Page 212 of I Never Stopped Loving You

“You tripped and fell when you were running in after you heard Noah scream and saw the man run out.”

“What about you though?” I ask gesturing to his leg.

“This? I’ll be fine. I know a guy. You guys get him to the hospital. I’m going to hide in the staircase until you guys are gone. Jenna, go with Willow.”

“I’m not leaving you. What if you pass out from blood loss?”

“I’m not going to pass out. I’ll be fine. I’ve had worse,” he teases.

“Jesus. What is wrong with your family?” she asks, gesturing down to Noah then at Jeremy.

“What do you mean? Nothing is wrong with me…Him maybe, but I’m the most normal one out of the two of us,” Jeremy laughs.

“Oh, I highly doubt that,” I say as Jeremy hobbles over to the door and punches in a code on the keypad on the wall.

You can see off in the distance as the iron gate slowly opens for whenever the ambulance gets here. Jenna walks over to him and rewraps the belt around his thigh before kissing him. I kneel down by Noah’s side and run my fingers through his hair trying to track his breathing. His pulse is still there, but it’s faint.

“Okay. I’m going back down into the hellhole,” Jeremy says as sirens blare from the driveway.

Cops, ambulances, and a firetruck file in one after another before everyone jumps out of their vehicles. Jeremy is nowhere to be found when I turn back around. Jenna quickly comes running back into the room and nods to me before opening the door.

Paramedics come rushing in and immediately get to work. They get the knife stabilized and start checking everything as they put him on the stretcher then take him out to the ambulance.

“Excuse me, Miss?” an officer asks, looking at Jenna and me.

“Yes?” I ask.

“Hello. I’m Officer Whitmore. Were you the one who placed the call?” he asks me.

“I’m the one who called it in, but she’s his girlfriend. She was here when it happened,” Jenna says as she places her hand on my back.

“Where were you?” he asks Jenna skeptically, and I immediately want to go on the defensive. I know it’s only protocol for him to ask questions.

“I was on the phone with her when we were pulling up the driveway and saw the door was open,” I say quietly, watching as the doors close to the ambulance.

“She needs to go with him,” Jenna snaps and starts ushering me toward the ambulance.

“We will give her an escort after a few more questions. You said the door was open? Was there a sign of a break-in?”

He glances at the unbroken door. It’s not kicked in, and it doesn’t look like someone even used tools to break in. Fuck. We didn’t think of everything.

The ambulance starts to pull away, and I can feel my heart breaking. I should be with him holding his hand so that he knows I’m there.

“We didn’t lock the door if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Why not?” he asks, keeping his tone calm.

“Have you seen the fence around the entire property? Noah assumed that unless the person was an idiot or swam over, no one would break in.”

The cop only hums in acknowledgement as he writes more notes down into his device.

“And what happened next? Did you see the perpetrator?”

“I was on the phone with Jenna until I heard Noah scream. Then a person, who I’m assuming was male, ran out of the house. He had a black ski mask over his face, black clothing, and black gloves on so I didn’t get a good look at him.”

“And where did he run?”

“To the open gate,” I snap, gesturing to the gate behind him. “It’s the only way in or out. So I’m assuming that was where he went.”