Hard Dive (Paradise Lost Book 2) by Megyn Ward & Shanen Black

Author:Megyn Ward & Shanen Black [Ward, Megyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ardor Press
Published: 2018-07-30T16:00:00+00:00

Twenty-One

Kylie

They finally let us in to see Diana around three o’clock. She shares a room with two other women, both of them asleep. A couple of people I assume are family to the other patients, sleep in the hard chairs. One of them snores with abandon.

Blake and I tiptoe in and make our way to her bedside. I hold my hand to my mouth to keep from gasping at her face.

Blake quietly draws the curtain around her bed, the rings rattling softly on the metal rails hung from the ceiling. When he faces her, his jaw twitches as if he clenches his teeth to powder. “That son of a bitch.” I know if Blake had access to Don right now, Don would be a dead man.

Diana’s face is a mass of swollen and purple bruises. Her lips are crevassed with three deep cuts, now covered with scabs. At least she’s been cleaned up, but her beauty lays hidden under a face a prize fighter would be proud of.

Blake’s eyes blaze with rage. He bends close to her and whispers. “We’re here, Diana. Me and Kylie. The doctor says you’re going to be okay. You need to rest up and in a couple of days, we can take you home.”

She blinks her eyes open. Dark circles with dilated pupils. She finds Blake’s face and locks onto it. The doctor told us she was heavily sedated and probably wouldn’t wake up. But if she did, she would be really out of it.

I take hold of her hand. “Hi, Diana. We’re going to take care of you. Don’t worry about anything.”

Her gaze travels to me and she looks like a frightened bird. “I’m going to stay right here. You get some rest.”

She closes her eyes. Blake and I each take hold of a hand and we stand there for a long time. Finally, I speak. “You better get some rest. You need to be at Dive Love in a couple of hours. I’ll stay here and when you get done at work, you can take over. I’ll need to cover her shifts at The Green Frog, so she doesn’t lose her job.”

He doesn’t want to leave, I can tell. But he agrees. “You’re a good friend.”

Zach said the same thing. They’re both wrong.

I watch him walk out. A good friend would have convinced Diana to run from Don. I let her down by allowing Diana to convince me she knew what was best for her. I knew Don was a mistake. And yet, I didn’t fight her about it.

A good friend put others’ feelings before her own.

At least I’d been able to do that for Zach. His face froze when I told him to go. Everything I said after that seemed to thrash him, the pain raw in his blue eyes. But I owe him everything in my power to make sure his life doesn’t fall apart. And that’s exactly what will happen if we’re together.

No vacations to tropical islands. No Ivy League education.

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