Page 144 of Secrets on Ice

I don't answer, because I've already spotted her. Across the club, near the back, where the light drops off, there's a gray door marked with a fire exit sign. And she's not walking to the toilets, she's barely walking at all. There's a man with his arm around her, half holding her up, half steering her. Her head lolls against his shoulder, and her feet are drag behind her, and he's moving her toward that door with a quick, purposeful walk of a man who does not want to be noticed.

Everything in me goes cold and then very, very still.

“Fuck,” I roar.

I go through that crowd like it isn't there, shoving people out of the way, my eyes locked on her, on the door, on his hand gripping her waist. The closer I get, the clearer it is that she's gone, completely gone, her eyes half shut, her mouth slack, and he's got her almost to the exit.

“Hey.” It comes out of me low and lethal. “Hey!”

He glances back, sees me coming, and speeds up. That's the last mistake he makes tonight. I hit him at a full run and take him clean off his feet and away from her. My free hand shoots out and catches Ember as she sags, easing her down against the wall so she doesn't hit the floor.

Then I'm on him. “You fucking piece of shit!” I roar, already swinging. The first punch lands square on his jaw, the second opens his lip. The third and fourth are pure rage. People start screaming, someone yells for security. Hands grab at my shoulders, but I keep going until two big security guards finally haul me off him.

“Get off me! That asshole drugged her!” I shout, fighting their hold. “He fucking drugged her! Look at her!”

One of the guards looks at Ember slumped against the wall, Cassidy already on the floor beside her, crying and holding her up.

The other guard hesitates. “He's VIP,” the second guard says under his breath, some code word passing between them. “Let him go.”

They release me, and I drop straight to my knees next to Ember. Her eyes are half-open, but she's not seeing anything. Cassidy is sobbing, arms wrapped around her.

“Em, Em, look at me. Come on, baby. Stay with me.” My voice is shaking. I'm shaking. Everyone around us is frozen in shock. The girls, the boys who just arrived, the club staff who finally realize what happened.

I pull her into my arms carefully, pressing my forehead to hers. “I've got you. You're safe.”

Emmett shoves through the crowd, face thunderous. “Call the fucking police,” he barks at the nearest staff member. “Now, and get that piece of shit out of here before I do it myself. And call an ambulance.”

The guy on the floor is still half-conscious, blood on his mouth, security holding him up.

Emmett points straight at him. “If you don't have the cops and an ambulance here in the next two minutes, I will make it my personal mission to take this entire club down. Every investor, every license, every single name on the paperwork. Do you understand me?”

The staff scrambles, and someone is already on the phone. The second security guard radios for backup, and they drag the guy away toward a back exit.

I stay on the floor with Ember, one arm around her, the other smoothing her hair back from her face. Cassidy is crying so hard she's shaking. Collette is on the phone to someone, voice tight. The rest of the girls are white-faced and silent.

“Ambulance is on the way,” Fish says, crouching beside me. “Two minutes out.”

I nod, but I don't take my eyes off Ember.

“I've got you,” I keep telling her, even though I don't know if she can hear me. “You're safe. I'm never letting go.”

The ambulance arrives quickly, and two paramedics push through the crowd with a stretcher. I don't let go of Ember until they make me. Even then I stay right beside the stretcher as they load her in, answering every question they throw at me, even though I don't know the answers to half of them.

“I'm coming with her,” I tell them. It's not a request.

“Me too.” Cassidy climbs in on the other side, still crying, still holding Ember's hand.

Emmett stays behind to deal with the police and the club.

“I'm not leaving until that piece of shit is in cuffs and on his way to a cell,” he says, voice low and lethal. “I want him charged. I want every second of footage. And if this club tries to bury it, I will bury them. Tell Ember I'll be at the hospital the second I'm done. Take care of her.” He squeezes my shoulder once, hard, then turns back to the officers who just arrived.

I climb into the ambulance with Cassidy. The doors slam shut, and the vehicle pulls away from the curb, lights flashing. I sit on the bench, one hand wrapped around Ember's, and I don't take my eyes off her face the entire ride.

She doesn't open her eyes once.

The hospital is bright, cold, and too slow. They take her straight through. “Suspected drink spiking,” the triage nurse says, calm and unbothered, as if it's the most ordinary thing in the world. That's the part that makes me want to put my fist through the wall, that it's ordinary, that there's a routine for it. I can't sit down, so I pace in the corridor outside her curtain with blood drying on my knuckles.

Cassidy's beside me, gripping my arm so hard it'll bruise. Emmett paces the length of the corridor and back, over and over, jaw locked while Jo tries to reassure him that everything is okay. When the doctor finally comes out and says she's stable, that they got her early, and that she's going to be all right, she just needs fluids, monitoring, and time to sleep it off, my legs nearly go out from under me, and I have to put a hand flat on the wall to stay upright.