AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I force myself to focus back on Rachel, again pushing every feeling I have into that box in the back of my head to deal with later.
“You wanted me to see you? I’ve always seen you, Rachel. You’ve been my friend for a long time,” I say, trying to keep her focused on me. I can see the guys slowly spreading out in my peripherals.
“No, you’ve never seen me. No matter what I did to get your attention, some other whore was always better. Then, after Riss’s car blew up, I thought I finally had my shot.” As she’s talking, I slowly make my way closer to Rachel.
“How did you know about Riss’s car? They were never able to determine if it was an accident or purposeful.”
Rachel smiles at me, and it sends a cold chill down my spine. “Oops. Guess the cat’s out the bag on that one. She wasn’t worthy of you, so I made sure she couldn’t come back.” Then she giggles like it’s the funniest thing.
“Jesus, Rachel,” I say before I can think.
“You don’t appreciate what I’ve done for you, do you? God, you’re so stupid!” she yells and starts towards Quinn.
Suddenly, Quinn pushes Rachel, taking her by surprise and knocking her off balance and to the ground. Todd and I both move at the same time, him working to keep Rachel down, and me kicking the knife out of her hands. Nathan and Chad come in to help Todd secure Rachel, and I finally get to Quinn.
Falling to my knees, I untie her legs, and since she managed to untie her own hands somehow, she launches herself into my arms. I wrap my arms around her and hold her to me as tightly as I can, one hand on her head, the other wrapped around her waist.
I pull back to look at her face and make sure she’s okay. Her eyes are wide with shock, and she hasn’t said a word since we got here. I look down to check the rest of her and see blood dripping down her chest and side.
“Fuck, Quinn, we need to get you to the hospital.” I lift her into my arms and look at Todd, only now noticing he has Rachel handcuffed and held to the ground as she screams and thrashes in anger. I can hear sirens as the adrenaline from a minute ago recedes, and allows me to focus on more than just getting to Quinn.
“Go, we’ve got her. There’s an ambo waiting, and the guys are coming in now,” he says, and I nod, taking off toward the parking lot. Quinn still hasn’t said anything, and I look down at her to make sure she’s okay. Her eyes are open, but it’s almost like there’s no life in them at all. If she wasn’t fisting my shirt, I’d be worried she bled out.
We make it out to the parking lot, and it’s so reminiscent of the first scene that I almost crumble at the thought of how close we came to not finding her in time. The guys look up and immediately jump to action when they see I’ve got Quinn in my arms. I watch a few guys run into the forest to help Todd, and the paramedics roll the stretcher towards me. I gently lay Quinn down, following closely as the guys push her back to the ambulance.
Everything feels loud and chaotic, but I can’t tell if it’s in my head or the things around me are actually that way. I start to pull away as the paramedics go to push her into the ambulance when Quinn’s hand latches onto mine like a vice. I look in her eyes and, through the fog, I can see my girl in there. For the first time since I saw the video of Rachel knocking her out, I take a deep breath.
She’s okay. She’s alive and with me, and she’s okay. I jump into the back of the ambo, keeping my hold on Quinn as best as I can, sitting down by her head so I’m out of the way of the paramedics. Her eyes are closed now, so I lean in and gently touch my forehead to hers. “You are so brave, and I’m so proud of you,” I whisper to her. “I’m so, so sorry.” I see a tear slip down the side of Quinn’s face, and I gently wipe it with my thumb.
Keeping my head on Quinn’s, I watch them tape gauze to the cuts and nicks in her stomach, chest, and legs. They’re all over her body, upwards of twenty from what I can tell. God, I can’t even imagine what that was like for her. Some are deeper than others, and if we hadn’t gotten there when we did, I know they would’ve progressively gotten deeper until she bled out.
We pull into the ER bay and jump out of the ambo. The doctors take over pushing the stretcher and roll her through the doors and into a hospital room. As hard as it is, I stand back and let the doctors check her over to make sure she’s okay. I watch them clean up the cuts and push on her stomach to make sure nothing major was hit.
A few minutes later, the doctor comes out of the room. “I asked Quinn if it was okay to give you an update, and she said yes. From what we can tell, there was no major internal damage, but she will need stitches on a few of the deeper lacerations. She’s got a concussion from the head wound, so we’ll keep an eye on that for a few hours, but all in all, she’s in good shape.”
If she was in good shape, she wouldn’t need stitches or to be monitored but I don’t say that out loud. Instead, I say, “Thanks, Doc,” while never taking my eyes off of Quinn.
“They’re going to clean her wounds, and then I’ll stitch her up. After that, you should be able to go in and see her. It’s going to take about an hour, so if you want to wait in the waiting room, that’d be good,” he says as the nurses close the curtains to give her some more privacy.
Everything in me is screaming to stay right there as close to Quinn as possible, but I head to the waiting room. It’s empty since it’s so late, and I sit down in the first chair I find.
The only thing that keeps going through my head at this point is, this is all my fault.
39
QUINN
For the second time, I wake up groaning. My head is pounding against my skull and my eyes fly open, working quickly to take in my surroundings. Instead of seeing trees and darkness, I’m lying in a bed with machines beeping around me. The events of the night slowly trickle in as I realize I’m in the hospital now instead of tied to a tree.
My heart starts to race as images come to my mind of Rachel's face and her evil knife slicing into my skin.
“Quinn, baby, open your eyes. You’re safe now.” Cooper’s voice sounds far away, and my eyes flit open to figure out if he’s actually here or in my imagination. His beautiful face comes into view, eyebrows furrowed, and worry clouding those amber eyes.
“Cooper? What happened? All I remember is being in the woods with Rachel and then nothing. Why can’t I remember anything else?” Cooper grabs my hand, moves a chair closer to my bed, and sits down.
“It’s probably because of the shock.” He squeezes my hand tight. “You’re safe, and we got Rachel.”
“Will you tell me what happened?”
