“What if I’m still confused in the morning?” I had to ask. In all honesty, there was no way I was going to be able to sort out all my crazy in one night. I was just hoping I could make a decision regarding my commitment to Chase one way or the other and stick with it.
It wasn’t a question of if I loved him, I knew I did. It was more of beating off the fear of letting his beautiful man into my life knowing he wasn’t a guarantee. It’s scary to give yourself to someone who will one day see all your faults and flaws, hoping it’s forever and you’ll never have to open up yourself bare like that again for someone else.
“If you find you’re still confused in the morning then call me.” He walked back over to me and pulled me into his arms again. “I’ll come over and spend the whole day so deep inside you that you’ll know you can never be without me.”
I laughed into his chest. “You have a lot of faith in your bedroom skills, I see.”
He laughed with me. “My cock’s been flooded with your cum countless times, babe. I have a lot of faith in my bedroom skills.”
We stood like that for a minute or so before I broke the silence. “I need to get home, Chase.”
I felt him kiss me on the top of my head. “Okay, babe.”
He walked me back out to the sidewalk and we stood silently as he hailed me a cab. I didn’t know why I was suddenly nervous, but I was. Deep down I wanted to take Chase home with me, but these games were becoming too much, even for me. I knew I was mainly the cause of all this chaos, but it didn’t change the jumbling thoughts and emotions that only Chase could evoke.
A cab finally pulled up. Chase opened up the back door for me and kissed me before letting me in. “I’ll be stopping by tomorrow morning, babe.” I nodded and got into the cab.
I watched as Chase walked around and gave directions and money to the cab driver. It seemed like even when I was being difficult, he was still trying to find ways to take care of me.
I really needed to get my head out of my ass.
Chase stepped back around onto the sidewalk, and as movie clichéd as this sounded, I turned around and watched him from the back window of the cab as we drove away. We were two blocks away when I started losing sight of him and my entire world upended.
The scream of denial from the cab driver was the only warning I got. I turned face forward in the seat just in time to see a whiz of green ram into the side of the cab opposite of my side.
My ears were drowned in the sounds of screaming, metal crunching and glass shattering all around me. I closed my eyes, so all I knew was what I felt and there was no mistaking the roll of the cab over and over again.
I had my seatbelt on and it held me as tight as it could as I rolled with the vehicle. I prayed and prayed that we’d get out of this alive.
I couldn’t die.
What would become of my sister if she lost me in the same fashion as our parents?
I was certain I was going to pull through until I felt the belt snap and it was no longer protecting me against the assault of the wreck. I opened my eyes and reached out for anything to anchor myself to, but my hands weren’t working. I reached and reached, but I couldn’t touch anything long enough to get a grip.
The panic receded and pain set in as my body was banged and battered against what felt like every surface of the cab. Blood flooded my nasal passages and I could taste it on my tongue. I could feel my bones breaking and the shear agony of it had me screaming until my voice broke.
Then, all of the sudden, everything stopped.
I couldn’t open my eyes because I could feel blood flowing down my face. I couldn’t move because any little motion brought on excruciating pain. I tried to concentrate on what I knew.
I was breathing. That meant I was alive.
I tried to focus on that little fact. I tried to hold onto that until help arrived.
I didn’t know how long I was out for, but the fact that I snapped to attention told me I had passed out. My eyes were still closed and this time I didn’t have the strength to open them. I could hear sirens and muffled voices.
And sobs.
I could hear uncontrollable sobs.
I wanted to open my eyes. I wanted to move. I wanted to help myself survive this, but my body wouldn’t get on the same page as my mind.
My sister.
God, what’s going to happen to my sister?
And Chase?
What if…
“Ma’am? Ma’am, can you hear me?”
Yes, I can hear you. Yes!
I needed to let him know that I could hear him. I just needed to move my lips, but they weren’t working. Why wasn’t anything working?!
“I need everyone to clear this area. Get back now!”
“Quinn! Fuck, Quinn!”
Chase?
“Sir, I need you to get back or I will have you arrested! I can’t help her if you get in my way!”
They’re going to help me. I heard him. They’re going to help me.
They needed to help me. I needed to finish helping Ace plan her wedding. I needed to see the moment Julian proposed to Iz. I needed to be an aunt to all the gorgeous babies they’re all going to have. I needed to be the Maid Of Honor when Aud married Michael.
I needed to tell Chase I loved him and I’m sorry for everything. I needed to make sure he knew it was me. It was all me.
They needed to help me because my Heaven was right here on earth. It’s my friends and family.
It’s Chase.
Chase~
This couldn’t be happening.
I mean, I saw that it was happening, but it just couldn’t be possible.
I was standing on the outside looking in because Quinn’s not my fucking wife yet. The threat of getting arrested didn’t faze me until one of the officers actually approached me and asked me if I wanted to be locked up when I got the news if she made it or not.
I couldn’t see what they were doing and it wasn’t until I questioned what the fuck was I supposed to do that Ace and Iz occurred to me.
I fished out my phone and dialed Nick first. It went to voice mail and I dialed again knowing that he was most likely in bed with Ace. “This better be good, Chase,” Nick barked out.
I didn’t know what to say. How did I tell him?
I could hear some rustling in the background, but I was still at a loss. I didn’t want to say the words that would make this real. “Chase, what is it?” Nick’s voice suddenly grew serious.
“Sav…” I could hear my voice cracking. “Nick…”
“Goddamn it, Chase, what’s wrong?!”
“Quinn’s been in a wreck. They’re working-”
“Where are you?” he barked out. His voice was garbled and panicked.
“A couple of blocks from Xavier’s,” I answered on autopilot. “Her cab…”
“We’ll be right there,” he interrupted again. “Everything will be okay, Chase. I promise.” He hung up leaving me to call Julian next.
I dialed Julian and when it went to voicemail, I knew he was busy with Iz. But unlike Nick, odds were Julian wouldn’t answer over being with Iz, so I dialed Isabella.
She answered and she instantly knew something was wrong. “What’s wrong, Chase?”
I swallowed. “Put Julian on the phone, Iz.”
She handed the phone over to Julian, no questions asked. “What’s going on?”
“Julez, Quinn’s been in an accident-”
“Where are you?” I could hear Iz in the background asking what was wrong.
“A couple of blocks from Xavier’s,” I answered automatically.
“We’ll be right there,” he promised.
I couldn’t take it any longer. “Hurry, Julez. I’m going to lose my shit. I-”
“We’ll be right there. Hold on, Chase,” he demanded then hung up before I could respond.
I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. I walked over to one of the scene officers and begged, “Excuse me, Officer. That’s my girlfriend in the cab,
can I please-”
He put his hands up to ward me off. “Look, sir, I’m not going to pretend to understand what you’re going through right now. I can’t imagine how difficult this is for you. But her life depends on you stepping back and letting the paramedics do their job. Please understand that.”
“I do, but-”
“Promise to stay right here and I’ll go see if I can find anything out besides the obvious. Can you do that for me?” I nodded dumbly because there was nothing I could do but accept his small gesture of reassurance.
From where I was standing I could see they already had the stretcher out to transport her, but the fact that there were three paramedics vans on the scene and three of them were working on Quinn when one was with the driver of the green bus and two were with the cab driver had me imagining the worst.
I waited for the officer to return, and when I got a look at his face as he walked back towards me, I wished I had never asked him for an update.
It was bad.
When he put his hands on my arms and looked at me pointedly, my entire body turned cold. “I need you to listen to me.” I nodded so he’d continue. “I’m going to be very honest with you, sir. She’s alive, but it’s bad. Her seatbelt snapped sometime during the tumbling of the vehicle and she’s suffered a lot of injuries because of it. But she’s alive.”
It really was bad.
That’s all that kept repeating in my head. It’s bad.
“Chase!”
I turned at the sound of Avery’s hysterical voice. I look back at the officer. “Thank you.”
Nick and Avery were already by my side by the time the officer walked away. Avery threw herself in my arms. She was a crying mess. “Oh, Chase, oh, God!”
I held her to me as Nick took in the scene around us. “What happened?”
Avery let me go and wrapped herself around Nick as I explained. “The bus ran the red light and slammed into her cab…”
Nick’s brows furrowed. “Why was she in a cab?”
The guilt was already stabbing me all over my body like a million knives, his question just opened up the cut deeper. “Sav, please…”
He nodded. “Okay, okay,” he whispered.
“Avery! Chase!” Isabella’s voice cut through the crowd and then she was running into Avery’s arms.
Julian clapped me on the back. “How is she?”
“She’s alive, but in really bad shape. The seatbelt snapped and she was loose in the cab when it rolled over.” The girls gasped and Avery started crying again.
I was about to comfort her when the officer I spoke to earlier approached me. “Sir?”
“Yes?”
“They’re transporting your girlfriend to Regional MC. She has several cuts and gashes and a few broken bones. But their main concern is the injury to her head and they’re concerned with any internal bleeding they might not know about.”
No words would form. I numbly stared at him as Nick took the reins. “Thank you, Officer.”
“Is she going to be okay?” Isabella asked the officer.
He shook his head sadly. “I don’t know, ma’am.” He must have seen me about to lose it because he offered more than I know he needed to. “Sir, I can give you a siren ride to the hospital behind the ambulance if you’d like?”
Julian answered for me, “Yes, he’d like that.” He grabbed me and forced me to focus. “Go with him, Chase. We’ll be right behind you, okay?”
I nodded like a person with no sense, and blindly followed the cop to his squad car. It didn’t really register that he let me sit up front, and sometime later, I’ll have to contact him again and thank him for all his help, but right now all I could think about was Quinn.
We rode behind the ambulance in silence, and an hour or 15 minutes, it didn’t matter. The ride was excruciating. Even though it probably made me sound like a pussy, I prayed Julian and Nick arrived fast enough to keep me from losing my shit at the hospital. I’ve been through some hellish shit in my life and they’ve always been there to keep me steady and now wasn’t any different.
Actually there was one difference. Losing Quinn would be worse than anything I’ve ever experienced all put together.
The car pulled up behind the ambulance in the emergency entrance, and as I got out, I had to stand by and watch as doctors rushed out to meet with the paramedics over Quinn’s condition. I quickly thanked the officer and then I ran through the hospital doors after Quinn.
I didn’t stop until a nurse physically pushed me back. “Sir, you can’t go in there.”
“That’s my girlfriend…”
Her face was full of compassion that didn’t do jack shit for me. “I’m sorry, sir, only spouses and immediate family can-”
Oh fuck! Audrey!
I went to reach for my phone before I realized I didn’t have her number. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
“Sir?”
I remembered the nurse. “I…”
She gestured to the sitting area. “Just have a seat over there and someone will talk to you as soon as they’re able.”
“Chase!”
I turned at Nick’s voice. All four of them were half running, half jogging towards me. As soon as they reached me, I said, “Sav. I don’t have Audrey’s phone number.”
Iz let out a small gasp. “Oh, God. We forgot about Audrey.”
“I…I’ll call her,” Avery offered.
“Give me your phone, Ace. I’ll call her….let me call her.” I didn’t know why, but it was important for me to be the one to tell Audrey.
I scrolled through Avery’s phone, found her number and dialed. “I told you I wasn’t going to bail you guys out anymore from the drunk tank,” she answered.
“Audrey-”
“Hello? Who’s this?”
“Audrey, it’s Chase-”
“Chase? Why are you calling me from Avery’s phone?” The worry in her voice was loud and clear.
“Audrey, is Michael with you?” God, I hoped he was. She needed someone to get her here safely.
“Y…yes. Chase…?”
I couldn’t hide the fear in my voice any longer. Knowing I was talking to Quinn’s sister, and knowing how they lost their parents, had me wishing I could turn back time. “Audrey, Quinn’s been in an accident.”
“Oh, God! Oh, God! Chase…is she….oh, God!” she cried.
“We’re all at Regional Medical Center-”
“Is she….what are they…what’s…”
“We don’t know anything really.” I hated the next words coming out of my mouth. “We’re not family, so they won’t tell us anything concrete.”
“I’ll be right there. Okay, Chase? I’ll be right there.”
I handed Ace her phone back and let them lead me to one of the chairs in the waiting room. I sat with my knees supporting my elbows and my head in my hands. She’s alive and I had to hold on to that, but if I had to fly in every specialist on the planet to make her whole again, I’ll do it.
“Chase…”
I looked up to see the faces of the people closest to me. “Yeah?”
“I called Mom and Kane and they’re on the way over here. They should be here soon.” I had never been more grateful for Nick’s calm thinking as I was now. He knew I was going to need all of them if anything happened to Quinn.
“Thanks, man.” I looked at my friends, and the frightened women they held in their arms, and I knew I could not survive this without them. “I don’t know if I can handle anything happening to her,” I confessed honestly.
“She’ll be fine, Chase. She has to be,” Isabella promised.
I’m not sure how long I was lost in my own mind, but I whipped around in my chair when I heard a flurry of noise at the nurses’ station. Audrey was yelling and demanding, and Michael was there with her holding her up.
“Quinn Erickson. Please, I’m her sister. She was in an accident.”
We all migrated to the nurses’ station for any glimpse of information. “I’m sorry Miss,
but-”
Audrey leaned over the counter, until her feet came up off the floor. “I’ll show you fucking sorry if you or someone doesn’t come out this instant and tell me what is going on with my sister!”
The nurse’s eyes rounded and she huffed. “Excuse me, but-”
And, right before my eyes, Audrey grabbed her by her uniform and pulled her up against the counter. “I will fuck you up, lady.”
The nurse swallowed and nodded timidly. “I…I’ll go check right now.”
Audrey let her go. “Yeah, you go do that.”
The nurse scurried away, and once Audrey was satisfied that she was going to find out what was going on, she turned to me. “She’ll be fine, Chase.”
God, I wanted to believe her. “How do you know?”
She jutted her chin out and straightened her spine. “Because she knows we won’t be if anything happens to her and my sister has always taken care of me. She won’t stop now.”
I nodded and then prayed.
Chapter 23
Virtues: Because offering a kidney is easier than offering forgiveness.
Quinn~
I awoke to sounds of the most annoying beeping, not to mention my entire body hurt.
Even my eyelashes.
I didn’t immediately open my eyes, but I should have. I felt a hand in mine and knew instantly that my sister was holding my hand. I’d recognize her anywhere, no matter state I was in. I knew the sooner I opened my eyes, the sooner she’d feel better, but I was just so tired and wasn’t quite ready for the emotional toll that was going to come with my sister seeing me lying in a hospital bed after a car accident. I can’t imagine what the accident put her through.
Realizing how selfish I was feeling, I made the effort and struggled to open my eyes. Come to find out only one eye would open. I tried not to panic, but my left eye not opening when I didn’t know the extent of my injuries had me feeling anxious.
It hurt like a bitch to swallow, but I worked some saliva up and did my best to speak. “What kind of welcoming is this? No hot male nurses to be seen anywhere?”
Aud’s head jerked up and tears immediately started falling from her eyes. The smile on her face told me that they were happy tears though. “I have Chase, Julian, Nick, Kane and Michael stealing some scrubs as we speak. I mean, talk about hot male nurses.”
Chasing Quinn Page 27
