Roe began rocking me. “It’s going to be all right, Lottie.”
“We take her to Bram,” Reid said as he got into the car and shut the door.
I wanted to protest, but what was the point? Reid looked set on going and it was better than going to the hospital. So I just cried, which made Roe reiterate that everything was going to be all right.
Wyatt got the car started and pulled away from the curb. “What about your bike?”
“I parked it down another street. We’ll get it later,” Reid said.
“Are you going to tell us why you went to Lottie’s?” Roe asked. “Alone?”
Reid didn’t answer.
“How’d you even know we took her home?” Wyatt asked.
“Roe told me. I texted him earlier,” Reid said.
“Why did you go to see Lottie, Reid?” Roe questioned, sounding pissed off.
“Does it fucking matter right now?” Reid snapped.
The car went quiet for the remainder of the drive. The farther we got from my house, the faster the adrenaline that had been pumping through me began to disappear. The pain became worse, but exhaustion was just as strong. I didn’t rememberdrifting off. I just remembered feeling relieved to be able to return to the peaceful void.
Chapter Two
Unbearable pain rippedme from my sleep screaming. My eyes shot open and a bright light forced me to close them again. Something pushed on my ribs, making me scream again.
I was back in my room.
“I’m sorry!” I cried out.
Mother and Clay weren’t done with me.
“I’ll be good. Please,” I pleaded even though speaking hurt.
Big hands cupped the sides of my face and a familiar deep voice like thunder calmly told me, “You’re safe, Charlotte. You’re safe.”
Tears slid from the corners of my closed eyes and hit the big hands holding me.
“Roe!” I cried, pathetically.
A hand squeezed mine. “I’m right here.”
“Don’t leave me,” I begged.
“I won’t,” I heard him promise.
“Her ribs might be broken,” a stranger said. “I don’t know for sure.” Hands other than Bram’s and Roe’s moved over me, pushing and prodding, making me grunt. Then my eyelids were forced open one at a time and an even brighter and closer light shone into them. Someone let out a sigh. “I don’t think she’sconcussed. She’ll need sutures—a lot of them. There’s so much bruising around her throat and on her abdomen…” The stranger released a stress-filled sigh. “She should go to the hospital, Bram.”
I opened my eyes again and tried to see past the light above me. “No! No hospitals!” I tried to lift my hand up to block the light to see. It worked a little. The first thing I saw was the back of my cut-up and bloody hand. Then I saw Bram’s face. He was standing by my head. I glanced around quickly. Roe was standing to my left. Reid and Wyatt were behind him. There was a strange but familiar old man with a white beard, wearing a Haven’s Rebels vest, standing to my right. It took me a second to place him. He was the Rebel who had bumped into me at Noble’s pub the night I had gone with the guys and Mac.
The older man leaned close to me. “You’re in a bad way, honey. Unless you’ve smoked two packs of cigarettes a day since birth, you were strangled pretty bad. That means you could have a damaged larynx, or even fucking worse, carotid. Then there’s the beating your abdomen took. Were you punched? Kicked? Both?”
Both, I thought to myself.
“You could have internal damage. Do you understand what that means?” he asked.
I understood and it didn’t matter. Closing my eyes again, I dropped my hand. “No hospitals.”
