“Is she okay?” I ask as I look over the paramedic’s shoulder and keep my eyes on Parker.
“So far it’s just a bad cut. We should be able to treat it at the emergency room.”
“Do I have to go?” I hear her ask.
“Yes,” the paramedic and I answer at the same time.
A second ambulance shows up, and the other team brings a stretcher for the guy, but I have no sympathy for him. He could have killed Parker, so whatever injuries I didn’t cause, he deserves. Well, and the ones I caused too.
“Can he come with me?” she asks when they help her out of the car and place her on a stretcher for safety.
“Is he family?” the paramedic asks.
“He’s my?—”
“Fiancé,” I answer, cutting her off. I’m not sure what she was going to say, but now is not the time to worry about titles. Hell, I’ll call her my wife if it gets me in that ambulance with her. She’s going to be before too long, so we might as well skip the semantics.
“Fiancé,” she agrees, and part of my anxiety fades when she smiles at me.
They wheel her in the back of the ambulance, and I climb in beside her and hold her hand. The injury at her temple has stopped bleeding, and they’ve assured me this is just a precaution. They continue to monitor Parker the whole way to the hospital, but I don’t pay attention to what they’re doing. All I can think about is making sure she’s safe and then taking her home with me. Fuck her family and that asshole she was with.
“I’m the one taking care of you now, do you understand me, Parker? You're my responsibility, and I take that seriously. You are my number one priority from here on out. And you don’t answer to anyone. Not even me. Understood?”
She reaches up and touches my cheek, and I feel some of the fear lift off my shoulders. “I understand, Samuel.”
“Good. After this, you’re coming home.”
“But what about school? Lexi?” Her brows furrow as she looks up at me. “My parents probably won’t pay for me to keep going if I don’t do what they say. My father works for you. Gosh, this is all a mess.”
“Don’t think about that.” I lean forward and brush my lips against hers. “The only thing you need to worry about right now is healing. We’ll figure out the rest of it later. Tonight, let me take care of you.”
“I think I can do that,” she says, and then the ambulance comes to a stop.
It’s hours later by the time we leave the hospital, even with me making calls to expedite all of it. We’re released after they determine there aren’t any broken bones or internal injuries, and the only thing we need to keep an eye on is the scratch on her head. Her driving partner is being held overnight for a severe concussion, and I’m not sure if it was because of the accident or because I took him to the ground. Honestly, I don’t give a shit.
It’s nearly dawn when I carry Parker’s sleeping body into my home and upstairs to the master bedroom. She’s fast asleep and hardly stirs as I place her on the bed and then remove her shoes. There’s a long moment when I just look at her safe in my bed and in our home. This is where she’s supposed to be. Forever.
Chapter Eleven
PARKER
“I promise you this isn’t what you think.” The whispered words break through the fog, and I wonder if that is Samuel. I must be dreaming because why else would he be here? I roll over and wince at the sharp pain shooting through my face. “Okay, maybe it is what you think, but I swear—” My eyes fly open because that is Samuel and he’s whispering.
My eyes lock with his, and I see he has his phone pressed to his ear. Whatever he was about to say, he stops and stares at me.
“Let me call you back,” he says before hanging up. “How are you feeling?” He rushes over to the bed. A bed that is clearly not mine. The night before starts to come flooding back to me, and I realize he’d been there. He came out of nowhere when I needed him most.
I reach up to touch my forehead where that sharp pain is coming from, and I flinch. The phone in Samuel’s hand starts to ring, but he ignores it as he picks up a bottle of pills and hands me one. I take it, chasing it down with a large glass of water, then hand it back to him.
“Thanks,” I manage to say around my voice cracking. The phone starts to ring again, and I glance at it. “Who’s calling you?” I glare at him because whoever it is is persistent. And he felt he needed to whisper when they talked.
“Is my fiancée getting jealous?” he teases me as the phone starts to go off again. I don’t know what comes over me ‘cause I snatch it from his hand and answer it.
“What?” I snip into the phone.
“Not a morning person,” Samuel chuckles at me, and I narrow my eyes at him.
“Parker!” Lexi shouts through the phone, and I pull it back and realize it’s actually mine.
