She isn’t moving. She’s covered in blood and she isn’t moving.
“Savage, snap out of it.” He nudges my shoulder and I shake my head, trying to clear the fog of panic that has overtaken me. “She’s okay,” he says, leaning into the car with her, “it’s not her blood.”
Not her blood.
I should have known that. If she’d been hurt, the paramedics would have taken her immediately. Apparently, logic flies out the window in these situations.
He starts to lower her into my lap but she cries out and grips his neck, clinging to him. “No, no, please don’t…please…”
Her cries make my heart shatter all over again. She’s clinging to Gabe for comfort—not me. And why shouldn’t she? He’s the one who saved her, who risked his life to make sure she was safe.
While I sat here, fucking useless…
Gabe pulls his head away from hers and cups her face in one of his palms. “Danika, look, it’s Savage.” He turns her to look at me and her wide, red eyes meet mine. She practically leaps from his arms trying to get to me. He helps lower her into the car and she climbs into my lap, latching her arms around my neck and sobbing against my shoulder, her whole body violently shaking with each breath she tries to take.
“Shh, baby, it’s okay. You’re safe.” I run my hand up and down her back, trying to soothe her, but nothing I do seems to help. Her despair is complete; she’s inconsolable.
I hold her for what feels like an eternity before an officer approaches and tells Gabe he needs to talk to the sergeant. Gabe nods to me and disappears.
Another officer approaches almost immediately.
“Mr. Hawke, we need to take Ms. Eriksson to get checked out by the paramedics.”
She stiffens in my arms, her grip on my neck tightening.
“Can that wait?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “I’m afraid not, sir. They need to see her right now.”
“Danika, baby, you need to go…”
“NO!” She screams and finally pulls back from my neck, allowing me to see her face fully for the first time in almost two months. Fear overpowers her beautiful features, her eyes so wide and terrified, I can’t see any of the stunning blue that normally gazes back at me. “Please, no, don’t leave me.”
I capture her face in my hands and smooth my thumbs over her blood-spattered cheeks. “Danika, baby, they need to look at you to make sure you’re okay. I am not going anywhere. They will bring you right back to me.”
She shakes her head vigorously, tears streaming down her face, her fingers digging into my shirt and clutching at it frantically. “No, please, don’t make me go.”
I glance over at the officer, who gives me a sympathetic look, but it’s clear she has to go, no matter how much she might protest.
“Can I go with her?” She buries her face against my neck, sobs racking her body again, and I know no matter what the answer is, I can’t leave her again, not for anything.
He nods. “I’m sure that won’t be a problem.”
“Thank you. Can you get my chair from the trunk please?”
He looks momentarily confused, then glances down at my legs and back up to my face.
“Oh, uh, sure.” He disappears around the back of the car. I pull Danika’s face away from my shoulder. Her bottom lip trembles and tears still stream down her cheeks, but her breathing has returned somewhat to normal.
“Baby, I am going to go with you, okay? But you need to go with the officer, so I can get out of the car.”
Her eyes are glazed over and I’m not one hundred percent sure she understands what I’m saying, but she nods anyway. When the officer returns, she allows him to help her out of the car. The second I’m seated in my chair, she lunges at me, curling herself back into a ball on my lap.
The officer just points in the direction of the ambulance and I follow him over there, Danika seemingly oblivious we are even moving.
She’s in shock.
How could she not be, after what just happened?
We go through the same routine when the paramedics try to get her off my lap to do their exam. I finally convince her to get onto the gurney, but only because I promise to not move and hold her hand the entire time.
She has several scrapes along the right side of her face, but no other visible injuries. I hear the paramedics say something about shock, but I concentrate on squeezing her hand to let her know I’m here.
When the sergeant approaches and tells us we need to go the station to give a statement, she collapses into a fit of hysterics again.
I want nothing more than to bring her home and just hold her, show her I am not going anywhere, but there’s no way we are getting out of going to the station. She cries against my neck the entire ride there, her body shaking and her breath hitching with every sob. My already-pummeled emotions are running wild, and I can barely keep myself in check. The only thing keeping me from completely falling apart is knowing Danika needs me.