Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 146548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 733(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 733(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
“Farrow,” he says, frustrated and raspy. “Are you…okay? Oscar has Winona?” It’s like he’s ensuring he didn’t just hallucinate that.
“I’m fine. She’s okay,” I confirm. “Don’t move—”
“Charlie and Ben?” he asks and grits down, pain wrenching his face.
“Don’t move yet,” I say deeply with an outstretched hand. “Just wait.” It’s hard for him, but he physically has no choice, and I shift carefully and quickly towards the front.
Both Cobalts hang upside down.
“Charlie,” I call.
Charlie winces, and he keeps looking at his brother in concern.
“Talk to me,” I tell Charlie while I take Ben’s vitals, my fingers to his carotid pulse. I listen to his chest with my ear. Normal breath sounds.
“My leg is broken,” Charlie states through his teeth, and he wraps his arm around the seatbelt before unbuckling—I reach out and help him slide to the bottom of the car.
“Ben, do you know where you are?” I ask, and I snap the seatbelt. Careful with his head and neck, I hold all his weight. Shit, the youngest guy in this car is the tallest at six-foot-five.
He blinks, still dazed. I check his eyes, and then I lean him against his intact door, the window already shattered.
At this point, I understand clearly who’s critical and who isn’t.
One person is critical.
Just one.
I return to the back at the same time Maximoff drops down too easily, like he’s done this before with a broken collarbone.
He hasn’t, by the way.
His Timberlands hit the shattered bottom, and he clutches his forearm to his chest.
I can’t even surface a glare as I say, “You stubborn idiot.”
He crouches, his breath shortened. “I’m feeling great. Thanks for…asking.”
“I didn’t ask,” I say, my fingers to his neck. I mentally file his fast heart rate. “Anything else hurt?”
“No. Yeah, I don’t know. We need to get my cousins out of here.”
Before either of us move, Oscar returns and lifts the flap of the airbag. “Redford?!”
“Ben has a concussion!” I call out. “Eyes are dilated, but he’s not critical!” I explain how he’s accessible through the driver’s window, and Oscar has Ben out in a minute flat. He doubles back for Charlie and helps his client out the same side.
I turn to Maximoff. “I’m going out first so I can help you.”
He doesn’t argue or combat me, and that just about kills me. Because it means he’s in severe pain.
I slide out the window backwards. Rain instantly pours on me, soaking my inked chest. Drenching my hair and dripping off my lashes.
Now it’s his turn.
I kneel and clutch his waist, not his arm or shoulder, and I pull Maximoff out the window. He uses the strength in his legs, and he almost screams through his teeth.
I have him out of the overturned car, and he tries to pick himself up to stand. He wheezes.
“Stay down.” I can’t touch his collar without hurting him more. He just has to listen.
And he does with no pushback. It fucking guts me.
Maximoff lies on his back, tilting his head to try and make sense of the dark, stormy surroundings. I kneel closer to his side, concentrating on his injuries, but I still see the cameras flashing.
Akara, Quinn, and some of Epsilon security restrain the paparazzi who’ve jumped out of their vehicles on the highway. They try to snap photos of the wreckage. Right where Maximoff lies on the pavement littered with metal and plastic car parts.
I can’t move him yet.
Security yells and pushes paparazzi backwards.
“Can we help?!” a pedestrian asks, other cars parked in the emergency lane. Epsilon creates a barrier to keep them back from us.
Quickly, I rip open his soaked shirt at the collar until it tears in two. Welts bloom around his ribcage, and he has trouble catching his breath.
“Where’s…Nona?” he asks, worried. It’s all killing me. Every word he says, every gasp of breath he takes is eviscerating me.
“Range Rover with Ben and Charlie,” I answer. Near the wreck, Oscar leans into the Range Rover, doors open, and I assume that Ben and Winona are inside. Waiting for the ambulance.
Charlie has a suit jacket over his head, and he rests against the hood of the Range Rover, putting all his weight on his left leg.
Maximoff winces, his palm floating above his abs. Rain continues to beat down on us, and I hover over my boyfriend to protect him from the storm.
“Chest pain?” I ask, already knowing by sight.
“Yeah…” He wheezes again.
I put my ear to his chest. Absence of breath sounds on the right, and no visible movement. I take his vitals again. Tachy.
I’ve never treated a loved one before.
Fuck, I’ve never loved someone the way I love him. With a father married to medicine and no mother, I didn’t grow up seeing love, but I sought that in every relationship, and I thought I met it.
But I realize that I never even came close.