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She started sliding downward, and doing his best to keep a lid on the panic threatening to consume him, Hunter swept her up into his arms and strode toward the entryway, his fear climbing at a rapid pace. Helena was sitting at the kitchen table doing something on a tablet, and as soon as she caught sight of him power walking toward the front of the house carrying Elle’s limp form, she jumped up and rushed to block the path he was taking, forcing him to come to a jarring stop, which he didn’t appreciate.
“What are you doing?” she demanded haughtily.
Hunter found it odd that Helena hadn’t asked the more obvious question, such as What is wrong with Elle? or Is she okay?, when her stepdaughter was clearly barely conscious in his arms.
“Get out of my way,” he said, glaring at Helena. “I’m taking Elle to the hospital.”
The other woman rolled her eyes, though there was a nervous energy about Helena that Hunter didn’t miss. “She has the flu,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand, her eyes blinking rapidly, anxiously. “She just needs to sleep it off.”
“Whatever it is, she needs immediate medical attention.” Elle tensed against his chest, then tiny convulsions shook her body, ramping up Hunter’s concern to the next level. “I don’t have time to argue with you, lady. Now, get the fuck out of my way,” he said in a low, rottweiler growl that had her quickly stepping to the side so he could pass.
As he headed into the living room, she followed close behind. “You’re overreacting.”
Ignoring Helena, because he had nothing left to say to her, he shifted Elle so he could open the front door, then passed through, not bothering to close it behind him. A few seconds later, he heard it shut hard, and he was grateful that Helena hadn’t followed him outside, because he was not in a benevolent mood when it came to dealing with her.
It took him a few minutes to maneuver Elle into the passenger side of his car and secure her seat belt across her body. Her arms clutched her stomach, and God, her tears and painful whimpers were going to destroy him, but he had to keep a straight head to get her to the emergency room as quickly as possible.
He closed her door and started around the vehicle to the driver’s side just as he saw, out of the corner of his eye, someone running out of the house. Thinking it was Helena, he glanced in that direction and realized that it was one of Elle’s stepsisters . . . Claire, if he remembered correctly from the night of the ball. She was wearing a pair of pajamas and was running across the lawn toward him barefoot.
“Hunter . . . wait.” For all the urgency in the other woman’s words, her voice was low and hushed, as if she didn’t want anyone to know she was talking to him.
Hunter’s jaw clenched in irritation. “I don’t have time to fucking wait,” he snapped, yanking his car door open as the other girl reached him. “There is something very wrong with Elle and I’m taking her to the hospital.”
Claire stopped a few feet away from him on the street, the light pole overhead illuminating the emotional anguish etching her features. “It’s . . . arsenic.”
Everything inside of Hunter froze, turning the blood in his veins as cold as ice as he prayed to fucking God that he’d misheard what she’d said. “Say again?”
“Elle’s been poisoned, with arsenic,” she repeated as she twisted her fingers together anxiously in front of her. “I saw my mother put it into her tea leaves and sugar jar this morning when she thought she was alone. I don’t know how long she’s been doing it, but I never thought it would come to this.” Legitimate tears filled Claire’s eyes. “I don’t want Elle to die, and the doctors need to know how to treat her.”
Hunter was torn between the burning rage inside of him that Claire knew the cause of Elle’s illness and let it happen and gratitude that she’d stepped up and given him a vital piece of information that would possibly save her life. He had no time to act on the fury when precious seconds were ticking by, and unleashing his wrath on this girl would serve no purpose at this point, so he forced himself to give her a curt nod.
“Thank you for the information.”
Claire swallowed hard, her own misery over the situation real. “My mom . . . she doesn’t know that I saw her with the arsenic . . . or that I’m telling you. I’m so sorry.”
She turned around and hurried back to the house, clearly letting Hunter decide how to handle the issue with Helena now that he knew what she’d done. He had no time to confront her now, not when a deep-rooted fear was growing inside him at a rapid rate. His main concern was getting Elle to the hospital for immediate treatment, and he broke every speed limit and ran every red light to make it to the emergency room in record time.
When he arrived, he jumped out of his vehicle and left his car at the curb as he carried Elle’s shaking, shivering body into the building. As soon as he walked into triage and told the nurse that Elle had been poisoned with arsenic, the nearly unconscious woman in Hunter’s arms—the woman he’d fallen in love with quicker than he ever imagined possible—was taken from him, put onto a gurney, and rushed into a restricted area of the hospital surrounded by medical personnel . . . leaving him alone in the waiting room and scared as hell that he might lose her, that he hadn’t done everything he could to protect her. To save her.
Just like his parents.
Just like Natalie.
Chapter 15
After providing the hospital administration with what he could of Elle’s information to get her admitted, he spent the next three excruciatingly long hours alternating between pacing anxiously back a
nd forth across the waiting room floor, sitting down and berating himself for not bringing Elle to urgent care when he’d first suggested it, and trying his best to suppress the overwhelming fear and worry that kept his adrenaline at an all-time high.
Then there was the absolute rage simmering beneath the surface of all his emotions, that a woman like Helena could be greedy and coldhearted enough to poison her stepdaughter in order to gain control of everything. It was the only thing that made sense at this point, and as much as he wanted to confront the older woman, Elle was his first and only priority right now. He’d deal with Helena soon enough, once Elle weathered this ordeal—and he refused to consider any other outcome but a full recovery.
Shortly after Elle had been whisked away for a bunch of tests to confirm what Hunter had told the nurses and endure whatever treatment it required, he’d texted both his brother and sister, who’d told him that they were coming to the hospital, which he’d talked them out of. Not only was he not in the mood for company, but at this hour of the morning, there was nothing either of them could do to speed up the process. So, he promised to keep them updated as he was given news about Elle’s prognosis, though both Maddux and Tempest were quick to assure him that if he needed anything at all, they would be there immediately, which he appreciated.
Hearing the double doors leading to the restricted area of the hospital whoosh open, Hunter glanced in that direction, watching as a forty-something woman in scrubs walked into the waiting room area.
She glanced around the lobby triage, where about a half dozen people lingered. “Is there anyone here waiting on news for Elaina Darian?”
“I am.” Hunter immediately sprang up from his seat and strode over to her, trying to read the woman’s expression for any signs of how Elle had fared, except she wore an exceptional poker face.
