Page 28 of No Holds Barred

“I’m so scared.”

“I know,” Rex whispered and brushed his thumbs over her cheeks. “But we don’t know anything yet. She could have just dropped her phone somewhere. So go find out what’s going on and then be scared.”

She smiled at him. He was always so good with crisis moments like this. She nodded and stepped back into the room to slip her shoes on. She snagged a hoodie as she escaped out of the room without even a second glance. She headed straight for the lobby and met Lyric there.

“She’s not answering her phone,” Lyric said.

“Not for me either.”

They walked rapidly together toward the parking lot. Lyric led the way to another black SUV and unlocked the doors just as they got there. She put her phone into the cupholder and pointed at it. “Tell me where to go.”

“Yeah.” Hope picked it up, her heart in her throat as she gave directions.

Lyric hadn’t lied when she said it wasn’t far. But it was through the winding streets. Hope and Lyric saw the lights at the same time. Hope dropped the phone into the cup holder and pulled her seatbelt off before Lyric even found a place to park. One cop car was parked at an angle, but people filled the street and sidewalk.

As soon as the car stopped moving, Hope jumped out and raced toward the accident. The scent of burning rubber hit her and singed the hairs in her nose. She ran hard, skidding to a halt when she saw Angelica sitting on the curb a few feet away from the car, her hair curtained over her face.

“Ange!” Hope kneeled down and touched Angelica’s shoulder, getting her attention.

Blood streamed down the side of her face, over her cheek and onto her shirt. It matted in her hair. Hope’s fingers trembled as she reached up to touch it lightly and see where the cut was, but it was so dark outside that it was hard to see anything.

“Are you okay?” Hope asked.

Angelica didn’t answer.

“Ange!” Hope said with a little more force in her voice. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I think.” Angelica breathed heavily, her eyes closing and then opening again slowly. “I… I don’t really know what happened.”

“That’s okay. We can uh… we can figure that out.” Hope looked around. The cop was in the other vehicle, leaning through the door and not paying any attention to Angelica.

Sirens reverberated through the street as Lyric skidded to a halt on the other side of Angelica and gasped.

“Jesus, Ms. Shields. You’re really cut up.”

Angelica breathed slowly, but she didn’t say anything. Hope kept her hand on Angelica’s shoulder, needing the connection to keep her centered. Cadence stumbled toward them from the bar. Hope pointed.

“Go ask Cadence if she knows what happened.”

Lyric looked over her shoulder and scowled. But she got up to walk in that direction. Hope focused back on Angelica and turned her cheek so that they could look into each other’s eyes. “What do you remember?”

“Nothing. I… I was in the car, then I was here.”

“She needed help getting out.” A bystander came forward, hands in her pockets. “I made her sit down because her leg is clearly broken, but she doesn’t seem to be feeling it yet.”

“It’s broken?” Hope furrowed her brow and then looked down at Angelica’s leg, which definitely wasn’t right. The lower part of her shin was sitting at an odd angle.

“She tried to walk on it, and it was… I made her sit down and not move.”

“Thank you.” Hope looked up at the woman. “Do you know what happened?”

“No one was on the street when it happened. But from what I can see, that car hit her car. Probably a drunk driver.”

The blood wasn’t continuing so the cut on her brow couldn’t have been that deep. But the lack of memory was certainly concerning.

An ambulance arrived, parking in the middle of the street while another police car pulled up along with a fire engine. The whole world was coming out for this one, weren’t they? Hope settled onto the curb next to Angelica and tried to get a better look at her now, but it wasn’t helping any.

“M-my arm hurts.” Angelica looked at Hope, but she didn’t really seem to be registering what was happening or why.