“It feels liberating to be cut the way I usually do to others. Makes me feel more alive than I have in a long while,” Tennison muses.
I spin around, realizing we just made a circle around the cabin and I missed the fucking exit yet again, when he spears the side of my stomach with his knife. Right where the vest I’m wearing has a gap. It sends me crashing to my knees as the sharp pain radiates through my middle. I reach to cover it in a lame attempt to stem the bleeding when the cabin door is ripped open.
A war cry like I’ve never heard sounds out, and I realize it’s Willow.
My heart plummets. She’s not supposed to be here. She’s supposed to be safe and sound in my apartment, or literally anywhere but here.What the fuck is she doing here?
But my worry is quickly replaced with pride when she swings a baseball bat at Tennison’s head. He goes down near the little fireplace, and his eyes roll back in his head—making me aware of how hard Willow actually hit him—before falling to the side. His head hits the sharpcorner of the fireplace, and blood pools instantly underneath him. His knife drops to the ground in a sound that signals finality.
“Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.” I look up and see Willow starting to shake, the baseball bat falling from her fingers as she stares at the scene. Her face is pale, too pale.
“Hey, hey. It’s okay. Everything is okay.” I slowly climb to my feet, wincing at the pull on my wound but not giving a shit because Willow needs me.
Her unfocused eyes meet mine and finally clear a little. They trail down the length of my body and then stop when they see me clutching my side.
“Oh fuck, you’re hurt.” Her eyes well with tears, and mine blur as well.
Everything that could have possibly gone wrong did, and it’s all my fault.
She races to me, side-stepping Tennison, and presses her hand to the stab wound. It burns so fiercely I cry out as Willow starts to sob.
“It’s okay. We’re okay. We’re safe,” I mumble into her hair as I wrap my arm around her. I see the trail of blood I leave on her from my fucking forearm, and it just makes me angrier at the situation.
The cabin is suddenly flooded with men, and I don’t focus on anything except Willow.
“Fuck, brother.” Woodcroft stops us at the door.
“We need to get to the hospital,” I grunt out. I don’t give a shit about me, but we need to check on Lennox.
“Ambulance is right behind us.”
“Took you fucking long enough,” I growl at him. The pain in his eyes is so quick and so blatant that I almost feel bad. But my logical brain is nowhere to be found right now.
“We tried,” he whispers.
“Not fucking good enough.” I lead a still-crying Willow outside the cabin just as an ambulance drives up. They usher both of us in, and the drive takes a full half an hour since we need to go to the bigger hospital in Rosedale.
Neither of us says anything as the paramedics work on me. But Willow slowly starts to calm down, holding my hand the entire time.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper before they pump meds into me that make me feel sleepy as hell.
If she gives a response, I don’t hear it. I just fall into an uneasy sleep, reliving the whole afternoon.
Chapter 30
Willow
My eyes feel like they’re swollen shut, and I’m covered in James’s blood.
All I’ve done for the last hour is cry. I’m currently sitting in the waiting room, waiting for news on James and Lennox, and I’m a fucking wreck. My siblings are here, but they are letting me have my space, thankfully.
I don’t even know what I would say to them if I could talk right now. All I keep thinking about is killing Tennison, watching the blood pour from his head after he fell, and then looking up to see James fucking stabbed.
I can’t even begin to describe the emotions I’m feeling. Everything from guilt to grief to pride fills me every second I sit here.
And fear.
So much fear.
