Tangled In Lies (Tangled & Torn #1)

20. Phoenix

Chapter 20

Phoenix

T he pressure hitting my back is too forceful to withstand, and I fly forward with only one goal: to cover Evangeline from the blast.

I have to keep her safe. I have to keep her safe.

Nothing can happen to her.

She’s mine.

I can’t lose her too.

Heat sears my back, and for a brief moment, everything goes completely silent in my ears before the muffled sound of a blaring car alarm slowly filters in again and absolute chaos breaks out around me.

With some effort, I push myself up enough that I don’t crush Evangeline.

Holden drops to the ground next to us. “Are you guys okay?”

But I can’t look at him. I can only look at her . At her lifeless body pinned to the ground underneath me. At the slick blood on my hands when I touch the back of her head.

“Hold.” I say his name, my voice breaking. “Why isn’t she moving?”

I stare at him through blurry eyes, a fresh round of panic and devastation gripping my throat so tightly it feels like someone’s choking me. The amount of oxygen squeezing past the restriction is so minuscule that small spots form in my vision.

Eve groans, and Holden all but pushes me off her.

“Phoenix, move. Let me check on her. The ambulance will be here soon.” He sends me a concerned glance. “She’s going to be okay. The team is securing the premises as we speak, so stay right here.”

I nod and grab her hand, not letting go as I watch Holden check her breathing and pulse.

“Her pulse is strong.” He points at her chest. “Her breathing too. You probably just knocked the wind out of her for a second.”

Eve’s hand twitches in my own. She gives it a little squeeze, and I hold on to it like it’s my lifeline.

Footsteps rush toward us, and Holden aims his gun at the approaching person.

Niko, one of our security guards, holds up his hands, his face remaining calm. “The ambulance is only a mile away. The fire truck has an ETA of six minutes.”

“Thanks.” Holden lowers his gun and nods at him. “I want you to call Detective O’Neal. Tell him what happened and to meet me at the hospital.”

“Yes, sir.” He nods at both of us and runs off.

“Phoenix?”

My name on Eve’s lips is almost drowned out by the noise around us and the approaching sirens in the distance, but I hear it nonetheless .

I touch the side of her face, accidentally smearing some of the blood from my hand to her cheek. “Please don’t move.”

“Phoenix?” She repeats my name and slowly blinks her eyes open. “My head.”

“I know, Angel.” I press a kiss to the back of her hand. “You hit your head, but you’re okay. We’ll get you to the hospital.”

As if on cue, the ambulance races up the driveway, several EMTs jumping out when it comes to a stop. They hurry over to us with a gurney, and I reluctantly let go of Eve’s hand to give them the room they need. Once she’s safely in the back of the vehicle, I’m back by her side, and I don’t let go of her once while we rush to the hospital.

“Why the fuck is it taking them so long?” I pace back and forth in front of the door.

They took Evangeline and told me I had to wait here.

If it wasn’t for Holden restraining me, I might have punched someone. I definitely wanted to.

Holden is a few feet away with his phone to his ear, talking to our guys and whoever else is helping us figure out this mess.

The door opens, and an older nurse strides toward me. “Sir, you’re injured. We need to get you to an exam room to check you out.”

I narrow my eyes at her. “I’m not going anywhere until I’ve seen my wife.”

She doesn’t flinch at my tone or react to my lie. She just sighs as if I’m nothing more than an inconvenience, which I probably am to her. “Let me get you something for your wound, at least. You’re bleeding all over my floor.”

“Fine,” I growl at her.

A moment later, she’s back and presses a thick gauze pad in my hand before guiding it to my forehead. “Keep pressure on it.”

I huff, and she must take that as confirmation enough to walk away, muttering something that sounds like “stubborn men.”

Holden lowers his phone and joins me. “She’s going to be okay.”

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. “Fuuuuuuuuuuuck.”

The nurse shoots me a dirty look from her station, but I ignore her and focus on Holden. “Any news?”

He shakes his head. “I called in the additional team like you wanted. They’re going to help ensure the property is safe and go over the security tapes again.” He pauses for a moment. “One of the guys saw a drone hovering nearby when the explosion happened, but that’s it so far.”

I clench my free hand into a fist at my side. “Someone was watching us get blown up?”

“Yup.”

A bomb.

A motherfucking bomb.

On my car.

And they watched it all go down.

I take my hand off my face, and Holden presses it back on.

He makes his “don’t be stupid” expression. “There’s a big chance it wasn’t done at the house. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t. Way too risky to get caught.”

That was the same thought I had earlier, and I hate it. That makes finding the person who did this much harder, if not impossible. I’m unsure why anyone would want to blow me up anyway. Sure, I’ve made enemies over the years, probably more in prison, but to the level of murder? Via bomb, nonetheless? Plus, Eve was there too. She . . . she . . .

I stare at Holden and swallow. “She saved me.”

“I know.”

“She put me in prison, and then she saved me.” A laugh bubbles out of my chest.

The corners of Holden’s mouth lift. “I know.”

I didn’t know a smile could be that sad, that pitiful.

“How did she know?” A question that’s been plaguing me over and over.

He lifts a shoulder and drops it again. “She was staring at her phone one second and yelled your name the next, then took off running. Her phone broke during the explosion, but I will try to access it when I get home and also check the mirrored phone. There’s gotta be something.”

Why does it feel like we’re so close to figuring things out, yet so far away?

Before I can voice my thoughts, the door behind Holden opens, and the doctor steps out.

My feet move before I fully grasp his presence, and I stop right in front of him. It’s probably too close, but it’s better than grabbing him by his white doctor coat and shaking the info out of him, which is what I really want to do. I call that compromise.

He inclines his head. “Mr. Montgomery. ”

I swallow. Hard. “Is she okay?”

He nods. “Miss Caldwell hit her head pretty hard, but she was alert during the exam. She has a mild concussion, and the scans all looked good. No bleeding or anything else unusual, which is what we want. Most cuts and wounds are superficial, but I’m sure she’ll feel them for a while. She was lucky.”

The breath that leaves my body nearly brings me to my knees. A strong hand wraps around my elbow, and I glance at Holden’s equally relieved face.

I focus back on the doctor. “Can I see her?”

“We gave her some medication to rest, so she’ll be out for a while.” He points at my face. “You need to get checked.”

“I won’t leave this spot until I’ve seen her.”

I’m ready to get in his face, doing whatever it takes, when he averts his gaze to Holden then back to me.

He lets out a defeated sigh, probably realizing it’s not worth the fight, and lifts his index finger in the air. “You have one minute, and then you’ll get checked out.” He glances around me toward the nurses’ desk and murmurs, “And don’t touch anything.”

I narrow my eyes at him but nod reluctantly. “Fine. Thanks, Doc.”

“Let’s go.”

I follow him through the double doors and down two different corridors before stepping through the door he opens. A single bed occupies the room, and Evangeline is almost hidden under the blankets. Cables run from her hand and arm to the monitors beside her. My heart slows at hearing her rhythmic heartbeat, at seeing she’s really okay.

Her skin is paler than usual, her body tiny in the large bed, but she’s here and breathing.

I step forward, wanting to get closer, but the doctor stops me with his hand. “Let her get some rest and take care of you in the meantime.”

He walks me back through the double doors. “Let me know if you have any concerns or questions. I’ll get someone for you.” Then he heads straight for the nurses’ desk.

Holden’s in the same spot I left him. “Is she all right?”

I brush a hand over my face and nod. “Seems like it.”

“Good.” He regards the approaching nurse and juts his chin toward me. “I’ll stay here until you’re back in case anything happens. Get that nasty cut checked.”

I don’t tell him I have other places that also need attention. When the bomb exploded, I was able to spin us at the last second, which left me to take the brunt of the blast with my back. I wish there had been enough time to keep her head from hitting the ground when we landed, but I’ll never regret using my body as a shield—just like she was trying to do when she launched herself at me a few seconds before the explosion went off.

Evangeline tried to save me.

Me .

The man she put in prison.

My head is spinning, trying once more to fit the puzzle pieces together that so blatantly don’t want to fit.

From the looks of it, they keep getting more mismatched.

The nurse takes me to an exam room where she asks me a bunch of questions I mostly answer with a grunt. She eventually takes the hint and leaves me alone to change into the hospital gown she handed me.

For a moment, I consider ignoring her instructions, but the unpleasant bite on my back changes my mind. I’ve only managed to remove my suit coat—or rather, what’s left of it—when there’s a knock at the door.

A man pokes his head in, gives me a once-over, and says, “Sorry, I thought you had already changed. I’ll come back in a few minutes.”

“Stay.” I start unbuttoning my shirt.

“Are you sure?” The doctor sends me a pitiful look when I try to peel the shirt off and flinch.

I nod, and he steps inside. He seems young and might only be a few years out of medical school.

“Let me help.” He puts his clipboard down, washes his hands, and puts on gloves.

We get the shirt off together, and the doctor curses under his breath at my exposed skin.

“I take it your back took the brunt of the explosion?”

I push a “Yeah” through clenched teeth and try not to cringe. But to no avail. He probes a skin patch, and searing pain slices across my shoulder blade where some shrapnel from the car must have cut me.

“That one will need stitches. Thankfully, most of the wounds aren’t deep, and the burns appear to be first- and second-degree. You got really lucky.” He scrutinizes the damage for several minutes, occasionally prodding at my skin, before he walks to the cabinets. “I need to clean your entire back first to see what needs sutures, but let’s start with your face.”

Several stitches and butterfly bandages later, I’m putting on the shirt Holden gave me. I think he said he had a change of clothes in the car he followed us with. Since it’s Holden’s, it’s too big on me, but I don’t even care. Nothing can keep me from going to Evangeline now that I’m all patched up and green-lighted to see her for more than just a glance.

Sometime during my exam, they brought her to another level. I catch up with Holden and what happened with the detective, then finally step past two of our security guards into Evangeline’s room.

I step up to her bed and take her in, noticing all the things I couldn’t see earlier from afar. The bandage wrapped around her head, the red gash at the corner of her lip, the streaks of dirt across her nose and temples. My fingers twitch, my hand halfway in the air, wanting to touch her, brush away the dirt, and make the wounds disappear.

But I stop and pull back, forcing myself to move away from the bed and to sit in the chair by the window instead.

Although I want to see those gorgeous brown eyes so badly, she needs her sleep more.

Later, I will get my answers.

Because Evangeline has secrets.

Possibly lots of them.

And she’s going to tell me every single one.

My phone buzzes in my pocket, reminding me I still have a text message waiting from earlier.

Canary

What a wasted opportunity to make her pay for what she did to you. It seems like the tables have turned.

I read the message several times, a sense of dread pooling heavily in my stomach.

We thought the bomb was supposed to be for me.

But was it actually for Evangeline?