Page 16 of Black Hearts
Her bedroom door was wide open, which didn’t bode well. I rushed inside, my head whipping around, and I saw… nothing. I saw absolutely nothing. No Juliet. No signs of life at all. If she wasn’t in her room., where was she? Did Fred take her with him? I swore, if she was passed out in the backseat, I’d fucking find him and fucking kill him.
It was as I had that thought that I heard someone’s frantic shouts deeper in the house, downstairs. The shouts were so far away I couldn’t recognize who they came from, but it didn’t matter; I rushed out of her room, leaped down the stairs by taking two at a time, and made it to the kitchen. A door off to the side, tucked underneath the underside of the stairs, hung ajar. It’s where the shouting was coming from, and now that I was closer, I knew it was Will’s voice.
Barging in through the door, I went into the basement—and what I saw made my heart drop. My heart, my stomach, every part of me.
A lone bed sat on the far wall, a simple metal frame with a mattress that looked like it had seen better days. Bennet and Will were huddled around it, and it was only as I pushed past them that I saw Juliet lay there, barely conscious.
And she was bleeding.
Her blood covered her hands, which she’d tried to use to slow the bleeding of the wound on her stomach. It covered the midsection of her nightgown, the sheets beneath her. She’d lost so much blood, it was a miracle she was conscious at all.
Will had started to apply pressure himself, a frantic look on his face. Bennet just stood there, as if he was dumbfounded.
“Juliet,” I whispered her name, watching as she parted her lips and tried to speak. No words came from her beautiful, pale lips, and I noted then how white her skin was. Her eyes rolled back into her skull, and she passed out, not having the strength to stay awake.
I checked her pulse. Weak, but still there.
“Give me your phone,” I said to Bennet, and he was slow to hand it to me. She couldn’t wait to get back to the house; she needed the hospital, doctors. She probably needed a blood transfusion to replace all the blood she’d lost. Maybe surgery, depending on what the inside of her looked like.
I dialed 9-1-1, and the moment someone picked up and asked me what my emergency was, I rattled off the address. “There’s a girl, she’s been stabbed. She’s lost a lot of blood.” I spotted a bloody knife laying on the floor not too far from where we were. The weapon.
ETA for an ambulance was ten minutes, and I hoped, prayed Juliet was strong enough to hold on for a little bit longer.
So Fred stabbed Juliet, chained her down here, and ran away, knowing we’d be too busy dealing with her to chase after him?
Shit. Shit, shit, shit. This was too real. It was too much. How was I supposed to go on if I lost Juliet? I didn’t know if I could. I didn’t know if I wanted to. Living a life without Juliet in it would be like living a life with no happiness, with no warmth. My heart would be broken; I wouldn’t have anything left to live for.
Holding the phone against my chest, I looked at Bennet. “See if you can find anything in the house. Bandages, something we apply to the wound to slow the bleeding.” With a nod, he went off, pounding up the stairs to do what he was told. At least when it counted, he followed directions.
“I’m going to kill him,” Will whispered, lifting a bloodied hand to his face while keeping his other firmly pressed on the wound. The action smeared some of Juliet’s blood on his cheek. “I’m going to fucking kill him—” He stopped repeating the phrase only when I widened my eyes at him and gestured to the phone currently pressed against my shirt.
Hopefully the emergency responder on the line didn’t quite hear that.
But it was true. Will wasn’t wrong in that Fred now had a whole bunch of Scotts pissed off at him. He wouldn’t last long. No matter where he ran to, we’d find him, and we would fucking kill him. And if… if Juliet didn’t survive this, I would see to it myself that we made his death last.
Bennet returned after a minute or two carrying a small first aid kit. It was old; nothing much was in it, but there was some gauze and some unused bandages. I set the phone on the bed and tore into them, telling Bennet to go outside and wait for the ambulance with Rave.Before he went, I told him to grab the knife and hide it in my car.
I had Will help me with Juliet; we had to pull up her nightgown to expose the wound, and he had to lift her up so I could wrap the gauze around her midsection. I placed the bandage and continued to wrap the gauze as tightly as I could around her. She was so limp, so fragile in Will’s arms; I did my best not to look at her face, at the way her head fell back and lolled around. It would only make me more furious.
We did all we could to help her, to try to save her, and all the while I didn’t know if it was of any use. Never before had I felt more powerless—not even when Markus had brought me to that seedy motel and made me fuck someone else to prove a point. Not even when I thought Juliet hated me because he’d showed her that video. Nothing compared to this. It felt like my heart was ripping into pieces, tearing itself into shreds.
Will brought both his hands to his hair, shaking. “No, this can’t be happening. She can’t die. She can’t—” He muttered things like that to himself over and over again, sounding like he was losing it. He sounded how I felt, but I had to hold it together. Someone had to be sane enough here to talk to the EMTs when they arrived.
“Get your stuff out and pick that lock,” I ordered. There was a thick iron chain wrapped around her left wrist, keeping her attached to the bed. Will nodded, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his picks. He had to lean over her motionless frame to get the job done and get her out, and once the manacle was unlocked, I tore it off her wrist and threw it to the side, doing my best to hide it.
Honestly, I didn’t know how we would explain this to the EMTs. Tell them we were her friends and we got worried? That her father had acted strange lately and we were concerned for her safety? That would set the authorities on Fred, but I didn’t care. The fucking FBI could chase him down, and I knew we’d find him first.
We had to. Our special, bloody brand of justice would be served to Fred.
I didn’t know how long it took for them to show up, but it felt as though a million years passed before I heard Bennet’s voice upstairs, directing people into the basement. The EMTs arrived, and everything happened fast. They asked questions, I did my best to answer, though I left out key details.
I watched them check her pulse and check the wound, and then they hoisted her off the bed and placed her limp body on a gurney, which they then carried up the stairs. Will still had my keys, and I grabbed Bennet’s phone off the bed and told him to follow the ambulance to the hospital. I was going to ride with them there.
Like hell was I going to let Juliet out of my sight after this.
They didn’t want me to ride with them, but I didn’t take no for an answer. I told them there was nothing they could do about it, that I was coming with them. I told them she was my girlfriend.
My girlfriend. I didn’t think I’d ever spoken the word aloud before, but it fit. I hoped Juliet would be fine, that she’d wake up and hear me use it very soon. I knew it would make her smile, knew it would make those cheeks of hers flush pink.
