Ethan
Was today a work day? No, but at least I have one less thing to worry about. After going back and forth with the lawyers all day, we finally got the contract ready to send to Edward and Angie. The sooner I can get them out of my life the better.
Lexi and Tanya aren’t back yet, so they must be having a good chat. I’m happy they’re getting along, because family is very important to me.
Heading to the shower, I stop when I hear a knock on the door. I open it to see Travis standing there.
He walks in and looks around the apartment. “Is Tanya here? She was supposed to meet me for drinks, but hasn’t shown up, so I thought she might is here with Lexi,” he says, then looks over at me.
Fuck! Getting my phone out of my pocket, I call Lexi. “Come on, Lexi, pick up the phone.” “She told me she was meeting Tanya for coffee.” I dial again. “Is Tanya not answering?” I look at him, and he doesn’t need to answer me. I’m sure all the color drained from my face as a cold rush of dread runs through me.
“Lexi where are—” I stop when I hear a man’s sadistic laughter.
“Took you a long enough,” a man says, and I know I must be speaking with Sam. I put the phone on speaker so Travis can hear and I won’t have to repeat everything.
“If you hurt her—”
“I think you mean, if I hurt her more,” Sam cuts me off, and I look over at Travis as my heart threatens to jump out of my chest. “Can you hear her?”
I put the speaker up to my ear to make sure I can. All I can hear is heavy breathing, and then, “E…th…an,” in a very faint voice and I break out in a cold sweat. What has he done to her?
“Lexi, I—”
“I what, Ethan? I’m going to watch her die in front of me. I’m going to watch every last drop of blood drain from her body, and listen as she drags in her last breaths.” The line goes dead, and I stand frozen staring at the phone.
“Drink.” Travis puts a glass of whiskey in front of me.
Taking the glass from the tabletop, I throw it against the wall and stand there watching the glass shatter across the floor. Walking over to the laptop, I look over at Travis. “Does Tanya have the Find My Phone app?”.
“No, her phone is off.” He looks at me and says nothing else.
Lexi’s phone is on, so if I can pinpoint it, I’ll know where to go and can get there fast. The way she sounded over the phone petrifies me.
“Where is this?” I ask, looking at the red dot flashing on the screen.
“That’s the old warehouse building where all the—” He stops talking when he sees the look of dread on my face.
I can’t hear the last part of that sentence. I can’t think about all the drugged-up people being there when she can’t look after herself. I don’t think I could survive if I dwelled on those thoughts.
“Let’s go,” I tell him, grabbing my keys and running out of the apartment. The one thing I feared the most has happened. I didn't want her to leave the apartment without me. Why the hell did I let everything else cloud my concentration and forget that it wasn’t okay for her to go anywhere alone? It’s my fault that crazy fuck got her.
Speeding out of the garage, I take a second to look around and make sure I don’t hit anyone.
“Hey, she’s a fighter. You know that.” I hear Travis, but I don’t look over at him. “Ethan—”
“Travis, please stop talking and let me drive.” I can’t let him tell me things that might not be true.
There’s nothing I can do at the moment but drive and get there as fast as humanly possible. One thing is for certain, though. Once this is over, and Lexi is safe, she won’t be leaving my fucking side.
Parking in front of the warehouse, Travis and I jump out and run in. The place is void of anyone or anything. It’s like a ghost town. “Lexi!” I call out, hoping against hope for a response.
“Ethan!”
“Tanya?” I look over at Travis as he runs past me, and I follow him up the stairs. Reaching the next floor, I watch Travis run to Tanya, who’s tied to a rickety wooden chair. I look around for Lexi but don’t see a trace of her at first glance.
I walk over to Tanya and Travis as he unties her from the chair. “Where’s Lexi, Tanya?” I kneel in front of her.
“He st-st-stabbed her.” Tanya looks at me with tears coming down her cheeks, “Twice.” She whispers the last part, and I think I just heard my heart shatter into pieces. I look at what Tanya's fixated on—a trail of blood.
Following the trail, I look at a group of people on the ground with needles still in their arms. I look back at the ground and follow the trail of blood. “Travis, call an ambulance!” I shout, so he can hear me in the other room. I want them on the way here to save her when I find her.
Opening the door, I look around the room and shove the table that's against a wall out of the way. I rush over to Lexi when I see her body lying on the dirt-ridden ground I quickly drop to my knees and stare at the blood soaking through my jeans. There’s so much. How can she survive this amount of blood loss? Looking down, salt water fills my mouth, and I want to vomit. Her chest isn’t moving. Why isn’t it moving?
“Lexi? Babe? It’s me." I gently move her hair away from her face. She’s as pale as a ghost. Looking at her body, I see a needle sticking out of the crook of her arm. Pulling it from her sticky skin, I sling it across the floor. “Please, wake up,” I say, pressing my forehead against hers. “I can’t lose you—I won’t lose you.” Moving my hand down her neck, I feel for a pulse.
“Ethan?” Travis calls out, walking up behind me.
“She’s not breathing,” I choke out as I continue feeling for a pulse. For the first time, I feel like I’m losing everything good in my life. “Lexi, please… Fight this. Fight for me—for us.” It feels like the weight of the world is sitting on my chest. My heart is crumbling and I'm helpless to do anything but watch her slowly fading away. It’s killing me that she isn’t moving. My heart feels like it's sinking into an abyss of despair. The pain is quickly turning into ice-cold anger, leaving me numb. My vision blurs with the tears building in my eyes. I see Travis’ lips moving, but no sound reaches my ears. My focus is solely on Lexi. Feeling for a pulse, watching for any sign of her chest moving, listening and begging for a whoosh of air as she takes a breath. Anything to give me a little bit of hope that she's still with me.
I move closer to her ear, hoping it'll help her hear me. “Lexi, wake up, and I promise I’ll show you how much I love you every single minute of every single day. I promise I’ll never hurt you or let you be hurt again, but you have to stay with me,” I say, focusing on where the blood has come from. I long slash has cut through her side, the source of the blood that’s still oozing from her. Pulling my jacket off, I place it over the wounds. The blood begins to seep through my jacket, but I couldn’t care less about my garments. I only care about helping Lexi—my Lexi.
“Sir, we need you to move so we can get to her.” I hear someone say, but I’m frozen and can’t get my body to move out of the way. I’m afraid to leave her for even a minute.
“Ethan.” Travis, says, pulling me away.
I sit on the floor trying to understand what the medics are saying, but can’t focus on anything other than them putting a mask over her mouth. “Is she alive?” I ask. They wouldn’t put it on her if she weren't, would they? “Is she alive?” I ask again, watching as they look at each other.
“Stretcher,” one says to the other who pulls it over to them. “Count of three. One, two, three.” They pick Lexi up, place her on the stretcher, then start rolling her out of the room.
“I’m coming with you,” I tell them as I throw my car keys at Travis.
“Your relationship?”
“I’m her boyfriend,” I shout at the medic. I’m going whether they fucking like it or not.
He gives me a nod. “The police will want to talk to you,” he tells me.
“We have the number of the detective already assigned to her case. I’m going to call and let him know what has happened. Maybe they can find Sam before he gets too far away,” Travis says from behind me.
As the medics slide her into the back of the ambulance, I jump in and sit on the bench by her side. I watch as he attaches her to monitors and continues working on her, while the other starts driving and talking on the radio. The words he’s using sound like a foreign language to me.
Taking Lexi’s hand, I’m shocked at how cold it is. “Why is her hand so cold?” I ask the medic.
“She’s lost a lot of blood,” he replies. Lifting her top, he examines her wounds and puts some sort of bandages on them.
“Is she going to be okay?”
The man looks at me then turns back to Lexi as the monitors let out one continuous loud tone. “Code blue!” Even though the medic remains calm, his eyes look a little frenzied, and I begin to panic.
“Here!” The driver shouts at him as the medic in the back with me climbs on top of Lexi and starts chest compressions. The back doors to the ambulance are slung open, and a slew of doctors and nurses run over and begin pulling the stretcher out.
“Status?” the woman in the white coat asks, running behind them as the driver gives their report and the other medic continues CPR. I tune them out, knowing the words wouldn’t make sense to me, anyway. My eyes lock on Lexi and the man trying to keep her alive.
“That’s the boyfriend,” the other man tells the doctor.
“I’m sorry, sir, but you can’t come any further.” She stops me by the double swinging doors.
“I’m not leaving her!”
“I’m not saying you have to leave. I’m saying you can’t come through these doors.” I attempt to take a step forward, but the doctor pushes me back. “Sir, you have two choices. You can continue this fight, making me waste my time here trying to stop you, or you can sit down so I can save your girlfriend.”
“Please, just save her. She's my everything, and I can’t lose her.” I make direct eye contact with her. “Save her, please,” I beg her. She bobs her head once then runs through the doors. I stand there unable to move, waiting for someone to tell me what's happening. Even though I know it’s only been a few seconds since she went in there, it feels like hours to me.
“Ethan?” My sister stands in front of me and wraps her arms around me. “Mom is on her way, and Travis has gone back to get you some clothes,” she tells me.
I look down at my baby sister. “Are you okay?” I ask her, looking back up at the doors.
“Shaken, but I’m okay.” She looks at the doors. “They'll do everything they can to save her.”
The doors open, and I look through, trying to get a glimpse of what they are doing as the nurse runs out. The beeping of the monitors echoes in my ears. As the nurse runs back in she looks over at me, but her facial expression is blank, not giving me a hint of what is going on.
I’ve never felt this helpless or this lost before. I feel like I have nothing left to live for. At that moment, I know without a shadow of a doubt that Lexi is my soulmate and my life wouldn’t be worth living without her.
“Ethan?” I turn to see my mom running over to me with Jackie right behind her. She wraps her arms around me and I tighten my grip on her. They say a mother’s hug can make you forget everything. If I can forget, even for a second the way Lexi was lying motionless on the floor, then I’ll take it.
Cupping my face, she looks at me and all I see is sadness and worry in her eyes. “She’ll beat this—she’s a fighter,” she says, wiping the tears from my face.
I’ve never cried in front of my mom. I’ve always had this wall up to hide my feelings from her. It hurt when Edward left us, and what Angie did almost brought me to my knees, but I never cried for them, and my mom knows it. So, seeing me like this is a testament to how I feel for Lexi.
“You love her more than anything in the world, don’t you?”
“Ethan, the riskiest thing you will do in your lifetime is let yourself fall in love,” I say to my mom, and she looks at me in shock. I’m not sure if it’s because I remembered what she said, or that I’ve taken that risk with Lexi.
“That's why she’ll beat this,” she says, moving out the way so Jackie can hug me.
“I’ll talk to your mom and Tanya, and let them in on what's actually going on between you, Lexi, and me. At least how it started, anyway. The girls will be here soon,” Jackie whispers in my ear, and I give her a nod. “My girl is a fighter.”
Turning back around as I hear the doors open, I look into the room. “I need two bags of O-neg! She’s still losing blood,” I hear someone shout. Before I can get close enough to see what’s going on, the doors close again.
As a nurse runs past me, I grab her arm, preventing her from running back in. “Can you tell me anything?” I just need to know if she’s going to be okay.
“Sir, I can’t. I’m sorry.” Pulling her arm out of my grip, she disappears through the door.
“Ethan, come sit down,” I hear my mom say from behind me.
“I’m fine where I am,” I tell her without taking my eyes away from the doors.
“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.” I feel Travis’s hand on my back. “If Lexi sees you looking like this, she’s not going to be happy,” he says, stopping in front of me.
I look at him and think ‘how stupid can one person be? How totally self-absorbed?’ I stopped talking to my best friend because he was making my sister happy, because I was annoyed with him for crossing the line of friendship. Life is too fucking short to hold things against people, especially the ones you love.
“I’m sorry for the way I’ve treated you,” I tell him. I need to put that behind me and start enjoying life. That's exactly what I plan on doing, just as soon as I get Lexi home.
“If you didn’t get pissed at me, then I would’ve worried more.” He smiles at me. “Now let's get you cleaned up.” Taking the bag from his hands, I look at the doors, hoping someone will come out. “We’re all here. Someone will get you if there’s an update.” Travis pushes me toward the restroom. “So, Jackie just told us about Lexi’s real job. Four million dollars for a date? I hope you took her somewhere nice.” He’s trying to lighten the mood, and I love him for it.
“If she had taken the money, it would have been worth every damn dollar.” Stopping by the door, I turn back and look at Travis. “Will you stay by the door and wait for a doctor to come out?” I ask him. He doesn’t hesitate to reassure me.
Walking into the restroom, I start scrubbing my hands. I need to get Lexi's blood off me. The feeling of it is just a reminder of how close I am to losing her. Looking up in the mirror, I don’t even recognize the man staring back me. My eyes are wild with panic, yet look so lost. Who is this man? This isn’t who I am. I feel as lifeless as her body looked lying on that dirty warehouse floor.
After cleaning up and changing clothes, I walk back over to the door and see the detective talking to Tanya. They’re standing next to Travis, who looks over at me and shakes his head letting me know no one has come out.
“The police want your clothes,” Travis says as he comes to stand by me. Handing over the bag, he relays what he’s told the detective. “I told him about the needle in her arm and the phone call between Sam and you. They don’t need to talk to you, for now.” I turn to face him. “He got Tanya when she was on her way to work, tied her up, but never touched her after that. He wanted Lexi. Tanya said the only thing he kept saying was that Lexi was going to die today.” Putting my hands in my pockets, I bite down on my bottom lip to stop me from doing or saying anything else. I can’t think about it. I can’t let him win. I have to believe Lexi will pull through and will be fine. “Come and sit down.”
Walking over, I see Dan and Jon holding hands. Dan sees me and starts walking in my direction.
“I’m sorry. Sorry that I didn’t fulfill my promise to keep her safe. I'll have to live with that for the rest of my life. Not only did I let you down, but I let her down.” I say as my eyes fill with tears. I try to blink them away, but one escapes and falls down my cheek.
"You think I've come to you to start a fight? There was only one reason Lexi wanted to run. She knew this day would happen if she stayed, but she stayed anyway because she loves you and would have done anything to keep you safe. Hell, to keep any one of us safe. She would have done anything, even if it meant dying. So, no, Ethan, I’m not here to fight with you because I know she would have done it either way. I’m standing here, in front of the man who loves my sister. So much so, that no matter what I say, he'll still hold onto the guilt of her getting hurt. Guilt that he wasn't meant to take as his own. I’m standing in front of you to let you know we don’t blame you, and you shouldn’t blame yourself.” Dan pulls me in for a hug. “My sister is stronger than we give her credit for. Not only will she fight, she will win.”
Pulling away from me, he walks back over to Jon. I sit on the chair closest to the door, trying not to blink for fear I'll miss someone coming out to tell us something. I know it hasn't been an hour yet, but God it feels like weeks. Why won’t someone come out and tell me what the hell is happening? I just need someone to tell me something—anything.