66. Chase
66
Chase
N olan and Lachlan were shaking her when Ethan got back, demanding she wake up. All I could do was watch.
Ethan had a cloth in his hand and was cleaning the long, jagged cut that ran from her temple down to her jawline as he spoke, coaxing her to open her eyes for him.
And if we lost her?
All I could see was that deranged man holding her up by the hair, slicing the blade down the side of her head. Her face was swelling at an alarming rate, a concussion was a certainty. What had she been hit with? And what about other damage? What if none of it was repairable?
I could feel the coldness seeping in. I could feel the loss before there even was one, and I was scared. Fear like I had never felt before shook me to my bones and rendered me speechless. Useless.
“Wide Back Yellow,” Nolan said, his voice pulling me out of my own head.
“Mmm… Hook and ladder,” Bailey mumbled. I stepped up to the truck and listened as she gave a lazy description of the football play, but instead of saying the positions, she used our names. “Ethan…calls the ball… Nolan…receives. Lach takes forward…pass.” Her body relaxed, her face falling slack. “So sleepy,” she mumbled.
“Babe, open your eyes,” Lachlan begged, falling forward where he was in the truck next to Nolan.
Ethan was holding the cloth to her face, his face tight, his eyes guarded. Nolan ran his thumb back and forth on her cheek, his expression at a complete loss.
No.
Bailey didn’t get to do this. She didn’t get to come back into our lives, risk all she had, save us, and then ditch out. She gave me so much, and I refused to live a day without her.
I stepped up, taking her hand in mine and giving a squeeze. “Open your eyes, shorty,” I told her, using the same gentle voice I used to calm her when we waited in the tunnel to be called for our game. Her breathing sped up, but that was the only indication I had that she heard me. “The game isn’t over yet. I didn’t take you for a quitter. I didn’t think the great Bailey McCormick would give in so easily.”
Her eyes fluttered, and those sweet ambers looked up at me. She was exhausted, but she was here. I smiled.
I glanced up at Nolan. “Make the call.”
Nolan nodded. “Double right, two hundred black, cheetah.” Her eyes fluttered up to Nolan. “Hutt.”
In the distance, I could hear the sirens of the ambulance. Bailey said nothing, her stare glazing over.
“I snap the ball and snap up, moving the line to the right to create a gap,” Ethan said. Bailey’s eyes fell to him, their gazes locking.
“I move out and across, faking the pass play,” Lachlan breathed more than said. Bailey’s eyes landed on him, and the man whimpered, bringing her hand to his lips. “You’re up, baby.”
“I—” Her lids closed briefly, and I squeezed her hand. She opened them again, and her gaze came to me. The fire within visible, dim but visible. “I run,” she finally said, tears falling from her eyes. “I run through the gap.” Her chin shook. “It hurts, so much.”
“I’m here, Bailey. I’m there. I’m running with you all the way. I’m protecting you, stopping anyone in our way. And when I take down the last defender, when I know you’re all clear, you keep running. You push your legs harder. You have to make that last run on your own.”
“I do?” Her cry was soft.
“Yes. But it won’t hurt. You will be free. We set the ball up for you, we carried you as far as you needed, now it’s your turn to take it all the way.” I softly pressed my forehead to hers. “And when you’ve made it, we will come running to the end zone. We will always be there with you.”
The ambulance pulled in, and Ethan ran to flag them over to us.
“Pinky promise?” Bailey asked.
I hooked my little finger with the one she held out. “Pinky promise.”