Natasha Madison is kicking off a brand new series this week with an angsty, new, enemies to lovers, forbidden romance, and I have an awesome excerpt for you.
Chapter Three
Charlie
“Sir,” the paramedic says, “you have to come with us.” He is crouched down beside me. “You can’t stay here; we have to get you to the hospital.” My back is against a tree from when they pulled me out of the wreckage. The pickup is flipped over, and the front of the truck looks like it’s missing, probably from hitting a tree and being spun around. The bottom of the vehicle is facing up, with a tree branch lying on it. The front right tire lies five feet from the truck, not too far from another pickup involved in the accident. The front of the hood rests on the grass. You can’t even see inside.
“I’m not leaving without her,” I tell them through clenched teeth. “I don’t care if I’m here for the rest of the fucking night. I’m not leaving.” My whole body feels like it’s about to snap in half. I’m not even thinking about the pain shooting through me or the fact that something stabbed my side. The only thing I’m thinking about is finding Jennifer.
“Sir,” he starts again, and if my leg wasn’t busted, I would get up and punch him right in the fucking throat.
“I need a cell phone,” I tell him, “like now.” I put out my hand to him, expecting him to place his phone in my hand so I can call my father.
“Sir,” he tries again. This time, I move my face toward him, going almost face-to-face with him.
“Here.” The cop who has been walking around comes over and hands me his cell phone. “You get one call, then I need some questions answered.”
“Yeah, whatever,” I respond, as I look over and see they are taking Brock out of the truck. “Is he okay?”
“So far,” the cop says as I put the phone to my ear and listen to it ring twice before my father answers it with a groggy voice.
“’Lo,” he answers.
“Dad,” I start, my voice in a whisper, “there was an accident.” All the fear I have is now coming back in full force when I have to say the words out loud.
“What?” he snaps, and I hear him moving around on his side. “Talk to me.”
“I need you to come,” I tell him. “I don’t know where Jennifer is.” The tears fall down my cheeks, and all the pain I’ve felt in my body is now straight in the middle of my chest. Like someone has shoved a knife in the middle of my chest and is twisting it left and right, ready to crack it open. “They don’t know where she is, Dad.” I try to take a breath, but the pain is too much to bear. “Dad, she was in the truck with us, but now she’s not there.”
“I’m coming,” he says. “I’m calling your grandfather, and we’re coming.” I hear a door slam in the background.
“I’m not leaving this place until they find her…” My voice trails off. “I won’t leave here without her.”
“We’ll be there as fast as we can. Are you okay?”
“I have a busted leg,” I admit to him. “Not sure what else. I don’t care. Dad, I’m not fucking leaving here without her.” My teeth clench as I tell him and hope everyone around me is listening.
“We’ll be there as soon as we can,” he assures me. “Charlie.” His voice is almost broken. “I’ll be there in less than an hour.” I don’t answer him. I can’t, my voice would break, and then it would be the longest hour of his life. Instead, I hang up the phone and hand it to the officer waiting there.
“Thank you,” he says, taking the phone from me. “We have a couple of questions, and you are the only one who seems to be awake.” I look up at him. “How many people were in the vehicle?”
“Six,” I reply. “I was in the front with Waylon,” I say, my voice trailing off, “four of them in the back. Brock, Everleigh, Jennifer, and Autumn.”
“Waylon,” he repeats as if he didn’t hear properly. “Cartwright?” He says his name right away and then hisses when I nod. “Fuck,” he swears, shaking his head.
“That’s his truck.” I point at his pickup. He takes his radio out and says something, but my eyes are watching the firefighters use the Jaws of Life to cut off the back door. They remove the door, and I don’t know why I hold my breath. It all feels like it’s happening in slow motion. Blond hair is revealed instead of Jennifer’s brown hair. Autumn falls to the ground, and I see she has blood in her hair. She groans as the firefighters get out of the way so the paramedics can take over. The sound of wailing is coming from across the street, and I look over to see a woman sitting by one of the wrecked vehicles with a man lying on the road. His limp hand is in hers as the paramedics move away from him, and her head falls on him. I see the paramedics shake their heads at the firefighters, and I know the man is gone. My eyes go back to the truck, and I see a firefighter getting into the cab and pulling a woman in his arms. I’m about to get up, even with a busted leg, to rush to see if they found Jennifer when I see him slowly moving Everleigh out.
“Do you know what happened?” he asks me, and I look over at the wreckage of the other two vehicles.
“It happened so fast,” I admit. “I looked forward, and Waylon, I think, lost control. He swerved, and then I felt like we were going in the air.”
“Do you know how fast he was going?” the officer asks, and I shake my head.
“Please,” I plead with him, “if you can go and see if my girlfriend is in there.”
He nods and walks back to another officer, taking someone else’s statement, who stands up and is quietly sobbing in her hands. He looks at him, then at me, and then at the ground before he comes to me.
“There were only five people in the vehicle,” he says softly, not sure what else to say.
“That’s impossible.” I shake my head. “We were all in there.” I point at the truck, the frustration in my voice.
“Was Mr. Cartwright drinking tonight?” he asks, and I shake my head.
“No, he was drinking water all night,” I tell him, “because he was driving.
“How is he?” I ask, and he avoids looking at me. “Is he bad?” I ask, and someone calls his name.
The officer just looks at me and then the paramedic. “I’ll be back.” He walks away from me, and I look at the EMT.
“You need to go and help someone else because I’m not leaving,” I inform him. He nods and gets up to walk away from me.
I don’t know how long I sit here with my eyes on the pickup, willing Jennifer to pop up from the truck. I see the firefighters on the other side of the truck at the driver’s door. They stand around waiting for something, who or what I don’t know. I hear a car door slam and look up to see my father walking over to the yellow tape that has the area closed off. The police try to stop him. “I got a call from my son,” he says, looking over, and I sit up.
“Dad,” I call to him, and he runs over my way, followed by my grandfather, who is right behind him.
“Holy shit,” my father swears once he gets close enough to see the truck. “Charlie.” He gets on his knees. “You’re hurt.” He grabs my neck, squeezing it.
“Dad,” I start, putting my hands on his arms. “Dad, I need you to find Jennifer.”“What are you talking about?” my grandfather asks, getting on the other side of me.
“No one knows where she is,” I tell them. “People are all around, I don’t know what they are doing, but no one is looking for her.”
I’m about to say something else when I look to the side and see a van get here. The two doors open, and they walk over to the police officers who are there. Another van follows the first. One of them approaches us, and my grandfather stands by my side.
“Good evening, I’m Lieutenant McCaffrey,” he introduces himself. He looks at my grandfather, then down at me.
“Please,” I plead, “my girlfriend is missing.”
He nods. “We have the K-9 unit coming in, and we’re also assembling a search party,” he informs us, looking at my father next. “It’s just we’ll see more when daylight hits.”
“Fuck that,” I say, trying to get up but wincing, “she could be hurt and need help.”
“Charlie,” my father assures me softly, “we’ll find her.”
“In the meantime,” Lieutenant McCaffrey says, “it’s best we get you to the hospital and get you taken care of.”
“I’m not going anywhere until they find her,” I grind between clenched teeth.
“Charlie.” My grandfather now gets down beside me. “I think you should go and get taken care of, and as soon as they fix you, you can come back here.”
“No,” I snap at him, “I’m not leaving.”
“You can’t do anything for her sitting here with your back against the tree,” he reasons. I hate that he’s right, but there’s no way I’m leaving her.
“I’ll stay,” he tells me. “I’ll stay here and search with them, and I promise you I won’t stop until we find her.”
“No one else I would trust more,” my father declares. “It won’t take us long,” he tries to persuade me, “to get your leg set and in a cast, and then you can come and help search.”
I look over at my grandfather. “Promise me.”
“I’ve never once let you down,” he speaks the truth, “and I won’t do it now. I promise I will not stop searching, and when you return, we can search together.”
I look at the two of them and then at the lieutenant. “Okay, I’ll go and get sorted.” The lump in my throat feels like a baseball. “But I’m coming back here.”
He nods. “Sounds good.” He waves over to the waiting EMT, who rushes over with a gurney.
They load me up into the ambulance, and my father gets in with me. They put the blood pressure machine on me. “What the fuck happened?” my father asks.
“We were driving, and he looked away for a second. The next thing I know, we were flying through the air.” I swallow. “I woke up and was upside down. I was stuck to the fucking dashboard.” My father puts his elbows on his knees and hangs his head. “Dad,” I call his name, and he looks up at me with tears in his eyes.
“I could have lost you,” he finally croaks out. “Did you see that fucking truck?”
“Jennifer, she’s out there somewhere.”
He puts his hand on mine. “We’re going to find her.” His hand squeezes mine. “We are going to fucking find her.”
“When we find her, I’m going to marry her,” I tell him, and he looks at me. “I’m going to fucking marry her tonight if I can.” He doesn’t say anything to me. He just nods because the ambulance stops and the doors swing open.
The paramedic starts talking to the doctor about my blood pressure and all that. “I just need my leg checked,” I tell him, “and then I’m leaving.”
“Let’s get you checked out.” He looks at my father. “We need an X-ray.” They are wheeling me down the hallway, and I spot Waylon’s father going in and out of the rooms looking for his son, I’m assuming.
They take me down to X-ray, and it’s no surprise my leg is broken in two places. The doctor says something about surgery. I look up and see that over an hour has passed, and by the time they get someone in to stitch up the cut on my side and put the cast on, it feels like it’s been five days.
I’m sitting on the side of the bed, waiting for the nurse to cover the wound, when I look up and see my grandfather standing in the doorway. I sit up, and my father stands, coming over to my side of the bed. “What are you doing here?” I ask, but the look on his face should have been my first clue.
“Charlie,” he says my name, and his voice is hoarse.
“Did you find her?” I’m ready to jump off the bed. I grab my father and stand, ignoring the shooting pain from my foot. “Where is she?” I look over his shoulder to see if maybe they’re wheeling her in.
“We found her.” He comes in and stands in front of me. The relief that they found her is so overwhelming I feel like my chest is going to explode.
“Oh my God,” I say, smiling. “Where is she?” I’m ready to go to her.
“Charlie,” he says again, and his tone is flat. “I’m so sorry.” It’s then I know my life will never be the same. It’s then I know the pain I feel will stay with me forever. It’s then I know all of my dreams are being shattered. He says two words, and then the blackness gets me. “She’s gone.”
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