She looks down at her lap before back at me, her breathing coming a little heavier than before.
“I saw it in his bedside table when I got back from my cruise. I thought it was for me. Then when he didn’t give it to me, I kinda forgot about it…until I saw it around your neck.”
Ah.
Makes sense.
“For what it’s worth, I am sorry, Carly. Neither of us meant for it to happen. It got really complicated really fast but neither of us ever wanted to hurt you.”
She lets out a short breath in what sounds like a silent chucklebefore she does it again and again, opening her mouth to take a breath. Her eyes look to me in confusion as her hand goes to her chest.
“What the fuck?” she pants as she picks up her cup, her eyes widening before he looks up at me and clutches her chest. In the next moment, she’s slumping out of her chair and falling to the floor.
“Oh my god! Carly!” I gasp as I drop down beside her.
My eyes run over her, as if I could find something physically wrong with her as she stares up at me.
“Fuck…you….F-fuck,” she stutters before her eyes roll into the back of her head and her body sinks into the floor further.
What the hell?!
“Someone call 911!” I say as I check her neck for a pulse.
I’m not a fucking doctor or anything but I can’t feel anything. Oh my god. Oh my god. I try to line up where I think her heart is and begin pushing on her chest. I’m not CPR trained or anything but I’ve seen it done on TV enough times and know that if she goes without a heartbeat for too long, she’s done for.
An ambulance arrives surprisingly fast and they rush in before taking over for me.
“What happened?” they ask me.
“I-I don’t know. She was talking and then she couldn’t breathe or something and just collapsed. It didn’t feel like she had a pulse.”
The paramedics lift her onto a gurney and begin carrying her out to the ambulance when something falls out of her pocket. A tiny clear baggie with some kind of powder in it. I bend down to pick it up, looking at it for any kind of markings or indication as to what it is.
“Is that coke?” the paramedic asks.
I’ve never seen a pale green cocaine before, and trust me I’ve…never done cocaine in my life. Nope. Not me.
“I’ll take it to the hospital, see if they can figure out what she od’d on.”
I hand the baggie over to the paramedic as I step into the ambulance with them. First, I send a text to my parents telling them that Carly is being rushed to the hospital. Then, I send one to Nico.
Chapter Thirty Seven
Nico
“We understand where you’re coming from, Nico, but you can’t punch out an employee just because he grabbed your girlfriend,” Lionel, one of the board members of Sanders & Son says.
I lean forward in my chair as I rest my forearms onto the table.
“He didn’t grab her, her hit her. Repeatedly. For all anyone knew he was going to beat the shit out of her or fucking rape her right then and there. I protected not only my girlfriend but a woman from one of our employees. My character should not be called into question for this.”
A few of the members nod their heads in agreement while Lionel and a few of his buddies give me sour looks. I don’t give a fuck what any of them say. If they try to put me on a leave of absence or force me to give up my company, I’ll take their asses to court. End of discussion.
My phone buzzes in my pocket and for some reason, I take this extremely inappropriate time to check it. Cassi is home by herself and though it’s probably some junk email or something, I have to make sure.
“Are you seriously checking your phone, right now? We are discussing the future of this company and whether your presence will be apart of that?” Lionel snaps.
My eyes move across the screen, my gut twisting as I stand. I move towards the door without another word when Lionel calls out to me again.
