Chapter thirty-eight(Contains swearing)
“JACE, wake up!” I yelled at him again. I felt tears spring into my eyes, although my calm was still with me.
“Why are…you…yelling...Angel?” He whispered, his eyes trying to focus on mine.
“Oh my god Jace,” I said, whispering myself now. I stroked his face. “Keep looking at me, ok?” I stared at him. He was about to answer me when I heard the sound of a car engine.
“MR. SMIT!” I screamed towards the sound, within moments the car rounded the corner and the older man jumped out and ran towards us.
“You get his arms, I will get his legs.” Mr. Smit said to me once he reached us.
“Careful, his right leg is severely broken.” I warned him as I moved to Jace’s head. I put my hands under his arms and lifted with Mr Smit. I heard Jace hold back a groan of pain as we put him in the back seat of the car.
“Jace, Mr. Smit is going to take you to the hospital. I will be right behind you.” I said, leaning into the car.
“Ok…Indi.” He uttered weakly, his eyes unfocused.
“Take care of him,” I told Mr. Smit as I got out of the car. “I will get the horses back to the stable, and then I’ll be right behind, ok?”
“Will do Indiana.” He said with a small smile. He got in behind in the steering wheel, and he turned the ignition on and was gone.
I ran over to Marshmallow, threw myself up into her saddle and grabbed the reins.
With a yank, I turned her around and ran her towards Admiral, who was happily grazing on the grass near by. I grabbed up his reins that were trailing on the ground and raced both the horses back towards the stable. Leaving them there still saddled, I ran to the cabin and grabbed the keys to my car.
Before I knew it I was running into emergency. Mr. Smit was waiting for me just inside.
“Thanks,” I announced when I reached him. “I left the horses saddled and in the stable. Is Jace ok?”
“He was still awake when they took him away, Indiana.” He said with a smile to try and reassure me.
I couldn’t smile back. “Thanks for all your help.”
“Will you be ok here on your own?” He asked in a fatherly like voice.
“Yeah, I will be fine.” I replied with a small smile now, this time reassuring him.
“Well, call me if you need me.” He said before leaving the waiting room of the small hospital.
I watched him leave and then moved over to the nurses’ station. “Hi, I was wondering if I could go in and see Jace Harvey?” I asked the nurse behind the counter.
“I am sorry miss, but would you be family?” She answered, a small frown upon her face.
“Yes, I am his fiancé.” I lied.
She smiled. “Then yes, that will be fine.” She pressed a button and the double doors opened next to me to allow me access. “He is in the second room down the hall.”
“Thanks!” I called behind me as I just about ran to Jace’s room.
I opened the door. He was laying there with a mask covering his face, but he still managed a small smile when he looked up to see who had entered. I looked down at his leg, which was still bandaged the way I did it.
“Hey, Angel.” He murmured drowsily through his mask.
“Hey you,” I smiled and walked over to him. I pulled up the chair next to his bed. “How are you feeling? Are you in any pain?” I asked worriedly.
“Not anymore.” He said, pointing to his mask. “Good stuff this.”
I shook my head at him. He was in a bad way, yet he was still making jokes. I was about to tell him off when the doctor walked in.
“Oh, hello,” He declared, looking at me. “Are you a friend of Jace?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“I am guessing by the amount of dirt covering you and by the blood on your hands that seems to have dried, that you are also the one to have patched him up?” He asked.
I looked down at my hands, which indeed had dried blood on them, I hadn’t even noticed. I looked back up the doctor and nodded my yes.
“Well then, well done young lady. You did an amazing job on his leg, better than I could have done. Good thinking with the ribs, although he is very lucky. They are only badly bruised.” The doctor beamed at me.
“Thanks.” I replied in a small voice, not really wanting to take praise for something that came instinctively.
“You would make a good doctor.” He turned to Jace. “You owe this girl your life. Had she not stemmed the flow of blood from your leg, you could have been a lot worse off.” He didn’t wait for Jace to say anything in reply to that, and he continued talking. “The orderly should be in for you soon. We are going to put you under some mild sedation so we can fix up that leg. When you wake up, you will be in plaster. Are you in any pain at the moment?” He asked, and Jace shook his head. “Great to hear, ok well then, I will see you shortly.” With another smile for us both, he left the room.
“He is right Indi,” Jace said to me, pulling me from my thoughts. “I do owe you my life, again, you really are my guardian angel.”
“More like your accidental hero…” I mumbled with a humorless laugh.
“I am sorry for behaving so stupidly. I should have listened to you in the first place when you told me your horse was spirited. I guess I kind of let my ego get in the way.” He sounded almost ashamed.
“No Jace, don’t be sorry, it’s my fault for letting you pick him, I should have known better.” I felt myself starting to cry. “Forgive me?”
“Don’t cry Angel,” Jace cooed, reaching for my hand. “If anyone is going to ask for forgiveness here, it’s going to be me.” He gave my hand a squeeze.
I didn’t get a chance to answer him as the orderly came into the room. “Ok Jace, are you ready?”
“Can I have a minute?” Jace asked around his mask.
“No, he is ready.” I cut in, smiling down at Jace. “We can finish this later, ok? I will be here when you get out.”
Jace moved his mask from his face and pulled my hand so I was leaning over him. He lifted his head and kissed my lips softly. “Thank you for saving my life. I love you.” He said when he let me go.
“I love you too.” I replied, standing up. I moved out of the way and watched as he was pushed out of the room.
(Jace’s life)
I sighed as I looked down at my plastered leg. I still couldn’t believe how stupid I had been to get on that horse. Indi had warned me, but did I listen to her? No. I was thankful that all I got was a slight concussion, a few bruised ribs and a broken leg. It was a bad break though, and I did have to go to surgery to get it set. I was even more thankful to Indi who had saved my life, yet again. However, she wouldn’t have to if I stopped putting myself in stupid positions. Now, all because of me and my stubbornness, we’d have to cut our time at the cabin short. I hated myself: I had been enjoying every moment with Indi right up until the accident.
“What’s with the sigh, Jace?” Indi asked me from the driver’s side of the car, she spared me a quick glance before concentrating back on the road.
“I’m just annoyed with myself, Angel.”
“Jace!” She declared, a frown creasing her smooth features. “We both agreed that neither of us was going to ask the other for forgiveness. You know neither of us would back down and agree to forgive the other.”
She was right of course. We had argued about it when I came out of surgery, both of us claiming we were in the wrong, so we ended up make a truce.
“Yeah, I know,” I sighed again, disgusted with myself. “But if it wasn’t for me we wouldn’t be going home so early.”
“I will make you a deal,” She replied, smiling now. “You stop feeling like that, right now, and when you have healed up, we can go back. Next time there will be no horses though. Deal?”
I smiled back at her. “Very good deal.”
All too soon we were pulling into her drive way. It was our first stop so I could speak to Dave. I would need a few days off just to keep my foot up. Indi said that she was sure he would not mind, and to let him know what had happened.
“I will see you soon?” She asked me while we were still in the car where no one could hear us.
“Yes Angel, of course.” I smiled at her as I swung the door open. I pulled myself from the car and, leaning on my crutches for support, I walked into the guard house. Indi was going to say hi to everyone in the main house to let them know she was back.
“Where, the fucking hell, have you been?” Dave boomed, pure anger on his face when I walked into his office. One of the other security guards I hadn’t met yet was with him, staring at me with the same angry look.
“I was with–”
He cut me off. “Actually, I don’t care Jace. You are fired.”
“What? Why?” I asked, confused.
“You take off, don’t tell anyone where you are and then I hear that both girls are missing. Dakota got back late last night and I just saw Indi’s car. We have had major emergency here and for some fucking reason you weren’t around.” He yelled, his face getting redder with every word. “You are a smart man Jace, you work it out!”
“But I was with–”
“I don’t care who you were with. You had a job to do and failed to do it.” He pointed towards the door. “Get out, you are banned from here. If you ever set on foot on the Anderson’s property again, you can consider yourself thrown in jail.” He growled, venomously.
I was close to yelling myself. “But I went with her, to protect her!”
“No! You listen to me, because this is the last thing I am going to say to you,” Dave snapped at me. “That
bastard who used to work for us, Kris was his name, tried to kill Jade. He escaped out of prison 10 years ago, and there was a massive man hunt for him, but everyone and I mean EVERYONE ended up empty handed and he was assumed dead. Four weeks ago there was a sighting of him. We haven’t wanted to scare the kids, but Cooper had us step up security to protect his kids, niece and nephew and you….you come in here and take one of them away without so much as a note. It could have gotten both of you killed! Kris is unstable and yet you didn’t seem to care for the rules. Well, you aren’t going to get that opportunity again. You will never work in security again. Get out, you have endangered Dakota enough, you are fucking lucky that I didn’t tell Cooper or you wouldn’t be alive right now.”
“I am sorry,” I said to Dave, not registering that he mentioned the wrong sister.
“Joe, get him out of here, Get Lewis to take him where he needs to go, I have said what I need to and I don’t need to hear anything he has to say.” Dave said, turning to the guard next to him. Joe came forward, his face set like stone. I took one more look at Dave before I grabbed my crutches s and walked out the door.