Fire In Her Eyes (9 page)

I look into her eyes, which are glazed over from whatever he gave her. They are empty, not showing anything, I know she’s alive, though, her chest is moving up and down. “Baby girl...I’m so sorry, baby girl. I’m so fucking sorry.” I sob. I didn’t even know I was crying. She’s looking back at me with a small smile on her face. Those eyes though, it breaks my fucking heart to see the fire gone. That hurts the most.

“My angel.” she whispers. “Paige...you have to find Paige, angel.” Why does she keep calling me angel? I’m not a fucking angel. I should be killed for not saving her. The li
fe seems to leave her and for a
second I think she’s dead, but her chest is still moving.

I hear the sirens in the background, so I take off my shirt and place it over her legs. I try to cover her chest but the bastard cut her shirt off. I feel cloth touch my bare back. I turn to see that Mason has taken his shirt off too. I take it from him and finish covering her up, giving him the most grateful look I think I’ve ever given anyone.

Now all we can do is wait.

Chapter 11

Spenc
er

They loaded Harley into an ambulance. Then they loaded Paige, who had been found over in the trees close to the truck. She was knocked out with a wrench that Dylan usually has sitting in the bed of the truck. She was still unconscious as they moved her. Dean was frantic and I had to hold him back from going after Dylan again. We thought we would get arrested for beating
up Dylan, but Lucy, Carter and
Mason said that we were defending ourselves. The cops didn’t ask too many questions.

Carter led me to her car and pushed me into the back seat so we could ride to the hospital. I don’t know what to do. I’m lost in my own head. I see everything that is going on
around me, but I can still see
Harley lying, hopeless, in the back of that truck; beaten and broken.

Mason and Lucy are curled up together in the backseat and Dean is up front with Carter, who is driving. I see lights flash by from passing cars and I hear them talking, but I don’
t care enough to listen to what
they are saying.

Carter called Mom and Richard. I don’t think I can face them. I failed Harley in so many ways. I should have been there tonight. I should have been with her so this would
n’t have happened. What kind of
man am I if I can’t even protect my own girlfriend? I am a sorry excuse for one.

We’ve been in this waiting room for what seems like hours. I just want to know if Harley will be all right, Paige as well. Dean is a fucking mess. I didn’t even know he felt so st
rongly for her. Lucy and Carter
are huddled together on a couch, softly crying. I can’t even imagine what they are going through. Mason is standing by the door almost as a look out. That dude is freaking huge.
I’m sure both of us look silly
without our shirts on but I can’t make myself care.

Mom and Richard walk into the room and I feel a punch to the gut. I don’t make eye contact because I don’t want to see the disappointment in their eyes.
Its
bad enough I feel it coming from myself in waves.

Mom walks over to where I’m sitting on the floor leaned up against the wall. She doesn’t even have to look at me before the tears come. Now I’m crying my heart out. What happened to Harley hits way too close to home. My mom went through the same thing with my dad. I used to have to listen to him rape her almost every night. If I tried to stop it, I got the shit beat out of me. Finally, one night, I thought he was going to kill her, so I called the cops. They caught him in the act and he was arrested. His bail was posted by his mom and he skipped town. We haven’t heard from him since. That’s also the reason we moved to Duke and changed our last name. Grady is my grandmother’s maiden name: something my father hadn’t known.

I feel her arms wrap around me and the tears get worse. I can’t take this. It’s all too much. I feel like I might explode from the pain. Harley didn’t deserve this. My mom didn’t des
erve it either. I can’t go back
and change what happened. I can’t take the pain for them either. I would take it all just to not see the pain in their eyes.

“Spencer, it’s okay. She’s alive, and that is all we can ask for at this point.” She rubs my back in soothing circles as I clutch onto her shirt for dear life.

“I know,” I sob into her. She knows me; she knows that I am reliving everything that happened with Dad in my head.
 
I know she is hoping I won’t go back to that depression I
was in. I can’t do that. Harley
needs me.

I can hear Richard and Dean talking somewhere over mom’s shoulder. I want to hear what they are saying, but I can’t bring myself into listening. I’m too deep in my own pain. Mom
is rocking me back and
forth like a child, and I’ve never felt safer. I don’t care how old I am, I will always need my mom.

A hush falls over the room and I look up to see a doctor. He’s wearing those ugly green scrubs and holding a white cap in his hands. He looks tired and a little sad. My stomach drops. Please, don’t let her be dead. Please, don’t let either of them be dead. “Paige is stable. She has a severe concussion so we will be keeping her overnight for observation. Mr. and Mrs. Hutson, you can go back and see her now.” I see Paige’s parents get up from their seats over by the girls. I didn’t even hear them come in the room. I notice Liam sitting by Carter. Didn’t hear him either.

“How’s Harley?” Richard asks softly.

“She was a little more injured than Paige, obviously. She is stable, though. We had to pump her stomach since she was given such a large amount of GHB, the drug.
 
She also has a concussion, but it’s not as severe as Paige’s. We had to do a rape kit for evidence. We gave her the choice of taking the “plan b” pill since her rapist didn’t use a condom. She took it. Other than that, she will make a full recovery. She should be released tomorrow since we want to keep an eye on the concussion.” He nods his head and leaves the room.

I look over at Richard, and he has silent tears coming out of his eyes. I nudge mom, pointing to him, and she quickly goes to comfort him. We have got to stop this crying before we go see Harley. It wouldn’t be good for her to see us so upset about it.

Richard and my mom go in to see her first. I want to be last. It’s going to be hard enough going in there to see her. Dean comes over to sit on the floor with me. “
Are you going in to see Paige?”

“Hell, no. Her parents don’t like me at all. I’ll just wait for her to call me. If she even wants to see me,.” he says, playing with a thread on his jeans.

“Who cares what the fuck they think? If you want to go see her then you should. She’ll tell you herself if she wants you to leave. And I doubt that very much, bro.” I nudge him
with my shoulder as Carter and
Lucy walk over to us. I see Mason by the door still. That dude is strange. He hardly moves at all. You almost look over him. Liam stayed in his seat, but he hasn’t taken his ey
es off of Carter. That dude has
got it bad. He better fix whatever he did to Carter. She didn’t have the easiest childhood. She deserves to be treated like a fucking queen. I’ve always felt kindred to Carter since we have similar fathers.

“Spencer, are you going to
be okay?” Carter asks me softly.

I look up into her brown eyes and give her a smal
l smile. “Yeah, chick, I’m going to
be fine. I’m just upset that I wasn’t there to stop this from happening.”

“It’s not your fault. You hear me, Spencer Grady?” She says sharply. “You weren’t even there. Dylan knew that. Dean told us how he left the bar y’all were at. He waited until you weren’t anywhere to be seen. We were so stupid. Everyone knows not
to
leave your drink unattended, but we didn’t think that this would happen in Duke. Nothing ever happens here.” She has tears coming out of her eyes now.

I stand up and pull her into a hug. “It’s not your fault either, Carter. I see you trying to put the blame on yourself. He knows every single one of us. He knew how to get what he wanted. He was the one who suggested that we go out to a different bar tonight. When he bailed, we didn’t even think twice. No one knew he was this kind of person.”
 
I hold her while she dries up her tears. I catch her bubble gum scent but it doesn’t do an
ything for me. I want my rose.

Chapter 1
2

Harley

It’s like waking up from a dream: a nightmare, really. I keep thinking that this didn’t happen to me. This isn’t real. I’m not in a hospital bed just waking up from being raped. No, I’m in
my bed snuggled up next
to Spencer. His arms are around me and protecting me from it all.
 
I open my eyes and look around the room. The walls are that bright hospital white that hurts the eyes.

 
There’s an IV off to my right and I follow the cords to where they are stuck in my arm. The sight makes me cringe. I fucking hate needles. I’m glad I wasn’t awake for that one.

I don’t feel much of anything. It’s like my whole body is numb. I’m guessing they are pumping me full of pain killers. It only takes the physical pain away. The emotions I am feeling are almost more than I can bare.

I’m still trying to wake up from this fog when my dad and Polly walk into the room. My dad looks like shit and Polly doesn’t fare much better. I can’t even imagine what all my friends look like. Friends...Paige!

“What happened to Paige? Did they find her?” I hear the hysteria in my voice, but I can’t bring myself to care. My dad walks over to my bed and picks up my hand. I flinch. I struggle through the torture of someone touching me. I know it’s only my dad, but I can’t take the skin on skin contact. “She’s alive. They found her a little ways from where you...were. She’s got a severe concussion and has to stay overnight for observation.”

I feel creepy crawlies under my skin just thinking about what happened. I want to scrub my brain clean...and then my body. “That’s good.”

He nods and puts my hand back on the blanket, sitting down in the chair next to the bed. “How are you feeling? You’re not in any pain are you?”

I give out a sigh of relief when he lets my hand go and answer him, “Everything is fuzzy. I think they gave me some good pain meds. I do have a weird taste in my mouth. Did I get my stomach pumped?”

Polly walks over and puts her hand down on Dad’s shoulder. “Yeah, sweetie. The doctor said you had a lot of GHB in your system.” She looks at me and I see pity in her eyes. I
don’t want anyone’s pity. “Your
friends are dying to see you, so we are going to step out so they can come in.”

They say their good byes and five minutes later Carter and Lucy walk into the room. They look like complete shit as well. Carters hair is up in a lose bun and her eyes are red
and puffy. Lucy’s dark hair is
frizzy and sticking up everywhere. Her eyes match Carter’s.

They stop about a foot from the bed and look at me with sad eyes. I can’t bring up the emotion to cry. I want to, but I’m too numb.

“We are so sorry, Harley. We never thought in a million years something like this would happen. I don’t even know what to say to you. I feel like it’s all my fault.” Carter sits in th
e chair my father had just been
sitting in. She starts to really cry and Lucy puts an arm around her.

“It’s not your fault. It’s only Dylan’s fault.” I cringe at saying his name. I don’t ever want to hear that name again. “Don’t blame yourself; either of you. Paige and I are alive, that’s all that matters.” I sigh and shift around on the bed. “How is Paige?”

“She’s high. Like, really high. They gave her some good meds. We went in with Dean and she was hitting on him. Poor Dean didn’t know what to say.” Lucy gets a dark look on her face before going on. “She didn’t know what had happened to you. Her parents didn’t tell her, so we did.
We thought she deserved to know. She didn’t take it well. The doctor had to come in and put her to sleep. It was awful.” She shakes her head as tears start to fall.

I don’t know what to do with that so I say, “I want to see Spencer. He is here isn’t he?” Lucy nods and pulls Carter up. “Yeah, we will send him in. He’s a wreck. I’ve never seen a grown man cry like he was. It was heart-wrenching.” They both come closer to the bed with arms outstretch. I wave them off. “I can’t take it if y’all touch me. Just go get Spencer.” They look a little hurt, but they c
omply with my wishes and leave.

When he walks in, I suck in a breath. His black hair is sticking up in all directions like he’s been running his fingers through it constantly. He’s wearing a scrub shirt and I wonder where his own shirt is. His jeans are stained in blood. I remember him hovering over me after pulling Dylan out. My heart breaks for him, remembering the tears pouring out of his eyes. My Spencer. My angel.

“God, baby girl, you look great. How are you feeling?” He says with a smile on his face. I don’t tell him I know it’s fake. It doesn’t reach his eyes. No, those eyes hold a world of pain that I’m s
ure matches my own.