I jumped and let out a yell.

My eyes shot open.

There was no air rushing past my face.

No long fall.

No water.

No rocks.

Nothing.

I was in a hospital room.

I looked around.

My heart was racing like I’d never felt it before.

I moved my left hand and found the button for the nurse. I pressed it like my life depended on it. It took all of ten seconds (I counted) for the door to bust open, and in came a crew of nurses. Followed by them were two doctors. Behind them…

“Hazel,” I said. “You’re here.”

My bed was soon swarmed with medical personnel as they checked the machines hooked up to me along with the tubes connected to my arms and the one up my nose. I blinked fast, my vision fuzzy. One of the doctors called everyone off except for him and Hazel.

I lifted my left hand and felt a pain shoot through my body.

Hazel grabbed my hand. It hurt worse. But I ignored the pain. I’d go through any pain to touch her.

“Maddox…oh, Maddox.”

“What happened?” I asked. “Where is…”

I saw Ava in my mind. It had been a dream. A really crazy dream.

“You’re okay,” the doctor said. “You had to go in for emergency surgery. You were lucky. If that knife had been any longer…”

“I’m okay though?” I asked.

“You’re here,” the doctor said. “We still need to monitor you. We have a long way to go here.”

“A long way to go,” I said as I looked at Hazel.

She put a hand to her mouth. “Maddox…what did I do to you?”

“If you need anything, call for help,” the doctor said. “If you experience any pain, discomfort, blurry vision, confusion. Anything.”

“Thanks, Doc,” I said. “I’m good. I’m here.”

“Try to rest,” the doctor said.

He grinned and left the room.

Now I had Hazel alone.

Before the door could close all the way, she burst into tears.

“I did this…”

“No,” I said. My stomach hurt. Bad. “Hazel. No.”

“Maddox…”

“He was going to hurt you. Just tell me they got him.”

She nodded. “He had other warrants. He’s going to be gone for a long time.”

I let out a breath.

The whole thing played through my head again. Stepping into that apartment, dropping the roses when I saw Hazel on the floor. That asshole trying to hurt her. My emotions won that battle. I wanted to fight the guy. I wanted to make him feel the way he left the women he hurt. Yet I didn’t expect him to be smart enough to protect himself. But of course he would. He was a survivor.

“I’ll never forgive myself,” Hazel said.

“Hey, no way,” I said. “Hazel, we’re in this together. It’s you and me.”

“That was my personal history…”

“Ours now,” I said. “I’d do it again. You can’t feel that pain ever again, and you won’t. I’m fine. I’ll be walking around by tomorrow. Mark my words.”

“Maddox…why…me? Why me?”

“Because you’re Hazel with the green eyes,” I said. “And I fell in love with you the second you took that picture of me. I pushed your buttons to see that look of passion spread across your face. You challenged me when nobody else dared to do. More than that, sugar, you showed me that I could love someone. And I love you. You think I’m going to worry about a little knife in my gut?”

“Maddox,” Hazel cried. She quickly grabbed the nearest chair and pulled it next to the bed. She sat down and kept crying. “All I saw…just everything, Maddox. Him being there, waiting. My guard was so down.”

“I know,” I said. “I know.”

“I fought back though, Maddox. I refused to let him win again. I fought…”

I forced myself to roll just a little to my left side. The pain that ripped through me was almost blinding, but I pushed through it. I reached with my right hand and touched her face.

“You did amazing,” I whispered. “You saved my life, Hazel. You fought that strength, and you knocked that asshole out. And when he woke up, he got arrested, right? Gone forever now. I promise you that.”

“I told Jonesy about what I did,” she then said, switching subjects.

“What you did?”

“To Lance.”

My eyes went wide. “What? You did? What he did say?”

“That the police record shows what happened, and that’s that.”

I felt relief ripple through me. I nodded, trying to be casual.

“Does that help you, sugar?”

“A little.”

“Good. I did something, too. Before this mess went down. I had an idea…”

There was a knock at the door.

I nodded.

Hazel yelled come in.

The door opened, and in came some of the guys.

“I thought there would be more blood,” Prick said as he stood at the end of the bed. “Looks more like an appendix surgery to me.”

“Really?” Max asked him. “That’s where you want to go? He got stabbed, man.”

“Stabbed through the heart?” Prick asked. “With Hazel’s knife of love?”

“What is wrong with you?” Tate asked Prick. Tate put a hand to my shoulder. “You good here?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

“Good, brother.”

“When do you get out of here?” Max asked.

“Hopefully within the hour,” I said.

“Stop,” Hazel said.

“Well, I’ll be the first to say it,” Prick said. “If anything happens to you from the waist down, you know, between your legs, and you can’t take care of Hazel…I’ll be the one…”

I looked at Hazel. “Well?”

Hazel smirked. “I think I’d do better on my own.”

Tate and Max laughed.

Hazel then looked at Tate. “I owe you some hours, Tate. If there’s anything I missed…”

“You belong here,” Tate said. “Right here. Taking care of this crazy son of a bitch.”

“We found a straggler,” another voice said.

Axel came barreling into the hospital room looking like some outlaw biker. Next to him was a woman. I didn’t recognize her.

But Hazel did.

She quickly stood up. “Donna?”

“Hazel.”

Hazel looked back at me. “That was what I did, sugar. I tracked her down and called her.”

“You did…”

“You can’t let time fuck you, Hazel. You can’t waste it. You never know when your number gets called. We’ve all been through shit. We’ve all been through hell. But there’s no reason we shouldn’t keep trying, right?”

Hazel’s bottom lip quivered. “I love you, Maddox.”

Then she turned and looked at Donna.

I wasn’t there to know how badly their friendship broke down. And there were a few silent seconds that made me wonder if one of them was going to throw the first punch.

Instead, at the exact same second, they both jumped at each other for a hug.

I smiled.

I saw Prick readying some kind of comment.

Max was right there to shove at his shoulder and motion for the door.

Then Tate said, “We’ll give you all some privacy. Just know, brother, we’re all here. Always here. Feel better.”

I put a fist out, and they all punched at me.

Then it was just myself, Hazel, and Donna.

I said, “I’d go too, but I’m sort of stuck here.”

Hazel laughed, tears in her eyes.

Donna then said, “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too.”

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Hazel said.

I reached for her hand again. “Sugar, believe it…anything is real, if you believe it.”