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“Good thing. Means stable,” Ace tells me calmly.
I give him a sideways glance out of the corner of my eye. He was amazing back there - which I tell him.
“Done before.” He shrugs and promptly clams up - as he always does when alluding to his past in Slovenia. It makes me wonder what horrors he must have witnessed as a boy to be able to respond to such a horrific event so calmly. We’ve been his best friends in the world and only family for years, and yet sometimes he still feels like a stranger to me. I vow to change that. No more secrets between any of us.
No more denial.
I love Raven and I don’t give a shit what she did in the past. I feel awful for saying I may never be able to forgive her. As if it matters now! No, all that counts is that she’s okay. No forgiveness necessary. I just want my chance to tell her how I really feel.
I’ll beg her to take me back. I’ll spend a lifetime making it up to her if she’ll give me a chance and forgive me for hurting her.
I hit the speed dial to Jax using the car’s hands free system.
“Now’s not a good time,” he says on answering.
“Raven’s hurt,” I cut straight to the chase.
“Tell me,” he insists.
“Not too sure, got an emergency call from
Rebel to get to the house, arrived just in time to find Rebel in the bedroom beating the shit out of Charlie…”
“The asshole she was dating?”
“Yeah. Seemed he broke in, maybe? I don’t know. But he’d got Raven upstairs, half naked on the bed, unconscious…”
“Fuck,” he hisses, interrupting me.
“With her wrists slashed. It...it was bad, Jax. They’ve taken her to the hospital and Rebel’s gone with her, we’re following behind.”
“Fuck!!!” He spits. “Ace, you there?”
“Yeah,” Ace joins the conversation.
“How bad was it?”
“Strašljivo,” Ace replies, immediately cutting me out of the conversation. I’ve picked up a cuss word or two over the years of friendship with Ace, but as he rattles off a string of sentences in his native tongue, I don’t have a clue.
“V redu,” Jax replies. Out of all of us, he’s the most fluent in Slovenian, though he wouldn’t declare himself fluent by a long shot. “I’m on my way back, but it’s a long drive.”
“Call Baxter,” I instruct. “She’d want him there, he has connections to get you both here faster, and we may need someone to pick up Phoenix once we know what’s going on.”
“Good point. Baxter knows the childminder, we don’t. I’ll call him now and let you know what the plan is. You keep me updated, you hear? Any change at all - I want to know about it. Got it?”
“Yes, boss.” I salute, even though he can’t see me. Old habits. I end the call just as we’re pulling into the emergency department and I realise that I can’t literally follow the ambulance any longer. I turn off and head for the nearest car park, park and lock up, and then head for the main entrance to A and E.
“Excuse me,” I say as soon as I get to the front desk. “An ambulance has just brought a young woman in…”
“Relatives only. I can’t disclose personal information,” comes the insolent reply. I grit my teeth.
“I am a relative,” I force out in a fake civil tone. “She’s my fiancée and I’m her next of kin. I followed in the car. Where do I go?”
“Through those double doors. You’ll have to see where she is though; if she’s just come in, she won’t be booked on the system yet, so we can’t tell you any more than that.” The colleague sitting next to the bored-looking teenager is much more helpful, perhaps sensing my frustration.
“Thank you,” I tell her with a tight smile.
“Wait!” The first cries out. “You can’t both go. Who are you?” she asks, turning to Ace.
