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“Wait, let me help you.” Aiden slips his arm around my back and pulls me up. I hear sirens outside. My mind grasps onto the last thing I remember.
I frantically start looking over my body, running my hands all over. “Did she shoot me?”
“You’re okay, Addison,” Aiden says, grabbing my hands. “She missed.” He leans over and presses his forehead into mine. “Thank God she missed,” he whispers. I exhale, releasing the tension in my shoulders.
“What happened,” I ask, opening my eyes and staring into his.
“You passed out right after Jessie took a shot. You hit your head on the floor pretty hard.”
I scrunch my nose up. “Really? I passed out?” I mean, I guess it’s better than being shot, but I’ve never passed out before.
“Yes. I want you to go to the hospital to get checked out.”
“I’m fine. I’ve hit my head before, worse than this. I’ll be fine.” I look around Aiden, wondering where Jessie is. She’s sitting on a barstool, handcuffed. Her head hangs and tears run down her face. “Presley. Where’s Presley?” I look back to Aiden in a panic.
“She’s safe. Ryan called me earlier and said they were taking care of Presley today. He thought Jessie had a doctor’s appointment.”
“She’s sick, Aiden.” I look at Jessie with a twinge of guilt. “She needs help. She doesn’t need to go to jail.” I think of Presley not having her mom in her life. I know having a baby messes with your hormones, on top of the questionable state of her sanity before she even got pregnant. She’s definitely not in the right frame of mind now.
Aiden brings my hands to his lips, and he slowly nods. “I agree with you. But God, Addison…if I hadn’t gotten here when I did, she would have killed you.” The pain in his voice is all too familiar. I say the only thing I can think of to make him feel a little bit better.
“You’re my hero.”
He chuckles as he closes his eyes and shakes his head. “You’re a smartass,” he murmurs.
The pain in my head has started to lessen, but I wince as I try to get up, still holding it with one hand. Damon and the police storm in, assessing the room before continuing to enter.
“It’s clear,” Aiden states. Damon and an officer walk over to us while another officer heads in Jessie’s direction. Aiden informs the two officers about what happened when he got here. I fill in the rest. This is where I find out Aiden had texted Damon before he walked in telling him he needed backup. Still, Damon had no idea what was going down.
“I don’t know how many lives you have, woman, but you might want to save one,” Damon jokes. I hit him on the arm. The impact makes my head hurt.
“Ouch,” I say, rubbing my head.
“I’ll get you an ice pack. Get the medics in here to look her over,” Aiden instructs Damon as he walks away. I look around and notice Jessie is gone. The officer must have already taken her out.
When Aiden returns, handing me the icepack, I ask him, “How did she get in here?”
Aiden shrugs. “I never changed the locks. Since she was at my place at the beach, she could have left and made a key without me even knowing, I guess.”
I walk to the couch and gently sit down. Leaning back into the cushion, I close my eyes and reflect on the last half hour. I think about what happened and what might have happened. I can’t believe it came to this. I hope Jessie can find help; Presley is going to need her mother.
“Did you know Brooks filed for custody?” I open my eyes and look up at Aiden. He shakes his head. “I think that’s what broke Jessie. She blames us for telling him he had a baby,” I say. The cold pack on my head makes me shiver. “I can’t say I understand her, but I can see how that might throw her off the deep end.”
“Addison, you do know none of this is your fault, right?” Damon asks, sitting down next to me. I let out a bitter laugh, thinking nothing is ever my fault, yet things always seem to happen to me. Same old shit, different day.
“It’s not,” Aiden barks out, reading my mind.
I sigh heavily. “I know it’s not my fault…directly,” I add.
“Not directly or indirectly.” Aiden kneels in between my legs, his hands resting on the top of my thighs. “You couldn’t stop the slippery slope Jessie was on. She made her own decisions and now she has to live with the consequences. Just because her decisions were based on you, you can’t blame yourself.”
I nod because he won’t change his mind, but I’m the one who has to live knowing it’s because of me Presley won’t have her mom around, at least for a while.
A paramedic walks into the room, and Aiden calls him over to check me out. He doesn’t think I have a concussion, which is good because I want to go home tonight.
Damon joins us when the paramedic leaves and tells me he called Sydney. He chuckles, telling me about Sydney needing to give Lexi money for the bad word jar. I think that’s the first time Sydney has ever had to donate to Lexi’s jar.
“She’s going to keep Lulu a little longer, give you guys some time to decompress. I’m getting off right now, so we’re going to take her to dinner.”
