Lexie
I couldn’t help the nausea that kept me on the bridge of consciousness as the world spun in and out of focus, a darkness kept creeping in at the edges of my vision, threatening to take over. But I kept hearing a voice telling me I needed to stay awake. I fought hard, and I’d won, and I knew that the mission was a success. Even if I couldn’t help but slip in and out of awareness as my consciousness kept flickering in and out. Fragments of the past hour would slip through. The fighting. Zed being dragged off before we could make it to the car. Luke refused to leave me to make a grab for Zed. I remembered screaming until my voice was hoarse as he dragged me away from Zed and those who were taking him.
“We will find him. His best chance is us getting out of here alive. Stop fighting me,” he whispered as my body went limp. We made it to the vehicle with Randolf swearing up a storm behind us, while Laurel was unnaturally silent next to us.
“Someone tipped them off. In all our surveillance, this place has never been this heavily guarded.” She spoke evenly, as if thepast few hours hadn’t occurred, with Randolf agreeing beside her.
“It isn’t safe to take her to a hospital in the city. You’ll have to drive. It probably would be better if you didn’t check her into one at all.”
The car we were traveling in hit a bend in the road, causing pain to shoot through my side, and I couldn’t help the sound of agony that escaped my lips. Instead of the voices and conversations seeming far away, I was jolted fully awake and into the present.
“Fuck,” I cursed.
“Do you see how much blood she’s lost? I don’t think we have a choice,” I was awake enough to see Luke’s worried expression, and I gritted my teeth together, trying to sort through everything fully awake.
“I’m fine. I’ve never been stabbed before. Give a girl some time to adjust. We can’t all be 6’5 of Russian insanity.” I hissed out, looking each one of them in the eye, mainly to avoid looking at the wound in my side.
“Doesn’t change the fact that you need a hospital,” Luke reiterated.
“Where are we headed?”
“We’re dropping Randolf and Laurel off at a safe house a few miles away, and then you and I will find the best place to get you treated,” He shot a look toward everyone that meant there would be no room for argument.
“And where are we going, Luke?”
“To Rockland, to Magnolia. She’s our best bet at keeping you out of somewhere public.” I couldn’t help but gasp.
“Absolutely not. I won’t have her in the middle of this,” I attempted to shout at him, but much of my energy was being used to stay awake.
“She doesn’t have a choice, Lex. It’s our best option.” He grimaced at me, but gave me a look that meant there was absolutely no room for discussion.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Lexie
I couldn’t help but spend the next two and a half hours as we were driving not only trying to stay awake, but cursing out Luke for bringing me back to Rockland like that, to force my best friend’s hand.
“Be mad at me all you want, Lex. I weighed the pros and cons of it all, and this is our best option,” he grumbled at me during one of my fits.
“I’d rather risk it at the hospital than put anybody in that town at risk, get me?” I tried to keep the tears at bay, but what was the point of all the secrecy if I ended up doing exactly what I feared the most? Pulling in the people I loved.
I couldn’t stop myself from obsessively thinking about Jace as well. I’d all but shoved him out of my mind those past few months. But I had yet to fully eradicate him from my heart, and I almost stopped breathing at the thought of something happening to him.
“Take me to the hospital,” I ground out again.
“No.” Luke shot me a brief look of pity before he locked his features into an impenetrable gaze, and I knew I’d lost that fight. The rest of the ride was eerily silent, the blood from my side a slower trickle now. And while I wasn’t as concerned I was going to bleed out, I was really tired, so I shut my eyes and focused on breathing.
Time faded into nothing but seconds ticking on a clock as the rhythmic sound of tires on the pavement lulled me into a sense of nothingness as time continued to pass.
My body remembered the turn of the driveway, and my eyes fluttered open. I hated how I felt peace for the first time in weeks at the view of the old house that sat at the end of the gravel drive. Tears gathered at the corner of my eyes.Home.
I might be hurt, but I was home, and as much as I didn’t want to be there, my body moved on its own accord, opening the door. I stumbled hard, just wanting to reach the front door.Safety.
A wave of sadness washed over me, mingling with an unspoken pain and failure at knowing I was about to be dragging Magnolia into it, into danger. Even more violence was possible, but there I was, doing it anyway. I wanted to scream out at the injustice and turn around. The thought of putting anyone else at risk, especially my best friend, and upending her life into chaos that surrounded me felt like a betrayal. It felt like all the hours and days of distance were for absolutely nothing.
“Are you ready?” Luke’s voice broke through my thoughts, but it still felt distant, like a faint echo in my mind, rooting me to the spot where I stood.
With a slow, labored breath, I nodded, the weight of what I was doing almost felt like I was suffocating as I put my key into the lock and turned, grimacing as it gave way.