Chapter 39 Vincent
My head feels like it’s in a vice grip as I try to pry open my eyes.
I groan, unable to stop the sound as the world spins, and I realize it’s not just my head but my whole left side.
What the hell?
The first thing I see is the windshield, spider-webbed into a million pieces, and that’s all it takes.
Someone hit us, and I’d bet good money it wasn’t an accident.
“Kat!” My voice is rough, my throat raw, and it only makes my head throb harder, but even worse is the silence that answers me.
Tires squeal, and birds chirp as I fumble for the buckle and hit the ground.
The world blurs, but I push through, somehow managing to pull myself out the window to the side of the car.
Despite the crash, it’s only us; nobody has come out to see what the noise is. I didn’t really expect them to be in this neighborhood, though.
It doesn't matter; I don’t need help. I just need to make sure the girls are okay.
Fuck, please let them be okay.
The left side of my body is almost numb, and I know that’s not a good sign, but it sure as fuck beats being in pain, which I’m sure is coming. I need to move.
“Kat! Addison!” I shake off the ringing in my ears that threatens to keep me here instead of going to them.
I crawl down the car, moving to the back door to find the window broken out.
A responding groan sounds like music to my ears, and I know it’s Addison. That’s all I need, though, as adrenaline pumps through me, helping me move faster, blindly climbing through her door as if I wasn’t just seconds from passing out.
She’s here, seemingly whole, lying against the door, blood running down the side of her head, and curled up in a ball that makes her look even smaller than usual.
I drop through the window. My knees buckle as I hit the ground, the air leaving my lungs in a whoosh, and black spots dot my vision for a moment.
Addison’s blue eyes blink up at me, and I see the fear in them, the way her lip quivers as she trembles.
I scoop her up in my arms and hold her close as sobs wrack her body.
“It’s okay, Addy. Where does it hurt?”
I feel her shake her head as I rub a hand down her back, trying to soothe her.
“How about you just point?”
Again, she shakes her head, and my worry quickly doubles, thinking all the worst things are possible. I pull her away from my chest to look down at her.
The blood that covers the side of her face seems to be from a cut on her left eyebrow; it’s long but not too deep. Head wounds tend to bleed a lot, and while I don’t like it, it could be so much worse.
But what if she’s hurt in a way I can’t see?
“Kat,” I call out, needing to find her and get Addison to the hospital.
I dig my phone out of my pocket and look down at the screen for a moment.
911 or Nathan, I stand and debate for a moment.
Addison’s sniffle makes up my mind for me as I click on Nathan’s contact before throwing it on speaker.
“Vince.” I hear the click of his keyboard, and I know he’s at the office still. I know how he hates being there now, ever since Kat came through and destroyed everything we thought we knew about ourselves.
“There was an accident,” I spit the last word. This wasn’t an accident; whoever hit us did it on purpose, but I don’t want to scare Addison.
The line goes quiet for a moment before I hear his hurried movement and the click of his phone, no doubt messaging the others.
“Where are you? Addison? Kat?”
I give him our crossroads, happy that I’ve driven these roads a million times.
“Addison’s shaken up,” I say, moving through the debris of the car in search of Kat.
I’m not a praying man, but I’m praying that I’ll find her simply unconscious and not worse.
“What about Kat, Vince?” Nathan snaps in a tone I haven’t heard from him in years, at least not directed at me.
“I don’t know,” I hiss, turning in place. “She’s not here.” The car isn’t that big; it doesn’t make sense. She should be here.
“They took Mommy,” Addy wails, damn near hyperventilating as fat tears roll down her cheeks, washing away the dirt and blood and making my heart drop just like my phone, shattering on the ground at my feet.
“Vince!” Nathan’s voice snaps me from my momentary spiral. I quickly scoop my phone off the ground, littered with broken glass, careful to watch my step on the mangled door.
“I’m here,” I mumble, pressing the phone between my cheek and shoulder to free my hand so that I can grab the paper near my foot.
It’s folded in half with wrinkles around the center as if it were held tight in someone’s hand.
Nathan is speaking, and I know I need to get Addy out of here, but something pulls at me, and I know this is important.
I adjust Addy so that I can unfold the paper and feel the world stop as I read over the notes from her visit to the doctor’s office today.
She didn’t have a cold…
“She’s pregnant.”