Page 104 of Sudden Summer

“How is she? What do you know?” Hayes asked.

“She’s in surgery. They stabilized her on the flight down. But she was out of it the whole time. They…they had to give her blood. So much…We got in and they told me to wait here. I-I haven’t moved.” My voice dropped to a whisper. “I’m scared to move.”

“You need to get changed. You’re still covered in…” Jessie’s voice dropped.

In her blood.

“Where are the kids?” I asked, looking down at my chest and pants. I was wearing a Silver Ridge Ranch shirt, some old one I’d been handed as we were making our way out to the helicopter. But my arms, my hands, my legs, were still painted red with the blood I tried to stop from flowing out of her.

“Violet stayed back with Mom and Dad to take care of the kids. There are deputies all over the ranch right now. They’re all safe. Sawyer and Janice are both in custody. Birdie’s patient…her baby was recovered. She’s safe. They’re still trying to locate a blood relative, but she’s safe.”

“Birdie should be safe, and that fucker should be dead,” I choked out as tears filled my eyes. I hadn’t let myself break down again. Hayes was the one to step forward this time, embracing me as all the worry and regret poured out. “I’m going to lose her, I know I am. She doesn’t deserve that. I should have kept her safe.”

“You couldn’t have stopped her, even if it was the one thing you wanted most in this life. That’s just who Birdie is. She knew Juniper needed you, and she made the call.” Jessie’s tear-filled eyes looked up at me, but I didn’t have it in me to comfort my sister in that moment. All I wanted to do was tear the hospital apart until I got to my girl.

“It wasn’t her fucking call to make! Juniper and I need her, too. I’m so pissed, I think I’m going to be sick.” I heard my voice getting louder, but I didn’t care. My stomach rolled as Hayes shoved me down into the chair I’d been glued to. His hand was on my back, grasping my shoulder tightly like that was going to keep me here on Earth when I felt like the universe was spinning with no gravity.

“Don’t say that,” Jessie hissed. “Don’t let those be the emotions in here right now. She needs our love. She needs to feel our strength. You can be pissed at her later, when she’s back in your arms, and you’re planning your wedding, and all the kids you’re going to have together. When you’re finally going to give her the life you both should have been living together by now.”

“I wasted so much time being afraid of this very thing. Of everything changing between us, of loving her only to lose her…I can’t…I can’t lose her, Jess.”

“Where is she?!” a familiar, frantic voice pulled my attention towards the automatic doors of the waiting room. Fuck. I’d forgotten to call Lainey.

“How did she⁠—”

“I called her on the way down,” Hayes admitted.

“Beau?” Jesus, I hadn’t seen her since before she told Birdie she was pregnant, but sure as shit, she was. “Is she okay? What the hell happened?”

I looked at my brother.

“He didn’t tell me anything. Just that she was being airlifted down here. And…And I needed to come. It’s bad, isn’t it?” Her voice cracked, and I pushed up out of the chair, stepping closer to her. I watched her eyes drop and widen as she looked at my arms.

“Birdie was injured.” What a fucking simple sentence for the most fucked up situation in the world.

Her eyes narrowed. “Injured how? Wasn’t she just looking after your baby? What the hell could have happened to her that she needed to be airlifted off the ranch? Is that…Is that her blood?”

I closed my eyes and forced myself to breathe. Lainey and I didn’t have the best relationship, but Birdie wouldn’t want me fighting with her right now. She’d want me to make sure her sister was okay, especially because she was pregnant.

“I don’t really know how to explain it. Hell, it’s still a jumbled mess in my mind. But your sister was in the barn, and…”

“What? And what?!”

“I came into the barn⁠—”

Colt cleared his throat. “Everything is still under investigation. It’s best if we don’t talk about any of it until deputies get here to take Beau’s statement.”

“I don’t care about a statement! Tell me what happened!”

I don’t know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t for Lainey’s face to drain all of its color so quickly. She swayed, her eyelashes fluttering a second before her knees buckled. Luckily, Hayes was also only an arm’s length away from her, and had faster reflexes than me.

“Jess,” I grumbled as Hayes got Lainey into a chair. “Can you grab some water?”

“Already on it.” Her hand slipped into Hawk’s and they took off.

“Oh, God. I’m sorry,” Lainey groaned.

“Hey,” Hayes patted her arm, “nothing to be ashamed of. Feeling faint is really common in these situations. Just try and take some deep breaths, and I can find a doctor for you if you think the baby needs to get checked out.”