Chapter 32 Percy
Percy’s POV
I would have left the racing pit immediately if I didn't have to take care of one or two on the track. Still, I didn't stop thinking about Adeline.
I was glad that I wore my heart on my sleeve and confronted her on what was really bothering me since she told me about our parents' failed marriage.
One part of me was greatly relieved when I found out about the broken engagement. Though it really hurt her mother, I knew she would get over it one way or the other. I was just happy Adeline and I were now free to be together.
I was still going to have a talk with my father, but that could wait.
Presently, I stare at the phone sitting on the marble island of my kitchen, waiting for her call. It had been forty-two minutes. The ride from the warehouse district to her mother’s apartment should take twenty-five minutes or thirty with traffic.
I know she rides fast, meaning she should have been there ten minutes ago. I pick up the phone and tap the screen again. There were no new messages from her side.
I open our text thread. It was still the same.
Me: Text me when you’re safe. She read it, but there had been no response.
I pour a glass of whiskey, but I don't drink it. It was just something to calm my nerves.
She’s fine, I tell myself. She probably got there and got sucked into the drama with Melissa. She’s comforting her mother and forgot to call, but Adeline isn't the type to forget, and she certainly wouldn't ignore a direct order when it comes to safety.
I pace the living room and replay the conversation at the warehouse. The look in her eyes when she promised she wouldn't leave me.
“Why would I suddenly leave you when you're the big boss in the office?” was what she said right before she kissed me.
Forty-five minutes now. I couldn't take it anymore, so I hit the call button. It rang and rang, and I only got her voicemail.
“Hi, you've reached Adeline. Leave a message.”
I hang up and call again. Still nothing. Usually, nothing fazes me, but at the moment, I'm beginning to panic, and I don't like that at all.
"Pick up, baby," I mutter, gripping the phone tight enough to crack the screen. "Just pick up and tell me I’m being paranoid."
The phone buzzes in my hand. I almost drop it in my haste to answer it, and I don't even check the ID.
"Adeline? Where the hell are you?"
"Is this Percy Akilov? "The voice on the other end isn't Adeline. It's a man's urgent voice that fills my ears, making me freeze.
"Who is this?"
"This is Nurse Davis with City General emergency services. I’m calling from Adeline Volkov’s phone. You are listed as her emergency contact."
The world stops around me for a second. "Where is she?" I ask. My voice sounds like it’s coming from someone else. Someone far away.
"We are transporting her to St. Jude’s Trauma Center. She was involved in a motorcycle collision." Fuck! I knew how deadly those could be.
"Is she alive?" I'm almost afraid to ask.
"She is currently unconscious, Mr. Akilov. Her vitals are unstable. We need you to meet us at the hospital."
"I'm on my way."
I hang up. I don't remember grabbing my keys or getting into the elevator. The next thing I know, I am in my car before I can even process what my body is doing. Unconscious and unstable rings over and over in my head.
I drive like a madman, breaking every traffic law that ever existed. I weave through traffic at speeds that would get me arrested on any other night, but I don't care because if she dies because I let her ride alone or because I didn't follow her.
"Don't you do it," I whisper, gripping the steering wheel until my knuckles ache. "You promised. You looked me in the eye, and you promised you wouldn't leave me."
I see her face in my mind. The way she looked under the warehouse lights, happy and excited after winning her race.
"I need to be alone for the ride, Percy." She had said so, but I should have insisted on going with her. I shouldn't have let her have her way, not where her safety was concerned.
If this was Mason, if he touched her... if he touched her...
I reach the hospital in record time. I abandon the car at the emergency entrance, tossing the keys to the valet, and sprint through the sliding doors.
The smell hits me first as I stride to the reception.
"Adeline Volkov," I bark at the receptionist.
"Where is she?"
The woman looks startled. "Sir, you need to..."
"I am Percy Akilov," I slam my hand on the desk. "Adeline Volkov was just brought in by ambulance. Motorcycle accident. Where is she?"
Recognition flashes in her eyes. "Mr. Akilov, one moment." She types frantically. "She’s... she’s in Trauma Room One. The doctors are with her now."
"Take me to her," I command.
"Sir, you can't go back there. They are trying to stabilize her."
"I don't care!"
I start toward the double doors, but a doctor steps out, looking disgruntled. He spots me and stops.
"Mr. Akilov?" he asks, pulling his mask down.
I stop. "How is she?"
The doctor looks tired. "She's in critical condition," he says bluntly. "She has multiple rib fractures, a collapsed lung, and severe internal bleeding. We’re rushing her to surgery now to stop the hemorrhaging."
The floor seems to tilt beneath my feet. "Surgery," I repeat.
"We’re doing everything we can," the doctor says. "But the next few hours are crucial. I need you to sign these consent forms."
He hands me a clipboard. I stare at the words, but they swim before my eyes, only seeming to focus on internal bleeding and collapsed lung. Without reading through the form, which is very unlike me as a lawyer, I sign my name in a jagged scrawl.
"Can I see her before you take her in?" I ask, trying to hold myself together, breaking.
"She's unconscious, so you have to make it really quick."
He leads me through the doors into the chaos that is the trauma room. Machines are beeping, and nurses are yelling over each other. In the middle of all that chaos is Adeline, lying on a gurney. She looks small.
A tube is down her throat, breathing for her.
I walk over to her, my legs feeling like lead.
I take her cold hand in mine, but she doesn't squeeze back.
"Ghost," I whisper, but there's no response.
"We have to go," a nurse says gently, unlocking the wheels of the gurney. I squeeze her hand desperately one last time.
"You fight," I command her, leaning down to her ear. "You hear me? You fight. Because if you leave me here alone, I will never forgive you."
They wheel her away, and I stand in the empty trauma room, and I feel a scream building in my chest.
Adeline is the best rider I know, meaning someone did this to her, and God help them when I find out who.