Page 74 of Dirty Hot Valentine
“Cammie, no!” Dusty shouted.
I pulled the trigger.
As many times as I could.
19. Dusty
My head rested on my palm while I sat in an armchair next to my bed, my gaze trailing back and forth between Cammie’s bruised, closed eyelids, her swollen lips and her chest.
Waiting.
I rubbed my tired eyes, my body begging me to go to sleep. But I couldn’t. Even when I lay next to her, forcing myself to rest, I was haunted by what happened to her.
Because of me.
It’d been two days since I moved her to Rosewood. Even if she was going to hate me for it when she woke up, it was the safest place to be at the moment.
It was the middle of the night. The partying had cooled down since I’d returned. What happened to Rush—what Rush had done—left us all in a…pensive mode.
Stillness fell over the room, nothing but her breath dancing with mine as I watched her, recalling, regretting, grieving.
I still had no idea how I was going to tell her about…
My heart squeezed as I remembered the conversation I had with Owl, our twenty-four seven on call doctor brother.
“Why isn’t she waking up?” I’d asked.
“I don’t know. Apart from the broken nose, the contusions and the battering, she’s physically stable. No internal bleeding. All her vitals are good. But she’s been seriously traumatized. Everybody reacts differently to trauma.”
“What’s that mean? Is she ever going to wake up?”
“Most likely, yes. We just don’t know when.”
“And what’s with all that blood down there? I stopped him before he raped her. That can’t be from the glass splinters, right?”
“I’m sorry, boss. She was… I’m afraid she was pregnant. The trauma has induced a miscarriage.”
My tears betrayed me now as they did when he’d told me the first time. If it was that hard on me, how would it be on her?
A faint knock on the door snapped me out of my thoughts. I wiped my face quickly. “Come in.”
“Hey, boss.” Owl entered. “Just going to check on her real quick.”
I was so grateful for Owl. Not only for taking care of Cammie and bringing every medical equipment she needed here instead of having to take her to a stupid hospital, but also because he helped me charter a plane real fast, which took us back to Rosewood after the accident in no time.
That old man used to be a good ER doctor at County and only rode for fun. If he hadn’t been so fixed on painkillers, he would’ve done way better outside. But everybody was fixed on something, and he loved drugs and Harleys.
As far as I knew, after he became a permanent Night Skull, he had never been happier.
“Is she getting any better?” I asked as he moved his flashlight pen thing over her eyes.
“The swelling is better. All these bruises will be gone in a week or so. The scars on her back will be nastier than the old ones, though.” He stood to replace the bag on her IV.
The old ones were caused by Roar. The new ones by Rush.
My precious fathers.
Mama had told me the truth when we got back. That cunt had been more devastated about Rush’s death than what he had done to my girl.
