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“Daddy! Maxine got out!” Gracie’s voice was laced with panic, and Cage was up and moving before I processed what was happening.
I pushed to my feet, and my world started to spin as I ran after them.
Cage was moving so fast as his deep voice traveled through the air. “Gracie! Stop!”
She was a good distance ahead of him, but I’d never seen someone run so fast in my life. He was a blur he was moving so fast. He shouted again and sprinted just as a loud screech had my legs freezing. The sound of brakes straining and tires skidding. A blue car spun in the road as I saw Cage dive through the air to reach his daughter. It was like something out of a movie.
This couldn’t be real.
His large body slammed over the hood of the car, a loud bang as he dented the metal. Gracie’s hair flew around them as they disappeared from my line of sight.
There were screams and cries, and I pumped my arms and ran as fast as I could. No sound left my lips as I saw the driver get out of the car. His lips were moving, but I couldn’t hear anything. I moved around to the front of the car to get to the other side, as Cage lay on the ground with Gracie in his arms as she shrieked and cried.
“Call 911!” I shouted to the driver as I hurried over to them.
Tears made it difficult to see.
“Daddy!” Gracie just kept saying his name as he scrambled to sit forward, his hands on her cheeks and her shoulders as if he couldn’t believe she was okay.
Blood and dirt and tears smeared together on her face.
“Oh my God. Are you okay?” My voice shook as I squatted down and tried to assess them. His forehead was bleeding badly, and his hands were scraped raw. I tugged off my sweater and wrapped it around Gracie as her little body shook.
The driver hurried over to us as sirens blared in the distance.
“Are you okay?” Cage asked his daughter over and over. “Gracie, are you okay?”
“Daddy, I’m sorry. I didn’t want Maxine to get hurt.” Her little sobs tore my heart to shreds.
Cage pushed to his feet, Gracie tucked protectively to his body, startling me and the driver when he got up.
“I don’t think you should move,” I said.
“Maxine!” Gracie shouted, and I saw the pig tucked in the bushes on the other side of the road.
“Maxine’s fine,” I said. “She’s okay. Tell me what hurts.”
My hands were running down her arms and legs, wiping the blood from her forehead only to realize it wasn’t coming from her. It was coming from her father.
“Nothing is hurting, but my daddy is bleeding,” she wailed. It was the most gut-wrenching sound, and I struggled to stay upright.
“Cage, you’re bleeding badly,” I said as I reached for his face and tried to find where it was coming from. I pressed my hand to his forehead, which was gushing blood now, and urged him to sit on the curb, but he refused.
He wouldn’t let me take Gracie, and I was fairly certain that he was in shock.
The paramedics were there, and they told him they needed to take her, and he still refused.
“She stays with me,” he said, his voice shaky now.
“Cage,” the man said, making it clear that they knew one another. “We need to assess both of you. She will be right here. But you’re bleeding badly, and we need to see where it’s coming from. We’re going to take you both to the hospital, okay? But you need to let her go.”
Cage turned to look at me. “Do not leave her alone. Promise me you’ll stay with her.”
“Of course I will.” My voice wobbled as the man pried Gracie from Cage’s arms, and she shrieked and tried to hold onto him.
I took her hand in mine. “I’m right here, Gracie. I’m right here with you.”
Several paramedics sprang into action. Gracie was placed on a gurney, and a female medic was asking her questions and flashing a light in her eyes as she squeezed my hand and continued to cry for her father, and then she pointed at Maxine, who was still standing in the bushes, shaking.
