Liar (Madison Kate #2)(95)

I don't know how long we stayed like that, sitting on the cold gravel of the parking lot, but after some time I heard another familiar voice.

"Hey, gorgeous," Steele murmured, crouching beside us and stroking my hair gently. I knew it was him, and I didn't freak out like before. He just had an unmistakable presence about him. "We need to get you to a hospital and get you checked out. Is that okay?"

I understood what he was saying, logically, but that sentient part of me was trapped in a cage of fear, hallucinations, nausea, and pain. Still, after a moment or two, I was able to force a tiny nod of acknowledgement, and Steele blew out a heavy sigh of relief.

"Okay, beautiful. Can you let go of Arch? The paramedics want to pop you in the ambulance."

This time I managed a headshake. Nope. I couldn't physically make myself release my death grip on Archer... If they tried to make me, then I was going to—

"Whoa, baby girl, calm down," Archer's voice rumbled in my ear. "Calm down, no one is going to force you to do anything." This seemed to be pointed at someone else, and I caught the low rumble of Kody's voice responding with some colorful cursing.

"Arch's right," Steele added, "but we need to get you to a hospital. Are you okay if he carries you?"

I didn't know. Was I? Or would the motion of being carried just remind me of whoever had grabbed me outside the bar and dumped me in that trunk? But then, I could feel the drugs still coursing through my veins, making me physically ill. I needed help, medical help, before I ended up with long-term side effects.

Or death.

The boys must have taken my lack of an answer as acceptance because the next thing I knew, both Archer and I were in the back of an ambulance. I still wouldn't let anyone else touch me, though, and for the duration of the drive, the paramedics were forced to check my vitals by giving Archer instructions for what to do.

Just as the ambulance slowed to a stop and one of the paramedics moved to open the doors, I started trembling uncontrollably. My teeth chattered and my spine went rigid in Archer's grip, and then... it all went black again.





35





When I woke up again, I was lying in a hospital bed with an IV line attached and an oxygen mask over my face. All three boys sat by my bed, but this time I didn't start screaming and accuse Archer of trying to kill me. This time, he'd been the one who’d saved me.

My mouth was drier than a desert, but Kody quickly offered me a cup of ice chips, which I gratefully accepted after tugging the oxygen mask off my face.

"What happened?" I asked when my mouth had regained a bit of moisture, but my voice came out husky and raw, giving me vague flashbacks of screaming. Lots of screaming.

"How are you feeling?" Steele asked, taking my hand that wasn't attached to an IV line and linking our fingers together. "You gave us a pretty bad scare, gorgeous."

I frowned. My brain was like mashed potato, and all my thoughts scattered and spliced with scenes from some kind of horror movie. "I feel like decaying roadkill," I replied in that hoarse whisper. "What happened to me?"

Steele shot a look at the other boys, not answering me. "Maybe we should get the doctor in here now that she's awake?"

"No," Kody replied, folding his arms. His brow was drawn in a deep scowl, and his green eyes swam with worry. "No, tell her everything we know. Secrets just keep biting us in the ass, and I'm fucking done. Tell her what happened, and then we'll let the doc know she's awake."

Steele let out a frustrated sigh, sweeping his hand over his face and fiddling with his eyebrow piercing. He looked to Archer, but the big guy just gave a stern nod.

"We don't fully understand how it happened," Steele said, his gray eyes holding mine as he spoke softly and carefully, "but your toxicology report showed fentanyl in your system. Based on how out of it you were, it’s safe to say you’d had an overdose."

My brows shot up and my pulse raced. "Isn't that lethal?"

"Yes," Kody replied before Steele could sugarcoat it. Not that he would, but Kody was clearly at the end of his patience about something. "In large doses, like we suspect you were given, yeah, it's lethal. Fast, too."

I swallowed, remembering how fast it’d acted after I drank Drew's drink. How my body had failed me on the way out to the parking lot...

"So why aren't I dead?" I asked.

The three of them exchanged a look—sounds hard to do, but they pulled it off—before Steele answered me. "We think someone gave you a dose of Narcan before you were locked in the trunk of my car. Your nose was bloody, and there was no way you wouldn't have been dead otherwise."

I frowned, reaching my hand up to touch my nose. There had been something...

"So someone tried to kill me, then changed their mind and gave me an opioid reversal, but then dumped me in the trunk of your car to... what?" It wasn't making sense. Why bother drugging me in the first place? "Wait," I said, closing my eyes and rubbing at them. I was still so dizzy and nauseous. "Wait, it wasn't my drink. It was Drew's."

Kody shouted a curse, scrubbing his hand over his face, and Archer just looked grim.

"That sort of makes more sense," Steele pondered aloud, tapping at his chin with his fingertips. "The fentanyl was meant for Drew—to kill her—but MK drank it instead and whoever was responsible panicked and tried to reverse the dose with Narcan."