Black Heart (Cursed Hearts #1)(2)

“No,” was his reply.

She quickly turned around and walked back up the stairs so that she didn’t have to yell. “You can’t go with us. They’ll only allow one of us to go with him. Baby, you have to drive there or I won’t have any way to get home.”

“I said no, because I’m not going. I’m done. He’s wrecking our lives. We can’t go anywhere with him! We’re stuck in our house when we’re not busting our asses off to pay all the medical bills he makes for us. For Christ’s sake, this is the first time we’ve came to your mother’s house in three years! I’m sick of this. He needs more help than we can give him. He needs to be in a psychiatric hospital! The doctors have been telling us that for three years now. You won’t do it, because you think it will make you a bad mother and right now I don’t f**king care! He needs help!”

“I don’t need this right now!” she screamed at him, almost pleading with him to just do it, to free them from this nightmare that Tristan brought into their lives.

Sighing heavily, Shaun got to his feet and went to her. “I’ll go this one last time, but only to make sure that he gets the help he needs and then I’m done. I can’t be his father anymore.”

Julie bit her lip as she looked away, hating herself for wanting nothing more than to walk away from Tristan and pretend that he’d never existed. Shaun was right. Something was wrong with Tristan, had always been wrong with him. She didn’t want to admit that her six-year-old son was disturbed, but maybe now she didn’t have a choice.

“Ma’am, we need to go!” one of the EMTs yelled.

Shaun cupped her chin and raised her gaze to his. He brushed her blonde hair out of her face and kissed her forehead. She couldn’t say anything to him. She just wanted to wrap her arms around him and pretend that only the two of them existed.

“Julie, he’s coming to!” her mother yelled, destroying all her hopes that she could forget this was happening.

Nodding, she stepped away from Shaun and slowly made her way back downstairs.

*-*-*-*

“Alright, on my count, one…two…three,” Tom counted off for his partner as they picked up the backboard holding the little boy. Without a word, they carried the child out of the house.

Tom watched as the little boy slowly opened his eyes. When he looked around, Tom assumed that the little boy was looking for his mother. As soon as the little boy’s gaze landed on the house, the violent tremors began.

“Whoa! Tom, hold up I think the kid is seizing,” Jeff said. In a well-practiced move, they placed the backboard on the ground and re-checked the little boy’s vitals.

“He’s having another panic attack,” the boy’s mother said flatly, sounding exhausted as she stood by them, making no moves to comfort the boy as he started to scream.

Tom looked at his partner and then back at the boy’s mother, pissed that she wasn’t helping. The kid needed his mother and she was just standing there, looking like she didn’t care. “Ma’am, it’s kind of chilly out here. Why don’t you wait in the ambulance and stay warm?”

With a slight nod, she walked over to the ambulance and climbed in the back. Shaking his head in disgust, Tom finished looking the little boy over, making sure that they hadn’t missed anything.

When he was done, he nodded towards the boy and without a word they picked up the backboard and headed towards the ambulance. They found his mother sitting on the tech bench. When they strapped the backboard to the stretcher, she finally looked at her son. She gave the boy what looked like a forced smile.

Tom watched as the little boy looked up at his mother and started to return her forced smile when an expression of pure terror spread over his face. In seconds, he was screaming, his eyes were squeezed shut, and he was tearing at the safety restraints that secured him to the board. He was just about free when Tom managed to grab a hold of him and restrain him on the board. “Jeff, get back here now!”

Tom tried to hold Tristan’s arms down, but he could barely manage it. He was shocked at how strong this six year old kid was. In matter of seconds, the little boy broke free and lunged for the door. Tom managed to grab the kid before he could jump out of the truck. He had the kid back on the board when the kid took him by surprise and kicked him in the groin.

“Get the kid!” Tom yelled when Jeff opened the back doors, in too much pain to move, never mind wrestle with the kid again.

Jeff barely managed to catch the kid when he jumped out of the ambulance. The boy was like a rabid animal, kicking and swinging his fists as he struggled to get free.

“Tom, grab the restraints and call the police! I can’t handle this kid!”

Still huddled on the floor of the ambulance, Tom struggled to stand up and when that didn’t work, he crawled to the front of the ambulance. He grabbed the portable radio. “Echo 14 in need of police assistance on scene. I repeat, echo 14 in need of police assistance.” Still gasping for air, he lowered the microphone and waited for a response.

“Echo 14, sending police assistance to 13 Derry Road. Is that correct?” dispatch returned.

“That’s correct.”

“Police are on their way, echo 14. Fire rescue is on its way as well.”

“I need a hand!” Jeff yelled.

Tom stood up and almost immediately doubled over from pain. He steadied himself by holding onto the back of the seat and shutting his eyes when the pain surged throughout his body and threatened to knock him back on his ass. After a minute the pain lessened and he was able to open his eyes. He quickly found his partner still wrestling with the kid at the back doors. Blood was trickling from Jeff’s nose and the kid was hanging from the back of the ambulance while Jeff held onto his legs. The only thing that he couldn’t see was the woman.