Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
MORTALITY
Jett
Ileave the truck running in the circle drive. It’s the last thing I care about. She’s cradled in my arms with her head lolled back. I kept my fingers on her pulse the whole drive. It’s a miracle we didn’t slide off the side of the mountain.
The doors slide open, and everything goes bright.
Lights.
Voices.
A medical team rushing toward me with a gurney.
I lay her limp body on the bed and talk as they rush her down the hall and into a bay. “She was fine, and then she just started slipping until she was completely unconscious.”
“Her BP is dangerously low. Get her on the monitors.”
She slips from me as they push me away to get to her. Fuck, her skin is so pale—paler than normal, and her lips are a tinge of blue in the corners. Panic courses through me so strong, the roar is deafening in my own ears.
The medical team starts to work. One is hooking her up to machines. Another takes vitals. Someone else cuts her shirt up the middle. Stickers and wires are slapped on her chest as another tech starts an IV.
One woman doesn’t look away as she works and demands answers. “Is she allergic to anything?”
I drag my hands through my hair. Fuck. Why didn’t I ask that in all of the useless conversations we’ve had. “I don’t know.”
“Is she on any prescriptions?”
“Fuck, I have no idea. I don’t think so.”
The woman glances up at me for a slip second. “Does she use recreational or illicit drugs?”
“What? No!” I move to the end of the gurney and watch as five people work on her at the same time. “I’m telling you, she was talking, alert, and eating. This happened in a matter of thirty to forty-five minutes. Just fix her!”
“Let’s get a full blood panel.” The woman in charge turns to me. “Sir, you need to step back. I’ll call security if I have to.”
Oh, fuck.
“The food.” I don’t step back. I can’t move, because the thought hits me like a freight train. “The food. What she was eating ... it was meant for me.”
The woman turns to me. “What was she eating?”
I shake my head. “It was a gift basket. From my company—my family’s company. At least that’s what the card said. She ate from it, I didn’t. But it was sent to me—it was fucking meant for me and now she’s lying there unconscious.”
“We’ll start there. But if you don’t step back, I’ll have you removed. I’ll call the police if I have to.”
I step out of their way and think about the gift basket from Stonebridge.
Would Stonebridge really send a fucking gift basket of food?
I pull out my cell and hit go on a number I’ve called way too often lately.
Devon barely has the chance to answer. “Please tell me you weren’t run off the—”
“Devon, there was a delivery for me not too long ago. The doorman took it to the back and said he was going to put it in the fridge. Don’t let anyone touch it. I think it’s tainted.”
Devon’s tone turns gruff. “Tainted? What the hell does that mean?”
“Call Moretti. Let him know. It needs to be taken into evidence and tested. I didn’t eat it, but Lennon did. We’re at the hospital. It’s not good. In fact, it’s bad. Really fucking bad.”
“Tell me how bad, dammit,” Devon demands.
He murmurs to Harlow in the background as I watch them continue to move around Lennon’s lifeless body like every moment counts and they don’t have enough of them.
The medical team starts barking orders at each other.
“BP is dropping.”
“We don’t have time to wait for a full blood panel.”
“Prepare to pump her stomach and continue to flush fluids through her. Keep her oxygen on high. We don’t have to intubate yet.”
I don’t look away from the woman who has me in knots in ways I have no desire to find myself out of. She’s got me, lock and key.
And she’s on her death bed.
Closer to death than I ever was.
And it’s because someone was targeting me.
I don’t move the phone away, but I speak to the doctor. “Is she going to die?”
“Fuck,” Devon bites. “I’ll call Moretti. We’ll be right there.”
The doctor spears me with a grave expression. “We’re doing everything we can.”
Minutes stretch into hours.
Over three to be exact.
I may lose my mind if someone doesn’t come out to give us an update soon.
They officially kicked me out when one of the machines went haywire. Harlow, Devon, and Patrick showed up a few minutes later. I’m not sure if I was going to implode or throw a chair through the waiting room windows.
The Winslet Community Hospital is small enough that there’s one waiting room for the whole place, but big enough to handle moderate traumas.
Can they turn around a patient who has possibly been poisoned?
I pray they work miracles.
Harlow hasn’t left my side. Devon and Patrick are both pacing the cold tile floors in front of me.
Dean Moretti confiscated the rest of the gift basket and made sure no one else ate anything in it.
He sent it to the largest town near Winslet with a full lab to test. Patrick has been on the phone with corporate security since he got here.
I guess they’re working with Devon to study the surveillance videos to see who delivered it.
I can’t worry about that now. That’s for later when Lennon is healthy, and I have time to track someone down to murder them.
Or the alternative, if she’s not healthy or worse, which I can’t think about right now.
My head pops up from where I was cradling it in my hands when the security doors open from the trauma rooms.
I rush to my feet when I see the doctor who’d finally had enough of me and kicked me out.
I don’t say anything. I’ve never been afraid of anything in my life. Not even my own mortality. Not when I was in the Army and not when I was slowly dying from PKD. Mortality sucks, but I wasn’t afraid of it.
But Lennon’s?
I’m fucking terrified.
Harlow stands close to me and Devon next to her. Patrick flanks me on the other side, but no one touches me.
Fucking finally, the doctor breaks the silence, but not with words that soothe my soul.
“We think it was a fast-acting toxin. We treated it as such since we had no time for a blood panel. We pumped her stomach and administered antidotes that wouldn’t hurt her after what her body went through today. ”
I force myself to breathe, but it’s damn hard. I also can’t speak for fear of what I’ll ask and what the answer might be.
The doctor keeps talking. “Based on the reaction of the antidote, we believe the toxin was plant-based. The kind that disrupts oxygen and cardiac rhythm. The two together...”
She lets that thought trail off. I can’t take it another moment.
I take a step forward and feel Harlow’s grip around my forearm to hold me back when I demand, “Is she dead?”
The doctor shakes her head. “No. She’s on oxygen, and we’re flushing her body. We saw a vast improvement after the first dose of the antidote. We will continue to monitor until we are sure the toxins are flushed out.”
My chest tightens. “Give it to me straight. Is she going to die?”
The doctor narrows her eyes. “She would have had you not gotten her here when you did. The next twenty-four hours are critical. So far, the antidote is working. We’ll continue with that unless the blood panel indicates otherwise. I expect the labs back in the next hour.”
My eyes fall shut and my legs almost give out.
The doctor keeps talking. “We won’t know the lasting effects. There could be lasting damage to her heart. We’ll monitor that. She’s stable but not out of the woods.”
I’d drop to my knees in gratitude, but I have other priorities. “I want to see her. Please, let me see her.”
The doctor gives me the palm of her hand. “Only if you promise not to be a disruption. Next time, I’ll kick you off hospital property for good. I’ve done it before. I have no issue doing it again.”
I feel Harlow’s grip on my arm tighten with a warning and she answers for me. “He’ll be on his best behavior. I know he will.”
The doctor nods but gives me one more condition. “Only you. We’re past visiting hours.”
It’s all I can do not to tear through the security doors. “Take me to her.”
“Please,” Harlow adds. “I’m sorry. He’s so worried. He’s not normally like this.”
The doctor nods and holds her hand out for me. I’m about to move to the doors, but Harlow pulls me back. When I turn, she moves in for an embrace. “She’s going to be okay. She has to be. When we figure out who did this, they’ll pay. Keep us up to date on how she’s doing.”
I nod and let her go. “I will.”
And with that, I leave my new family to be with the woman I want to be a part of that more than anything.
Lennon
The soft sound of a humming machine blends with the stench of antiseptic and mingles with an underlying sensation of fear.
My eyelids are heavy, and my body feels like an anvil. It takes all my might to open my eyes.
“Thank God.”
It takes me a moment, but I turn my head far enough to see him.
Jett.
He’s by my side, cradling my hand in his, and stroking my hair with the other.
“You’re okay,” he whispers. “You’re going to be okay. I’m so fucking sorry, baby.”
I pull in a breath and realize I have oxygen blowing up my nose. I try to yank it out, but Jett stops me.
“Not yet. They said to wait until tomorrow to make sure you’re out of the woods.”
I groan and try to speak over my dry throat. “What happened?”
Pain and guilt is etched in every feature of his face. “You were poisoned. It was meant for me, and you almost died. If I never do another thing in life, I’ll make sure whoever did this pays.”
I shake my head. “Poisoned? The only thing I remember is riding up the mountain. I was so tired. I couldn’t keep my eyes open.”
Jett cups my face and leans in to press his lips to mine. “You’re going to be okay. That’s all that matters. The police are investigating. Devon is working with Stonebridge security. The only thing you need to do is get better. I’ll worry about the rest of it tomorrow.”
“But—” I start.
He brushes his thumb over my lips. “No buts. You’re going to make a full recovery. And the person who sent that fucking gift basket made the worst mistake of their life.”