The CEO and Her Driver

Chapter 39

I couldn't move. My fingers gripped Iz's limp hand like a lifeline, nearly numb against hers. Something inside of me screamed at me to move, to get her help. But my body was having a hard time reacting. Frozen like a statue, stuck in a single moment that would be burned into my brain for the rest of my life. 

All I seemed capable of doing was listening to the same set of words over and over that scrambled through my mind...

IZ. IZ. IZ. MY FAULT. MY FAULT. MY FAULT.

Laurence sat staring at me from several feet away, covered in gravel and dirt. He must have accidentally knocked me down when the fight broke out. That would explain the wide-eyed shock across his face as he stared at me holding Iz, dumbfounded and confused by what had happened in the dark. 

I pulled my eyes away from his and forced myself to think. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone, working on autopilot.

"911 What's your emergency?" a calm woman's voice asked on the other end of the phone.

"Um..." I cleared my throat, forcing myself to speak clearly even as tears blurred my vision and ran down my cheeks.  "Someone's been stabbed at the Getty Museum by the hedge maze next to the courtyard."

I reached down and ripped the bottom of my dress apart, taking the material and placing it against the blood along Iz's stomach where she had been stabbed. I pushed the material tight, hoping to slow down the bleeding.

"We need an ambulance as quickly as possible... And whatever you think quick is, please—" my voice cracked as the cloth against Iz was soaked through and I added more of my dress to the pile. I closed my eyes, forcing my voice to even out. "Please make it faster than that."

My voice didn't sound like mine as the woman asked me questions. Telling me to describe Iz's age and injuries. My replies sounded robotic. Strange. Chillingly calm. But I was far from calm. I was screaming inside. My hands shook so hard it was nearly impossible to hang up the phone once I was done.

"What did you do?" A dangerously quiet voice said above me.

I turned up and stared into twin angry ocean storm eyes. But Aiden wasn't looking at me. He only had eyes for his sister, sitting broken in my lap, my hands and dress covered in her blood.

"I... she..." I didn't have it in me to explain. "The ambulance is on the way," I said fighting back a sob.

The anger evaporated as quickly as it hit Aiden, and he fell to his knees, the fight leaving his body. Aiden's tough exterior dissolved into panic as he swore, eyes boring into the blood that continued to bloom out from Iz's dress as if by glaring at it, he could force the blood back into her body and keep her safe.

"Oh Izzy..." he breathed. The sound of her name on his lips was so full of despair that it broke me in two. It turned the entire feeling of disbelief into a heavy grief that threatened to drown me, consume me until there was nothing left. Not yet Allie. You can't break yet. Not until help gets here.

Yanking off his jacket, Aiden replaced my now bloody set of dress cloth from her stomach with it.

"What happened?" Aiden asked, his voice deathly quiet.

"The lights went out... someone stabbed her. But—"

"But they were looking for you," he finished, voice cold.

I felt numb to his anger. To the accusing tone. "Yes."

"Why?" he glanced up at me for a moment, eyes sharp, angry, wild, before falling back on his sister's face.

"If I knew I wouldn't have people mysteriously trashing my office and trying to stab me in hedge mazes. I'd be covering up my revenge murder crimes," I replied numbly.