Chapter 29 Quinn
Quinn
Shit my head hurt and there was this irritating beeping.
When did I change the sound of my alarm?
My brain was foggy and my room didn’t smell right. The bed didn’t feel right either.
I tried to force my eyes open but it was incredibly hard, why was I so drowsy?
Had I been drugged? I was at the club tonight… right?
I tried again. This time I managed to pry my eyes open. I blinked until the room came into focus.
I was pretty sure I wasn’t dreaming. Asher was standing at the foot of my bed, his hands resting on the frame. I remembered the crash now, the scrape of the metal as my seatbelt held me against the seat before it all went black.
“Ash,” I croaked out, my throat burning.
“Quinn?” He straightened and ran a hand over his head. “Shit.”
I was too tired to figure out what his problem was.
My eyes were getting heavy.
“Don’t call Theo,” I managed. “Please, I don’t want him… here.”
My eyes closed as I was pulled back into unconsciousness.
The beeping woke me back up. This time I didn’t feel like I was fighting the wave of darkness again.
My body didn’t feel as heavy although everything hurt. I opened my eyes and looked around the room, my gaze landing on the man in the chair near my right hand. He was looking at the monitor beside me closely. I think he was watching my heart rate.
“Theo?” I asked, my rough voice breaking the quiet of the room.
His beautiful eyes snapped to mine, they looked haunted. He had more scruff along his jawline, his hair was messier than usual.
“Are you awake this time?” he asked as he passed me a plastic cup with a straw. After sucking down some water I passed it back.
“How long have I been out?” As I tried to sit up, I moved my left hand only to find that it hurt like hell. I looked down at the cast on my wrist and frowned.
“It’s broken but the doctor is confident it will heal well,” Theo said as he stood up. He helped me sit up and placed a pillow behind my head.
“Ouch,” I muttered quietly. I got a bit of a head rush as I moved but it passed.
“You’ve only been out for three hours,” Theo answered my earlier question quietly as he sat back down and looked at his feet.
“I told Ash not to call—” I stopped as I realized what he had just said. “You couldn’t have gotten back from London that fast.” He smirked and then pressed his lips down, almost like he hadn’t meant for it to slip out.
“I wasn’t in London, I was already home.” I looked down at my hands. That meant he had been home and hadn’t called. Hadn’t shown up. “I was your emergency contact,” he said, explaining his presence.
“I changed it when you and I were… when my mom…” I looked up at him in panic. “You didn’t call her, did you?”
“No,” he answered quickly. “I figured you wouldn’t want her to come home and only you will be able to convince her.” I smiled tightly at him and sank back.
“Theo, you should go. I’m fine and—” A knock sounded at the door and cut off any reply.
“Miss West.” A man in a white lab coat strutted in with a woman in scrubs behind him. “Nice to see you awake.” Theo stood as well and went to stand at the back of the room. “Mind if we ask you a few questions and check your vitals?”
“Go ahead.” I sat there as the doctor ran through my injuries and the nurse checked things on the monitors I was attached to.
They decided to take the IV fluid out since I was awake and could drink for myself now. After a few more questions the doctor got paged away and left the nurse to give me more meds.
“Your fiancé here has been very attentive,” she said as she blinked over at Theo. I frowned but managed to neutralize my expression before the nurse stopped making eyes and looked back at me.
“I’m very lucky,” I said with no emotion in my voice before downing the pills she passed me.
“I’ll be back in an hour to recheck your vitals. Hit the call button if you need something.” She looked at Theo again who was watching me before she walked out. I was used to women acting like that with him, I was glad he was still ignoring it, at least in front of me.
I looked back to Theo. “Why does she think you’re my fiancé?”
He cleared his throat, still at the back of the room. “When the police called me, they asked what our relationship was. I figured I’d get more information that way.”
I nodded, mulling it over while he couldn’t even look at me. As I was about to ask him another question, it was like my brain sparked and I was able to think more clearly.
“Oh my god.” I took the monitor off my thumb and started pushing the blankets back.
“Quinn, what the hell are you doing?”
“Aubrey. How did I forget about her? I have to find her. Is she okay?” I tried to stand up but Theo was there holding my shoulders down.
“Calm down.” His voice was low. He bent down so he was at my eye level, but I was breathing too quickly. I was panicking.
“You need to get the police. I can’t believe… Is Aubrey…” I was starting to hyperventilate.
“Aubrey is in critical condition, she’s still in surgery. Breathe, Love.”
“The police. I need to talk to them. Where is Max? Is he still here?” My mind was a mess and moving too quickly.
“Dane.” Theo’s loud voice made me jump as the door to my room opened. “Get Jaxson, have him bring the detectives.”
“I need to go,” I said, trying to move, but Theo grabbed my chin and gently forced me to look at him instead of over his shoulder. His eyes froze me in place.
“Quinn, breathe. Please. Together.” I watched as he took a breath and I managed to take a shaky one of my own.
“That’s it, Love, just breathe.” Another three breaths together and I was able to think, the oxygen back in my brain.
The door opened and I watched as all the guys and two men I didn’t recognize came into the room.
“Can you sit back in bed?” Theo asked and helped me in before I could even answer.
I wouldn’t admit it to him but moving hurt.
“I didn’t dream you,” I said, looking at Asher who gave me a soft smile.
“Dreaming of me, are you?” he teased and Theo cut him a look.
“Miss West. I’m Detective Mitchell and this is Detective Wells.” The man stepped forward, the other was standing near Jaxson, they looked friendly. “We would like to speak to you about the accident.”
“Right…” I looked around at all the men in the room watching me. They were going to be pissed. I pulled on the scratchy hospital sheet.
“Can we have the room?” Wells asked, misreading my reaction.
“No!” I said quickly before anyone could move.
“I want them to stay. They need to hear this… I just…” I looked up at Theo who was still by my side.
They were all going to be mad, but he would be the worst. “You have to promise to stay here and not get mad and leave, okay?” His jaw tightened but after a short hesitation he nodded.
“All of you have to promise. No one leaves.” I got nods from the other five men I had grown so close to.
“Are you sure?” Mitchell asked.
“Yes.”
“Okay, please tell us what happened tonight,” Mitchell said as he and Wells both grabbed their notebooks.
“I was at Pulse with Aubrey. We were drinking.” I saw the detectives exchange a look. “I stopped at least an hour before we left. I switched to water.” Wells nodded. “I was ready to go after—”
“After what Riley said to you?”
I whipped my head up to look up at Theo, the fast movement hurting my whole body.
Did she run to him and tell him about our conversation? Had he gone to her when he got back and slipped into her bed?
Either option made my stomach sick and jealousy burned my gut. Not a good thing when I already felt pretty beat up. I placed a hand gingerly on my side and tried to take a breath even though it hurt.
“Who’s Riley?” Wells asked.
“She doesn’t matter for this.” I looked back at the detectives.
“Anyway, I wanted to go. Aubrey said her boyfriend Max was close and that he would drive us. They were fighting a lot, she was acting weird. I knew I should have taken the cab that Dane was going to call for me. I shouldn’t have let us get in that damn car.
I should have—” Theo put his hand on my shoulder, it forced me to take another breath, now that the story was coming out, it was coming fast but his touch grounded me.
“When I opened the car door I got a whiff of alcohol.” Mitchell looked up at me.
“I know, we were both drinking, I could have been smelling it on us. That’s what I thought at first too, especially when the smell lessened the longer we stood there.
He could have also had a beer and still been in the legal limit.
“I got in the car. I shouldn’t have but I didn’t want her to go alone, and I thought I was being ridiculous.
I sat in the car as they argued back and forth.
They were fighting and he was keeping this calm, low voice that was weirding me out.
But then he yelled and I realized it was because he was trying to hide the way he was slurring his words. ”
“He drove you when he was drunk?” Theo fumed murderously from beside me. I couldn’t even grab his hand because he was on my left side.
“What happened next, Miss West?” Wells sent Theo a worried look. The others in the room had tensed too. Asher was scowling so hard I was worried his face might freeze that way.
“He yelled and when he turned to scream some more at her, the car drifted right. He didn’t need to correct as hard as he did, but he yanked the wheel too far to the left in to the oncoming car.”
“Are you saying he intentionally crashed?” Mitchell asked carefully.
“I don’t know. But I do know he was drunk, he shouldn’t have been driving.”
Mitchell turned to the door, another man now standing in the doorway that I hadn’t noticed.
“Is Max Welch still in the hospital? We need to make sure they run a tox screen.”
“You aren’t my boss,” the man commented and then wandered off, supposedly to track down Max.