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Chapter 5
Everything happened so fucking fast.
One second Ashley and Paige were in each other’s faces and the next Ashley was losing her shit. By the time David realized that Paige was really in trouble, he couldn’t get to her in time to prevent her from falling.
The sound of her head hitting the marble floor was something he would never un-hear.
“Are you out of your goddamn mind?” he yelled at Ashley as he dropped to his knees next to Paige. With a noticeable lack of finesse—because he was freaking the fuck out—David slid one hand under Paige’s head to get it off the floor, getting his fingers slightly tangled in her hair in his haste. His other hand went to the side of her now pale face.
“Paige,” he said, her unconscious form so limp and lifeless it made him cringe. All of the anger and bad feelings of the past few minutes had vanished and all he felt was raw, shit-inducing fear. “Come on, Paige.”
When she didn’t stir, he ordered Ashley, “Call 911.”
After a momentary pause, Ashley pulled her phone out of her purse and moved several feet away to make the call.
“Holy shit! Paige!”
“Oh, my God!”
David turned at the shocked voices to see a good-looking, dark haired man in a suit and the hostess rushing over. Almost immediately, the hostess ran back into the restaurant, while the man dropped to his knees on the other side of Paige.
“You know her?” David asked, surprised.
Instead of answering the question, Hale shrugged out of his jacket and began folding it into a makeshift pillow, which he then slid underneath Paige’s head. “Did you call 911?”
Before David could answer, Ashley came back and inadvertently answered for him. “Ambulance is on its way.”
“So, you know her?” David asked Hale again.
This time, Hale answered. “Yes. She’s my date,” he said, picking up one of Paige’s hands and squeezing. “Lucky number thirteen.”
“What?”
“Never mind.” Hale took a deep breath, then asked, “What happened?”
“She tripped,” Ashley said.
Hale looked up at her from where she stood behind David. “She tripped?”
“Yes. She tripped,” Ashley said, doubling down on her lie, making David literally cringe.
Hale looked around on the floor. “What did she trip on?”
“I don’t know. Sometimes people just … trip.”
“I know, but they usually fall forward.” Hale’s suspicious gaze darted between Ashley and David. “So, what really happened? And don’t feed me any more bullshit.”
David gave Ashley a disgusted look when it became clear she wasn’t going to answer. Did she think he was going to continue the lie with her? Fuck that.
“Paige is my ex-wife,” David explained after a short pause. “We haven’t seen each other in almost five years and she and my girlfriend—” David nodded toward Ashley, “—got into an argument. Some things were said, then Ashley pushed Paige and—”
“Oh, so she didn’t trip?” Hale’s gaze met Ashley’s.
David knew the question wasn’t really a question, but he answered it anyway. “No.”
Ashley’s face was red. “Damn it, David.”
“It’s the truth, isn’t it?”
