Page 105 of Exactly What I Needed
He scooped me up and rose from the wet ground. Spinning toward the companions that had joined us, he cradled me tight and stumbled their way. “Help her,” he whimpered, pleading with the rest of the band.
“SOMEONE HELP HER!” he screamed with tears streaking down his own cheeks.
Oh, what I would’ve given to gently wipe them away.
Sirens wailed in the distance as Elysia shoved past Kieron and she covered her mouth with her hands. Silent tears fell down her own face as she tucked herself back into his arms. Nova and Ava stood frozen beside Drake and Jaxon. Clearly no one really knew what to do as the world caved in.
Asher didn’t seem fazed while my blood dripped against his torso as he tucked me tighter against him. It was absolutely still. The sounds of the evening faded away, a rushed and thick silence blanketing the darkness.
The silence was deafening. The music I’d finally begun to hear again had whisked away the moment Danny’s blackened eyes had met mine. The paramedics gently pulled me from Asher’s hold, and no matter how desperately I wanted to fight to stay in his arms, there was nothing left in me to do so.
What should’ve been a bumpy ride to the hospital seemed a hazy memory as I stared at the image of Asher’s gentle smile lying across from me in bed. His hair was a mess, with lazy sleep filling his eyes; he reached over and brushed his touch across my bare shoulder.
A guitar rested in my lap, and his warm breath danced against the back of my neck. His fingers guided mine across the frets as I strummed the strings haphazardly. A distant laugh swirled in tender memories that seemed to come and go way too quickly.
Lying in the hospital bed, nurses and doctors rushing around me, asking me questions, I desperately sought him. But the sharp details of his face were rapidly fading. Were his brows thick and deep, or did he have…?
Asher, I wanted to whisper as the memories that held me to this realm became hazy. Asher had dark hair.
Danny, my mind screamed at me. Danny did this. Danny had blond hair. Asher was kind. Danny was crueler than I thought. Asher had set me free.
Danny had ripped that away. Danny’s shoes he’d been wearing were the same ugly cream color as the tile beneath my hospital bed. The bright, white lights flickering above me were the same white color as his shirt that had to be stained with my blood.
IknewAsher’s chest was marred with my blood.
As the walnut door to my room swung open and a nurse entered, I caught a glimpse of him standing in the hallway. His brows twitched upward just as his eyes locked onto me before being shut away once more. The rhythmical beep of the monitor next to my bed was the only sound that finally penetrated the empty waste around me.
The door swung open again, and two male cops held a thrashing Asher back as two more female police officers entered my room. “I need to see her!” he shouted. “Please! I couldn’t stop that fucker and—”
But his desperate pleading faded as the door closed behind the two officers who quietly entered my hospital room.
Asher, I tried to croak out. My hoarse throat fought every sound, grating against my attempt to call for the one person who might help this emptiness go away.
“He can come in after we ask you a few questions, okay?” one officer gently said as she smoothed a strand of brown hair back into the tight bun wound at the nape of her neck.
Wait, had I spoken? Had a sound actually escaped my mouth?I willed myself to nod confirmation because, despite everything, something in me had kept me alive.
“Can you tell us what happened?” She pulled a pen and small notebook from her pocket. “How did you end up outside?”
I stared at the typical hospital wall, trying to see around her. Asher was just through that door, and I was desperate to catch a glimpse through the foggy glass window. That’s what I wanted. To hell with answering the questions. The terror was settling back in, and I wanted Asher. I needed that warmth and strength he offered me to keep me from crawling deeper into the emptiness that had consumed me just moments ago.
The door handle rattled, and I twisted the bed sheets within my fist. Was it Asher?
Or was it Danny? Had he somehow made it past everyone in the hospital to come haunt me? “Danny,” I blurted out in horror. But it wasn’tjust Danny’s soulless smile that danced in front of my eyes as the walls began creeping toward me. Sydney and Tera were there too. They’d met him just outside the stadium. Somehow, during a moment of awareness, I’d watched them take my phone and say something about making sure I disappeared for a while. That was the only way to make Asher believe I’d ghosted him.
“Asher,” I mindlessly whispered. Leaving him was the last thing I wanted. No, he was my source of strength and power. He was just right inside the stadium. It was loud and warm and free in there. I just needed to shake loose of Danny’s hold on me.
But I couldn’t. The world quickly slipped away once more.
Then there was blood and agony shredding every fiber of my body. There was a lot of blood.
It ran warm down the insides of my thighs as I clawed at the hand pressed tightly over my mouth.
No. “NO!” I screamed. Or I’d tried to. But I couldn’t. Not as Danny stole from me something that was never his to have.
And in that moment, the woman I once was, died. Everything had changed all because of the actions of someone else. Someone who stole something that wasn’t his to take. My body remained on the bed, but my soul left.
“Miss Duval, please.” A gentle feminine voice slipped through the haze of terror swallowing me into darkness. The hooded Grim Reaper dissipated into the distance as the female police officer’s brown eyes and soft face refocused in front of me and the walls snapped away from me.
