The Presence of Grace (Love and Loss #2)(66)

The last thing I saw was the man coming closer and standing over me, pulling his hand from his pocket.

Then everything went black.





Chapter Twenty-Three

Devon



“Daddy? Please come home. Fast. There’s a man outside. He was in a white car, and he’s talking to Grace and she looks scared.” My blood chilled in my veins at the sound of Ruby’s voice, scared and worried, and my heart thumped wildly in my chest. I didn’t think. I just moved.

“Call 911. Now, Ruby. Stay in the house. Do not go outside. Do you hear me?”

“Daddy, I’m scared,” she whispered. I jumped in my SUV and drove recklessly from the parking lot.

“Ruby, listen to me. Call 911 and give them our address. Stay inside. I’m on my way. Everything will be all right.” I said the words even though I had no idea if I’d end up being right, but nothing would ever wipe away the memory of Ruby’s voice crying over the phone, telling me she was scared, and I’d do or say anything in that moment to make her feel safe. Ruby had been through a lot. Hell, both my kids had, but fear was not something they’d had to deal with a lot. So to hear her scared, and be miles away, was not something I’d get over easily.

The five minutes it took me to drive to my house were the scariest five minutes of my life. I had no idea if Grace was okay or if my kids were okay, but I was driving like a madman to get to them.

When I pulled up to the house, I didn’t see a white car. It could have been there, but I wasn’t looking for it. My gaze was locked on Grace, lying on the ground with a pool of blood around her head.

I threw the car in Park, not bothering to turn it off, and ran to her. As soon as I was on the ground next to her and saw her chest move up and down with a breath, I let out my own breath of relief.

“Daddy!” I heard Ruby cry from the front door.

“Are you and your brother all right?” I asked, and she nodded, tears streaming down her face. “It’s okay, sweetie. Everything’s fine. Did you call 911?”

“Yeah,” she cried. It was then I heard the faint sound of sirens in the distance.

“Stay in the house. Everything’s going to be all right.”

The ambulance and police cars showed up, sirens blaring, but the noise did nothing to rouse Grace. I sat with her until the paramedics pushed me away, but the whole time I was right there, telling her I loved her and that she wasn’t alone.

When they loaded her into the ambulance, I wanted so badly to go with them, but knew I had to stay with the kids. I watched the ambulance pull away and then ran to the house to comfort my children, who were standing at the door, watching the scene unfold with tears in their eyes.

I managed to calm them down, but explained that we had to go to the hospital to be with Grace. Neither one of them argued and they practically ran to the car, ready to go and make sure she was all right.

We sat in the waiting room—waiting being the operative word. We’d been waiting for almost two hours with no updates. My mom came to the hospital even though she still wasn’t feeling well, but my dad was in no condition. He kept calling, asking for updates, and I heard my mother whispering to him about how terrible I looked, how worried I was, and how upset the children were. My mother offered to take them back to my house to wait, but both Ruby and Jax refused—they wanted to see Grace.

Detectives hovered around us, trying to blend in with the noise and commotion of the emergency room, but looked out of place. They’d questioned the kids and myself, but none of us really had much to say. I explained what had happened at the bar, that perhaps the same man had been the one in the white car, but the weight of uselessness was heavy. I had nothing to offer them. Only Grace would be able to tell them exactly what had happened.

Every time the doors that led back to the emergency room opened, my eyes darted there and hope rushed through me, but no one had come for me yet. I’d asked the nurse working at the admin desk for information a hundred times, but she wouldn’t tell me anything because Grace and I weren’t family.

I wanted to scream at her that Grace was a part of me; that just because we didn’t have the same last name yet didn’t mean she wasn’t everything to me, but I managed to keep my cool and take a seat. It didn’t stop me from asking every ten minutes though.

Finally, the doors opened and a nurse I hadn’t seen yet called out, “Devon Roberts?”

I stood immediately and walked toward her. “I’m Devon Roberts,” I said urgently. “Is she okay?”

“Come with me” was all she said, and she turned around, heading back into the emergency room.

I grunted in frustration, but followed. We turned down a few different hallways and at each door we passed my eyes looked in, searching for Grace. Eventually, the nurse stopped at an open door and motioned for me to go in first.

When I walked in, all I saw was Grace lying in a hospital bed, an IV hooked up to her arm and a monitor beeping next to her bed. She had dark circles under her eyes, but she was breathing and her heart was beating. That was all I could ask for. Walking to the side of her bed, I picked up the hand that wasn’t hooked up to anything and kissed her palm. At the touch of my lips, her eyelids began to flutter and slowly open.

“Grace?” I asked gently.

“She’ll probably still be a little groggy, but she’s okay,” the nurse said, typing something into the computer next to Grace’s bed.