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I was aware of it all. Panic. Chaos. People ran and shouted. I felt gentle hands as they lifted me in the air and carried me inside. A moment later, I was laid down on my bed. All the while, those hands held mine and pressed against me in comfort. I yearned for those hands—they meant something that I couldn't feel at that moment, but I wasn't sure what it was…
Then I began to feel the pain. It started slow, a tingling in the back of my spine. It filtered throughout my body, and then it slammed into me. A scream ripped from my throat as I arched my back off the bed. I had never felt anything worse.
"Sheldon, Sheldon, Sheldon…" Bryce soothed as he tucked strands of my hair behind my ear. He kissed my forehead and rested his against mine. It was such an intimate touch that my stomach fluttered.
"We called an ambulance. It should be here soon."
I wanted to curse at Cadence. How dare she be here, much less be calm, when I'm bleeding everywhere?
Someone pressed a towel against my skin and I screamed again. The pain was so fierce. I closed my eyes and saw white, not black. The pain brought me to another universe—not really, but I wished for it. I tightened my grip on Bryce's hand and whimpered, "Make it stop. Please, make it stop."
"I'm trying, baby. I'm trying." He clamped onto my hand harder, and I started to feel some of that pain. I wanted that pain. It distracted from the other…
"Holy shit. Is this what it was like with me?" Corrigan whispered.
My eyes were closed, but I heard the stricken note underneath. I cried against the piercing headache that doubled when I opened my eyes, but I needed to see him. I needed to know he was okay, reassure him that I'd be fine. As I managed to focus on my surroundings, Bryce's shoulders were almost trembling, but he was holding my hand and kissing my forehead. Corrigan sat on the couch across from us, pale and shaken. He seemed to be in shock.
I caught his gaze and knew that neither of us was really in that room, not at that time. We both remembered a different time, when it was his blood on the floor.
"I'm fine, Cor. I'm fine. I'll be fine…"My voice was so hoarse.
He took a deep breath and then folded over to press his forehead against his knees. Then I looked at Bryce. "Help him."
He didn't look at Corrigan but narrowed his eyes and studied me more closely.
"What?"
Someone applied pressure on my body, and I choked out a scream. The pain blinded me and then everything started to fade. Finally, the pain dulled and it wasn't long before it stopped completely.
"You say that she fell face-first into the table?"
I heard a voice and groaned at the pain. I didn't want to be interrogated and that voice sounded angry. I couldn't handle that right now, not when I was so sleepy and so…achy. Groaning again, I lifted a hand to my face and squinted to see where I was. The light hurt my head so I closed my eyes again.
"Sheldon?" Grace touched my hand gently. "Are you awake?"
"No. She just groaned because she's having sex dreams," Corrigan snapped.
Bryce cursed under his breath.
With another groan, I opened my eyes and forced them to stay open this time. That damn light didn't help. "Can someone please shut off the lights? Migraine."
Corrigan chuckled, "I think it's the twenty-six stitches that are causing your migraine."
"Corrigan," Grace shushed.
"It's the truth."
"You're not helping." Bryce's hand rested on my arm.
I moved closer to that touch. I needed more of it.
"Sheldon? Are you awake enough to answer some questions? Can you do that?"
I recognized Officer Patterson's voice and grinned, or tried to grin anyway. "If it isn't Officer Sheila. Long time no see, Officer."
I heard the amusement in her voice. "Can you answer some questions? We were called because your blood alcohol level was high and you're a minor. You want to tell me about your injury?"
She was right. I winced against the pain and struggled to lift myself in bed. Holy hell. It sucked to be in the hospital, at least that was where I figured I was. Simple single bed. Plain gown that tied behind my neck with my bare ass hanging out. Pathetic television set mounted on the wall. A table beside me with a basin and a dull pink throw-up kidney shaped bucket. Yep. I was in the hospital.
"Go ahead. Ask away," I croaked. When I lifted a hand to my hair, Grace shot forward and swept my hair into a ponytail.
Officer Sheila was dressed in jeans and a white blazer. Her blondish brown hair was pulled back into a loose braid and she looked tired. The wrinkles around her eyes told me she'd been up for awhile. "How are you feeling, first?"
"I have twenty-six stitches. I've been better."
"Do you remember what happened?"
"I started to fall, but someone pushed me to the side. I was shoved into that glass table."
I held my breath. I expected someone to say I was crazy. They all thought I fell, but no one said a word. Bryce barely held his anger in check as he glared at a wall with his hands clenched into fists, tucked underneath his arms. Corrigan cast a wary look over him before looking back to me.
Grace held my hand. "You heal now and get better."
"Am I already on pain pills?" I asked her. She seemed nervous as she patted my hand repeatedly. I moved my hand away because it was starting to throb, but I didn't look away. Grace wouldn't meet my gaze. She stared at the wall as she kept patting my arm. Weird.
"I don't think the doctor has prescribed anything yet." Corrigan looked apologetic.
"Sheldon, you said that you were shoved?"
I focused on Sheila again and nodded. "Yeah, someone shoved me. They wanted to hurt me."
"You think they wanted to push you into the glass table?"
"Yes." I didn't mince my words. I knew it. I felt it in my gut.
Officer Patterson closed her notepad, moved forward, and touched my arm. "If you remember anything, you call me. I'll come back to finish up with our questioning, give you some time to think, if you remember anything else."
I nodded.
Bryce ground out, "There was a Dorothy girl there. I think she's Marcus Donadeli's cousin. She was serving food; some of it was catered from their restaurant."
Sheila's eyebrows shot up. "You ordered food from Donadeli's?"
"We ordered food from Sparky's. They took the place over."
Bryce further explained, "The Donadeli family sold it to the Rossi family. Dorothy Rossi is their daughter. She's cousins to Marcus Donadeli."
"And you know this how…?" Officer Patterson eyed him up and down.
He rolled his eyes. "When your girlfriend continues to go to the restaurant of the guy she killed and who stalked her, you do some investigating to make sure she'll be safe. I wanted to know what I was dealing with, what Sheldon was dealing with."
"And that Dorothy girl is weird." I shuddered.
"Rossi?"
Bryce answered again, "They're related through the sisters. Helena Donadeli is sisters with Selene Rossi."
Sheila nodded. "I got it. Any particular reason why the Rossi family decided to take over the restaurant? You got that card in your back pocket too?"
He grimaced and looked away. "I have no idea. I just wanted to know who owned it since Sheldon goes there. I didn't know if anyone was trying for revenge."
"That's what you think this is? You think this Dorothy girl wanted revenge on Sheldon? For killing her cousin?"
Bryce stared at her long and hard. "That's your job to figure out. Mine is to protect my own."
Protect my own. I'd said those exact words to countless numbers of people. That's what I did when I took care of Bryce and Corrigan. I protected my own as they were doing for me right now.
"I think we need to take a time out. Sheldon is in a lot of pain. I'm sure the doctors want to talk to her." Grace started to pat my arm again.
