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He had to get out of here.
“Get up.Get.Up,” Adrian hissed, closing in, but before Jackson could move, Bellamy distracted them both.
“Stop it! Adrian, stop!” She looked torn between not wanting to leave Carly and trying to intervene. Two paramedics jumped out of the ambulance, their purposeful strides seeming to grab Adrian’s attention.
Until he reared back and caught Jackson in the ribs with another blow, and Jackson lost every ounce of breath in his lungs.
“Jesus Christ! Evan, we’ve got a brawl here!” The female paramedic whipped past Jackson so fast that all he could see was a streak of flame red hair before she’d inserted herself between him and Adrian with all the defiance of a thoroughly pissed off watchdog. The other paramedic already knelt by Carly, assessing her while keeping one eye on the redhead, who Jackson belatedly recognized as Teagan O’Malley.
“You good, T? I got a facial trauma here, nasty head lac from the fall. Possible concussion,” the male paramedic, Evan, said.
“Conscious?” Teagan’s eyes never left Adrian, who had stood down since delivering the body shot although he looked mad about it.
“Looks like barely.” Evan rattled off a bunch of numbers and medical terms like a rapid-fire machine gun, the last of which made Jackson clutch in silent panic.
“I need that C-spine and backboard. We need to get to Riverside, stat.”
Teagan narrowed her scissor-sharp stare on Adrian. “You two going to behave, or do I need to call my buddies at the police department?”
Adrian froze, answering her with a silent nod, although his expression suggested he wasn’t done with Jackson by a longshot. Jackson straightened, still coughing, and wiped a smear of blood from his mouth with the back of an unused fist.
Teagan sprang into action, shooting a wary glance at Adrian as she turned toward Jackson. “Do yourself a favor and don’tmovefrom that spot.”
Her hands fell swiftly over Jackson in assessment, but he resisted. “Stop. Go help her,please.” The words escaped on a gasp, and Teagan looked ready to argue until her partner called out for assistance, clearly illustrating that Carly’s injuries were more dire than Jackson’s.
“Damn it. Stay away from each other, but don’t go far. I’m not done with you, Jackson. You need to get checked out,” she said, running toward the ambulance.
Jackson forced himself to look at Carly, so small and fragile on the ground, as the male paramedic rolled her gently into his arms to secure her on the backboard. Adrian sent Jackson a look like a death sentence, even though he didn’t move.
“I’m coming back for you,” he promised, and Jackson nodded in resignation.
“Take care of her first,” he said, and then he disappeared into the dark cover of night.
28
Carly stirred, feeling as if she’d slowly risen from the bottom of a lake.
With her head on fire.
“Jackson,” she mumbled, her voice groggy and thick. She reached out, fumbling, until the fragments of the past few hours knitted together in her memory.
The job offer. The chance to go back to New York. Jackson, telling her to leave. That they never would’ve lasted anyway. Her, running after him. Him accidentally knocking her to the ground…and then…
Jackson was gone. She’d trusted him with her heart, and he’d left.
“Hey, shhh. Don’t worry,gnocchella. Everything’s fine. Get some rest, okay?”
For as long as Carly had known Adrian, she’d never seen him look so scared or so small. She blinked, even though it hurt like hell, and focused on the spot where he sat next to her bed.
“Ugh.” Her tongue was thick as paste, and she shifted against the doughy mattress even though it rattled her head enough to make her nauseous. She skimmed a hand over the faded cotton of her hospital gown, frowning at the IV poking out from a swath of surgical tape. “Did I sleep?”
“A little bit, yeah.” A muscle ticked in Adrian’s rough jawline, visible even through his ever-present dark stubble. “You need more, though.”
Carly ignored him, letting her frown linger. “He didn’t come, did he?”
Adrian returned the favor in the ignoring department, and he one-upped her on the frown, too. “Bellamy’s outside. Gavin, too. They’re worried, but other than to tell them you have seven stitches in the back of your head, a mild concussion, and the mother of all shiners, I didn’t know what else to say.”
Carly sank another inch into her brittle pillow. “It was an accident,” she said softly, the irony heavy in her mouth. Although the hospital staff had asked her dozens of pointed questions about the nature of her injury, she’d remained adamant. He hadn’t known she was behind him when he’d whirled around. No matter what else had happened between them, Carly knew Jackson would never, ever lay a hand on her.
