MIRANDA POV
Iwas frozen to the spot, the whole world stopping around me as the loud banging sound ricocheted through the park and Cole slumped to the ground. This was my fault. If Cole had never met me and wanted to protect me, then Brady wouldn’t have gone after him. Because this was Brady, I just knew it. He was behind all of this, and it was all to torment me.
At this point, I just wished he would come after me directly. Why was he going after the people around me? Just to keep me scared? This was so fucked up I didn’t know how to react.
“Come on.” It was Simon’s voice that got through to me in the end. He managed to pierce my shock with his caring. He was just about to walk off and not get involved with my new relationship, but seeing Cole harmed was too much for him. “Come with me, Miranda. We need to check on Cole.”
He took my hand and yanked me with him. I was glad because I really did want to move so I could help.
“Cole, we’re coming!”
Where was Ivan? As far as I knew, he was with Cole today, working on their communication and making their relationship even better. For me, I suppose, but for themselves as well. But maybe it hadn’t gone well, because Ivan was nowhere to be seen.
“Fucking hell,” Cole was yelling out in agony as he held his arm. “What an asshole. We need to get Ivan away from him before he gets shot too.”
“Where is Ivan?” I asked as I bent to check Cole’s arm. It was hard not to cave to the dizziness as blood spurted everywhere, all over me, but I held myself together for him. “What happened? What did he do? Where did he go?”
Cole pointed, and thankfully Simon raced off in a heartbeat, shifting into a beautiful dark-colored wolf. Two of them might stand a chance at taking Brady down.
“Fuck, I’m so sorry,” I wept as I held on to his arm. “This is my fault. He’s after me and he must have seen you around me and that’s why he’s attacking you.” I didn’t feel like Cole could even hear me because he was writhing with pain. What I needed to do was take action and call an ambulance to get Cole to a hospital so he could get treated.
“Shit, I’ll call 9-1-1.” I had to let go of Cole’s arm to make the call, which made his blood gush out even faster. The metallic smell of it was overwhelming. I could hardly stomach it. I turned away from him so he wouldn’t see my tears as I made the call. Cole had mustered up his inner strength to look after me, so I could do this for him. “I need an ambulance, please. There’s been a shooting at the park. We need someone here as quickly as possible.”
I dropped the phone to the ground when I knew an ambulance was on the way and turned back to Cole. “I’m here for you. Let me hold you while we wait. This might look bad, but you’re going to be okay. I promise you. As soon as they get here, things will be fine.”
He threw his head back and yelled in pain, his cry ripping through my heart, shredding me in to a million pieces. Tears gushed down my face and I couldn’t stop them even if I wanted to.
“Okay, I think I can hear the ambulance,” I reassured him. “Don’t worry, help is coming. They will be here for you any minute and everything will be fine.”
But it wouldn’t, not really. It was going to be fine for a moment, but not forever. Because Brady was just going to keep coming for me, wherever I went. He wouldn’t stop looking for me, hunting me down, torturing me like this. He wasn’t ever planning on letting me live a normal life, and that hurt more than anything.
Everyone who crossed my path would end up with a target on their back. Simon saying that people wouldn’t get involved in my life if they didn’t want to didn’t make it any better. Nothing would make this better.
I kept telling Cole he was fine, but I wasn’t convinced. There was so much blood, and I was incredibly worried about him. I kept thinking about the worst possible outcome and it was ripping my heart apart. If he died now, then any possible happiness I could have had with him and Ivan was out the window.
That was what Brady wanted, wasn’t it? For me to have nothing and no one. For me to always be on the run, afraid of his next move. For Timothy and me to be miserable. This was why he was torturing me. Not killing me, yet, but reminding me that I was never going to escape him.
Once the ambulance reached us, everything seemed to blur. I had no idea what was going on, who was talking to me, or what was happening to Cole. But that was probably for the best because it was a sensation I needed to get used to. I was never going to be in control of my life again. Ivan and Simon were off somewhere, potentially battling Brady, who was crazy and had a gun. Cole was harmed, in the back of an ambulance, being whisked off to the hospital.
And I was just here, stuck in limbo, covered in blood, with a cracked cell phone, and a son who needed to be picked up from his friend’s house soon. I was going to have to get myself together because there was no way Timothy could see me like this. It would freak him out, and that was the last thing that I wanted to do to my poor boy. He had already been through enough, and he was about to go through a whole lot more.
As I slowly rose to my feet and I tried to plan my next move, all I could think about was the damage this was going to do to my son. He loved it here, had made the very best friends, and I could see him coming out of his shell and gaining some self-confidence. I really didn’t want to have to strip that away from him. I hated Brady for doing all of this to him. Forcing us to leave a place both of us really wanted to be.
Timothy wouldn’t understand why we were leaving yet another town, especially one he was enjoying living in. He was going to hate me for this, and I wasn’t even the one who had caused the issue. But that was my job as his mother, to protect him and to take the blame when he didn’t like something. It sucked when I was the one who was actually trying my best, unlike Brady, but it seemed like my suffering was nowhere near done.
Knowing that didn’t make it any easier. It didn’t make the tears stop flowing violently down my cheeks. I wasn’t sure that I would ever be able to hold myself together. Yet I would have to find a way. I had to have some inner strength. Even if it meant finding the strength to leave a place that we both wanted to spend the rest of our lives. It was the only way Timothy and I would survive all of this.
* * *
“How did Cole get hurt, Mommy?”Timothy asked me for what felt like the hundredth time. “That doesn’t make any sense to me. Isn’t he supposed to be the one looking after us?”
I swallowed hard, wondering how on earth I was going to explain this to him. He was far too young for me to tell him the whole truth, and he wouldn’t want to hear about his father being the sick son of a bitch that he was.
“There was a bit of an accident, that’s all.” It wasn’t much, it definitely wasn’t enough, but it was something. It was an answer that would keep him content for the time being. I just hoped things didn’t look too bad once we got inside Cole’s hospital room. I did not want poor Timothy to see so much blood. Actually, I’d wanted to leave Timothy at home with Melissa, but I guess he sensed how upset I was because he refused to leave my side. It wasn’t ideal, but then none of this was.
Both Simon and Ivan were at Cole’s bed side, which at least meant I finally knew where they were and that they were both safe. I couldn’t resist running to them to give each man a hug. It didn’t escape my notice that there was tension in the set of their shoulders. I could only assume that meant there was bad news coming my way.
“You didn’t get him, did you?” I asked quietly. It wasn’t like I was disappointed in them or anything, I completely understood what they were up against. I was merely upset that he was still out there, posing a threat to me and everyone in my life. “I guess that’s it, then.”