Page 78 of Revive
“Could be her collarbone is broken. It’s common with a fall, because you put out your hands to save yourself. We’re not going to move her. Take off your coat. We’re going to keep her warm.”
Spook dutifully shed his jacket, while Luthor did the same.
“Yo, Xane! Have you made that call yet?”
When they didn’t get an immediate reply, they exchanged worried looks.
“Do you think he’s okay?” Spook asked.
Luthor rose out of his crouch. “No. The both of you look like I should be treating you for shock. If you think you can manage here a moment, I’m going to climb back up and see what’s what. If he’s not already done so, I’ll call for help. I’ve not got a signal down here. I don’t know about you?”
Spook checked and shook his head.
Luthor briefly tightened his grip around Spook’s shoulder. “Hang in there. I’ll be back as quick as I can. I’ll see if I can get a GPS signal while I’m up there so that I can give the rescue service a precise location.”
-26-
Spook
“Where the hell are you guys?” The high-pitched edge to Luthor’s voice jogged Spook out of the numbness he’d fallen into and made him cognisant of his surroundings again.
“We picked Spook up. We’re on the way to the hospital,” Ash replied. His phone was on speakerphone attached to the dash of the hire car he’d rented. The Danger Mobile was tucked up safe and warm in his parent’s garage where its undercarriage wasn’t going to take any salt water damage. The evening traffic was cruising past them, the headlights dazzling. An irritating buzz filled Spook’s head making it difficult to focus. All that had happened since Luthor climbed back up that godawful slope was a blur of noise, questions, and overbright lights. They’d strapped Alle to a bodyboard and winched her to safety. He hadn’t been able to go with her by air, so Ash was driving him to Truro.
“Wait, what? Spook’s with you? I thought—”
“Here,” he said.
To which Luthor responded with an explosive string of Swedish swears.
“Spook, what’s he saying?” Ash demanded.
“‘Fucking Christ on a cracker!’”
Ginny turned her head to look at him through the divide between the seats, eyes narrowed. She was done up super pretty, heavy on the eye shadow. She and Ash had obviously had plans. “That’s not actually—”
“It’s close enough.” The tone and sentiment matched. “The basic gist, Xane’s AWOL with their car, so he’s stuck on Liddell Island.” Though he translated Luthor’s words, he had no real cognisance of their meaning. His whole focus was Alle and how bollocksed everything was again. This was not the evening he’d had mapped out, and it was damn hard not to take it as a sign. He had a flock of demons sitting on his shoulders, and holy hell were they nattering.Look what you’ve done. You’ve hurt her… ruined her… broken her…It might not have been the sex or his appetites that had caused her to fall or inflicted her injuries, but the whole reason she was wandering around at night, in the dark, alone, and unsteady on her feet was down to him. He’d put her in a position where she was at risk. He hadn’t looked after her properly. Had left her. He was the fucking monster they all said he was, and the universe was making damn sure he knew it.
Nausea churned in an endless acidic cycle in his guts.
I swear I’ll never touch her again if she’s okay. I swear…
“Spook, it’s not your fault.” Ginny reached through the divide to clasp a hand firmly on his knee. He guessed he must have muttered the last part aloud for she was looking at him with sympathetic eyes. “The universe doesn’t give enough of a shit about you or any of us for it to give us signs. It was a stupid accident. It could have happened at any time. It’s pure coincidence that it happened now.”
Maybe. His rational mind was fighting hard to accept that, but the fork-tongued demons on his shoulders were keen to establish exactly how big a piece of shit he was, and why Alle and the world in general would be better off if he wasn’t in it.
“She won’t thank you if she comes round and you’ve decided this is a sign to turn hermit and cut off your dick again.”
“Gin,” Ash remarked from the driver’s seat. “Go easy, eh? He’s had a shock. What are you saying, Luthor?” The latter’s voice was still coming through the car speakers.
“Straight talk never hurt anyone,” Ginny insisted. “What’s the point of mincing words?” She gave Spook’s knee another squeeze. “Repeat after me, ‘It wasn’t my fault. It was a dumb accident’.”
“Whenever—” he began to argue, but Ginny was having none of it.
“Don’t be that man again. Don’t get lost in that doom loop, because all that’s going to do is make both of you miserable, and likely the rest of us along with you. We’re going to get to the hospital, and Alle is going to be fine.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I have faith in that. And she’s going to wake-up and tell you the same damn thing. That it’s not your fault. That she’s a grown woman capable of making her own decisions and bollocksing things up without any help. If you’re going to argue otherwise with me, I’m going to take that as a declaration that you don’t believe in female autonomy, and then I’m going to make your ears bleed.”
