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"A little flesh wound? Jesus be a whole ammo shop because I'm going to shoot the shit out of that limp dick asshole!"
I calmed her down, again, and promised to message her every day until they were home. It was the only thing that would get her off the phone. She only had a few days left in Ireland, and I wanted her to fully enjoy them without worrying about me. Now to get my face patched up and grab some coffee. I was delirious at this point and needed a whammy of caffeine. When the medic finished up, he reminded me, for a third damn time, to get checked out with my doctor. I felt for the dude; he was just doing his job. I promised him I would.
Damn, I'd been making a lot of promises today.
DANA
My gut was one big knot of worry, anger, and I won’t lie, there were a lot of murderous thoughts happening right now. I was just thankful Nich and I were still in the parking lot. I wanted him to take me home. God, how I wanted that—but something wasn’t right.
I’d never been more happy to have listened to my gut. Nich had been looking at the strange car in the parking lot only to figure out it was Stefan’s. You could plainly see he had a bag in the backseat, duct tape in the floorboard. The bastard wasn’t even smart enough to hide it in the trunk. It was just hanging out all willy-nilly for god and all to see.
I’d already made up my mind to go back inside, I just needed to see that she was okay. Hearing her scream as the door shut—my heart would never be the same.
Cindy was like my sister. We had been close now for a few years. Through that time she had been there for me. Making me laugh when I wanted to cry. Making me cry with laughter other times. She may have kept secrets, but didn’t we all have those? If you said you didn’t, you were lying.
Calling Brenna…yeah, that made my stomach twist again. They were halfway across the world, but friends needed to know when one of us was hurt. Plus, I was not going to be the one to tell her after the fact. I liked my ass right where it was and not kicked to the moon. No, thank you.
Wringing my hands, I tried to fight back the tears. She was hurt. We’d left her there, vulnerable to a freaking psycho. I wanted to throw up.
She was arguing with the poor EMT… I wanted to hold her down and make her go to the emergency room, but by law, once she refused, his hands were tied. Well, mine weren’t, and she would be going. Just as soon as I figured out how to do it. She would be like a cat you were trying to give a bath. Scrappy-doo in the flesh. Good thing I was more stubborn than her. She was going. Spencer would be on my side with this or he too would get a boot up the ass. Mine. We shared a look, and he left her side while the EMT cleaned her face.
Two minutes later, we had a plan. Get her away, give her a little distraction, then we could cart her off to the hospital. That wound looked gnarly. It would need to be handled by someone with fine sewing skills to limit the scar she would have.
Lord help us not break her further by trying to take care of her.
Chapter 14
Cindy
"You look badass, sweets. People say chicks dig dudes with scars, but hot damn! My lady is pretty smokin' right now."
I knew Spencer was just saying that to cheer me up, and I appreciated it. I saw my face in the mirror of the ambulance, and it definitely didn’t look badass. It looked angry and swollen. It would get better with time, and then maybe I could laugh about my "badass" scar.
Dana grabbed my hand, while Spencer put his arm around my waist. We began to walk towards the main strip in town. I was a bit confused because I thought we were heading to the police station to give our statements and then the hospital or doctor’s office. Any place they could get me the help they thought I needed.
I looked to Dana for answers, and she said, "We thought you could use a little break from all the chaos for a few minutes. Spencer said something about bumper cars and elephant ears?"
Her chuckle was strained, but I heard it.
I started to cry, but it was a good thing. I'd been through absolute hell and back and never thought I'd make it out alive. Seaside had brought me so much more than I could have ever imagined. I was running from my past, not knowing if I'd see tomorrow. Ending all my misery seemed the most likely way out.
Today? Today I had a new, larger family. One that loved and protected one another. They literally saved my life back there.
I was the luckiest girl alive, and I wouldn’t ever take it for granted.
"I love you both so much. I love all of you. Blood doesn't make a family. This right here is what makes a family. Thank you will never be enough, but it's a start."
“You don’t thank your family for being there. That’s our job…” she said.
Dana and Spencer hugged the shit out of me, and with happy tears in our eyes, we made our way to the elephant ear stand. Once the sugary goodness was in our hands, we went to take a breather down on the beach.
It was a beautiful day, and the sun was shining bright. We sat in silence, but I felt their eyes on me. Dana was holding the plate with her elephant ear on it so tight her knuckles were white. I’d bet good money that she was counting down until she ordered me to get up and go to the doctor. I almost wanted to laugh, but it wasn’t the right time.
Spencer stood, pulling something out of his pocket, as me and Dana looked on curiously. He held out a little black box.
I thought my heart had stopped beating.
Was he doing what I thought he was doing?
