31. Roman
Chapter thirty-one
Roman
“Fuck!” I shout as Juliet and Tatiana go down.
There must have been a patch of ice or mud or something, because Juliet hits it just right that her hind leg shoots out underneath her and both girls hit the ground hard.
Tatiana, with a thousand-pound animal on top of her.
They were probably going fifteen miles an hour.
And how fast was she falling? It would be like being hit by a car.
I sprint to her and watch in horror as Juliet scrambles to her feet.
The poor mare is shaking with fear as she tries to not to step on her loving rider beneath her.
Tatiana’s wearing a helmet, but she’s on the ground, motionless, and my heart fucking stops.
She has to be okay. But her limp body on the ground doesn’t move.
Juliet snorts and stomps and runs her nose all over her person. The bond these two share is on another level.
I slide to my knees next to her, holding her in my arms and turning her onto her back carefully. I feel for a pulse at her neck and am rewarded when it pulses against my fingers forcefully.
Her eyes are still closed, though, and I don’t dare risk moving her anymore.
Mik’s there, then, holding Juliet’s reins and comforting the poor girl. I can see the ambulance the event planners staffed in the distance, but they’re taking too fucking long to get to her.
I shout at them to hurry up, even though I know they can’t hear me. Lev appears on her other side, his shaking hand touching her face gently.
“Come on, baby. Wake up. You’re okay. Just a little spill...” he says, and I can hear the fear in his voice.
Mikhail runs his hands all over Juliet, checking for any injuries, but when he’s decided she’s fine, he loosens her girth and watches, his face a mask of torture and pain.
“Juli...” Tatiana whispers, her closed eyes pinched shut.
“She’s fine. Mik has her. Don’t move,” I bark, knowing my tone is all wrong.
Needing to do something, I unclip her helmet and take it gently off of her head.
I put my hands on either side of her neck, spreading my fingers to create a makeshift neck brace out of my fingers while the paramedics take their goddamn time.
People die and get paralyzed all the time in riding accidents.
Finally, the ambulance arrives, and I take a reluctant step back to allow a dirty blonde man and a heavier-set woman work on her. Lev has to be dragged away. But I hover.
“Take care of Juliet. Load her up and drive her back to the barn and meet us at the hospital. I’ll text you which one we end up at.”
He nods once and leaves.
She moans in pain as they move her onto her side to slide the board beneath her, and it’s a sound I never want to hear again. “Be careful with her!” I shout, knowing I’m not at all in control of my emotions.
They strap her down, count down, and hoist her into the back of the ambulance.
“You riding with us, boss? We’ll have some questions on the way there,” Blonde Guy says.
I nod once before following them into the van.
I find a small jump seat on one wall and settle there, watching the EMTs closely.
“Name and date of birth?” The female EMT asks as the male wraps a rubber around her arm to prep her for an IV, and Tati just blinks at me as if she doesn’t know. A pit forms in my stomach.
“Tatiana Cernov. April twenty-seven, two-thousand-and-three,” I reply for her, leaning forward and wrapping her hand in mine. I try to convey to her that she’s going to be okay, but my face must not be convincing.
“Any known allergies?”
“Penicillin.”
“When did she eat last?”
“Around five this morning?”
“Any chance she could be pregnant?”
Oh, shit. We’ve been in that cabin for a month, and she hasn’t had a period. We’ve used condoms, right? Every time? No, not every time. We’ve been careless.
“Maybe,” I whisper, knowing the weight of that answer.
If she’s pregnant, that fall could be the end of the pregnancy.
If it isn’t, her father will know it could only have been one of us, since she didn’t leave the safe-house.
It would be the end of this. I don’t think he would take his anger out on his daughter, but Lev and I won’t be spared.
Maybe there’s still time that I can kidnap her, and we can run away together. All four of us.
The female EMT nods. “They can do a test at the hospital.”
The male EMT cuts away her shirt and starts on her pants. Tati’s eyes widen as she waves a finger at her lower body frantically.
“I... my.... my... b-b-boots...” Her voice sounds disturbingly childlike, and I know she’s concussed.
Her boots have zippers along the back. She wants me to take them off so they don’t get cut off.
“May I?” I ask the EMT, wrapping my hand around her ankle.
He nods. “I don’t see any obviously broken bones, so my concern right now is concussion, spinal injury, and internal bleeding.”
Jesus. I pray none of those happen.
I unzip her boots and tuck them underneath me so they’re out of the way.
She looks so small and vulnerable in her bra and panties and tall socks she wears for riding.
The male EMT shines a flashlight into both of her eyes, causing her to wince and flinch away from it.
When he finishes, her eyes fall to mine again, and a loopy grin spreads across her cheeks. “Heeeyyy youuuuu...”
I’m equally concerned about what she’s going to say, and just concerned about her.
I’m holding her hand, but we’re still in public, and I’m still her bodyguard. I look between both EMTs who are avoiding eye contact and pretending to stay busy.
“Tanya,” I say, using her nickname in warning, and squeezing her hand.
“Oooo, I’m in trouble,” she singsongs to the male EMT. Fuck, she’s concussed.
He smiles down at her. “I’m sure you’ll be forgiven for giving your old man a fright,” he teases back. He’s good at making his patients feel comfortable during a scary situation, I’m sure, but right now I don’t like how he’s looking down at her, knowing she’s only in her bra and undies.
She snorts out a laugh. “My old man...” she parrots back.
“Tanya,” I warn again, but softer this time, since her blue eyes are glassy and sweet and unfocused.
“I wish...” she slurs to the EMT as the ambulance bounces over the ground before pulling out onto the road.
“Oh?” Blonde Guy asks.
“My dad would kill him if he found out his best friend was diddling his daughter.”
Oh. Fuck.
I wince. The truth hits me like a Mack truck. Because we may have fallen in love with her, and touched her, and crossed all the lines there ever were, but that one fact remains the same.
The noise of the ambulance fades behind the ringing in my ears. I feel like I’m having an out-of-body experience. This might be the end. Not just the end of us, but the end of everything.
If she’s pregnant... if she’s not... if she’s hurt... if she’s not... I know I have to call her father and let him know.
I always knew this was fragile and might end at any second, but I wasn’t prepared for it to end like this.
I know we promised everything would go back to normal, but it can’t. I can’t. It’s too much. And if she’s pregnant with my child?
I don’t hear what else they say to each other. Even as the ambulance pulls into the ER bay, the doors fly open, and they wheel her down and into the ER. I don’t move to follow. I can’t move.
“Sir?” the female EMT asks. But it isn’t until she repeats it and gives my shoulder a little shake do I realize she’s talking to me.
They’ve started cleaning the back of the ambulance.
“They’ve taken her back for imaging, but you should go in and wait for her.”
So, in a daze, I walk into the emergency room, knowing it might be the last time I see her.