My legs are numb as Ashley guides me to the door and into her car, each move a disconnect that feels as if I am watching and not doing. The drive to the hospital goes by in a blur; it feels as if it’s been seconds and hours at the same time. My eyes burn, but no tears fall. Somehow, Ashley gets me inside, a guiding hand while the world continues to move around us as mine falls apart.
My dad’s usual nurse spots us as we step off the elevator, and pity flashes across her face. “I’m so sorry.”
“Niamh?” Ashley shakes me, just like she did when I got that phone call. I haven’t stepped foot in a hospitalsince that day, and I had hoped I never would have to again.
Silas is staring with a concerned frown, waiting for me to do something while Deputy Wright continues to watch from the side, all but forgotten now.
Shaking my head to clear it, I grab my purse and hurry around the bar, following Silas out the door and to his waiting truck, the engine still idling like he abandoned it to come in here. I get in, and he’s moving the moment the doors are closed, speeding through the town and onto the highway that’ll take us to the hospital. We have an urgent care here, but nothing that can deal with big traumas, and that just makes everything worse.
“What happened?” I find my voice, though it’s rough and croaky.
“He came off his horse,” Silas weaves through traffic, ignoring the cars that blare their horns at us, and we somehow make the forty-minute drive in twenty-five. The truck is barely in park before he’s shoving the door open and waiting for me. I have to practically run to keep up with his long strides and we go into the hospital through the ER entrance.
The sterile smell inside burns my nose, and the memories of seeing my father, lifeless and cold in the hospital bed, try to claw me down. Somehow, I keep one leg moving in front of the other, each step a weight that’s dragged behind me. The fluorescent lights have the headache from this morning returning, a knock at my temples.
Silas is speaking with the nurse behind the desk while I try not to crash out in the middle of the ER. I follow after him when he’s shown through a set of doors;the corridor seeming to never end, just door after closed door.
We are eventually shown to a private room and told to wait. My heart does a painful thud when the door closes behind the nurse, the four walls pressing in.
“You don’t like hospitals,” Silas states, watching me as I attempt to sit and calm down in one of the hard, blue chairs pressed against the wall. There’s a cheery-looking photo across from me, a splash of vibrant color that seems out of place to the tornado of emotion wreaking havoc on my nervous system.
“Bad memories.” I suck in a large breath, filling my lungs before I blow it out slowly, staring at that kaleidoscope of color. My molars grind together, my jaw aching with it, and my nails bite into the palms of my hands.
“I have to ask you a question, and I need the truth.” He’s no nonsense, a little cold if I’m honest, which is a complete contrast to how he was back in that dining room so many nights ago now. I’ve seen him a few times since I moved onto the ranch, but I guess I paid little attention to how he was when I’ve been so focused onnotfalling for his brother.
“O-okay,” I stutter.
“Did anything unusual happen today?” He fixes me to the spot with his stare, the color of his eyes a match to Roman’s. “Anyone suspicious come into the bar?”
I wet my lips and shake my head. “No. Nothing.”
“No one loitering outside, no cars?”
I try to think of everything that had happened today, but there’s a misfire in my mind. After I left the ranch, I went to the pet store. The couple of girls working in there had fussed over Pumpkin, and after I had left, theonly thing that I suppose could be odd was the silver truck blocking in my car. They left quickly though when they saw me walking toward my car. After that, I headed to the bar.
I shake my head again. “Nothing happened. Why?”
“Nothing that happened today was an accident.”
“You said he fell off his horse!” I jump up from the chair.
“He did. After someone drove at him. Pippin spooked and threw him off.”
“Oh God,” I run a hand down my face. “Someone deliberately tried to hurt him.”
“We believe so,” Silas confirms.
“Is he going to be okay?” I swallow thickly, pleading with Silas to tell me the truth.
“You care about him.” He cocks his head, his analytical stare pulling me apart, like I’m a problem he’s trying to solve.
“What!?” I defend, shifting uncomfortably. “Of course I care if he gets hurt. This may be fake, but that doesn’t mean I want him to get hurt.”
His eyes narrow at me. “The nurse didn’t have an update. They were working on him is all she could tell me.”
I bite the inside of my lip as I nod, pacing back and forth in the small box room. The air is stifling in here, almost stale, but there are no windows to crack.
Who could want to hurt Roman? It makes no sense; his entire family is loved in this town. Peoplewantto be around them.
