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I slam my fist into his face. My hand burns like a mothereffer, but I push past the pain as I then knee him in the balls.
He groans, his face contorting in pain as he collapses to his knees.
“You’re lucky I didn’t have a knife or I would’ve castrated you. This’ll have to do for now.” I spin toward Jason whose eyes are wide with shock. “Now, let’s try this again.” I step toward him. “You can get out of our way yourself or I can make you. It’s your choice.”
“You don’t scare me, sweetheart.” He collects himself and smirks, crossing his arms. “Go ahead; hit me. I’ll hit you right back—”
Alex clocks him in the face, and he goes down hard, landing on his back.
“Goddammit, Alex,” Jason groans, clutching his face. “Whose side are you on?”
“Well, since you basically just threatened to beat the shit out of me, I’m going to have to say I’m on this lovely girl’s side.” He grins as he kicks Jason in the side.
Jason grunts out in pain, rolling over and spitting out a mouthful of blood. “Fuck, I think you broke a rib.”
“That’s too bad.” Alex crouches down beside him and digs Jason’s phone out of his pocket. “I’d offer you a ride to the hospital to get it looked at, but since you’re so against hospitals, I guess I’ll leave your waste of space existence in the middle of the road.” He stands up and chucks his phone into the field across from the house then walks over to Jay.
He doesn’t hesitate as he kicks Jay in the side. Then, like he did with Jason, he digs his phone out of his pocket and tosses it into the field, too.
“You’re going to pay for this!” Jay shouts as he rolls onto his side, blood dripping from his mouth.
Alex turns to me. “Let’s get your sister out of here.”
I decide right then and there that, while Alex can be a jerk, I don’t hate him. In fact, I have a bit of respect for him in that moment as we climb into the car and speed off into the night.
53
HADLEY
Alex makesgood on his promise, driving down the road quickly but safely. During the drive, I continuously check Payton’s breathing and her pulse. The beats are faint but there.
By the time Alex skids the SUV underneath the canopy of the entrance to the hospital, I’m freaking out that her heart’s about to give out on her.
“I’ll carry her in,” Alex says, shoving the shifter into park. Then he shuts off the engine, jumps out, and yanks the back door open.
I scoot out of the way so he can scoop up Payton into his arms. Then he hurries toward the entrance doors, cradling her against his chest. I hurry after him, my pulse quickening as images of being wheeled into the hospital on a stretcher flood my mind.
I can barely think straight anymore, like something has pushed a button inside my mind, unleashing all my forgotten memories. But the memories are fragments that I can’t piece together. And while part of me wants to be able to piece everything together, I can’t deal with this shit right now.
“We need some help!” Alex shouts as he jogs up to the front desk, his boots scuffing against the linoleum floor.
A nurse sitting behind the counter glances up at us. “There’s a wait … What happened?” she asks, jumping to her feet.
“We’re pretty sure she OD’d, but we’re not positive,” Alex tells her, sounding a bit out of breath. “We found her unconscious with a needle in her arm.”
Frowning, the nurse sends out a code through the system. Then she steps out from behind the counter. “Follow me.” She rushes toward a set of double doors and holds them open for us before letting them close again. Then she leads us to a curtained room and instructs Alex to set Payton down before hurrying off somewhere.
A moment later, a different nurse comes in and checks Payton’s vitals while asking us questions about what happened, what Payton injected into her system, how long she’s been like this—things like that. The messed-up part is that I can’t answer most of the questions, so they end up having to check her blood to find out what drugs are in her system. But I think they suspect heroin.
The severity of the situation doesn’t fully sink in until an officer approaches me while we’re waiting for a doctor to come in.
“What’s your relationship to the patient?” she asks Alex and me as she pulls out a handheld device.
“I’m her sister, but I just got guardianship of her.” I glance back at Payton on the bed.
I don’t want to take my eyes off her, afraid she’ll slip away from me if I do.
The officer glances at Alex. “And what about you?”
