Page 31 of From That Moment

I had just reached my car when something smashed down on the back of my head. It took me a moment to realize what had happened, but in the next instant, I was on the ground, my hands digging into the asphalt, and a shocked scream echoing from my mouth.

“Bitch!”

Then someone kicked me in the ribs and stomped on my foot. There was a slap and a kick, and I couldn’t tell from which direction they came. Everything was spinning, and I rolled on my back, trying to fight off whoever was there, but I couldn’t.

I couldn’t see.

There was something over the attacker’s face, but then I saw double, and I couldn’t tell up from down anymore.

Then I couldn’t do anything.

“Paris?” someone yelled, and then I heard the sound of shoes on pavement as someone ran towards me. The shadow above me cursed, and I couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a woman.

I was so dizzy. I wanted to sleep.

And then I rolled over and tried to crawl away. I had to do something.

Someone was calling me, reaching for me, and I cringed. I wanted to go home. Wanted this to end.

I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong.

As I dug my fingers into the pavement, my fingertips bloody, and my lungs burning, a strange thought entered my mind.

I had started my day waking from a dream of death, pain, and screams, unable to breathe.

And now I would end it the same, only in real life.

Chapter 7

Prior

Bile coated my tongue.I tried to swallow it down, but I couldn’t. There was nothing I could do. I sat in the waiting room, my hands shaking as I looked down at them, trying to figure out what the fuck was going on.

Paris was hurt. Damn hurt. And there was nothing I could do about it. I wasn’t even sure there was anything Icoulddo. I’d gotten the ambulance to her. I’d tried to see who had hurt her, but I hadn’t been able todoanything. If I had left Paris to go chase after who had hurt her, she would have been there alone, bleeding and in pain.

I couldn’t have done that.

Instead, I called 911 and prayed. And now I was sitting in the waiting room of the hospital, trying to figure out exactly what had happened. The cops had already come and gone, though I knew they would be talking to me again. After all, Paris had been hurt, and I was the only witness. And probably a suspect at this point, I didn’t know, but my mind kept going in a thousand different directions.

So, here we were. Me trying to figure out what the fuck I was going to do and waiting to hear from the doctors. Even though I wasn’t sure they were going to let me know what was going on with her because I wasn’t family or her emergency contact.

As if I had conjured her, Hazel flew into the waiting room, Cross right behind her.

“Have they said anything?” Hazel asked, her face pale, and her eyes wide. There was a determined set to her face, and I was grateful for that. She would be able to get answers since she was one of Paris’s emergency contacts. Paris didn’t have any family, so she had put her group of friends on her list.

Did I even have my entire family on my list? Or just Cross? After Cross and Macon had been shot, I’d told myself I’d make sure that all of my affairs and contacts were in order, but I wasn’t even sure I’d done that.

I was on Arden’s list considering that my little sister was constantly in and out of the hospital thanks to lupus. The others? I didn’t know.

“Hey, snap out of it.”

I blinked up at Cross, who glared down at me, even though there was still worry on his face.

“You went off in a different direction mentally. Answer the question. Any word?”

I shook my head. “No, and I probably wouldn’t hear anything anyway. You guys needed to be here. Or at least Hazel.”

Cross gave me a tight nod, understanding flickering across his face.