Page 37 of Alphas Like Us
“I didn’t ask,” I say, my fingers to his neck. I mentally file his fast heart rate. “Anything elsehurt?”
“No. Yeah, I don’t know. We need to get my cousins out ofhere.”
Before either of us move, Oscar returns and lifts the flap of the airbag. “Redford?!”
“Ben has a concussion!” I call out. “Eyes are dilated, but he’s not critical!” I explain how he’s accessible through the driver’s window, and Oscar has Ben out in a minute flat. He doubles back for Charlie and helps his client out the sameside.
I turn to Maximoff. “I’m going out first so I can helpyou.”
He doesn’t argue or combat me, and that just about kills me. Because it means he’s in severepain.
I slide out the window backwards. Rain instantly pours on me, soaking my inked chest. Drenching my hair and dripping off mylashes.
Now it’s histurn.
I kneel and clutch his waist, not his arm or shoulder, and I pull Maximoff out the window. He uses the strength in his legs, and he almost screams through histeeth.
I have him out of the overturned car, and he tries to pick himself up to stand. Hewheezes.
“Stay down.” I can’t touch his collar without hurting him more. He just has tolisten.
And he does with no pushback. It fucking gutsme.
Maximoff lies on his back, tilting his head to try and make sense of the dark, stormy surroundings. I kneel closer to his side, concentrating on his injuries, but I still see the camerasflashing.
Akara, Quinn, and some of Epsilon security restrain the paparazzi who’ve jumped out of their vehicles on the highway. They try to snap photos of the wreckage. Right where Maximoff lies on the pavement littered with metal and plastic carparts.
I can’t move himyet.
Security yells and pushes paparazzibackwards.
“Can we help?!” a pedestrian asks, other cars parked in the emergency lane. Epsilon creates a barrier to keep them back fromus.
Quickly, I rip open his soaked shirt at the collar until it tears in two. Welts bloom around his ribcage, and he has trouble catching hisbreath.
“Where’s…Nona?” he asks, worried. It’s all killing me. Every word he says, every gasp of breath he takes is evisceratingme.
“Range Rover with Ben and Charlie,” I answer. Near the wreck, Oscar leans into the Range Rover, doors open, and I assume that Ben and Winona are inside. Waiting for theambulance.
Charlie has a suit jacket over his head, and he rests against the hood of the Range Rover, putting all his weight on his leftleg.
Maximoff winces, his palm floating above his abs. Rain continues to beat down on us, and I hover over my boyfriend to protect him from thestorm.
“Chest pain?” I ask, already knowing bysight.
“Yeah…” He wheezesagain.
I put my ear to his chest. Absence of breath sounds on the right, and no visible movement. I take his vitals again.Tachy.
I’ve never treated a loved onebefore.
Fuck, I’ve never loved someone the way Ilovehim. With a father married to medicine and no mother, I didn’t grow up seeing love, but I sought that in every relationship, and I thought I metit.
But I realize that I never even cameclose.
Then I fell forhim.
It’s a love that pummels me every time I wake and crave to near him. Every time I see his morality and think,how good you are, and fuck, I’m lucky.It’s a love that beckons me towards him when he’s gone. One that reaches into my core and wraps itself around me. It’s that persistent, unforgettable undetachablelove.
