of a movie, her dress torn, her eyes closed, and her skin bleached of color. A thick liquid several shades darker than her dress seeped out from beneath her head, and it took me a good five heart-stopping seconds to understand what I was seeing.
As Leo knelt beside her, softly saying her name, I ran to the closest car in the lot and leaned against it while I retched.
So. Much. Blood.
It was happening all over again. Except, this time, Thea might die.
And it was all my fault.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Leo
As two EMTs loaded Thea into the ambulance, her eyes fluttered open, and the ball of fear churning in my gut eased slightly. I’d felt her pulse thrumming with my own fingers, but I still hadn’t been able to trust my own senses. She was too pale, and there was too much blood.
One of the EMTs paused in front of me. “You’ll have to meet us at the hospital.” The man slapped a hand on my shoulder. “She’s going to be okay.”
Without taking my eyes off of my strong, beautiful girlfriend, I nodded, my throat too full of emotion to speak. The idiot valet who had hit Thea had done all of the talking thus far. Technically, Thea had run out in front of him, but he’d forgotten to turn the damn headlights on. Even from my vantage on the sidewalk, I hadn’t noticed the car until it was barreling into her.
It was taking everything in me not to pummel his ass. Even as a police officer took the valet’s statement, I had to clench my hands into fists to keep from squeezing them around his skinny neck.
“Was that Thea? What happened?”
At the sound of the panicked female voice from behind me, I turned away from the now-closed doors of the ambulance. Petra was moving toward me as fast as she could manage on her short legs, Hayle a few steps behind her.
When they both stopped in front of me, I cleared my throat. “She got hit by a car. The EMT said she’s going to be okay.”
He had said that, right? I hadn’t imagined it?
Petra’s eyes widened as they skimmed over me. “Oh my god. Is that...?” She trailed off, as though she couldn’t bear to say the word aloud.
I followed her gaze to the front of my formerly white shirt and then my shaking hands, which were both stained with blood. Thea’s blood.
“She’s going to be okay,” I repeated, more to convince myself than anyone else.
Hayle removed his keys from his pocket. “We need to get to the hospital. I’ll drive.”
Spotting Tristin slumped against a nearby vehicle, his head in his hands, I started toward him. “Give me a minute.”
I noticed the smell of vomit before I saw it. Not that I was surprised by its presence. Tristin had never been able to stomach the sight of blood. But if I knew my brother as well as I thought I did, his visceral reaction to seeing Thea like that had a lot more to do with his feelings for her than the blood itself.
“Come on, brother. We need to go to the hospital.”
He shook his head and peered up at me, his eyes glazed. “I can’t. I did this to her.”
Heat swelled in my chest and quickly dispersed to the rest of my body. No. Actually, make that a fuck, no.
I’d sat back and relinquished my older brother card for far too long. I didn’t care what he wanted right now. This wasn’t about him. It wasn’t even about what I’d done to Violet over two years ago. It was about Thea.
“You listen to me, Tristin, and you listen good. We both fucked up royally tonight. But I’m not letting you run away from this. Thea needs us—all of us—and we’re not going to desert her. Do you understand me?”
He studied me until the glazed look in his eyes cleared, and he pushed to his feet. “Yes.”
“Good. Now, let’s go.”
As we headed to where Hayle’s SUV was approaching, something shiny on the ground caught my eye. Ignoring the pool of blood, I found both of Thea’s shoes and her tiny purse. The silver heels looked so delicate, they only reminded me of how fragile Thea truly was.
My chest constricted at the thought. I couldn’t lose her.
“Leo,” Hayle called through his open window. “Get your ass in the car.”
After assuring one of the police officers that Tristin and I would provide our statements at the hospital, I climbed into the back seat