Southern Heart (Southern #5) - Natasha Madison Page 0,3
came to the house. He’s bloody, and he’s lying on the floor. He’s not in good shape." The sound of rain fills the room, and I can see the flickers of lightning as I try to make my way back up to the surface.
I hear her running around, and I wonder what she’s doing when I hear the door close with a slam, making her yell and the phone clatter to the floor. "It’s okay," I try to tell her, but the only thing that comes out is a moan.
I feel her beside me, then she rolls me over to my back, and a gasp escapes her. "Can you hear me?" She leans over me, and I want to tell her I hear her, but nothing comes out.
All the adrenaline coursing through me from the past three hours suddenly wears off, leaving me in a heap in the middle of Ethan’s house.
Crawling in the middle of darkness, I scan the area until I know where the path opens. Finding the tree big enough to take cover in, I slowly rise to my feet, ignoring the slicing pain in both legs from where he stabbed me. My body molds to the tree as I swallow, and the sky opens up in a downpour. The water falls through the trees right on me, soaking the shirt on my back and causing my jeans to mold to me. I take a step forward, and my knees give out on me. "I will not die here," I tell the universe as soon as the thunder claps back.
"There is blood everywhere,” the voice says, and I have to wonder if anyone else is with her. "Who are you?" she asks me, and I can only imagine the state of my face with the dirt and grime mixed with the blood that is surely pouring out of my cuts.
"May…" I start to say, but another roll of thunder comes through, and the darkness chases it.
She picks up my arm, her fingers going to my pulse. "It’s barely there."
"I’m right here!” I scream at her, but nothing comes out. Not even a groan this time.
"I’m right here,” I chant over and over again, but this time my body fades further and further away from her voice. "I’m right here."
Chapter 3
Chelsea
Lightning strikes again as he looks up at me with one eye. The other one is swollen shut. His mouth tries to move, but no sounds come out. His arm comes up again and then crashes down.
My heart hammers in my chest as I find the source of the blood. His white shirt is soaked with a big red stain on his side, and I pull it up to see he’s wounded there. "Can you hear me?" I ask him, my voice shaking as I take deep breaths to stay calm. I lift his shirt higher and see he’s got bruising but no other open wounds. He has one piece of cloth tied around his leg, and his legs have bloodstains on them, too. Hearing the sound of rocks crunching under tires makes me look up. The wind blows through here, slamming the front door, and I look around to make sure I don’t see Gabriel.
The lights flicker on and off again as I hear a car door. I wonder if the person who put him in this state is coming to finish the job.
Fear creeps into me, making me get up now, and I look around the house, wondering where he keeps the gun, but I don’t have to look far before the door swings open. Ethan stands there soaked to the bone, the gun drawn in his arms, aiming it at the person on the floor. "Chelsea," he says my name as lightning flashes behind him.
"I’m okay," I tell him right away. "The kids are okay."
"What the fuck?" he says, looking at the man on the floor in front of him. I look at his chest, hoping to see movement, and it rises and falls so slowly that if you aren’t focused, you would think he was dead.
"There was a banging on the door," I start to tell him, and the tears pour out of me, and I just let them fall as the fear now leaves my body, knowing that Ethan is here. "And then…" I start to talk, but the man on the floor moans.
"You opened the door to a stranger?" he shouts at me, and I glare at him now.