My head was spinning and aching and my hand hurt so badly, but I was able to see the men who’d been about to rape me. They were on the ground and neither was moving. I didn’t know how Parker and Ryker had gotten free or what they’d done to those men; I was just glad they had.
When we reached the warehouse, Parker sat me down in the chair I’d occupied earlier, and I saw cops had begun pouring into the building. Parker stood right behind me, his hands on my shoulders. Then my gaze fell on something else and I froze.
It was Viktor, lying flat on his back on the floor, the tire iron protruding from his chest.
“I see you found her.”
Tearing my eyes from the sight of Viktor, I saw Branna standing next to Ryker. She was looking at me, but her attention refocused on him.
“You need to get to the hospital,” she said. “They need to look at that burn.”
“I will. Just gimme a minute,” he said to her, his eyes on me.
My head had cleared but I felt numb, like I was in shock or something. I’d always heard about it, but hadn’t experienced it. Now I understood what people meant. I didn’t know what to say or how to react to anything. The entire horrifying experience was too awful to contemplate, so I didn’t.
Ryker crouched in front of me.
“Babe, you okay?” he asked.
I looked at him and gave a tiny nod. “I think so. My hand …”
“Let me see.”
He took my hand gently in his, turning it palm up. The mark was as livid as the one against his side. It hurt too much to flatten my hand and I felt self-conscious with both Parker and Branna watching, so I pulled away, cradling it back against my chest.
“I’m sorry,” I choked out. “I didn’t know what he would do to either of you, no matter what name I said.” Tears dripped, but I ignored them.
“Let’s not talk about it right now,” he said.
I nodded. “Okay.”
EMTs came flooding in, surrounding the three of us, and I was separated from them. I looked around, trying to spot either of them in the crowd, but couldn’t.
“Where are they?” I asked the woman working on me. “I need them. I can’t—I can’t—” Breathing became impossible, catching in my chest, and my lungs wouldn’t inflate properly.
“Calm down, you’re all right,” she tried to assure me.
“C-can’t,” I gasped. “P-Parker and Ry-Ryker. Need them, please …”
“We have a situation here,” she told a partner. “Who are the other victims? Either of them Parker or Ryker?”
I had to find them. Were they safe? Did Viktor have them again? Was he hurting them?
I struggled to my feet, pushing away the woman when she tried to stop me.
“I have to find them!”
“Ma’am, please, sit down.” A man wrapped his arms around me, imprisoning my arms at my sides.
Panic flooded me. “No! Get off!”
“Sage! It’s okay, listen to me.”
Parker was suddenly in front of me, his face filling my vision.
“Let her go; you’re scaring her,” he demanded. The arms holding me dropped away and I fell into Parker’s embrace, sobbing.
“Don’t leave me,” I begged. “Please don’t.”
“I won’t. I swear. I’m right here.”
“Ryker?”
“He’s right behind you, not ten feet. You’ve gotta let him go, though,” he said gently. “He needs to go to the hospital, okay? He’ll be okay. I promise.”
I believed him. Parker wouldn’t lie to me.
I settled, tuning out everyone and everything but Parker. He held me while they messed with my hand and I barely paid attention to what they were doing.
“Did they give her anything?” the EMT asked Parker.
“I don’t know.” He pulled back slightly to look at me. “Sage, did they give you something? A drug?”
I shrugged, not caring, and leaned forward to rest against him again. He was warm and solid and alive.
Hands pulled back my hair while others lifted my arm to inspect the skin.
“Here,” Parker said, his voice rumbling in his chest. “There’s a mark on her neck. Some blood.”
“We need to get her to the hospital,” the woman said. She placed her hands on my shoulders and pulled at me.
“No!” I clutched at Parker, panicked.
“I’ll come with her,” he said. His arm tightened around my waist.
That made perfect sense to me. It was strange. In some corner of my mind, I could tell I was being unreasonable. But I couldn’t stop it. I needed Parker and nothing was going to keep me from him.
Parker stood, making me stand with him, and we took a step. My knees gave out and I would have fallen if he hadn’t had a hold of me.
“Easy now,” he murmured.
My legs were like spaghetti, completely useless. Parker mostly carried me outside to the ambulance and helped me climb in the back.
They had me lie down and they wanted my blood for a test. So long as I could see Parker’s eyes, I didn’t care what they did. He held my good hand and I lost myself in his eyes, until nothing remained but their pure blue, shining in the darkness …
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Everything was dark when I awoke. My mind was lethargic and slow. I licked my dry lips, blinking slowly as I turned to look around the room.
Was I alone? Where was Parker? Ryker?