CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
BEAUX
It’d taken hours to get back to Raleigh, a flight delay due to the weather, but I’d been keeping in constant contact with Jaxon.
He’d pulled Paige from a fucking smashed car driven by Hannah.
As soon as I’d gotten his phone call, one he made while Paige was in his arms on the side of the road while he waited for an ambulance, I’d leaned over and threw up.
From the way Jaxon said everything happened, he said it wasn’t an accident either. Said the girls had been drinking, but not too much.
It didn’t matter.
All that mattered was seeing Paige. Holding her. Fuck!
I slammed my hands on the counter to the nurse in the main waiting room of the emergency room. “Paige Halloway,” I panted, breathless from worry and fear rotting my stomach. “Where is she?”
“Are you family?” the nurse asked. “Only family can be back there.” She didn’t look at me while she clicked on the computer screen.
“I’m family,” I said. “Husband.”
The word came out before I could stop it. Fuck it. I’d say or do anything, give this woman my millions to let me through those double doors.
She shot me a look. It obviously wasn’t the first time she heard the lie. “Have a seat, we’ll send someone out.”
I didn’t sit. I texted Jaxon, asking where in the hell they were.
He answered back. “Room 415 dumbass. I already told you.”
“Fuck,” I groaned and flipped up through my texts.
I hurried out of the emergency room to a hallway that led to the main entrance. Repeatedly pushing the button to the elevator, I willed it to show the fuck up.
I had to see her.
Needed to see she was going to be okay.
The elevators opened, waited for fucking ever to shut again despite me pounding the “door close” button and then it took another million and half fucking hours to reach the fourth floor.
I didn’t bother to stop at the reception desk on the floor, I just moved like I knew where I was going, following the signs, until I saw Jaxon outside a room that had to be hers.
“How is she?”
“Sleeping. She’ll be okay.”
“Fuck,” I knew that. He’d already said she only had minor injuries, maybe a concussion and a broken arm from where the car smashed against her when it hit a tree.
Good Lord. Not the texts I ever wanted to see in my life again.
“Didn’t want to tell you this on the phone,” Jaxon said. “But you should know. When I pulled her out of the car, she opened her eyes for just a second and all she said was ‘It was Hannah.’”
“What was Hannah?”
“Either she meant it was Hannah who crashed the car or Hannah who was stalking you. I’ve got people looking into it.”
“What happened to Hannah?”
“Wasn’t wearing a belt. Flew through the glass. Didn’t make it.”
Fuck. That would kill Paige. I couldn’t wrap my head around the information he was giving me, I also didn’t give a shit.
If someone hurt Paige intentionally, I was glad they were dead. If that made me a heartless bastard, I didn’t care.
“Her dad’s in with her. He doesn’t know what I told you.”
“Thanks.”
I walked around him and entered her room, steeling myself for the damage I was sure to see, but all I saw was Paige.
Her brown hair matted with some dried blood at her temple, but it’d been mostly cleaned up. She was lying on the bed, head tilted to her side, eyes barely open and on her dad.
She was smiling.
He was holding her hand.
Crying.
God. Pain slashed my chest and I walked to the end of the bed. “Hey, you’re awake.”
“You’re here,” she said, turning to look at me. She flinched and reached up to touch the brace around her neck. “You’re finally here.”
“Always.”
Sam rolled his wheelchair back and gestured for me to take the empty chair. “You two talk. I’ll be outside with Jaxon.”
“Thanks, Sam.”
“Dad, I love you,” Paige croaked. Her voice was dry and scratchy and I cringed at the noise. God. But she looked okay. Better than dead, which didn’t make me feel better.
“Love you too, baby girl. I’ll be back tomorrow but promise you’ll get some rest tonight, okay?”
“In this damn place with all the crappy food?”
“Funny.” He grinned. “That’s what I said last time I was here.”
She smiled. He shook his head and I held the door for him while he wheeled himself out. He’d been getting better on his crutches and with a walking cast, but he must have been exhausted to be in his wheelchair.
“Can you get him home?” I asked Jaxon.
“I’ve got Melanie,” Sam said. “She ran to get coffee but she’ll be here.”
“I’ve got work to do,” Jaxon said. “Calls are coming in.”
Both of us stared at him, and at the same time, said, “Call me when you know something.”
He turned back to his phone, Sam wheeled himself back to the floor’s waiting area, and I went back to the room.
“I saw your interview,” Paige said as I pulled the chair close to her bed and collapsed into it. “You looked sexy.”
I’d already forgotten about the interview.
I grabbed her hand and brought it to my mouth, kissing her, smelling her, tasting her.
“What happened?” I asked. “And are you okay?”
I’d heard it. She looked like she would be. Scratches at her temple, goose size egg in the middle of them. Her right arm was in a brace, not a cast, but over all, she looked damn lucky.
“I might have a concussion, and I hurt, but honestly, I’m okay.”
“Your arm—”
“Is fine. Not broken, just sprained from when it smashed against the glass.”
“God. Fuck, Paige, I’m so sorry. So damn sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” she said, reaching for my head but she pulled back, gasping. “My back hurts too, I guess.”
“Don’t move, then. Tell me what happened.”
“I don’t know. But Hannah, she just, I don’t know how to say it, snapped? We were having drinks, having fun and she said she’d take me to your place. Then I realized she already knew where to go, and when I asked her about it, she totally freaked out.”
“Hannah? It was Hannah. That’s what you told Jaxon. Do you remember?”
She shook her head, closed her eyes as if thinking hurt her. “No. The car crashed and I woke up in the ambulance, that’s all I know. But I think she was the stalker. She started ranting about how I didn’t deserve you, how she did, and the last thing she said after I told her I loved you, was that if she couldn’t have you, I didn’t get to either. Then she turned the wheel and she flew off the road. She meant to do it.”
Her chin wobbled and tears fell from her eyes before I even realized she’d started crying.
“Shit.” I climbed into the tiny bed next to her and lay on my side, holding her, careful not to hurt her, but comforting her.
“I was so scared,” she said through her tears, shoulders shaking. “It came out of nowhere, and it was storming, and I hate it when it rains that hard, and then she was yelling at me, and the sounds…”
“Shhh. We’ll talk later.”
The sound of stormy waters rushed through my ears as I held her, willing her to calm down while trying to settle myself. It didn’t work for me, but eventually, her cries dwindled, her sniffling stopped, and she relaxed into me.
“I love you,” I whispered. “Love you so damn much. I was so fucking scared when Jaxon called me.”
“I love you, too. I was so scared.”
“I know, but I got you. I promise.”
Not that they were worth much. Jaxon and I had promised her she’d stay safe and wouldn’t get hurt. We both failed her. But there was another day to wallow in guilt, now she needed me to be strong for her.
I held her while she slept, not sleeping a fucking wink well into the middle of the night when a nurse came in to check her vitals.
She glared at me until I climbed out of the bed and settled in the chair next to Paige’s bed. “How is she?”
“Vitals look good,” the nurse said. “We’ll know more in the morning.”
She left the room quietly, and I didn’t know if it was the exhaustion, the adrenaline coursing through my system finally evaporating, or the nurse’s reassurance Paige was doing well, but I rested my arms on the bed, dropped my head, and I was asleep as soon as my eyes closed.