She yanks her hand away from him and scrambles backward to put space between her and Jaxon.
“I’m talking to your father about this,” she says before she storms out.
Jaxon turns back to me and peels the towel off my arm to inspect the injuries. I hiss when the cool air hits the fresh wounds. Jaxon’s eyebrows lower, and a muscle jumps in his jaw.
“I was hoping it wasn’t deep.” He folds the cloth around my arm. “We need to go to the hospital.”
He gathers me in his arms and picks me up princess style. I hold out my injured arm so it’s not squeezed between me and his chest. He carries me to his Camaro, then drives like a bat out of hell to the hospital.
The moment we’re in the emergency room, he’s yelling at the nurses to get me seen. The poor women scramble and open the doors to rush me into an empty room. The nurses clean the wounds, and the doctor comes in to stitch them while they ask me what happened. I’m still so shaken up that I barely give answers, just enough to talk about the voices. A few times, the doctor looks at me from beneath his lashes with a perplexed look.
“Was this an attempt to end your life?” he asks.
I shake my head. “No. They told me if I did it, they’d leave me alone.”
“Are you on any medication?”
“No. Unless you count birth control.”
The doctor sighs and throws his used gloves into the biohazard bin. “I’m going to refer you to psychiatrists who may be able to help you. Hearing voices is concerning, and not something to ignore. Do you understand?”
I frown and curl my fingers into a tight fist. I don’t like the way he’s talking to me, but I’m not about to say that out loud.
Jaxon huffs a laugh from the chair next to my small examination bed. He raises his head to look at me with exhausted eyes that hold only a flicker ofamusement.
“Did I say that out loud?” My cheeks burn with a blush.
The doctor rolls his eyes and grabs the door handle, but he stops when he remembers something. “I’m required by law to have you sent to the psychiatric unit. You need help and will get the answers you need there.”
“What?” I yell. By the time the word is out of my mouth, the door shuts behind him.
I slump back in my bed and flatten my lips as I glare at the door.
“You need the help,” Jaxon says softly. “We’ll get answers about why you’re seeing and hearing things.” A muscle by his eye twitches, and I suspect he knows something I don’t.
“I don’t want to be in there.” I look down at the bandages over my sore arm.
“I know you don’t, but it’ll be okay. Remember what I said?” He takes my hand, lacing our fingers together as I nod. “We’ll figure this out together.”
I relax as I gaze at our joined hands. His envelop mine. This sort of intimacy—the kind that’s only shared between lovers—feels so right. Jaxon’s the only one I trust. If he says it’ll be okay, then it’ll be okay.
“Mom was a real bitch,” I mumble.
He stands from his chair with a soft laugh and a shake of his head. Sitting on the edge of the cot, he pulls me into his arms in an awkward hold. Shadows move over his face as unspoken thoughts rush through his head. He stays quiet, and I worry my bottom lip, waiting for him to say something.
“You’re not having second thoughts about us, are you?” I ask.
Jaxon snaps his gaze to my face, and his lips pull down in a snarl. “Never. I meant what I said, Dahlia. You’re mine until the day we die.”
I nod and let out a shaky breath.
An hour passes, and then I’m discharged from theemergency room and transferred to the psych ward. Jaxon trails behind me and stops when a guard puts his hand on my brother’s chest. I stiffen and wait for Jaxon to lose his shit on him, but his attention remains on me.
“Your girlfriend will be taken care of,” the guard says.
I mouth,I love you,to Jaxon and don’t wait for his reaction. I face forward to walk through the double doors into the unit, leaving my older brother behind.
Three days passed in the psych ward. Mom pretended to care about me and the stitches. Dad reacted about the same, and it makes me feel like shit. I still feel like utter crap because they make it very obvious that I’m not worthy of their love.
