Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
P ain. The sound of waves.
Pain. The smell of salt water.
Pain. Pain. Pain.
With each wave that crashed onto the rocks, there was a pulse of pain that exploded everywhere. It consumed every single inch of his body.
What?
Where?
Why?
Dylan!
His eyes flew open. Desperate. Searching.
His throat was raw as he cried out for her.
His hands cut on rocks, glass, metal, as he searched.
His clothes were soaked. His right knee wouldn’t work, so he crawled across rocks towards the metal ball that used to be her car.
How had he gotten out of it? Why was he on the beach?
Then, a memory flashed quickly of him removing his seatbelt after the initial accident. He’d reached over for her, to help her, then… they had fallen off a cliff.
He spared a quick glance up, twenty maybe thirty feet up, where the road was. He continued to crawl through sand, rocks, debris. To her.
“Dylan,” he cried when he finally reached the car.
She was there, hanging upside down, her arms falling straight down, her hands resting on the top of her car. Her eyes were closed. Tiny cuts covered her face, arms, and hands.
“Dylan,” he said, sitting beside the car.
Her phone was right there, by her hand. Without thinking, he reached for it and punched 911 on its shattered screen. While he relayed their location, he felt for a pulse on Dylan’s neck with shaky hands. Feeling a strong beat, he let out a sigh of relief.
From what he could tell, she was whole. Cut up, bruised, maybe more, but she was alive.
He didn’t dare move her. First off, he doubted that he could catch her if he removed her seatbelt, which would cause her to fall head-first into the top of her twisted up car. Second, his vision was slowly fading, which meant he was most likely going to pass out soon.
He didn’t know how long he waited, biting the inside of his lip to keep himself awake. When he heard the sirens and the helicopter, he leaned back against the car door and held onto Dylan’s hand, feeling her steady heartbeat and waiting for rescue.
He woke as he was wheeled down a long bright hallway and instantly closed his eyes as pain shot through his head.
“Abe?” someone called to him. His eyes flew open when he realized it was Dylan.
She was there, hovering above him, holding his hand.
She had fresh bandages on her face and dark bruises under each eye, as if her nose had been broken.
She was wearing a different shirt, maybe a hospital gown.
She looked tired and the most beautiful she’d ever looked before.
“Dylan,” he groaned. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head and a tear slipped down her face. “No, I’m okay. Cuts, bruises.” She smiled at him.
“Am I hurt?” he asked, feeling numbness. Her smile slipped. “My knee?”
She nodded slowly. “They’re going to prep you for surgery. They said something about pins.” She shook her head and wiped her eyes. “You were out for so long, I… I made the call and okayed the surgery.”
“I trust you.” He sighed. “When?”
“Now, they’re wheeling you back now. I’ll—” She was interrupted by a person in scrubs.
“Sorry, you can’t go any further.”
“I love you,” she said quickly, then leaned down and placed her lips over his. “I’ll see you when you get out.”
“Okay.” He tried to reach for her but his hands were locked down. “Dylan,” he called as he started moving again.
“Yeah?” she said from somewhere behind him.
“I love you, too.”
He heard her sob as the doors behind him shut, then he slipped back into darkness.
The next time he woke it was dark, quiet, and a warm hand was holding his.
“Dylan?” he said, his voice nothing more than a croak.
“I’m here,” she said, and he heard her shift closer as a low light turned on.
Just seeing her face had him smiling. “How’d I do?” he asked.
She nodded with a smile. “Pins are in. They say it will be a few months before you’re back on a horse.”
He smiled. “You?”
“Good. Like I said, cuts, bruises.” She shrugged.
“Banged up knee, but not as bad as yours, and a slight concussion. My car is sitting on the beach about thirty feet below the road.” She glanced to her side, then back at him.
“The police think that someone pushed us over the edge on purpose. I told them about my office being broken into.”
“Who?” he frowned. “Tony?”
“They’re checking into where he was.” She rested her forehead on their joined hands.
“You told me that you love me,” he reminded her.
Her head popped up and she smiled. “And you said it back.”
“Are we going to talk about it?” He lifted her hand to his lips and brushed a kiss across her knuckles, avoiding the bandages and bruises.
“Do we have to?” She smiled down at him.
He thought about it and nodded slowly. “I have never told anyone that before,” he admitted. “Not even Kara. You?”
She shook her head. “My dad.” She shrugged.
“Okay, I stand corrected, I told my mom all the time. This is different.” She nodded. “I love you. I don’t want this to be awkward.”
“It’s not.” She leaned up to brush her lips across his. “First things first. If Tony just tried to kill us, I’d like to not be worried that he’ll try again when he finds out he failed.”
“Ditto. Plus, there’s this whole…” He motioned to his leg. “I guess I should ask what else on me is busted, since most of me is numb.”
“Cuts, bruises.” She stretched her shoulders. “They said they found you outside the car. Did you crawl around?”
“I took my seatbelt off after the first crash. I guess I fell out when the car was pushed over the edge. I landed in the soft part of the sand.”
Her eyes went wide. “You could have…” Her face paled slightly as she thought about the possibilities. Yeah, he was doing the same. He could have landed in the water or, worse, on the rocks.
“Hey,” he said, distracting her, “let’s put that away for now too.” She nodded. “Did you get some sleep?”
She shook her head. “I couldn’t, until I knew you were okay.”
He motioned to the other side of the bed, where there was more space, away from his bad knee. “Climb up here.” He shifted as she crawled up gently next to him. When she laid her head on his shoulder, he held in a groan and winced.
Okay, more than just the knee was hurt.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he lied and shifted again until the pain disappeared. “Rest,” he said. He drifted off listening to the sound of her breathing.
The following morning, after he’d downed the breakfast that had been delivered, he and Dylan talked to Aiden Brogan and Tom Reyes, Pride’s local police, who were investigating the crash.
“Tony Carson was in LA last night at the premiere of one of his client’s movies,” Aiden said, looking at his notes. “There are pictures and videos of him there all throughout the night.”
He saw Dylan’s shoulders sink. “Okay, if it wasn’t him, then…” She turned towards him.
“What are the chances it was just an accident?” Abe asked.
“If they would have left your car on the road, a high chance, but the tire marks show that they purposely pushed you off the cliff. Right through the guardrail,” Tom answered.
“The two of you are very lucky. Not a lot of people would have survived a thirty-foot drop. The mechanic said it was thanks to the older car. Some of those things are built like tanks.”
“I’ve never been so glad that I didn’t trade her in,” Dylan whispered.
“Any idea on the vehicle that hit us? The make, model?” he asked the officers.
“We’re working on it. We’ll let you know when we find out something ourselves.
They told us that you’ll be in here for about a week,” Aiden said.
He handed Dylan a card. “My cell phone number is on the back. Technically, you’re currently in Edgeview’s jurisdiction until you return to Pride, but if you need anything…
” He nodded to the card. “Night or day.”
“Thanks.” Dylan slid the card into the pocket of her jeans, which Lucy had delivered earlier that morning. Apparently, her old friend had sat with her the entire time he was in surgery and had promised to bring her fresh clothes in the morning.
After Dylan had showered that morning, Lucy had shown up with a bag of clothes, and they had gone down to the cafeteria and had coffee and chatted while he ate his breakfast.
After the two officers left, she sat next to him on the bed and they watched television.
He was slightly surprised when a report on their accident appeared on the news. An overhead video of Dylan’s car lying upside down on the rocky beach flashed on the screen.
“Oh my god,” she said, sitting up slightly. “How did we make it?” The image shifted, like it had been taken from a drone or a helicopter.
He took her hand in his and squeezed lightly. “Luck.”
She glanced at him. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to drive that stretch of road again.”
“You will.” He smiled. “After we catch the bastard that did this to us.”
She nodded. “My laptop was destroyed, but I uploaded all my data last night to my new secure server.” She smiled. “Josh has promised to drop off a new laptop here to me today. Then we can start from scratch. If it wasn’t Tony, who else lived in those townhouses?”
He tried to think, but thanks to the full meal and the pain meds, his head was numb.
“I’m too tired to think,” he admitted after trying to remember anything from all those years ago.
“Sleep.” She planted a kiss on his lips. “I’ll be right here.”
“Who’s taking care of the horses?” he asked groggily.
“I called Nate. He’s staying there watching over the house and the horses until they release you. Rest. Everything is taken care of.”
“I love you,” he said, and he drifted off.