Chapter 21
FOX
I reach Wren just as she’s crumpling to the ground. “Wren?” I bend down and push the hair from her eyes, but her eyes are closed.
“Back off, cowboy. She just tripped.”
I grab the man who’s trying to tower over me. I yank him toward me. “Who are you?”
He tries to swipe at me before his gaze shifts to Monster galloping toward us.
“Answer the question or I’ll throw you to the dog,” I snarl. “Who are you?”
“I’m her boyfriend.”
“Wrong answer.” I punch his face then grab his arm, twist it, and take him down to the ground so his cheek is pressed against the sand. “You want to try that again? Boyfriends don’t throw chairs at their girlfriends. Who are you?”
He tries to kick me, and I crush his knee with my foot.
“Get your hands off me,” he seethes, “or I’ll sue you for all you’ve got and then some. You’re insane.”
I twist his arm harder, and he groans.
“Do you need your knees?” I growl.
“What the hell are you—”
I crush his other knee with my foot, and he screams in pain.
“You don’t have a very high pain tolerance, do you?”
“Get off me!”
Monster’s standing over Wren, snarling, his eyes fixed on the man.
“Are you her ex or are you some idiot her ex sent?”
“I’m her boyfriend.”
“If you ever touch her again, I will find you, wherever you are, and you will regret it. Even if it’s the last thing I do. It will be worth it. Do you understand?”
“I understand that you’re an idiot.”
“Perhaps I am, but I’m a persistent, possibly insane idiot who always does what I say I’m going to do.” I kick sand in his face, and he shrieks like a toddler. “Oh, and just so both sides match—" I punch him again.
I rush to Wren. Monster hasn’t moved away from her.
His ears are still pressed against his head, his haunches low to the ground, but he moves enough to allow me to bend down and slip my arms around her.
When I lift her, I see the blood seeping onto the step.
I shouldn’t have taken even a second dealing with her ex.
My whole life flashes before me until now. This point in time where I’m holding Wren, and there’s a pool of blood on the step. This point, where everything changes and nothing else matters but getting Wren to the hospital.
I cradle her neck and run to my truck and realize my mom’s been there the whole time waiting. “Mom, I’m sorry but can you get out of the pickup for a second?”
She’s gaping at me and Wren, but she jumps out quickly. “Oh, goodness, John. Get her in there!”
I slide Wren into the bench seat. “Mom, you know how you used to let me ride in the pickup bed? Well, you and Monster are going to get to do that until we get to Ned’s. It’s less than a minute away.”
I put the lift gate down and pat the bed, but Monster doesn’t jump in, and I realize he’ll follow us wherever we go, as long as Wren’s in the truck. “Please, forgive me Mom.” I lift her up and set her in the back and kiss her on the head. “Hold on tight, both hands. It’s a short distance.”
“I’ll be fine! Get going!”
I call Ned while I drive down the path, swerving around potholes and trying to be as gentle as possible for Wren’s and Mom’s sake. He answers on the first ring. “My video’s been dinging,” he says. “Rena and I just opened it here at my house—”
“Call 9-1-1. Now. Tell them to meet me anywhere on the way from Heaven to Greene’s Hardware—”
I hear a sharp intake of breath, and Rena yells out on the other end. “I’m on my phone right now, calling for help! Keep us on speaker.”
“Tell them I’ll take Miller’s Crossing, down the main road, skipping the downtown to the causeway.
Right now, I’m driving by your house. I’m dropping off my mom.
Make sure she’s not too shaken by everything.
She’s in the bed of the pickup. God forgive me, this is the worst thing I’ve ever done to my mom in my life.
” I glance in the rearview. Mom’s holding on tight to the side, talking to Monster as he runs behind.
“You’ve got to get Monster in your house, so he stays.
I don’t want him to get hurt. I don’t know if her asshole ex is still—
I’m pulling up before I even finish the sentence. They’re both running out of the house, Rena still talking on her phone. Ned yanks the lift gate down and helps Mom, then puts a hand on Monster.
I see Monster through the rearview mirror, sitting next to Ned, mournfully watching as I drive off with Wren. Rena’s arm is around my mom, and they’re blotting at their eyes.
Wren groans as I bump over a pothole. “Hang tight,” I tell her. “I’m taking you to the hospital.”
“No,” she whispers.
“Bullshit. It’s happening. And you’re going to be fine.”
The ambulance, lights on, and sirens blaring, meets us just as we’re coming into Paradise Springs. I pull over, and they whisk Wren onto a gurney.
“She’s pregnant. She hit her head, maybe lost a lot of blood. She’s been in and out of consciousness,” I tell them as they slide her into the back of the ambulance.
“You going to follow?” one of the guys ask.
“I’ll be right behind you. Hell, I might beat you.”
On the way to the hospital, I remember where I’ve seen her ex’s face before.
The last movie I saw in the theater, several years ago.
He played a retired quarterback who inherited his grandparents’ ranch.
Lacy asked me to go to the movie theater to see it with her, and I said yes because she’s had me wrapped around her little finger since she was seven.
I kept my mouth shut and told her I loved the movie because Lacy had a crush on Trey Bishop.
But whoever wrote the script knew nothing about ranches.
And Trey Bishop looked stupid in a cowboy hat.