Save Me: a Stepbrother Romance (26 page)

But somehow, in the delirium, I was happy.

Cal.  Cal is back.

Cal came back for me.

His words rang in my ears:

“I will come back for you.  No matter what.  No matter how long it takes.  No matter how hard it is.  I will always fucking come back for you, Natalie Harlow.  Because you are worth it.”

I forced my burning eyes open, desperate to see him again.  Nate was bloody and bruised in his hands, and the sickening crunch reverberated off the asphalt as Cal punched him again.  There was a crazy fire in Cal’s eyes.  Another punch, launching Nate’s limp body to the ground. 

This wasn’t protecting me.  This was revenge. 

He had let Nate win the last fight for my sake.  But not now.  Not like this.  Threaten Cal, and Cal wouldn’t care.

Threaten me, and Cal would kill you.

Cal’s foot hit Nate’s stomach with a  force strong enough to burst an organ.  Oh God, he really was going to kill him.  I tried to stand again, but I collapsed against the ground.  Even if my leg wasn’t broken, the pain wracking my body crippled me.

“Cal,” I rasped. 

He hesitated.  Only for a moment.  When Nate stretched out a desperate hand to drag himself away, Cal launched himself forward again.  A sharp kick to Nate’s head sent him rolling with a strangled groan.  Cal’s voice growled threats as he pulled his victim up against for another punch. 

“Cal!”

Another sickening crunching noise. 

Nate’s body went limp.

The sight of large spotlights being turned on filtered through the bleary, blinding pain in my head.  I winced against them.  There were voices yelling as they approached us, and the sounds of footsteps slapping against the damp asphalt.  A purple sparkle caught my eye—Jess.  People were coming.  But all I could focus on was the stomach turning sound of Cal’s fists beating into Nate as he growled,
“Don’t you ever fucking touch her.”

A footstep landed near my face.  I felt a hand roll me over onto my back, and I hissed a gasp as the pain shot through me again.  Someone’s warm palm cupped my cheek.

“She’s hurt!” their voice cried.

Someone yelled something at me.  Their face was only inches from mine, but I couldn’t see anything but a blur.  The blooming bruise on my cheek was forcing my eyes shut.

I heard a scuffle as a blurred crowd surrounded Cal.  Men’s voices yelled, and I saw one thrashing blur that might have been Cal fighting against someone’s restraining embrace.  Nate’s unconscious body was dragged across the parking lot by another group of people, highlighted by a flashlight beam that turned hideously red against his bloodied skin.

“Cal,” I gasped one more time.

The commotion stopped.  Cal’s footsteps halted and he lowered his fists, finally listening to me and hearing the command in my voice.  No more fighting.  No more violence.  No more pain.  Not for my sake or for his.

The crowd closed around him.  His head turned, and he looked at me for the first time.  He moaned.

“Oh, God, sweetheart.”

The hand on my face was pressing against the bruise growing across my face, and I winced. 

“Don’t,” I hissed.

“Shit, sorry Nat!”

“Jess?”

The blur above me bobbed their head.  I recognized the fuzzy dark brown halo around its face as her curls.  Her warm hands pulled the damp clumps of hair out of my face.  My stomach heaved when the smell hit me.  It wasn’t the rain that had made them damp—it was clotting blood.

“Jesus, Nat, are you still alive?”

“Broken leg,” I moaned.

“Broken everything, Nat.” 

The blur shook her head.  A few other figures approached, and I felt hands pull me upright.  I think I was sitting, but I wasn’t sure.  My head rolled over to rest on Jess’s shoulder.  The sounds of growled yells and scuffling bounced off the asphalt from where Cal was being wrestled away from Nate’s body.  Blood seeped from my hair and cut face into Jess’s clothes, and the stains bloomed in thick patches.  I wanted to apologize, but I couldn’t think straight enough to speak.  Jess’s arms held me tight to her.

“She said she has a broken leg,” Jess said.  More hands all over me.  Someone grabbed my elbow, and my twisted arm shrieked in pain.  I hacked out a guttural moan.

“Careful!” Jess snapped.

“Jess.  Cal.”

“Not now, Nat!  Jesus, you’re bleeding out.”

“Cal.  Go … go get … ow.”

“Where is the nurse?  Is she still here?” Jess’s voice called.  I heard the snap of a first aid kit.  A cool wet rag was pressed to my forehead, and drops of bloody water rolled down my face.

“Where … where is … Cal ….”

“Somebody get her a butterfly bandaid, I think she needs stitches.  No, here on her head.”  A finger pressed into the cut where my cheek had bitten the asphalt.  “At least to stop the bleeding.”

I loved Jess.  She was good at handling emergencies.  But sometimes, she was too good.  This wasn’t girl scouts.  And I needed to find Cal before something horrible happened.

I forced my eyes open.  Blood filled them, blinding me with red.  Cool water was poured out from a water bottle into my face, and I blinked them open again.  The bruise was pressing against my eyes, blocking my vision.  Jess’s face loomed over mine, her face panicked and concerned.

“Nat?  Nat, can you hear me?”

Cal was being led away.  They were going to arrest him again.  They were going to arrest him for saving me.

“No,” I moaned.

“Wait, you can’t hear me?  Or you can?”

I stretched out a hand toward the figure of Cal, wincing against the pain in my shoulder. 

“Cal!”

His head turned towards me.  His face was agonized.  I could feel the pull between us.  He ached to come to me as much as I ached to have him here.  But I also knew he wouldn’t fight with the men restraining him.  Not if it would cause trouble for me. 

Stupid, selfless idiot.

“Make them stop,” I moaned at Jess. 

Her eyes stayed fixed on my face as she ran her fingertips over the wounds, like she hadn’t heard me.  A droplet of salty sweat fell from her forehead onto my lips, and I spat it off.  Even that was a struggle.  I could feel myself growing weaker.

“Jess!”

“Nat,” she groaned.  “It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine…” I slurred.  “They’re going … going to … he didn’t start it, Jess!  Not his fault….”  A heavy, warm drowsiness was pulling my eyelids down and slowing my breaths.

She pinched my neck hard, bringing me back to consciousness.

“I swear to God, if you die on me, I’ll kill you.”

“I’m okay.   But Cal—”

“Nat,” she said, taking my chin in her hands and pulling my face close to hers.  My crossed eyes managed to right themselves and focus on her face, letting me see clearly for the first time since I’d fallen.  “Listen to me.  People saw.”

“What?”

“People saw, Nat.  They know he didn’t start it.  They know Nat attacked you.  They know Cal saved you.  Okay?  He’s not going to jail.”  She paused.  “Probably.”

“Jess!”

“I mean definitely!  Definitely not going to jail.  Okay?  Now quit wiggling, I’ve got to put some antibiotic on this cut.”

“How … how could they see?  Too dark….”

“Right.  Except the school has security cameras that are
can
see in the dark.”  She nodded toward the roof of the school.  I had never noticed them before, and I could barely see anything right now let alone tiny cameras a couple hundred feet away, so I took her word for it.  “It was how I knew something was wrong.”

“You knew?”

“Duh, Nat.”  She rolled her eyes and dabbed a soaked cotton ball over my cheek.  I winced as the sting of rubbing alcohol flooded over my wounds.  “I was in the office calling your mom, remember?  They keep the camera monitoring stuff there.  I couldn’t see a lot, but it wasn’t hard to figure out what was going on.”

“So … so….”

“So Cal is fine.  We’ve got video proof to back it up.”

I collapsed in her arms, no longer fighting. 

Cal is fine.

Thank God.

“Is he okay right now?” 

I tried nodding towards where I had heard him, but I couldn’t summon the strength to move my head.  Her fingers pressed my head down, forcing me to stay still as she nursed my wounds.  Her frown was still stern, but the panic had evaporated from her eyes.  I was going to be okay.

“He’s in trouble.  But he’s fine.”

“How much tro—”

“Nat, for God’s sake, stop worrying.  You’re fucking bleeding out on the school parking lot with a broken leg!  Would you please care about yourself for once?  And—oh, thank God!  I thought you’d never get here!”

Another blinding flood of light washed over me.  Footsteps crunched against the damp gravel around my ears, and I felt strange new fingers running over me.  Fiercer stings of pain shot through my body as a damp rag of rubbing alcohol was wiped over my cuts.  Latex gloved hands felt around my twisted arm, and new voices began muttering to each other.

“What—” I started.

“EMT, Nat.”  Jess’s warm hand patted my hair.  When it pulled away, it was stained deep red.  “You’re going to be fine.”

“But Cal—”

I couldn’t finish the sentence.  Jess was being pulled away from me.  The strange voices were hitting me with a barrage of questions, and I could hear the faint sounds of a police siren approaching.  My breath caught as I was lifted onto a stretcher. 

Hazy blurs filmed over my vision as I went cross eyed, and a heavy pain weighed my limbs down.  The heavy, slow throbbing of my heart worked desperately like it was trying to wade through molasses. 

My eyes began to close.  I hadn’t realized how tired I was.

I caught a snippet of what one of the men in the navy uniforms was saying, something about an ambulance and a hospital.  The icy air of the ambulance bathed me in chills as I was slid into place inside.  More fingers probed my wounds.

“I’ll follow you there!” Jess’s voice shouted behind me.

It was the last thing I heard before I blacked out.