He doesn’t get to finish, either.
Everything happens so fast I barely have time to register what’s going on. The hoodie guy hisses out some words I can’t make out. There’s a wink of silver and a blur of motion. One second Reed is standing beside me—the next, he’s down on the cold ground and all I see is blood.
My entire body seizes up. My lungs burn for air. I hear someone screaming and I think it might be me, and suddenly I’m being yanked to the side as footsteps pound the pavement.
Easton. He’s tearing after the guy in the hoodie. And Reed…Reed’s lying on the ground, clutching his right side with both hands.
“Oh my God!” I scream, hurling myself at him.
His hands are red and sticky and I feel like throwing up when I realize there’s blooding oozing out between his fingers. I shove his hands away and instinctively apply pressure on his side. My voice sounds weak and hoarse as I shout out for help. I hear more footsteps. More shouts. More commotion. But my entire world revolves around Reed right now.
His face is almost completely white, and his eyelids flutter rapidly.
“Reed,” I choke out. “Don’t close your eyes, baby.” I don’t know why I order that, but the terrified, panicky part of me says that if he closes his eyes, they might not open again. I yell another command over my shoulder, “Someone call an ambulance, dammit!”
Someone careens to a stop beside us. It’s Easton, and he drops to his knees and quickly places both his hands over mine. “Reed,” he says grimly, “you okay, bro?”
“What the hell do you think?” Reed mumbles. His voice is wheezy enough to triple my panic. “Just got stabbed.”
“Ambulance is on the way,” a male voice announces.
I turn to find the shaved-head guy looming over us. Dodson’s eyes are lined with worry.
I refocus on Reed and feel sick again. He got stabbed. Who the hell would do this to him?
“Bastard got away,” Easton is saying. “Got over the fence before I could stop ’im.”
“No matter,” Reed wheezes again. “Y-you heard what he said, right?”
Easton nods.
“What did he say?” I demand, all the while trying not to vomit from the sight of Reed’s blood pooling on the pavement.
Easton lifts his gaze from his brother and locks it with mine. “He said Daniel Delacorte says hello.”
31
“How’s Reed Royal?” I ask for the thousandth time.
The nurse brushes by as if she doesn’t hear me. I want to yell, “I know you hear me, bitch,” but I don’t think that would generate the response I need.
Easton sits across the room from me. He’s volcano-hot and ready to explode and has been ever since he caught up with the guy who knifed Reed in the stomach. He wants to kill Daniel, and only the fear for Reed’s life is keeping him glued to the chair.
That and the fact that the cops showed up faster than we’d expected. I’d begged Easton not to leave me, because fear was riding me hard. What if there was another knife out there with Easton’s name on it?
I cannot believe that maniac paid someone to hurt Reed.
“The only reason I’m not making Daniel into an organ donor is because Reed would kill me the minute he got out of his hospital bed if he knew I left you alone.”
I nibble on my thumbnail. “I don’t know, Easton. Daniel’s nuts. You could take him in a fight, but then what? He’s doing shit that we wouldn’t even dream of. Hiring someone to stab Reed? What if the knife hit something major? It’s a miracle he’s alive.”
“Then we do something worse,” Easton says and he’s serious.
“And then you and Reed get sent to prison for assault?”
He scoffs. “No one’s going to prison for anything. This is between us.”
“Can’t you just tell the police what you heard?”
“The knifer is long gone.” Easton shakes his head. “Plus, Reed would want to take care of it himself. Leave the cops out of it.”
I open my mouth to object, but I don’t have a good response. I didn’t report Daniel for hurting me and now look at what happened. He’s preying on other girls and hiring thugs to hurt the people I love.
Callum bursts through the doors, interrupting my thought process. “What do you know?” he asks us.
“Nothing. They won’t tell us anything!” I wail.
“They aren’t telling us shit, man,” Easton agrees.
Callum gives us a brusque nod. “Stay here,” he orders needlessly.