Saving Us by Wendy Million

Chapter Thirty-Two

Iopened my eyes on a gasp, and then the sound that had yanked me from sleep came again.

The doorbell.

Bleary-eyed, I took in my surroundings. Sebastian was passed out cold beside me. My bedside clock said it was four in the morning. I threw on a robe and hoped Annika was here without her keys. Of course, that would mean she and Johnny had gotten into another fight.

I padded down the hallway, my heart racing. I glanced over my shoulder toward my open room and then rounded the corner to check the peephole.

Clay.

I stared, dumbfounded. I had no bra or underwear on, just a robe. The idea of inviting him in at four in the morning wasn’t an unknown concept, but we hadn’t seen each other in quite a while. Not to mention my new boyfriend, who I’d declared my undying love to, was sleeping in my bed.

“Clay?” I called through the closed door.

“Oh, thank God, Natalie. I was worried you wouldn’t be home. I need to take Annika to the hospital. But she wouldn’t go without you.” Clay’s panic was evident.

I unbolted the door and threw it open, not caring about my state of undress anymore. “Where is she?”

“She’s in the backseat of my car. She’s a fucking mess.” He ran his hand through his brown hair in that old, familiar way.

“I have to get dressed.” I rotated on my heel.

Clay sucked in a deep breath and called out, “Annika—she doesn’t want Sebastian to know. Is he here? She was adamant she didn’t want him involved.”

That didn’t sound good, but I wasn’t in a position to argue with anyone. “Yeah, okay.” I rushed down the hall. Before I walked in my room, I closed my eyes, praying Sebastian was sleeping.

When I opened my bedroom door, he sat on the edge of the bed, a sheet covering his lower half. “What’s going on?” His voice was rough from sleep.

“I have to go.” I grabbed a shirt and leggings from my drawers, throwing them on.

“Where? It’s four in the morning.”

I couldn’t meet his gaze while I put on socks. “Annika’s hurt.”

“I’ll come.” Sebastian reached for his boxers on the floor.

“No.” I shook my head. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. She doesn’t want you to come. I don’t understand what’s going on.”

“Who was at the door?” He tugged on his boxers and sat on the edge of the bed.

“Clay.” I ran a brush through my hair in brisk strokes.

“Clay?” Sebastian frowned. “Your ex-boyfriend?”

“Yeah. I don’t have many details yet. But I gotta go. If she’s hurt, I can’t stand here and puzzle it out with you. I love you. I’ll text you later.” I gave him a quick kiss before grabbing my purse off the floor and heading out.

The door was still open, and I realized Clay would understand what happened last night from our clothes scattered everywhere. I avoided making eye contact as I drew the door closed behind me.

“He’s in there, isn’t he?” Clay strode toward his car in the parking lot.

“Yeah.” I struggled to keep up without jogging.

“What’d you tell him?”

“The truth. Annika’s hurt. That’s what I’ve been told. I love Annika, but I’m not lying to Sebastian, especially when I don’t understand what’s happening.”

Clay stopped and turned to me. He swallowed. “You’re going to want to call your dad.”

“My dad?”

“It’s bad. Just—brace yourself.” Clay climbed into the driver’s seat.

I opened the passenger’s side, dread coursing through me. The dome light popped on, and in the backseat, huddled in a ball, was a figure who had Annika’s shape and size. But her face was so bruised, bloody, and swollen I didn’t recognize her. If Clay hadn’t told me who it was, I wouldn’t have been sure.

“Annika?” I asked softly.

“Nat?” She tried to lift her head.

I left the front seat and squeezed into the small space left in the rear. She moaned when I rested my hand on her side. Bile rose into my throat at the caked blood.

“Annika,” I said, my voice pitched low. “What happened?”

She didn’t answer me. Instead, her body twitched before great wracking sobs reverberated through the car. She dragged herself toward me and laid her head on my lap. Her dress was torn. Her tights were missing, and her feet were bare. I met Clay’s gaze in the rearview mirror.

His shock and despair must be mirrored in my expression.

“I don’t understand,” I said. “Why do you have her? What happened to her?”

“I don’t know what happened other than how it looks.” Clay steered the car along the deserted roads to the hospital. “I was walking home from the bar, and I decided to take a shortcut through an alley. I didn’t realize it was her at first. Maybe a homeless person or a drunk sleeping it off? But”—he swallowed—“when I got closer, I could hear her moaning in pain.”

“She was in an alley?” My voice was a stunned whisper.

He nodded, and his gaze flicked to mine in the rearview mirror. “When I approached her, she recognized me. I didn’t know it was her at first.” Clay frowned. “She didn’t want an ambulance or the police. She wanted you. I carried her to my house.” He mumbled, “I’m not even sure she understands we’re going to the hospital.”

“We have to take her to the hospital.” I searched my pockets for my phone. I closed my eyes. It had to be on my floor. It’d been in my pants’ pocket when we returned from the bar. “Did you try to call me?”

He grimaced. “Several times. I was hoping you could meet us at the hospital. When I suggested that, Annika got frantic. So, I did the only thing I could think of.”

I nodded. “You did the right thing.” Without my phone, I couldn’t contact Sebastian. I didn’t have his number memorized. My life’s details existed in my phone, not in my brain.

My dad.

“Can I borrow your phone?” I asked. “You’re right about my dad. Mine is at the house.” I grabbed his device when he passed it between the seats.

From memory, I punched in my home number with shaking hands. My dad had enough seniority now to work day shifts. A call at four in the morning would freak him out, but waiting until later would piss him off. If Annika was as bad as I thought she was, I needed someone to help navigate this.

“Hello?” My dad’s voice was alert.

“Dad?” I asked, even though I knew it was him. My voice cracked; the sound of his deep timbre enough to snap me into the reality of this situation. “I need you.”

“Address?” His frantic scramble for a pen was clear even over the phone.

“Lakeshore Hospital.” I caught Clay’s eyes in the mirror for confirmation.

“You or someone else?” Dad asked. He’d switched to cop mode.

“Annika. It’s Annika, Dad.”

“I’ll be there as soon as humanly possible.” Just before he clicked off, he said, “I love you, Natalie Ann. Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out.”

“Thanks, Dad.” My voice caught on a sob.

I hung up and passed the phone through the seats to Clay.

We drove in silence the rest of the way. Annika didn’t say anything about the phone call. I wasn’t sure if she was awake. Her even breathing made me think she was sleeping. If her wounds were as painful as they looked, it was for the best.

Clay found a spot outside the emergency entrance. He turned to examine me over the seats. “I’ll go inside and find out if I can get a wheelchair. It was a long walk from the alley to my house carrying her. I doubt I could get her in the doors.”

“Okay,” I agreed, wondering if my dad had already left our house. It would take him a couple hours to get here. He should miss most of the traffic at this time of day.

Clay returned with a wheelchair quicker than I expected. We both worked together to get Annika out of the backseat, shifting our grip every time she moaned in pain.

Once she was in the chair, Clay pushed her into the hospital through the emergency entrance doors while I kept my hand close to her arm. In the bright hospital lights, it was hard to tell where the blood had come from. A head injury. There was some kind of facial injury. The wounds on her arms might be defensive.

Defensive. My stomach rolled.

Nurses came forward, their faces neutral as they steered us to a room, bypassing the line of people waiting.

Outside the door, a nurse touched my arm. “Sexual assault kit?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “She should be checked for anything and everything. My friend found her in an alley.”

“That would be the crime scene,” the nurse said gently. “You should have called the police.”

“She didn’t want them.”

The nurse frowned. “Do you think she knew her attacker?”

I hadn’t even gotten that far. I should have. “Yeah,” I said. “It’s possible.”

Clay came out of the room. “Annika doesn’t want either of us in there while they check her over. I asked if she was sure she didn’t want you. She said she is.”

I peered through the small window while they got Annika settled on the bed. Then the curtain was pulled around. The nurse who had been talking to me yanked open the door and disappeared inside.

“Should we call Annika’s parents?” Clay asked.

“Oh, God. Why am I the worst? I didn’t even consider that.” I turned wide eyes to Clay.

“Do you have their number?”

“Annika didn’t have her phone?”

“No purse, no keys, no phone,” Clay said. “She wouldn’t say what happened. A mugging, a sexual assault, or…”

“Johnny.” I finished for him.

“He did cross my mind,” he admitted. “Why else would she insist she didn’t want you to bring Sebastian? She really didn’t want him involved.”

The nurse popped her head out of the curtain. “We’re going to be awhile. If you take a seat in the waiting room, we’ll come get you when she’s ready to see one or both of you.”

We wandered to the waiting room in silence.

After a few minutes, Clay said, “Do you want me to go to your place and get your cell? We should call her parents.”

Sebastian was probably still at my house. I passed Clay my house keys, just in case. “You don’t mind?”

“No, not really. If Annika wants anyone, it’ll be you.” He took my keys. “Where’s your phone?”

“Might be in my pants from last night, might be somewhere else. If Sebastian is there, you can ask him, or you can call it if he’s left.” The level of awkwardness was going to be astronomical.

“Right.” He ran his hand through his hair.

“I’m sorry. I realize this is beyond awkward.”

“Considering how Annika looks, a little awkwardness is the least of our worries.”

He was right. Things might never be the same again for any of us.