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If she was ever gonna come to.
I sped into the hospital parking lot and whizzed by a police officer. He whipped on his lights and followed me to the spot I picked, and when I got out of my truck, he paused when he realized who I was.
“I’m so sorry, Flynn,” he offered.
That’s when you know it’s bad. When a police officer won’t arrest you for buzzin’ around in a hospital parking lot, things are never as good as you want them to be.
I busted through the hospital doors and made my way over to the nurse’s desk. I rattled off Chelsea’s name, and their faces got dark, and my stomach began to churn and the bile I was trying so hard to fight off rose to the top of my throat. I sprinted to the stairs and took them two by two, and when I shoved the door to the fifth-floor open, I started looking around frantically for the room numbers.
But a familiar voice caught my ear, and when I whirled around, I saw Mrs. August runnin’ to me down the hallway.
“Oh, Flynn,” she breathed. I cloaked my arms around her trembling body and slowly walked her back into the waiting room, and that was when I saw Barber. His pale face was in his hands, and I could tell by the way his shoulders were shaking that something had happened. Between the time I cut that phone call ten minutes ago and now, the doctor had news I hadn’t been privy to yet.
“Where the hell is the doctor?” I glowered.
“Right here, Bullhead.”
I held Mrs. August close to me while I turned towards the familiar sound, and I recognized the woman walking towards me. Ashley Lawson, a girl I attended high school with, had a smile on her face that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“Hey, Ash,” I breathed.
“We got her venom tests back, and it’s not good. A rattlesnake got hold of her and bit her right in her main artery. She’s got a great deal of brain swelling, so we’ve just got don
e inserting a tube underneath her skull to help drain off some of the fluid while the anti-venom takes hold in her system.”
“Her… her brain is…”
I couldn’t think straight. Just last night I was thrusting into those beautiful hips and dreaming of her juices on my tongue. Just this morning I cursed her for leaving her scent behind without her body, and all day I couldn’t get the thought out of my mind that maybe-- just maybe-- if I tracked her down I could have her thighs squeeze around my hips one last time before she left.
Because we all knew she’d eventually leave and go back to wherever she came from.
“We have her in a medically-induced coma to try and reduce the amount of stress her body is under, and she’ll be like that for the next few days. She’s had that venom in her system for a while, so leeching it from her muscle tissue is gonna take some time, and her body needs to rest, so she had the energy for it.”
I heard Barber’s sobs from behind me, and it was all I could do to keep my composure. My Chelsea, the woman I dedicated my life to, the must for my riding-- the woman I realized I never wanted to let go of ever again-- was lying in a hospital bed for no other reason than happenstance. She was an expert horse rider, everyone knew that.
But nothing can prepare you for an animal randomly turning into a rodeo bronco.
“Can I stay with her?” I asked. I felt Mrs. August look up at me while my eyes connected heavily with Ash’s. I knew her parents would want to stick around the hospital, and I knew there was a good chance she would have many different visitors for the past couple of days. I could already feel Mrs. August tensing underneath my grasp, and I could tell that everything within Ash was about to tell me ‘no’. But, I saw something flash for a split second behind her eyes before she looked around at the people that loved Chelsea August as much as I did, and she took a step closer to me and lowered her voice.
“Don’t let anyone catch you,” she said.
I nodded and pulled Mrs. August away from me before I wiped her tears away.
“Your husband needs ya to be strong for a little bit. Why don’t you go sit with him, and I’m gonna go get some clothes from my car.”
“You came with a bag?” she asked.
“I always carry clothes with me. Got into the habit in college when-”
I caught myself and the memories I was dredging up. I was about to say, ‘in college when Chelsea traveled the road with me,’ but all it did was bring tears to my eyes before I harshly blinked them away.
“I’ll be right back,” I choked out.
Chapter 10: Chelsea
My head hurt, and my mouth was dry. The smell of disinfectant hung strong in the air, and I honestly felt like I was about to puke. I heard beeping noises and people talking in the distance, but when I panned my head over all those things faded into the background.
“Oh my God, Chelsea.”
