AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Teo thought about that for a second.
He squeezed my hand tightly, his jaw clenching. “We can’t leave a team member behind, Sof,” he said firmly. “And I won’t leave until I know you’re safe.”
“Victor is hurt because of me,” I said.
“Victor is hurt because someone attacked him,” he replied. “You’re not responsible for that, sunshine.”
As we continued through the dark and murky swamp, my heart raced with each step. The weight of responsibility weighed heavily on my shoulders. I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was all my fault; that if I hadn’t gotten us into this mess, Victor wouldn’t be hurt and we wouldn’t be risking our lives for Miranda.
Suddenly, something rustled in the bushes ahead of us, and Teo pulled me behind a tree. We waited in silence as a figure stumbled out of the bushes, panting heavily.
“Miranda?” Teo called out softly.
The woman turned and collapsed into his arms, tears streaming down her face. “Oh my god, thank you,” she gasped out between sobs.
Teo’s gaze flickered to me. “At least she’s not covered in blood,” he said. I smiled at him.
Miranda moved away from him. “What?”
“Nothing,” I said. “Are you okay?”
Miranda wiped away her tears and nodded, her eyes red and puffy from crying. “I’m fine,” she said. “Just scared. I heard someone following me, but I don’t know who it was.”
“We need to get out of here,” Teo said, his voice low and urgent. “Can you walk?”
“Yeah,” she replied, taking a deep breath as she stood up. “I think so.”
We started to move, the three of us huddled together as we made our way through the dense foliage. My heart pounded in my chest as fear coursed through my veins, the sound of our footsteps the only thing breaking the deadly silence of the swamp.
We needed to go back the way we came, go to the hospital, and then figure out how to address all of this.
I could only hope that Victor was still alive.
Chapter Twenty-Five: Jace
Ittookusforeverto find a hospital.
I mean, it couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes, really, but they felt like forever. Victor’s breathing seemed to get worse in the back of the car and Grayson flashed me a concerned look.
In the backseat, Sam tried to hold Victor’s head steady so it wouldn’t move with every bump in the road. The hospital was small, a building that didn’t clear four stories with plenty of reflective windows. The light itself was jarring against the quiet and disturbing nature of the Everglades itself, but I didn’t have much time to think about that.
The moment we rushed into the hospital with Victor, I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. The stark white walls and sterile smell of antiseptic did nothing to soothe me.
“Somebody help!” I shouted as Sam and Grayson carried Victor into the emergency room.
A nurse rushed over to us, taking one look at Victor’s condition before calling out for a doctor. The three of us stood by anxiously as the medical staff whisked him off somewhere, telling us to wait where we were.
I rubbed my temple as Grayson grimaced. “What the hell happened to him?” Grayson asked me. We hadn’t spoken on the way to the hospital, not really. There was a part of us that didn’t want to worry him.
“I have no idea,” I replied. “I just found him like this.”
“Hey,” Grayson said softly, nudging my arm. “We’ll get through this, alright? We always do.”
I tried to muster a smile, but it felt hollow. The weight of the unknown pressed down on me, threatening to suffocate my hope. For now, all we could do was wait and pray that Victor would pull through whatever nightmare had befallen him.
“What happened?” Sam asked. “I mean, how were you all pulled out of your vehicle?”
I closed my eyes, trying to remember. “I’m not really sure, actually,” I said, dropping my voice so only they could hear me. I was feeling pretty dazed. “I remember we got there and we were boxed in by a bunch of cars, and there were people with guns. We saw Teo drive through one of the sedans and then Victor tried to reverse out of there. That’s when I saw someone come at him from the side. Victor is fast, but I guess this guy was faster. He opened the door, grabbed Victor and yanked the wheel so that we crashed into a tree.”
