5
Same night
Marc
I’d droppedKaitlin off and was driving to the estate, up the long driveway, when I saw the flashing lights near the house.
The cops? I snorted at that. Maybe it would turn out that Landen was a crook and he was getting arrested. Ash’s precious castle would come burning down around her. What would she do then?
I would have to save her of course.
I rubbed my hand over my face and thought about what I’d said to her earlier. I didn’t know what it was about her but sometimes…she made me lose control. I’d had my shit locked down for years. I barely ever lost my temper with anyone. Not coaches, not teachers, not George.
But sometimes with her, I got rattled.
It shouldn’t have bothered me she had a crush on me, but it did. I should have been able to see it as a logical conclusion. She was fifteen, probably just starting to think about boys sexually, and I was her closest contact. Her only contact really.
Only I didn’t see it that way. I saw it the way I always saw things with Ash. That she was too close. That she saw too much. That she made me feel impossible rage and hurt and anger…just because she cared about me.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
I would have to apologize. All that stuff I’d said about fucking and making girls suck me off. Did she even know about shit like that? I knew from experience most girls I went to school with did, but Ash wasn’t like most girls. She’d been sheltered and protected. Her maturity was bound to be repressed.
The lights flashed again, catching my attention. As I got to the top of the driveway, I saw it wasn’t a cop car. It was an ambulance. I pulled the Lexus over by the garage. I didn’t bother turning off the engine before I was out the door and running over to where I could see George. He was walking behind the paramedics who were pushing a stretcher toward the open doors of the ambulance.
No. Fuck no. No, no, no.
I could see her hair, her fragile face underneath an oxygen mask.
“What did she do? What did she fucking do?” I shouted.
I stopped the stretcher and looked down at her, but her eyes were closed.
“Sir, you need to back off,” the paramedic told me.
George pulled me away, and I watched as they loaded her into the ambulance.
“What did she do? What did she do?” I shouted at George.
If she hurt herself. Because of what I said…
Oh my god, I was going to get sick.
“Marc, calm down,” George said, grabbing me by my shoulders. “It’s an asthma attack. A bad one. They’ve got her sedated but need to get her to the hospital so they can check her oxygen levels. I’ll go with her. You follow.”
“No. I’ll go with her. The keys are still in the ignition.”
I didn’t wait for George’s answer, I just hopped into the ambulance and sat on the bench seat as the paramedic closed the back doors. Then we were pulling away from the estate as I stared down at Ash’s pale face.
“Is she going to be okay?”
The one paramedic looked at me, and his expression was intense. “I think so. We almost lost her, but I think we got to her in time.”
We almost lost her.
I said those horrible and cruel things to her. Did she try to run home? Is that what caused it? She hadn’t had an attack in years, and yet tonight I’d said what I’d said, and, while I was getting my dick jacked off, she was at home almost…
Dying.
