I ran to the sound and found Rodney sprawled out on the ground bleeding from his head. “Rodney, oh my God! What have you done?” I asked.
He’d escaped his vehicle just before it burned to a crisp.
“I—I…It hurts so bad,” he murmured.
“Don’t talk or move, Rodney. Just lay here. Help is on the way,” I told him. “Do you know where Jeb is?” I asked.
“Jeb?” he asked weakly. “Can we focus on me now? I’m bleeding to death. I don’t want to die,” he said as his voice became more ragged and weak.
I kneeled down beside him and looked at his teary eyes and trembling face. “I’ll stay with you until the ambulance gets here,” I said.
“Meka, I still love you.”
Hearing him say that disgusted me.
“Just be quiet until the ambulance gets here, Rodney. None of this would have happened if you would have just left me alone like I left you and Melody alone when you decided to leave me for her. What were you thinking following Jeb home like that? What were you going to do?” I asked as his eyes grew weaker and closed. “Now look what you have done.”
The ambulance pulled onto the grassy field. I backed away as the emergency workers sprang into action, working on Rodney. He was alive but badly injured. Once he was on the gurney and inside the ambulance, they hooked him up to their machines.
The police wanted a statement from me, but first I had to lay my eyes on Jeb to make sure he was okay.
“Can this wait?” I asked the female officer who was insistent on questioning me right then. “I have to check on my boyfriend. I was talking to him on the phone earlier, and he said Rodney was chasing him.”
“Rodney is the man on the ambulance, correct? What’s his full name?” she asked.
“Yes, that’s him—Rodney Perry. But I haven’t heard from Jeb Holloway since before the wreck,” I said in a concerned tone.
“Jeb is the person Rodney was following?” she asked.
“Yes!” I searched the field then looked at the roadway to see if there was any trace of Jeb.
“Just a few more questions…” the female officer’s voice faded as I heard Jeb approaching us.
“Tameka…”
I twirled around to see him walking towards me. I took off running to him full speed. “I was so worried about you,” I said as I ran into his arms. “I was so scared. I didn’t know what happened to you,” I said into the crook of his neck.
“You must be Jeb Holloway,” the officer said when she caught up to us.
“Yes, I am,” Jeb said as he held me in his arms.
“Sir, I’m going to need your statement on what happened,” she said.
I reluctantly pulled away from him and turned to her. “Do you mind? We’ve been through a lot tonight.”
“It will only take a minute, ma’am. We need to find out what happened here.”
Jeb explained what happened to the officer, and she walked away, giving us the space we needed. I laid a hand on Jeb’s chest. He was really alive and safe.
“I’m here, baby,” he said with a smile.
“My heart is still racing,” I said. “When I saw the car in flames, I was scared it was you.”
“He did more damage to himself than anything.”
We watched the emergency workers close the back of the ambulance and pull off with police cars speeding after it. Rodney suffered from a gaping gash on his forehead and some major and minor burns, but that’s just what I could tell from looking at him. How did he become so guided by his hate and selfishness that he wanted to kill Jeb?
“What caused him to wreck like that?” I asked out of curiosity.