Page 96 of Midnight Racers

“Our bags are in the car,” Victoria told Jordan, slumping against the car and holding her head. “Charlotte has been carrying her laptop and hard drive around, as she didn’t want to leave them in the house. Her paperwork for the hospital is in there as well.”

Pete tentatively made his way down the slope with a cutting apparatus. You never knew when you needed to dismantle something at a crime scene. We covered Charlotte in blankets and began the task of cutting enough of the car away to get her out. Declan handed their bags to Jordan, reaching over to slice through the seatbelt that had locked in position.

Charlotte groaned again and my heart constricted in my chest.

She was injured because I had failed her.

I put a neck brace on her, Declan moving to the driver’s side to help me put a spinal board in place so we could move her. Our medical team arrived and took over, strapping her into place, and inserting a canula into her arm.

“On my count,” a paramedic said, and they began to lift Charlotte. She was pale, her skin clammy, and she looked so small without her giant personality that normally filled a room.

Jordan had managed to get Victoria to the top of the bank, ropes now in place to aid everyone to be able to get up and down. All the bodies had been recovered, their cars removed, and my bike in the back of one of our trucks. It was as if nothing had happened, even though Charlotte was lying still and unconscious.

“I’ll drive,” Declan said, leading me to his car.

Jordan put Victoria in the back of our car since there was no more room in the back of the private ambulance. “I’m going to get Megan, she was with me when you rang. I’ll see you at the hospital.”

Declan took off like a demon escaping Hell as the ambulance surged forward. The doctor was waiting for us at the hospital, wheeling Charlotte straight through.

Victoria batted the attention of another doctor away. “See to my daughter.”

“She is already being seen to. Let me check you over, just to be sure you have no brain injury.” He gave her a disarming smile and she nodded reluctantly.

None of us were allowed in the room they took Charlotte into, and Declan paced in the corridor, talking into his phone.

I sat in the corner and tried to hold my shit together. The image of her bloody and broken haunted me.

“I suppose we should introduce ourselves.” I glanced up to find Charlotte’s mum staring at me. “I’m Victoria, Charlotte’s mother.”

“Flynn,” I replied with nothing more to add.

“You’re not what I expected,” she continued, and my eyebrow arched. “I had an image of you in my head.”

I shrugged my right shoulder. “I tend to disappoint.”

“I didn’t say you had disappointed me.” She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. “Although you did break my baby’s heart.”

A nurse came into the room and prevented me answering. “I just need to ask some medical questions about Charlotte,” she said, seating herself beside Victoria.

I tuned out as they went through her allergies and medical history.

“Is there anything else I should know?” the nurse asked.

“She had her first scan today for her pregnancy. She’s about three months along.” Victoria bent over to pull a folder out of Charlotte’s bag as my head snapped up.

“I’ll let the team know, they may need to stop some medications.” The nurse took the folder and left the room.

Victoria’s eyes met mine. “She wouldn’t want you to find out like this, but she would never forgive me if I didn’t tell them and she lost it.”

I swallowed and looked at the door. There was little point in asking if it was mine. We’d been living in each other’s pockets, and I knew neither of us were cheaters. I’d ask how it happened, but since I kept losing control and forgetting condoms, it was another sin laid at my doorstep.

My phone pinged. It was Lydia letting me know that a shitstorm had erupted because someone had released the classified information that Tom Junior was a better match for Dad than she was. She was going into hiding for a few weeks until the row calmed down.

Jordan arrived about twenty minutes later, Megan hurrying into the waiting room to engulf first me, and then Victoria, who she had never met before, in hugs. She settled herself as if she belonged there, and began her role of taking care of us. Jordan rolled his eyes at me and shook his head. He could no more change her than I could Charlotte.

On my way to the toilet, I tapped Jordan’s arm to indicate he follow me. My stomach was in knots, my heart pounding in my ears, and my mouth drier than a camel’s ass in the Sahara.

“What’s up?” he asked.

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