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“Deliberate?” Bram asked in surprise.
“Didn’t even slow down,” I confirmed. “Sped up, even. He hit the back fender and back door, thank God, but he hit it hard.”
“Son of a bitch.”
“Yeah.” I stared at the floor. “Thankfully, the entire neighborhood came out to help, and someone called 9-1-1 because I was too busy trying to get to Sarai.”
“That how you fucked up your arms?” he asked, gesturing to my bandages.
“Cut them on the window,” I replied. “Trying to get the door unlocked.”
“They arrest the boyfriend?” Bram asked, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.
“Yeah, but not before I broke his jaw.”
“Good man,” he murmured.
“He works with me,” I said, making Bram whistle through his teeth. “He’ll be court-martialed.”
“Military prison, hoorah,” Bram said, his lips twitching.
“Less than what he deserves,” I muttered.
“No kidding.”
Ani walked through the door and looked around the room, then headed toward us. “Hey, the doctors are wanting to do surgery,” she said. “You might want to get back there.”
“Her wrist?” I asked, getting to my feet.
“I think so,” she replied.
“I—” I glanced around helplessly.
“Just go. We’ll wait out here.”
“I don’t know how long I’ll be—”
“Go,” Bram said. “We’ll wait.”
I nodded and jogged back toward Sarai’s room.
* * *
“Alex,” Hailey called, hurrying toward me as I waited for Sarai to get out of surgery that night. “Is she okay?”
I winced as I met her eyes. The bruises on her face had gotten worse, and her jaw looked painfully swollen.
“She’s okay,” I rasped, getting to my feet.
“Oh, thank God,” she whispered, coming to a stop. “I was so worried. They took me to a different hospital. Where is she?”
“Her wrist is broken, so they’re doing surgery to set it.”
Hailey’s lips trembled as she nodded. “What about her face?” she asked. “I saw her in the car. I saw—there was something wrong.”
“She broke her nose, and she’s also got a concussion.” I took a shuddering breath. “And she lost the baby.”
“No.” Her hands flew up to cover her mouth, and her eyes filled with tears. “Oh, God. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“I shouldn’t have called you,” she said, shaking her head. “I shouldn’t have pulled you into my mess.”
“No,” I said, cutting her off. “You needed help and you asked for it. That’s exactly what you should’ve done.”
I could tell she didn’t believe me, but she didn’t argue. For a while she sat beside me while I waited, but I could tell she was in pain. Between the beating she’d taken and the car accident afterward, she should’ve been in bed. After a while, she reluctantly left with a promise to call Sarai.
* * *
They discharged Sarai the next morning. Bram and Ani had driven over to Sean’s place to pick up my truck and left it at the hospital for me so we’d have a way home, and they were waiting for us as Sarai shuffled through the doorway to our apartment.
“Let’s get you into bed,” Ani said, immediately taking over. She must have seen how completely overwhelmed I felt. I’d been trained in rudimentary field medicine, but I wasn’t a doctor. How the hell did they expect me to watch over Sarai when I wasn’t even sure what I was supposed to be watching for?
“How’s she doing?” Bram asked as he followed me into the kitchen.
“She’s tired,” I said. I looked around the room. Ani must have cleaned up the spilled smoothie that we’d left in our rush to get to Hailey.
“Her wrist bothering her?” he asked, sitting down at the counter.
“No,” I replied. “They gave her some good pain meds.”
I wasn’t sure if it was a curse or a blessing that we hadn’t started buying anything for the baby yet. I knew it would have hurt to have the reminders around the apartment, but I thought that not having anything felt worse. It was as if he or she had never existed.
“Where you at?” Bram asked, waving a hand in front of my face.
“I’m fine,” I muttered, running a hand down the back of my neck. “Tired.”
“Why don’t you go take a nap?” he suggested. “Ani and I will take care of dinner tonight.”
“You sure?”
“Yep. Give me the name of that restaurant you guys like, and I’ll pick something up.”
I told him how to get to Mr. and Mrs. K’s restaurant, then made my way into the bedroom. By the time I got there, Ani had already helped Sarai get into a pair of pajamas and was sitting next to her on the bed.
“Room for me?” I asked, kicking off my shoes.
“Change your clothes first,” Ani ordered.
I looked down at myself and realized that there was blood all over me. Suddenly I felt grimy as hell, but I was too exhausted to take a shower.
“I’ll strip,” I said tiredly, pulling my shirt over my head. “Once you get out.”
