“And?”
“Been watching her a long time. She never leaves lights on when she goes to bed. And you said she knew you were coming?”
Because Savvy was concerned about the hydro bill, and yeah, she knew I was coming. My heart pounded and stomach coiled as I pressed her number again and listened to it ring as we jogged up to the front door.
Luke pressed her buzzer. No answer.
“Jesus.” Everything inside revolted as a million thoughts plowed through me. Nothing could happen to her. She had to be okay. I couldn’t lose her, not Savvy too.
I yanked on the doors, but the one good thing about this place was the front door locked. I banged my fist into the glass. “Damn it.” I looked at Luke. “Her neighbor Trevor. Buzz him.”
Luke scrolled through the names while I paced back and forth.
Trevor answered. “What the fuck? Do you not know my fuckin’ rules. No one buzzes me after midnight.” The air went silent.
“Fuck.” I buzzed this time and as soon as it clicked when he picked up, I spoke. “It’s Kite. Buzz me in.”
“Why didn’t you say that the first time?” Trevor replied.
The buzzer sounded, and Luke threw open the door and we ran inside. My heart was in my fuckin’ throat as we raced up the three flights of stairs.
I didn’t bother knocking on Savvy’s door or asking Trevor for a key. I slammed my shoulder into it, splintering the wooden frame, and the door burst open.
“What the hell is going on?” I heard Trevor shout from across the hall. Luke grabbed my arm to haul me back, and I glanced at the gun in his hand.
“Kite. Let me check it out first,” Luke said.
“I can’t.” I jerked my arm free and moved through her apartment, eyes scanning the couch first, praying that maybe she’d just fallen asleep. But the truth was, I already knew. I felt it.
“Savvy?” I yelled, running for the bedroom, Luke beside me.
The second I stepped into the room and saw her it was like being slammed in the gut with a wrecking ball, then a chainsaw ripping open my chest.
“Noooo!” I shouted, tumbling to my knees beside her, my hands running the length of her body as I tried to see where she was hurt.
She lay on her stomach, her head to the side, hair covering her face, and blood splattered across the floor.
“Don’t move her,” Luke ordered as he held his phone to his ear. He was talking to someone, but his words were muffled as my mind gyrated with fear.
“Fuck. Savvy. Baby.” I brushed her hair away from her face and neck and felt for a pulse.
I closed my eyes as a wave of relief poured over me when I felt the thump beneath the pads of my fingers. “She’s alive.”
A shadow cast over me, but I didn’t look to see who it was, all I saw was Savvy and… fuck, Emmitt. Facedown in the water, blood splattered on the rock where he’d hit his head.
But there’d been no pulse.
Savvy was breathing. She was fuckin’ breathing. “Where the fuck are the paramedics,” I shouted.
“Any second,” Luke said as he crouched beside me and took her wrist to check her pulse.
“I swear. I didn’t hear anything. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I heard her come home and…” Trevor went on as he paced the floor, his eyes shifting to Savvy every time he turned.
I grabbed the blanket at the end of the bed and lay it over her while I held her limp hand in mine.
I heard sirens. Footsteps. There were people bustling into the bedroom, and I couldn’t focus on anything but her.
“Kite. They need to take her.” Luke dragged me back so the paramedics could put a neck brace on her, then they rolled her onto the stretcher.
Christ, this was my fault. I brought this into her life. I ran my hand through my hair as I watched Savvy being carried out of the bedroom.
My hands shook and my body trembled. “I did this. I did this.”
“We don’t know what happened. A lot of scum come into this building, Kite.” Luke said.
This was my father. Her place wasn’t robbed; nothing was disturbed. This was him.
Luke put his hand on my shoulder. “I called Crisis. He’s meeting you at the hospital. I’ll stay here. Talk to the police.”
I didn’t even realize I’d walked downstairs as Luke spoke. I climbed into the ambulance with Savvy, and my hand found hers.
“She’ll be okay,” Luke said as the doors shut and the ambulance’s siren blared.
“Sir?” Why? Fuck, why would he go after Savvy? Why hurt her? “Sir? We need her arm, sir.”
I glanced at the paramedic beside me who held a cotton swab in his hand. “Her arm, sir.”
The moment I released her hand, it was like I was letting her go. That she was slipping from my grasp. “Christ.” I put my head in my hands and closed my eyes, but the second I did, images of Savvy lying motionless on the floor haunted me.
I didn’t protect her.
“She’s going to be okay, right?” I asked the paramedic, my voice barely distinguishable.
“Don’t know about internal damage, sir. We’ll know more when they take her in for radiographs. But she’s stable. Heart and lungs clear. Blood pressure steady.”
I nodded, running my knuckles down her cheek. “I’m sorry, Savvy. Fuck baby, I’m so sorry.”
The ambulance stopped and I moved out of the way as the paramedics wheeled her in and I followed until they disappeared behind swinging doors and a nurse stopped me.
“Kite.”
I stood staring at the door, my limbs frozen.
“Kite, man.” Crisis’s hand settled on my shoulder, but I didn’t move. I couldn’t.
My mind was an infestation of emotions. Emotions I’d kept locked away, and now like a raging river hitting a cracked dam, they were leaking through me.
I didn’t know how to react. I was afraid to react. Fuck, this wasn’t me. I had control. For years, I had control.