Page 66 of Fools in Love

Since classes were going so well and each one was packed, she figured she could splurge on a couple dozen of each. Lilly was going to help her order them all in the morning after her first class.

Lilly had just driven away, and she pulled out her phone to call Tom as she stood under the light from the studio’s sign. She jerked to the side when she heard someone rushing towards her. The blow to her temple took her down, and she landed on her hands and knees on the sidewalk.

The kick to her stomach and head knocked her unconscious before she could even scream.

She woke again as she was being dragged somewhere. It was too dark to see, and the kick to her stomach had her emptying what little lunch she’d had.

“Bitch,” someone hissed, and she was kicked again in the ribs. She wretched again, which made the person even angrier. The hands that had been holding her arms, pulling her, disappeared. She fell forward and hit the side of her head on the ground as she continued to be sick all over the person’s shoes. Then she was being kicked over and over again. She felt some of her ribs break with one kick. The next one hit her arm as she tried to roll away. The third kick got her in the lower back, and she grunted with the pain.

She had yet to catch her breath to scream for help. It was too dark to see anything, which meant the person attacking her couldn’t see her either. If she could just roll away, she could maybe catch her breath and cry for help.

She rolled and heard a low curse. Now she knew that her attacker was a woman and, more importantly, she had missed the last kick.

The floor was covered in a layer of dust or dirt. As Kate rolled, it collected on her clothes, her hands, and her hair. Still, she didn’t stop rolling until she came up against a wall.

She still felt as if she couldn’t get any air in her lungs. Had they been punctured when her ribs had broken?

Then the booted foot found her again, this time just below her left ear. Her head snapped back, and tiny little stars exploded behind her eyes. A loud screeching sound filled her ears.

“I’ll kill you for this,” the woman hissed. “You took him away from me.”

As her world started go black again, Kate could only think of Tom.

But then the kicking stopped, and Kate heard grunting just beside her. Someone was fighting off her attacker.

Her breathing and the ringing in her ears were so loud that she could barely make out what was going on. Then colored lights flooded the room. She had to blink a few times before she realized that she was in the end unit of the building, the one that was under construction.

Then Tom’s face came into view.

“Easy,” he said, holding out his hands as tears rolled down his face. “I’ve got you.”

“Don’t move her,” someone said.

Was that Aiden? Kate tried to see past Tom, but it was just darkness.

“When’s that ambulance going to get here?” Tom barked.

Kate’s breathing was so shallow that she just couldn’t get a breath. Her ribs hurt. Her head hurt. Her knee hurt. Her ears were ringing.

Lifting her hand, she touched Tom’s face and mouthed, I love you, just before everything went dark.

She woke with a cry when she was lifted from the ground. In her head she was screaming, but nothing came out.

“We’ve got you.” Tom’s voice sounded right by her ear.

She blinked a few times, and a bright light was shined in each eye. Someone started talking in the background about her health, but she was too focused on Tom’s voice to listen clearly.

Lights flashed over her head as they rolled her under the sign to her studio. Pride’s Dance Studio. Her baby. Her life.

Then Tom’s face appeared above hers. He looked so sad. So… lost.

She wanted to tell him that she was okay. If she could just catch her breath, she could assure him of that.

They put her in the back of an ambulance, and shortly afterward, everything went… soft. Numb. She was floating, and suddenly she no longer cared. She watched the top of the ambulance as she felt them traveling. She thought she would sleep or pass out again, but she didn’t. Her eyes remained open, and she watched the medic work on her as they traveled along. The woman kept checking her heart rate. Her pupils. She kept talking to her, but Kate didn’t answer. She just stared straight above her as if in a daze.

The ambulance stopped, and she was rolled out. Only when the bright lights inside the ER flashed above her did she finally close her eyes.

She floated and lost track of time. She would occasionally hear someone talking quietly. She was rolled several places but kept her eyes closed. She heard the hum of an X-ray machine followed by an MRI. She was lifted, shifted, and rolled so many different times that she lost track. Thankfully, during this entire time, everything was numb.