I was already pulling my phone out of my pocket so I could make sure he was up and on his way.
“Why the fuck was she out in the middle of the night?” I looked down to see Chief Townsend still on the ground, panic replacing the relief he felt that Kennedy was still alive. “Why was she driving so late, Linc?” He looked up at me with fear, but I didn’t have an answer for him.
“I know you watch her,” Chief Townsend said. “Were you watching her tonight? Were you there? What happened to my daughter?”
I wasn’t an idiot. I knew that Chief Townsend knew. He’d known since the first night I’d shown up at her house, after whatever happened with Royal left her hurt and in the hospital.
“I went home,” I answered bleakly. “Around midnight, I went home. She was there. She never leaves at night, Chief Townsend.”
I held out a hand for him to take, which he did a few seconds later. “Was this Royal? Did he have something to do with it?”
I shook my head. “No. The driver was a high schooler who works at the Taco Bell.”
Chief Townsend stormed away, and I had to rush to keep up with him as he descended on the kid responsible for the accident. The boy, really, who looked like he’d blow away with a stiff wind.
He had his arm around a girl who was shaking and clutching a jacket that looked like it belonged to him rather than her. With how cold it was, it was good to see he was a gentleman, at least.
“What happened?” Chief Townsend practically shouted at the kid.
I expected him to wilt, to back away and balk under the chief of police’s attention, but he didn’t.
The kid swallowed deep, stepped forward so that he was blocking the girl from Chief Townsend’s view, and started talking.
“I’m sorry, sir. My name is Henley Moore. I was driving home from work, and Lexi was walking. I stopped and picked her up. About a mile down the road, there was a moose in the road. I swerved, sir, and didn’t see the other car until it was too late.” He held the chief’s eyes, not once looking away or flinching from his scrutiny. “I called the cops, and Lexi ran to the car to make sure that the driver was okay once her car hit the tree. Lexi called out that she was injured, but I was already on the line with the dispatcher. I’ve taken CPR, and I know you’re not supposed to remove anyone from a car during an accident in case they’ve injured their neck. I didn’t want to chance making it worse, and I couldn’t get into the other side of the vehicle to assess her for any injuries.”
If Chief Townsend wasn’t impressed with the kid, I sure as fuck was. He reacted calmly and seemed to be in control of the entire situation, even knowing not to touch Kennedy after the accident.
“Good job,” Chief Townsend finally bit out. Then he did something I’d never forget. He pulled that kid into a hug and squeezed him tight. “You might have saved my little girl’s life. Do you know how many people would have just driven off? You did the right thing, Henley.”
Henley, who must have barely been holding it together, sobbed in the chief’s arms. The only thing I could do was watch. At least until my phone started ringing in my hand.
“Hayes,” I barked when I answered without looking at who was calling.
“What happened?” Remy sounded afraid, and I honestly couldn’t blame him. “Is she alive?”
“She’s alive. A high school kid swerved on the road to avoid a moose and hit her.”
The deep sigh of relief that hit me from the other end of the line took every ounce of my strength away, leaving me nothing more than a shell of the man I should be. Kennedy was alive.
“She’s alive?” The question, more a hope-filled plea than anything else, stood in the empty air between us, and my breath caught in my throat while I tried not to let him know exactly how affected I was.
Practically croaking on the answer, I nodded. “Yeah. They’re taking her to the hospital now. Your father called your sister and mom and they’re heading over, too, I think.”
“But she’s alive.”
“Yes,” I confirmed again, closing my eyes as I sent a silent prayer of thanks to the heavens. “She’s alive.”
“Meet me there.”
I nodded, rather than answer him, and he hung up the other end of the line, leaving me in the increasingly quiet Maine night.
Kennedy almost died. The realization that I almost lost her before I really made her mine gutted me. And if it weren’t for the plain stupidity that had taken up residence in my brain after Danny died, she might not even be on the road.
“I’m leaving,” Chief Townsend barked, breaking into the depressing turn my thoughts had taken. “Are you coming with me or staying here?” He knew the answer, without me even saying a word.
I turned around to see that we were the last two people there besides Dom, who was talking on the road with a tow truck driver.
We were walking through the double doors to the emergency room of the hospital before either of us said anything.
“You’re gonna have to marry her, you know that, right?”
His eyes were locked on the doors that led beyond the waiting room. We were the first ones there, and I took advantage of the few moments of silence before chaos descended in the form of her family to tell Chief Townsend the truth.
“I hurt her. I don’t think she’s going to give me a chance, Chief.”
His response was a snort. “Try again.”
I coughed in a poor attempt to clear my throat. “If she wants me, I’ll be hers until the day I die.”
This time, he nodded. “That’s my boy.”
Right on cue, the doors opened behind us and the Townsends arrived en masse. First came Veronica, Kennedy’s mother, followed closely by a very pregnant Casper and her husband Cole. Then, about thirty seconds later, Parker and Remy stormed in with Nox, who was wearing a pair of bright-green pajamas. I thought that would be the end of it, until Emma and my parents walked in behind her.
“What the hell?” The question tore from my lips about the time that Mom and Veronica crashed into a hug and started crying together.
“Shut up, boyo.” My father pulled me into a tight hug and slapped my back. “She’s family.”
“We don’t even know what’s going on, though.” Emotion clogged my throat, making it almost impossible to keep talking.
There I was, sitting in a hospital waiting room, with all the experience I had not only as a cop but as a Marine, and I couldn’t do shit for Kennedy.
“Why do we spend so much time in hospitals?” Parker asked loudly. “This shit is bananas.”
Casper plopped down next to her and rested her head on Parker’s shoulder. “So much time.”
Cole took a seat next to his wife and laughed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. The only time I spend in a hospital is because of one of you Townsend lot. Car accidents, explosions overseas, I blame it all on you.”
The man had a point. Our families seemed to be cursed, especially when it came to traumatic shit happening.
“Didn’t you know?” Nox piped up from Remy’s side. “All the best people go through the crazy stuff. At least that’s what my feelings doctor says.” He yawned loudly and curled into my best friend’s side, and I had a moment.