“Tell them I’ll take Miller’s Crossing, down the main road, skipping the downtown to the causeway. Right now, I’m driving by your house. I’m dropping off my mom. Make sure she’s not too shaken by everything. She’s in the bed of the pickup. God forgive me, this is the worst thing I’ve ever done to my mom in my life.” I glance in the rearview. Mom’s holding on tight to the side, talking to Monster as he runs behind. “You’ve got to get Monster in your house, so he stays. I don’t want him to get hurt. I don’t know if her asshole ex is still?—
I’m pulling up before I even finish the sentence. They’re both running out of the house, Rena still talking on her phone. Ned yanks the lift gate down and helps Mom, then puts a hand on Monster.
I see Monster through the rearview mirror, sitting next to Ned, mournfully watching as I drive off with Wren. Rena’s arm is around my mom, and they’re blotting at their eyes.
Wren groans as I bump over a pothole. “Hang tight,” I tell her. “I’m taking you to the hospital.”
“No,” she whispers.
“Bullshit. It’s happening. And you’re going to be fine.”
The ambulance, lights on, and sirens blaring, meets us just as we’re coming into Paradise Springs. I pull over, and they whisk Wren onto a gurney.
“She’s pregnant. She hit her head, maybe lost a lot of blood. She’s been in and out of consciousness,” I tell them as they slide her into the back of the ambulance.
“You going to follow?” one of the guys ask.
“I’ll be right behind you. Hell, I might beat you.”
On the way to the hospital, I remember where I’ve seen her ex’s face before. The last movie I saw in the theater, several years ago. He played a retired quarterback who inherited his grandparents’ ranch. Lacy asked me to go to the movie theater to see it with her, and I said yes because she’s had me wrapped around her little finger since she was seven. I kept my mouth shut and told her I loved the movie because Lacy had a crush on Trey Bishop. But whoever wrote the script knew nothing about ranches. And Trey Bishop looked stupid in a cowboy hat.
22
FOX
I’m therefor less than an hour before people start showing up. Danni, Bear, Lacy, Emma, Tank.
“She’s getting a scan,” I tell them. “They’re checking for a brain bleed. If they need to do surgery, they’ll do it right away.”
“The baby?” Danni asks, her expression stricken.
“The baby’s okay.”
Danni and Emma wipe away tears then hug me.
“You okay, Buddy?” Tank asks. I look down. My hands are still clenched, one of them swollen with a cut from Bishop’s tooth, which I hope I broke. There’s blood splattered all over my shirt.
“No,” I tell him. “I shouldn’t have left her at my house. I should have taken her when I went to get Mom, so she wouldn’t have gone back to her cabin.”
Tank puts a hand on my shoulder and leaves it there while I stand staring at the wall, trying to move time backwards.
Bear scowls at everything in the room then points to the chairs. “Tell us everything, Fox. We need to know so we can make sure Wren’s safe.” They gather their chairs around me, and I tell them the little I saw.
A doctor walks into the waiting room just as I’m finishing. He eyes our group, and I stand.
“Are you Wren’s family?” he asks.
“Yes, we all are,” I tell him.
He perches on one of the seats. “No brain bleed, but she does have a concussion, so we’re monitoring her. She’s sedated right now. The baby’s great. Good, steady heartbeat.” He eyes my shirt and my hand that’s swelling up from the blows to Bishop’s hard head. He doesn’t say anything, but I realize what it could look like to him. “I’m just updating you. You can’t see her yet. They’re getting her settled into a bed in the ICU. You all can move to the ICU waiting room, though, so you’re closer. They’ll tell you when Wren can have visitors.”
We all thank him, and he turns to me. “You need your hands cleaned and wrapped.”
“No,” I say brusquely. “I just want to be close to her. I need to see her.” I hold my hands up. “This isn’t me. I didn’t?—"
“She said it was Trey Bishop. And her name is Honey Hale. Is that true?”
I nod, even though I didn’t know her name until he said it. Honey Hale. I think of the book jacket. Cain Hale. Author of thrillers and mysteries. And then, what she told me about her husband.
