Round 58
ROUND FIFTY-EIGHT
OLLIE
“She’s stopped just around this bend.” Eliza braces with her hand on the dash, her eyes whipping from the phone to the road ahead of us.
Billy’s lights flash red and blue in my rearview mirror, his bumper damn near kissing the back of my truck.
“Eliza?”
“Just around this corner!” She searches the road and the trees lining both sides, squinting to combat the blinding rain, and as we approach the turn, she grabs onto the handle above her door.
Setting the phone in her lap to free up her hand, she presses her thumb to the seatbelt latch, ready to undo it and dive out of the truck.
But then we skid around the bend and find… nothing.
“Eliza!”
“She’s here!” Horrified, she snatches up the phone again and desperately searches the screen. She taps and zooms in. Zooms out. She exits the app and opens it again. “Ollie! It says she’s right h—”
“Oh God.” Nausea bites at my throat and thrashes across my heart, because smoke plumes into the rainy sky further ahead.
“He tossed the phone.” I flatten the gas pedal against the floor and push my truck as fast as it can go, but Billy is faster, an “I’ve got it” echoes through the phone as he whips his car across the double lines and hurtles ahead.
“Is that…” Eliza sets the phone aside and presses her palms to the dashboard, a sad whimper rolling along her throat. “Oh my God, Ollie. They crashed.”
“You need to stay back,” Billy growls, approaching the accordion-like BMW dangerously fast, then slamming his foot on the brake and skidding the rest of the way. “Eliza, keep him back.”
“Let’s go!” Ramone orders, shoving his door open even before the cruiser is still.
“Ollie…” Eliza trembles.
“You stay back.” I do as Billy did, but I hit the brakes later, and my truck weighs more, so we blow straight past the cruiser and skid to a stop mere feet from the back of the BMW. I shove my door open, the wheels still rolling on the soaked tar, and sprint around to the side of the destroyed car.
My vision turns red. Violence, my only friend.
I release a roar in the same breath Rose bridges her hips high and tosses Darcy forward.
He uses his hands to catch himself, Rose’s terrified, bloodshot eyes swinging to mine.
But then I drop my shoulders and run, colliding with the prick and tearing him off her so we fly together.
We roll through the mud, crashing against the trunk of a massive tree.
And still, I see Rose’s bruised neck in my mind.
So I grab his throat and dig my thumb into the carotid artery.
Then I wind my arm back and slam my fist against his face.
“Ollie!”
I destroy his cheekbone. His jaw. His fucking eye socket.
“Ollie! Enough!” Billy booms.
But I don’t. I can’t. So I curl my fingers, squeezing his esophagus and yanking on it until I know he won’t speak again for a good long while.
Winding my arm back, I drive it forward and shatter his nose.
I feel the crumble of cartilage beneath my knuckles.
And then I feel guilty when my elbow collides with someone behind me, shattering bone there, too.
“Ollie!” Ramone snaps. “He’s done! Stop.”
“Ollie! Rose needs you.”
Incensed, I slam Darcy’s skull against the base of a fir tree, then, twisting, I find Rose and my sister huddled together.
Eliza kneels beside her, cupping her bloodied face and attempting to turn her away.
“She needs you,” Eliza croons, her chest and shoulders hitching with emotion.
She uses the sleeve of her hoodie and carefully swipes blood from Rose’s cheek, tucking long black hair behind her ear.
Eliza’s breathing is even. But Rose’s… I’m not sure she breathes at all.
“Come over here, Ollie.” My baby sister wraps her arms around Rose’s trembling shoulders. “She needs you.”
“Ollie?” Rose breaks, her eyes filling with tears. “Oh my God, Ollie.”
“I’m coming.” I scramble across the mossy ground and scoop her into my arms. “I’m here.” I kiss her temple. Her forehead. Her hair. “You’re okay, Rose.” Her cheek. Her forehead again. “I’ve got you.”
Eliza climbs to her feet and drags the hoodie over her head, draping it over my shoulder. Then she steps away.
“What hurts?” I use the hoodie to wipe Rose’s face.
Her chest. Her neck. Am I Doctor Darling right now, cool and collected amongst chaos?
Or am I Oliver, the guy who makes poor choices sometimes?
The one who couldn’t save his best friend’s wife during a routine delivery, because she started bleeding, and I couldn’t find the reason why until it was too late.
The one who called Tommy away from his home and placed Alana in danger a decade ago.
The one who fucks everything up.
“Rose?” My eyes burn and turn blurry. The harder I stare, the worse they get.
“I need you to take a breath, okay? Rosaline?” I force myself into her line of vision.
“You hit your head, okay?” God. Has she forgotten me?
“I-it looks like you hit it pretty hard. I’m Doctor Darling,” I rasp.
“I’m gonna help you, okay?” I swallow the ache in my throat.
The tears burning the backs of my eyes. “You’ve been in a car accident, but you’re going to be okay. ”
Her lips droop into a devastated pout, thick and sad and quivering. “I was mixing my dreams up. I didn’t shoot Liam,” she whimpers. “I shot Darcy.”
My breath catches, my heart hammering against my diaphragm. “You remember?”
“Yes. I—”
“You remember your name? D-do you remember mine?”
“Yes. I remember.” She buries her face against the side of my neck and sobs. “Liam was my friend, Ollie. He was protecting me.”
“I know.” I almost lost her. Fuck. I almost gave her to him.
“I’m so sorry, Rose.” I pull back and cup her face, sniffling and dragging rainwater up my nostrils until it dribbles down the back of my throat again.
“I’m gonna help you get better, okay? And I’ll call Doctor Pratlin and get him to help you, too. ”
“Eliza!” Billy roars.
I swing around and watch my sister curb stomp the prick.
“You.” Stomp. “Don’t.” Stomp. “Hit.” Stomp.
“Women!” She grabs Darcy by the throat, much the same way I did, and looks him dead in the eye.
“But I’m a woman, and I’m ready to fight.
” She slams her elbow across the side of his face and knocks him unconscious, releasing him until he collapses back against the tree.
Then she straightens and sets her hands on her hips, grinning as she looks Billy up and down.
He holds his nose, blood pouring through his hands.
Curious, she tilts her head to the side. “What happened to you?”
“Y-you hit him by accident,” Rose sniffles, a shaky smile crawling across her lips and up to almost touch her eyes. “Will he arrest you for that?”
“Absolutely not.” I surge to my feet and pull her up with me, wrapping my arm around her torso and anchoring my hand at her hip.
She sways dizzily, so I hold on, swiping her cheeks clear of tears.
Useless, really, because the rain continues to bucket down over top of us.
“He chipped my tooth a while back. I owed him this one.
“Fuckin’ Darlings,” Billy growls, stalking forward and coming to a stop in front of Ramone.
Like they’ve done this before, he lowers his hands and closes his eyes, then Ramone sandwiches Billy’s crooked nose between his palms and snaps the bone back into place.
“Fuck!” Furious, he glares across at me.
Then he swings his ire to Eliza. “Your boot print is stamped into his face! How the fuck am I supposed to explain that?”
“I stumbled.” Unashamed, she turns our way and wanders closer. “I saw you had the jitz.” She tucks Rose’s hair back and releases a watery, tearful snicker. “I’m so freakin’ proud of you.”
“I was fighting back,” Rose rasps past an aching throat. “I did what you said to do.”
“I know.” She forces herself into our hug and sneakily takes a fraction of Rose’s weight. “I’ve never been so proud of a student as I am right now. You’re the baddest baddie I ever met in my whole life.”
“We need to go to the hospital.” I look toward Billy and scowl as he stands over Darcy. Leave him. Let him drown. “Now.”
“I’d say something about how she shouldn’t move. Like…” He gestures with his hand, rolling his wrist. “I dunno. Neck injuries or some shit. But you’re the doctor.”
“We’re moving.” I scoop Rose’s legs out from beneath her and nudge my sister back, breathing—finally—a sigh of relief as Rose curls into my chest. “I’m sorry I was so fucking slow.
” I carry her through the rain and away from the trees.
Already, sirens wail through the air, louder due to the clouds putting a cap on the world.
“I’m so sorry, Rose. I never should’ve let him anywhere near you. ”
“I wasn’t going to leave with him.” She looks up at me with wet, swollen eyes, her chest spasming with a sob. “I swear, Ollie. Even if he was everything he said he was and even if we really were happy.” She lays her head on my shoulder and whimpers. “I choose you.”
“I choose you, too.” I press the world’s softest, gentlest kiss to her lips. “Did you know most relationships that started with a traumatic foundation are likely to fail?”
Her eyes narrow, and her lips drop into a sad pout.
“But we’re not built on trauma.” Another kiss. “Fuck, Rose. We’re built on strength.”
“And a cat named Poppy.”
“Poopy,” I chuckle. “Her legal name is Poopy. Your refusal to acknowledge that just makes you sound silly.”