Someone shook me. “Breathe, Max, breathe.” Tanner. “I’ll go see what happened.”
I stared blankly at the ambulance’s flashing light. Unable to move. To take a step.
No! I clawed my way out of the violence of my past. Adrenaline jetted through my veins, yanking me back to life. I shot out of the car and tore across the street to my smashed-up Jeep wrapped around the streetlight. The broken glass crunched beneath my boots. At the blood smearing the splintered windshield and steering wheel, my heart stopped.
Logan, you can’t leave me—you can’t.
“I’m fine…I’m fine…” A familiar voice reached me through the agony flooding me. I pivoted. The air wheezed from my lungs. Tears stung my eyes.
Logan sat on the back of the ambulance, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders, looking shaken. Blood streamed down from a cut on her brow. A paramedic was working on her, putting on a neck brace. She held her left hand close to her chest as if her wrist hurt. A cop stood adjacent to her, taking a statement.
Then she looked up, and a trembling smile appeared on her lips. “Max.” A whisper.
Everything—everyone around me vanished. Excepther.
I sprinted across the street. Falling on my knees, I gathered her into my arms. I didn’t care that I probably got in the way of the paramedic treating her. Didn’t speak, just held her living, breathing body and struggled to breathe past the boulder in my throat.
She ran her shaky fingers through my hair. “I’m so sorry about your Jeep. I—a dog appeared out of nowhere, and I hit the brakes too late.”
“I don’t care about the damn car.” Easing back, I looked her over. An ugly, purple contusion was forming on her forehead. “God, Logan, I could have lost you!”
“Next time, make sure you wear your seatbelt,” the cop said sternly. “It could have been fatal.”
A dull red flush washed across her pale face.
She hadn’t worn her seatbelt? Anger jetted through my veins, crashing over my fear. “You didn’t wear your goddamn seatbelt! What the hell were you thinking? You could have fucking died!”
“It was an accident.” She scowled. “And stop yelling at me. I was so worried about you.”
“I have to get that wound seen to,” the paramedic interrupted us from behind. “And we need to get her to the hospital ASAP.”
Inhaling harshly, I pushed to my feet, struggling to calm down so I wouldn’t shake her. How the hell could she be so careless with her life? Didn’t she know how much I needed her? Loved her? She hadn’t worn a damn seatbelt!
“No, no, I’m fine,” she told the paramedic. “I don’t need to go to the hospital.”
I fixed her a hard glare. “You’re going.”
Her soft mouth tightened. But at the pain in her eyes when the paramedic cleaned the gash on her brow, my anger drained as fast as it had appeared. This wasn’t her fault.I’dleft.I’ddriven her to search for me because of my anger with my father.
Her hazy gaze met mine, she mouthed as if to reassure me, “I’m fine.”
Right now, I needed a doc’s goddamn guarantee that she would be okay before I could actually breathe again. But I doubted anything would ever calm this fear still roiling within me.
***
Hands fisted in my pockets, my gaze pinned on the examination room door, I wore down the floors of the ER corridor as I paced. The lowered room temperature, the smell of pine and disinfectant, brought back memories of a time I could no longer avoid. With the fog yanked free from my mind, more memories were released. But for now, I pushed them aside. I’d deal with that as soon as I knew Logan would be okay.
Tanner leaned back against the white-washed wall, cell pressed to his ear, a flat look in his eyes. Doubtless, his current fling was on his back for his sudden disappearance.
“Is that what you believe? Then go.”
With that, it seemed Tanner had ended another short-term relationship.
“See to the bill would you?” I paused beside him. “I’ll pay you back.”
Tanner cocked a dark brow at me. “How?”
“Just fucking do it. I’ll get you your goddamn money,” I snapped, struggling not to take out my fear and frustration on him.
