Page 164 of Reckless Vengeance

The shiver turned to absolute panic when I came across the scene before me.

The Corvette was scattered in pieces across the field, the roof dented in and the driver’s door open. I slammed on the brakes and bailed from my car, running towards the wreck to find the car empty. Had someone taken her? Who had been calling me?

I rounded the car, finding her lying on the grass close by with her phone in the grass beside her, blood dripping down her face and soaking into her shirt.

“You’re okay,” I said in a panic, not wanting to move her. Had she been flung from the car? Had she crawled out herself?

What if she had a spinal injury?

I shoved my jacket off and tore my shirt getting it over my head, using it to press against the wound. She’d hit her head hard, that much was obvious.

She groaned in pain, trying to move.

“No, baby girl. Fuck, don’t move. Hang on.”

There was no way I could let Otto treat her. She needed a hospital for head scans and internal bleeding.

I pulled my phone out to call an ambulance, confusion filling me when I told them the location and they said an ambulance was already en route. She’d tried to call them herself it seemed but passed out, so they’d traced her location for a welfare check.

I shushed her, gently holding her still when she tried to move again, and for the second time in my entire life, I prayed to any god that would hear me.

I’d already lost Slash, I wouldn’t survive if I lost her too.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

RORY

Beeping alerted me to the fact I was in the hospital. Wait, I’d known that, so I must have gone back to sleep.

“Hey,” I heard as I blinked against the bright lights, finding Lukas asleep in the chair beside the bed, his hand in mine and his face on the bed. I glanced around a little more, finding Jensen walking closer.

“Where’s Slash?” I asked instantly, lifting a hand to the side of my head to feel it was wrapped with a bandage.

“Baby, Slash isn’t here, remember?” he asked carefully, running his eyes over me. “You were in an accident. You had a big hit to your head. You got lucky though. So far, there’s no sign of any bleeding on the brain.”

“Where did he go? Didn’t he bring me here?” I mumbled, wincing against the light.

“No, the ambulance did. You called them yourself when you crawled out of the car.”

“I didn’t. Slash pulled me out, he was carrying me,” I insisted, my heart monitor picking up and causing a nurse to come in and check on me. It hurt the harder I tried to think, but Slash had definitely been there. I’d felt him and saw him with my own eyes.

The nurse didn’t appreciate my rambling about him, sedating me and knocking me back out again.

The next time I woke up, Caden was with me, jerking forward when he saw I was awake.

“Hey, baby. Thirsty?” I tried to nod but winced as pain throbbed through me, and he lifted a cup of water with a straw to my lips. “Easy. You somehow don’t have any fractures or breaks, but you’re in for one hell of a bruise and ache recovery.”

My throat felt so much better after some water, and I reached for his hand.

“Slash was there. I saw him.”

Pity filled his eyes, and he let out a sigh. “Baby, he’s gone. Your brain created him after the knock to the head. You were found next to the wreck and had pulled yourself out.”

“He carried me.”

“It was a hallucination. They found traces of coke in your blood.”

“I did lines before school. I was fine. The car hit me, and then Slash took me out of the Corvette. He spoke and everything,” I said, my voice cracking. “Why won’t you believe me?”