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“What the fuck happened?” I ask Andrew, who steps to the side when I reach them.
I feel pure rage radiating off Andrew when he answers, “She went to the bar to grab a drink. When she didn’t come back, we went looking for her. I heard a noise come from this room and when I broke down the door, I saw this fucker,” Andrew points to a guy curled into a ball, his face a mangled mess, “hovering over her with his pants undone.”
“Has someone called an ambulance and police?” I hear Nick bark.
“They’re on their way,” an unknown voice says from the doorway.
I force my eyes away from the guy, and I bend down to get a better look at Mia. I’ll take care of him in a minute. I need to see to Mia first. She has a sheen of sweat on her face, but she doesn’t feel hot. Other than the flush and the makeup tracks, her face appears to be fine. I move the towel away and see that her top is undone. My jaw clenches and I grip the edge of the counter and take a deepbreath, forcing myself to continue my inspection. I cover her top half back up and use my body to block Mia from the rest of the room while I check her lower half, afraid of what I might find. My suspicions are confirmed, and I lose my shit when I see the bruises on her inner thighs. With a roar, I spin around and launch myself at the guy lying on the floor crying.
I grab him by his hair and yank him to his feet. As soon as he’s standing, I throw my fist into his already battered face. Fresh blood starts spilling from his mouth and I see a tooth barely hanging on by a thread of skin. It doesn’t satisfy me. I know I’ll probably get in trouble for beating a defenseless man, but I’m beyond caring. I punch him in the gut with every bit of strength I have and watch as he doubles over in pain. I go to grab him again, but am pulled back. Jaxon passes me and grabs the guy by the throat and throws him against the wall. I try to fight the arms holding me, not nearly done with him myself, but a weak voice stops me.
“Mac.”
I spin around and see Mia has her eyes barely open. I rush to her and bend down so we’re eye level.
“Shh… I’m here, Pix. You’re okay now.” I gather her in my arms and look around the room until I find who I think is the owner.
“Where’s the office?”
My guess must have been right because he replies in a worried voice, “This way,” and turns around to walk out of the room. I follow him with Bailey, Chris, and Karyn hot on my tail, worried about their friend.
We stop at a door, and the guy pulls out a set of keys and unlocks it. When we enter, he points to a couch off to the side. I sit down with Mia in my lap. She hasn’t spoken or moved since she called my name. I look down at her and see she’s out again. The uncontrollable fury I felt a few minutes ago returns, and I almost get back up to finish what Andrew and I started with the guy. The only thing holding me back is my need to be here for Mia if she wakes up.
The owner comes to me and hands me a wet rag. The girls siton either side of me, their sorrow evident on their faces. I take the rag and run it gently along Mia’s face.
A few minutes later, Jaxon walks into the room with Nick behind him. He has bloody knuckles as well, and the expression on his face would scare any sensible person. He walks over to us and kneels down in front of me. One of his hands goes to Bailey, who grabs on to it as if her life depends on it. His other hand goes to Mia’s cheek.
“How is she?” he asks in a rough voice.
“She hasn’t woken up yet. Her breathing seems to be fine though,” I reply, without taking my eyes off Mia.
Just then, we hear a commotion in the hallway right before a couple of paramedics enter the room with a stretcher, two uniformed officers behind them. I get up off the couch and set Mia down on the stretcher. I take a step back, letting them do their work, but I don’t move too far away. They immediately check her vitals, which are thankfully good.
When they start wheeling the stretcher out of the room, I go to follow. One of the officers puts his hand on my chest, blocking my way. I glance down at his hand and then back up at his face and give him a deadly look. No one is going to stop me from going with Mia.
“Who are you?” he asks.
“Mia’s boyfriend and Sheriff Weston of Jaded Hollow. Remove your hand or I’ll break it,” I say, not caring that I’m threatening an officer of the law.
He sees the truth in my words and drops his hand, but doesn’t move out of the way. “We need to ask you some questions, Sheriff Weston.”
Nick steps up beside us and speaks to the dumb ass officer. He has no clue how close I am to decking him. The paramedics have moved out of the room, and they’ll be loading Mia up soon and taking off.
“Officer,” he stops and looks at the nameplate on the officer’s uniform, “Brant, why don’t you let the sheriff go bewith Mia. Mac wasn’t here when this happened. I’m sure he’d been more than willing to go down to the station tomorrow to answer any questions you have.”
I’m about to lay the guy out for keeping me from Mia when he finally moves to the side with an understanding nod. I rush past him when I hear him say, “I expect to see you at the station first thing in the morning.”
I ignore him and run over to the ambulance. Neither of the paramedics say anything when I climb inside. I take a seat closest to Mia’s head and take her limp hand into my own. I nearly fall to my knees beside her at her frail and vulnerable look. The door is closed, and we take off for the hospital.
I look up to see Mia’s eyes slit open. I pull her wrist to my lips and kiss it several times. I have to clear my clogged throat before speaking.
“It’s okay, baby. We’re on our way to the hospital. You’re going to be fine.”
She licks her lips and tries to talk. “I’m sorry…”
I rear back. Why in the fuck is she apologizing to me? I was the one who wasn’t there when she needed me. The rational part of me knows there is nothing I could have done. If I had known this would happen then of course I wouldn’t have let her go, but I didn’t know. There’s no way I could have known. The irrational part of me doesn’t care about that. I should have protected her, somehow.
I put my finger over her lips to silence her. “Shh… don’t talk. Just rest, okay? We’ll talk later.”
