191: Taking Accountability

I promised y'all a free chapter. Remember?

HERE IT IS!!!! Thank you for reading!

**************************************

Celine.

As the bouncers began to carry Jax toward the building, his arms draped over their necks. His left leg dragged limply along the ground.

I didn't run back to my car. Instead, I followed. I walked quietly behind them, staying a few steps back. I needed to make sure he was going to be okay before I left. That was the right thing to do.

I couldn't just speed away into the night without seeing him settled.

They didn't follow the regular road through the loud, neon-lit club area that I had passed through the very first time I came to this place.

This time around, they passed through a narrow, metal back door and moved down a series of long, quiet corridors. The walls were painted a stark white color. a place that smelled strongly of bleach and medicine.

They carried him into a large, brightly lit room that looked exactly like a private hospital clinic.

The moment the door swung open, a young woman stood up from a desk.

Damn... She was really beautiful, with long dark hair tied back neatly. She was wearing a crisp, white lab coat over her regular clothes, and a stethoscope was draped around her neck.

She looked like she was running some kind of secret, underground medical operation right here in the back of the building.

Maybe she was his wife? Maybe.

She didn't even glance at me once when we walked into the room. Her eyes locked entirely onto Jax's pale face.

"Oh my God!" she gasped, her voice full of sudden, intense worry. She sprinted across the room, helping the bouncers guide Jax onto a long steel medical table. "Rocco! What is wrong with you? What happened?"

Jax sank onto the table with a low, agonizing groan. He squeezed his eyes shut, his chest heaving up and down rapidly. "I had an accident," he muttered through his teeth, his breath rattling. "A bad one."

"An accident?" the medical girl repeated, her hands already moving fast. She reached down, her fingers quickly unzipping his jacket and checking his pulse.

Then she finally turned her head to look at me. Her sharp, intelligent eyes scanned my messy appearance, my bleeding forehead, and the terror written all over my face.

I swallowed hard.

"Hi..." I whispered, clutching the strap of my handbag tightly. My voice sounded incredibly small in the quiet room.

“How… how did this happen?” She asked, looking at me.

Rocco let out a rough cough, clearing his throat. "It is a long story," he told the lady, his voice laced with pain. "But the short story is... this is the person that hit me with her vehicle. She brought me back here."

I stepped forward, my eyes filling with a fresh wave of warm tears. "I am so sorry," I whispered, looking at the beautiful doctor. "I am so, so sorry. I did not mean to do this."

The girl in the lab coat looked down at Rocco’s left leg. She carefully sliced open the fabric of his trousers with a pair of medical scissors. The skin underneath was already turning a dark, angry shade of purple, heavily swollen around the bone. She let out a sharp breath.

She turned her face back to me, her eyes cold and unsmiling. "I would have liked to say that it is fine, but it is absolutely not fine. This is bad. This is a very severe fracture."

"I am sorry," I whispered again, a fresh tear rolling down my cheek. "I am so sorry. Believe me."

The girl let out a long sigh, turning her attention back to her medical tray. "It's fine. It's okay now. I think you can go now. We will take care of him from here."

I nodded. But just before I left, "I… I... please, can I ask for one more thing?” I blurted out even before I could stop myself.

She didn't answer. She just raised a questioning brow. I took it as a yes.

“Please, I beg you. Don't report me to the police. Don't report this crash to anyone, please. I beg you. I really beg you."

The medical girl looked at me for a long second. She saw how desperate I was. "No," she said softly, her voice turning a bit gentler. "It is fine. It is okay. We don't involve the police in our matters anyway. We got this. It is okay. You can leave."

"Thank you," I gasped, wiping my eyes quickly. "Thank you so much."

Instantly, I turned around on my heel, ready to sprint out of the room and finally drive home to my sick babies.

"Hey," a deep, rough voice called out from behind my back.

I stopped instantly.

I turned around slowly, my heart thumping against my ribs.

Rocco was staring straight at me from the medical table. His dark eyes were burning into mine through the bright fluorescent lights of the room. "My phone," he growled low.

"Oh!" I gasped, my cheeks turning a bright red color. "Yeah. Right. I am sorry."

I quickly dug my hand deep into my leather handbag.

In my rush to leave, my palms hit both cell phones sitting right next to each other at the bottom of the dark bag. They felt identical. Without looking at the screen, I just blindly grabbed the first one my fingers wrapped around. I pulled it out and stepped closer to the table, stretching out my arm to hand it over to him.

Rocco reached out his hand. His fingers closed around the metal casing, snatching it out of my grip.

"Thank you," I started whispered again, my voice shaking. "Thank you. And… once again I am so sorry for your leg... honestly."

Rocco didn't even wait for me to finish talking. He ignored my words, turning his head away to look at the doctor girl—or his wife—as she rubbed an alcohol wipe against his skin.

The last time he saved my life from that bad guy, he was cool. Even though he was dangerous. But this time around, he was obviously in a terrible mood.

But honestly, who would be in a good mood when a girl had just smashed into their motorcycle and broken their leg? If it were me lying on that steel table with a fractured bone, I wouldn't even be sitting straight. He was quite an incredibly tough guy to be sitting there without screaming.

I didn't stay a second longer. I turned around and sprinted out of the white room, my heels echoing loudly down the concrete corridor.

I burst through the back doors and ran straight to the driver's side of the car. I slid onto the soft leather seat and slammed the door shut, locking it instantly. The dashboard lit up with that soft blue light.

My babies were waiting for me. I just needed to go home.