrier taking up residence in my throat.
He leaned back a little, taking a firm grip on my wrists. When he tugged them gently and my whole body moved, I realized I had quite the death grip on myself. My arms ached, but my fingers refused to unlock. It was almost like if I let go of the hold I had on myself, that I’d finish falling apart. And then what? Are you just gonna crumble into pieces and not even know why you’ve lost your entire grip on your sanity?
“You’re far from okay, Paige,” he said, helping me to my feet. I braced myself by holding my arm out, palm pressing against the cold tile wall.
“Would you believe me if I told you I don’t know what’s wrong. That I’m still processing everything and trying to come up with my own understanding?” I said, taking the towel he held out to me and pulling it against my chilled skin.
He watched me closely, eyes searching mine and seeing the truth. It had always been like that with him. The deep understanding between us. More than words. More than actions. He always saw past the bullshit with me. The veneer I kept in place that fooled everyone. Everyone but him.
He moved back as I stepped out of the shower, and then wrapped the towel around me.
“I think I understand it, even if you don’t. I don’t like this. Any of this.”
Mark was usually a pretty easygoing sort of guy. Things didn’t rile him up or set him off like they would most anyone else. So for him to admit that so wholeheartedly worried me.
And worse… I had no idea what to say to make it any easier. Any better. For either of us.
“We’re stuck he
re. Can’t leave. And for what? My mind keeps racing. Keeps thinking that if we just get in a car and leave, what can they really do?”
“They’d follow us. Make us come back here,” I said, putting my hand on his arm, feeling the tenseness.
He scoffed. “So? That doesn’t mean we have to come back. I’m sure if we really wanted to, we could tell them we’re not staying. That we want to go home.”
“But?” I could see the wavering in his eyes.
“But I keep seeing that picture of the guy who was stalking you…” He paused, pulling in a deep breath and blowing it out as he collected me in his arms. “I keep thinking that if something were to ever happen to you, I’d never be able to live with myself. And that’s what scares me the most.”
He pushed his lips against my forehead, speaking so low it rumbled in his chest. “I can’t lose you, Paige. You’re everything to me.”
“So here we are,” I whispered back, fighting the tears stinging my eyes.
“Yeah. Here we are. What now?” he asked.
I had no answer. All I could do was wrap my arms around him and hold on with everything I had.
We stood like that for a long time. Holding each other. Taking strength from one another, if only for the moment. We had no choice but to be strong, if not for ourselves, then for each other. Because there was no way Jared’s parents were going to let us step back into our old lives. Not with the threat that hung so silently over all of us. Life, it seemed, was giving us a taste of just how it could dump you on your ass. We just had to prove it to ourselves that we were tough enough to take it and run with it.
“Do we have to decide right now?” I asked, moving to tuck the ends of my escaping towel back in place.
He brought our foreheads together softly, swaying us back and forth to a song only he could hear. “I’m trying really hard to wrap my head around everything. But how do you do that when you can’t understand any of it?”
His arms flexed around me as he pulled me tighter. “Nothing will ever be the same, Paige. I think that’s what scares me the most. I also keep thinking that I’m glad we know. I’m not happy about being hauled into it, but I think I’d be a lot more pissed if they just disappeared on us. Does that make me crazy?”
The Vows We Make (The Six Series Book 4) Page 7
