Page 149 of Only With Me

I keep my finger to the pulse point on her neck, making sure she stays with me. I’m furious with myself that I didn’t protect her from him.

“Harlow, if you can hear me, I need you to try and look at me,” I tell her softly.

Her eyelids flutter open and closed.

“Hang on, my love.” I pull her closer and she winces. “Shit, sorry.”

The bastard hit her in the ribs and only God knows where else.

I haven’t felt this type of fear since the night I found Wilder in the bathroom.

“She’s gonna be okay,” Wilder says as if he knows I need to hear it.

“She has to be,” I murmur, then brush my finger softly against her cheek. “She’s survived once before, she can do it again.”

Twenty miserable minutes later, Wilder pulls up to the side of the hospital, and I carry her in. Waylon called ahead of time so they could expect us. Then he called Delilah and broke the news to her.

Based on Harlow going in and out of consciousness, I’d guess she has a concussion and possible internal bleeding if he hit her hard enough.

The thought makes me want to go find him and finish the job.

The ambulance that brought Kenny and Emery in arrived five minutes ago.

The sheriff is also here asking for statements.

It’s a fucking mess.

“How the hell did this happen?” Delilah cries next to me.

I wrap my arm around her shoulders, pulling her into me. “I dunno. He must’ve struck her in the parking lot and then the two of ‘em took her to the Murphys.”

“Why would Jake’s brother be involved?”

“I dunno that either.”

Mrs. Fanning’s a mess, and I feel awful because she’s still waiting for news about her husband. Last they heard, he was intubated after they pumped his stomach. Now it’s a waiting game to see if he’ll breathe on his own.

I’m so overwhelmed by my emotions—a level of anger I’ve never felt before consumes me, the fear that Harlow won’t survive this suffocates me, and the sadness that she’s having to go through it again makes me want to trade places with her.

I don’t know how to deal with this level of pain but I have to be strong for her.

Within the hour, the waiting room is full of my family members, Jake and his parents, and a few friends from the horse club group chat.

I refuse to look at Jake’s family and getting into a fist fight with the sheriff here would be a dumb move.

But I will get to the bottom of this.

The next sixty hours go by in a blur of exhaustion and mental autopilot. I don’t leave her side after she had surgery to remove her spleen that ruptured from the impact of the bat and to stop the internal bleeding caused by her re-fractured ribs. She’s also covered in bruises and was diagnosed with a mild concussion.

Her recovery is going to take months, and that’s if she doesn’t have any complications post-surgery with infections, but I know my girl is tough. If anyone can get through this, it’s her. I hate that she’ll be out of the horse jumping season for the next year, but at this point, I’m just relieved she made it through surgery.

She’s on heavy pain meds while her body heals, so she hasn’t been able to keep her eyes open for more than a few seconds at a time. Unfortunately, that means, she still doesn’t know about her dad.

Mr. Fanning still can’t breathe on his own and hasn’t regained consciousness.

When they asked about his living will and end-of-life wishes, Mrs. Fanning broke down in tears because Mr. Fanning doesn’t want to be kept on life-saving interventions. That means if he continues not breathing on his own, they have to remove the ventilator.

Delilah’s spiraling, which given the circumstances, I understand. Both her father and sister are fighting for theirlives, and it’s even worse than last time when their incidents happened a year apart.