THE DIAMOND (PART-3)

...PART- 3...

“Goddammit, Rio, this isn’t a fucking hospital where I have the equipment

I need. She could have internal bleeding right now, for all I know.”

“Come on, man, she was fine just a bit ago,” another answers, a note of

concern in his tone. Rio’s companion, I think.

“Fine? I have no way of knowing what kind of damage she took. It’s

evident she hit her head. She could be hemorrhaging and potentially die in

Seconds. You going to find me a CT scanner?”

When he’s met with silence, a

muttered, “Thought so,”

follows.

Darkness licks at the edge of my consciousness, threatening to drag me

back under. I moan, and probing fingers pry my eyes open.

A bright light

flashes in them, but I hardly notice.

“Miss, can you tell me what hurts?”

An older man replaces the light, his face crowding over me. His image is

blurry, but I can make out tufts of gray hair, a bushy mustache, and pale blue

eyes.

I part my lips, but my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.

Jesus, what did they inject me with? Whatever it was, it’s making me

Disoriented and dizzy.

“I know you’re in a lot of pain right now, but I need you to tell me what

hurts.”

Everything. Everything fucking hurts.

“My… shoulder,” I croak out finally. “My head.”

“Anywhere else? Your chest or stomach?”

“Back,” I gasp, remembering once more being dragged out of my car.

My

back feels as if it’s been shredded with a cheese grater.

“That's all?”

he presses.

I nod my head, the incessant questions were exhausting. A million other places

hurt, too, but my energy is depleted, and I’m so very tired.

“I’m going to put you under anesthesia and get you fixed up, okay?”

Clarity surfaces over my surroundings, and the man’s facial features

sharpen. Along with another man standing behind him, who’s shifting on his

feet and watching us.

Time to go to sleep, princess.

Dark bottomless eyes and a wicked grin—Rio.

He’s the one who had

dragged me out of the car. Flashes of that conversation elude me, but I know

there was more to it. I can’t think past the relentless pounding in my skull.

Just as my eyes were beginning to focus, my vision blurs once more, and

my eyelids grow heavy. I can’t fight the deep pull to just close my eyes.

I don’t want to fight it. Not when it’ll take me away from the pain.

Addie, baby, I need you to fight for me, okay? I need you to survive until I

get to you.

“How badly is she damaged?”

The question stirs me out of the endless pit I’ve been drifting in, where

only an illusion of Zade’s voice lives. It’s not real—his voice isn’t actually

there. But it feels so real. So soothing, that I fight to stay where I can hear

him.

“How badly do you think? You ran her off the road.”

Alongside the angry response is a swell of dull pain pulsing throughout

my body. I hear a sigh, and then the older man continues.

“She’ll have a few scars along her back from the glass. You’re lucky they

were fairly clean, so the scarring won’t be too terrible.”

“That’ll decrease her value,” a voice mutters, too low to discern who said

it.

“Shut the fuck up, you’re getting paid regardless. The fuck you care for?”

“Uh, maybe because your dumbass mistake is risking my life? Jesus, Rio,

I knew she was banged up but not this bad.”

Whatever Rio was going to say, it’s cut off by the unfamiliar voice—the

one who must be the doctor.

“She has thirty stitches between the two larger lacerations because she was

dragged across sharp metal and glass. You couldn’t have expected that not to

cause permanent damage,” he says, clearly taking Rio’s companion’s side.

“Goddammit, Rio. You do realize that might be coming out of my fucking

pocket, right? I asked for your help, not for you to fuck it all up for me.”

“How the fuck did you expect me to get her out, huh? Lift the car like I’m

fucking Superman and roll it off so I can carry her out like some hero?” Rio

spits.

My chest seizes. The roughness of his tone feels like scratching nails on a chalkboard.

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