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But now, I also loved Raychel.
And Raychel was here with me—at least for now. I couldn’t bear the idea that I might lose her too, especially having just come to the realization that I loved her as I had never loved anyone before.
There was so much more for us to do—and it couldn’t end like this. So fast. We had just begun to come together, really, after all that time of barely knowing each other. I wanted it all. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, if she’d have me.
I knew it in my gut.
I had to have Raychel forever.
If she lived to be asked, it was the first thing I was going to say to her when I saw her, I swore. The very first thing.
I put my accelerator foot to the floor, flying down the highway as fast as the traffic would allow me to get to New Orleans East Hospital. I parked in the ER parking lot, in a police car spot and damned the consequences and the parking garage, stalking through the sparsely populated lobby and past the receptionists as if I owned the place. My eyes swept for any sign of Raychel, calling out her name and opening doors I shouldn’t have, attracting a following of nurses and eventually security guards.
I was a powerful man.
I would use that power for Raychel in whatever way I could.
But for a powerful man, I sure as fuck felt weak.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t focus. I couldn’t imagine my life without her in it.
Chapter Fourteen
Anthony
“Sir, sir, you’re going to have to go back to the waiting room, sir.” A large man who wasn’t quite my size tried to convince me and corral me back there, but I wasn’t going anywhere except to Raychel’s side.
“Raychel Polov?” The receptionist heard me yelling, “Raychel,” and knew immediately who I was. “Are you Anthony LaSalla?”
“Yes—where is she?”
“What’s your relationship to her?”
The look I gave her made the small round woman look away uncomfortably. “Where is she?” I repeated, my tone making it perfectly clear that I didn’t intend to ask again.
“If you’ll just take a seat—”
Since she didn’t seem to be prepared to be of any help, I pushed off the smaller security guards and barreled into the exam area, where there were about twenty beds with curtains pulled around them, surrounding the nurses’ area in the middle. “Raychel?” I was fully prepared to peep into all of them in order to find her, and I started doing just that when an older, white-haired man came up to me.
“Anthony?”
I knew Dr. Jay Douglas from way back, and it was the first time I felt like I had seen anyone who was going to be of any help to me. “Where is she?”
“I just want to take you to a place where we can talk before you see her.”
“Is she alive? Is she dying? What the fuck is going on? No one’s told me a thing, dammit, and I want to know if she’s okay!” All of the fear and frustration that had been building in me since I had gotten the call—the first call five years ago—came into play, and Jay just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
But even though he was older, he was at least as big as I was, and he was able to guide me to an unused cubicle where we could both sit down as he motioned for the security guards to leave, assuring them all was fine.
My voice breaking as I sank into an uncomfortable orange plastic chair, I said, “If she’s dead, man, just tell me. Don’t drag it out.”
“She’s not dead, Anthony. She’s not dead.” His tone was soft and quiet.
Tears in my eyes, I pinned Jay with my glare. “Yet? Is there a ‘yet’ coming?”
“No, she is not in any immediate danger of dying. But I’m not going to lie to you. She’s badly busted up, and all I want to do before you see her is prepare you. She’s got a lot of tubes and wires coming out of various parts of her, and she’s bruised and swollen everywhere. I think you could safely touch her left elbow, but that’s about it right now. She went through the windshield, and was found about twenty feet away. We had to remove a lot of glass from her body. She has broken ribs, a broken right arm, road rash on her face, a broken ankle, and a concussion. She’s going to be in the hospital for a little while. But she’s alive and lucky to be here.”
I nodded, relief flooding through my body and making me feel weak as a kitten. “What happened, do you know?”
“Someone ran a red light—or what they’re claiming was a yellow light. He was in an SUV, and she—”
