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My heart nearly stops. “What blood?”
“It’s everywhere. We were talking, and she just…fell,” Hazel chokes out. “She hit her head on the hostess stand, and s-she…she’s bleeding and jerking around, and her eyes are rolled back, and, and…” Hazel sobs a little harder. The girl’s going into shock. I’ve seen it a hundred times while on the job. The way their skin turns pale and clammy. The way their pulse increases and their breathing turns rapid and uneven. Fuck, I can almost see it now, the vision blurring the road and making it hard to focus. But there isn’t anything I can do to help her. To calm her down so she can help Kate.
Fuck.
Kate.
“How much blood, Hazel?” I demand.
“A-a lot. There’s a lot.”
“Did someone call an ambulance?”
“Y-yes.” She hiccups. “Our manager called.”
“What’d they say?”
“I don’t…I don’t know.”
“Breathe,” I order, though I’m not sure who I’m telling at this point. The veins bulge in the back of my hands as I throttle the steering wheel, check my blind spot, and change lanes. I drive around the person in front of me and swerve into oncoming traffic so I can get to the restaurant faster. So I can get to Kate faster.
“Dad, I’m freaking out!”
“It’s gonna be okay, Haze,” I promise her, knowing it’s a bald-faced lie. Because I don’t know if it’s going to be okay. I don’t know if Kate’s going to be okay. I’ve seen enough shit on the job to know nothing is guaranteed, and life is far from fair.
“I’ll be there in two.” I end the call and take a sharp right turn, cutting off a minivan without giving a shit. My tires squeal in protest, but I push the gas pedal harder.
In ninety seconds flat, I pull into the parking lot and shove my car into park next to the curb. An ambulance is already there. Felix and Remi are rushing out of the rig, armed and ready for whatever they find inside. Regret pools in my gut as I follow them through the main entrance.
The metallic scent of blood causes my stomach to churn when Kate comes into view. She’s on the ground, convulsing. Her limbs are flailing, her muscles are tightened like rubber bands stretched too tight, and the whites of her eyes are on full display. A pool of blood surrounds her, and I stop short. Remi is on her knees beside her in an instant, pressing her gloved hand to Kate’s head as Felix appears with a thick bandage.
And for the first time ever, I freeze. I can’t move. I can’t help. I’ve never battled being unable to act under pressure. Yet seeing someone you love––someone you can’t lose––struggling, it hits differently. Like my world is being ripped away, and there isn’t a single fucking thing I can do about it. Her shirt is drenched in blood, her black apron is damp with urine, and her legs are splayed out in front of her.
In an instant, Kate stops shaking, and her head falls to one side. The seizure’s over. But the repercussions? The embarrassment? The shame? It’s there. It’s all fucking there in front of me. And I’d do anything to fix it.
Ripping off my jacket, I throw it over her lower half to cover her soiled jeans, then collapse onto my knees, cupping the back of my head with my hands. Felix takes Kate’s vitals, and Remi tends to the wound on the side of her head.
Head wounds are bleeders. I know this. But it doesn’t make me feel any better. Doesn’t make me feel any less helpless. What if this one’s worse? What if she isn’t okay? What if it’s too much?
Kate’s bottom lip quivers as she opens her stormy gray eyes, wincing at the bright fluorescent lights. Relief, fear, anxiety, and every other fucking emotion in the book assaults me, one after the other, as I stare at her. Desperate to feel her, to make sure she’s okay, I crawl toward her on my hands and knees. I touch her cheek and rub my thumb against it as Remi finishes wrapping the bandage around Kate’s head. She looks so lost. So broken. So damn vulnerable and small. It kills me.
“Talk to her,” Remi murmurs. Her voice is quiet, but it’s enough. Enough to snap me out of my daze. Enough to bring me back from the edge.
“Hey,” I rasp.
Kate forces her eyelids open again, attempting to focus on her surroundings despite looking lost. “M-Mack?”
“Hey,” I repeat, swallowing the lump in my throat.
Her wince wrecks me as her eyelids close again. “My head.”
“I know, Kate. I know.”
A single tear falls down her cheek and runs onto my thumb when she leans into my touch like she can’t help herself.
“Everything hurts,” she mumbles.
“Let’s get her out of here,” Felix orders.
